Subject: Linux-Development Digest #279
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 94 10:13:05 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #279, Volume #2          Sat, 8 Oct 94 10:13:05 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Status of Linux and Distributions security (Alan Cox)
  NIS on Linux (Ari Widodo)
  Orchid Soundwave32 (Christian Linhart)
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Warner Losh)
  Re: Compiling progs using port I/O (Thomas Koenig)
  Re: Beautifying Linux/Xfree (Bill C. Riemers)
  Re: Orchid CDS-3110 CD-ROM (Adam J. Richter)
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Matt Meola)
  Re: Linux For Mac (Andi Kleen)
  Re: Does linux implement semaphores? (Harald Milz)
  Re: [fdformat] kernel 1.1.52 (Verhaeghe Pieter)
  Re: Korn Shell '93 Now Available from AT&T (Chet Ramey)
  Re: VESA and SVGAlib? (Howard P. Henson)
  NCR53c810 card and Technoland (Stavros J Haidos)
  What is the Status of the Adaptec 2940W SCSI-3 support? (Wigs)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! - AND UNFREEZE KLUDGE (System Administrator)
  Re: [fdformat] kernel 1.1.52 (Alain Knaff)
  Re: Compiling progs using port I/O (Brandon S. Allbery)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Status of Linux and Distributions security
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 18:24:05 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Daniel L. Marks) writes:
>Linux's reptuation would seem to me to be partially based on its perceived
>efficacy in preventing system break-ins and crashes.  Does Linux have
>the kind of safety record that should earn it the kind of reputation
>that the commerical UNIXes have?

Given the reputation of some of them I should hope not 8). I don't think
there is any material difference to be honest except that when a bug
shows up you have the source code handy to fix it.

Alan

-- 
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
 // Alan Cox  //  [email-masked]   //  GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU  //
 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Ari Widodo)
Subject: NIS on Linux
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 08:52:28 GMT

Hi guys,

    I would like to run NIS on my linux, and I want to know
 if there is a NIS packages for Linux ? 

 Thanks before,

 Regards,

 Ari
--
=====  A R I   W I D O D O    E=mail: [email-masked]=u.ac.jp ===== 
Saitama University  Dept. of Electrical and Electonic Engineering       
        Member of ACCESS, Information Processing Center.        

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Christian Linhart)
Subject: Orchid Soundwave32
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 17:50:25 GMT

Has anyone succeeded in getting an Orchid Soundwave32 run under
Linux ? I tried to but failed.
The docs claim the card to be compatible with, among others, 
Soundblaster but they say that the compatibility is invoked by the 
dos or windoze driver loading some code to the DSP of the soundcard
which means bad luck for Linux I think :-(.

I configured and compiled the kernel with Soundblaster support and
the same DMA/IRQ-Settings as used under DOS/Windoze but it doesn't
work :-(. cat /dev/sndstat showes a Soundblaster driver to be installed
but cat anything >/dev/audio just shows "no such device or address".

Oh, and the kernel I used is version 1.0.9.

Thanks in advance for any input on this subject,

Chris

--
Christian Linhart ([email-masked]), 
Student of Computer Science & Math at Salzburg University (Austria, Europe)
"Linux is a movement, a philosophy, where programmers and technical people
take control of their own destiny." Tim Bass in comp.os.linux.misc

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.intrinsics
From: [email-masked] (Warner Losh)
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 21:14:19 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (David B. Lewis) writes:
>|> Motif is a user interface specification, i.e., a prescription of how certain
>|> things are supposed to look and behave on a computer screen.
>
>This is incorrect; OSF/Motif is an API. OSF's implementation has a particular
>behavior; applications which offer this behavior can be certified as
>Motif-compliant, whether or not they are using an implementation of OSF/Motif
>derived from OSF's source or some other toolkit.

There is no process, that I'm aware of, to certify third part toolkits
as Motif compliant.  We've been looking for one for some time, and it
doesn't exist, except at the API level.

There is no process that I'm aware of that certifies an application as
Motif compliant.  There are documents that talk about the app doing
this or that and present a checklist, but no organization to do the
certification.

There is a API certification test suite.

>Note that the visuals are not specified, although they are the most obvious
>characteristic of the toolkit and the one that Motif knock-offs emulate, at
>the cost of behavior.

Not all Motif reimplementations ignore the behavior.  We've put a lot
of effort into OI to make sure that you can't tell the difference
between it and OSF/Motif in a blind taste test.  There are some things
that are different, but the major look issues, as well as the feel
issues are the same.

Warner
-- 
Warner Losh             [email-masked]       ParcPlace Boulder
"... but I can't promote you to "Prima Donna" unless you demonstrate a few
 more serious personality disorders"

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Koenig)
Subject: Re: Compiling progs using port I/O
Date: 7 Oct 1994 18:11:00 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Brandon S. Allbery ([email-masked]) wrote in comp.os.linux.development,
        article <[email-masked]>:

>People are forgetting that user mode programs should not be using direct port
>I./O in most cases; that belongs in the kernel.

Depends.  I'd rather write a user-mode driver for something than mess
with the kernel.  For one thing, gdb /vmlinuz seems to fail on my
system ;-)
--
Thomas Koenig, [email-masked], [email-masked].
The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double
logarithmic diagram.

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Bill C. Riemers)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Beautifying Linux/Xfree
Date: 08 Oct 1994 05:17:40 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Wilson <[email-masked]> writes:

    Tom> In article <[email-masked]>, Alexandra Griffin
    Tom> <[email-masked]> wrote:

    Tom> :3) Another idea from HP-VUE... this environment
    Tom> features a "console :bar" area at the bottom of the screen,
    Tom> containing buttons to switch :virtual desktops, invocation
    Tom> icons for commonly-used apps, small icons

It already exists.  Its called "GoodStuff" and is part of fvwm.  For
example, I prefere to put stuff on the side.  So I have a left
"management" area that contains the following:

==========
|        |
| Xclock |
|        |
|        |
==========  =
|   |    |   | 
|   |    |   |
==========    >  virtual screen manager
|   |    |   |
|   |    |   |
==========  =
             |
             |
             |
             |
             |   
             |
             |
              >  Icon space.  Boarders would be a nice addition...
             |
             |
             |
             |
             |
             |
==========  =
|   |    |   | 
| A | B  |   |
==========   |
|   |    |   |
| C | D  |   |
==========   |
|   |    |   |
| E | F  |   |
==========   |
|   |    |   |
| G | H  |    > GoodStuff buttons
==========   |
|   |    |   | 
| I | J  |   |
==========   |
|   |    |   |
| K | L  |   |
==========   |
|   |    |   |
| M | N  |   |
==========  =

You can set this up however you want, and map about anything to
buttons with any icon.  My only complaint is the default size of
the buttons are too large.  But this is easily changed.
Here is what I have mapped:

A. Previous desktop  B. Next desktop   C. Resize window 
D. Move window  E. Lower window  F. Iconify/deiconify 
G. Kill window  H. Xmagnify   I. xman  J. xmail
K. xfilemanager L. xterm  M. Desk-0 indicator  
N. Exit/Restart/Refresh menu.

Each button has an icon that shows clearly what the button does.
i.e.  Forexample button N shows a stop sign.

By using the side, istead of the bottom, I still have about 1024x910
of my 1152x910 display left.  Leaving me ruffly a square screen area 
to work with.

    Tom> I've been toying with somthing quite similar using fvwm and
    Tom> xfm...the functionality is quite similar if you don't mind
    Tom> using fvwm's virtual desktops.

Whats wrong with them.  I prefere virtual screens to virtual desktops,
but normally I use a combination of both.  i.e. Completely separate
projects go on different desktops, the same project overflows to
different virtual screens.  Since it is a pain sticking windows
switching to another desktop and then unsticking them (the only way
I know to move windows between desktops) virtual screens tend to
be easier.

    Tom> :for system functions (logging out...), and space for a
    Tom> clock, :calendar, Xload bargraph, & other stuff.  The
    Tom> appearance of the bar is :very professional, with little
    Tom> beveled insets for each item.  I'm

You can arrange your desktop however you want.  I agree this should be
much easier to configure.  It took me quite awhile to come-up with
something I think looks just as professional as as the HP-UX
environment.  Even longer to improve on it.  "vuewm" is you can't
load your own background, you have to stick to ugly patterns.  
I much prefere being able to have 'xv" load a random picture from
CD every 5 or so minuites, so I'm not constantly looking at the
same thing.

What is really needed is:

  1. A Null box.  i.e. Something that can be used to mark areas for
     xload, xbiff, and icons even when they aren't present, but as
     far as the window manager is conserned don't exist.

  2. Auto-resume from last session.  i.e.  Each time I end-up opening
     several xterms in one screen, emacs somewhere else, Mosaic, ...
     if fvwm could remember what I had running when I quit and ask
     me to restart them again, it would be quite a timesaver.

                                 Bill

--
<A HREF="    http://physics.purdue.edu/~bcr/homepage.html                  ">
<EM><ADDRESS>  Bill C. Riemers,  [email-masked]   </ADDRESS></EM></A>
<A HREF="           http://www.physics.purdue.edu/                         ">
<EM>          Department of Physics,   Purdue University            </EM></A>

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Adam J. Richter)
Subject: Re: Orchid CDS-3110 CD-ROM
Date: 7 Oct 1994 19:14:05 GMT

In article <nugent.781475145@phyast>,
Peter Nugent <[email-masked]> wrote:
>I've recently purchased a pentium computer from Comtrade that has a brand
>new Orchid CDS-3100 CD-ROM on it. The cdrom manual says it supports both
>Mitsumi and Sony interface standards. I have compiled kernels with both
>these drivers and the results are as follows.
>
>Sony: Nothing...No error messages at all...No action from the cdrom.
>
>Mitsumi: Error message saying it can't find the cdrom at IRQ 11...
>         The cdrom makes a spine chilling noise that won't stop 
>         until you reboot.
>
>As to the error message from the Mitsumi driver my NCR scsi driver is at 
>IRQ 11. (By the way Drew Eckhardt's driver works well, no problems at all,
>with my SCSI card.) I have set my cdrom up at IRQ 10, I/O address 320.
>
>First off, is it just a pipe dream to think that this cdrom will work with 
>either of these drivers? Second, If one of these drivers can work with it 
>is there a way to set the IRQ and I/O address in the drivers so it will
>grab the right one (or does it always auto-detect these properly)?
>Third, and finally, is anyone developing a driver for this cd-rom?
>
>I'd appreciate any comments regarding this cd-rom.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Peter Nugent
>[email-masked]
>

        The Orchid CDROM drive does not work with any of the current
Linux device drivers, however we did test it with the DOS callback
driver in the Yggdrasil Fall 1994 distribution and that worked.  I
believe that driver is FTPable from sunsite.unc.edu, and, of course
it is part of our CDROM, which you buy from your local computer store
or directly from us.

-- 
Adam J. Richter                           Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated
(408) 261-6630                            "Free Software For The Rest of Us."

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.intrinsics,gnu.misc.discuss
From: [email-masked] (Matt Meola)
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 13:28:36 GMT

Mario Klebsch DG1AM ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hello!
: [email-masked] (Shannon Hendrix) writes:

: >[email-masked] (Richard Michael Todd) writes:

: >>[email-masked] (Chris Toshok) writes:
: >>>upon.  It shouldn't be too terribly hard to come up with a widget set that
: >>>is complete and looks nice (Motifish), compiles on just about anything, and
: >>             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

: One main point agains Motif in my opinion is that I want a GUI
: (Grafical User Interface). The Motif specification is full of Keyboard
: User Interface (I do not think of shortcuts). Every Motif program has
: to be usable without a mouse. This leads to jumping default buttons
: and lots of other strange things. Why are there functions like move
: and resize in the menu in the upper left corner? To be used with
: keyboard UI? Or, because the graphical resize UI is to hard to use?
: The corners are to small to hit on first try?

That's the one thing I *like* about Motif -- you don't have to take
your fingers off the keyboard to use it.  The user of a program should
ALWAYS have the option of using the mouse or the keyboard.

Matt Meola

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Andi Kleen)
Subject: Re: Linux For Mac
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 14:00:03 GMT

Henry Ware ([email-masked]) wrote:
> In article <[email-masked]>,
> Aaron 'Raz' Wrasman <[email-masked]> wrote:
> >Actually could I get some info on Linux for the Mac also? 

> Whats to tell?  The Linux FAQ lists no 68k mac ports, GNU doesn't support 
> Apple (because of Apple's "look and feel" lawsuits), and I haven't heard 
> of any (except for the PowerMac port).  

There should be a mac 68k port (and one for the PowerMac) soon:

From the linux-activists-680x0 mailing list:

============= please bite here ============= bitte hier abbeissen =========

From: [email-masked] (George Andrei)
Subject: Linux 68k Mac
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 16:12:46 +0200

        Hi folks!

        Just wanna to tell you that the first alpha working version of Linux 68k Mac will be available for the people around december/january...

        That's because i don't have anything to do until then.. :-)
============= please bite here ============= bitte hier abbeissen =========

-Andi
-- 
[email-masked]      Nonsense is better than no sense at all.
|Andi Kleen@2:2480/440.12                           -NoMeansNo, 0+2=1
|PGP-Key available.

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: Does linux implement semaphores?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 17:16:03 GMT

In comp.os.linux.development, Neal Patrick Howland ([email-masked]) wrote:
> I was wondering in the standard linux develpment packages implemented
> a semaphore synchronization call.  If not, how do you synchronize two 
> processes to keep them from entering their critical sections at the same
> time?

Using named pipes is an elegant method to achieve this. 

-- 
"You'll never be the man your mother was!"
-- 
Harald Milz ([email-masked])      WWW: http://www.ix.de/editors/hm.html
iX Multiuser Multitasking Magazine      phone +49 (511) 53 52-377
Helstorfer Str. 7, D-30625 Hannover     fax   +49 (511) 53 52-378
Opinions stated herein are my own, not necessarily my employer's.

------------------------------

From: pive@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_DOMAIN_FILE (Verhaeghe Pieter)
Subject: Re: [fdformat] kernel 1.1.52
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 07:00:27 GMT

Hi,

I had the same problem, I solved it this way:
setfdprm -p /dev/fd0 1440/1440;fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
or
setfdprm -p /dev/fd0 720/1440;fdformat /dev/fd0H720

P.
=========================================================================
P. Verhaeghe ([email-masked])
University of Antwerp,RUCA,Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Groenenborgerlaan 171                                  Tel: +32 3 2180376
B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium                              Fax: +32 3 2180204
=========================================================================

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Chet Ramey)
Subject: Re: Korn Shell '93 Now Available from AT&T
Date: 7 Oct 1994 20:59:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Tom Czarnik <[email-masked]> wrote:

>The nice "ksh -r" which makes it restricted. I really need that now and have
>scoured the bash (and every other free shell) manual, but nobody implements
>it.

If bash is compiled with RESTRICTED_SHELL defined, running `bash -r' or
running bash as `rbash' implements the same restrictions as the ksh
restricted mode. 
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer

Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University     Internet: [email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Howard P. Henson)
Subject: Re: VESA and SVGAlib?
Date: 6 Oct 1994 11:18:12 GMT

Andy Bailey ([email-masked]) wrote:
:  I have what might be a dumb question, about SVGAlib and video modes. I don't
: know diddly about programming graphics drivers, but here goes.
:   With most DOS applications, namely graphics viewers, instead of specifying
: the drive specific to my card, I simply use the VESA driver, and voila, all my
: cardsmodes are recognized. Would this be possible for SVGAlib? I have overheard
: bits of conversation among Linux developers about avoiding making BIOS calls (
: I guess to ensure portability to other processors). Is the case the same here?

        The problem is not so much portability as the fact that VESA 
drivers (and I asume you have a bios version) is 16 bit code and to run 
it would require on to change CPU modes, and start thunking (16 -> 32 bit 
conversions) etc. producing i) Slow access ii) Possible unstabilities on 
the system which may land up with system crashes etc.

Howard

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~                   Rotating the object by                                 ~
~          Howard Henson <[email-masked]>                   ~
~           mans quest for object orientaion ends here!                    ~
~                                                                          ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Stavros J Haidos)
Subject: NCR53c810 card and Technoland
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 21:48:18 GMT

  In the scsi-howto it states that you can get a NCR56c810 card that will work
on the pci bus. When I called up the number given for Technoland they told me
that the card will only work on one type of pci mother board and that it will
not work on a 90 mhz 586 mother board. Is this true? Is there any way I can
get a board like this to work on a P90 and under linux? Please help. Thanks!

--
                -Steve

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Wigs)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: What is the Status of the Adaptec 2940W SCSI-3 support?
Date: 7 Oct 1994 14:52:22 -0700

I freed up some funds and I'm going to purchase another Linux machine.
I freed up a lot of funds so I want to get the best.

I've seen a couple of adds for what I think are really good systems but
they use the Adaptec 2940W fast, WIDE SCSI-3 controller and I was wondering
what the status of the device drivers are for this machine under Linux.

Could the people in the know please forward any information they have on
this.

Thank you,

- Jeff Wiegley

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (System Administrator)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! - AND UNFREEZE KLUDGE
Date: 7 Oct 1994 21:57:57 GMT

Alan Cox ([email-masked]) wrote:

: What is interesting is everyone reporting the problem uses PPP. I've looked
: through the PPP driver but I can't see anything wrong with it.

We are using SLIP!  And the problems we see are not *after* a connection
is successfully opened, it is one of the system *refusing* connections
(apparently).  Nearly all functions handled by inetd seem affected: 
telnet logins, rlogins, ftp attempts, smail connections, attemps to do
zone transfers from named by our provider's router, you name it.  Things
work fine *most* of the time, but the login problems are the most
persistant and visible.  In those cases, the system log *usually* shows
'connect from...' but the user never gets a prompt, or never gets a
password prompt after entering username.  Netd entries in the log are
'connection refused' mostly. 

George Nemeyer    ([email-masked])
System Administrator
Tigerden.com

------------------------------

From: knaff@ngulu (Alain Knaff)
Subject: Re: [fdformat] kernel 1.1.52
Date: 8 Oct 1994 13:23:13 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

[email-masked] wrote:
: [fdformat] kernel 1.1.52

: I justed installed the kernel patch 1.1.52, and now I have problem using
: fdformat. I abort with an IOCTRL error.
[...]
 [oops, yet another floppy bug]

 It can be fixed by applying the following small patch:
--- linux-1.1.52/drivers/block/floppy.c Thu Oct  6 20:56:59 1994
+++ linux/drivers/block/floppy.c        Sat Oct  8 13:50:38 1994
@@ -1745,6 +1745,7 @@
        raw_cmd.track = format_req.track << floppy->stretch;
        buffer_track = -1;
        setup_format_params();
+       clear_bit(current_drive, &changed_floppies);
        floppy_start();
 #ifdef DEBUGT
        debugt("queue format request");

: Another note, I've also experiemented lately the 'suspend' feature of the
: notebook, which save a memory image to disk, then sh
: tdown.
: It works fine under linux, great, only problem is related 'also' to the 
: floppy. When I  restart the system, the floppy start a
: d won't stop until I access it (mount). Any idea???
 Sorry, no idea about that one...

: regards
: andre couture

--
 Alain

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Brandon S. Allbery)
Subject: Re: Compiling progs using port I/O
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 21:14:16 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] says:
+---------------
| Brandon S. Allbery ([email-masked]) wrote in comp.os.linux.development,
|       article <[email-masked]>:
| 
| >People are forgetting that user mode programs should not be using direct port
| >I./O in most cases; that belongs in the kernel.
| 
| Depends.  I'd rather write a user-mode driver for something than mess
| with the kernel.  For one thing, gdb /vmlinuz seems to fail on my
| system ;-)
+------------->8

Maybe, but the next step after that is interrupts and DMA and trying to do
those from user space will probably crash the system if they don't fail
because of insufficient permissions.

Remember also that port I/O from a user process can easily interfere with
devices it shouldn't touch, and thereby corrupt data or crash the system
(consider accidentally diddling the disk controller's ports).

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH         [44.70.4.88]           [email-masked]
Linux development:  iBCS2, JNOS, MH                                      ~\U
Daily dreading Nehemiah Scudder^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HRush Limbaugh

------------------------------

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End of Linux-Development Digest
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