Subject: Linux-Development Digest #295
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 94 11:13:18 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #295, Volume #2         Wed, 12 Oct 94 11:13:18 EDT

Contents:
  Single host firewalling (Riku Saikkonen)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! - AND UNFREEZE KLUDGE (Bart Kindt)
  lod kernel: hda: read_intr: error = 0x04 ? (Todd R. Lawrence)
  Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS (Peter Mutsaers)
  Re: Suggestion: comp.os.linux.channelecho.* (David Barr)
  Re: LINUX Logical volumes (Sam Shen)
  Stability of 1.1.50? (Joe Nardone)
  Re: Question about ext2fs (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Linux killed my floppy drive! (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Looking for X graphics/ Plotting libraries (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Physical Memory size (Rob Janssen)
  Bug in libc resolver functions? (Peter Brouwer)
  GCC version i2.5.8p dies with the following code (Gary William Flake)
  Re: Linux killed my floppy drive! (root)
  Re: SCSI detect.... (Drew Eckhardt)
  Re: A badly missed feature in gcc (Dan Pop)
  Re: File Attributes (or resource forks) was: Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS (Alec Muffett)

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

Subject: Single host firewalling
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Sat,  8 Oct 94 22:24:00 +0200

>If you're talking about MS-Windows, you probably have little to worry
>about, provided you don't leave any listener processes up.  Now,

In Linux, the lazy way out is to kill inetd... (right?)

-=- Rjs -=- [email-masked] - IRC: Rjs
"From cavern pale the moist moon eyes / the white mists that from earth
arise / to hide the morrow's sun and drip / all the grey day from each
twig's tip." - J. R. R. Tolkien

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

From: [email-masked] (Bart Kindt)
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! - AND UNFREEZE KLUDGE
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 03:31:53 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Yuri Trifanov) writes:

>In-reply-to: [email-masked]'s message of 7 Oct 1994 21:57:57 GMT

>> 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. 

> you could be having problems with the resolver and tcpd, which comes
>turned on by default in at least some distributions. if it can't
>resolve the inaddr of the connecting host it will refuse the
>connection.

I have the same problem here, and it has nothing to do with resolving names.  
I my case, when I have several people online, and I have at least 10 open TCP 
connections (mostly SMTP in/out), I sometimes seem to 'hang' when my 
Windows Eudora program attempts its 5 minute POP3 Mail request from the Linux 
server. This connection goes over Ethernet. The connection hangs for several 
minutes, while NETSTAT shows an Establised POP3 connection. However, nothing 
happens.  At such a time, I also cannot start a Telnet connection: the same 
problem, the connection get established, but there it stops.
Windows Eudora *outgoing* mail, which uses SMTP also hangs with an Establised 
connection. 

Because I thought that the problem was in the INETD program, I 
made SMAIL a stand-allone Daemon,  and guess what: It does not make any 
difference.  Incoming (at the server) SMTP still hangs in establised status.  
So, that is when INETD is *not* involved.

I also have many 'SMTP connection timed out' errors in my SMAIL logfile; I 
strongly suspect that this is caused by above problem.

This is a very serious matter for me, as I try to run a multi-line SLIP server 
here.  

Is there anyone who can look into this TCP related problem? Who should I 
approach?

Thanks, 

Bart.
====================================================================================
Bart Kindt (ZL4FOX) System Operator, Efficient Software NZ LTD, Dunedin, New Zealand
====================================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Todd R. Lawrence)
Subject: lod kernel: hda: read_intr: error = 0x04 ?
Date: 9 Oct 1994 02:19:26 GMT

After installing a new Orchid Video card I began to get the
following errors on a regular basis:

Oct  8 21:09:05 lod kernel: hdb: read_intr: status = 0x51
Oct  8 21:09:05 lod kernel: hdb: read_intr: error = 0x04

Can anyone tell me what exactly is causing this and what I need to do to
correct this.. I am really tired of seeing it.

--
Todd Lawrence
LOD Communications
"I would like everyone to be nice to baby crabs..."

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Mutsaers)
Subject: Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 11:04:38 GMT

>> On 11 Oct 1994 01:04:11 GMT, [email-masked] (David Jeske) said:

  DJ> The name of the directory is always ".app" so the file manager
  DJ> can know that the folder is a program inside.

  DJ> For example..(not a NeXT example, but rather a UNIXish example)

  DJ> Backgammon.app     <directory>
  DJ> Backgammon.app/Backgammon          <file of same name is the program executable>
  DJ> Backgammon.app/whiteCircle.tiff    <tiff image of the white playing piece>
  DJ> Backgammon.app/blackCircle.tiff    <tiff image of the black playing piece>
  DJ> Backgammon.app/local-config        <some machine configuration>

It would be trivial to modify the shell (like bash) to do this: If it
finds a directory somewhere in its path, with the name (maybe with an
extension like .app) of the program that the user wants to execute, it
will descend into that directory and start the executable file that is
in it.
-- 
Peter Mutsaers                  |  AT Computing bv,  P.O. Box 1428,
[email-masked]                    |  6501 BK  Nijmegen, The Netherlands
tel. work: +31 (0)80 527248     |
tel. home: +31 (0)3405 71093    |  "... En..., doet ie het al?"

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

From: [email-masked] (David Barr)
Subject: Re: Suggestion: comp.os.linux.channelecho.*
Date: 10 Oct 1994 04:35:35 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
Matthias Urlichs <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Grumble.
>(a) What's the correct entry in the moderators file?

linux.act.*:[email-masked]
linux.*:[email-masked]

>(b) Why the *censored* are they using moderated newsgroups instead of a
>    reasonable bidirectional gateway?

Good question.

>(c) Has there been any announcement in c.o.l.a, and if so why haven't I
>    seen it? ;-)

I think the person who started the gateway wants (wanted?) to keep this
thing small and manageable.  However like most good things on the net,
once they are created they take on a life of their own.

--Dave

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

From: [email-masked] (Sam Shen)
Subject: Re: LINUX Logical volumes
Date: 11 Oct 1994 23:26:04 GMT

>>>>> "Albert" == Albert D Cahalan <[email-masked]> writes:

    Albert> This sounds like a dangerous mess.  If a drive crashes,
    Albert> would you rather lose all your data or 1/3 of your data?
    Albert> --

Sun's Online Disksuite let's you mirror volumes.  The problem
of course is that you now need twice the disk space.  At work,
we are getting away from using disksuite (mostly because of 2
disastrous experiences upgrading OS's -- losing 10+ gigs of disk
is one way to ruin your weekend.)  The only place where we will
still use disksuite is on our news server...you pretty much
need big filesystems if you want to have long expire times.

--
--
Sam Shen, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, [email-masked], http://www.lbl.gov/~sls/

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

From: [email-masked] (Joe Nardone)
Subject: Stability of 1.1.50?
Date: 11 Oct 1994 23:35:25 GMT

Has anyone had problems with kernel 1.1.50?

I haven't (yet-- knock on wood), and have not been too
encouraged with reports of .51-.53... is anything major
broken in .50?  I haven't found any...

Much thanks,
Joe

--
===========================================================
 Joe Nardone                             [email-masked]

 "Exploitation?  I know all about that stuff.  I've
     been exploited all my life."  -- Elwood

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Question about ext2fs
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 08:28:05 GMT

In <[email-masked]> "Eric Jeschke" <[email-masked]> writes:

>my last disk (a Maxtor) gave out still under warranty and they
>sent me this Seagate, which seems to be even crummier, it is
>developing bad blocks at an alarming rate...

I have had this experience with several Seagate RLL disks as well.
After a number of write or format operations the sectors just go bad.
After a short time, the critical areas on the disk (like bootblock, or
FAT area when it is for DOS) go bad, and the disk becomes unusable.

I have heard that new Seagate disks are better, but I won't see this
myself as I will never spend a dollar of my money on Seagate products
again.

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Linux killed my floppy drive!
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 08:32:01 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Ahmed Naas) writes:

>Ahmed Naas ([email-masked]) wrote:

>: So, did Linux kill my drive or is this one of those rare coincidences?

>Ok, I pulled said floppy drive out today and cleaned it as many people
>suggested. Result? It is working like a champ again :-)

>Thanks to all who responded via e-mail or here.

The answer probably is: Yes, Linux killed your floppy drive.
When you would have used another (much more popular) operating system
for the PC, the system would have been rebooted several times a day, the
floppy would have seeked each time it went to the BIOS selftest, and dirt
would not have accumulated on the mechanism.

Don't run stable operating systems!  They may kill your drive!

Rob
:-)
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

Crossposted-To: gnu.gcc.help
From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Looking for X graphics/ Plotting libraries
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 08:33:53 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (CookieMonster) writes:

>>: a package that can do the plotting for me.
>>
>>Why dont you spawn gnuplot to do this lob for you ?

>Well, I don't need that much "firepower", and want to use all the 
>processor time on my measly 486DX50 to chew on the data to be graphed. I 
>simply need to plot the data in 2D, with auto-scaling, nothing fancy, 
>really:->

Then why don't you take the sources for gnuplot and take out what you need?

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Physical Memory size
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 08:39:22 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Cheryl Dematteis) writes:

>Is there a system call which returns the number of pages of physical memory a
>system has ?

>In Solaris, the system call sysconf(_SC_PHYS_PAGES) gives me the number I'm
>looking for.  Linux (1.0.9) does not recognize _SC_PHYS_PAGES.

Well, you can open /proc/meminfo and read some info from that...

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Brouwer)
Subject: Bug in libc resolver functions?
Date: 11 Oct 94 11:14:25 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Peter Brouwer)

I tried to use the trim option in the /etc/host.conf file. 
I wanted to trim the domain name because I see the following lookups in the
nameserver: host.domain.domain. I heard that this is an intended behaviour.
It seems to me that this is a bit strange, one could check on the presence of a
domain in the string. Anyway in order to get rid of these queries I tried to
use trim.
I added the line: <trim: .domain> as listed in the manual pages. To my surprise
it did not work in all cases. I had to add the line <trim: .domain.> to get rid
of all the host.domain.domain queries.
Did I miss something or is this a slip in one of the resolving routines in the
libc library?

--
Regards, Peter Brouwer                 \\\//
[email-masked]                         (0 0)
===================================oOO==(_)==OOo============================
# Digital Equipment B.V.               / WorkGroup Systems, 
# DIGITAL : HLDEO1::BROUWER_P,829-4218 \ Dep LinkWorks Engineering, P.O.Box 245,
# PHONE:[+31][0]55 43 ext 4218,fax 9133  7300AE Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.

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

From: [email-masked] (Gary William Flake)
Subject: GCC version i2.5.8p dies with the following code
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 16:03:51 GMT

The code at the bottom of this message crashes gcc i2.5.8p.  I am
running linux 1.1.45 on a P5/90.  It only crashes with -O3 or greater,
and only with the i2.5.8p.  Every other 2.5.8 that I try doesn't have
a problem with it.

Here is some text pasted from an xterm:
> [445]mojo: gcc -v
> Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/pentium-linux/i2.5.8p/specs
> gcc version i2.5.8p
> [446]mojo: gcc -O2 -c die2.c
> [447]mojo: gcc -O3 -c die2.c
> gcc: Internal compiler error: program cc1 got fatal signal 6
> [448]mojo: 

The code was originally much more complicated but I've was able to
simplify to what apears below.  If I remove any one of the three lines
in foo() the program compiles fine.

Here is the code:

struct BUFFER
{
  int offset;
  double *dta;
};

void bar(void);

void foo(struct BUFFER *buff)
{
  double data;

  data = *(buff->dta); 

  if(5 >= buff->offset)
    bar();

  *(buff->dta) = data;
}

/* End of sample code */

Any ideas?

Regards,
Gary Flake
-- 
Gary W. Flake,  [email-masked],  Phone: 609-734-3676,  Fax: 609-734-6565
USPS: Siemens Corporate Research,  755 College Road East,  Princeton, NJ  08540

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

From: [email-masked] (root)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Linux killed my floppy drive!
Date: 12 Oct 1994 14:01:45 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Perhaps it is necessary to write a floppyseekd that runs every 2 hours?

Jered

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

From: [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: SCSI detect....
Date: 11 Oct 1994 23:21:03 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, just me <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>Where is the code that detects what devices are on the SCSI bus during
>boot?
>
>I'm using an Adaptec 1522a, hard drive, and a CDROM. The boot kernel only
>recognizes the hard drive, not the CDROM.
>
>I looked in ~/linux/drivers/scsi/aha152x.c and sr.c, but I'm braindead
>and don't see where the detection is done. Probably looking in the wrong
>place to begin with.

scsi.c:scan_scsis().

-- 
Since our leaders won't respect The Constitution, the highest law of our 
country, you can't expect them to obey lesser laws of any country. 
Boycott the United States until this changes.

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

From: [email-masked] (Dan Pop)
Subject: Re: A badly missed feature in gcc
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 13:33:00 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin) writes:

>Followup to:  <[email-masked]>
>By author:    [email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman)
>In newsgroup: comp.os.linux.development
>>
>> This is doubtful. The problem is that making this a 'feature' of ANSI c 
>> will all of a sudden make previously syntacticly correct code now fail to 
>> compile or, worse, compile with a different symantic meaning.  This woudl 
>> be DISASTEROUS to the attempt to standardize C.
>> 
>
>It is *already* put into quite a number of compilers (making it a
>portability issue already), and anyone writing code that uses that

The C compilers on AIX, Solaris, SunOS, IRIX, HPUX and Domain/OS don't
support it. If they would, they wouldn't be C compilers anymore.

>type of constructs should be shot anyway.  It is true there are such
>cases, but they are throuroughly and completely artificial.

They're valid C code, nevertheless. A C compiler which fails to translate
correctly valid C code is broken by definition.

Dan
--
Dan Pop 
CERN, CN Division
Email: [email-masked]
Mail:  CERN - PPE, Bat. 31 R-004, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland

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

From: [email-masked] (Alec Muffett)
Subject: Re: File Attributes (or resource forks) was: Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS
Date: 12 Oct 1994 13:10:36 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article <[email-masked]>, Robert Andrew Ryan <[email-masked]> writes:

>The standard unix filesystem certainly provides enough generality that
>file attributes (ala mac resource forks) could be implemented in the
>user level software.  There is a potential problem with this approach.
>The unlink system call couldn't be made atomic in user level code.  The
>process performing the unlinking of the resource files might be killed
>before it completes the task. 

Take the NFS client approach:

unlink_fork(char *name)
{
        ...
        rename(name, ".non-existant-scratch-name");
        RecursivelyDelete(".non-existant-scratch-name");
        ...
}

- atomic enough for you ? 

Set up a cronjob on the server to pick off any crud that gets missed.

> This could leave the file resources in an
>inconsistent state.  Presumably an atomic operation would at least be
>used to mark the file as deleted, but a scavenger would have to be used
>to complete partial deletions.

Quite.

>Lastly, COSE is working on a standard for a Unix desktop (CDE).  As more
>unix platforms  gain use desktops and interoperability between them will
>become more of an issue.

Ick.

---
Alec Muffett                      (A Goret is for life, not just for Christmas)
Sun Microsystems 
European Network Security Group
(speaking for himself, not his employers)

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

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End of Linux-Development Digest
******************************