Subject: Linux-Development Digest #327
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 94 00:13:10 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #327, Volume #2         Tue, 18 Oct 94 00:13:10 EDT

Contents:
  Linux68k FAQ v0.4 (Joerg Mayer)
  gcc - i486-linux (Sean Watkins)
  Proposal : New newsgroup (Re: We a FAQ: Linux vs. *BSD!!!) (Woody Jin)
  HELP for install Slackware 2.0.1 from NCR53c400/T130B SCSI host (Clarence Cheung)
  Mach64 support for svgalib ? patch ? (Kolbe Florian)
  Re: 8-bit colour ANSI and ncurses (Miguel de Icaza)
  Fast Wide SCSI: recommendations (Robert Moser)
  PCI device driver questions (Todd Mummert)
  INFO: IO port access (Riku Saikkonen)
  Re: 2740 support (Frank Dwyer)
  Re: Extreme delays telnetting into linux box (David - Morris)
  SB16 & Mitsumi CDRom & 3c509 conflicts??? (Christofer D Chiappa)
  New SMC EtherEZ Plug'n'Play e-net card (Dan Major)
  Programmable Dot Clock (Adam Silverthorne)
  Re: We a FAQ: Linux vs. *BSD!!! (Jon Lasser)

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

Crossposted-To: maus.os.linux68k,comp.unix.amiga
From: [email-masked] (Joerg Mayer)
Subject: Linux68k FAQ v0.4
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 16:39:18 GMT

  This is the FAQ on Linux68k - a Linux port to Motorola's 680x0 processors

Version of this FAQ: 0.4
Date of this FAQ   : 94-10-17
Version of Linux68k: 09pl3
Version of Linux   : 1.1pl54
Maintainer: Joerg Mayer ([email-masked])

0. Introduction/contents
========================

This is the first version of the Linux68k FAQ. As it will probably be full of
errors (typographical and logical), outdated and missing infos, *YOU* are
encouraged to send feedback and corrections to [email-masked].
It is not intended to describe what Unix is or how to to administrate it.
Parts of this document were snarfed from Helmut Neukirchen's Linux68k WWW page
(see below). Thanks.

0. Introduction/Contents
1. About Linux and Linux68k
2. Requirements to run Linux68k
3. Similarities and differences between Amiga and Atari Linux68k
  3.1 Similarities
  3.2 Differences
4. The current status of Linux68k
  4.1 General
  4.2 Amiga
  4.3 Atari
  4.4 Mac
5. Hints on installing Linux68k
6. Sources for information/sources/binaries
  6.1 Newsgroups
  6.2 Mailinglists
  6.3 WWW-sites
  6.4 Ftp-sites
  6.4.1 Distributions
7. Activities
  7.1 Coordinator 
  7.2 Under construction/To do
8. Famous last words

1. About Linux and Linux68k
===========================
Linux is a freely available operating system for PCs - to be more precise,
it is one of many flavours of Unix. It is being developed on the net by
several thousand people and tested/used by many many more.
The fun and success of Linux inspired some people to port it to another
platform - the Amiga. The first version released to the general public was
005. While 008 was current, a few enthusiasts ported that version to the Atari
and the two versions have been successfully (?) merged with 09pl3 (this
reads version 09 patchlevel 3). Linux68k can be regarded as beta. This means
that code that wasn't ported/written recently works well most of the time.

2. Requirements to run Linux68k
===============================
You need a Motorola 680x0 processor *with PMMU*. There is *no way* to run
it without one. This reduces the list of possible processors to
68020+68851, 68030, 68040, 68LC040, 68060. Currently only the 68030 and 68040
are supported (rumor has it that someone is it running on 68020+68851). At
this stage you will also need a 68881 or 68882 FPU if you don't have a 68040.
A FPU is not strictly neccessary as it can be emulated with the normal
processor, however nobody has written the code to do so.
The list of processors leaves the 68000, 68010, 68EC020, 68EC030, 68EC040.
Linux68k will *never* run on these processors as they lack a PMMU and an
interface for an external one.
If you want to do more than just boot Linux68k you will need 30 - oo (infinity)
MB of harddiskspace an a supported hard disk controller.

3. Similarities and differences between Amiga and Atari Linux68k
=================================================================
3.1 Similarities
================
All code that is dependent on the processor only (e.g. paging, systemcalls,
parts of the interrupt handling and of c(o)urse those parts of Linux that
were handoptimized by writing the code in assembler) has to be ported to
Linux68k only once. This means that Amiga and Atari may use the same kernel-
image (in fact the vmlinux from tsx-11 runs on both machines).
Another big bonus is that all userprograms (= binaries) should run on
any machine running Linux68k no matter whether the machine is an Amiga
or Atari - as long as no machine specific devices are used (see below).

3.2 Differences
===============
All code that depends on the hardware is machine dependant and with very
few exceptions which are in the kernel (timer, small part of interrupt
handling, startup code) put into modules called devicedrivers. The writing
of devicedrivers makes up most of the porting work.

4. The current status of Linux68k
=================================
4.1 General
===========
What has been done? The kernel (this means all the processor/mmu/fpu specific
stuff) has been ported. Version 09 is based on the Linux 1.0 patchlevel 9
sources. Several hardware-independend devices have been ported:
Ramdisk, mem, pty, tty, vt, slip, net/inet, general scsi stuff. Also the fol-
lowing filesystems have been done: minix, ext2, msdos, proc, isofs, nfs, affs
( = Amiga Fast File System, read only).
On the mailinglist but not yet in the kernel: Virtual consoles

4.2 Amiga
=========
Supported builtin hardware:
A3000-SCSI, A4000-IDE, serial port, parallel port, mouse, keyboard, graphics
emulates an ascii-terminal (resolution varies with your chipset/setup), timer,
floppy disk drive (DD and HD, Amiga-formatted disks only).

Supported cards:
Several SCSI cards are supported. These are the A2091, A590 and GVP Series II.
To find out if additional hardware is supported look at the Linux68k source
(config.in provides a list of supported hardware).

4.3 Atari
=========
Atari-SCSI interface (ACSI), mouse, serial port, keyboard, timer [there are
some TOS-specific problems with the date], floppy disk drive, graphics
emulates an ascii-terminal (resolution varies with your chipset/setup)

4.4 Mac
=======
From time to time someone posts on the net that he is working on a port. There
is no confirmed sighting of such a thing (i.e. nothing ftp-able). One reason
for this may be that there are no hardware docs available.

5. Hints on installing Linux68k
===============================
[If someone is willing to write something more complete/comprehensible I will
happily replace this section.]
 1. Get a working kernel, *all* announce files and the boostrap program for
   your machine (different kernel versions may require different bootstrap
   versions), the root and usr-filesystems and the newfilesys (this is a
   ramdisk that contains everything you will need to setup a working harddisk
   environment). Sources for these programs: See below.
 2. Bootstrap the kernel and newfilesys as described in the ANNOUNCE file for
   that kernel. Many of the bootstrap flags available will be documented in
   older announce files only.
 3. Create a partition on your harddisk and install an ext2fs filesystem on it.
 4. Crate another partition as swapspace.
 5. Unpack the root and usr filesystem onto the disk.
 6. Copy the contents of your ramdisk to your harddisk. This replaces several
    old programs in root and usr with newer (working) versions.
 7. If /etc/termcap does not exist get (see below) and install it.
 8. Reboot
 9. Bootstrap your kernel, this time from harddisk instead of ramdisk.
These are the filenames relative to 680x0/
  ANNOUNCE-0.XXXXXX
  filesys/new-filesys.gz
  filesys/root.tar.gz
  filesys/usr.tar.gz
  kernel/vmlinux-0.9pl3.gz
  kernel/amiboot-1.9.gz
  kernel/ataboot-0.2.gz
  [I don't know a ftp site where you can find /etc/termcap, so you have to get
   it via Helmut Neukirchen's WWW pages.]
   
6. Sources for information/sources/binaries
===========================================
6.1 Newsgroups
==============
comp.os.linux.development: This group is on Linux development in gerneral.
  From time to time it contains messages dealing with Linux68k.
comp.os.linux.announce: This group announces new Linux related products as
  well as new kernelreleases. Announcements for new versions of Linux68k
  can be found here.
maus.os.linux68k: [This newsgroup may not be available outside Germany.]
  This group deals with Linux68k only. The language currently used is German
  but don't hesitate to post in English.
  It should be available at least at the following sites:
        news.uni-stuttgart.de
        rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
        xlink.net
        howland.reston.ans.net
        news.uni-oldenburg.de
        rz.uni-hildesheim.de
  [Has anyone checked whether these sites allow external access?]
comp.unix.amiga: This group is for diskussions on AMIX, NetBSD and Linux68k
  on the Amiga. As most articles on Linux68k are not Amiga specific, the
  name is somewhat of a misnomer.

6.2 Mailinglists
================
I am aware of one mailinglist for Linux68k. This is the 680x0 channel of
linux-activists. To find out how to subscribe send an empty mail to
[email-masked]. The channel you want to join is
680x0. Keep the help file! In order to unsubscribe you will want to read the
help file again. The articles on this list are currently mirrored on
maus.os.linux68k.

6.3 WWW-sites
=============
Helmut Neukirchen's Linux68k WWW page:
  http://www-users.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~hn/linux68k.html
Mirror of tsx-11 via WWW:
  http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Linux/tsx-11-mirror/680x0/

6.4 Ftp-sites
=============
THE Linux68k server:
  ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/680x0/
Mirrors of it (please use the one nearest to you, most of these mirrors
are updated daily):
  ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/systems/Linux/680x0/
  ftp://ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/comp/os/linux/680x0/
  ftp://ftp.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/Linux/680x0/
  ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/BETA/680x0/
THE two Linux servers (sources for you to port to/compile on Linux68k):
  ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/sources/
  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/
The kernel source for Linux68k can be found in 680x0/src/, a lot of
binaries in 680x0/bin/. A few more tools reside in 680x0/tools/.

6.4.1 Distributions
===================
None (yet).

7. Activities
=============
7.1 Coordinator
===============
Linux68k releases are built and released by Hamish Macdonald (his e-mail is
[email-masked]). Built means that you write a patch against the
current version/patchlevel and he will integrate it into the next release.
Well, at least that is how it should be - very often he has to write the
stuff too (Amiga only, the Atarists are a lot more active these days).
If you want your patches to be generally available rather than waiting for
Hamish to integrate them: Post them to the 680x0 channel of linux-activists
at least. Hamish has his own pace at doing releases. So read my lips:-)
*Don't push him!*

7.2 Under construction/To do
============================
[Your call for coworkers could be found here. I would like to have a list of
not yet ported filing systems and needed drivers here.]
- X-server for Amiga: Contact Martin Apel ([email-masked]) if and only
  if you really want to help (there is *no* use in asking/pushing him).
  He is currently searching for someone who can explain the workings of the
  console/tty/vt stuff to him to get the keyboard-input running.
- Affs: Write code and special root block handling missing.
- Documentation: A Linux68k update of the khg (Kernel hackers guide) needs to
  be written (especially the mmu specific stuff).
...

8. Famous last words
====================
Amiga, Atari, Unix and perhaps some more words I used in this text are
trademarks. So what!

===========
J"org Mayer  Student an der Universit"at Kaiserslautern
e-mail    :  [email-masked]   //   PGPid: 0xFB2461E1
phone     :  Kaiserslautern:  205-3348 (Uni) //  3100480 (privat)
snail-mail:  Beethovenstr. 44 // 67655 Kaiserslautern  // Germany

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

Subject: gcc - i486-linux
From: [email-masked] (Sean Watkins)
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 1994 00:27:24 GMT

Can someone point me to the grammer of the gcc assembler (gcc *.s) for 
i486-linux?

--
Sean Watkins                                     Telnet Canada Enterprises
[email-masked]                                          http://www.tcel.com

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

From: [email-masked] (Woody Jin)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.development
Subject: Proposal : New newsgroup (Re: We a FAQ: Linux vs. *BSD!!!)
Date: 17 Oct 1994 20:58:13 GMT

Hi.

Since there is practically no solution of the newbies' question of 
"Which is better, A or B ?",
how about creating a new newsgroup, say,  "comp.os.free-unices.dicuss"
or something like that ?
Whenever a newbie comes and ask the similar question,
we just refer to the newsgroup.

One caveat is that the news group will tend to be "comp.os.free-unices.flame",
but at least flames wars in *bsd / *linux* newsgroups can be
filtered out into that newsgroup.

Also, if there are enough people who want to constructive,
the newsgroup can be used as a communication medium among the
different unices' developers, for getting recent informations of other
unices and thus improving their own unix.

I am sure that if you just leave as it is now,
the flame wars won't stop.  Newbies come and will keep asking questions.
Other semi-newbies will answer, and ... you know ...

Just a thought ...

--
Woody Jin

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

From: [email-masked] (Clarence Cheung)
Subject: HELP for install Slackware 2.0.1 from NCR53c400/T130B SCSI host
Date: 17 Oct 1994 18:24:09 GMT

Hi all,

I just tried to install my TA Linux 4. The kernal is 1.1.50. I installed
from NEC CDR-25 CD ROM drive with NEC SCSI host (NCR53c400/T130B chips).
Even I created a SCSI boot and root disk. The kernal didn't find the 
SCSI host( SCSI=0host ). Do you  have any idea and solutions for me
I need the Linux box to finish my OS project. So I have to complete the 
installation as soon as I can. Please help.

-Clarence-

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

From: [email-masked] (Kolbe Florian)
Subject: Mach64 support for svgalib ? patch ?
Date: 14 Oct 1994 23:52:05 GMT

Well, that's what you get when you buy the newest hardware. I got a ATI
Graphics Pro Turbo with the Mach64 chip and svgalib is obviously not 
supporting it. Is someone working on a driver ? Does svgalib support the
ATI VGA Wonder ? 'Cause then there might be a workaround like with the 
tweaked XF_SVGA-Server where they only changed the recognition and 
initializition (I guess). Or maybe there's only some minor changes that 
have to be made to the Mach32-driver ? I wonder.

Florian

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

From: [email-masked] (Miguel de Icaza)
Subject: Re: 8-bit colour ANSI and ncurses
Date: 17 Oct 1994 19:00:37 GMT

> Does anyone know of a mechanism that will allow a program running in a
> console window to use the mouse?  I know of selection but I want to be able
> to control the mouse myself.  Also, it must run in user mode and not require
> special privs.

Yes, you can use the gpm mouse server, it's available in
iride.unipv.it in the directory /pub/gpm.  It's used by the MouseLess
Commander to provide mouse support on the linux console.

Miguel.

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert Moser)
Subject: Fast Wide SCSI: recommendations
Date: 17 Oct 1994 20:05:00 GMT

Hello,

I'd like to poll current linux users and developers:  is anyone currently
using a fast/wide scsi card with linux (20mb/sec)?  If so, please let me
know:

1) what card you are using,
2) what driver runs this card,
3) any special hacks to make it work?
4) your opinion on performance,
5) how robust is your combination,
6) if you're a developer, any and all comments/recommendations are welcome.

I have a need for speed for my app, so I'll likely get a 3 channel raid 
controller and a pair of Seagate's barracuda drives.

Please reply by email.  If there is interest, I'll post a summary of
responses.

Thanks!

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

From: [email-masked] (Todd Mummert)
Subject: PCI device driver questions
Date: 17 Oct 1994 20:07:06 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In order to test/evaluate an ATM adapter card we need to write a
device driver for a Gateway 2000 P5-90 machine.  Currently, we're
trying to choose an appropriate OS on which to develop/test the
device driver.  The aforementioned card is a PCIbus based design.

How complete is the Linux PCIbus support?  Are the PCIbios calls
supported?  How difficult is it to configure the PCIbus device
and to memory map the device address spaces?  Is there any documentation/
skeletal drivers available on developing PCIbus device drivers for Linux?

thanks,
 todd
[email-masked]

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

Subject: INFO: IO port access
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 94 21:26:00 +0200

A number of people have been asking for this...

To use IO ports in C programs:
1. #include <asm/io.h>
2. Call ioperm(port,num,1) at somewhere near the start of the program
(before accessing ports).
3. Access ports using value=inb(port) and outb(value,port) (note the
order of the parameters). Look into asm/io.h for more system calls.
4. Call ioperm(port,num,0) at somewhere near the end of the program
(after all port accesses).
5. Compile your code with -O2 or a higher number, and no -g. (Sorry, you
can't debug...)
6. The executable has to be setuid root.

ioperm() syntax (also see the man page):
The first parameter is the port number to set permissions of.
The second parameter is the number of consecutive ports to set
permissions of (i.e. if num==3, port, port+1, and port+2 are set).
The third parameter is 1 to give the program permissions or 0 to remove
them.

Not too difficult... By the way, if anyone wants to add this to a FAQ or
HOW-TO, feel free (but contact me first).

-=- 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] (Frank Dwyer)
Subject: Re: 2740 support
Date: 15 Oct 1994 19:44:35 GMT

[email-masked] wrote:
:>I have not seen a 2740 scsi driver.  Does one exist? or do I need to pull
:>out the copy of the tech doc I have and modify the 1740 driver?

I am using the alpha-5 version of the 2740/2840 AHA driver.  No problems
after about 30 days of use.

The latest version can be obtained by anonymous ftp from
ftp.cpsc.ucalgary.ca in /pub/systems/linux/aha274x.

-f

--
Frank Dwyer ([email-masked])              Office: 443 SCL (904) 644-6008
http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~dwyer                FAX   :         (904) 644-0098
Unix System Manager / Systems Development     Pager :         (904) 422-4333

Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306

=============================================================================
 "Unix _IS_ user friendly... It's just selective about who its friends are."
=============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (David - Morris)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: Extreme delays telnetting into linux box
Date: 15 Oct 1994 04:44:53 GMT

I'll say it again.  When I telnet from a LAN workstation whose
IP address can't be resolved into a name I experience a VERY long
delay.  When I add the host to the /etc/hosts, the connection is
almost instant....

If this doesn't help you, it would be helpful to know.

Dave Morris

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

From: Christofer D Chiappa <[email-masked]>
Subject: SB16 & Mitsumi CDRom & 3c509 conflicts???
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 16:59:44 -0400

I'd been running Linux 1.1.54 successfully, with no problems for a
while, until I installed a Sound Blaster 16.  Now, the system has all of
a sudden gotten extremely flakey.  Booting up with device drivers for
all three compiled in causes, after the startup line of "Going
Multiuser" lines saying stuff like
SCIOsomething or other: Try again
SCIOblabla: network is unreachable
SCIOblabla: network is unreachable
after which none of the networkign stuff works.  The oddest thing is is
that I had it all working fine for several days, and all of a sudden, it
just started quitting.  It has booted successfully a few times.  Another
extremely odd thing: If I boot off an emergency disk I made from 1.1.45
a while ago, it works fine, but if I try to compile 1.1.45 now and run
it off my hard disk with lilo, the same errors come up.  This had me
completely baffled.  I finally in desperation tried NOT compiling in the
support for the Mitsumi CD-Rom and it works all of a sudden!  Can anyone
offer any insight into this?  My system setup is as follows:
Gateway P5-60 and lots of stuff which probably doesnt matter
3c509 10baseT ethernet card
    Base:0x300
     IRQ:10

Mitsumi FX-001D CD-Rom drive
    Base:0x340
     IRQ:11

Soundblaster 16 Basic(CD-interface disabled)
DSP Base:0x220
MPU Base:0x330
     IRQ:7
Low  DMA:1
High DMA:6

This is puzzling me to no end.  Everything works fine under Dos and
OS/2.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
# "An uneducated man may rob      |   Member of  | This post dedicated to #
#  from a freight car.  A man with|   Team OS/2  | Kathryn [email-masked]    #
#  A University education may     +L-I-N-U-X+DOOM+-Hi-Hi-Hi-Me-Brothers!!!#
#  steal the whole railroad." -T. Roosevelt | Email : [email-masked] #
#  WWW: http://iloveryn.pc.cc.cmu.edu/      | [email-masked] #

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

From: [email-masked] (Dan Major)
Subject: New SMC EtherEZ Plug'n'Play e-net card
Date: 17 Oct 1994 20:21:52 GMT

SMC has just come out with a new 16 bit Plug'n'Play ethernet
card. They are introducing it for $49 (one per customer). I have
been really satisfied with the other SMC cards I have used, and
I'd like to get one of these for my linux box. Before I make a
mistake like I did in buying a Diamond Stealth card, does anyone
know if the new SMC card is/will be supported?

Thanks in advance.

[email-masked]

University of Oklahoma School of Industrial Engineering

Since I am both a state employee AND a tax-paying property
owner, these are the opinions of at least ONE of my employers.

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

From: [email-masked] (Adam Silverthorne)
Subject: Programmable Dot Clock
Date: 14 Oct 1994 21:49:20 -0700

I have an STB Pegasus card that has a programmable DOT clock generator.  
Is there anyway I can get this card to work with X?  Right now it freezes 
after the first screen comes up.

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

From: [email-masked] (Jon Lasser) 
Subject: Re: We a FAQ: Linux vs. *BSD!!!
Date: 14 Oct 94 02:02:00 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Jon Lasser) 

-> In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Jesus
-> Monroy Jr)
-> This is a weekly question.
-> More often than not, we get into a flame war
-> on this.  Let's stop this silliness!!!
->
-> The only way we're going to stop this silliness is to simply start
-> ignoring the querants.  If someone asks "Which is better?  Which is
-> better?", jumping up and down all the while, and everybody just flat
-> out _ignores_ the question and goes about their business as if
-> nothing happened, folks will eventually get the point and stop
-> asking.

There's one problem with this attitude: it's what is keeping the vast
majority of PC users stuck on DOS.  No questions; just follow the party
line.

If we want the majority of PC Users to move to a real OS (And
fundamentally, I don't think it matters whether people use FreeBSD or
Linux, that's a much smaller issue), then we have to patiently explain
that the question is meaningless each time it's asked.

Otherwise, we become elitists, and therefore responsible for the failure
of the OS as a product for everyone.  While some people might not find
this necessarily the most important goal of Linux and/or *BSD, I believe
that it's critical to the Real World.

People are stuck with MeSsy-DOS because they're confused and scared; it
is our job to help them.  Unfortunately, due to compatiblity issues with
others, I still use Windoze.  Those compatibility issues exist because
it's what Joe User uses.

Don't be frustrated by stupid questions; they're a necessary evil.
The only stupid question is the one that convinces someone that DOS is
the best alternative.

Jon

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

** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **

The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is:

    Internet: [email-masked]

You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.development) via:

    Internet: [email-masked]

Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
    nic.funet.fi				pub/OS/Linux
    tsx-11.mit.edu				pub/linux
    sunsite.unc.edu				pub/Linux

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