Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #896
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:13:17 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #896, Volume #2                 Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:13:17 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Nailed down to 386bsd or linux, now which one? (Alan Cox)
  minicom help (Franco Gerace)
  Re: Document on PCI Information - read me if you are thinking about PCI (Jason ROOT George)
  Re: SW Technologies (E. Robert Tisdale)
  Re: Word (Text) processors for Linux? (Sergei Naoumov)
  SW Technologies (Mr John Shaller)
  PPP disconnect question (Richard Kooijman)
  Re: Logitech busmouse & X help please! ([email-masked])
  Re: SCSI DAT tape on a Linux box? (TlingitMan)
  Configuring 1.1.8 Kernel error (John Behneman)
  Re: Help! Seyon hangs when started (mgb)
  Re: talk/talkd and ^Z (Robert Sink)
  Re: Linux doesn't like my cache (David Flood)
  Re: Gnuplot and XWindows ? (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
  Re: What PCMCIA ethernet card to buy? ([email-masked])
  Re: Word (Text) processors for Linux? (Mark Krischer)
  Re: Beautifying Linux/Xfree (Dan Newcombe)
  Help With LCD, Cirrus and XFree86 (Lucas James Sheneman)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Nailed down to 386bsd or linux, now which one?
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 14:29:08 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Nate Williams) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>, Po-Han Lin <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>386bsd is monolithic (controlled I guess), while linux is non-monolithic.
>You were misinformed.  Both Linux and the BSD's use monolithic kernels. 
>For a fun discussion of this, there is a series of articles were Linus
>and Andy Tanenbaum 'discussed' the merits of both of these when Linux
>was in it's infancy.

The discussion is on sunsite.unc.edu if you can ever get it to work. It is
quite amusing. Linux has modules but they are not the same thing as a
message passing kernel - nothing like it. 

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Franco Gerace)
Subject: minicom help
Date: 7 Oct 1994 12:45 -0500

I recently configured minicom on my linux PC but I cannot get the proper 
VT100 extra functions like the gold key when calling a VMS system.  Is 
there a way to get the vt100 emulation working like in my dos qmodem?

--Thanks

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

From: [email-masked] (Jason ROOT George)
Subject: Re: Document on PCI Information - read me if you are thinking about PCI
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 14:44:12 GMT

Steven M. Henry ([email-masked]) wrote:

: For exact PCI specifications contact:

: PCI Special Interest Group
: M/S JF2-51
: 5200 N.E. Elam Young Parkway
: Hillsboro, Oregon 97124-6497
: (503)696-6111

Note this is an Intel address.

--Jason

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

From: [email-masked] (E. Robert Tisdale)
Subject: Re: SW Technologies
Date: 7 Oct 1994 00:59:35 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] (Mr John Shaller) writes:
>
>>I can see that Marvin has been trying hard to help by shipping replacements
>>and suggesting importments... Nothing in the world is perfect...
>
>Marvin tried, but he tried in an incompetent manner.  As I believe I said
>in my review, the fact that SWT tried hard to fix serious problems with the
>machine does not change the fact that the machine should not have had those
>problems when it was shipped to me.
>
>Would you consider it acceptable if you bought a new car and spent three
>months driving back to the dealership almost daily to get things fixed?
>There are new cars which don't cost much more than I paid for the computer
>from SWT, so I believe the analogy is completely reasonable.

Marvin Wu is a competent and conscientious Linux workstation vendor.  
He certainly believed your machine was in good working order
when he sent it to you and it has not failed since you sent it back.

Like a new car, you may have trouble with a new computer.  The problem is
that you can't just take it back to the dealer and tell him to fix it
if you bought it mail order.  You agreed to pay shipping back and forth
for warranty service and you agreed to ship your machine back to SWT
within 30 days for a full refund if you were not satisfied.  Marvin Wu
extended this money back guaranty to 60 days then 90 days at your request.

Since you have made no attempt to acquire another Linux workstation,
it is not clear that any PC-clone vendor would be able to provide you
with satisfactory service.  It might even appear that you decided that
you didn't really need or couldn't afford a new workstation sometime
after you made your deal with SWT and that you just strung Marvin Wu
along for three months then tried to beat him out of the shipping costs
as well.

It appears to me that Marvin Wu made an honest effort to live up to his part
of the agreement and was overly generous when he agreed to pay half of the
shipping costs to return the workstation.  I think that you should accept
the fact that you were bound to live up to your half of the agreement.
Bob Tisdale

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

From: [email-masked] (Sergei Naoumov)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Word (Text) processors for Linux?
Date: 7 Oct 1994 13:37:39 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>Come on guys.  I've been using Emacs for quite some time now.  It's the
>best program editor I know.  But it can't touch off-the-shelf word pro-
>cessors available for micros.

Well, Emacs never pretended to be a word processor, at least until now.
And I feel, it shouldn't except simple little things like different
fonts (see Xemacs, former Lucid Emacs).

>Another point:  TeX will give you low-level control over your document.
>But frankly I don't give a damn.  Once the referees, copy editors, lay-
>out goons, and editors get their hands on my MS it's not going to look
>like what I gave them, anyway.  So who wants to twiddle kerning pairs?
>Just bang the sucker out, I say, and don't be so anal-retentive.

Well, I don't know about editors but many scientific journals except
a LaTeX file. They don't do anything with it -- just print. Besides,
many journals move to the electronic way of publishing, so YOU print
a document.

>And don't anyone tell me, by the way, that Emacs is a great multilingual
>editor.  I've got some off-the-shelf editors that do this on micros with
>little or no fuss (e.g. MLS for the peecee).  And they are REAL word
>processors - not souped up editors that still betray their roots in old
>style ttys and character-based displays.  Just touch type Hebrew or
>Greek or whatever with canned layouts - no need to even look at any
>key bindings.

I will tell you. May be you're right about Herbrew but I use Russian
and Sanskrit without ANY problem.

-- 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+   Sergei O. Naoumov  [email-masked]  tel: (919)962-3998   +
+Department of Physics & Astronomy, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA+
+++++++++++ http://sunsite.oit.unc.edu/sergei/Me/Serge.html +++++++++++

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

From: [email-masked] (Mr John Shaller)
Subject: SW Technologies
Date: 6 Oct 1994 05:34:15 GMT

I'm a COMPUTER USER from HK. Generally I hate all those retailer who 
cheat their customers for profit, selling buggy components...etc. 
However, after following the recent thread of Jonathan's *LONG* complaint 
about SW Technologies, strangely :-) I don't have much sympathy on the 
customer. Rather, I'm not sure who's the victims... :-|. 

Something from Jonathan saying that "...I'll keep reposting the message 
until they admit their fault or out of business..." make me feel awkward. 
I don't there is such big deal to justify forcing someone until they die 
.. One thing that SW Technologies did wrong is they didn't have enought 
money in bank, causing a bounced-cheque charge ($4) for Jonathan. I think 
it's fair if SW Technologies pay him $4 and let the case settle...

Personally, I think the requirements from Jonathan is just too much. 
Everyone in the Linux world know that Linux is provided "AS IS", you try 
it at your own risk. There are numerous reports people trashing their 
filesystem when using a new Kernel...etc.... I don't quite buy what 
Jonathan says "... not counting the time that I spent on this 
machine...". If Jonathan kept the PENTIUM machine for the 3 months, and 
finally the deal was off, I think it's fair for him to at least pay for 
half of the shipping. Moreover, even from Jonathan's statement, I can see 
that Marvin has been trying hard to help by shipping replacements and 
suggesting importments... Nothing in the world is perfect...

A final word, Jonathan, PLEASE DON"T periodically reposting your LONG 
statement ( and the finely tunned correction/amandment... are we in the 
California court?). Just try to think there are how many news server 
around the world and your REPEATED posting may consume a few GB of disk 
space :-)....

Just my personal opinion.

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

From: [email-masked] (Richard Kooijman)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: PPP disconnect question
Date: 7 Oct 1994 14:15:29 GMT

Hi,

I made a script to automatically dial in onto our PSTN gateway, which,
after giving some user info, calls me back again.

For this I use pppd from the 2.1.2a distribution.
I do this by calling pppd and specifying the connect and disconnect options.
The connect option works great, my script with chat script is called,
dialing occurs and information is fed to the PSTN gateway.

Later, when I want to disconnect, I run a script called ppp-kill.
It finds the pppd pid and sends it a SIGHUP. Now, I expected the
disconnect script to be run next by pppd but it isn't.

Couple observations: the man page discussed this option, the binary
'reveals' the disconnect support (strings -a pppd), but the source
doesn't contain it! The pppd program doesn't complain about the
option either.

What gives? Anyone who knows the details?

Richard.

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Logitech busmouse & X help please!
Date: 3 Oct 94 23:17:42 -0500

Thanks to Michael Barbuschak, the solution to the problem I was having was to
edit the /usr/src/linux/include/linux/busmouse.h include file to point the IRQ
to where the mouse is currently sitting.

Sorry I can't thank you in person Mike but your address bounces when I email
you.  

Barry

===========================[Cut Here]========================================

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] writes:
> I'm having trouble getting my slackware pro 2.0 release of LINUX/X to recognize
> my Logitech P7-3F busmouse.  I've tried configuring two new kernels of Linux:
> one with Logitech and one with Microsoft bus mice and the former does get me
> into X without error but the pointer doesn't move with mouse movement.  I did
> change the symbolic link of /dev/mouse to /dev/busmouselogitec with the first
> kernel and have tried both that one and /dev/busmousems with the Microsoft
> kernel.  Anything with "busmousems" fails to find the mouse at all.
> 
> Is there a quick way of determining that my mouse is configured properly for
> linux without going into X?
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Barry ([email-masked])
> 

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

From: [email-masked] (TlingitMan)
Subject: Re: SCSI DAT tape on a Linux box?
Date: 5 Oct 1994 00:44:02 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Igor
Krtolica) writes:

Just plug it in and power it up.  Should work great!  I have HP's,
WANGDATS, SONYs and a few other oddball DAT drives all writing to tape and
being read without problems on any othe (clean) drive!

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

From: John Behneman <[email-masked]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Configuring 1.1.8 Kernel error
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 08:11:40 PDT

I am trying to build a new kernel with CD-ROM support which wasn't built in. 
I get the following message during the make zImage:

fs/fs.o: Undefined symbol  _ext_read_super referenced from text segment
                           _ifs_read_super referenced from text segment
make *** [ tool/zSystem ] Error

I am new to linux and figure there maybe something I am doing wrong or over 
looking. Any help would be appreciated! Bye the way I'm using the Walnut Creek 
CDROM Toolkit for Linux "stuff".

Thanks....

======================
John Behneman
[email-masked]
======================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (mgb)
Subject: Re: Help! Seyon hangs when started
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 00:38:58 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] (Konstantin Kostov) wrote:

> Dear Netters,
> 
> I have a problem starting Seyon. The modem doesn't respond to anything I
> do. /dev/modem was originally linked to /dev/cua3, which produced a
> "modem read error". After relinking /dev/modem to other devices the
> best result I got was with /dev/ttyS1 which doesn't give any errors,
> but nothing happens when I try to dial, or type anything in the
> term emulator window. I've tried all plausible devices in /dev
> with no success. The modem is hooked to com4, and I have used all
> the settings that work with DOS in the starup file.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Konstantin
Have you tried using setserial to insure com4 is set with the intended
port and IRQ?

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert Sink)
Subject: Re: talk/talkd and ^Z
Date: 6 Oct 1994 21:01:58 -0400

[email-masked] (Christopher Gori) writes:

>>: has anyone else noticed that talk and ytalk really don't like to be
>>: suspended under linux?
>>: this was true from 0.99.1? up to what i'm using now 1.1.48, and through
>>: several versions
>>: of net code...  just curious if anybody knows why this is...
>>
>>I've found that... talk goes pretty hyperactive when I try to suspend
>>it!

>I thought it was an ncurses bug.  I think I have an old curses lib, maybe
>the new ones fix this??  (Correct me if I am way, way off base)
>       [email-masked]

Yuh.  I've noticed that on all the versions of Linux that I've seen.  I keep
all my libraries, etc up to date and this still happens even with 1.1.51.

--

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
|:| Robert Sink              | "I don't want  to start  any blasphemous |:|
|:| [email-masked] |  rumors, but I think that GOD has a sick |:|
|:|--------------------------|  sense of humor and when I die  I expect |:|
|:| (c) 1994 Gurkware, Inc.  |  to find him laughing."  -- Depeche Mode |:|
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
         *PGP 2.6 Public Key Available By Fingering This Account*
           *or via the PGP Server: [email-masked]*

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

From: [email-masked] (David Flood)
Subject: Re: Linux doesn't like my cache
Date: 7 Oct 1994 01:38:12 GMT

[email-masked] (Sean A. Long) writes:

>Try increasing the cache read/write wait states...  I have a similiar setup 
>and at 33 Mhz, works nicely but at 40Mhz, get errors compiling and random 
>other little faults which eventually hose something important and the 
>machine dies a rather entertaining death...

Well, the default is write is 1.  When I try 2, lilo bombs with a crc error
during uncompress.  The only other availible setting is 0.  The only read
setting is one called 'Cache Read Cycle'.  It is set to 2-1-1-1 and can be
set to 3-2-2-2 or 2-2-2-2.  I'll try the others with a 1 write setting and
get back to you.

-- 
=============================================================================
[email-masked]

The above opinions are mine alone and do not reflect anyone elses.
Besides, who wants my opinion anyway?
=============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
Subject: Re: Gnuplot and XWindows ?
Date: 7 Oct 1994 01:21:56 GMT

Actually, I bet the version of gnuplot this guy got was the vgalib version that 
is on sunsite.  I don't think it has X support.  At any rate, you can just use
one of the more generic defines (unless there is a linux-x11 set yet).  The
last time I compiled it, I pretended my machine was a Cray :->.

-- 

David L. Johnson                        [email-masked] or 
Department of Mathematics               [email-masked]
Lehigh University
14 E. Packer Avenue                     (610) 758-3759
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3174                (610) 828-3708

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

From: [email-masked]
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking
Subject: Re: What PCMCIA ethernet card to buy?
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 12:04:18 PDT

In article <[email-masked]>, 
> Subject: What PCMCIA ethernet card to buy?

> I'm looking for PCMCIA ethernet card for my notebook running Linux. I
> have the list of Linux-happy cards (got it from the Stanford ftp site
> about a month ago.) I'm looking for recommendations on these or
> compatiable cards, as well as leads on good prices. Thanks!
> 
> -- 
                   [email-masked]

Hey you should get a Xircom Ethernet PCMCIA, (get a modem on it too)
I used it for: <running at once, mind you>

        exceed/W
        Novell Netware
        SNMP agent
        Chameleon NFS
        
Works great, and in exceed/W, you can open about 6 xterms or other TCP/IP
connects before the adapter says it's stuffed.
It cost me about 200bux w/o modem.
-ed

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Krischer)
Subject: Re: Word (Text) processors for Linux?
Date: 5 Oct 1994 23:43:29 GMT

if you want to do WORD processing and not TEXT editing, and you don't want to use something
like latex or troff--personally, i don't like them--you might try using a combination of
DOSEMU and WordPerfect for DOS.  i've gotten WPDos6.0 running in graphics mode.  i haven't
given it a good workout yet to test its stability, but it looks nice.  and DOSEMU just keeps
getting better.

if you've already got WP its worth a try.  WP5.1 might be more stable, but it's without the
added graphics editing mode which i really like.

hope that helps,

mark

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

From: [email-masked] (Dan Newcombe)
Subject: Re: Beautifying Linux/Xfree
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 11:26:27 UNDEFINED

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Alexandra Griffin) writes:
>In article <1994Oct5.141142.773@muvms6>,
>Andy Bailey <[email-masked]> wrote [in c.o.l.misc]:
>>  I think more users might be attracted to Linux, if some really nice
>>out-of-box configs like this were available, as well as some new icons and
>>fonts. Perhaps some scripts (maybe tcl/tk based) that allow easy
>>addition/removal of icons from the desktop. (I know its simple just the edit
>>the config file to add/remove stuff, but this would be better looking)

>You may get some negative feedback from the die-hard functionality
>over form crowd, but I'd say there's a lot of truth to what you're
>saying-- cleaning up minor things like GUI look & feel *will* make the
>X environment more appealing to a lot of people (maybe this is
>unfortunate, but with all the "fluff" on a typical Mac/Windoze desktop
>nowadays a lot of people expect this kind of thing...)

I also agree.  Many people will give you the "if you can't take the heat of 
setting X up, get out of the kitchen", but I think it's time that we got past 
that attitude...after all, they don't have to use it.

To put it simple...X at it's defaults is UGLY!   Even when you add fvwm to it, 
it's still kinda ugly...it's just to damn bland.

>1) A mouse-driven tool for setting common X resource preferences would
>be *very* helpful, even for experienced users (kind of a big project,

Isn't there an app that comes with X that does this? I remember one that shows 
a tree of resources that you can set right on that screen.   Of course, the 
thing to do then would be to grab the resource database and save it into 
.Xdefaults for the user.

>HP-VUE desktop-- you can adjust window colors, background pixmaps,
>speaker pitch & volume, screensaver status, etc. from a "control
>panel"-like utility.  There are too many things under X that can be
>configured only from the command line, which is not good (ideally both
>a good GUI and command-line way of setting each option should exist).

Oh...I see...More than just the resources.   Some stuff, like speakers, etc... 
isn't X, but the hardware.  Still, at worst, you could have some app bar like 
you mentioned where you click on the speaker and it calls up a mixer program 
for the sound card.

As you mentioned, too much is command line based.  Perhaps a Tcl/Tk or other 
program that would give a decent interface and call the command line funtions 
behind your back.  (and in the tradition of HP-UX's Sam, even create a log 
file of what it executed for later reference.)

>"xrdb -load'ed" on exiting the preferences tool).  HP-VUE even allows
>some things to be changed on the fly in already-running clients, but I
>think support for this has to be specially compiled into each client.

I don't know about that...but this goes back to the program that I mentioned 
earlier.  It changes things on the fly.  I wish I could remember the name.  
It's one of the standard X apps.  I don't think anything has to be specially 
compiled, but I've been wrong before :)

>Maybe a drop-in replacement for some of the X shared libraries could
>allow existing binaries to support this, though?

Since you mentioned drop-in replacements:  One suggestion would be to 
automatically include Xaw3d instead of plain old Xaw.

>2) A better X file manager than what's currently out there (xfm &
>xfilemanager are nice but not as easy to configure, easy to use, or

You can ftp mfm (Motif File Manager) with static linked libraries...kinda slow 
though!

>3) Another idea from HP-VUE... this environment features a "console
>bar" area at the bottom of the screen, containing buttons to switch
>virtual desktops, invocation icons for commonly-used apps, small icons
>for system functions (logging out...), and space for a clock,
>calendar, Xload bargraph, & other stuff.  The appearance of the bar is
>very professional, with little beveled insets for each item.  I'm

Perhaps you should look at the GREAT package.  It is very similar to VUE.  (On 
my system, it even runs as slow as VUE :)

Also:
        nice fonts - the default fixed font at 1024x768 is very hard to see.
        fvwm menus that are useful.  The most recent slackware ones are
                real good.  Earlier dists. didn't have much to them.
        xsetroot -fg red4 -bg black -bitmap /usr/include/X11/bitmaps/escherknot

:)
        -Dan

--
Dan Newcombe                    [email-masked]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"And the man in the mirror has sad eyes."       -Marillion

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

From: [email-masked] (Lucas James Sheneman)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Help With LCD, Cirrus and XFree86
Date: 7 Oct 1994 02:03:36 GMT

I just got XFree86-3.1 and installed it on my machine.  I have a Cirrus-6440
chipset.  I am trying to run the XF86-SVGA server.  I managed to make the 
server happy by telling it I had a Cirrus-6420 chipset (like the docs say to
do).  When the server comes up, I get a nice, crisp, clear display on my 
LCD notebook, except for the fact that the top 50 pixels or so and the
bottom 50 pixels of the screen are screwed up.  The bottom 50 pixels of the 
display are identical to the top 50 pixels on the display...only shifted by
about 100 pixels.

My question is this:  I have a dual-scan color LCD display and a cirrus 6440
chipset.  Does it make sense for me to determine the video modes for my 
display as discussed in the text file VideoModes.txt?  How do I treat an LCD
display when trying to determine video modes and sync frequencies?  Does my 
problem sound like a video timings problem or does it sound like a problem in
which my server is mis-using VRAM?

Specifically, here is my system:
        1.  Sager NP7500 Notebook/dual scan color LCD (640x480x256)
        2.  1MB VRAM.
        3.  XFree86-3.1

Please e-mail me if you have any suggestions.  Thanks.

-Luke.

--
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 Luke Sheneman     [email-masked]                 | 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Laboratory for Applied Logic, University of Idaho                        |
| http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/lal/students/sheneman.dir/sheneman.html         |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

** 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.misc) 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-Misc Digest
******************************