Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #180
From: Digestifier <Linux-Activists-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Activists@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Activists@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Sat, 28 Aug 93 20:13:06 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #180, Volume #6           Sat, 28 Aug 93 20:13:06 EDT

Contents:
  Looking for Prolog for Linux (Harold Brian Raynor)
  Re: Out of virtual memory error with 8M RAM and 16M swap. (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: Summary  Virtual Memory prob. and X as root (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: DOS partition (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: Terminal Scrolling (Rich Mulvey)
  Configuring X-Window (mayank@vnet.ibm.com)
  Re: Problem with EXT2 --- maybe some help...maybe not.... (Jim Graham)
  Re: [Q] How do you dial out from Linux? (Zeyd M. Ben-Halim)
  kernel Swap failure (John Tippitt)
  Bug in atof? (Tsung-lung Li)
  Re: HELP WITH MY MOUSE IN X PLEASE (Timothy H Miley)
  Slackware rdev doesn't set video mode. (Sreekar Shastry)
  xdm lack of security (Sreekar Shastry)
  Re:OS/2 2.1 Boot mMgr and Linux (Holger Wiese)
  SLS 1.03 hosing /dev/hda1 !! (Joe George)
  Boca 1008 serial line board (John Jarvis)
  Re: kernel Swap failure (Alan Bleasby)
  help with system to run unix (Jay Hauben)

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

From: raynor@cs.scarolina.edu (Harold Brian Raynor)
Subject: Looking for Prolog for Linux
Date: 28 Aug 93 15:58:22 GMT


I am looking for a Prolog compiler/interpreter for Linux.  If anyone
knows of one being available, PLEASE let me know.

Also, if there is not yet one available for Linux, but if the source is
available for standard Unices, please let me know, I can spend time
recompiling it for Linux and then post the binaries to TSX-11 or
something.

Please reply to below address
Thanks,
Brian Raynor
raynor@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu
raynor@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
        Brian Raynor
        Graduate Assistant in Computer Science
        University of South Carolina - Columbia, SC

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

From: teffta@cs690-3.erie.ge.com (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: Out of virtual memory error with 8M RAM and 16M swap.
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 17:24:49 GMT

In article <CCDoEw.G4J@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rhh2h@fulton.seas.Virginia.EDU (Ron Henderson) writes:
>Idraw will not run from X-windows because of this error. Out of
>virtual memory ... cannot open 'new'.  I think 24M should be enough memory.  
>Only 2 windows open, and an xclock.  Only 6 gettys are up.

I just started an idraw and it is about 2.5 megs in size. 24M
should definitely be enough. 8M almost definitely won't be enough 
without swap -- you need to check your swap.
>
>Should the partition type show up as different for my swap 
>partition?  It is still type 81.
>
The partition type isn't really important for linux, except to
keep other operating systems from seeing it as one of their own
and trying to trash it.

It *is* important to to a mkswap on it once though to set up
the "swap signature" -- analogous to making a filesystem on
a filesystem partition. And your rc or rc.local have to contain
a 'swapon' command (with the correct options) to turn on swapping --

swapon -a   if the partition is in your /etc/fstab
swapon filename  if you have a swap file or want to specify a partition

Try 'free' and see if you have any swap enabled. 'top' will be
helpful for monitoring the size of the top 15 or so processes.

>I am running startx as root, I can't run it as a user yet (another problem).

Perhaps this problem is the same as someone else's recently. Your X server
(/usr/X386/bin/X386, X386mono, XF86_SVGA, or XF86_mono, depending on your
setup) needs to be owned by root and setuid root. chown it to
root and chmod 4755 it.



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

From: teffta@cs690-3.erie.ge.com (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: Summary  Virtual Memory prob. and X as root
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 17:41:47 GMT

In article <CCE528.Lp3@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rhh2h@fulton.seas.Virginia.EDU (Ron Henderson) writes:
>I have now set my X-server as root suid by 'chmod 4755 XF86_SVGA'.
>I now get the X background, but my mouse buttons still don't function
>at all (they are fine as root).  The next step is to apply the same
>fix to xload, xterm, xinitrc, and twm.

Of these only xterm needs to be setuid root.


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

From: teffta@cs690-3.erie.ge.com (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: DOS partition
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 17:46:18 GMT

In article <CCEI0y.FF3@world.std.com> swift@world.std.com (Peter Lu) writes:
>
>       I inadvertently did a "dd of=/dev/hda if=..." and trashed the
>partition table on my C disk.  Luckily, I knew its layout and just
>manually recovered the partition set-up.  However, the first partition I

Hm I think I will use dd to back up the important part of my
drive in case I ever do something like this.

Question -- how many bytes should I save? I know next to nothing
about the layout of these drives.

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

From: rich@mulvey.com (Rich Mulvey)
Subject: Re: Terminal Scrolling
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 14:19:20 EDT

tchandl@crl.com (Tim Chandler) writes:

> Howdy,
> 
>         I'm encountering a small problem with my scrolling.  It seems
> that occasionaly (usually after a vi or more), my terminal will only
> scroll data through the bottom-most line of the terminal, without
> advancing any of the 23 lines above it  --  I essentially will see
> all output come an go on line 24.  I can do a 'clear', but when I
> get to line 24, it screws up again.  I'm not sure if I have described
> this well.  My video card is a 'noname' - no information of 
> compatibility on the card, the book that came with the pc, and nothing
> displayed upon bootup.  I'm running Slackware 0.99.12 on a 386SX-16 
> clone.  Any advice appreciated.  Thanks.
> -- 
--
   Make sure that your TERM is set correctly: i.e. use export TERM=console
when you are running on the console.

- Rich

--
Rich Mulvey            Amateur Radio: N2VDS            787 Elmwood Terrace
rich@mulvey.com                                        Rochester, NY 14620

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

From: mayank@vnet.ibm.com
Subject: Configuring X-Window
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 17:07:17 GMT
Reply-To: mayank@vnet.ibm.com

Hello,
    I am a new linux and UNIX user and need some help in configuring X-Windows
env.  I just installed linux on my 486/66 PC.  When I issue startx command, I get
initialization errors which are most likely due to the fact that my svga card is
not supported.  I would like to switch to monovga mode.  The readme wasn't very 
helpful.  Before I start fumbing around on my own really scre things up, would
some kind souls out in netland help me navigate through any pitfalls, landmines
and roadblocks I might encounter.
X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.00
Lines: 12
   
    Thanks for your help.

                    Mayank Shah
                    mayank@vnet.ibm.com


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

From: jim@n5ial.mythical.com (Jim Graham)
Subject: Re: Problem with EXT2 --- maybe some help...maybe not....
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 14:33:36 GMT

Btw, which of the new groups, col.help or col.misc, would this really
belong in?  I tend to think .help, but then, it isn't really about help
with an application, but more about actual system problems (possibly even
hardware-related), so .misc might be more appropriate.....  Any thoughts
on this?

In article <smjCCCsGA.FzI@netcom.com> smj@netcom.com
(Scott Mitchell Jennings) writes:

>I'm using SLS v1.02 (0.99.p12) and I seem to get consistenly recurring
>filesystem corruption only if I use 'screen' (virtual terminals).
>
>I get lost inodes, lost blocks, corrupted directory entries (once I even
>ended up with a directory whose first two entries were both '.', even
>e2fsck could not correct this, had to use mke2fs to fix), and once I even
>had a .tar file magically aquire the status of a directory, lost it all.
>
>As nearly as I can tell so far, this only occurs after I have run 'screen'.

I had (note past-tense) similar problems under my previous configuration
here.  I was running 0.99 PL6 and using the minix filesystem.  I also had
(again, past-tense) a lot of problems with SIGSEGVs (aka signal 11).  I
wasn't sure you were talking about the same problems, though, until you
mentioned the directory missing '..' (I seem to recall that they were
missing '.' here) and, more importantly, a file somehow turning into a
directory....

Btw, I almost never ran screen, so I don't think screen has anything to do
with it.  You don't just happen to have a Kalok hard drive, do you?  That
was one of the things Linus thought might be a problem on this end.
Apparently, Kalok drives have been the cause of some problems in the past.

Anyways, I recently (about 2 weeks ago) upgraded to 0.99 PL9, and the ext2
filesystem.  When I did this, all of the above problems went away.  I built
a new version of the kernel (after a ``make clean'') and the only time it
stopped compiling was due to a problem that was *MY* fault (I missed
something when installing a patch).  No SIGSEGVs at all, compared to about
5 or 6 minimum under the old setup.  I haven't had any filesystem problems
to speak of.

I did make one other change at the same time, btw, which might also be
significant.  I had noticed that *MOST* (not all) of the filesystem
problems hit the same partition where the news spool dirs were stored, and
when I changed filesystems, I setup a separate partition for news
(/usr/spool/news is a symbolic link to /newsspool).

Ok, yet another difference.  :-)  When I was trying to figure this all out
a month or two ago, Linus suggested making a change in hd.c in the kernel,
and change the HD_DELAY parameter to something like 2000.  I forget what
value I used most recently, but 2500 comes to mind.  This didn't seem to
help under PL6, but it just might have made the difference under PL9.

With all of these changes happening at once, it's hard to say which one
really made the difference.  Even worse, it's probably some combination
of all of the above.  :-(  I suppose we can rule out the filesystem type,
though.  I have no idea what the chances are of such a problem going away
in PL9 and returning in PL12, so I don't know whether that can be ruled
out or not.

Oh well, that's what I know on the subject.  It isn't much, but perhaps
it's a start.  If you do find out what, exactly, is going on, PLEASE let
me know!  If nothing else, I'm curious as hell.....

Later,
   --jim

--
#include <std_disclaimer.h>                                  73 DE N5IAL (/4)
==========================< Running Linux 0.99 PL9 >==========================
INTERNET: jim@n5ial.mythical.com  |  j.graham@ieee.org     ICBM: 30.23N 86.32W
AMATEUR RADIO:  (packet station temporarily offline)       AMTOR SELCAL: NIAL
==============================================================================
E-mail me for information about KAMterm (host mode for Kantronics TNCs).


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

From: zmbenhal@netcom.com (Zeyd M. Ben-Halim)
Subject: Re: [Q] How do you dial out from Linux?
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 19:16:55 GMT

In article <davidw.746508764@gsb008> davidw@cs.UAlberta.CA (Woloschuk David R) writes:
>
>I have Linux SLS 1.03 running on my IBM ValuePoint and am
>trying to dial out using my modem using 'cu'
>
>Is there a better way?

Try pcomm or minicom. If you are running X try seyon.

Zeyd

>How do I configure my system to accept the modem I am using and
>the paramters I need to use?
>
>Do I need source for Taylor UUCP 1.04 to do this? ( Ican't find the sources
>if they are already on my system)
>
>I looked in the Linux FAQ for infor, but couldn't seem to find it...is
>there any documentation on this stuff?
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>David R! Woloschuk
>davidw@cs.ualberta.ca


-- 
Zeyd M. Ben-Halim       zmbenhal@netcom.com
10479 1/4 Santa Monica Blvd, LA, CA, 90025 (310) 470-0281

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

From: john@sparc.uucp (John Tippitt)
Subject: kernel Swap failure
Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:28:59 GMT

Is anyone else having problems with this? My machine locks
up after displaying this message:

unable to handle kernel paging request at address c0000014
ooops: 0000
EIA: 0010:001350c3
Eflag: 00010246
eax: 00313d10  ebx:00000000 ecx: 012ad0c0  edx: 00000005
esi: 00310000  edi:00000168 ebp: 0079168
ds: 0018   es:0018  fs: 0026  gs:002b
Pid: 0, process nr: 0
task[0] (swapper) killed. unable to recover
kernel panic: trying to free up swapper memory space
In swapper task- not syncing

On my computer, this seems to follow having slip up for a little while,,
before it crashes. However, I have seen a similar error occur on machines
doing nothing more exciting than sit there.

Any help would be appreciated, if only to know the causes.


 

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

From: quantum@stein1.u.washington.edu (Tsung-lung Li)
Subject: Bug in atof?
Date: 28 Aug 1993 21:08:39 GMT



Hello,

If I am doing right in the following program, I have found a bug in "atof".

#include        <math.h>
#include        <stdio.h>

main()
{
    static char         st[80] = {'1', 'E', '+', '4'};
    float       x;

    x = atof( st );
    printf( "%s %f\n", st, x );
}

Execution results:
1E+4 1.000000

If you think I have done anything incorrect, please e-mail me at
        quantum@u.washington.edu
Thank you.

Tsung


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

From: thmiley@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Timothy H Miley)
Subject: Re: HELP WITH MY MOUSE IN X PLEASE
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 21:10:52 GMT

u339580@sparc17.ncu.edu.tw (* 3cMonster *) writes:

>Hi all UNIX admirers,

>Here I just come across the situation below:

>  1. I set everything OK with my X-window (XFree 1.3) and it works fine.
>  2. As I am trying to move my mouse, I just find it move randomly on the
>     screen.
>  3. I tried to find through the FAQs times and times..nothing about that
>  4. my mouse is Microsoft compatible.
>  5. I set it to Microsoft "/dev/cua0" in my Xconfig
>  6. That's all...

>  Could any of you, experienced players, tell me what's wrong with my mouse?

>  Thanks a LOTS!

>  Sincerely,
>  Aurona 

I had the same problem, but I got mine to work after tweaking the sample rate.
Don't know why it worked, but it worked.

-- 
thmiley@cs.wmich.edu (Timothy H Miley)! "Man is destined to a better occupation
Computer Science Major                ! than that of pursuing and cutting the
Western Michigan University           ! throats of dumb animals." - Cicero
===============================================================================

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

From: sreekar@panix.com (Sreekar Shastry)
Subject: Slackware rdev doesn't set video mode.
Date: 28 Aug 1993 17:26:27 -0400


rdev -v /dev/hda1 -2                                   

in Slackware doesn't set the video mode; it always comes up 80x25.

Thanks for any help.
--

Sreekar Shastry
sreekar@panix.com
-- 

Sreekar Shastry
sreekar@panix.com

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

From: sreekar@panix.com (Sreekar Shastry)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.windows.x.i386unix
Subject: xdm lack of security
Date: 28 Aug 1993 17:41:15 -0400


Whenever I log in from xdm and type in any valid login name all I have 
to do is type enter or anything and I will log in, even for root!

I am running the full Slackware linux distribution.

Thanks for any help.
--

Sreekar Shastry
sreekar@panix.com
-- 

Sreekar Shastry
sreekar@panix.com

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

From: cindy@tron.gun.de (Holger Wiese)
Subject: Re:OS/2 2.1 Boot mMgr and Linux
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 12:53:00 +0200

Am 26.08.93 um 03:35 schrieb IKS%BSU-CS.BSU.EDU@USENET.ZER unter dem Betreff OS/2 2.1 Boot mMgr and Linux:

 > I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it is the only
 > newsgroup we get here. I have installed OS/2 2.1, Linux and the OS/2
 > Boot Manger program on my system. I can't get the OS/2 boot manager to
 > boot up the Linux partition. Here is my fdisk to show my setup:
 > 
 > Disk /dev/hda: 8 heads, 46 sectors, 903 cylinders
 > Units = cylinders of 368 * 512 bytes
 > 
 >    Device Boot  Begin   Start     End  Blocks   Id  System
 > /dev/hda1         620     620     902   52072    5  Extended
 > /dev/hda2   *       1       1       6    1081    a  OPUS
 > /dev/hda3           7       7     619  112792    7  OS/2 HPFS
 > /dev/hda5   *     620     620     902   52049   81  Linux/MINIX
 > 
 > I've read the FAQ and tried the command for lilo they give and here is
 > my result:

Hi,

i have tried successfully two ways to use OS/2 and Linux
together. But it seems to be unpossible to boot Linux from
the OS/2 Bootmanager directly. So try one of the following
two ways.

First: Install OS/2 with Bootmanager and then install LILO.
Use LILO to start Linux or the OS/2 Bootmanager. Then use
the Bootmanager to start OS/2 or DOS.

Second: Install OS/2 and Linux and use LILO to boot OS/2,
DOS, or Linux. Both ways worked without any problems. 

To my mind the second way is preferable, because you only
need one bootmanager to start. No switching through LILO
and the OS/2 Bootmanager.

Give it a try. If you encounter problems send me an email
and i will try to help as good as i can.

Bye, Holger ...

Windows 3.1 - The Best $89 Solitaire Game You can Buy!

-- THE ANSWER V2.03

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

Subject: SLS 1.03 hosing /dev/hda1 !!
From: jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com (Joe George)
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 17:47:59 EST


I'm posting this as a warning since I've received mail that the problem
I had with a hosed /dev/hda1 has occurred to other users.

SLS 1.03 (which I downloaded from sunsite) has a potentially serious
gotcha in it which I think you should be aware of.  After installing the
SLS, /etc/rc will call 'swapon -a' all well and good, but if you check
/dev/swap you'll see that it is aliased to /dev/hda1.  Since a good
number of people have real data on /dev/hda1, when swapon gets to it it
will just simply stomp all over the data there and make it a swap
partition.

After you install SLS but BEFORE YOU BOOT IT, reboot the A1 disk, mount
the disk where you installed Linux and re-alias /dev/swap to your real
swap partition.  And make sure you back up /dev/hda1 before you start
installing it, just to be safe.

Joe 'Lets reload 110MB of data now, shall we?' George
--
Joe George (jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com,emory!indigo!whiffer!jgeorge)
Actually, I _do_ speak for The Waffle Whiffer | begin 644 foo
M1W)A=FET>2!I<VXG="!M>2!F875L="P@22!V;W1E9"!F;W(@5F5L8W)O(0T* ` end

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

From: jfj@lakes.trenton.sc.us (John Jarvis)
Subject: Boca 1008 serial line board
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 22:06:18 GMT

I need help in setting up LINUX to run additional ASCII terminals using
a Boca 1008 serial board. At boot time, the board's presence is 
recognized as tty16-tty23 at addresses 0x100 0x108 ... IRQ 5 is set
and recognized but the kernal indicates IRQ 12 was expected. Individual 
terminalswill run on COM1 but I can't make them work over the a Boca 
port. Obvious things like null modems have been tried.
Question: what are appropriate software settings for thing: dev names, 
major and minor node numbers getydefs and initab settings, etc. ANy 
suggestions welcome. 
                John Jarvis

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

From: ajb@s-crim1.dl.ac.uk (Alan Bleasby)
Subject: Re: kernel Swap failure
Date: 28 Aug 1993 23:03:40 GMT

Hi,

This might now be in the FAQ :-)
If you're running pl12 you MUST load the new kbd.tar `loadkeys' + relevant
map otherwise such swap failures will occur.
Hope this is useful

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

From: ag173@yfn.ysu.edu (Jay Hauben)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.os.minix,alt.amateur-comp
Subject: help with system to run unix
Date: 28 Aug 1993 23:30:50 GMT
Reply-To: ag173@yfn.ysu.edu (Jay Hauben)


A friend is looking to buy a computer system. She has limited 
money (under $1400). She is doing research and writing for a book 
about the net. She wants to use UNIX tools for this but also has
files now in DOS format. She wants a system that will 
successfully run some form of UNIX with uucp and also run DOS. 
She would also want at some point to get a Usenet news feed via 
uucp using the computer system she is looking to buy now.
 
She has been quoted a price for a system at the upper limit of 
what she can afford. The system consists of the following 
components. Does anyone see in this system anything that would 
prevent her needs from being met? Might any of the components be 
too weak for what she wants to do? The forms of UNIX she might 
have available are Minix (which appears not to have uucp) and off 
the net Linux. She has a 2400 baud modem now and hopes to upgrade 
it and maybe buy a CD-ROM player and controller some time in the 
future when she is in a position to afford them.
 
The system she has the quote for consists of:
 
 1) Intel 486DX/33Mhz
 2) Mid height tower case with 230 watt power supply. (Will this    
    give enough power and enough VENTILATION?)
 3) 245 MB hard drive by Seagate or Maxton. (Is either 
    preferable?)
 4) 128 kB cache (Might she in fact need a 256 kB cache?)
 5) 4 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB. (Should she insist on SIMM    
    chips?)
 6) AMI bios and ? motherboard. (Would a Pheonix bios be better?)
 7) 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" TEAC floppy drives
 8) Pentium Overdrive with Intel (?) chips
 9) 14" Acer 34T (SVGA NI) monitor.
10) 101 keyboard
11a) Trident 1 MB SVGA video card with a DC 009 IDE controller     
    card
or
11b) Genoa IMD VESA local bus graphics card with a VLB IDE     
    controller card (for about $150 more). (Is there a significant
    advantage gained for the extra money even though she doesn't     
    anticipate doing much graphics?)
12) 2 serial, 1 parallel and 1 game ports
13) DOS and Windows on the hard drive - no disks and no manuals!!
 
Is there anything in the above system that might prevent her from 
successfully running UNIX or handling her DOS files? Is there 
anything she should change in order to better insure that her 
system might last for a long time?
 
All responses e-mail or by public post appreciated.

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


** 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: Linux-Activists-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU

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

    Internet: Linux-Activists@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU

Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
    nic.funet.fi				pub/OS/Linux
    tsx-11.mit.edu				pub/linux
    tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de	pub/msdos/replace

The current version of Linux is 0.99pl9 released on April 23, 1993

End of Linux-Activists Digest
******************************
