Subject: Linux-Development Digest #813
From: Digestifier <Linux-Development-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Fri, 10 Jun 94 13:13:07 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #813, Volume #1         Fri, 10 Jun 94 13:13:07 EDT

Contents:
  Re: NCR PCI SCSI 53c810 (Drew Eckhardt)
  Re: Help needed with a project using Linux and SB (w/details) (Scott Doty)
  Driver for Adaptec's 2742 (Andreas Fluegge)
  Why are there no streamss in Linux ? (Felix v.Leitner)
  bdflush not running (Steve Bittner)
  Re: Support for Intel Above Board? (Elaine Walton)
  Re: Linux ext2fs vs. ufs vs. presto [was Re: Fast File System?] (Eric Youngdale)
  [BUG?] Cannot mount iso9660 CDROM (John Michael Floyd)
  Re: Dial On Demand Routing (Rob Janssen)
  Re: SMP supprot for Linux???? (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Device or resource busy (repost) (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Frustrated with new kernels (Rob Janssen)
  Re: assembly language & Linux (ATTN!) (Hamish Macdonald)
  Re: Linux ext2fs vs. ufs vs. presto [was Re: Fast File System?] (Casper H.S. Dik)
  WordPerfect printing (Hui-Hui Hu)
  Re: Why are there no streamss in Linux ? (Alan Cox)

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

From: drew@kinglear.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: NCR PCI SCSI 53c810
Date: 8 Jun 1994 21:01:52 GMT

In article <2t52np$7o4@mtu.edu>,
Evmorfopoulos Dimitris <devmorfo@mtu.edu> wrote:
>
>       I have a question for everyone. Is there anybody that knows what happened 
>to Drew Eckhardt (drew@kinglear.cs.Colorado.EDU), 

Nothing special - I just got evicted, spent some time in Missiouri for 
my sister's highschool graduation, moved into a new apartment, and fell 
a little behind on my email.

>who was developping the driver
>for the NCR PCI SCSI 53c810 ? I tryied contacting him, and the first time I got
>now reply, where the rest of the times, my mail jus tbounced back at me. 

You really should be using drew@Colorado.EDU - although any mail sent 
to me at just about any machine in Colorado.EDU, kinglear is an old
HP9000/400 running Mt. Xinu's port of BSD to the HP9000/300s with the 
New Zealand patches added for 9000/400 support, has never been very stable,
and is getting worse.

>Is anybody besides Drew that works on that ?

1.  No one else is working on the driver

2.  There _will_ be an announcement when the driver is publically
        available.  Really.

-- 
Drew Eckhardt drew@Colorado.EDU
1970 Landcruiser FJ40 w/350 Chevy power
1982 Yamaha XV920J Virago

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

From: scott@tech.santarosa.edu (Scott Doty)
Subject: Re: Help needed with a project using Linux and SB (w/details)
Date: 10 Jun 1994 10:59:55 GMT

BRIAN KEITH PIPA (bkpipa@eos.ncsu.edu) wrote:

> I am doing a computer project with Linux and the Soundblaster.
> I'm trying to find some information on networking. I want
> to be able to send (in real-time) a voice from one computer with a SB 
> to another (with a SB) via a network. Our host computer is hooked up 
> to the Internet, so the others are on the net via the host. I need 
> to have one computer talk (literally) to another.

> I desperately need some help with the networking part. Is there an FAQ
> or some on-line text I should see (or maybe some example source code
> I can look at - in C preferably)? ANY help would be greatly appreciated.
> I don't want someone to do the work for me, I just need to know where
> to look to find the info I need.

Take a look in /pub/Linux/apps/sound/talk on sunsite.unc.edu.  Those
apps all use tcp streams.

However, the ultimate voice app would be a port of this
monster:

Host pith.uoregon.edu

    Location: /pub/Solaris2.x/src/MBONE/conferencing
      DIRECTORY drwxr-xr-x        512  Oct 31 1993  nevot1.4

 ...which not only does tcp, but also the real-time protocol (rtp)
over udp.
 
Then there's the old-fashioned way:

localhost% rsh remotehost -l user 'cat /dev/audio' > /dev/audio
(let your buddy talk)
(ctrl-c)
localhost% cat /dev/audio | rsh remotehost -l user 'cat > /dev/audio'
(talk)
(ctrl-c)

(BTW, don't try this over low-bandwidth links  :)

 -Scott

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

From: a.fluegge@hot.gun.de (Andreas Fluegge)
Subject: Driver for Adaptec's 2742
Date: 03 Jun 1994 21:16:00 +0200

Hello !

Because I'm new here it is possible that my question was already asked. In  
spite of that I would like to know if there are any activities to develope  
a Linux driver for the Adaptec 274x controllers.


Gru_ aus Gelsenkirchen, Andreas.

==========================================================================
Andreas Fl|gge                          email: a.fluegge@hot.gun.de
Gelsenkirchen
Germany                                 fido: Andreas Fluegge @ 2:2445/405
==========================================================================
## CrossPoint v3.02 ##

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

From: leitner@cs.tu-berlin.de (Felix v.Leitner)
Subject: Why are there no streamss in Linux ?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 11:05:53 GMT

Hi folks,

I have used my modem to connect to my university, but now I upgraded to ISDN.
There are some unofficial patches for 1.0.6 of Linux out there, but I did
not get them compiled. When trying to understand what the changes were, I
saw that they took the BSD networking code and adapted Linux to use it.

When I asked around, someone explained to me that Linux has no stream support
and that the SLIP was a big hack ;)

Well, I am no kernel hacker, I am happy if I configure and compile it
properly. So I believe that guy and want to ask whether anybody knows
what he was talking about. Is someone trying to implement streams for
Linux ?

Felix


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

From: bittner@interaccess (Steve Bittner)
Subject: bdflush not running
Date: 8 Jun 1994 21:55:08 GMT

Does anyone know what 
        "bdflush not running"
means?

Steve Bittner
bittner@interaccess.com

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

From: ewalton@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Elaine Walton)
Subject: Re: Support for Intel Above Board?
Date: 9 Jun 1994 00:25:11 GMT

In article <2sur32$9g@delirium.nl.mugnet.org>,
Edvard Tuinder <ed@zoetermeer.nl.mugnet.org> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I recently got a intel above board ISA card and want to use this with my
>linux machine. When I install it, linux correctly recognizes the amount
>of memory available in the machine (12Mb), but crashes during mem_init....
>Does anyone know whether there is support for this card, or if not, has anyone
>some pointers as where to start to get this thing going with linux?
>System used: I386DX/33 + copro, normally 8Mb linux 1.1.18
>
>Ed

I used to have two of those boards.  You have to keep in mind that Linux
is like any other high-performance OS which will test your hardware VERY
WELL.  I remember that the minimum ram-speed support is 120ns.  This is
too slow.  Also, Intel does some memory remapping to move the blocks of
ram: this may be a problem.
Hope this helps.
-Sean

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

From: ericy@cais.cais.com (Eric Youngdale)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: Linux ext2fs vs. ufs vs. presto [was Re: Fast File System?]
Date: 10 Jun 1994 12:44:43 GMT

In article <Cr5HEy.1I9@ucdavis.edu>,
Kevin Brown <kevin@frobozz.sccsi.com> wrote:
>The fact that I was running the cluster patches is important.
>Before, the entire filesystem would by sync()ed every 30 seconds
>or so (I actually had it set for something like 5 minutes to get
>better performance under the conditions my system runs).  Between
>these periods, the filesystem on disk was reasonably likely to be
>in a consistent state.  But the cluster patches changed things such
>that the system is *continuously* writing to the filesystem, if
>only because there are periodic processes which access (for read)
>files on the filesystem, causing the filesystem to update the access
>times of all accessed files.  Indeed, I can see the hard drive
>being accessed every 5 seconds, the default update period for
>bdflush().  This significantly increases the probability that
>filesystem damage will occur if a crash happens.

        No, it *decreases* the probability.  That was the whole point of 
that patch, to reduce the degree of corruption if the system goes down 
for some reason.

>The SCSI device driver has been rock-solid reliable in writing data
>correctly to my fixed disks, and when it *does* write data to my
>MO drive it does so correctly.  It's just that it likes to lock up
>if I beat on my MO drive too much, especially if there's other
>activity (such as serial port activity) going on.

        This says a lot to me.  If you pound on the drive too much
and tickle some hardware bug of some kind that causes a drive to go insane, 
I do not see how you can expect much of anything in the way of filesystem 
integrity.

-Eric


-- 
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep.  But I have promises to keep,
And lines to code before I sleep, And lines to code before I sleep."

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

From: jmf@estuary.pwd.nsw.gov.au (John Michael Floyd)
Subject: [BUG?] Cannot mount iso9660 CDROM
Date: 08 Jun 1994 21:12:17 GMT



Distribution: world

I am running v1.1.18 kernel - with PAS16 SCSI support and a TEAC SCSI player.
I have tried to mount a DOS based education CD just to check out the system, 
and received the error " already mounted, mount point busy , wrong type " etc.

I tried options on the mount of noridge and others related to M'DOS CDs, and
 of course the type "iso9660" - (see mount command) to no avail.

This disk was the Broderbund "New Kid on the Block".  However, an earlier disk
from the same manufacturer ("Gandma and Me") mounts readily, as do others.  
M'DOS readily does directories from both disks.

Can anyone suggest what is going on.  Is there a program available to check
the CD type etc without mounting?

I realize that mounting this has no point for linux use but shouldn't it work
as a test?! 

Cheers 
John (Pinky) Floyd

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

From: rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Dial On Demand Routing
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 08:43:04 GMT

In <1994Jun7.194338.709@uk.ac.swan.pyr> iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox) writes:

>In article <2t226g$5ir@ns.oar.net> jchabut@dayton.adroit.com (John Chabut) writes:
>>We recognize that standalone routers have this capability, but we were
>>hoping to use a LINUX-based system to do the routing, auto-dialing, and
>>auto-hangup (while providing other computing capabilities).  Are we 
>>dreaming?
>>
>No - but until Tytso finishes fixing the tty drivers to work with ptys - hint
>prod nudge 8) I can't finish debugging DOOD  - (Dial Out On Demand) for Linux

Were they broken, then?
I'm already running SLIP over ptys for a long time at work...  but that
system is not yet running the new tty code.

Probably this is a nice chance to re-write DIP from scratch, and merge all
those different fixes :)
(actually I think the expect-script method that was proposed some time ago
is the way to go, but I got no reply when asking the author if he was
continuing to develop that)

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   rob@pe1chl.ampr.org           |
| e-mail: pe1chl@rabo.nl     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: SMP supprot for Linux????
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 08:47:53 GMT

In <2t3b5t$20k@wizard.uark.edu> jdjohnso@comp..uark.edu (Josh Johnson) writes:


>    I was wondering if there was any development going on for symmetric
>multi processors under Linux? I was thinking about trying thids for my
>senior design progject. I'm no t sure if I'll be up to it by then but I think
>I might like to try. BTW I wouldn't be working alone. Any thoughts on this
>would be appreciated.

I was wondering if you were reading the newsgroups before posting?
You must be the 50th that comes up with this :-(

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   rob@pe1chl.ampr.org           |
| e-mail: pe1chl@rabo.nl     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
From: rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Device or resource busy (repost)
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 16:19:03 GMT

In <1994Jun8.032048.8650@clark.dgim.doc.ca> rwhittak@orion.docwhitehorse.doc.ca (Richard Whittaker) writes:

>Newsreader died on the last post, so here's another kick at the cat (so to
>speak).. 

>I've just finished compiling the Linux 1.1.18 kernel with no errors (not
>even a warning! :-)), copied the kernel into the root filesystem, reran
>LILO, and rebooted. Upon restarting the system, I got a whole stream of
>"Device or resource busy" errors, as the system tried to access any of the
>ports on my 4 port Digiboard. I remembered a while back hearing something
>about the serial routines in Linux being a little less "agressive" than they
>were before at asserting interrupts, so I dug up an old copy of serial.c,
>and copied it over to the /devices/char directory. This method has always
>suceeded in solving this problem before, but it would appear that the serial
>driver between .99pl12 and 1.1.18 has been changed radically enough that it
>will no longer compile on the 1.1.18 kernel.  This is unfortunate, because
>my SLIP connection is over one of the ports on my Digiboard.. :-(.. Does
>anyone have a more "agressive" version of the serial driver that works with
>1.1.18, or do they have any suggestions as to how I can "slap the existing
>one around a bit" to make it more aggressive in asserting interrrupts.. 

You should get the "setserial" program and use it in /etc/rc or one of
the files called from there.

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   rob@pe1chl.ampr.org           |
| e-mail: pe1chl@rabo.nl     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Frustrated with new kernels
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 18:15:57 GMT

In <ATOENNE.94Jun8123536@mpii02013.mpi-sb.mpg.de> atoenne@mpi-sb.mpg.de (Andreas Toenne) writes:

>At the heart of my problem lies the *EMPTY* Changes list for Linux >= 1.0.0
>I cannot trace all hints in this newgroups since I am no developer and
>I do not understand the details of the discussed bits and patches.
>My plea is: can someone list the (for a user) interesting changes and
>ongoing developments such that we understand when it is time to try
>a new kernel, even when it is not officially finished (ie. 1.1.x). 

But Russ Nelson has posted such lists for some time!

Are they archived somewhere?  Would there be some way to get them included
in the README, e.g. at the release after the one it refers to?
It seems that many people want to have them, yet don't find them in the
news...

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   rob@pe1chl.ampr.org           |
| e-mail: pe1chl@rabo.nl     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: Hamish.Macdonald@bnr.ca (Hamish Macdonald)
Subject: Re: assembly language & Linux (ATTN!)
Date: 10 Jun 1994 13:06:26 GMT

>>>>> On 09 Jun 1994 13:59:12 EST,
>>>>> In message <2t7oq0$2gm@nwfocus.wa.com>,
>>>>> ken@coho.halcyon.com (Ken Pizzini) wrote:

Ken> (If you think you need assembly for performance reasons, try
Ken> using C first -- it will help you debug your algorthms, it will
Ken> permit the inefficient code to at least run on other platforms,
Ken> and you can profile the code to see where coding in assembly (or
Ken> a better algorithm!)  would help most.)

If you absolutely *must* use assembler code, please abstract it out,
so that your C functions are (at the source level) entirely "portable"
C.  Use an (inline) function, or a preprocessor macro defined
elsewhere to encapsulate the assembler code.

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

From: casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik)
Crossposted-To: comp.benchmarks,comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: Linux ext2fs vs. ufs vs. presto [was Re: Fast File System?]
Date: 10 Jun 1994 13:23:46 GMT

cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de (Martin Cracauer) writes:

>SunOS-4.1.3 has a policy to have asynchronous writes for data, but
>inodes and other superinformation is always written immedeatly. So, a
>crash could only affect files that a written at that moment. I think
>Solairs 2 does this, too. Does anybody know?

This is the normal mode of operation for the Berkeley filesystem.
It makes sures the metadata is almost always consisten on a crash.
The inodes and directory entries are created synchronously.
Each file creation requires two synchronous writes.

>There was a patch for SunOS 4.1.3 to make the BSD-Filesystem writing
>inodes async, too. That speeds up writing a large number of little
>files by a factor of 2 to 3. Of course, a crash could really hurt now
>that superinformation could be damaged.

It wasn't a patch, it's a ioctl included in SunOS 4.1.2 and later
(including Solaris 2.x).  It especially useful for full restores,
that run 3-10x faster with the async option on.
It's also useful for rm -rf's (10x faster) and unpacking of large
numbers of files.  We use this option a lot.

>I would relly like to know what the standard behaviour of Linux is. If
>someone know, please tell us.

It's asynchronous, which isn't nice when you have a crash.
OTAH, we don't experience many crashes/powerfailures.

Casper

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

From: hdesiato@cs.umd.edu (Hui-Hui Hu)
Subject: WordPerfect printing
Date: 10 Jun 1994 09:22:31 -0400

As I'm anxiously waiting for a release of dosemu that works with
new kernels, and being bothered by a stream of in-house DOS weenies :)
I think that something I would *truly* be grateful for is
something like 'wp2ps': convert WordPerfect files to PostScript,
or actually anything, as long as I can print it.

Just a thought ;)

Does anyone know the price offhand of upgrading (downgrading?)
WP51 for DOS to WP51 for SCO? How reliable is SCO WP?

Thanks in advance.

-Hui-Hui Hu
hdesiato@cs.umd.edu

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

From: iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Why are there no streamss in Linux ?
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 12:45:25 GMT

In article <2t9heh$jam@news.cs.tu-berlin.de> leitner@cs.tu-berlin.de (Felix v.Leitner) writes:
>I have used my modem to connect to my university, but now I upgraded to ISDN.
>There are some unofficial patches for 1.0.6 of Linux out there, but I did
>not get them compiled. When trying to understand what the changes were, I
>saw that they took the BSD networking code and adapted Linux to use it.

There are another set for the Diehl card that do not do this.
>
>When I asked around, someone explained to me that Linux has no stream support
>and that the SLIP was a big hack ;)

Its not a hack.. its very clean - its not however streams and it doesnt
address protocol stacking. The current ongoing major hackery in the NET3
code is oriented towards supporting protocol layer stacking. Once you can
stack layers (including modules loaded at runtime 8)) streams basically
'happens' as a result.

Alan



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


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