Subject: Linux-Development Digest #825
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:     Mon, 13 Jun 94 10:13:21 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #825, Volume #1         Mon, 13 Jun 94 10:13:21 EDT

Contents:
  Anyone developing curses-based CD-ROM player? (Ed Carp [SysAdmin])
  Re: PAS SCSI + HD (Yeung_Wan_Kwong)
  Linux compatible for AMIGA/68040 ? (Henk-jan Ober)
  Re: Anyone developing curses-based CD-ROM player? (Thomas G. McWilliams)
  New S3 drivers? (Howard P. Henson)
  Re: WordPerfect printing (Kai Tsang)
  Re: beginners question to Xlib programming (Kevin Brown)
  hsearch for Linux? (Piet van Oostrum)
  Re: signal() with BSD semantics (Alan Cox)
  Re: Linux game development (Was Re: Why [DOS, W (Alan Cox)
  Re: Why are there no streamss in Linux ? (Alan Cox)
  Re: Filesystem semantics protecting meta data ... and users data (-candee-+Kovach K.R.)
  WD90C33 DeviceDriver ? (Kjell Holmgren)
  Re: looking for some information on the clone() system call. (Patrick Schaaf)
  Re: Does Linux use any BIOS facilities? (Stephen F. Rothwell)
  Re: Filesystem semantics protecting meta data ... and users data (Andrew Bray)
  Re: assembly language & Linux (ATTN!) (Hamish Macdonald)

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

From: erc@khijol.uucp (Ed Carp [SysAdmin])
Subject: Anyone developing curses-based CD-ROM player?
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 04:32:53 GMT

Just wondering if anyone was developing a curses-based CD-ROM player.  I 
had heard talk about one a while ago, but hadn't heard anything more.  If 
no one wants to do it, I could release the heavily-hacked cdplayer-0.1, 
written by Mark Buckaway, with a curses interface, I suppose...
--
Ed Carp, N7EKG/VE3      ecarp@netcom.com, Ed.Carp@linux.org

"What's the sense of trying hard to find your dreams without someone to share
it with, tell me, what does it mean?"        -- Whitney Houston, "Run To You"

-- 
Ed Carp, N7EKG/VE3      ecarp@netcom.com, Ed.Carp@linux.org

"What's the sense of trying hard to find your dreams without someone to share
it with, tell me, what does it mean?"        -- Whitney Houston, "Run To You"

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

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.misc
From: wkyeung@ee.cuhk.hk (Yeung_Wan_Kwong)
Subject: Re: PAS SCSI + HD
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 08:06:41 GMT

I am the original poster of this message, owing to some problem in my
news reader I need to repost it by follow up to my message ! Please
forgive me !


: Hi all netter, Linux expert, SCSI expert,

: I have problem to get the "Installation Boot Disk" from the Trans
: Ameritech April release of Slackware to work with my PAS SCSI + HD.

: I have the follwoing.

: 1. 20MB RAM
: 2. Proaudio Studio 16 SCSI
: 3. Toshiba XM-3401A
: 4. Seaget ST 3655N Fast SCSI-2 HD
: 5. two IDE hook up to a cheapie IDE card
: 6. ISA bus ONLY

: I have this setup.

: 1. Seagate as the end device in the internal SCSI cable. The HD is
: terminated. It is set to SCSI id 0
: 2. Toshiba CDROM as the device with ID 3, terminator taken out !

: THis setup work flawlessly under OS/2, fdisk can see the drive and
: format it as either FAT or HPFS.

: IN THE LINUX
: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

: I buy the SCSI HD to try out Linux !
: I have the Trans Ameritech Linux CD April release.
: I try to RAWRITE the "SCSI" Bootdisk and Colrlite Root disk. When I
: boot of the boot disk, the LILO load with a "boot#" prompt, then I
: press entre, the LOADRAMDISK appear and then a juck of message comes
: out stating those UART and Bogomips etc.... 

: Then it come to the PAS SCSI driver, it return one SCSI host detected
: and I can see the LED in the HD turns on but then the boot process
: hang. I have try to play around the SCSI id of BOTH device.

: The follwoing phenomen is observerd.

: If I set the scsi id of the CDROM < (smaller than) the HD e.g. CDROM
: as id 3, HD as Id 4, then the SCSI driver goes one step further with
: the CDROM recognize and return the vendor information.

: PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!

: Any advice would be welcome. As I have 20MB RAM, buying of a ISA
: Busmaster SCSI host adaptor will definitely co's me problem (I guess).
: If I need to stay with PIO, I will stay with my PAS SCSI until the
: next board upgrade !!!!!!


: PLEASE REPLY TO 
: tc152678@hkpu01.hkp.hk
: * I am using my friends a/c *
: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

: Emmanuel Yiu 


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

From: henkjan@htsa.aha.nl (Henk-jan Ober)
Subject: Linux compatible for AMIGA/68040 ?
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 09:24:35 GMT

Hello LINUX freaks!

I am very interested in Linux with Xwindows, but so far it only seems to exist
on Intel based PC's .. now, thats no problem, I have one, but a friend of
mine has an AMIGA with an MOTOROLA 68040 processor.

The power of Unix is that all programs can run on ALL machines, as long as
they can run X-Windows, just recompile and go! ...

I wonder, IS there a Linux, Unix compatible clone for the AMIGA ?
So that all programs I write on my PC under Linux, can be run on the
AMIGA under Unix/Linux, with only a recompile ?? 

Please help me, I REALLY want to go LINUX, but this would SURE make me LIKE
LINUX ! 

-Henk-Jan Ober ... 

=============================================================================
SORRY , NO TAGLINE AVAILABLE TODAY !! They are sold out ...
============================================================================= 
 


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

From: tgm@netcom.com (Thomas G. McWilliams)
Subject: Re: Anyone developing curses-based CD-ROM player?
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 07:57:57 GMT

Ed Carp [SysAdmin] (erc@khijol.uucp) wrote:
: Just wondering if anyone was developing a curses-based CD-ROM player.  I 
: had heard talk about one a while ago, but hadn't heard anything more.  If 
: no one wants to do it, I could release the heavily-hacked cdplayer-0.1, 
: written by Mark Buckaway, with a curses interface, I suppose...

Try WorkBone at sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/sound/players. It
displays a template and uses the keypad as an interactive
control panel while displaying the elapsed play time, selection,
etc. Workbone is also in the Slackware distribution.

Thomas
tgm@netcom.com
ars KI4N


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

From: hhenson@inyanga.cs.wits.ac.za (Howard P. Henson)
Subject: New S3 drivers?
Date: 13 Jun 1994 13:37:16 GMT

Hi 

I have just been informed of the new S3 series chipsets, I believe they 
are called the Vision 8XXX something or other, basically they are 64 bit 
graphics processors and seem to have some really amazing features. 

What I would like to know is if anyone has done any developement on a X 
server for these chips as I will probly be getting one soon.

Thanks
Howard

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~                   Rotating the object by                                 ~
~          Howard Henson <hhenson@inyanga.cs.wits.ac.za>                   ~
~           mans quest for object orientaion ends here!                    ~
~                                                                          ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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

From: kyt@fiveg.icl.co.uk (Kai Tsang)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect printing
Reply-To: kyt@fiveg.icl.co.uk
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 09:47:06 GMT

In article faa@hydrox.cs.umd.edu, hdesiato@cs.umd.edu (Hui-Hui Hu) writes:
> 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

Well if Wordperfect for SCO is anything like WP for SunOS then forget it!!!

Here at work, we have wordperfect running on Sun IPXes.  It seems OK for very
simple text files.  Try and add any postscript drawings to your file and it
would completely ****up your file.  Here in the UK WP corp doe'nt seem to want
to support their product at all!!  They just want to take your money!!!

PS. I now try and use TeX or Framemaker if I can.



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

From: kevin@frobozz.sccsi.com (Kevin Brown)
Subject: Re: beginners question to Xlib programming
Reply-To: kevin@frobozz.sccsi.com (Kevin Brown)
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 10:27:12 GMT

In article <1994Jun12.231207.14529@kf8nh.wariat.org>,
Brandon S. Allbery <bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org> wrote:
>In article <2tfp6m$3rq@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, ewalton@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Elaine Walton) says:
>+---------------
>| Libraries must be at the end of the line:
>| [Why? I don't know.]
>+------------->8
>
>Because libraries are only searched at the point where they are specified, and
>only fopr routines that are needed *at* *that* *time*.  If you specify a
>library first, ld will only search it for a routine that defines "_main";
>since there isn't one, it will ignore the library, go on to compile your
>program, and then complain because the routines called by the program weren't
>found.
>
>And no, you do not want to change this.  You could never replace a routine in
>a library with your own version otherwise.  (For example, you would never be
>able to use a debugging malloc.)

Sure you could.  The linker would just have to make multiple passes
(in the order prescribed by the command line) until all references
were resolved or until it could no longer resolve any more references.
It would probably be smart, though, to require that the very first
file on the command line be the one with the symbols to kick things
off.  During a C compile/link operation, that would automatically
end up being crt0.o, so the process would naturally be jumpstarted
that way.

The linker could even keep a list of all the symbols it had ever
encountered so that on later passes it would just know where to go
to resolve unsatisfied references.  This wouldn't eat as much memory
as you might think.  The linux libc library has less than 4200
symbols in it (according to nm | wc).  Call it about 48k of memory
usage per library, give or take a few kbytes.  Not bad at all,
considering how much memory the compiler uses.

There are certain special cases that would have to be considered,
such as how to work in .o files relative to .a files (do .o files
get considered first, or do you still search in command line order?
I say you search in command line order, to give greater control).


>++Brandon
>-- 
>Brandon S. Allbery        kf8nh@kf8nh.ampr.org          bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org
>The FUDs at Microsoft are shouting "Kill The Wabi!"

I like it.  :-)


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

From: piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum)
Subject: hsearch for Linux?
Reply-To: piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum)
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 10:33:42 GMT

Why is hsearch (search.h) not included in the gcc for Linux (I did not find
it in the Slackware distribution anyway). There is a FreeBSD implementation.
-- 
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31 30 531806   Uucp:   uunet!ruuinf!piet
Telefax:   +31 30 513791   Internet:  piet@cs.ruu.nl   (*`Pete')
X-400: G=Piet;S=van.Oostrum;OU=cs;O=ruu;PRMD=surf;ADMD=400net;C=nl;

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

From: iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: signal() with BSD semantics
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 09:58:40 GMT

In article <Cr6u6B.1IJ@unifix.de> rh@unifix.de (Ruediger Helsch) writes:
>I would like to change the default handling of signal() in my
>system to BSD semantics, but first I want to get some
>opinions.

So just use the right defines and options -Ibsd isn't too hard is it 8)
>
>So what are your opinions? Does anybody know a program
>that would break with BSD signal() semantics?

Lots - BSD signal() semantics restart system calls SYS5 does not - also many
programs rely on the SYS5 concept of ignoring SIGCLD and are not happy when
it doesn't have the same meaning.

Alan



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

From: iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Linux game development (Was Re: Why [DOS, W
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 10:02:06 GMT

In article <2sv8v5$oan@rztsun.tu-harburg.de> behnke@tu-harburg.d400.de (Lutz Behnke HiWi) writes:
>In article <1994Jun6.094201.4792@uk.ac.swan.pyr>, iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox) writes|> We've been using gcc under DOS for a long time simply because its about
>|> 15% faster output code than Watcom was. All I want to see is a decent C++
>|> compiler.
>could you please state your dislikes with the g++ and tell me what single
>other compiler beats all that?
>
g++ 2.5.8 is broken badly in a lot of ways, 2.4.5 is usable but slow and
eats memory. It can't get volatiles right and I just found its not trustworthy
as gcc is.

Alan


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

From: iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Why are there no streamss in Linux ?
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 10:18:13 GMT

In article <1994Jun11.211148.12303@inca.comlab.ox.ac.uk> callahan@maths.ox.ac.uk (Michael Callahan) writes:
>It's true that a Streams approach does provide modularity at the
>level of the tty--terminal discipline interface, the network
>driver--protocol interface and protocol--protocol interfaces in
>the kernel.  But the corresponding Linux interfaces are already 
>quite modular, and I don't see that streams would necessarily be
>better:

Streams supplies the ability to arbitarily pile protocol layers on each other.
This is different to the current Linux mess (which can't pile them up well
at all - and Im slowly fixing) and BSD where the stacking rules are effectively
hard coded into the kernel.
>
>- protocol-protocol interfaces: a major thrust of NET3 and Alan Cox's
>  ongoing work is to make this more modular, and it's already pretty good.

There is a big problem still with the fact that each protocol has its own
idea of a socket abstraction. This is the next thing that dies. Once that
is done a protocol takes buffers, options and addresses in and throws out
more buffers options and addresses without being 'user mode aware'. At this
point we are getting somewhere. People who come to Heidelberg will get to
see some of this on overheads 8).

This also needs changes to the sk_buff code so you can push data onto the
start of an sk_buff. I have code for this but not yet fully integrated,
and its done in such away that you don't end up with the performance hit that
BSD style mbufs cause - especially on a CPU with few registers.

>- network driver-protocol interfaces: a network driver which can support
>  different net protocols (eg Ethernet and PPP, not SLIP) can do so
>  without any difficulty at all.
There is still a speed issue on the demultiplexor that needs curing. Thats
just down to someone having the time to play with the code and speed up
the linked list.
>
>Having written the PPP driver, I know that it could support non-IP protocols
>and unusual TTY transports (ISDN for example) even though it was originally
>written for just IP and regular serial interfaces.  That's all the modularity 
>I think I need.

The driver level is clean, although unlike a proper streams interface you cannot
(as yet) run for example TCP/IP over PPP over X.25 over LAPB over HDLC over an
ISDN board. Some strange people actually do this as opposed to PPP over ISDN.

ISDN is very much a current area of interest and its one reason for the load
balancing support currently going into the kernels.

Alan


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

From: krk@summit.novell.com (-candee-+Kovach K.R.)
Crossposted-To: comp.benchmarks,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.security.unix
Subject: Re: Filesystem semantics protecting meta data ... and users data
Date: 13 Jun 1994 08:08:56 -0400

>The current UNIX filesystem architecture is critically flawed
>on all major fronts - performance, reliability and security - and
>lacks key features of the main frame market it replaces.
>OS work today is done mostly by follow the herd, critical thinking
>is a lost art.
>
>Either Novell and the key players need to get the clue, or UNIX
>will be replaced in the passing of time (the 90's).

Can we get a posting by one or more of the authors of prior postings
of references to work that solves some or all of the problems of
performance, reliability and security?

I would like to get a clue, but have been at least partially blinded
by the fact that UNIX file systems and UFS are generally what is taught
and held up as examples of how to do file systems. So in particular
I would like to see how other OS's solve the problem.


Kurt Kovach                     "My opinions are my own."
Novell, Summit

 




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

From: kjell@abacus.hgs.se (Kjell Holmgren)
Subject: WD90C33 DeviceDriver ?
Date: 13 Jun 1994 12:36:56 GMT

Is there anyone who knows if the WD90C33 SVGA chipset is supported by linux.
The card is a Vesa Localbus based SVGA card from western digital.

/Kjell

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

From: bof@wg.saar.de (Patrick Schaaf)
Subject: Re: looking for some information on the clone() system call.
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 14:21:43 GMT

mmccartn@cs.utexas.edu (Michael David McCartney) writes:

(regarding my sample code)

>to fix this, you must insert 2 instructions so that the end of the
>assembly code looks like this:

>           "3:\n\t"
>           "movl %%ebp,%%esp\n\t"      <-- add this to restore esp
>           "popl %%ebp\n\t"            <-- add this to restore ebp
>           "ret\n\t"

Hmm. I forgot to mention to use the -fomit-frame-pointer switch to
gcc when compiling the sample source - sorry. %esp itself should be
fine with omit-frame-pointer, things break when gcc starts to use
the stack on its own (for storing the old esp, in this case). That's
a problem I always have with inline assembler that uses 'ret'.

I also noticed that my code destroyed %ebx, which is callee-saved...

Below is a version of do_clone() that should work for all cases and
switches. I tested it with 1.1.8 kernel and gcc 2.5.8, and it seems
to work.

bye
  Patrick

#define STR(x) #x
#define DEREF_STR(x) STR(x)

int do_clone(unsigned long esp, unsigned long flags, int (*func)(void))
{ int ret;

  __asm__ (
           "movl $" DEREF_STR(__NR_clone) ", %%eax\n\t"
           "int $0x80\n\t"
           /* error? */
           "jnc 1f\n\t"
           /* error. */
           "movl %%eax, _errno\n\t"
           "movl $-1, %0\n\t"
           "jmp 3f\n\t"
           "1:\n\t"
           "testl %0, %0\n\t"
           "jne 3f\n\t"
           /* the clone */
           "call *%3\n\t"
           "pushl $0\n\t"
           "call _exit\n\t"
           /* not reached */
           "1:\n\t"
           "jmp 1b\n\t"
           /* the parent */
           "3:\n\t"
           : "=a" (ret)
           : "b" (esp),         /* input goes into the correct */
             "c" (flags),       /* registers for the syscall.  */
             "d" (func)
  );
  return ret;
}

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

From: sfr@pdact.pd.necisa.oz.au (Stephen F. Rothwell)
Subject: Re: Does Linux use any BIOS facilities?
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 11:57:48 GMT

drew@kinglear.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt) writes:
>In article <Cr4DrI.A2G@pe1chl.ampr.org>, Rob Janssen <pe1chl@rabo.nl> wrote:
>>In <1994Jun8.160547.10423@ll.mit.edu> kpl@ll.mit.edu (Kevin P. Lawton) writes:
>>
>>>I'm curious if Linux uses any of the ROM BIOS facilities
>>>which are inherent to the PC, or if it exclusively uses
>>>its own facilities which are loaded upon booting.
>>
>>Linux does not use the ROM BIOS, because it is unusable in a 32-bit
>>protected mode environment.  So, it uses its own drivers that directly
>>control the hardware.

>The unreleased PCI code uses the PCI BIOS routines, which are
>callable from 32-bit protected mode, for auto-probing and reading/writing
>PCI configuration space for PCI device initialization.

Similarly the (very ALPHA) APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS driver
uses the 32 bit protected mode entry point provided by an APM BIOS.
=====
Stephen Rothwell                                 sfr@pdact.pd.necisa.oz.au
NEC Information Systems Australia                Phone: +61-6-2508747
Software Development Centre, Canberra, Australia Fax:   +61-6-2508746

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

Crossposted-To: comp.benchmarks,comp.sys.sun.admin
From: andy@madhouse.demon.co.uk (Andrew Bray)
Subject: Re: Filesystem semantics protecting meta data ... and users data
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 1994 16:42:04 GMT

In article <2td5jm$1rl@apollo.west.oic.com> dillon@apollo.west.oic.com (Matthew Dillon) writes:
>       addq.l  #4,QueuePointer         ; allocate position somewhere in Q
>       move.l  QueuePointer,A0         ; top down address pointer
>loop    tst.l  -(A0)                   ; find unused position
>       bne     loop                    ; (critical path: no looping occurs)
>       move.l  D0,(A0)                 ; write data to queue

I hope you aren't advocating this as useful code.

This has a glaring race condition which can cause significant data loss
in the presence of multiple processors or interrupts.

I hope you now post a code fragment that can achieve your aim without
introducing locking in some form.

If you hadn't quoted this code fragment I would have actually given
your argument some weight.

Andy

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

From: Hamish.Macdonald@bnr.ca (Hamish Macdonald)
Subject: Re: assembly language & Linux (ATTN!)
Date: 13 Jun 1994 13:48:49 GMT

>>>>> On 12 Jun 1994 00:06:41 EST,
>>>>> In message <Cr9q76.644@eecs.nwu.edu>,
>>>>> hpa@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin) wrote:

H> Now if you, as the original poster, is developing a device driver,
H> it shouldn't make a difference anyway.  You're not going to be able
H> to use a 386 card in an Atari or Amiga no matter what (*)

1) The kernel is *rife* with assembler in what is otherwise portable
   code.

2) Many Linux *applications* have assembly code. I guess the attitude
   must be: "This is obviously never going to run on anything other
   than an i386".

3) Your above statement (marked with *) is false.  With an extra piece
   of hardware (a simple bus bridge), 386 cards *can* be used in
   Amigas equipped with ISA slots.

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


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