Subject: Linux-Development Digest #859
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:     Sun, 26 Jun 94 09:13:05 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #859, Volume #1         Sun, 26 Jun 94 09:13:05 EDT

Contents:
  Help compiling Xapps w/ 2.4.5 downgrade (Daniel W. Moore)
  Re: Runtime compilation and execution (Matthias Urlichs)
  Device Driver - GPIB (Ken Cheung)
  Re: Where has Stephen Tweedie gone?? (Daniel Carosone)
  Re: Disk-compression for Linux (R. Schalk)
  Re: Linux Apr 94 2 CDs $22 (Greg Philmon)
  svgalib and s3 (Christopher M. May)
  Re: Major device number clash (iCS) (Matthias Urlichs)
  Anyone got InterViews w/Slackware to work??? (Preston William Gilchrist)
  Re: DosEmu suggestion (Daniel T. Schwager)
  Re: more breakage under 1.1.21 (rlogin xterms freeze up until being reset) (Matthias Urlichs)
  Re: Major device number clash (iCS) (Nick Holloway)
  Re: Major device number clash (iCS) (Brandon S. Allbery)
  Re: Hard disks limited to 16 heads? (Bill C. Riemers)
  Re: IDE PERF. PATCH SECURITY HOLE (Keith Smith)
  Re: Disk-compression for Linux (Keith Smith)
  Hardware failure or a kernel bug, or what ?! (Peter Enderborg)

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

From: dwmoore@clark.net (Daniel W. Moore)
Subject: Help compiling Xapps w/ 2.4.5 downgrade
Date: 24 Jun 1994 11:47:33 GMT


Hi,
        Does anyone know what would hinder gcc 2.4.5 from finding the X
libraries? I recently downgraded from 2.5.8 -> 2.4.5 using Patrick
Volkerding's "reverse patch" in sunsite.unc.edu's
pub/linux/distributions/slackware/downgrad/zdn and zzx series. (My
ultimate purpose was actually to be able to use ParcPlace OI
ObjectBuilder). 

However, after downgrading (haven't even gotten as far as using OI yet...)
I find that the command line

 
        gcc -o nothw nothw.c -lXaw -lXt -lX11


which worked before the downgrade, balks at not finding libXaw ....
Leave out -lXaw, and it complains it can't find libXt !!!

Don't know why this would be, it certainly has no problem finding the 
iostream and other libraries.

I'm kinda wondering how I'm going to use OI, if I can't even compile a 
trivial X application under 2.4.5    :^)

Any and all input appreciated....

Thanks



--
********************************************************************
*  Dan Moore      * "A black cloud's hanging over me. When I       *
*                 *  hit on the remote the programs stay the same."*
*                 *                   --Fish, "Credo"              *
********************************************************************

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

From: urlichs@smurf.noris.de (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: Runtime compilation and execution
Date: 25 Jun 1994 22:07:20 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <2ucodf$r3i@mailer.fsu.edu>,
  hugg@xi.cs.fsu.edu (Steven Hugg) writes:
> Well, la-dee-daa!!! Looks like the data segment is executable after all.

I don't think you should depend on this behavior...

> Now all I have to do is figure out how to get GDB to let me disassemble
> code in the data segment :)
> 
"disass FOO BAR" should disassemble everything between addresses FOO and
BAR without regard of procedure boundaries and similar nonsense.

-- 
The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men,
but that men will begin to think like computers.
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP N|rnberg  | EMail: urlichs@smurf.noris.de
Schleiermacherstra_e 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 N|rnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42

Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

From: cs_ken@uxmail.ust.hk (Ken Cheung)
Subject: Device Driver - GPIB
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 13:53:48 GMT

Hello all, I would like to ask if anybody starts or going to develop
the GPIB (IEEE488) interface in order to facilitate lab testing using
Linux as a controller?

More, can anybody tell me if there's any newsgroup(s) discussing computer
interfacing?  Thanks in advance.

--
Ken
(Pata Pata Peppy)
+------------------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| Rest if you must, but don't you quit.    | Name  : Ken Cheung              |
|                                          | Email : cs_ken@cs.ust.hk        |
|   Accept hardship as a pathway to peace. | Hong Kong University of Sci&Tech|
+------------------------------------------+---------------------------------+

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

From: danielce@mame.mu.OZ.AU (Daniel Carosone)
Subject: Re: Where has Stephen Tweedie gone??
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 02:56:31 GMT

paolo@to.sem.it (Paolo Zeppegno) writes:

>Having been a Linuxer from the 0.12 days, and having spent too much time
>reading the mailing lists and newsgroups, I see some people in the Linux
>world come, do LOTS of very important stuff and then disappear. One of
>the people that really contributed to the linux movement is Stephen Tweedie

Indeed he did.  Thanks, Stephen, whereever you are.

>(One other project I would like to know more about is the porting of
>the Sprite/BSD4.4 log structured filesys "lfs"). Now that 4.4bsd is
>available, is anybody working on it? 

From the stories told by netbsd folk (most/all 4.4 stuff is in netbsd
now) and word from Bostic, the lfs in 4.4bsd is quite broken.

--
Dan.

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

Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 00:23:08 +0200
From: U001295@vm.uci.kun.nl (R. Schalk)
Subject: Re: Disk-compression for Linux

Something new:
I really think that a compressed filesystem would speed-up a CD-ROM.
On a bigger issue: wouldn't it be nice that iso9660 would be superceded
by a compressed filesystem. This way it's cheaper getting faster access
than buying double, triple or quadruple speed drives. This would be good
for all systems. Maybe this way it's possible (with reosonable speed) to
run Linux from CD-ROM. It would make it easier for people to try Linux
for the first time.

Any comments?
Greetings Ronald
********************************************************************
* ing. Ronald Schalk, afdeling CS, sectie COOS                     *
* Universitair Centrum Informatievoorziening (UCI)                 *
* University of Nijmegen (KUN)    snailmail: Geert Grooteplein 41  *
* e-mail : R.Schalk@uci.kun.nl               6525 GA Nijmegen      *
********************************************************************

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

From: philmon@netcom.com (Greg Philmon)
Subject: Re: Linux Apr 94 2 CDs $22
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 22:32:32 GMT

In article <2uhfgcINNf3p@no-names.nerdc.ufl.edu>,
 <mc@maple.circa.ufl.edu> wrote:
>Hi. I bought a bunch of these for friends, and some dont want
>them anymore. These sare the INfoMagic 2 CD Set of the Apr 94
>snapshot of all the sites/X etc. etc. I'd like to get $22 + shipping.
>for them. If your interested please mail me.
>
>linux rules!

Or contact InfoMagic and get the June two CD set for $20 + $5 shipping.

info@infomagic.com for more information.

Note: I'm only a customer, etc...

-- 
Greg Philmon | philmon@netcom.com | CIS: 71161,3445 | MCI: 588-5358

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

From: cmay@titan.ucs.umass.edu (Christopher M. May)
Subject: svgalib and s3
Date: 26 Jun 1994 06:19:47 GMT

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has patched the s3 code in svgalib
to work with an s3 805 card.  The source says it's only been used on
a 911 chip :(.  

It seems so close.... anyone have a pointer to docs on the 
s3 chips?

--

-Chris May, Computer Science, University of MA, Amherst
-       Technical Assistant, P.C. Maintenance Lab


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

From: urlichs@smurf.noris.de (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: Major device number clash (iCS)
Date: 26 Jun 1994 08:13:05 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <2ug3mj$14g@news1.mcs.com>,
  gareth@metl.chi.il.us (Gareth Newfield) writes:
> 
> example just read:
>  /proc/devices/character/thatSortofThing/someAttribute/something/this
> 
> instead of parsing
>  /proc/deviceStuffIsAllJammedInHereTogetherWithWhoKnowsWhatDelimiters
> 
Unfortunately, if you want all the info in /proc/devices then one big file
is simpler (and much faster) to deal with than lots of little files.

That's one reason why procps is rather slow.

I agree, of course, that the "whoKnowsWhatDelimiters" must be standardized.
Likewise, IMHO header lines and such have no place in /proc.

-- 
USENET is a wonderful mechanism for making a fool of yourself in front
of a very large audience.
                  -- Lars Poulsen
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP N|rnberg  | EMail: urlichs@smurf.noris.de
Schleiermacherstra_e 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 N|rnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42

Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

From: pwg7503@tamsun.tamu.edu (Preston William Gilchrist)
Subject: Anyone got InterViews w/Slackware to work???
Date: 25 Jun 1994 18:18:50 -0500

If anyone has gotten Interviews to work with Slackware 1.2.0 I would appreciate
an E-Mail telling what they did (if anything) to get ibuild files to compile
correctly (mine won't compile at all).  Thanks for your help...............


Preston Gilchrist
pwg7503@tamsun.tamu.edu



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

From: danny@dragon.stgt.sub.org (Daniel T. Schwager)
Subject: Re: DosEmu suggestion
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 10:26:37 GMT

Albert Hui (s931306@yallara.cs.rmit.OZ.AU) wrote:
: Now I've got DosEmu running happily and I like the emufs.sys
: very much.  With my Linux partition being accessible in a DOS
: session is real nice.

: However, it would be even better if the DOS partitions are
: mapped back to Linux.  People running Stacker or Double Space
: will appreciate this very much, because the device driver
: must be executed (DosEmu allows such program to execute) in
: order to access the compressed drive...

Not only Stacker and Double-Space appreciate this, you can also
login in a Novell-Network, map some drives and can access the Novell
Fileserver from linux via dosemu. Great idea !

: Is it possible?
: --
: `'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._
:   Albert Hui (The Avatar)            |
:   - avatar@suburbia.apana.org.au     | "Your mind is the only prison
:   - s931306@yallara.cs.rmit.oz.au    |  that can ever bind your soul."
-- 
                        ,,,
                       (^ ^)               
+------------------oOO--(_)--OOo-----------------------+
|  ... Real programmers use cat >a.out ...     Danny   |

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

From: urlichs@smurf.noris.de (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: more breakage under 1.1.21 (rlogin xterms freeze up until being reset)
Date: 26 Jun 1994 11:35:43 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <2uhog0$ci3@salyko.cube.net>,
  weikert@salyko.cube.net (Hubert Weikert) writes:
> David Barr (barr@pop.psu.edu) schrieb:
> > Hubert Weikert <weikert@salyko.cube.net> wrote:
> > >'make clean' isn't sufficient, .depend files are not removed.  You
> > >should use 'make mrproper' to clean up all, especially if you step up to
> > >a new patchlevel. 
> 
After "make clean" all object files are gone so what the .depend files
contain is effectively ignored.

And "make dep" rebuilds the .depend files, so if you make depend after
patching the kernel (which you should), what's "make mrproper" good for?
Nothing that possibly coudl depend on any change will be missed after
a make depend, that's what it's there for.

> > I never understand why people insist on using "make mrproper" when
> > upgrading kernels.
> > I've been using "make dep;make zlilo" (or whatever) and it works fine.
> > It saves a _lot_ of time, compared to a full rebuild.
> 
> Your are wrong, especially when, for example, config.in is changed.

If config.in is changed and you need any of the new flags in it (look at
the patch file!) then you need to make config which implies touching
include/linux/autoconf.h which implies rebuilding everything because
every files which uses a CONFIG_* _define includes it and thus will get
rebuild. (Don't forget the make depend!)

> A complete rebuild isn't always necessary, but it is the best way to
> receive a konsistent kernel.
> 
And if you see any difference between the kernel you get after a make
mrproper and the kernel after a make config;make depend;make method, it's a
bug. Please tell us how to reproduce it and we'll fix the Makefiles (or
whatever is at fault) really fast.

-- 
Our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies.
                                -- Frank Gelett Burgess
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP N|rnberg  | EMail: urlichs@smurf.noris.de
Schleiermacherstra_e 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 N|rnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42

Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

From: Nick.Holloway@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Nick Holloway)
Subject: Re: Major device number clash (iCS)
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 12:17:44 GMT

In <2ue6up$7mj@smurf.noris.de> urlichs@smurf.noris.de (Matthias Urlichs) writes:
> - Ask Linus to PLEASE split /proc/devices into separate files for character
>   and block devices.

Is this really needed?  The current development of MAKEDEV reads
/proc/devices, and could make note of whether it is block or char,
but doesn't bother.  This would only lead to problems if there was a
'foo' character device with a different major number from the 'foo'
block device.

I can visualise a problem if people implement un-buffered disk access
with a character device.  The solution is to register with 'rhd', rather
than 'hd'.

On the other hand, two separate files with _just_ the major information,
and without the headings would be simpler to deal with.  If you want fancy
headings, run the program (c.f. "cat /proc/net/route", vs "netstat -r").

> - Change register_*device to auto-allocate the first (or perhaps better,
>   last) free major device if it is passed major number zero.
>   I really dislike allocating fixed numbers for drivers that don't need them.

Agreed.  I think allocating top-down is a better solution.  I think
this is going to be more important as more things become distributed as
loadable modules.

One modification that needs to be done to MAKEDEV would be to _remove_
devices.  Otherwise, you could load a module and create world accesable
devices for it, the later the same device major number could be re-used,
allowing unprotected access.  Thus, there will be "MAKEDEV -d device".

> ... and a feature request:
> - Let MAKEDEV have a flag which remembers the old settings (maybe copy
>   /proc/devices to /dev/DEVICES) and silently quit if nothing has changed.
>   That way MAKEDEV can be used safely when booting.
>   In fact, MAKEDEV should probably default to only create "new" and
>   "changed" devices and leave the rest alone.

I have your previous RFE filed away, but I'm trying to think of a way
to do it that pleases me.  I guess "MAKEDEV update" would be possible.
This would create devices for the drivers registered in the current
kernel that had either changed (including new ones).

One piece of information that I am woefully short of is the names
currently used to register drivers.  If you are the developer of a driver,
please let me know so it can be added to MAKEDEV.

--
Nick Holloway |  `O O'  | Apparently <Nick.Holloway@dcs.warwick.ac.uk>
[aka `Alfie'] | // ^ \\ |   formerly <alfie@dcs.warwick.ac.uk>

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

From: bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery)
Subject: Re: Major device number clash (iCS)
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 12:18:13 GMT

In article <1994Jun23.184613.1112@unlv.edu>, ftlofaro@unlv.edu (Frank Lofaro) says:
+---------------
| In article <1994Jun23.162834.18705@kf8nh.wariat.org> bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
| >In article <2uauvn$svq@sun.cais.com>, ericy@cais.cais.com (Eric Youngdale) says:
| >| In article <2u6p3g$18nh@serra.unipi.it>,
| >| Romano Giannetti <romano@pimac2.iet.unipi.it> wrote:
| >| >driver (for reference: pcsndrv-0.6 ibcs-940526) use the same major
| >| officially reserved major number 30.  Take a look in include/linux/major.h.
| >Last time I checked, Linux only supported 32 major device numbers... and we're
| The change required to the kernel to increase this limit (up to a maximum 
| of 255) is absolutely trivial. Just change in linux/include/linux/major.h
+------------->8

Huh?  Then why is it distributed with such a low limit?  Seems pretty silly to
me...

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery         kf8nh@kf8nh.ampr.org          bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org
Friends don't let friends load Windows NT.              Linux iBCS2 emulation

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

From: bcr@k9.via.term.none (Bill C. Riemers)
Subject: Re: Hard disks limited to 16 heads?
Date: 24 Jun 94 19:03:36 GMT
Reply-To: bcr@physics.purdue.edu

In article <Cruqxu.4D5@sci.kun.nl> pieterh@sci.kun.nl (Peter Herweijer) writes:

   bcr@k9.via.term.none (Bill C. Riemers) writes:

    >                       [...]  This makes Linux and DOS 
    >happy.  (Although Lilo doesn't seem to like it!!!)  And yes, the
    >correct parameters for me are 16 heads, and double the # of cylinders
    >from what is auto-detected.

   Yes.  The autodetect automagically halves the number of cylinders and
   doubles the number of heads so that the BIOS/DOS interface can grok the
   drive.  When talking to the drive, the BIOS no doubt uses the original
   geometry.  Linux doesn't access the drive through the BIOS and therefore
   cannot work with this remapping feature.

   Nor does it need to, since it doesn't share the BIOS limits.

Nor does the BIOS understand it's own remapping.  Until I enter the
correct parameters, the drive is completely inaccessable to MSDOS 
as well.  Even the nifty driver included with the drive for DOS won't 
recognize the drive until I manually correct the BIOS information.
I don't under stand why in the world you are saying the correct thing
is to try to force Linux to believe the BIOS when, the drive doesn't
have 32 heads and there is no magical logical mapping in the drive,
the drive controler, or the BIOS that will make this work if I try
to pretend like it has 32 heads.  i.e. Even if I recompile the kernel
with the 16 head restriction removed, it won't work that way!


                              Bill

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

From: keith@ksmith.com (Keith Smith)
Subject: Re: IDE PERF. PATCH SECURITY HOLE
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 94 19:06:31 GMT

In article <1994Jun17.122748.10706@uk.ac.swan.pyr>,
Alan Cox <iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr> wrote:
>In article <c9108932.771832337@sage.newcastle.edu.au> c9108932@sage.newcastle.edu.au (Simon Ferrett) writes:
>>rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen) writes:
>>
>>>In <1994Jun14.174453.28689@unlv.edu> ftlofaro@unlv.edu (Frank Lofaro) writes:
>>
>>>>NO ONE BUY A SEAGATE 1239A. ITS CRAP! (it even got bad sectors, yeah,
>>>>on an IDE drive (!), after only one year!)
>>
>>>I have enough experience with Seagate ST-225's and ST-238's to not even
>>>consider buying any product from this company the rest of my life....
>>
>>I have a seagate ST3655A and it works absolutely fantastically...
>>I dont think seagate is a bad compay at all - maybe you just made a couple
>>of bad choices?
>>
>If so he isnt the only one.
>
>Alan, also a non seagate buyer
>
Keith to Distributor: "Got any deals on 1G's this week"
Distributor: "Got Seagate 1G's buy one for $1 get one free"
Keith: "No thanks, Got anything else? :)"
-- 
Keith Smith aka Digital Designs                 keith@ksmith.com
5719 Archer Rd.                    Free Usenet News and Internet Mail Services
Hope Mills, NC 28348-2201                    (910) 423-4216/7389/7391
Somewhere in the Styx of North Carolina ...       PEP+14.4K/14.4/14.4

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

From: keith@ksmith.com (Keith Smith)
Subject: Re: Disk-compression for Linux
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 94 19:17:44 GMT

In article <2tsgqd$u7j@valis.worldgate.edmonton.ab.ca>,
Kevin B. Fluet <kevin@valis.worldgate.edmonton.ab.ca> wrote:
>albayrak@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>
>>      I would like to discuss about on-fly disk compression. My
[...]
>I must admit, though, that it would be nice to compress my news spool and
>fit in another couple days of storage.  I'll never have enough news spool
>space...  

Tempting as it sounds, ....

I use linux as a news server, and your earlier stability comment has
some merit.  Though prior to 1.0 it happened much more often, even now
with ext2fs I get occasional fs panics and lockups while spooling news. 
I dunno why, but how much worse would the cleanup be if I had a
compressed news spool?  Not that I'm adverse to wiping it out along with
the history files, and starting fresh either.
-- 
Keith Smith aka Digital Designs                 keith@ksmith.com
5719 Archer Rd.                    Free Usenet News and Internet Mail Services
Hope Mills, NC 28348-2201                    (910) 423-4216/7389/7391
Somewhere in the Styx of North Carolina ...       PEP+14.4K/14.4/14.4

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

From: pme@gaia.electrum.kth.se (Peter Enderborg)
Subject: Hardware failure or a kernel bug, or what ?!
Date: 26 Jun 94 14:55:17

I do have a strange problem. It start some where in the range 1.0.0 to
1.1.13, and is pressent in 1.1.22 kernels.
It works very fine with a hercules card and a VGA card, but when a
removes the hercules card, the machine hangs very easy, but only when
I run X11. Too me I looks like a hardware problem. But I have
exactly the same problem with two machines. The only common is a
500MB Maxtor IDE disk and my ET4000 ISA bus graphicscard.

Any ideas whats happend ?

My configuration:
486 DX 33Mhz 256KB cache, plain ISA machine with 8MB.
Cards: 2 different Multi IO with IDE controller,serial and BI-parallell.
       ET4000 with 1MB video memory.
       Hercules
       NE2000 compatible (No network traffic)
       
Software:
Slackware 1.2.0 with updated kernels. EXT2, and 20MB swap part.

By the way. The reason I have found the strange behavor is when
I got this hangs I was starting to see if I chould get trap or some thing.
But how to get them when running X ?! I put in a old herclules card
and did hope that i should get a console there. I did not, way ?
I remember that I have read about it, but I chould not find it
in any FAQ. How do I get my herclules as the console ???
(It dont matter in this case, then I dont get any traps with the
hercules card in the machine)

/Peter

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


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