Subject: Linux-Development Digest #894
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:     Thu, 7 Jul 94 03:13:09 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #894, Volume #1          Thu, 7 Jul 94 03:13:09 EDT

Contents:
  read only root, anyone ? (La'szlo' Lada'nyi)
  Tape BAckup Drivers (Taz - SPROCKETS)
  Re: Floppy code broken w. 1.1.23 [FIXED] (Jonathan E Brickman)
  Re: atdisk2 patches and 1.1.23 - Help !!!! (David C. Niemi)
  Re:IPX networking with Linux (A.J.B. Hubert)
  mtools don't choke on write protected disk (olav woelfelschneider)
  Re: Where are kernel versions kept? (David Simmons)
  please ignore this test. (Uyen Tran)
  Help rm !! (Vincent Dogterom)
  Help rm !! (Vincent Dogterom)
  Re: SCO Binaries
  Kernels >= 1.1.13 does not recognize my AST FourPort! (\rjan Derel|v)
  Re: pico editor (Andi Kleen)
  cpio wanted (Bill Menger)
  Re: tcsh bug: more information (Vassili Leonov)
  Re: Where are kernel versions kept? (Vassili Leonov)
  Re: Encrypted drive? (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Dump command for Linux? (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Adaptec 27xx/28xx SCSI Controllers (Rob Janssen)
  Linux Performance Enhance ? (Erik Blass (SysAdmin))
  insmod and the lot (where's the doc?) (Kenneth Wong)
  Re: tcsh bug: more information (David Holland)
  IMPORTANT FLOPPY FIXES HERE! (Frank Lofaro)

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

From: ladanyi@cs.cornell.edu (La'szlo' Lada'nyi)
Subject: read only root, anyone ?
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 18:23:21 GMT


I was thinking on that it would be really nice to mount the root directory
and the /usr system as read-only filesystems. However, I was not able to do
this, because some programs insist on writing to directories which are 
trditionally in the root. (eg. (u)mount writes /etc/mtab(~) file, many codes
write to /tmp, etc.) Is there a way around this I overlooked?
If there isn't, then is it possible to change the tradition? :-)
I know it might be too much to ask for, but I'd love to see that the heart 
of the system is read-only ;-).

Laci Ladanyi
-- 
======================================================================
| Laci Ladanyi           | God made one mistake when he created man: |
| ladanyi@cs.cornell.edu |     He wrote self-modifying code ...      |
======================================================================

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

From: grau@pollux.cs.uga.edu (Taz - SPROCKETS)
Subject: Tape BAckup Drivers
Date: 6 Jul 1994 16:58:51 GMT

Hi all,
I have a Colorado Jumbo 250 internal Backup Tape drive.
Are there any linux drivers out there for this particular
tape drive and if so, where can I get them?

please reply by e-mail.


thanx

Joerg 'SPROCKETS' Grau | grau@cs.uga.edu

        "Every war is always cursed 
         with `just who do you shoot at first?`"

                                                the beautiful south



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

From: brickman@world.std.com (Jonathan E Brickman)
Subject: Re: Floppy code broken w. 1.1.23 [FIXED]
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 20:48:35 GMT

Dennis Henriksen (duke@diku.dk) wrote:
: The problem was of temporary character. It is gone with 1.1.24

I just compiled 1.1.24, and I can't mount floppies....
||Jonathan E. Brickman
brickman@world.std.com

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

From: David.Niemi@oasis.gtegsc.com (David C. Niemi)
Subject: Re: atdisk2 patches and 1.1.23 - Help !!!!
Date: 6 Jul 1994 21:22:05 GMT
Reply-To: David.Niemi@oasis.gtegsc.com

In article 773044136@extro, davem@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (David Monro) writes:
>dwb@ITD.Sterling.COM (David Boyd) writes:
>>If it matters I am running a DTC2290 EISA IDE card.
>It shouldn't make any difference. Is this the primary or secondary
>controller?

The DTC 2290 can be primary, secondary, or both at once; it can have
2 IDE channels each with 2 drives (as well as four ED floppies).  It
is quite a nice card, and I had it running with 3 IDE drives until my
old EISA motherboard died; that was using the atdisk0.8 patches and
0.99pl15 or so.  I doubt that any of this has changed very much.
---
David C. Niemi

supervisor, Software Engineering Environment
GTE Federal Systems Division
15000 Conference Center Drive                 (703) 818-4203
Chantilly, VA 22021                   David.Niemi@oasis.gtegsc.com




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

From: ahubert@inter.NL.net (A.J.B. Hubert)
Subject: Re:IPX networking with Linux
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 17:56:16 GMT


>So what does the IPX stuff get us?  Might there be a Netware Client for Linux
>down the road?  :)

        Why only a client? I'd laugh my ass off if Linux could have a GPL
Novell server :-)


--
Bert Hubert Jr.                                                     
Fax: 070-3183440 
Fido: 2:281/506.40                
E-Mail: A.J.B.Hubert@EBC.nl 
X400: C=NL,ADMD=400NET,PRMD=DCC400,ORG=TK,SURNAME=HUBERT,INITIALS=A

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

From: wosch@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (olav woelfelschneider)
Subject: mtools don't choke on write protected disk
Date: 6 Jul 1994 17:04:38 GMT

Hello,

If I try to write with mtools to a write protected disk, mtools
won't report an error. I only get a kernel message, but if I
redirect all kernel messages to a file or to an unused tty, I
won't see anything. Mtools just believes it wrote everything
right, while nothing happened.
Under hp-ux I get a permission denied. Wouldn't it be possible
to modify the kernel so that this works?

If this 'call-it-a-bug' is already fixed in post 1.1.8 kernels,
then ignore this post.
Or maybe it really has something to do with mtools?

So long,
-- 
/======================================\
| Olav "Mac" Woelfelschneider          |
| wosch@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de |
+--------------------------------------+
| I refuse to grow up,                 |
| I don't want to lose my humor...     |
\======================================/

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

From: simmons@EE.MsState.Edu (David Simmons)
Subject: Re: Where are kernel versions kept?
Date: 6 Jul 1994 21:54:02 GMT
Reply-To: simmons@EE.MsState.Edu

In article <2vckq4$hph@magus.cs.utah.edu>,
Pete Kruckenberg <kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu> wrote:
>Quick question: is there anyplace where I can pick up specific
>versions of the Linux kernel source without having to apply each patch
>level (for example, I could ftp version 1.1.14, rather than getting
>1.1.0 and applying patches 1-14)?

Our local Linux Users Group runs an ftp site that mirrors the kernels
nightly from ftp.funet.fi, and we apply the patches and re-tar and
re-gzip the updated kernel back into one consise up-to-date file that
can be downloaded.  It is on ftp.gtlug.org in /pub/linux/kernel.

For the current state of the kernel, you can refer to a WWW document
that we maintain at http://www.gtlug.org/kernel/index.html

David

-- 
David Simmons, System Administrator                 simmons@ee.msstate.edu
Mississippi State University Electrical and Computer Engineering
Visit my home page!  http://www.ee.msstate.edu/~simmons

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

From: tranu@killerbee.jsc.nasa.gov (Uyen Tran)
Subject: please ignore this test.
Date: 6 Jul 1994 14:36:14 GMT

This is a test.

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

From: vd@nieuwle.knoware.nl (Vincent Dogterom)
Subject: Help rm !!
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 12:57:14 GMT



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

From: vd@nieuwle.knoware.nl (Vincent Dogterom)
Subject: Help rm !!
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 13:01:03 GMT

Hi there,

A fellow student of mine, wants to write a undelete for his 
graduation-project, does anyone of you'all out there have any information 
about this (how's it's done, is there already a undelete for linux etc.)
i spoke to a few unix-spec. but they all say is quite impossible.


I'd like to get info about what rm exactlly (source) does, i really hope 
anyone can help us with this



Thanx

Vincent Dogterom

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

From: root@myhost.subdomain.domain ()
Subject: Re: SCO Binaries
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 1994 19:07:49 GMT

Lee J. Silverman (lee@netspace.students.brown.edu) wrote:

:       There was a rumor going around a while ago that folks were
: working on modifying the Kernel (and presumably some other stuff) so
: that Linux would be able to run SCO binaries.  Has anything happened
: with that?  Is anyone working on it?

: Lee

: --
: Lee Silverman, Brown class of '94, Brown GeoPhysics ScM '95
: Email to: Lee_Silverman@brown.edu
: Phish-Net Archivist: phish-archives@phish.net
: "Nonsense - you only say it's impossible because nobody's ever done it."

As far as I know, and that's not saying much, Linux has supported SCO
binaries since ver 1.0.
Eduard
eduard@qdeck.com
/* ...posting things my employer is not responsible for */

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

From: tseng@lysator.liu.se (\rjan Derel|v)
Subject: Kernels >= 1.1.13 does not recognize my AST FourPort!
Date: 6 Jul 1994 18:12:07 GMT

Anyone have the same problem or even better the solution?

/Fn


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

From: andi@golem.greenie.muc.de (Andi Kleen)
Subject: Re: pico editor
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 18:00:36 GMT

root (root@myhost.subdomain.domain) wrote:
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    Either your /usr/local/lib/news/mailpath or your
                /usr/lib/elm.rc file is misconfigured.
    (Paths my change on your system...)

> I would love the source code for it, or binaries, or any other
> Idiot proof editor for my mail programs to use.

pico is included in the pine-distribution.
Ask archie for pine..

-Andi
-- 
---- Andreas Kleen ---------------------------------------------------------
| Usenet: andi@golem.greenie.muc.de  Fido-Classic: Andi Kleen@2:2480/440.12
|                                                         PGP-Key available

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

From: menger@howwe.dnet.dupont.com (Bill Menger)
Subject: cpio wanted
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 21:02:04 GMT

does anyone have a "cpio" (old SCO program) for Linux?
even an explanation of the 76 byte header etc would help in 
case I end up coding it.  

Thanks
bill menger

p.s. am looking for dosemu
and would be interested in SCO binaries running on Linux.


 "consensus negates leadership" Margaret Thatcher

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

From: vassili@cs.sunysb.edu (Vassili Leonov)
Subject: Re: tcsh bug: more information
Date: 6 Jul 1994 17:06:00 GMT

Roth Mark Daniel (roth@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
: adc@bach.coe.neu.edu (Albert D. Cahalan) writes:

: >In article <2vc2jl$21r@glitnir.ifi.uio.no> kjetilho@ifi.uio.no (Kjetil Torgrim Homme) writes:
: >   Nonsense. "test" isn't even a builtin in the original V7 shell, but
: >   "case" is. Besides, "expr" is just as good a tool for expression
: >   matching. If sh doesn't have good enough data manipulation for your
: >   task, write (perhaps just parts of it) in awk or Perl.
These days - there is absolutely no reason to use anything but Perl
for anything you might want to write in shell. On the other hand there is
no reason to use anything but Perl to write something that you
might want to write in C (except Kernel code :-)
( yeah - you have .login .cshrc .profile and whatever to mess things up..)

Vassili.

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

From: vassili@cs.sunysb.edu (Vassili Leonov)
Subject: Re: Where are kernel versions kept?
Date: 6 Jul 1994 17:10:19 GMT

Pete Kruckenberg (kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu) wrote:
: Quick question: is there anyplace where I can pick up specific
: versions of the Linux kernel source without having to apply each patch
: level (for example, I could ftp version 1.1.14, rather than getting
: 1.1.0 and applying patches 1-14)?
look at tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/sources/system
There you find sources for the bleeding edge - as well as not SO 
bleeding edge :-)
Vassili.

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

From: rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Encrypted drive?
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 19:54:37 GMT

In <2ve0k9$ls1@nyx10.cs.du.edu> colin@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Colin Plumb) writes:

>In article <PJG.94Jul5181251@tesla.esl.com>,
>Paul Gyugyi <pjg@tesla.esl.com> wrote:
>> I'm not looking for a
>> clipper chip or anything, ... heck, just Rot-13 would probably
>> be enough.  Can anyone point me to a relevant source file?
>> What else besides "mount" might need to be changed?

>*Ahem*.  Please be caureful implying that the Clipper ship is "good"
>encryption.  The Skipjack algorithm may be, but the rest leaves
>something to be desired.

>Anyway, I don't have such a thing, but if anyone wants to write one
>I can supply a lot of ideas and crypto code.  (Mostly based on the
>design of Peter Gutmann's SFS for DOS.)

DES encryption is possible with the loop device, I think.  It was written
a long time ago (in Linux terms) so I'm not sure if it still works.

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: Dump command for Linux?
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 19:56:09 GMT

In <2ve9be$5fl@hermes.uni-konstanz.de> alen@theoris.rz.uni-konstanz.de (Alen Tihi) writes:

>Kevin Martinez (lps@rahul.net) wrote:
>: Is there any development going on for a dump command to dump raw devices 
>: in Linux?

>: It is handy for backups and duplicating filesystems.....

>: Thanks,

>: Kevin Martinez
>: lps@rahul.net
>: -- 
>: ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>:  Kevin Martinez    lps@rahul.net    Member of the Julie Kangas Fan Club
>:  Work: 1 800 50 SATAN                              Home: 1 510 676 1111
>: ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I need 'dump',too ;)

>I want to use the remote backup utility 'amanda', but it needs
>the 'dump'- command :)

>Is there a port for linux ?

No.
BTW, this is a FAQ, and it barely has any relation to development.  It
would probably be a good idea to add the story to one of the FAQ documents,
if this was not already done.

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: Adaptec 27xx/28xx SCSI Controllers
Reply-To: pe1chl@rabo.nl
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 19:57:53 GMT

In <2ve4ba$3ru@relay.conware.de> finken@conware.de (Michael Finken) writes:

>A friend of mine has a PC with VL-Bus and an Adaptec 2842 (?) controller.
>The question is: Does Linux support that controller?

Not yet.

>I didn't find special mentioning in the latest Slackware release and the
>kernel patches up to 1.1.24.

Check the FAQ for details about supported equipment and status of
driver development.

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

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

From: root@i486.gondor.sub.org (Erik Blass (SysAdmin))
Subject:  Linux Performance Enhance ?
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 19:09:05 GMT


Hi !

I was just wondering if it wouldn't be nice if you can manually swap
out a (sleeping) process. If - for example - a X user wants to swap
the gettys if he doesn't use them, he could probably run "swap_out
<PID>" where PID is the pid of a getty. The same with lpd or even inetd ...
with all processes you use "seldom".
Would it be hard to realize the "swap_out" programm ?!
Can someone (hello Linus and Kernel Hacker ;-) ) realize it ?


Greetings,
        Erik
-- 
Erik Blass|Internet erik@i486.gondor.sub.org|Z-Netz erik@stargate.zer
Ich habe Dinge gesehen, die ihr Menschen niemals glauben wuerdet. Gigantische
Schiffe die brannten an der Schulter des Orion. Und C-Beams - glitzernd in der
Dunkelheit nahe dem Tannhaeuser Tor. All diese Momente werden verloren sein in
der Zeit...so wie Traenen im Regen.       Zeit zu sterben...       [Roy Batty]
Hi! I'm a .signature virus!  Add me to your .signature and join in the fun!

-- 
Erik Blass|Internet erik@i486.gondor.sub.org|Z-Netz erik@stargate.zer
Ich habe Dinge gesehen, die ihr Menschen niemals glauben wuerdet. Gigantische
Schiffe die brannten an der Schulter des Orion. Und C-Beams - glitzernd in der
Dunkelheit nahe dem Tannhaeuser Tor. All diese Momente werden verloren sein in
der Zeit...so wie Traenen im Regen.       Zeit zu sterben...       [Roy Batty]
Hi! I'm a .signature virus!  Add me to your .signature and join in the fun!

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

From: ypwong@ie.cuhk.hk (Kenneth Wong)
Subject: insmod and the lot (where's the doc?)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 02:19:18 GMT

The subject says it all. insmod even doesn't come with man pages
(slackware 1.2). Any doc about writing mod?

Thanks in advance!
--
Kenneth Wong
ypwong@ie.cuhk.hk

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

Subject: Re: tcsh bug: more information
From: dholland@husc7.harvard.edu (David Holland)
Date: 6 Jul 94 18:47:24


vassili@cs.sunysb.edu's message of 6 Jul 1994 17:06:00 GMT said:

 > These days - there is absolutely no reason to use anything but Perl
 > for anything you might want to write in shell. On the other hand there is
 > no reason to use anything but Perl to write something that you
 > might want to write in C (except Kernel code :-)
 > ( yeah - you have .login .cshrc .profile and whatever to mess things up..)

On the contrary, there is absolutely no reason to use Perl for
anything whatsoever. It has all the drawbacks of both C and shell
scripts, and none of the advantages of either. A perl script is as
slow, or slower, than a shell script, and it's as hard to deal with
and write in as C. Maybe more so. 

--
   - David A. Holland          | "The right to be heard does not automatically
     dholland@husc.harvard.edu |  include the right to be taken seriously."

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

From: ftlofaro@unlv.edu (Frank Lofaro)
Subject: IMPORTANT FLOPPY FIXES HERE!
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 94 04:33:52 GMT

        I have been hearing about and experiencing for myself a nasty
problem with floppies under Linux 1.1.24. An infinite loop of "Unable
to send byte to FDC, .....", hanging the FDC and wedging linux. This
seems to be due to a bug where in the middle of some commands, the FDC
fails to tell the CPU the direction of transfer is CPU -> FDC (it
leaves it FDC -> CPU) and eventually the kernel gives up, tries again,
etc.
        I have had a workaround for quite a while when I enabled the
82077 FIFO on my system. Seems at least my system has the bug I
mentioned above. I worked around it by making the kernel send the
bytes anyway if the FDC is ready and it says it is in a command, thus
it makes sense for it to be CPU -> FDC, even if it did fail to twiddle
that bit. It is kind of crufty, and the patch could be cleaner, etc,
but it works. And you still get to have the 82077 support.
#define FDC_FIFO_BUG controls the patch. It turns on bug
compatibility.

        Anyway, without further ado, here is the patch. This patch
fixes the floppy problems for me, I hope it does for you. Let us know
if it does (or does not).

--- floppy.c.orig       Wed Jul  6 20:42:34 1994
+++ floppy.c    Wed Jul  6 20:59:49 1994
@@ -74,6 +74,8 @@
 #define FLOPPY_DMA 2
 #define FDC_FIFO_UNTESTED           /* -bb */
 
+#define FDC_FIFO_BUG
+
 #include <linux/sched.h>
 #include <linux/fs.h>
 #include <linux/kernel.h>
@@ -506,6 +508,32 @@
        printk("Unable to send byte to FDC\n");
 }
 
+#ifdef FDC_FIFO_BUG
+
+static void output_byte_force(char byte)
+{
+       int counter;
+       unsigned char status;
+
+       if (reset)
+               return;
+       for (counter = 0 ; counter < 10000 ; counter++) {
+               status = inb_p(FD_STATUS);
+               if ((status & (STATUS_READY | STATUS_DIR)) == STATUS_READY) {
+                       outb(byte,FD_DATA);
+                       return;
+               }
+               if ((status & (STATUS_READY | STATUS_BUSY)) == (STATUS_READY | STATUS_BUSY)) {
+                       outb(byte,FD_DATA);
+                       return;
+               }
+       }
+       current_track = NO_TRACK;
+       reset = 1;
+       printk("Unable to send byte to FDC\n");
+}
+#endif         /* FDC_FIFO_BUG */
+
 static int result(void)
 {
        int i = 0, counter, status;
@@ -565,15 +593,27 @@
                if (rate & 0x40) {
                        unsigned char r = rate & 0x03;
                        if (r == 0)
+#ifndef FDC_FIFO_BUG
                                output_byte(2); /* perpendicular, 500 kbps */
+#else
+                               output_byte_force(2);   /* perpendicular, 500 kbps */
+#endif
                        else if (r == 3)
+#ifndef FDC_FIFO_BUG
                                output_byte(3); /* perpendicular, 1Mbps */
+#else
+                               output_byte_force(3);   /* perpendicular, 1Mbps */
+#endif
                        else {
                                printk(DEVICE_NAME ": Invalid data rate for perpendicular mode!\n");
                                reset = 1;
                        }
                } else
+#ifndef FDC_FIFO_BUG
                        output_byte(0);         /* conventional mode */
+#else
+                       output_byte_force(0);           /* conventional mode */
+#endif
        } else {
                if (rate & 0x40) {
                        printk(DEVICE_NAME ": perpendicular mode not supported by this FDC.\n");
@@ -594,9 +634,17 @@
        if (need_configure && (fdc_version == FDC_TYPE_82077)) {
                /* Enhanced version with FIFO & vertical recording. */
                output_byte(FD_CONFIGURE);
+#ifndef FDC_FIFO_BUG
                output_byte(0);
+#else
+               output_byte_force(0);
+#endif
                output_byte(0x1A);      /* FIFO on, polling off, 10 byte threshold */
+#ifndef FDC_FIFO_BUG
                output_byte(0);         /* precompensation from track 0 upwards */
+#else
+               output_byte_force(0);           /* precompensation from track 0 upwards */
+#endif
                need_configure = 0;
                printk(DEVICE_NAME ": FIFO enabled\n");
        }




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


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