Subject: Linux-Development Digest #29
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, 15 Aug 94 17:13:08 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #29, Volume #2          Mon, 15 Aug 94 17:13:08 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Using FK9000 (129 key programmable) keyboards (Andries Brouwer)
  Re: IFS (Inherited File System) (Matthias Urlichs)
  Re: WANTED: IRC Server for Linux (Byron J Patterson)
  1.1.44 annoying problem (Elan Feingold)
  Apricot XEN LS-II i596 driver timeouts (Allan Clearwaters)
  Linux with 2 Mitsumi CD-ROM Drives ? (Frank Kurth)
  QAccess VL-Bus SCSI driver in the works? (William Young)
  Re: g++ 2.6.0 kernel compiler problem (H.J. Lu)
  screensaver halts my machine (vaz)
  Re: 1.1.44 annoying problem (Mehrdad Jalali Sohi)
  Threads, hardware access from Linux? (Ken Geis)
  Linux 1.2.0. When? (icid2@cc.uab.es)
  Re: NCR SCSI and 53c825 (Drew Eckhardt)
  Gnu tar "verify" option and SCSI tape problem? (Grant Edwards)
  IPC in Linux. (MacGyver)
  1.1.44 hangs on aoudio CD mount (Mehrdad Jalali Sohi)
  Re: FWD: Dropped TCP/IP Connection (Dominik Kubla)
  Re: Intel syntax assembler available anywhere ? (Dominik Kubla)
  Suggestion for proc-filesystem extension port/dma (HIGGINS@DELBOX.ZER.DE)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.hardware,comp.os.linux.misc
From: aeb@cwi.nl (Andries Brouwer)
Subject: Re: Using FK9000 (129 key programmable) keyboards
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 16:39:15 GMT

phys169@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Mark Aitchison - Physics and Astronomy Computologist) writes:

: FK-9000 keyborads (with 129 keys) are programmable at the keyboard itself,
: but is there any software under DOS and ESPECIALLY LINUX to make use of these
: keys (e.g. in the Linux Kernel) without having to manually program keys for
: each keyboard?

: The problem is that the left-hand function keys send one code instead of two
: (one for make, another for break), and the calculator keys like MC seem to all
: send 0xFF (so long as another calculator key hadn't been pressed already).

: I presume somebody must've done all this before.

If you are interested, I could mail you patches for some earlier kernel version
(around 1.1.11 or so) for these keyboards. They conflict with Ted's tty changes,
so do not work for recent kernels. I hope to make a new version next month, when
I am back in Amsterdam again.

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

From: urlichs@smurf.noris.de (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: IFS (Inherited File System)
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:10:38 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <32jdi8$cik@elna.ethz.ch>,
  almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Werner Almesberger) writes:
> 
> > Note that people might really want truly atomic link()
> 
> Why should link(2) not be atomic ?
> 
Well, if NFS client and server are not on the same system, the reply to the 
packet requesting the link() might get lost. When the client retries, the
server replies with an error (after all, the destination file is already
there...) even though the operation -- the link() -- was completed
successfully. Oops.

> > or append_write() operations. NFS can't do that.)
> 
> True, but that's what file locking is for. (Okay, this isn't supported
> yet.)
> 
One simple application where this won't work is log files. (wtmp, syslog,
UUCP, you name it). 

> Anyway, when I'm done with IFS on NFS, it should be fairly straightforward to
> experiment with it on top of userfs too. So one could experiment with that
> one later ...
> 
Good.  ;-)

-- 
Heroism is endurance for one moment more.
                        -George F. Kennan
-- 
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>.

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

Subject: Re: WANTED: IRC Server for Linux
From: acs_patt@uwrf.edu (Byron J Patterson)
Date: 15 Aug 94 12:15:40 CDT
Reply-To: byron.j.patterson@uwrf.edu

Thomas Russell Hoover (thoover@infi.net) wrote:
: Greetings to All,

:       Can somebody point me to an IRC Server for Linux? There has been a
: port, right?

the plan un*x irc server compiles just fine i can not rember what
version of the server i am running ....

--

byron patterson
byron.j.patterson@uwrf.edu




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

From: feingold@avette.zko.dec.com (Elan Feingold)
Subject: 1.1.44 annoying problem
Date: 15 Aug 1994 17:23:58 GMT
Reply-To: feingold@avette.zko.dec.com (Elan Feingold)


I had 1.1.44 up, running X with xlock and no other processes
running in the background (except daemons and an emacs, I
believe).  Every 10 seconds or so, I could hear the HD being
written to (or read from).  Perhaps bdflush?  This didn't
used to happen, when the system was idle.

Ideas?

Thanks, 

Elan

--
===============================================================================
|| Elan Feingold (Cornell '94)    || "Two of the most famous products of     ||
|| Software Engineer II           ||  Berkeley are LSD and Unix. I don't     ||
|| Digital Equipment Corporation  ||  think that is a coincidence."          ||
|| Work: 603.881.1115             ||                       - Anonymous       ||
===============================================================================

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

From: allan@mct (Allan Clearwaters)
Date: 15 Aug 1994 14:39:30 GMT
Subject: Apricot XEN LS-II i596 driver timeouts

Is anyone else out there using Linux on an Apricot XEN LS-II machine??
If so, have you experienced any problems with the driver for the
on-board ethernet timing out??

I see behaviour where sceen updates under X are jumpy.  It seems that
the system gets one batch of data over the ethernet, there is a delay
on the order of a second, and then the rest of the data arrives.
Before I started using the Apricot driver, I had installed a second
ethernet card (SMD WD80*3) and I did not see this behavior.

If I take a look at the screen behind the X window, I see messages of
the form:
        i596_add_cmd timed out with status 4040, cmd 4010

The author of the driver is Mark Evans but I have no inet address for
him.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanx,
Al
--

=======================================================================
= Allan Clearwaters             Phone:  44+(684)569292                =
= MCT Ltd.                      Fax:    44+(684)561153                =
= 62 Albert Rd. North           Email:  allan%mct.uucp@britain.eu.net =
= Malvern, Worcs.                       (allan@mct.uucp)              =
= England  WR14 2TL                     The first address guarantees  =
=                                         delivery                    =
=======================================================================

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

From: kurth@radium (Frank Kurth)
Subject: Linux with 2 Mitsumi CD-ROM Drives ?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 16:44:43 GMT

Hi,

 does anybody know how to run 2 Mitsumi CD-ROM-Drives under Linux 1.0.9.
(I've got NO Soundblaster-card) ?


Frank 


--
Frank Kurth, Am Wichelshof 32 (149), D 53111 Bonn, Tel +49-228-691631
             Karl-Simrock-Str.52,    D 53604 Bad Honnef, Tel +49-2224-72555

email:   kurth@uran.informatik.uni-bonn.de

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

From: wyoung@kirkusafa.af.mil (William Young)
Subject: QAccess VL-Bus SCSI driver in the works?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 17:34:04 GMT

I have one of these beasts, and it claims to be 100% Adaptec 151x/152x
compatible, but all kernel version I've tried to this point don't work
(slackware, in all cases, up to 1.1.18).  Is anyone working on this?
Barring that, does anyone have any hints for me (I haven't included any
info on specific problems, but will if that will help)?  Thanks in advance.

-- Bill
-- 
William J. Young        wyoung@cs.usafa.af.mil
Dept of C.S., USAFA     719-472-3530

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

From: hjl@nynexst.com (H.J. Lu)
Subject: Re: g++ 2.6.0 kernel compiler problem
Date: 15 Aug 1994 17:40:39 GMT

In article <1994Aug15.152247.14751@dcs.warwick.ac.uk>, M.S.Ashton@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Beeblebrox) writes:
|> torvalds@cc.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) writes:
|> 
|> >Newer kernels seem to compile with 2.6.0, but I have had a few
|> >discouraging reports on the actual workings of those kernels.
|> 
|> Funny.. I've had no (new) problems since switching over.
|> 
|> >I'd strongly suggest not using 2.6.0 for kernel compilation: the new
|> >compiler seems to do bad things to inline assembly, for example.
|> 
|> Consistently enough for a bug report ?

The latest snapshot can compile 1.1.44 with -O6.

H.J.

|> ___
|> M.S.Ashton@dcs.warwick.ac.uk              M.S.Ashton@csv.warwick.ac.uk
|> C++ consultant and emacs support.         Mail me if you have any problems.

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

From: vaz@becks.astro.wisc.edu (vaz)
Subject: screensaver halts my machine
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:31:43 GMT
Reply-To: vaz@becks.astro.wisc.edu (vaz)

Hi Linux'ers!

I'm using Slackware 2.0 (as is from sunsite, Aug 04) in a Quantex P60 16Mb
RAM, with PCI Local Bus enhanced IDE controller (WD Caviar 540Mb with no
problems at all :-), PCI Local Bus Graphics Accelerator and the famous
WD90C33 chipset. The machine is a screamer and I'm running number crunching
f77 (f2c) and C programs with great success. Thanks a lot for the beautiful
system you are developping.

Since kernel 0.99.14 I have an annoying problem: the screensaver buildt
in the kernel simply halts my machine solid. If I don't disable it
(setterm -blank 0), the machine hangs in the same way as it does with
any graphics application, as soon as the screensaver enters in action.
Only a RESET can make it alive again. The wd90c33 chipset is going to
be fully supported in the coming XFree86[TM]-3.1 (Article 10315 of
comp.windows.x.i386unix :-), but I guess my problem is at an even lower level.

Does anyone else have this experience? Is there any way to allow
the screensaver to work properly?

I know of at least 2 other similar machines (P60 from Quantex, with PCI
controller and graphics accelerator and the WD90C33 chipset) with
precisely the same problem.

Any suggestions/hints/speculations will be most appreciated!

Thanks, very much, in advance!

Luiz Paulo



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

From: jalali@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Mehrdad Jalali Sohi)
Subject: Re: 1.1.44 annoying problem
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:39:44 GMT

Elan Feingold (feingold@avette.zko.dec.com) wrote:

: I had 1.1.44 up, running X with xlock and no other processes
: running in the background (except daemons and an emacs, I
: believe).  Every 10 seconds or so, I could hear the HD being
: written to (or read from).  Perhaps bdflush?  This didn't
: used to happen, when the system was idle.

Since this didn't happen on my 1.1.44 system, I think it's your syslog
file which is growing. Check /var/adm/messages or any other file
mentioned in /etc/syslogd.conf.
It seems that there is something wrong in your system, and syslog tries
to tell you about it. Unfortunately those messages end up in a file where
usually no one looks about....

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

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

From: kgeis@ucsee.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Geis)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Threads, hardware access from Linux?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:45:52 GMT


        Hi.  I have a couple of questions about what can be done in C/C++
on Linux.
        First, I want to be able to call a function and do something else
while that function is being run.  Let's say that function waits on some
I/O to happen.  I have my ideas on how to get this to work, and I know
I'm being a bit vague, but does anyone have any experience with this?
        Second, can particular memory addresses be accesed cleanly from C?
I want to do I/O direct with a card I'm putting together.  More importantly,
though, is there a good way to handle interrupts?

Thanks for the help,

        Ken

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

From: icid2@cc.uab.es
Subject: Linux 1.2.0. When?
Date: 15 Aug 94 19:00:52 +0200

I want to know when will be released Linux 1.2 or 2.0, and what are planning
to put in it; multithreading? modular kernel? automatic mount/unmount of
removable devices?
 
Thanks, Francisco.
 


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

From: drew@frisbee.cs.Colorado.EDU (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: NCR SCSI and 53c825
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:21:38 GMT

In article <32m8sd$mq@explorer.clark.net>,
John Grossman <jgrossma@clark.net> wrote:
>
>
> 
>       Does anyone out there know if a driver has been written for
>an NCR scsi card that uses the 53c825?  I know there is one for the
>810, but I am not so sure about the 825?  Is it just being developed?

The 825 is essentially an 810, with support for external 
tranceivers (ie, for differential SCSI), WIDE SCSI, etc.  It can
run in either a 810 compatablity mode, or mode where some of the 
registers are 16 bits wide.

Ie, minor changes to the NCR53c810 driver should let it work with the 
825.

>I tried the 810 driver but it didn't work, and the author said something
>about having trouble developing for the 825 because he didn't have a
>card to test it on.  

Something like that.  If some one were to donate a NCR53c825 board, 
the 825 would be supported with narrow SCSI devices and probably 
16 bit wide SCSI devices.  

If some one were to also donate a WIDE SCSI disk as well  (maybe one 
of the nifty 2G parallel head Baracudas?), WIDE SCSI

>Is there a way I can offer to be an alpha tester?

Not particularly.  Until I have a NCR53c825 board in my grubby
paws, getting it working is not really a priority.

>On another note, I was looking at the compatibility list on the slackware
>distribution box and it mentioned just Ultrastor under the list of scsi
>cards.  Does this mean that ultrastor keeps its interface so standard that
>one driver will work with all cards? 

There are subtle differences between the different ultrastor boards,
and minor changes were needed to support each of them.

>Last question, if anyone has an NCR that uses the 810 chip,
>do you know if it has onboard bios for starting on dos, and does it come
>with an add driver for os2?  

Most NCR boards lack an onboard BIOS, but most mainboard BIOSes include
the code so it isn't usually an issue.

Supposedly, Nextor 93 boards include a BIOS chip.

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

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

From: grante@reddwarf.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards)
Subject: Gnu tar "verify" option and SCSI tape problem?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 18:19:20 GMT

I hooked up a surplus SCSI tape drive (Archive 60MB QIC from an old
Sun) last night and backed up a couple partitions in preparation for
switching from an AHA1542 to an AHA2740 controller.

It worked like a charm (after I created the "st0" device) except the
gnu tar "verify" option failed even though the tape was good.  It
appears that tar tries to read the archive while the drive is still
rewinding.  This results in about a dozen read-errors before it gives
up.

Questions:

 1) Should a read() during rewind block until it can be serviced, or
    should it return an error?

 2) Is this a bug in Gnu tar? a bug in the scsi or st drivers? a bug
    in the tape drive's SCSI controller?  (The latter I can't do much
    about -- the former two I can fix.)

 3) Would a test program help answer question number 2?  I had in mind
    something like this:
    
        open()
        write() a bunch of blocks;
        send rewind command;
        read() and verify blocks;

    Would a close();open(); between the rewind command and the
    read/verity operation force a wait until the rewind is finished?

    Actually a close/open on the device will cause a rewind if I'm
    using a minor device number less than 128, right?

As usual, pointers to documentation will be gratefully accepted.

Thanks

--
Grant Edwards                                 |Yow!  hubub, hubub, HUBUB,
Rosemount Inc.                                |hubub, hubub, hubub, HUBUB,
                                              |hubub, hubub, hubub.
grante@rosemount.com                          |

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

From: macgyver@MCS.COM (MacGyver)
Subject: IPC in Linux.
Date: 15 Aug 1994 13:52:12 -0500


Hi there folks,

Linux is an excellent OS, by far one of the best I've seen, but what I can't
seem to find, because I don't know if it exists, is IPC tools in Linux.
There's an option in the kernel config to compile in System V IPC...this
implies that the following are supported in Linux:

        message queues -- passing/receiving messages and being able to access
                                them.

        semaphores      -- if you don't know what they are, don't ask. :)
        
        shared memory   -- allow processes to share regions of memory.
        
        stream pipes    -- ala pipe() and socketpair() (I know it's got these).
        
        passing file descriptors -- ability to pass open file descriptors
                                        betwen processes.

Of these, I know that message queues, semaphores, and shared memory are in
the IPC package for Linux as teh linux/ipc.h header file seems to imply and
as examining the kernel source seems to verify.  Stream pipes are already
there via preexisting functions.  However, I DONT see any support for passing
file descriptors at all and it SHOULD be there.  Now, either I'm not looking
at the right place, or it doesn't yet exist.  If it doesn't exist, why not
and will it be in the future?  If not, how does one go about adding such
support.  In my opinion this is an EXTREMELY powerful tool in Unix.

While I'm on the subject, what about streams ala SVR4?  Things like putmsg()
don't seem to exist in Linux either...is it planned?  Same questions as
above...if no one's done it and it's not planned or being worked on, I'd
like to take a crack at it possibly.

Any/all responses appreciated.

HJD.

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

From: jalali@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Mehrdad Jalali Sohi)
Subject: 1.1.44 hangs on aoudio CD mount
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:46:00 GMT

Hey this sounds really silly, but imagine this guy who thinks there is
a data cd in the drive while there is actually an audio cd in there.
Whenever I issue a mount command in that case, the system locks up
completely.
I have a PAS16 soundcard with a cheapo scsi cdrom, running 1.1.44 on
a 486DX66.

fstab entry:
/dev/sr0        /cdrom                  iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro

I just become root and type mount /cdrom from a virtual console. The
system then hangs on that console. I am still able to switch consoles,
but the only console which accepts keyboard input is the one I typed the
command at, but Ctrl-C won't be recognized.
All that's left is the reset button.

I tried this several times, and it really only happened when I tried to
mount an audio cd. (Congrats to the ex2fs authors, the fs got no harm from
those several hard resets...)


Just my $.02,
--
/======================================\
| Olav "Mac" Woelfelschneider          |
| wosch@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de |
+--------------------------------------+
| I refuse to grow up,                 |
| I don't want to lose my humor...     |
\======================================/

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

From: kubla@goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.DE (Dominik Kubla)
Subject: Re: FWD: Dropped TCP/IP Connection
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:54:44 GMT


I am experiencing the same symptoms with rlogin to DEC Stations:
After approx. 12 min. the connection will be cut
with:
  rlogin: read: connection reset by peer. Connection closed.
or:
  rlogin: read: broken pipe.

Seems to me that the kernel is no relaying status messages up to the
application layer which will then cause the appliction to close the
connection ... (at least in the first case)

Any comments? Alan or Fred?

Cheers,
  Dominik
--
===========================================================================
eMail: Dominik.Kubla@Uni-Mainz.DE    sMail: Dominik Kubla, Lannerstrasse 53
                                            55270 Ober-Olm, F.R. of Germany
>>> Save the environment NOW! <<<           ******  European  Union  ******

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

From: kubla@goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.DE (Dominik Kubla)
Subject: Re: Intel syntax assembler available anywhere ?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:57:29 GMT


as86 is for real-mode only! Look into the gas info pages, the difference
between intel and AT&T syntax is shown. Together with gasp (the GNU assembler
preprocessor) you should be able to convert the assembler code from intel to
gas by using gasp macros. Good Luck!

Dominik
--
===========================================================================
eMail: Dominik.Kubla@Uni-Mainz.DE    sMail: Dominik Kubla, Lannerstrasse 53
                                            55270 Ober-Olm, F.R. of Germany
>>> Save the environment NOW! <<<           ******  European  Union  ******

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

From: HIGGINS@DELBOX.ZER.DE
Subject: Suggestion for proc-filesystem extension port/dma
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 06:16:00 +0200

Frank Westheider         Linux Support Group Paderborn
higgins@uni-paderborn.de     higgins@delbox.zer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HI Folks !

Now we have a virt. file /proc/interrupts, what about files for DMA and  
ports. So you can create a complete sysinfo facility, which displays
everything about the machine and the settings.

The ports should be statically, the DMA should be like interrupt,
set and reset on demand.

The files could be

/proc/ports
/proc/dma

Just an idea !


Ciao
  Higgins

--
You can escape the gates of hell, say DOG and WINDOG,

         USE LINUX   :-)     !
## CrossPoint v3.0 ##

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


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