Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #279
From: Digestifier <Linux-Misc-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Fri, 17 Jun 94 08:13:07 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #279, Volume #2                Fri, 17 Jun 94 08:13:07 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Latest in PC WEEK (May 30 Editorial) (Tim Smith)
  Re: ADVICE: InfoMagic CD distribution (Thierry FELT)
  Re: Latest in PC WEEK (May 30 Editorial) (Tim Smith)
  Re: Linux Projects-FAQ (M P Davison)
  Re: I'm in LOVE ... with Linux (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
  Re: Linux stable enough for commercial products yet? (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
  Re: Linux Projects-FAQ (Harald Milz)
  [diff] Where is 'man diff' page? (Bill Hogan)
  Re: Linux.... On a Sparc? (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
  Re: Linux.... On a Sparc? (Alan Cox)
  Re: Linux Installation Counts? (Kjetil Torgrim Homme)
  memory with buslogic 445S (Bill Heiser)
  Re: Linux and UltraStor 34F SCSI Controller (Dragon Fly)
  Re: What is a good _LARGE_ tape backup for Linux? (Kjetil Torgrim Homme)
  upgrading libc - do it step by step? (Niedner)
  Re: S3 Support - A bit lacking? (Andrew Bray)
  Re: Adaptec 1510 (AHA 1510) SCSI controller (John Pruett)
  Linux on Compaq Contura Aero (David Shen)
  Re^2: S3 Support - A bit lacking? (Alexander Otterbein)

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

From: tzs@u.washington.edu (Tim Smith)
Subject: Re: Latest in PC WEEK (May 30 Editorial)
Date: 17 Jun 1994 06:55:24 GMT

In article <1143@blox.se>, Bjorn Ekwall <bj0rn@blox.se> wrote:
>The kernel is GPL-ed. All code that is linked to it is therefore also GPL-ed.
>The only interface to the kernel that is non-"GPL-virus-infected" is the
>syscall API, as this is explicitly extempt from the GPL.

Maybe it works that way in your country, but that's not the way it works
over here (United States).  Interfaces are irrelevant.

>All "official" interpretations of the GPL, as seen in the numerous
>discussions in gnu.misc.discuss, are _very_ clear about this.

It doesn't matter what the GPL says.  GPL is a contract.  It therefore
can only bind those who are a party to that contract.  If I write some
code of my own, and I do not use any GPL'ed code in producing my code
(other than uses that would not be covered by copyright), GPL is totally
irrelevant to my code.  This is basic contract law.  I can distribute my
code under my license terms.

If you take my code and link it into a GPL'ed product, *you* have to obey
GPL, *and* you have to obey my license.  You have to do both of these at
the same time, and so it may not be possible, depending on the exact terms
of my license.  The best the owner of the copyright on the GPL'ed code
would be able to do if they didn't like what I was doing would be to
argue some sort of contributory infringement theory.

The big problem with contributory infringement is that the plaintiff has
to show that there are basically no substantial non-infringing uses that
my code can be put to.  That would be very hard, because GPL has been
interpreted by FSF in the past as allowing you to do whatever you want
in the privacy of your own machine--it's only when you want to distribute
the results that you have to worry about it.  This means that my code
does have a substantial non-infringing use (all the uses by people who
don't try to distribute stuff with my code linked in), and so the
contributory infringement theory would fail.

So, this only leaves one question unanswered: if I write code that calls
routines that I know exist in GPL'ed code (and perhaps only in GPL'ed
code), is that a use of the GPL'ed code that requires me to obtain
position of the copyright holder?  If the answer is yes, then my code
will have to be GPL'ed.  If the answer is no, then my code does not have
to be GPL'ed.

In the United States, the answer seems to be that my code would be OK.
It doesn't appear that function names and calling sequences can be
copyrighted.

--Tim Smith

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

From: felt@mines.u-nancy.fr (Thierry FELT)
Subject: Re: ADVICE: InfoMagic CD distribution
Date: 17 Jun 1994 07:04:21 GMT

In article <CrH97u.H77@actrix.gen.nz>, robking@actrix.gen.nz (Robert King) writes:
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with the InfoMagic distributionn of 
> Linux?  That and the Yggdrasil distribution are the only ones that I've 
> found here in New Zealand.

        You can buy the InfoMagic 2 CD`s set : it`s a hacker's dream.

        You'll find on it a lot of distribution especially the slackware
        one which you will be able to install easily.

        The Yggdrasil is a ready to use Linux but more expensive 
        than the Infomagic stuff.

        Cheers,

=============================================================================
        FELT Thierry                            felt@mines.u-nancy.fr
        Ecole des Mines de Nancy                tel : 83.58.42.89
        Laboratoire de Mecanique des Terrains   fax : 83.53.38.49
=============================================================================


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

From: tzs@u.washington.edu (Tim Smith)
Subject: Re: Latest in PC WEEK (May 30 Editorial)
Date: 17 Jun 1994 07:13:29 GMT

Bart Schuller <schuller@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl> wrote:
>The problem is: the module interface isn't a _published_ API. I wouldn't
>even call it an API. A kernel module can essentially call any internal
>kernel function. IMHO, the _time_ of linking shouldn't alter the GPL-ness
>of kernel modules.

It doesn't.  That's a red herring, at least in the United States.  This
sort of thing has come up before in the context of video games.  The
people who make the hardware like to maintain control over the people
that produce the software, and so not only do not publish API's for
their systems, they put in code to try to detect unauthorized cartridges
and refuse to run them.  Third party software developers have therefore
turned to reverse engineering the secret API's, and then producing games
for those systems.  They've been sued for this, and they've won.

This seems to me to be very closely analogous to the situation with
kernel modules, and I'd expect the results to be the same: calling the
API of something (published or unpublished) does not make the caller
a derivative work of the code that provides the API.

--Tim Smith

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

From: een5mpd@sun.leeds.ac.uk (M P Davison)
Subject: Re: Linux Projects-FAQ
Reply-To: een5mpd@sun.leeds.ac.uk
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 07:51:34 GMT

This is will be a very useful piece of documentation - could this also find a use as
a starting point for a _catalogoue_ of Linux apps. Maybe once you have removed them
from the _under development_ FAQ you could place them on an _up and running_ FAQ ? 

--            
Mark Davison,   
        Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering,
        The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom

E-mail: M.P.Davison@elec-eng.leeds.ac.uk  
Tel:    Int+ 44 (0)532 332016           Fax: Int+ 44 (0)532 332032
--





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

From: mah@ka4ybr.com (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Subject: Re: I'm in LOVE ... with Linux
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 09:34:42 GMT

Andreas Burmester (buster@isys-hh.Hanse.DE) wrote:
: cjcason@yarrow.wt.uwa.edu.au (Christopher Cason) writes:

: >I've finally got Linux up ... thanks to yggdrasil's CD-ROM.

: >I'm in LOVE. ahhh, the pleasure of finally running a real OS at home, and X !

: Now wait for a while - it's just like in real life: your first love won't
: last forever. Eventually you'll discover more reliable and compliant (with
: X/OPEN & Posix) operating systems.

        Yeah, I finally found a more reliable operating system...
        ... in Linux!  Not a single hang or crash attributable to
        system software in 18 months.  Of course I'm only comparing
        it to SunOS 4.1.3 on my SPARC-2, AIX on the RS6K, SCO 3.2.4, 
        and Solaris 2.3+patches on the SPARC-1  (ok... the Solaris was
        a cheap shot.. :)  ...I admit it!).  I'm sure there must be 
        more reliable implementations of UNIX available.  I haven't
        personally experienced 386BSD, NetBSD, or HP/UX so I cannot
        comment on them.... Used to run AT&T SVR4 until I figured out
        that a UNIX system was supposed to stay up for more than 
        three days straight! :) 

        But then I'm probably not taxing Linux's abilities as much
        as a most people are.  I just use it for my mail server,
        news server processing 50 to 65 MB of USENET news per day,
        terminal server handling 8 serial lines (2 terminals, a
        serial printer, and 4 modem lines for dial-up users and
        uucp connections), and TCP/IP network hub for the other
        systems (SPARCs and RS6K and MVME68000 if I ever get a MVME374
        card! :(    ).   Oh yeah, and software support and 
        development.

        I'm far from a POSIX of X/OPEN expert, so am probably very 
        ignorant on these topics, but it seems that almost everything
        I've compiled that professes to be POSIX-compliant does so
        without a whimper.

: Whatsoever - it's for free, so enjoy it.

        True!  I thought Solaris 2.3 was a bargain at on $225.00!       
        I find the 2 CD Linux set from InfoMagic an amazing bargain
        at only twenty bucks!  Wish Sun would have even sold me
        a replacement SunOS-4.1.3 CD after the bizarre CD-floor-        
        office chair wheel incident.....  :( 

                ... So far rather satisfied with Linux,
                                        -- Mark
--
"Are you calling yourself a Linux expert?"
"No, not by any means.  We're all newbies on THIS bus."
============================================================
Mark A. Horton       ka4ybr             mah@ka4ybr.atl.ga.us
P.O. Box 747 Decatur GA US 30031-0747         mah@ka4ybr.com
+1.404.371.0291                     33 45 31 N / 084 16 59 W

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

From: mah@ka4ybr.com (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Subject: Re: Linux stable enough for commercial products yet?
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 09:41:33 GMT

Beverly J. Brown (bjb@shore.net) wrote:
: In article <CrC96G.7qs@sci.kun.nl>, Mark van Hoeij wrote:
: > In <CrAp1s.M20@rahul.net> alte@rahul.net (Charles Liu) writes:
: > 
: > 
: > >Per Section 1.7.4, page 21, the recently published The Linux Bible: "As 
: > >far as stability and robustness are concerned, many users have reported 
: > >that Linux is at least as stable as commercial UNIX systems."
: > 
: > It's much more stable than AIX (is that a compliment?).
: > 

: Or Solaris.

        Aw... come on... that's too easy a target!  :)

        After all, it took Linux a few months of development to
        get past the reliability stage of current-day Solaris!
        I understand that prior to v.99pl9 it actually would 
        "crash" occasionally!   

                        -- Amused, Mark

--
                Nothing left to do but :), :), :)
============================================================
Mark A. Horton       ka4ybr             mah@ka4ybr.atl.ga.us
P.O. Box 747 Decatur GA US 30031-0747         mah@ka4ybr.com
+1.404.371.0291                     33 45 31 N / 084 16 59 W

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: hm@seneca.ix.de (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: Linux Projects-FAQ
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 07:29:18 GMT
Reply-To: hm@seneca.ix.de

Jeff Kopmanis (jeffk@garnet.msen.com) wrote:

: > Imitation is truely flattery!  But seriously, folks, this is the
: > Developers FAQ format, NOT the LSM.  The LSM templates are kept with the LSM
: > at your favorite FTP site.
: > Like:   sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/template-*

That's right, Jeff. I apologize to have mimicked your format, but it appeared
reasonable enough to me to do the work that it's intended to. 

-- 
Harald Milz                             office: hm@ix.de
iX Multiuser Multitasking Magazine      home:   hm@seneca.ix.de
Opinions are mine, not my employer's -- the answer is Forty-two


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

From: bhogan@crl.com (Bill Hogan)
Subject: [diff] Where is 'man diff' page?
Date: 17 Jun 1994 03:10:12 -0700

  Today I found out I don't have a 'man diff' page.

  I looked at the Slackware 1.2.0 manifest and did not see one listed.

  I grepped the /live directory on my Slackware 1.1.1 trans-ameritech 
cdrom and did not find one; I also looked in diff.tgz and ditto.

  Anyone know if a Linux 'man diff' page exists and, if so, where I can 
find it?

  Thank you.

  Bill

  
  
-- 
  Bill Hogan
{bhogan@crl.com}

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.help
From: mah@ka4ybr.com (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Subject: Re: Linux.... On a Sparc?
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:01:57 GMT

Alan Cox (iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr) wrote:
: In article <merlyn.771807115@winternet.com> merlyn@icicle.winternet.com (Doug McIntyre) writes:
: >No, Linux isn't ported to the Sparc. But why would you? Solaris (V1.1B) is 
: >much more stable, and Linux is trying to copy alot of it. By owning

: SunOS is stable. My experience with Solaris is not all good. I figure thats
: probably why sunsite.unc.edu is still running SunOS. If you do run Solaris 
: make sure its 2.3 and make sure you are up to date on all the patches. Then 
: its not too bad.

: Alan

        Isn't Solaris V1.1xxx just Sun double-speak for SunOS-4.1.3_u1 to
        convince everyone that "Solaris" is the product and Solaris-2.x
        is merely the latest and greatest rather than the radical change
        that it is?

        Wow!  Marketeers... amazing folks!

        -- Mark

--
Buckaroo:  "Every year we pass the anniversary of our deaths."
============================================================
Mark A. Horton       ka4ybr             mah@ka4ybr.atl.ga.us
P.O. Box 747 Decatur GA US 30031-0747         mah@ka4ybr.com
+1.404.371.0291                     33 45 31 N / 084 16 59 W

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.help
From: iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Linux.... On a Sparc?
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 08:38:52 GMT

In article <merlyn.771807115@winternet.com> merlyn@icicle.winternet.com (Doug McIntyre) writes:
>No, Linux isn't ported to the Sparc. But why would you? Solaris (V1.1B) is 
>much more stable, and Linux is trying to copy alot of it. By owning

SunOS is stable. My experience with Solaris is not all good. I figure thats
probably why sunsite.unc.edu is still running SunOS. If you do run Solaris 
make sure its 2.3 and make sure you are up to date on all the patches. Then 
its not too bad.

Alan

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

From: kjetilho@ifi.uio.no (Kjetil Torgrim Homme)
Subject: Re: Linux Installation Counts?
Date: 17 Jun 1994 08:45:46 GMT

I just had a crazy idea: How about we made every Linux host connected
to the net send a packet to some central host upon booting? SGI's
actually do something like this -- they all register with some
dogfight server (or some other game, I forget).

It could be just a small program called from /etc/rc.d/rc.inet2, so it
could be easily commented out by the local root if she didn't like it.


Kjetil T.

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

From: bill@bhhome.ci.net (Bill Heiser)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development
Subject: memory with buslogic 445S
Date: 17 Jun 1994 10:36:29 GMT

I seem to recall seeing something posted about being limited to <16mb of
memory when using the Buslogic BT-445S.  Is this still the case with the
Buslogic driver?  Or can I have > 16mb (i.e. 32mb) of memory now?

Will there be a performance hit due to the issues of addressing >16mb
on the ISA bus?  This is a 486/66 with ISA slots and VL slots.

Thanks,
Bill
-- 
Bill Heiser:    bill@bhhome.ci.net,  heiser@world.std.com

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

From: sviznyuk@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Dragon Fly)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Linux and UltraStor 34F SCSI Controller
Date: 16 Jun 1994 18:57:23 GMT

>>
>>2.  Using an Ultrastor at address 0x330 may cause the system to hang
>>        when the sound drivers are autoprobing.

Does UltraStor34F take any DMA channels ?
I have GUS sound card and it looks like
it conflicts with something at SoundBlaster DMA channel 1.
As far as I know, video cards do not use DMA channels, so
the only possibility is U34F SCSI controller..

Serge

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

From: kjetilho@ifi.uio.no (Kjetil Torgrim Homme)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: What is a good _LARGE_ tape backup for Linux?
Date: 17 Jun 1994 07:44:18 GMT

+--- Matthew Dillon:
| You want to get a SCSI DAT tape backup. Depending on the drive, you
| can fit between 1 and 16 GB.
| 

Yes, DAT is cheap and high-capacity. However, your data are _not_
safe! You must refresh the copies once a year, or the data will just
vanish into thin air... So keep that in mind. Doing that refresh on
just one tape will take approx. 8 hours, assuming you have temporary
media you can use.


Kjetil T.

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

From: niedner@petrus.cribx1.u-bordeaux.fr (Niedner)
Subject: upgrading libc - do it step by step?
Date: 17 Jun 1994 11:07:44 GMT

Hello, everyone,

I want to upgrade my C-libraries to 4.5.26 and i am using 4.4.X now.

From the docs I learned that i need linux-binutils-1.0 to compile the 
libraries; in order to use them, i need libs 4.5.21 or above, as its 
documentation says.  

So do i really have to update step-by-step? :-(
Or is there any other way to get out ?

Please answer per e-mail as well.

Thanks,

Sven.

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

From: andy@madhouse.demon.co.uk (Andrew Bray)
Subject: Re: S3 Support - A bit lacking?
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 01:05:55 GMT

In article <2tpahjINNsen@flop.ENGR.ORST.EDU> paul@holmes.ece.orst.edu (Paul Stoffregen) writes:
>I've got an S3 card (which is quite speedy under X, but cost < $140),
>but quite often I switch over to a good 'ole tty.  I've tried several
>times to get something higher than 80x25 in text mode, including an
>attempt tonight.  Typing 'rdev -v /vmlinuz -#' where I try dozens of
>different numbers seems to have no effect whatsoever.  I also tried
>configuring lilo to set the video mode, but with little success.

I had the same problem with my S3 based Spea/V7 Mirage.
The only fix I found was to hack the Linux start up code to recognise
my VGA BIOS, and offer extra video modes.

>The text-only tty just doesn't display very much information in
>80x25, and looks downright funny on my 17 inch monitor.

Even funnier on my 21".  Its a shame I can't use X at a resolution
higher that 1024x768 to take advantage of this extra size
(my card has 1MB RAM, and isn't upgradable).

>sources for v1.0 months ago.  I looked through the source
>trees for both, but found no other information (I do hardware
>and assembly coding, so I'm not good at making sense out of
>five megs of, mostly, high level language code)

The code that needs changing is in 8086 assembler, so you
micht find it easier than most!

Regards,

Andy



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

From: pruett@chinook.halcyon.com (John Pruett)
Subject: Re: Adaptec 1510 (AHA 1510) SCSI controller
Date: 17 Jun 1994 03:54:27 GMT

rosenberg@eisner.decus.org (Saul J. Rosenberg) writes:


>Revised problem statement:
>    Unable to boot Linux 1.0 from Adaptec AHA 1510

>Therefore, my conclusion is that it is the AHA 1510 that is
>incompatible with the Linux software.

>Any help would be appreciated....
>Thanx
>Saul Rosenberg

Hello fellow LINUX users,
   I sent for an adaptic 1510, a day before I read this message.  I will be
using it with a single hard drive.  Has anyone made this card work on LINUX
with no problem?  

Thanks in advance
- John Pruett (pruett@halcyon.com)
--
 - J. Pruett (pruett@halcyon.com)


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

From: david@ms.oks.fujitsu.co.jp (David Shen)
Subject: Linux on Compaq Contura Aero
Date: 17 Jun 1994 08:32:24 GMT

Hi Linuxers.

Is there anyone running Linux on Contura Aero?

I'm pretty sure it runs (I was able to boot boot/root disk)
but I'm worried about the 3.5 floppy drive.  As you know, 
it attaches itself on the only pcmcia slot.  Will I have 
to reboot the system everytime I switch, say an ethernet 
card and the floppy? 

How's the battery life on Aero with Linux?  Any
experience would be helpful.

--
         ()~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~()
    ()~~~()       david@ms.oks.fujitsu.co.jp      ()~~~()
()--()   ()         NIFTY ID: KGE01555            ()   ()--() 
    ()___()  Okinawa Fujitsu System Engineering   ()___()
         ()_______________________________________()


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

From: OTTI@BHT-BOX.ZER.DE (Alexander Otterbein)
Subject: Re^2: S3 Support - A bit lacking?
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 23:03:00 +0200

> >Likewise.  I would suspect that most people with S3 cards boot into xdm,
> >and so don't care about the text video mode.
>
> I've got an S3 card (which is quite speedy under X, but cost < $140),
> but quite often I switch over to a good 'ole tty.  I've tried several
> times to get something higher than 80x25 in text mode, including an
> attempt tonight.  Typing 'rdev -v /vmlinuz -#' where I try dozens of
> different numbers seems to have no effect whatsoever.  I also tried
> configuring lilo to set the video mode, but with little success.
>
> The text-only tty just doesn't display very much information in
> 80x25, and looks downright funny on my 17 inch monitor.
>
> Perhaps I should upgrade my kernel?? (I've got 1.0.0)
>

No, look in /usr/src/linux/boot/setup.S and do it yourself :-)
Add entries for mounknown and dsunknown and you will be able to use  
special resolutions of your graphics card.

Ciao...
   Alex.

Alexander Otterbein
Internet : otti@bht-box.zer.de, prale@prale.rhoen.sub.org
FIDO     : 2:2461/158.5
## CrossPoint v3.0 ##

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


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