Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #329
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:     Tue, 28 Jun 94 14:13:15 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #329, Volume #2                Tue, 28 Jun 94 14:13:15 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Word Perfect (Mark A. Davis)
  Re: Minicom Transfer Problems (David A. Ranch)
  Re: FTP BUG FIXED ?? (Jerry Cullingford)
  Re: Enhanced IDE with Linux? (Mark Lord)
  Re: SLIP sessions HANGING (John Lellis)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Sebastian W. Bunka)
  Re: Only 7000 Linux boxes, Re: Multiport Bored ... (Tim Cutts)
  Red Hat Software Linux Beta CD-ROM (corrected, expanded) (Marc Ewing)
  Re: Advice on which large IDE HD to buy .... (Erik Olson)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Sebastian W. Bunka)
  Re: Youngest linux user (Roy Hann)
  Re: Watching a user on an tty? (David Wright)
  Re: Advice on which large IDE HD to buy .... (Kenneth Tan)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Sebastian W. Bunka)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Tim Cutts)

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

From: mark@taylor.infi.net (Mark A. Davis)
Subject: Re: Word Perfect
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 12:34:02 GMT

cmiller@golden.ncw.net (Craig A. Miller) writes:


>>Since WordPerfect linked their binaries static, Motif, X, and other
>>libraries are compiled into it.  This is good news for compatibility across
>>platforms, but bad news for memory usage. 

>How much RAM does WordPerfect require to run on a Linux box currently?

I do not know about Linux, but under SCO, WordPerfect recommends 8MB of
RAM for the first user (in graphics/X mode) or 4MB of RAM for the first
user (in text/ASCII mode).  The binary sizes are 6123592 for X WordPerfect
and 2880272 for Text WordPerfect.  Both versions are included in the
package.  The X version is fully WYSIWYG, the ASCII version is not but
supports previewing, full attributes, and running under an xterm.

Yes, it is a lot of memory, but WordPerfect 5.1 for Unix is a huge and
complex program.  It does just about everything any word processor ever
did.  It supports just about every terminal and printer known to man.
WordPerfect 6.0 for Unix will likely be even bigger.
The price for compatibility, power, and flexibility, is size.

-- 
  /--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
  | Mark A. Davis    | Lake Taylor Hospital | Norfolk, VA (804)-461-5001x431 |
  | Sys.Administrator|  Computer Services   | mark@taylor.infi.net           |
  \--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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

From: dranch@ecst.csuchico.edu (David A. Ranch)
Subject: Re: Minicom Transfer Problems
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:37:00 GMT

>       I've been having a little problem with Minicom v1.6, the problem
>       is that I can't do 'any' transfers with it! It'll say 'timeout'

Does your modem work with another package like Telix for DOS?  I was having
similar problems regardless of Comm program and it was eventually tracked to
a corrupted setting in the modem's init string.  

Good luck!

-- 
--
David


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

From: jc@crosfield.co.uk (Jerry Cullingford)
Subject: Re: FTP BUG FIXED ??
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 15:31:28 GMT

In article <2uaomv$s4e@sun.cais.com> bass@cais.cais.com (Tim Bass) writes:
>Just go my Linux box out and up on the net.  When
>I FTP big files the kernal crashes.  I heard that
>there was a new kernal release that fixes it.
>
>Any comments or clues?

Check that your MTU setting (probably somewhere in your dip script) is
set to < 1024.  I had similar problems; reducing MTU to somewhere around
278 (or a similar magic number) seems to have fixed the problem.

It's possible the bug in the network code has been fixed; I'm using the
slackware distribution for the TA CDROM V3.



-- 
+------------------------------------------------------------------+     |
| Jerry Cullingford  #include <std.disclaimer> +44 442 230000 x3875|   ,-|--
| jc@crosfield.co.uk jc@selune.demon.co.uk  jerry@shell.portal.com |   \_|__
+-----(Work)--------------(Home)--------------(another alternate)--+ \___/

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

From: mlord@bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: Enhanced IDE with Linux?
Date: 27 Jun 1994 18:43:34 GMT

In article <2udd1c$c7@ionews.io.org> redgt@io.org writes:
>Do large capacity enhanced IDE drives work well with Linux?  I'd like to buy
>a Dell XPS P90 system that comes with a 1Gb IDE hard drive.  Would I have any
>problems running Linux?  If it does run, are there any restrictions to how I
>partition the hard drive?

Linux currently lacks support for the new improved IDE interface.

But it does work just fine with 1-2yr old IDE drives like the MC2210A (1 Gig)
and MC2112A (1 Gig).
-- 
mlord@bnr.ca    Mark Lord       BNR Ottawa,Canada       613-763-7482

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

From: lellis@dmccorp.com (John Lellis)
Subject: Re: SLIP sessions HANGING
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:34:16 GMT

Stefan Wikstrom (ehsstwi@ceres22.ericsson.se) wrote:

: I guess it is a bug in the networking code that causes SLIP to hang.
: I use 1.0.9. I don't know if the 1.1.x code has a solution to the
: problem. Does anyone know? Alan maybe?

I may be totally off base on this, but I think it might be a serial bug.

I've seen the same behaviour when trying to kermit into my Linux box.  It will
work fine for a while and then "hang" as though I had sent an X-OFF.  Typing
an X-ON (^Q) doesn't revive it, however, and the only way out is to hang up
and redial.

A similar problem occurs when I establish a SLIP connection to work and try to
telnet to the SLIP server.  We have an "unauthorized use prohibited" banner in
etc/issue which is kind of wordy.  If I attempt a direct connection to the SLIP
server, the telnet session always "hangs" after exactly 227 characters of the
banner are sent, never to be heard from again.  If I telnet _through_ the SLIP
server to another node (with the same /etc/issue file), I succeed.  Then I can
establish a telnet session from the other node to the SLIP server, log in and
play all day without incident.  Strange.  (We use CSLIP and MTU is 296.)

The last data point involves our callback modems.  I am using Karel Kubat's
callback-1.21 and Kris Gleason's getty_ps-2.0.7e to service modem connections
for both dial-in terminal sessions and SLIP access.  If a user terminates his
session by hanging up the phone, getty_ps reinitializes the modem and sets up
for the next call correctly.  If he terminates "gracefully", by doing an "exit"
at the bash prompt, the modem line is "hung" and getty_ps can no longer talk
to it.  Incoming calls go unanswered until getty_ps is restarted, either with
a kill -9 or a cbstat -reset.  SLIP sessions tend to be terminated by hanging
up and always reset properly.

I should add that none of the above symptoms occur under kernel 1.0.9, but all
have been observed and are reproducible under 1.1.x (where x > 12).  Since the
serial drivers changed from 3.99 to 4.0 in this time, they are prime suspects
in my view.

--

John Lellis (lellis@dmccorp.com)

--
... Our continuing mission: To seek out knowledge of C, to explore
strange UNIX commands, and to boldly code where no one has man page 4.




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

From: seb@i102pc1.vu-wien.ac.at (Sebastian W. Bunka)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 28 Jun 1994 14:49:38 GMT
Reply-To: Sebastian.Bunka@vu-wien.ac.at

Colin Dunn (dunnc@ucsub.Colorado.EDU) wrote:
: wgsohne@tucson.Princeton.EDU (William Guido Sohne) writes:

: >Yes. Or is a Dell computer not 'compatible' enough ? OS/2 was obviously the
: >problem here.

: OS/2 is the problem, more than people would like to believe. Even reputable
: brand-name hardware can be "incompatible." Really, it seems IBM does not
Yes, try installing OS/2 on an 93/OLIVETTI Philos 33 Notebook - stops at
disk 1. Linux is running perfectly!

: >BTW, I'll bet Linux demands more of the hardware. It has to since it 
see above! Same with one noname 386er!

: As for Linux, I plan to get a CD-ROM with it soon ... but I am not very
: familiar with the UNIX environment and won't get to use it very much ... yet.
works great!

: >Well, if I could get prices like yours and free software from IBM too, I 
: >would still stay with Linux. It works faster and does more of what I want.
right

: I wish someone would write a good, small, fast, stable multitasking OS
: with broad-based device driver support. This kind of OS would destroy
It EXISTS! name is Linux...

SWB
            `oo'
          ( O  O )
             vv \\
                  \\
                    \\            email:
                      [ Sebastian.Bunka@vu-wien.ac.at ]
                        phone:                   FAX:
                +43-1-71155260          +43-1-7149110
Location: earth, europe, austria, vienna  Inst. of Bacteriology  Vet.Univ.

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

From: tjrc1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Tim Cutts)
Subject: Re: Only 7000 Linux boxes, Re: Multiport Bored ...
Date: 28 Jun 1994 14:53:14 GMT

tzs@u.washington.edu (Tim Smith) writes:

>Greg Shaw <shaw@manwe.fmsoft.com> wrote:
>>Which is why Microsoft is having to rip out disk compression from DOS,
>>correct?  These sorts of practices are predatory, and can backfire badly.

>Microsoft isn't ripping disk compression out of DOS.

Which planet do you live on?  Microsoft lost their case against Stac and had
to remove DoubleSpace from subsequent copies of DOS 6.2.

Tim.

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

From: redhat@netcom.com (Marc Ewing)
Subject: Red Hat Software Linux Beta CD-ROM (corrected, expanded)
Reply-To: redhat@redhat.com
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 01:23:01 GMT

Our earlier announcement on c.o.l.a unfortunately had a bogus phone
number in it.  The number is corrected here, and I took the opportunity
to add a few more details on the contents of RHS Linux, which many
people seem to be asking for.

Thanks,
Marc Ewing
marc@redhat.com

* Red Hat Software, PO Box 4325, Chapel Hill, NC 27515, (919) 309 9560 *
*   Mail info@redhat.com for latest information sheets on RHS Linux    *
* All RHS authored products are placed under the GPL, and a percentage *
*             profits goes to the FSF, and LPF and Linus.              *

========================================================================

Red Hat Software would like to measure interest in a beta program for our
new Linux distribution to be distributed on CD-ROM.  The beta release
contains our Linux Installation Manager and packaging system as seen in
Open Systems Today.  Easy to follow, fill in the blanks, dialog-based
installation scripts are provided for quick setup of Linux on an empty
system.  Installation is supported from the CD-ROM, a hard drive, or over
the net with a single boot diskette.  A complete installation can also
be done from within an existing Linux system on a spare partition.

The beta release contains over 200 source and binary packages, including
lots of development tools, and a TeX/LaTeX suite.  Packages can be
installed, uninstalled, verified for correct installation, and otherwise
queried.  A brief description of RHS Linux is appended below.

There are two ways to participate in the beta program.  The first is
limited to 100 participants.  For $15 you will get the beta release and a
$20 credit towards the purchase of the first release.  The second way to
participate is to purchase the beta release for $10, with no additional
credits towards the first release.  The estimated retail price of the
first release is $40, including a ~100 page manual.  All prices do not
include shipping ($3 to $5, TBD).

We expect to have the beta CDs ready to ship in 3 to 4 weeks.  If you
have any interest in participating in this program, or any additional
questions, please feel free to contact me at beta@redhat.com.

========================================================================

                     Red Hat Software Linux

Basically, our distribution has very easy to use installation scripts,
similar to Slackware.  These scripts get a base system installed and
configured.  Then you boot onto that system and continue to install
various "packages" and series of packages.  This is all highly automated,
again through handy dialog-type scripts (like Slackware).

Packages can be installed, uninstalled, verified (so you know it is still
installed correctly), and otherwise queried for info.  Our graphical
installation manager makes it easy to install and uninstall packages
from the CD (or over the net).  The majority of packages are "relocatable"
meaning they can be installed under any prefix you choose (ie /usr or
/usr/local or /usr/my/private/stuff or /home/me).

The system included hundreds of packages, both source and binary.  We
are placing a particular emphasis on a development system, and plan to
include the widest available selection of compilers, interpreters,
libraries, debuggers, and other development tools.

Our packages structure supports package "updates".  Say you've installed
the sources to Emacs, made a few personal changes, did a make install.
And now want to remove the source (since they take up over 16 Mb).  Use
the installation manager to uninstall the sources and tell it to generate
an "update" package.  Later, if you reinstall the sources, you can install
the update package to get your changes.

Our source packages are all preconfigured and edited to conform to Linux
and FSSTND standards.  All except a very few support all, install, clean
and uninstall make targets.  There is support for rebuilding the entire
system from sources with a single make.

We also have graphical system managers for users and groups, printing,
filesystem and NFS, TCP/IP, time and date, and system statistics gathering.

We believe RHS Linux will be the most conformant FSSTND system available.
In particular, we think we have the only compliant TeX/LaTeX system.  Our
system is thoroughly checked and verified for missing files, bad symlinks,
file with owners/groups that do not exist, duplicate files, faulty
permissions/owners/groups.  We have a complete set of available man pages
and info pages.  All man pages, info files, HOWTOs and FAQs are available
through a graphical browser.

RHS Linux will be distributed on CD-ROM and will fully support network
installs with a single floppy disk.  A comprehensive manual (approx 100
pages) comes with the CD.  Availability is scheduled for early August.
The estimated retail price is $40.

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

From: erik@marge.phys.washington.edu (Erik Olson)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Advice on which large IDE HD to buy ....
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:43:01 GMT

kaszeta@arctic.uucp (Richard W Kaszeta) writes:

>I'd recommend _against_ a western digital 420 Meg Hard Drive. Although
>it always worked flawlessly under DOS and OS/2, Linux chokes on it.
>If I partition it with DOS or OS/2, then linux won't recognize the
>existing partitions. If I paritition it with Linux, it only lets me
>format 120 Meg of the drive...

Whaaaa?  I have a caviar 420 & it has DOS on the first partition (100meg),
Linux on the remaining three.  Not a problem at all.  And the drive is quiet
generates an incredibly low amount of heat.  Love it.

(usual disclaimers... I don't work for WD... blah blah blah...)


--
---
Erik D. Olson                                olson@phys.washington.edu
"When in doubt, throw it out!"          erik@marge.phys.washington.edu

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

From: seb@i102pc1.vu-wien.ac.at (Sebastian W. Bunka)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 28 Jun 1994 14:53:55 GMT
Reply-To: Sebastian.Bunka@vu-wien.ac.at

Bill Poitras (bill@msi.com) wrote:
: Colin Dunn (dunnc@ucsub.Colorado.EDU) wrote:
: OS/2!:
: a crashed system.  So I usually can let any file transfers complete 
: before I hit C-A-D, which syncs my file systems and reboots.
with Linux you switch to another virtual consol, login as root
and perform "kill -1 <ps-id>"; thats a protected system...
SWB
                      [ Sebastian.Bunka@vu-wien.ac.at ]
                        phone:                   FAX:
                +43-1-71155260          +43-1-7149110
Location: earth, europe, austria, vienna  Inst. of Bacteriology  Vet.Univ.

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

From: rhh@tachy.uah.ualberta.ca (Roy Hann)
Subject: Re: Youngest linux user
Date: 28 Jun 1994 03:06:43 GMT

pit@p2.lxs.baboon.ch (Peter Berger) writes:
: sto2@netaxs.com (Brian Stoler) wrote:
: 
:  > John Bryan (jhonsrid@drealm.drealm.org) wrote:
:  > : Btw, the youngest linux user I know is 15. Is that some kind of
:  > record?
: 
:  > Well I'm 15 now, but I started using Linux 5 monthes ago, when I
:  > was 14.
:  > Do I hold the record? :)
: 
: Hm. If you're administering it yourself: Sort of.. In regard to the
: original question 'bout the youngest _user_ I know about younger ones:
: 
: In the german fidonet echo LINUX.GER there's been a poster having 8 or 9
: (sorry, I forgot, but it's been less than 10) years old...
: 
: There's been also his father posting. He had some security problems :-))).
: 
: If I remember right best advice to him has been to set the boot option
: in the BIOS setup to boot from the hard disk instead of floppy drive A:
: and to set a password for the BIOS setup that his son doesn't know, of
: course.

As someone who got into this business at the age of 11 back in 1971
I have to protest against that advice.  The correct thing to do, the
thing I would do if my kids showed the least interest, is to buy 
the kid his/her own machine.  (Or give him/her that machine and
upgrade!)

========================================================================

Roy Hann
Senior Analyst, Information Systems        rhh@tachy.uah.ualberta.ca
University of Alberta Hospitals            (MIME-capable mail agent)
WMC 2C2.21, 8440-112th Street,     
Edmonton, Alberta                          Tel: (403)492-4367
T6G 0N4                                    FAX: (403)492-3090
Canada

PLEASE: No shipments by courier from outside Canada; use regular mail.
========================================================================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
From: dmw@prism1.prism1.com (David Wright)
Subject: Re: Watching a user on an tty?
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 12:21:38 GMT

>>>>> "TS" == Tim Smith <tzs@u.washington.edu> writes:

  TS> If the system administrator wants your password, why would he or she
  TS> go to the trouble of snooping on your terminal line?  Why not just change
  TS> login to catch it?

        The SA has almost no need for a user's login password. On every Unix
system I have seen root is allowed to "su" to any userid they want without a
password being given. The only legitimate reason I can see for the SA to know
the users login password is to give it back to the user if they forget it,
and a better solution is for the SA to just assign them a new termporary
password and have them change it to what they (the user) wants at the next
login.

        The passwords people might be wishing to keep secret would be for
things like PGP key files, DES encrypted files, WordPerfect encrypted files
(well, OK, with a small program anyone can "crack" a WP5.x files password in
less than a sec, but not everyone has it or knows how), etc. In other words
data that "root" can not do anything with even if they are "su"ed to the
users ID.

                                                Dave

--
  ____________________________________________________________________________
 |        /\ /          | Prism Computer Applications        |  David Wright  |
 |      -/--\--         | 14650 Detroit Ave, Suite LL40      | dmw@Prism1.COM |
 |      /____\          | Lakewood, OH 44107  USA            |  216-228-1400  |

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: asktan@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Kenneth Tan)
Subject: Re: Advice on which large IDE HD to buy ....
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 02:02:35 GMT

Divya A. Sundaram (sundaram@rtsg.mot.com) wrote:
: I had heard regarding the problems with using large IDE HDs (esp.
: ones with >1024 cylinders) when running linux. 
: Could someone please inform me of the exact nature of this problem and also
: be kind enough to enlighten me if there is a workaround or solution?

The problem is with the file system.  Instead of using the block count,
which will allow up to 4GB HDs, it is using the physical cylinder count,
which has the 1024 problem (OLD DOS partition table only has 10 bits for the
number of cylinders, so if you set it higher than 1024, it just wraps around
and tells you disk full!)

: I am hoping to buy one of those really large IDE drive (>500MB) and wanted
: to ensure that it will be usable by Linux. What problems would I encounter
: if I were to install two large IDE HDs in my machine?

Don't buy anything larger than 528MB (1024 cyl, 16 hd, 63 sect).  Even
though the disk geometries are pretty meaningless, now that they are all
Zone-Bit-Recording, they are still being used by Linux and DOS.
[I've got a 540Mb and had a really rough time with Linux and DOS...
 personally, I'd recommend you get the 420Mb instead.]

Kenneth Tan


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

From: seb@i102pc1.vu-wien.ac.at (Sebastian W. Bunka)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:02:23 GMT
Reply-To: Sebastian.Bunka@vu-wien.ac.at

R S Rodgers (rsrodger@wam.umd.edu) wrote:
: In article <2un119$6tl@aurora.engr.latech.edu>,
: Alex Ramos <ramos@engr.latech.edu> wrote:
: >Colin Dunn (dunnc@ucsub.Colorado.EDU), quoted out of context, wrote:
: >Lack of easy availability?? Try sunsite.unc.edu or tsx-11.mit.edu or....
1000 other sites

: It's a pain to ftp & download an entire Linux distribution.  I just did it
and CDROM, or NFS ? one anonymous site in vienna allows mounting via nfs!
And thats fully supported by the slackware scripts. Ask the administrator
of a site close to you - should be possible!

: >And, the "constant evolution" is there only as an option. I'm still using
: >Linux 1.0.8 ("anciently old"). 
Yes, I'm running 0.99pl14 and have encountered no problems!
(But I will upgrade for dosemu0.52 - it's much faster!)
SWB
                      [ Sebastian.Bunka@vu-wien.ac.at ]
                        phone:                   FAX:
                +43-1-71155260          +43-1-7149110
Location: earth, europe, austria, vienna  Inst. of Bacteriology  Vet.Univ.

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

From: tjrc1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Tim Cutts)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:54:38 GMT

seb@i102pc1.vu-wien.ac.at (Sebastian W. Bunka) writes:

>Bill Poitras (bill@msi.com) wrote:
>: Colin Dunn (dunnc@ucsub.Colorado.EDU) wrote:
>: OS/2!:
>: a crashed system.  So I usually can let any file transfers complete 
>: before I hit C-A-D, which syncs my file systems and reboots.
>with Linux you switch to another virtual consol, login as root
>and perform "kill -1 <ps-id>"; thats a protected system...
>SWB

Doesn't work if your X server is hung, as happens to me quite often, and is
basically the equivalent problem he is describing - Presentation Manager has
crashed, not OS/2 itself.  Your statement is equivalent to saying "X crashed,
therefore Linux must be a crap unprotected system".  If Colin had a telnetd
running he could log in remotely and fix the problem in exactly the same way
(though he'd need some extra software that is not standard with OS/2 - you
can't kill a process from the command line without some extra utilities,
unfortunately, though OS/2 equivalents of ps and kill do exist, they are not
standard).

Tim.

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


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