Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #330
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 16:13:14 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #330, Volume #2                Tue, 28 Jun 94 16:13:14 EDT

Contents:
  Youngest linux user (Peter Berger)
  Re:  Serial bidirectional file transfer. (Whay S. Lee)
  Re: FORTRAN on Linux (Tommy Bevins)
  Re: any reason _not_ to get an Adaptec 1542? (David A. Ranch)
  Virtual Consoles & Linux (Dean Junk)
  Actix GE PLUS (Paul Quinn)
  Future of Debian Linux (Veal)
  Re: Advice on which large IDE HD to buy .... (Peter Herweijer)
  Re: Watching a user on an tty? (Joe Pannon)
  POV-Ray for Linux : it's official (Christopher Cason)
  Re: TCP/IP: The reason I dumped OS/2 (S. Spencer Sun)
  Re: Xdm ....... (Wai Ming Ho)
  Re: [Q] Programing-HOWTO & Guide ??? (Matt Welsh)
  Re: How to split large tar file to fit on floppy (Lutz Behnke HiWi)
  Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX (Steffen Petrick)

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

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 00:38:04 +0200
From: pit@p2.lxs.baboon.ch (Peter Berger)
Subject: Youngest linux user

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.

bye,
    Peter

e-mail: pit@lxs.baboon.ch


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

From: wslee@ai.mit.edu (Whay S. Lee)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re:  Serial bidirectional file transfer.
Date: 28 Jun 94 13:53:26


> From: muenx@speedy.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Holger Muenx)
> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.misc
>
> Most of my users dial in using a MS-DOS machines running Telemate, Telix,
> Terminate or some other package. Standard protocols offered by these packages
> are Zmodem, Ymodem and similar non-birectional protocols for file transfers.
> However, you can install external protocols like HS/Link which allows
> bidirectional file transfers.
        
        try PCUCP ( ousrvr.uolu.fi : /pub/msdos/pcucp ).  I used it
extensively to hook up to the office Sun stations from home back when
I was still using M$Dos and Windows.  There is a DOS version, and a
MSWindows version.  Both are freeware (I hope I am right on this)
written by Jouni Leppjrv (jml@stekt.oulu.fi).

The PCUCP package allows you to open multiple sessions/windows over
the phone line, from a Microsoft Windows (PC) environment to a Unix host.
It also allows background upload/download while you are using
interactive shells in the foreground.
 
While not exactly as good as X, this does make it possible to do the
following simultaneously in * MSWindows * , for example:
 
        window #1:  tcsh
        window #2:  emacs
        window #3:  irc
        background: transferring files, bidirectionally.
 
Since the active window is always given priority, it is very usable
on a 9600/14.4K modem.  The DOS version switches "windows" 
with hotkeys, like iscreen.

From the readme file:
 
>       PCUCP IS PROGRAM FOR COMMUNICATING BETWEEN A PC AND A UNIX
>       MACHINE USING A SERIAL LINE. CURRENTLY, VERSION 1.10 IS
>       AVAILABLE ONLY FOR WINDOWS 3.X.
>       FEATURES :
>        - BIDIRECTIONAL FILE TRANSFER AND SIMULTANEOUS TERMINAL SESSIONS
>        - VT100 TERMINAL EMULATION
>        - BITCODING SHCEMES FOR NOT-8-BIT CLEAN LINES
>        - AUTOMATIC RESTART IN FILE TRANSFER
>        - TRANSLATE TABLES FOR INTERNATIONAL CHARACTERS
>        - RESIZEABLE TERMINAL WINDOWS
>        - SCROLLBACK BUFFER
>        - COPY & PASTE TROUGH CLIPBOARD
 
The package comes in two parts, one is the server that runs on the
unix host, and the other the client that runs on the PC.  The source
for the server is included, and it compiled successfully on my linux
box with a small change (one of the SIGNALs was not defined in linux,
I commented it out and it compiles) I got my notebook (DOS+Windows)
talking to the linux box using the package and null modem, works like
a charm.

        In short, I'd highly recommend it if you are trying to get a
DOS machine (8086/286/386) talking to your linux/unix box via dialin
without using SLIP etc.


whay.

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

From: h5ssatb0@smd4d.wes.army.mil (Tommy Bevins)
Subject: Re: FORTRAN on Linux
Date: 28 Jun 1994 13:30:32 GMT

The f2c is a pretty good option until a full fledged compiler becomes available. 
I recently compiled an 60,000+ fortran code on my linux box.  I guess the only
complaint is that f2c is an extremely strict f77 compiler and doesn't support
the common extensions normally found on compilers.  I had to figure out how to
write some C routines for some time functions and logical functions iand and ior.

Basically, it works and it's free.

-Tommy

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

From: dranch@ecst.csuchico.edu (David A. Ranch)
Subject: Re: any reason _not_ to get an Adaptec 1542?
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:58:13 GMT

In article <2un9hg$otr@cayman.cayman.com>, Paul Fox <pgf@cayman.com> wrote:
>
>       1) what makes it a 'C'?  what are the differences between the
>               various Adaptec controllers?

The C in the Adaptec 1542 line is their jumperless SCSI-2 controller.  The
older 1542b controllers had a mess of jumpers to configure the card.  One 
thing to note:  The 1542b card runs very warm.  I'm not sure why it radiates
so much heat but its dead reliable.

1540 - Plain SCSI (8-bit I beleive)
1542b - 16-bit ISA bus SCSI-2 w/ floppy support (older jumper style card)
1542c - 16-bit ISA bus SCSI-2 w/ floppy support (software configurable)
1742  - 32-bit EISA bus SCSI-2 w/ floppy support
28xx  - 32-bit VLB bus SCSI-2 2/ floppy support [ Not quite sure of the product
                                                  number but its close.  ]

>       2) i have a vesa localbus system.  is it worth it to get a vlb
>               scsi adapter?

It really depends on your SCSI devices.  If you have a fast SCSI drive ( 5400+
RPMs) you will definately noticed the difference.  If your using only CD-Roms,
tape drives, and old SCSI drives.. its not worth the extra money.

One thing to note, Linux doesn't have a productional VLB SCSI driver for Adaptec
yet.  Its in Alpha and looks good but its not quite 100% yet.  Linux does 
support BusLogic's VLB controller and a friend of mine swears by it in Linux.

>       3) what else should i know that i obviously don't?  :-)

The debate is still going: Bus Mastering vs. Caching.

The friend I just mentioned, that has the BusLogic card (Bus Mastering), has
used high-end cards of both types.  He found that overall performance was better
with a caching card than a bus mastering card.  Though this is IMHO, you
should do a little research to see what you find in the SCSI adapter matket.

And the bottom line is:  How much money do you want to spend?  When its comes
                         to SCSI adapters on the IBM Pc platform, you really
                         get what you pay for!


-- 
--
David


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

From: us292121@bulldog.mmm.com (Dean Junk)
Subject: Virtual Consoles & Linux
Date: 27 Jun 1994 04:55:09 GMT


After installing a ULSI Coproc and 256K cache on my 386DX40 motherboard,
I can no longer return to my virtual consoles while running X.  Has
anybody else experienced this problem?  I did recompile the kernel with
no math co emulation.  Stats:

        386DX40 - AMD, 256K cache
        Math Co - ULSI
        SVGA    - Paradise WD - 1MB
        Monitor - 15" MAG INNOVISION - MX15f
        Drives  - (2) WD 250MB
        TAPE    - 250MB Conner
        Modem   - Practical Per. FXMT 14400
        Memory  - 16MB
        Sound   - Sound Blaster 16 Multi CD
        CD-ROM  - Mitsumi double speed

Thanks,

--
Dean Junk                   "An ounce of perception, a pound of obscure"
Internet (dpjunk@mmm.com)                      --RUSH

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

From: p_quinn@ECE.Concordia.CA (Paul Quinn)
Subject: Actix GE PLUS
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 14:42:25 GMT


I'm going to buy a new VLB graphics card.  The one I really want is
the #9GXE64, but there is no X server.

Has anyone tried teh Actix GE Plus.  It is an S3 928 chip-based card.

Any opinions concerning this card?


Any other recommendation?

--
________
Paul Quinn
p_quinn@ece.concordia.ca
Computer Science: Systems Architecture
Concordia University
Montreal, QC, CANADA
========

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

From: cs4ev@herts.ac.uk (Veal)
Subject: Future of Debian Linux
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:04:23 GMT

I have be using the Beta version of Debian linux for a number of months 
now (since it was available!) I am quite happy with it but the Slackware
Distribution seems to be more widely use and is becoming the standard. 
I have had difficulty getting in touch with the Debian user mailing list 
so I thought I would post my thoughts here.

With the popularity of Slackware do people think that effort spent on
developing debian is rather wasted ?

N.B. This is not a flame against the Debian developers, I appreciate 
     the work they have done. 

Jon.


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: pieterh@sci.kun.nl (Peter Herweijer)
Subject: Re: Advice on which large IDE HD to buy ....
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 14:44:27 GMT

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

 >asktan@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Kenneth Tan) writes:
 >
 >>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.

Why?  DOS may not like the geometry, but Linux doesn't mind.  It will
happily use >1024 cylinders (okay, so FDISK will issue a warning,
ignore it).  You can cheat DOS by telling it that the drive has 1024
cylinders and pass Linux the true parameters.

In fact, by all means _do_ get a 540MB or greater drive since they're
so much faster in general.

 >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.

And you blame the drive?  I'm sure it's something else; the WDC2420 is
as standard as drives come.  In fact, Western Digital Caviar drives
score high on the compatibility and feature scale in general.  They all
support read/write multiple, i.e. Mark Lord's IDE performance patches,
and ALL WD Caviar drives made today have Enhanced IDE interfaces, even
those smaller than 528MB.

 >Still haven't puzzled this one out.

I, for one, would be glad to try and help you, but please don't blindly
blame the drive.  I happen to have nothing but good experiences with
WD drives.

Hmmm.  Maybe it's time for a "Large IDE drive HOWTO".  Any takers?

 - Peter Herweijer
   pieterh@sci.kun.nl

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

From: danubius@coho.halcyon.com (Joe Pannon)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: Watching a user on an tty?
Date: 27 Jun 1994 04:36:38 GMT

In article <2uljkm$90i@marlin.ssnet.com>,
Dan Foster <dsfoster@marlin.ssnet.com> wrote:
>The original poster has a valid point there - this really helps for software
>support, as well as seeing what an intruder is doing to hack around the
>system or if he/she's planting any kind of bombs... 

And finding out passwords, eh?  I don't mean just login, but PGP, for
instance.  I sure wouldn't appreciate my SysAdmin doing that to me.

Joe

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

From: cjcason@yarrow.wt.uwa.edu.au (Christopher Cason)
Subject: POV-Ray for Linux : it's official
Date: 28 Jun 1994 14:55:48 GMT

As mentioned in comp.os.linux.announce, an officially-supported POV 
binary is to be released for Linux. At this stage, I want to know -

which is the best port of POV to Linux ???
- or -
what are the best features of each port ???

as I have been told that there are several ones out there ...

regards,

-- Chris

==============================================================================
| Chris Cason via Univ. of Western Australia : cjcason@yarrow.wt.uwa.edu.au  |
==============================================================================
|  POV by EMAIL : mail povray@yarrow.wt.uwa.edu.au with word HELP in body    |
|  POV by FTP   : FTP to ftp.uwa.edu.au and cd to pub/povray                 |
|  POV-Ray is a FREE raytracer for DOS, UNIX, VAX, Mac, Amiga, Atari, etc.   |
|   - check out the images in our HALL_OF_FAME/ and Images_of_the_month/ ! - |
==============================================================================


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
From: wgsohne@tucson.Princeton.EDU (S. Spencer Sun)
Subject: Re: TCP/IP: The reason I dumped OS/2
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 09:35:19 GMT

In article <1994Jun27.211132.12132@ll.mit.edu>,
Robert W. Cashman <cashman@ll.mit.edu> wrote:
>  I am not going to repeat all the previous postings on the subject, they are
>a bit long.  I just want to say why I am running Linux on what used to be an
>OS/2 partition on my hard disk.  I used to run DOS and Windows and was
>frustrated with the lack of stability.  I was unable to multitask.  I bought
>OS/2 2.0 and waited for the support for my hardware.  Installing OS/2 was no
>easy task.  I had video problems, sound problems, ect...  After the CSD or 
>whatever they called the patch to 2.0 came out I worked on it and had the 
>system running.  At least I could use most of my hardware.  Then I tried to
>multitask.  For the most part it was stable... No complaints.  My system was
>a 386-40mhz so I realized that it was not fast enough to begin with and I 
>went back to DOS/Windows, because it still had more support for hardware.
>Also it seemed the Windows programmers where getting better at writing 
>stable software.  When OS/2 2.1 came out I got a copy.  It was a much easier
>install, and the support was much better.  At this time I've been exposed
>to the internet and now my reason for multitasking is not for modeming but for
>using usenet and such.  Well, at my work I bought the TCP/IP add on for OS/2.
>I am not sure, but I think it was version 2.0 or something like that.  Well
>it was a mess!  It did not support Western Digital cards directly.  I suppose
>I could have found a driver somewhere, but for that price!  It should have
>been there.  Then I thought I would try the SLIP...  Why is the startup
>text based???  Everything else in OS/2 is usually graphical?  I don't know, 
>it seemed that I was working hard to get something that should be easy to
>do since I spend a great deal of money on it.
>
>  I never tried Linux because I was afraid it would be like OS/2, heck it was
>free!  What kind of support could it have?  Just a few weeks ago I went to a
>local area computer show and there was someone selling InfoMagic CDROMs... 
>Well that was the one thing I liked about OS/2 2.1... The CD install.  So I
>asked the vendor if Linux supported my SoundBlaster CDROM drive...  I was
>suprised that it did!! And for $20, I bought it, thinking it would waste a
>day on me but that would be it.  I had to figure out how the CD was set up
>and I found the slackware distribution.  The install was as simple as making
>the floppies, partitioning my disk, and running install, with meny choices.
>Something I would expect from a commercial package but not a free one.  The
>install was smooth.  The video support was there and the tape drive (floppy
>tape drive) was there too!!  All for free.  Also a C compiler which I did not
>buy for OS/2 because I am not a professional programmer, but with a free 
>compiler, I am finding that I like writing programs!!  I guess it depends on
>your needs.  And of course I can use the latest internet tools that are
>written for X on my system and it is great!!
>

This is exactly what I was trying to point out. That Linux is an incredible
*free* system put together by experts and including almost everything you
might want in your OS.

The CD install is something I've never tried since I don't have a CD-ROM.
Matter of fact is with a network card and an Ethernet Internet hookup I
have no need for the CD-ROM.  I don't think I could ever emphasize enough
how convenient NFS install is. It beats CD-ROM install because you never
have to update the CD-ROM, NFS always gives you access to the latest stuff.

Linux is perfect for Internet surfing because it is exactly what the
Internet really is. A network of Unix machines running the same programs.
Other systems tend to be warts on the Internet. That's one of the reasons
why OS/2 TCP/IP just doesn't cut it. It delivers what the company considers
to be the important features but is not complete so occasionally you run
into some roadblock just when you wnat to Operate at a Higher Level (tm)
IBM.

--
Guido


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

From: tauq7@central.susx.ac.uk (Wai Ming Ho)
Subject: Re: Xdm .......
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:18:54 GMT

Steven M. Kilby (smk@fore.com) wrote:
: Hello,
:    I have two simple questions.  First, what is the proper entry in inittab to 
: start Xdm at boot up.  Second, my root file system always comes up dirty.  I 
: have executed an rdev -R 1 and I shutdown the system properly.  Any help would 
: be appreciated.  Please respond to smk@fore.com 

I only have the answer to the first question:
set the runlevel to 6 in the initdefault line and make sure that the xdm
line further down is *UNCOMMENTED*

: Thanks,
:    Steven .....

HTH,
Wai-Ming Ho
tauq7@central.sussex.ac.uk


-- 
Wai-Ming Ho                     | "If there is anything more in life
tauq7@central.susx.ac.uk        |  than this, I don't know what it is"
Computer System Engineering     |
University of Sussex            |                       Calvin & Hobbes

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

From: mdw@cs.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh)
Subject: Re: [Q] Programing-HOWTO & Guide ???
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 03:16:17 GMT

In article <2un34d$pnl@nippur.irb.hr> domikuli@cromath.math.hr (Dean Domikulic) writes:
>I think that Linux is a very good (and cheap) platform for writing all
>kinds of software. But since there is a lot of questions on this pages 
>about geting started in programing with Motif or tcl or Smalltalk I
>think that it would be worthwhile to make efforts and write some
>documnet like 
>
>               Programing-HOWTO

There's not much that differs from other UNIX systems when 
programming Linux. I would like to see a Programming HOWTO, at
somepoint, which concentrates on Linux-specific issues at the
system call level; e.g., use of various defines for POSIX
behaviour, particular's of Linux's tty, signal handling, and
so forth. Even if everything is 100% POSIX.1 compliant (is it?) 
this would be a nice thing to have.

>       - a list of all development tools avaliable for Linux,
>         both commercial packages like Motif libs. and tools,
>         and free software like tcl,Smalltalk ...

This would be good fodder for such a HOWTO.

>This HOWTO could be made also like 
>       
>       Linux Programming Guide
>
>and be a part of Linux Documentation Project.

The LDP has considered doing a Programming Guide; all we need 
is someone to step forward to write it. It should probably concentrate
on programming at the system call level, in C, but chapters on other
languages and programming tools would make sense as well.

M. Welsh

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

From: behnke@tu-harburg.d400.de (Lutz Behnke HiWi)
Subject: Re: How to split large tar file to fit on floppy
Date: 23 Jun 1994 15:38:04 GMT

In article <iwalker.772382333@kaiwan>, iwalker@kaiwan.com (Charles Ian Walker) writes:
|> How about using
|>      dd if=bigfile.bin of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 count=1400
|> for the first disk and
|>      dd if=bigfile.bin of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 skip=1400 count=1400
|> for the second disk and
|>      ...
|> for each subseqent disk
|> 

how about using the gnu split command?
you may set exactly how much bytes on each file, and get n files which you may put on
floppy.
a lot easier!
mfg Lutz

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

From: petrick@rcs1.urz.tu-dresden.de (Steffen Petrick)
Subject: Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX
Date: 28 Jun 1994 15:13:01 GMT

In article <2ul0of$g7g@sun.cais.com>, bass@cais.cais.com (Tim Bass) writes:
|> if [ -ok MOUNT A PhotoCD under LINUX ]
|> then
|>      Please let me know how to do it
|>      YES=1
|> fi
|> 
|> if [ YES ]
|> then
|>      How to read the mounted disk?
|> fi
|> 
|> trap 1 2 3 on FLAMEROASTEDREADERS
|> 
|>
 
Toshiba XM-3301 XM-3401 :

Use Andreas Haumer's set_density
 on sunsite.umc.edu:/pub/Linux/Incoming/ToshibaPCD-1.1.tar.gz 

mount -tiso9660 /dev/sr0 /mnt

Use Hadmut Danisch's hpcdtoppm to convert the images *.pcd to *.ppm 

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


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