Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #351
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, 1 Jul 94 19:13:11 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #351, Volume #2                 Fri, 1 Jul 94 19:13:11 EDT

Contents:
  Smail dies, sendmail+ida drops core (Clay Luther)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Andy Longton)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Matthew Dillon)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Mike Strock)
  Linux/Bocaboard limits (K.G. Brayton)
  Re: LaTex cannot find .sty files -- HELP!! (Timothy Murphy)
  Re: Difficult Linux Instructions... (Matt Welsh)
  Re: POV-Ray for Linux : it's official (Jeff Epler)
  Re: Difficult Linux Instructions... (Matt Welsh)
  `ncftp` for Linux?        (Mike Strock)
  Re: XDM from inittab (CyberDrunk)
  Linux with SCSI II (Robert Gasch)
  Re: ftape and Conner Backup Basics (Dennis Flaherty)
  Re: ftape and Conner Backup Basics (Louis-D. Dubeau)
  Re: Watching a user on an tty? (Kevin Lentin)
  Linux 68K Assembler/Simulator (Ray Seyfarth)

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

From: cluther@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Clay Luther)
Subject: Smail dies, sendmail+ida drops core
Date: 1 Jul 1994 19:37:07 GMT

Under Linux 1.0.8. (slackware)

A frustrating day on the mail front all around.

I recently got both the latest releases of smail and sendmail+ida from their
sources.  I used the smail config files that came with the slackware
distribution to build smail (which, with only a couple of problems, did).

It appeared to run fine, but would mysteriously die when attempting to process
the queue after running for several hours, invariably leaving a zombie.

While this was going on, I was attempting to compile the sendmail+ida
sources, wich I was able to, but the program would not run at all, dropping
core upon executing.  I guess my guesses were wrong.

I have temporarily solved my problem by not running smail as a daemon, but
instead allowing inetd to handle incoming smtp requests and cron handle
running runq (smail -q) every half hour.  This seems to work.

Could someone who has compiled the latest sendmail+ida release please send me 
their configuration files?

Thanks!


-- 
Clay Luther                         Lonely C++ Programmer        
cluther@ponder.csci.unt.edu
cluther@solo.csci.unt.edu           I work here now and they still
cluther@supernet.haus.com           don't let me have any opinions.

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

From: alongton@clark.net (Andy Longton)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 1 Jul 1994 19:39:24 GMT

Chun Hsu (hsuc@msu.edu) wrote:
: Leo L Turetsky (professor+@CMU.EDU) wrote:
[Snip!]
: > that work than OS/2 ever will have. Plus NeXT doesn't release broken
: > drivers and OS's and not provide free fixes, not that this has happened
: > yet to my knowledge.

: As many others have already pointed out, the fixes are free.
: I may be wrong, but it doesn't yet seem to be the norm in the
: software industry to send out free fixes.  I have accumulated
[Snip!]
: their software or drivers.  Patches for OS/2 cost just as
: much as Linux, nothing.

: The only time I might expect free patches is if the cost of
: the patch was negligible compared to how much I spent on 
: the software itself. 

Software patches that I've needed (for Windows or OS/2) have always been 
free or very low cost; free if I download it, low cost if the waranty has 
expired.  The only exception was a CD ROM driver for OS/2 & DOS that 
Hitachi was charging for ($30) -- something that I've never encountered 
before with the exception of some of Adaptec's software.  If I bought the 
hardware, the drivers were free in all other situations.

If I had a way to gripe to Hitachi, I would have used it.  Fortunately 
for them, they provide no way to contact them -- everything is through 
voice mail and dealers; they don't want to talk to you if you actual own 
one of thier products.  Grrrrr....

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

From: dillon@apollo.west.oic.com (Matthew Dillon)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 1 Jul 1994 11:03:15 -0700

:In article <Ai4lIoO00WB7QYXHsd@andrew.cmu.edu> Leo L Turetsky <professor+@CMU.EDU> writes:
:
:All of three cards? Incorrect. Why don't you find out something about
:the specs. ftp.next.com (unless they changed it). It has more drivers
:that work than OS/2 ever will have. Plus NeXT doesn't release broken
:drivers and OS's and not provide free fixes, not that this has happened
:yet to my knowledge.

    Good god, you can't be serious!  NeXTStep has a piddling number of 
    drivers, and there have been major bugs in every OS release.   I can
    think of two examples right off the bat:  They broke the serial ports
    in the Intel releases and were so slow in fixing the problems that we
    were forced to give up on NeXT and move to Linux.  In fact, the problems
    are STILL not fixed.  Second:  Their swap-file system has been screwed up 
    for years and they have yet to pay any serious attention to it.  There are
    a huge number of compatibility and other implementation problems which
    have NEVER been fixed... for example, no resource limits beyond a stack
    size limit allows any runaway program to crash the machine.  Their
    device driver support has gotten better in the last 6 months, but they
    still have a propensity to distribute new drivers untuned and implementing
    only the bare minimum necessary to operate the hardware.

    That alone isn't too bad, but NeXT refuses to offer any serious bug-fix
    releases... you generally have to wait for the next major OS release
    which can a year or more away.

                                                -Matt

:+----------------------------------------------------------+
:| Leo Turetsky          |  1) leo@professor.pc.cc.cmu.edu  |
:| Sigma Nu              |  2) professor@cmu.edu            |
:| 1055 Morewood Ave.    |  Carnegie-Mellon University      |
:| Pittsburgh, PA 15213  |  Sophomore, ECE\CS Double Major  |
:| (412) 862-2963        |  Nugget: SPIN BHBHY, YAXY?       |
:+----------------------esp---------------------------------+




-- 

    Matthew Dillon              dillon@apollo.west.oic.com
    1005 Apollo Way             ham: KC6LVW (no mail drop)
    Incline Village, NV. 89451  Obvious Implementations Corporation
    USA                         Sandel-Avery Engineering
    [always include a portion of the original email in any response!]


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
From: mstrock@eskimo.com (Mike Strock)
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 17:54:14 GMT

<ajross.772734232@husc10.harvard.edu> <2uspk1$oc8@news1.svc.portal.com>
Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever
 
 
 I think one of the biggest reasons that I use Linux at work to do my 
 net surfing stuff is $$$.  With Linux, TCP/IP is built in.  With OS/2,
 if I need/want TCP/IP, I've got to spend at least $150 to get it.  Just
 to hook up to TCP/IP.  I can't afford that right now.  My company has
 a T1 line, and I've got a node machine that currently runs Linux hooked
 up to it.  It works wonderfully.  If I could easily/inexpensively get
 TCP/IP, I would probably go back to OS/2 at work for net surfing.  
 
  But, I'll still run Linux at home, where I don't have TCP/IP, just a
 dial up account at this time.
 
  Mike Strock
  mstrock@eskimo.com

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

From: kgb8752@ultb.isc.rit.edu (K.G. Brayton)
Subject: Linux/Bocaboard limits
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 16:36:35 GMT

I am looking for what you have found, from experience, to be the limit
on the number and speed of modems you can hook up to a 16-port multiport
board on a Pentium machine.  I am more interested in what you people who
have these things have found, rather than just the "it should be able
to handle".  I'm going to be setting up modem servers with Linux boxes and I
just need to know how many lines I can realistically expect to attach to
each server.  Thanx for your input.

Kevin
-- 
===================================================================
| Kevin Brayton  |___|___|___|___|___|_| kgb8752@ultb.isc.rit.edu |
| Cortland, NY   | |   |   |   |   |   |                          | 
===================================================================

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

From: tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: LaTex cannot find .sty files -- HELP!!
Date: 1 Jul 1994 20:23:22 +0100

skb@cl.cam.ac.uk (Subir Biswas) writes:

>apparently, it cannot find the .sty files and complains 
>about it. I checked that all the .sty files are there in the

>/usr/Tex/libs/tex/macros/Latex  

>directory. What I guess is that somewhere I ought to specify 
>the proper location of the .sty files in order to enable 
>latex to find those. 

The default TEXINPUTS directory in UnixTeX is

/usr/local/lib/texmf/tex .

I'm afraid I'm not certain if the Slackware distribution
has followed this (it's by no means mandatory),
as for purely personal reasons I compiled and installed TeX from scratch,
using the UnixTeX distribution from ftp.cs.umb.edu
in web2c.tar.gz and web.tar.gz.
(I'm responsible for TeX on a large system,
and like to test it out on my Linux box first.)

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

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

From: mdw@cs.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh)
Subject: Re: Difficult Linux Instructions...
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 20:06:57 GMT

In article <1994Jul1.145510.19203@wmichgw> 31khoo@wmich.edu (Beng Teck Here...) writes:
>finally, My FVWM popped up and my Openwin came up and i found that the only
>documents that i REALLY needed to read was README.config (which gave the step
>by step instructions), modeDB.txt for the video modes, and man Xconfig for the
>format of the Xconfig file... thankfully, i already dealt with .xinitrcs and
>stuff like that, so i didn't have a problem with those things... :)
>
>now if, just *those* documents were presented to me in the very begginning, i
>think i might have gotten it set up faster... what do you guys think?

They should have been. Everything else, from the XFree86-HOWTO to the
I&GS, points at them quite explicitly. 

>>>Welcome to Linux. It certainly isn't for everybody, and it's going to take
>                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>No, but if Linux/Unix is as good as everyone (and myself) think it is, why not
>make it "for everyone"?

Because it's not designed that way. It's designed by hackers, for hackers.
Amazingly enough, in many cases UNIX novices can use it. One of the goals
of the LDP is to expand the Linux audience. But documentation can't make
up for certain design decisions which assume basic or intermediate familiarity
with UNIX.

>True, but simpler documentation will help, instead of huge stacks of
>overlapping ones... I guess this is the "goal" of the LDP, but liek i said,
>Matt's book was great for installation, but he didn't write on setting up X,
>modem, mouse, sound... etc... will you do it Matt? treat you to McDonalds! :)

It's getting there. Eventually I plan to roll most of the important 
information from the various X documentation into one section of the I&GS.
But I'm extremely busy these days, so don't hold your breath...

The newest I&GS (2.1.1) does have a complete section on TCP/IP and SLIP
configuration. I will be making that available soon.

M. Welsh

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

From: jepler@herbie.unl.edu (Jeff Epler)
Subject: Re: POV-Ray for Linux : it's official
Date: 1 Jul 1994 19:46:42 GMT

las@light-house.uucp writes:
>I am using Jeff Eppler's SVGA display driver with POV 2.2.

That's Epler (1 P) , but that doesn't matter so much as that someone
found what I wrote to be of use...

>P.S. Is anybody writing a POV modeler for Linux/X ?    

I don't know of a decent X modeler.  However, the shareware versions
(at least) of Moray and <that other one> seem to work okay in the DOS
emulator.  Except that dosemu will chew up all your CPU.. :( So I
usually nice my dosemu process and in fact kill it before I really
render.

>Regards,

>    Laszlo
>    

Jeff
--
____  "I wonder if you think about me once upon a time
\BI/   in your wildest dreams" -- Moody Blues    V-- Pink Floyd
 \/   "There's a change that, even with regret, cannot be undone"
IRC: Synger    Running Linux 1.1 -- Free Unix for 386+ machines

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

From: mdw@cs.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh)
Subject: Re: Difficult Linux Instructions...
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 20:08:35 GMT

In article <2v0ues$qfa@spool.cs.wisc.edu> jimr@shorty.cs.wisc.edu (Jim Robinson) writes:
>I suppose the easiest way to go about this would be a set number of
>filters to handle dvi, nroff, ps, and plain text.  The script would
>ask about the port the printer is on, whether or not to use tunelp,
>what settings, etc...  

There is such a tool. I'm not sure if it does everything that you're
talking about, however. I believe that it's called "apsfilter". 


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

From: mstrock@eskimo.com (Mike Strock)
Subject: `ncftp` for Linux?       
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 03:57:27 GMT


Has anybody ported the 'ncftp' program to Linux, or does anyone know if
it is a straight recompile?

I just got a Linux box up and running (with tcp/ip, cool) and would love
to have ncftp up on it, but don't know if there is a Linux binary 
available for it..

Thanks for any help...

Please email me if you have any details....


Mike Strock
mstrock@eskimo.com

Mike Strock
mstrock@eskimo.com

 * RM 1.4 B0013 * Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
                                                     

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

From: wendigo@mars.lib.iup.edu (CyberDrunk)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: XDM from inittab
Date: 1 Jul 1994 18:01:23 GMT

: When I set the runlevel to 6 in /etc/inittab xdm gets started, but
: the keyboard behaves strangely. Backspace kills the line entered and
: in some programs (like nnpost) the keyboard auto-repeats. 

I get this problem only when I do an 'su' in an xterm window.  Ohter than that,
setting runlevel to 6 in Slackware has not been bad.

wendigo@mars.lib.iup.edu 

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

From: rgasch@nl.oracle.com (Robert Gasch)
Subject: Linux with SCSI II
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 15:36:43 GMT

Does anybody out there have any experience who Linux fares with 
SCSI 2 adatpters? Particularley the Future Domain Controllers?

Thanks
--> Robert

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

From: dennisf@denix.elk.miles.com (Dennis Flaherty)
Subject: Re: ftape and Conner Backup Basics
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 04:39:32 GMT

In article <Cs2osw.KHC@newbridge.com>,
Ethan Henry <ehenry@Newbridge.COM> wrote:
> In article <HALLU.94Jun26013407@boole.info.polymtl.ca>,
> Louis-D. Dubeau <hallu@boole.info.polymtl.ca> wrote:
> >
> >I have read ftape's doc and the HOWTO. Both says that there was a
> >formatting problem with CBB version 1.0 for MS-DOG but that the
> >Windogs version never had any problem and that the MS-DOG version 1.1
> >should work fine.
> >
> >Well, I tried formating my tape with both CBB version 1.1 for DOS ans
> >CBB version 1.2 for Win and ftape wasn't able to use the tape.
> 
> Well, according to my experience with my Conner drive/software and
> others' reports, CBB for Win is hosed too. 

The new CBB for DOS v1.1 and Win v1.2 are both broken.  But if you apply
the patch,

*** ftape-read.c.orig   Thu May 26 18:43:48 1994
--- ftape-read.c        Mon May 30 17:15:35 1994
***************
*** 357,364 ****
--- 357,374 ----
    if (header_segment != header_segment_1 && /* first header */
        header_segment != header_segment_2) { /* duplicate */
      TRACE( 1, "wrong segment nr");
+ #ifdef CONNER_BUG
+     if (header_segment != 0 || header_segment_1 != 1 || header_segment_2 != 2) {
+       TRACE ( 1, "CONNER_BUG:");
+       TRACEi( 1, "| header_segment:   ", header_segment);
+       TRACEi( 1, "| header_segment_1: ", header_segment_1);
+       TRACEi( 1, "| header_segment_2: ", header_segment_2);
+       TRACE ( 1,"\\_Please post to the TAPE channel.");
+     }
+ #else
      TRACE_EXIT;
      return -EIO;
+ #endif /* CONNER_BUG */
    }
    /*    Verify tape parameters...
     *    QIC-40/80 spec:                 tape_parameters:

You'll get tapes formatted by these new versions to work properly.
Eventually I hope this will get into a forthcoming version of ftape...

> >I instead used cpbackup (the backup from PCTOOLS v7.something) and it
> >did work.
> >
> >The only difference between the two formats (taken from
> >/var/adm/message) is:
> >
> >CBB:      ftape-read.c (read_header_segment) - max-floppy-side:      7.
> >cpbackup: ftape-read.c (read_header_segment) - max-floppy-side:      6.
> >
> >Has anybody got similar problems (and the docs should be fixed), or am
> >I alone (and have a "special" version of CBB)?
> 
> Nope. But you can recompile Ftape with the -DCONNER_BUG flag which
> makes it work fine. :) 

Yes, that makes *that* problem go away, *if* you are using the older
versions of CBB.  Apply my patch for the newer versions.

> Note that the mt tests in the Ftape doc files don't work. mt is really
> only good for rewinding and retensioning I find...

Oh, mt fsf now works.  But be careful with the other mt commands!
Bas has this nasty habit of using them for debugging hooks!  :-)
(until he implements them for real)

Dennis
-- 
Dennis T. Flaherty              Home: dennisf@denix.elk.miles.com
Flaherty Nanobreweries          Work: dennisf@se01.elk.miles.com
     Oatmeal Stout: It's the Right Thing to Drink!

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

From: hallu@boole.info.polymtl.ca (Louis-D. Dubeau)
Subject: Re: ftape and Conner Backup Basics
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 13:44:11 GMT

>>>>> "EH" == Ethan Henry <ehenry@Newbridge.COM> writes:

    EH> In article <HALLU.94Jun26013407@boole.info.polymtl.ca>,
    EH> Nope. But you can recompile Ftape with the -DCONNER_BUG flag
    EH> which makes it work fine. :)

Ok, I screw up ftape so it works fine with the screwed up CBB... I
prefer to use cpbackup.

    EH> The secret of multiple tar files on one tape is to use
    EH> /dev/nrft, the non-rewinding tape device. To skip past tars
    EH> you don't want when restoring, just use tar tf /dev/nrst0 and
    EH> you'll skip past the unwanted tar files by just looking at
    EH> their table of contents.

You can also use `mt /dev/nrft0 fsf <whatever>' to skip whatever
number of archives. It works, I tried it.

    EH> Also, get Ftape 1.12, which I believe is the latest version.

That's what I have.



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

From: kevinl@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au (Kevin Lentin)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: Watching a user on an tty?
Date: 30 Jun 1994 04:16:43 GMT

Allen R Sparks (fxars@camelot.acf-lab.alaska.edu) wrote:

> I don't know why a sysadmin on a unix box would need your password at
> all.  === Al

To try get access to a machine that sysadmin does not have access to. A
good reason to keep different passwords on different systems.

-- 
[==================================================================]
[ Kevin Lentin                   |___/~\__/~\___/~~~~\__/~\__/~\_| ]
[ kevinl@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au  |___/~\/~\_____/~\______/~\/~\__| ]
[ Macintrash: 'Just say NO!'     |___/~\__/~\___/~~~~\____/~~\___| ]
[==================================================================]

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

From: seyfarth@myhost.subdomain.domain (Ray Seyfarth)
Subject: Linux 68K Assembler/Simulator
Date: 1 Jul 1994 22:00:46 GMT
Reply-To: seyfarth@whale.st.usm.edu

I am looking for a Motorola 68000 assembler and simulator to run
under Linux (486 CPU).  We would like to use Linux machines to
teach 68000 assembly programming.

I read the 68k FAQ and located MS/DOS programs which work fairly
well, but Linux is preferable.

Thanks
--
Ray Seyfarth                    University of Southern Mississippi
seyfarth@whale.st.usm.edu       (601)266-4859

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


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