Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #381
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, 5 Jul 94 22:13:18 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #381, Volume #2                 Tue, 5 Jul 94 22:13:18 EDT

Contents:
  Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
  Re: compat of cdrom (scsi) (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
  Re: How to change the priority level of a process in LINUX? (Alan Osborne)
  Re: Lemacs with term support? (Skip Montanaro)
  Re: Advertising CD-ROMS (Dave Fischer)
  Re: ESDI and Linux (Ray Seyfarth)
  Re: OS/2 and Linux discussed (Re: TCP/IP: The reason I dumped OS/2) (David Charlap)
  Re: OS/2 and Linux discussed (Re: TCP/IP: The reason I dumped OS/2) (David Charlap)
  Re: Consumer standards (OS/2 vs. Linux discussed) (David Charlap)
  Re: Net2/Net3, different kernels (Alan Cox)
  Linux on pentium machine ???? (Reddy Duggempudi)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Joseph W. Vigneau)
  What networking version is in Slackware 2.0? (Maxim Spivak)
  is GNU malloc/free really slow? (John E. Stump)
  building a PCMCIA SCSI adaptor (sidney hellman)
  Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX (Mark Lord)

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

Date: Mon, 04 Jul 1994 00:19:33 +0200
From: Eberhard_Moenkeberg@p27.rollo.central.de (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
Subject: Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX


Hello Steve DuChene and all others,

on 03.07.94 Steve DuChene wrote to All in USENET.COMP.OS.LINUX.MISC:

SD> : You are reflecting on "XA format" CDROMs.
SD> : Some drives can handle it, others not.
SD> : Some drives handle it transparently, some need to get switched
SD> : into an other mode and some more things.
SD>
SD> : Currently, the only driver capable of the latter method is
SD> : sbpcd, the driver for the Matsushita/Panasonic drives.

SD>    Sounds like Eberhard is justifiably proud of his driver! :-)
SD>    Kind of like Bill Gates saying the only software that runs
SD>    Windows apps is MS Windows! :-)

What do you want to tell with that?

What I "proudly" - as you see it - stated is a fact by several aspects.
One is that the SCSI CDROM driver looks pretty orphaned.

I see over and over again that people are wondering why they
can't use their CDROM drives under Linux as "fully" as they can use
it under DOS.
Mostly, this wondering starts up AFTER they have bought a drive.
So, somebody has to tell them BEFORE.

If I wanna feel proud about my driver, I think of other things:
 -> 16 drives with a total of 4 I/O streams within one machine
    (still lacks a little kernel patch; I hope it gets released
    with 1.1.25, after I did the structural changes to meet
    Linus' design goals)
 -> Reading audio tracks into files.
    This needs at least 1.1.24 and some higher-level software;
    README.sbpcd tells where to find the latter.

Boy, that's what I am proud of. ;-)

So, what did you want to tell?

Greetings ... Eberhard


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

Date: Mon, 04 Jul 1994 00:16:30 +0200
From: Eberhard_Moenkeberg@p27.rollo.central.de (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
Subject: Re: compat of cdrom (scsi)


Hello Brian Quandt and all others,

on 02.07.94 Brian Quandt wrote to All in USENET.COMP.OS.LINUX.MISC:

BQ> Looking for a cdrom drive that is compatable with linux (standard
BQ> scsi, no cheap imitations),

What do you mean saying "cheap imitations"?

SCSI-2 lacks to define the audio track access mode. So, it will be
hard to gather the different vendor-specific modes to do it and combine
them into one driver.
Is that what you call "standard"?

BQ>  and is also capable of mode 2 form 2 reading.  That is something that
BQ> can also read green book disks like those produced for CD-I (philips) or
BQ> the new VCD (white book) disks.
BQ> Yeah, I know that linux can't support this yet... but give me
BQ> a bit, actually if someone already has hacedked the code to add inthe
BQ> modem 2 form 2 stuff, please save me the time of mod'ing the code.

Again this sort of lame-assy comments...

Currently, there is no way to pass a mode 2 form 2 sector through the
file system. Not even mode 2 form 1.

All you need to do is fill in some code under the CDROMREADMODE2
ioctl entry (already there) and add an IOCTL entry for obtaining
the data into the user's buffer. Have a look at the "cheap imitation"
sbpcd.c if you really are able and willing to do it (let
CDROMREADAUDIO be your example).

Greetings ... Eberhard


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

From: alan@osborne.demon.co.uk (Alan Osborne)
Subject: Re: How to change the priority level of a process in LINUX?
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 20:21:59 +0000

B.A.McCauley@bham.ac.uk wrote:
: In article <2vb02t$7tu@sonia.ese-metz.fr> bocage@speedy.supelec.fr (Claude Bocage) writes:
: >use "nice"

: The question referred to *running* processes - use "renice"

From within "top" if you like.  (I never seemed to acquire a renice).


--
AlanO


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: montnaro@ausable.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro)
Subject: Re: Lemacs with term support?
Reply-To: montanaro@ausable.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro)
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 17:53:30 GMT

In article <saucc00.773165957@DMI.USherb.CA> saucc00@DMI.USherb.CA (Christian Saucier) writes:

   I installed lemacs recently and it comes with these telnet, ftp and w3
   goodies.  Is there a way to have these working with term?

You can #define TERM in the src/s/linux.h before running configure, I
believe.

--
Skip Montanaro (montanaro@ausable.crd.ge.com)
Now working for Automatrix - "World-Wide Communications Solutions"

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

From: wccf@crl.com (Dave Fischer)
Subject: Re: Advertising CD-ROMS
Date: 28 Jun 1994 12:22:51 -0700

iwalker@kaiwan.com (Charles Ian Walker) writes:

>Why would anyone want to risk their hard earned money on a vendor who 
>can't or won't figure out the etiquette ,ethics and practical value of
>not posting commercial advertising to this group.
> 
The answer is that if we're smart we'll discourage these vendors by a 
total lack of response to their commercials. Then maybe they'll hawk 
their wares over on Compuserve or the shopping channel instead. 

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

From: seyfarth@myhost.subdomain.domain (Ray Seyfarth)
Subject: Re: ESDI and Linux
Date: 5 Jul 1994 18:31:21 GMT
Reply-To: seyfarth@whale.st.usm.edu

Cyrill Vatomsky (cyrillv@netcom.com) wrote:
: Ben Pressnall (pressnal@chem.uidaho.edu) wrote:
: : I am currently trying to install Slackware on a 33  Mhz 386 with 8 megs of 
: : ram.  The problem I am having is Getting fdisk to work with these ESDI drives.
: : They are Maxtor XT8760E with 1632 cylinders, 15 heads, currently 53 sectors
: : (sectors are selectable with jumpers, choices are 52,53,54) .  I get a report 
: : from fdisk that drive has more than 1024 cylinders and an odd number of sectors
: : that will cause some software not to work properly.

: I am using the same disk - actually two. What type of controller you have?
: As far as I understand - the 1024 warning in fdisk is just something left
: over from older times. The disks work perfectly. I have a DPT controller
: with 2.5 Meg of cache which makes a 386/20 run reasonably fast.

        I am using 2 Maxtor ESDI drives also, one 380 and one 760.
        Linux is happy with the drives.  I am using a WD controller.

        You will probably need to use the "check" options for mkswap
        and e2mkfs.  My ESDI drives both had lots of bad blocks.  In
        fact I had a pretty bad spot toward the end of 1 swap partition
        which caused me to make it 15 MB instead of the original 16.

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

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
From: david@visix.com (David Charlap)
Subject: Re: OS/2 and Linux discussed (Re: TCP/IP: The reason I dumped OS/2)
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 18:46:30 GMT

Jim Robinson <jimr@shorty.cs.wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>Funny, I don't remember paying any money for Linux or having the Linux
>I have advertised as doing something it cannot do.  Now if I had payed
>for Linux after seeing one of those Linux ads in the magazines, I
>would be majorly pissed off when I found out exactly what the ad
>meant.  But I would have been stupid to believe a 1x1 inch add in the
>back of a magazine anyway...

Since you're posting your message here on UseNet, I'd agree.  But
there are plenty of computer users who don't have UseNet access.  They
wouldnn't be able to get a distribution any other way.

Most of the Linux advertising I've seen has been in the form of
middle-to-high pressure sales from no-name computer dealers selling
the CD at computer shows.  If I paid the $20-$30 for the disk to later
find out that I can't use it without locating and downloading 


>
>[...]
>>Let's not get high and mighty.  Linux and OS/2 coexist quite
>>well together, users and OS alike.  A flame war is hardly
>>necessary.
>
>I for one was not flaming anybody, I pointed out things I saw
>on BOTH sides of the debate.  In any case, this thread has
>started to look a little boring and nit-picky, so we might
>as well all stop.
>
>


=====================+========================================================
David Charlap        | The contents of this message are not the opinions of
david@visix.com      | Visix Software, or of anyone besides myself.
Visix Software, Inc. +--------------------------------------------------------
Member of Team-OS/2  |
=====================+

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
From: david@visix.com (David Charlap)
Subject: Re: OS/2 and Linux discussed (Re: TCP/IP: The reason I dumped OS/2)
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 18:53:48 GMT

Guido Sohne <wgsohne@tucson.Princeton.EDU> wrote:
>In article <PCCARVE.8.000B9D4F@crsgi1.erenj.com>,
>>
>>Am I reading this correctly?  One ordinary 3.5 inch floppy disk will
>>let me install enough of Linux to get a fair impression of how it works?
>>I'm limited to news here, but if you'll mail me the ftp site and any
>>instructions necessary for this one disk install I'll try it when I get
>>back to school in the fall.  My school address is:
>>pcarver@physics.rutgers.edu
>
>As always there are preconditions. For the single disk version to give you
>a fair impression of how Linux works you must have a NFS server, exported
>to you, one of the later kernels etc. 
>
>What the single disk version would do is to mount a remote system via NFS
>and do a chroot to it. You would then have access to remote files and
>programs and could run X. I have a single disk which I carry around with me
>when school is in session and my Linux machine is on the network. I go to
>any cluster with PCs having 8M memory (they are networked) and simply
>insert the floppy and reboot. Presto - I am running X Windows and have
>acces to all the files on my personal machine. Very impressive.

Oh, so Linux doesn't let you do everything from a single disk boot.  A
single disk lets you access someone else's Linux system...

Well, if you want to go that route, IBM has supported remote-booting
(RIPL) since version 1.1.  It's always been possible to setup a server
such that you can boot a single floppy, and load the rest of OS/2 from
the LAN.

=====================+========================================================
David Charlap        | The contents of this message are not the opinions of
david@visix.com      | Visix Software, or of anyone besides myself.
Visix Software, Inc. +--------------------------------------------------------
Member of Team-OS/2  |
=====================+

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
From: david@visix.com (David Charlap)
Subject: Re: Consumer standards (OS/2 vs. Linux discussed)
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 19:05:57 GMT

Leo L Turetsky  <professor+@CMU.EDU> wrote:
>
>I get new drivers from SoundBlaster, ATI, and NEC continously. If you
>don't, complain.

They send you new drivers continuously?  I've a SoundBlaster card and
an ATI VGA Wonder card.  They've never sent me anything but
advertising for their newer and more expensive cards.  I've had to
seek out and download every driver update for these cards - the
vendors don't even tell me that the drivers exist - I have to find out
about it from usenet.

>It doens't seem reasonable to make users pay for a broken OS and then
>not fix it for them for free either.

It all depends on how you define broken, I guess.  it's always worked
fine for me.  Each update I've downloaded has been to add features,
(like the 32-bit graphics engine, or a new display driver), not to fix
anything "broken".

Missing your favorite display driver isn't "broken" unless you can't
get any of the supplied ones to work.

>Are you kidding? A disk costs .25 and to ship it to your house costs
>2.00 at most. How much is a patch from OS/2 by mail? I highly doubt it
>is 2.25.

Service packs aren't one disk, they're usually around 25.  They're
more than mere fixes to one or two files.  IBM usually collects 6
month to a year worth of fixes into one package and distributes that.
25 disks plus shipping (usually overnight), and additional tech
support (for those who have problems installing it) can easily add up
to the $40 that the CSD cost on diskettes.

>Many users jumped on the OS/2 bandwagon before they knew what was
>wrong with it. Now it's too late and they must live with it.

"Too late"?  For what?  "Must live with it"?  You make it sound as if
these users isntantly threw out all their old applications, and can
never reinstall their former systems.

You know, as well as I do, that if you really can't use OS/2, you can
simply re-install your DOS/Windows system and be done with it.  OS/2
doesn't render your computer incapable of running DOS any more than
Linux or NT does.  (Of course, if you reformatted your drive to HPFS,
you'll have to format it back, but that's kind of obvious.)

=====================+========================================================
David Charlap        | The contents of this message are not the opinions of
david@visix.com      | Visix Software, or of anyone besides myself.
Visix Software, Inc. +--------------------------------------------------------
Member of Team-OS/2  |
=====================+

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

From: iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Net2/Net3, different kernels
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 17:45:29 GMT

In article <2vc2b7$i72@agate.berkeley.edu> maxims@ucsee.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Maxim Spivak) writes:
>Could someone, preferably Alan Cox or Fred van Kempen, explain the 
>differences between Net2 and Net3 and all the beta levels as well as in 
>which kernel which appears. Or point me to a doc source...  ;-)
>

NET1

Ross Biro's original work - he wrote the Linux TCP/IP in the first place.
Kernels 0.97.5 or so to 0.99.10. 

NET2/NET2D

FvK took over and tidied things up and made it more 'real'. Kernels 0.99.10(?)
to 0.99.12

NET2Debugged

FvK went off to write NET2E the ultimate new networking. So I got involved
in fixing NET2D that he had left users with while he did 2E. Fixes got fed
back at Fred to add to 2E at the same time. Kernels 0.99.13 - 1.1.3.

NET3

FvK stated publically that he would drop NET2E if it wasn't in the 1.0 kernel
(it wasn't). Thus I dumped the working towards NET2E and got off my backside
and started really fixing the major stuff. This is the current kernel networking
code and is heading towards being a full BSD compatible (expect where RFC's
state BSD is wrong) kernel with IP, IPX, AX.25, NetROM, IPng support including
protocol stacking. As you can see its an on-going project being done in bits
Speed is one of the current ones, then changing all the memory buffering to
be faster and smarter as well as layering protocols.

Also in preparation is a formal specification for the Linux Network Driver
Interface so we can get commercial vendors directly supporting Linux.

NET2E

FvK's current set of networking (despite his statement he carried on). I'll
leave Fred to describe it since anything I say he'll claim is wrong. Only
used by FvK's Linux/PRO sold by Aris.



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

From: reddyd@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_GATEWAY_FILE (Reddy Duggempudi)
Subject: Linux on pentium machine ????
Date: 5 Jul 1994 18:08:56 GMT

Hi,
        Any body tried Linux on a pentium box???? I am thinking of buying a 
pentium based machine. Are there any problems with Linux? Is there any special
version(port) of Linux available for pentium?

I am sorry if this question is asked before.

Thanks in advance..
-Reddy
***********************************************************************
reddyd@informix.com
***********************************************************************

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

From: joev@garden.WPI.EDU (Joseph W. Vigneau)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: 6 Jul 1994 00:19:20 GMT

In article <9407040749.36@rmkhome.com>, Rick Kelly <rmk@rmkhome.com> wrote:
>
>Byte magazine (I know, I know), felt that 24 megs was the minimum needed
>to run NeXTStep comfortably.

Yup. I called NeXT (1-800-GET-NeXT or something like that) and they said
20MB was the minimum amount of RAM, and something like 350MB of disk
space...
-- 
joev@wpi.edu, joev@hotblack.schunix.dmc.com     WPI Computer Science     Linux!
    <a href="http://www.wpi.edu:8080/~joev"> Click Here! </a>

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

From: maxims@ucsee.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Maxim Spivak)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: What networking version is in Slackware 2.0?
Date: 5 Jul 1994 22:25:44 GMT

Hello!

I'm still trying to figure out the Network Version Game(tm).  ;-)

What version of networking is in Slackware 2.0? Is it Net2, Net3, 
net-32b, net-32d? Does it depend which kernel I install (1.0.8 or 1.0.18) ?

I think a mini-FAQ is needed to ease the confusion of different versions...

Thanks!
Max


-- 
**************************************************************************
Maxim Spivak                            |  #include <GoBears.h>
University of California, Berkeley      |  #include <StdDisclaimer.h>
maxims@ucsee.eecs.berkeley.edu          |  #include ".signature"

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

From: jstump@mstu41.intel.com (John E. Stump)
Subject: is GNU malloc/free really slow?
Date: 5 Jul 1994 22:11:31 GMT

I have an application that builds a large hash table of keys and values.
It makes heavy use of malloc(). On an ESIX platform (i486, SVR4) the time
it takes to build this table is a split second, but on Linux (i486, Slackware
1.1.2) it takes almost 10 seconds. When deleting the table by free()ing
all the memory takes again a split second on ESIX but ~8 seconds on Linux.
This speed is not acceptable in my application. 

Is there any method to speed up the performance of GNU's dynamic memory
routines? Any replacement libraries?

Thanks for any help or guidance.

john

-- 
john stump (jstump@mstu41.ch.intel.com)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development
From: sid@ldgo.columbia.edu (sidney hellman)
Subject: building a PCMCIA SCSI adaptor
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 18:19:59 GMT



        A few months ago I posted some questions about SCSI pcmcia
adaptor for linux, and discovered that as of now there is nothing
available.  We are about to give up on getting the programming info
from Adaptec and their not-so-cooperative competitors, and are
considering making up our own SCSI pcmcia adaptor.  WE ahve two
questions at this point.

        1) Who would be interested in picking up such a board, if we
develope it. 

        2) what SCSI controller chips do people prefer.  We are
thinking about using the WD3393A because our Engineer is familiar with
it, but are there other chips that are preferred by Linux? (i.e.
Fujitsu or NCR perhaps)

        We really didn't want to go down this road, but we don't have
much of a choice, as we see it.


                        Sid Hellman

-- 
Sid Hellman at the Passcal Instrument Center |          
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory             |  "There is a fine line between 
of Columbia University                       |      Clever and Stupid."
sid@ldeo.columbia.edu    (914)365-8728       |          - David St. Hubbins

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

From: mlord@bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Subject: Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX
Date: 5 Jul 1994 19:12:42 GMT

In article <2b354293@p27.f210.n2437.z2.fidonet.org> Eberhard_Moenkeberg@p27.rollo.central.de writes:
>on 03.07.94 Steve DuChene wrote to All in USENET.COMP.OS.LINUX.MISC:
>
>SD> : You are reflecting on "XA format" CDROMs.
>SD> : Some drives can handle it, others not.
>SD> : Some drives handle it transparently, some need to get switched
>SD> : into an other mode and some more things.
>SD>
>SD> : Currently, the only driver capable of the latter method is
>SD> : sbpcd, the driver for the Matsushita/Panasonic drives.
>
>SD>    Sounds like Eberhard is justifiably proud of his driver! :-)
>SD>    Kind of like Bill Gates saying the only software that runs
>SD>    Windows apps is MS Windows! :-)
>
>What do you want to tell with that?

The phrase "justifiably proud" means he agrees that your driver is excellent
and that you really deserve praise for it!  A great job.
-- 
mlord@bnr.ca    Mark Lord       BNR Ottawa,Canada       613-763-7482

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


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