Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #393
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:     Thu, 7 Jul 94 08:13:06 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #393, Volume #2                 Thu, 7 Jul 94 08:13:06 EDT

Contents:
  GIF viewer experience (David Lesher)
  Re: ext2fs Needs Defragmentation? (Mitchum DSouza)
  Optimal HD partitioning (Sverre H. Huseby)
  Re: [printing] How to make your OL400e cook! (Steve DuChene)
  Re: CD-Rom for Silicon Graphics? (Marc ter Horst)
  Re: [term] Boo-hoo! (Orc)
  Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing (Orc)
  Extraneous crap in Linux distributions (Richard Brooksby)
  Re: Heated debate(?) on OS/2 and Linux programming. (Dave Carrigan)
  Re: Need help building ultimate Linux system (Steve DuChene)
  Re: XDM from inittab (CyberDrunk)
  Re: WP4Linux - input wanted (Steve DuChene)
  Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX (Steve DuChene)
  Re: WANTED: awkcc for Linux (Willing to pay $$) (Harvey J. Stein)
  Re: Optimal HD partitioning (Joachim Wlodarz)
  Re: SCSI support over 1024 cylinders (Harald Milz)
  Re: [term] Boo-hoo! (Michael Edward Chastain)
  DPT SCSI controller support??? (John Mills)
  Re: Linux Counter thoughts (J.J. Paijmans)
  Re: why won't old socket connections disappear? (David Lennox)

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

From: wb8foz@netcom.com (David Lesher)
Subject: GIF viewer experience
Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 19:02:02 GMT

Any other non-X folks have any experience with a GIF viewer
that runs under you-know-what?

I looked thru the usual archives and say nothing. If I missed
it, speak up.....

-- 
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close...........(v)301 56 LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close)....kibo# 777............pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead..............vr....................20915-1433

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

From: Mitchum DSouza <m.dsouza@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: ext2fs Needs Defragmentation?
Date: 7 Jul 1994 05:36:20 -0400
Reply-To: m.dsouza@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk


Kevin L White says:
| Coming from the wonderful world of DOS, I'm used to having to
| defragment my hard drive on a semi-regular basis to keep performance
| up.  There don't seem to be defragmentation utilities for the ext2
| filesystem.  Is it simply not necessary?  If not, how does it do this?
| (I know a bit about how OS/2s HPFS does it, by allocating chinks and
| trying to keep the chunks contiguous...)

It already has.

        nic.funet.fi:/pub/OS/Linux/util/tools/defrag-0.5.src.tar.gz

Mitch

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

From: sverrehu@ifi.uio.no (Sverre H. Huseby)
Subject: Optimal HD partitioning
Date: 7 Jul 1994 11:42:02 +0200


As I am supposed to repartition my IDE drive (leaving almost
nothing for MS-DOS), I have the following questions:

* Are extended partitions slower/less effective than primary
  partitions?

* Is a couple of extended partitions with two `sub-partitions'
  in each better than one with four?

* Is it better to have the swap partition between other partitions?

* Any other reason to use/not use extended partitions?

* Should partitions have `magic' sizes to be fast?

* Do you have any general suggestions on how to make the disk
  as fast as possible (regarding partitioning)?

Serious answers are appreciated...


Sverre.

===========================================================
Sverre H. Huseby                                    Student
sverrehu@ifi.uio.no              University of Oslo, Norway
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~sverrehu

My employer (that's me) is not responsible for my opinions.



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

From: s0017210@cc.ysu.edu (Steve DuChene)
Subject: Re: [printing] How to make your OL400e cook!
Date: 7 Jul 1994 09:45:06 GMT

        Do you know if the Okidata 400e is supported by any drivers that
        come with Ghostscript? For instance do the HP Lazer Jet drivers work?
-- 
| Steven A. DuChene   sduchene@cis.ysu.edu  or  s0017210@cc.ysu.edu      
| Youngstown State University  | Computer Science / Math / Mech. Eng.
|They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus. 
|Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown. 

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

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.sgi.misc
From: mht@nuclint.nl (Marc ter Horst)
Subject: Re: CD-Rom for Silicon Graphics?
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 15:35:30 GMT

In article <1994Jul6.035030.5699@Princeton.EDU> lpkruger@tucson.Princeton.EDU (Louis P. Kruger) writes:
>From: lpkruger@tucson.Princeton.EDU (Louis P. Kruger)
>Subject: CD-Rom for Silicon Graphics?
>Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 03:50:30 GMT

>I have a CD-Rom with a lot of OpenGL source code on it designed for
>an SGI machine.  The problem is, I don't have an SGI, and I can't
>figure out what filesystem it is.  It doesn't seem to be iso9960,
>since I get the following error message while mounting:

>marathon:root:/# mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt
>Disc change detected.
>CD-ROM I/O error: dev 0b00, sector 64
>isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev 0xb00 iso_blknum 16
>mount: wrong fs type, /dev/scd0 already mounted, /mnt busy, or other error

>Linux has no trouble reading the raw device /dev/scd0 however.  Is there 
>any way I can mount this CD?  Thanks!

>        - Louis
It's probably SGI Install format. I think they use the same format for tape 
and CD so it's probably just one long 'file' that can simulate a tape.
Try to find someone with an SGI machine to read it for you.
If you want one, I've still got a few 4D20 Personal Irises around (for a 
price of course :)

Marc

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

From: orc@pell.com (Orc)
Subject: Re: [term] Boo-hoo!
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 07:24:50 GMT

In article <2vf613$omt@news1.svc.portal.com>,
Michael Edward Chastain <mec@shell.portal.com> wrote:

>My second contention is that a user with 'term' will use a lot more hours
>per month than a user with 'minicom', thus falling more into the scenario.

   I wonder about this -- I recently got a net connection via a
site which doesn't like people to use term, and find that I spend
more time online now than I did before they told me term was a
no-no: I am ftping stuff up to the remote site (in <5mb chunks) and
then downloading them to my machine, which seems to take a lot
longer than just terming them on through.

                 ____
   david parsons \bi/  But if crl doesn't mind having a modem tied
                  \/         up for 16 hours a day, bully for them.

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

From: orc@pell.com (Orc)
Subject: Re: Linux better than OS/2 for net surfing
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 07:30:07 GMT

In article <2veo4u$mo2@apollo.west.oic.com>,
Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.west.oic.com> wrote:

>    However, even though you are linked via UUCP, you will have FTP
>    access through various FTPMAIL services.  It's not as nice as a
>    full time SLIP link, but it does work.  It could reasonably be
>    said that you do have some internet access.


   I think you're stretching things just a little bit far here. 
This logic would have had my Atari ST bulletin board from years ago
as a site with internet access, since I could exchange mail with
the Net.

                  ____
    david parsons \bi/ Usenet != Internet, thank god.
                   \/

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

From: richard@harlequin.co.uk (Richard Brooksby)
Subject: Extraneous crap in Linux distributions
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 09:07:59 GMT

I have sampled several Linux distributions in the hope of finding something
stable and sensible that I can use without fuss.  Why is it that the
distributions feel the need to include piles of junk in /etc/profile and
/etc/skel?  Are these file the distribution maintainer's personal
preferences?  If so, why is he imposing them on everyone else?

Every time I try a distribution I have to spend days hacking out all the
rubbish here and elsewhere.

Why can't we just have a clean functional minimum?

Grr!
-- 
Richard Brooksby <richard@harlequin.co.uk>
+44 223 873881 (voice)  +44 223 872519 (fax)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
From: dave@dave.nofc.forestry.ca (Dave Carrigan)
Subject: Re: Heated debate(?) on OS/2 and Linux programming.
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 05:34:55 GMT

mbhpfpj@meehpe.ee.man.ac.uk (Paul Floyd) writes:

>Even more proof that you are a complete twat. I use this thing called an operating
>system for those sort of functions. And for the others, I use programs. If I wanted
>something to calculate biorythms and act as a fileserver, I'd get things designed
>to do them.

OTOH, by letting emacs do it all, there is a nice, consistent interface
for all of the applications you use -- and, it's the interface of your
editor, which is the tool that you use the most often. If you use an
emacs such as lucid emacs, you also get the advantage of pull down
menus, pop-up menus, scroll bars, dialog boxes, etc, and they're all
programmable. The web browser that comes with Emacs is every bit as nice
as Mosaic (including embedded graphics), and if I want to cut and paste
some text from some remote page, I've got all of my normal editing
commands at my disposal; my fingers can practically do it themselves.

I'm not saying that emacs is better than your editor. I am saying that
calling somebody a complete twat for wanting to use his editor for
reading news or mail is simply not valid.

>so it must be crap, but if it was, it'd be cool. emacs reminds me of WordPerfect
>for DOS, the first time I used it, I had to randomly press keys to get anything
>to happen (like VI as well).  

I just pulled down one of the menus with the mouse, as I would with any
GUI editor.

>Oh yeah, and wasn't emacs one of the weak links that was exploited bu the internet
>worm? Another claim to fame? 

Not exactly. The internet worm may have exploited the fact that some
stupid sysadmins made one of emacs' auxiliary programs (movemail) suid
root, even though the documentation explicitly said not to do it. A suid
movemail was also used by the cracker in Clifford Stoll's _The Cuckoo's
Egg_.  Again, this is not emacs' fault, but the fault of the sysadmin.
Your statement is really just a weak attempt to bash emacs without
knowing the facts -- "going off half cocked", in other words.

I haven't bashed your editor -- actually, I'm not even familiar with
your editor.  If you're productive with your editor, then there's no
reason for you to change. BUT, I'm productive with my editor as well.
(obviously it's emacs :-) So, please don't bash my editor, especially
when you're doing it with misinformation.

-- 
Yow! Concentrate on th'cute, li'l CARTOON GUYS!  Remember the SERIAL
NUMBERS!!  Follow the WHIPPLE AVE. EXIT!!  Have a FREE PEPSI!!  Turn
LEFT at th'HOLIDAY INN!!  JOIN the CREDIT WORLD!!  MAKE me an OFFER!!!

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

From: s0017210@cc.ysu.edu (Steve DuChene)
Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix
Subject: Re: Need help building ultimate Linux system
Date: 7 Jul 1994 10:01:50 GMT

        Byron:  I am using an ATI Graphics Pro (PCI version) in 1280x1024
        with a dot clock of 126 and I am very happy with the display. The
        prices for the ATI GUP are dropping due to the release of the
        Graphics Pro Turbo. I was able to get mine from HI-TECH (advertiser
        in Computer Shopper) for $298 with 2Mb of VRAM (don't get a DRAM
        card, these should be your last choice as there is a significant 
        pereformance difference verses a VRAM card at high refresh rates/
        large resolutions). Good Luck with your Grant money spending...
        It sounds like a good system. 
-- 
| Steven A. DuChene   sduchene@cis.ysu.edu  or  s0017210@cc.ysu.edu      
| Youngstown State University  | Computer Science / Math / Mech. Eng.
|They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus. 
|Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown. 

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

From: wendigo@mars.lib.iup.edu (CyberDrunk)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: XDM from inittab
Date: 7 Jul 1994 00:19:40 GMT

CyberDrunk (wendigo@mars.lib.iup.edu) wrote:
: : 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.

Update: I can fix the problem temporarily with:  stty sane


wendigo@mars.lib.iup.edu 

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

From: s0017210@cc.ysu.edu (Steve DuChene)
Subject: Re: WP4Linux - input wanted
Date: 7 Jul 1994 10:14:30 GMT

        I was able to ftp the Word Perfect sco demo version from
        ftp.wordperfect.com in ./unix/demo/sco/sco.z This demo
        version has been compressed with "compress" rather than
        gzip and is 8Mb! If you download it, uncompress it, and 
        recompress it using gzip -9, it is 5.1Mb. I was able to
        get the demo running with very little hassle. I downloaded
        the ALPHA iBCS2 stuff from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/
        ALPHA/ibcs2. I patched a 1.1.24 version of the kernel to 
        get the hooks in place for a loadable module and off I went...
        almost. You have to fix a missing quote in the demo.wp
        script that comes with the Word perfect stuff. The HINTS
        file that comes with the iBCS stuff talks about this and the 
        missing quotation mark is not hard to spot. You also have to
        follow any other hints given in the HINTS file as far as
        "xhost localhost". Then it works...almost. We were experimenting
        with the demo to see what it could do, so we loaded up one of the
        .wpg graphics files and then tried to resize it (something that
        is possible in the DOS version) and it locked up X and the keyboard
        to the point where we had to use the reset switch. So be careful
        out there.
-- 
| Steven A. DuChene   sduchene@cis.ysu.edu  or  s0017210@cc.ysu.edu      
| Youngstown State University  | Computer Science / Math / Mech. Eng.
|They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus. 
|Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown. 

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

From: s0017210@cc.ysu.edu (Steve DuChene)
Subject: Re: <q> PhotoCD and LinuX
Date: 7 Jul 1994 10:39:32 GMT

Mark Lord (mlord@bnr.ca) wrote:
: 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

        
        YES! That is what I meant! The second comment about Bill Gates was just
        a joke. Sorry Eberhard if you mis-understood my intent!
-- 
| Steven A. DuChene   sduchene@cis.ysu.edu  or  s0017210@cc.ysu.edu      
| Youngstown State University  | Computer Science / Math / Mech. Eng.
|They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus. 
|Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown. 

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

Crossposted-To: comp.lang.c,alt.lang.awk
Subject: Re: WANTED: awkcc for Linux (Willing to pay $$)
From: hjstein@sunset.huji.ac.il (Harvey J. Stein)
Date: 7 Jul 94 11:03:07

In article <CsFGE3.1tq@du.edu> yasuo@via.term.none (Yasuo Ohgaki)
writes:

   Sidney F. Thomas (sthomas@worldbank.org) wrote:
   : Subject line says it, basically.  Awkcc is an AT&T-proprietary
<stuff deleted about what AWKCC is & not being able to compile it
 under Linux 1.0>
   : with Linux 1.0?  I am willing to pay a reasonable sum for
   : this software.

   I want it, too.

Have you considered converting the awk script to a perl script & then
compiling the perl script?  Perl even comes with something called a2p
to convert awk scripts to perl.  You can then use taintperl to compile
the script (if you still need to).  Not that I ever tried this - I
just read the manual.

--
Harvey J. Stein
Berger Financial Research
hjstein@math.huji.ac.il

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

From: jjw@tkemi.klb.dth.dk (Joachim Wlodarz)
Subject: Re: Optimal HD partitioning
Date: 7 Jul 1994 10:40:33 GMT

Sverre H. Huseby (sverrehu@ifi.uio.no) wrote:

: As I am supposed to repartition my IDE drive (leaving almost
: nothing for MS-DOS), I have the following questions:

: * Are extended partitions slower/less effective than primary
:   partitions?

From my experience there are no differences...

: * Is a couple of extended partitions with two `sub-partitions'
:   in each better than one with four?

Hmm, no idea :) it depends on what 'better' means to you... 

: * Is it better to have the swap partition between other partitions?

When you use harddrives with ZBR (Zone Bit Recording, it means that the
the number of sectors/track depends on the radial position) it is better
to setup a swap partition(s) on the outer, faster tracks, beginning with cyl#0.
The speed differences are noticeable here and almost all newer harddrives 
use ZBR...

: * Any other reason to use/not use extended partitions?

It depends mainly on the handling of the primary/extended partitioning
scheme by the operating systems installed. At least Linux has no problems
here :). 
If you plan to install other os-es as well, you should be careful...

: * Should partitions have `magic' sizes to be fast?

I think there are no 'magic sizes' for speed... 

: * Do you have any general suggestions on how to make the disk
:   as fast as possible (regarding partitioning)?

See the ZBR stuff above, if applicable for your drive.

: Serious answers are appreciated...

I do my best :)

: Sverre.

Hope this helps,

-jjw.


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

From: hm@seneca.ix.de (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: SCSI support over 1024 cylinders
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 06:22:08 GMT
Reply-To: hm@seneca.ix.de

Brian Quandt (quandt@cs.umr.edu) wrote:
: > Been installing linux (slackware)  version, I don't know, whatever is 
: > current as of this email (1.2 me thinks).  I'm lucky enough to have
: > lots of disk space (a 3 gig seagate scsi-2).  I'm curious about the
: > message that I get that says some software may not understand the
: > more then 1024 cyclinders.  Okay, my questino is which software?  

MSDOS. ;^)

: > I hope I'm not looking for trouble later down the road?

No, I use a DEC 3160S with an Adaptec 1542B without any problems. 

-- 
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: mec@shell.portal.com (Michael Edward Chastain)
Subject: Re: [term] Boo-hoo!
Date: 6 Jul 1994 21:00:19 GMT

In article <2v6kdn$d5i@crl2.crl.com>, Bill Hogan <bhogan@crl.com> wrote:
>  $85/month may be far closer to the true cost of operation *for someone
> using a dedicated or semi-dedicated connection* but if the GPL 'term'
> package and a $20/month dialup line can in fact do the same job as a
> dedicated or semi-dedicated connection, I don't see how $85/month could be
> called far closer to the true cost of *operation*. 

Here is the scenario:

    1) User buys $20/month shell account from service provider
    2) User loads up _any_ comm program or module on _any_ OS
    3) User gets on the phone for 600 hours per month

My first contention is that the service provider will *lose money* providing
continuous access at $20/month.

My second contention is that a user with 'term' will use a lot more hours
per month than a user with 'minicom', thus falling more into the scenario.

The service-provider market is open and competitive.  Within a local phone
call of me are (at least) Portal, Netcom, The Little Garden, and crl.
None of them are offering $20/month SLIP service.

You claim that $85/month for SLIP is overpriced.  I claim that
$20/month for unlimited shell access is underpriced.  Service providers
didn't expect very many people to connect for 600 hours/month when they
set that price.  If most of them do, they'll raise the price.  If there
is a large variance of usage between users, they'll move to
hardware-usage-based pricing.

> Meanwhile, someone has suggested to me that the limiting resource in my
> case might be the global total number of pty's that is *compiled into* the
> Unix kernel on my internet-access provider's computer.

Your service provider could change this by recompiling the kernel.
Pty's consume epsilon hardware resources.

Regards,

Michael Chastain
mec@shell.portal.com

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

From: jmi@csd.cri.dk (John Mills)
Subject:  DPT SCSI controller support???
Reply-To: jmi@csd.cri.dk
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 11:12:11 GMT

Is there any support for the  DPT Smartcache III SCSI controller?
or is anyone working on it?

Thanks




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

From: paai@kub.nl (J.J. Paijmans)
Subject: Re: Linux Counter thoughts
Date: 7 Jul 1994 11:04:00 GMT

In article <2vbtdd$o4u@sand.cis.ufl.edu> kem@prl.ufl.edu (Kelly Murray) writes:
...
>
>Producers of Linux CD-ROM's have an big incentive to inflate the reported
>number of units sold, and could not be relied upon to produce honest numbers.
>
>Paying customer demand gets commercial software developed.
>

I have been trying to collect harald's numbers to make a graph. But as
the Linux counter is only half a year old, there is not much to
make a graph with.

=======================================================================
|
|
7000
|
|                          *
| 
6000                  *
|
|                 *
|            *
5000     *
|
//
|
--
1994    feb. mar. apr. may. jun
=======================================================================
jun 1.    6459
apr.30.   6114
apr.1     5502
mar.1     5173
feb.14    5000

Nevertheless it shows a growth of 170-600 users a month and almost
1500 in 3.5 months. Also I remember a poll in a german
computermagazine that suggested 20.000 users in Germany alone.
If the original poster of that information could repost it please?

Hans Paijmans




-- 
Copyright Hans Paijmans 1994. Niets hierboven mag geheel of
gedeeltelijk worden geciteerd buiten de nieuwsgroep(en) waar het
oorspronkelijk is geplaatst.  Nothing of the above may be cited
outside the newsgroups in which the message originally was posted.

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

From: lotus@deakin.edu.au (David Lennox)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: why won't old socket connections disappear?
Date: 7 Jul 1994 21:01:07 +1000

wiegley@phakt.usc.edu (Wigs) writes:

>I am trying to get a reliable, reusable socket connection between two
>internet machines. and I'm having some trouble

>listen()
 ^^^^^^^^
>{
>  int sockfd,len;
>  struct sockaddr_in addr;
>  int portnum = 27650;
>  sockfd = socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,0);
>  addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
>  addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
>  addr.sin_port = htons(portnum);
>  bind(sockfd,(struct sockaddr *)&addr,sizeof(addr));
>  listen(sockfd,1);
   ^^^^^^^

    Now have another think about it..........

- David.

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


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