Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #568
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:     Sun, 7 Aug 94 13:13:15 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #568, Volume #2                 Sun, 7 Aug 94 13:13:15 EDT

Contents:
  Faster linux.dev for Ghostscript (Michel Anders)
  Re: Coherent & Linux (Was : A Truly Unbiased Opinion) (Dan Pop)
  Re: Database Illustrator (tm) product announcement (Brandon S. Allbery)
  Re: Coherent & Linux (Was : A Truly Unbiased Opinion) (Lane Spiers)
  Which serial board? (Jim Michael)
  Ack!!!  Please HELP ME install on Dell Pentium with EIDE drive (me)
  Smail host ID (Baba Buehler)
  Re: XTrek (las@light-house.uucp)
  Re: Just Computers advertising practices (Scott Mckinsey)
  Adaptec 1522 at 66mhz? (Nancy Robison)
  Re: Format DATs? (Florian La Roche)
  Re: Usefulness of BSD/Linux Source Knowledge (was BSD vs. LINUX) (Warner Losh)
  Re: source of TCP/IP (was I hope this wont ignite a major flame ...) (Warner Losh)
  Re: Proposal: "How to buy a Linux PC" document (James A. Robinson)
  Digiboard under Linux? (Adam Roach)
  Re: Preconfigured systems (Phil Hughes)
  Re: IBSC (Mike Jagdis)
  SCO Programs & Linux... (Mike Jagdis)
  Re: Linux T-Shirts (John W. Fawcett)

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

From: michela@sci.kun.nl (Michel Anders)
Subject: Faster linux.dev for Ghostscript
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 1994 10:53:03 GMT


Dear Minh Phanivong, (this was intended as a letter but it bounced)

I do like your implementation of the svgalib device driver very much, the
speed improvement is quite impressive!
I do have one or two problems though:
- it's precompiled, and apart from security reasons, i'd like to compile it
 myself to avoid annoying messages about older shared libs and stuff...
- related to my first point: only five or so devices are compiled in, so i'm
 missing quite a few that i use regularly, and keeping two binaries around is
 wasting space.

So, in short, do you intend to publish your device driver? (Besides the 
reasons stated above, i'm also just curious to see what you changed :-)

Regards, Michel.

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.coherent
From: danpop@cernapo.cern.ch (Dan Pop)
Subject: Re: Coherent & Linux (Was : A Truly Unbiased Opinion)
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 1994 13:54:22 GMT

In <9408042225.16@rmkhome.com> rmk@rmkhome.com (Rick Kelly) writes:

>David Willmore (willmore@iastate.edu) wrote:
>: rmk@rmkhome.com (Rick Kelly) writes:
>
>: You call yourself a sysadmin? ;)  NFS export the darn drive and mount
>: it on the target machine.  The tape solution is much more complex.
>
>But first explain to the people on the machines that have CD-ROM drives
>that they can't use AnswerBook or all the other millions of doc sets
>that are now on CD-ROM.

Using your scheme, which implies taking away the drive, doesn't fix
this problem, does it?
>
>It's finding a free drive that's the problem.  And the majority of the
>CD drives are on DOS/WINDOWS machines where thet seem to be a necessity
>these days.

And you wrote, some days ago, that a CD-ROM is needed only to install
Linux on a PC, so its price should be included in the Linux's installation
price :-)
>
>: With a remote tape drive: (remember, if the CDROM drive is going
>: to be remote, the tape drive has to be too.  hell, CDROM drives are
>: so much cheaper than tape drives, they're probably more common.)
>
>Every UNIX box has a tape drive.

You must be kidding, aren't you? Less than 10% of the Unix workstations
I've seen have a tape drive. If you have the Unix boxes connected to a
LAN, you don't need a tape drive on each machine.

Dan
--
Dan Pop 
CERN, CN Division
Email: danpop@cernapo.cern.ch
Mail:  CERN - PPE, Bat. 31 R-004, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland

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

From: bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery)
Subject: Re: Database Illustrator (tm) product announcement
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 1994 13:47:16 GMT

In article <776248156snz@otbbb.demon.co.uk>, marc@otbbb.demon.co.uk says:
+---------------
| > Database Illustrator(tm) is an easy-to-use documentation tool for Oracle 6
| 
| Does this mean that there's an Oracle that runs under linux!!!??????!?
+------------->8

We're told that Oracle 6 works nicely under the iBCS2 emulator :-)

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH         [44.70.4.88]             bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org
Linux development:  iBCS2, JNOS, MH

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.coherent
From: lspiers@nma.mnet.uswest.com (Lane Spiers)
Subject: Re: Coherent & Linux (Was : A Truly Unbiased Opinion)
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 16:54:15 GMT

In article <Cu1zEz.K2t@hawnews.watson.ibm.com>, dylan@sycamore.aix.portsmouth.uk.ibm.com () writes:
|> Rick Kelly (rmk@rmkhome.com) wrote:
|> 
|> : 1. Find a CD-ROM drive.
|> 
|> : 2. Shutdown the running UNIX system after throwing the users off.
|> 
|> You have to _shut down_ your machine to put a SCSI device on it?
|> Tell me the vendor name so I can avoid it at all costs! If I need to
|> get a CD-ROM on our machine, I just plug it onto the external SCSI
|> device connector, put a terminator on it, and run the config manager,
|> all of which takes less than 30 seconds.

Our policy at work (using Sun IPX's) is that ANY time we connect/disconnect
a peripheral device (SCSI, serial, keyboard, etc), we shutdown and power
off the workstation.  It's worth the added few minutes to protect a 
$13,000 machine.  I follow the same advice on my PC's at home...
-- 

Lane Spiers
lspiers@nma.mnet.uswest.com

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

From: genepool@netcom.com (Jim Michael)
Subject: Which serial board?
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 17:08:21 GMT

Help me decide what serial board to buy. Need at least a 4 port board w/
16550s. Have reference to an STB 4 port for $150, can obtain Boca 4 port
locally for $80, and have been offered a Digiboard 8 port board for $350.
Will use for terminal(s) and 14.4 modem. Thanks.

Jim

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

From: silly@wrath.ugcs.caltech.edu (me)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Ack!!!  Please HELP ME install on Dell Pentium with EIDE drive
Date: 5 Aug 1994 04:25:20 GMT

I have a Dell Dimensions (XPS) P-90 with a 1 gigabyte hard drive.  To
support the drive, there's Dell's BIOS (version A03).  When I try to
install slackware v 1.02, it can't find the drive because of an error
in hd.c (sees too many sectors, I think).  

Are there any known fixes to this?  The HD itself is a WD Caviar 31k,
and I've read all the pertinent FAQs and HOWTOs I could find.  I'm at my
wit's end with this problem.  Are there any known solutions?  Any help
would be GREATLY appreciated.  I've already installed Linux on 4 systems,
and EIDE ones are the only ones that have given me significant trouble.

Thanks for your time,
(me)


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

From: baba@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu (Baba Buehler)
Subject: Smail host ID
Date: 5 Aug 94 17:31:18 GMT
Reply-To: baba@beckman.uiuc.edu

Is there a way to get Smail to do host checking on SMNP connections?

i.e. if someone comes in on smnp and enters

HELO god.heaven.org

I want Smail to figure out who they really are.  Sendmail 5.67b/IDA-1.5
does this, is it just an option or does Smail not support this?

Thanks,
baba
-- 
%>- Baba Z Buehler
%>- Beckman Institute Systems Services, Urbana Illinois
%>- WWW: http://www.beckman.uiuc.edu/groups/biss/people/baba/
%>- PGP Public Key available via WWW & finger baba@bekcman.uiuc.edu

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

From: las@light-house.uucp
Subject: Re: XTrek
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 12:13:32 GMT
Reply-To: whome!light-house!las@planix.com

Charlton Wang (charlton@linux3.math.sinica.edu.tw) wrote:
: This is kind of a silly question but anyway....

: I grabbed the Xtrek-bin.TZ file from tsx-11.mit.edu to try to set up a net
: trek (err...xtrek) game with some people. I run the xtrekd on one machine
: and then try to run xtrek in another window or on another machine with the
: same result---I get the message: connect: connection refused. I've tried
: xhost +, setenv DISPLAY <mymachinename>:0.0 all without any success. Does
: anyone know how to get this daemon set up correctly to serve some xtrek
: clients?


 Had the same error. Possibly because xtrekd should be started by inetd
 when an xtrek request comes in on the xtrek port.
 
 
 Edit your services file, and configure inetd to listen for requests
 on the xtrek port, and spawn off xtrekd when a request comes in.
 
 However, in that package there is no info whatsoever, so you are on your
 own in figuring the correct ports out.
 

: Thanks,
: Charlton

==============================================================\======
 
                                                          A/~~\A
                                                         ((O  O))___

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

From: mckinsey@rmii.com (Scott Mckinsey)
Subject: Re: Just Computers advertising practices
Date: 5 Aug 1994 18:45:12 GMT


I have done business with Just Computers and the advertising practices 
of the company are pretty good.  I don't know your story but it
sounds pretty unlikely.

Scott

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

From: robison@cliomatups.fr (Nancy Robison)
Subject: Adaptec 1522 at 66mhz?
Date: 3 Aug 1994 20:40:38 GMT

I'm having a problem running Linux on my 486DX/2 66mhz at 66mhz.  There
is an Adaptec 1522 clone on board and it keeps giving me a

"AHA1522x: more data than expected"  error.

I can run it out of turbo mode but I have to crawl at 16mhz.  Anyone have
any ideas??

Thanks,
N. Robison



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

From: flla@stud.uni-sb.de (Florian La Roche)
Subject: Re: Format DATs?
Date: 4 Aug 1994 18:52:38 +0200

Christopher M. May (cmay@titan.ucs.umass.edu) wrote:
: Hi, is it necessary/possible to format 4mm DAT's for the 
: Conner/Archive 2GB DAT under linux?  Is there a special
: blocksize switch required for backups?

: --
DAT never have to be formatted. Just use them...

The size doesn't matter. It should be the same on other systems, if you
want to use the DAT's also on other systems...

Florian  La Roche


: -Chris May, Computer Science, University of MA, Amherst
: -     Technical Assistant, P.C. Maintenance Lab


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
From: imp@boulder.parcplace.com (Warner Losh)
Subject: Re: Usefulness of BSD/Linux Source Knowledge (was BSD vs. LINUX)
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 17:15:39 GMT

In article <31racs$si2@nyheter.chalmers.se> tl@cd.chalmers.se
(Torbj|rn Lindgren) writes: 
>Adding SMP was prrobably rather easy. Just put a big lock on the whole
>kernel... This means that only one process (or thread) can be in the
>kernel in the kernel a given time, but if that process can run on any
>processor you have a SMP (per definition, symmetric means that either
>processor may run kernel tasks, not that more than one process may be
>in the kernel).

What you describe is ASMP.  With ASMP, you must block until the
"Master" CPU is ready to process your kernel request, where with you
suggestion, you must wait for the current CPU to finish being in the
kernel.  It sounds like you have a floating Master CPU.  A SMP kernel,
btw, means that you can have multiple processes in the kernel
concurrently and not more than one of them is accessing the same
criticial structures at the same time.  So one could be servicing a
serial line interrupt while the other one is blitting stuff to a
remote X server.

>Creating a system where more than one process can be in the kernel at
>a give time is *much* harder, and SunOS 4.x doesn't support this (This
>is one of the major differences between SunOS 4 and Solaris 2). The
>main difference is that you have to use data-locks (lock the
>data-structures you use) instead of a big lock.

Solbourne did this with 4.0.x and 4.1.x kernels from Sun.  It took
them a fair abount of time to convert the kernel to the fine grain
locking.  I'd think it would take about three months to get a fairly
stable SMP kernel, and another six months to get out all the lock
related crashes that happen from time to time.  Deadlock is a real
problem and locks must always be taken out in the same order to
prevent deadlock (which usually shows up in most SMP systems as
something like "spin lock timeout" or something like that).  Race
conditions abound and need to be carefully looked at, rather than just
hacked together.

SMP on the Solbourne machines bought us about 10% in a 3 CPU
configuration over the ASMP kernel that we were running previously.
Both these kernels were based on 4.0.3.

Warner
-- 
Warner Losh             imp@boulder.parcplace.COM       ParcPlace Boulder
"... but I can't promote you to "Prima Donna" unless you demonstrate a few
 more serious personality disorders"

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
From: imp@boulder.parcplace.com (Warner Losh)
Subject: Re: source of TCP/IP (was I hope this wont ignite a major flame ...)
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 17:31:42 GMT

In article <Cu0L6w.Ms1@calcite.rhyolite.com> vjs@calcite.rhyolite.com
(Vernon Schryver) writes: 
>If you had any significant professional experience, you'd know that is
>"horse pucky."  In real life, you often, probably usually do not have
>the manual when you need to make a fix.  You usually must write drivers
>based on the wrong manual and sometimes no manual at all.  (Spare me
>your claims of professional competance.  I've earning my living at this
>for more than 25 years.)  I'm not one of those who think that all hex
>numbers need #define's; a value that's used only once need only be
>commented.

There's a big difference between code that humans can read, and code
that requires mutants to read.  The code that Vernon quoted is an
example of code that mutants read.  They may be very good mutants and
can make anything work, but many people hate that kind of code.  I
don't have the 25 years that Vernon has (I have only 5 years out of
school, and 10 more before that), but it is completely unreasonable to
expect people to have the hardware manual to read a device driver, or
whatever piece of code you have handy.  What if I wanted to port the
driver to FreeBSD or MS-DOS or Impix?  I'd have to get my hands on the
hardware manual to tell those places that used hex numbers that are
specific to Linux and those that are specific to the card.

Linux does a great job at what it does, but some parts of it are icky
to look at.  Kinda like the plumbing in my house.

Warner
-- 
Warner Losh             imp@boulder.parcplace.COM       ParcPlace Boulder
"... but I can't promote you to "Prima Donna" unless you demonstrate a few
 more serious personality disorders"

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

From: jimr@plato.simons-rock.edu (James A. Robinson)
Subject: Re: Proposal: "How to buy a Linux PC" document
Date: 7 Aug 1994 11:56:37 -0400

In article <321a8g$a3f@agate.berkeley.edu>,
[...]
>I found it under /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/pc-unix/hardware,
>but it was last changed on 8/5/94, which makes it hopelessly out of
>date for me.  (I'm planning to buy a P-90.)  Anybody have any idea if
>there's a newer version anywhere?

I was wondering how in the world something dated a few days ago would
be hopelessly out of date, but I checked and realized it should have
read "1993."

You might also try looking at the Hardware-HOWTO for Linux (on
sunsite), and /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/pc-hardware-faq on
rtfm.mit.edu.  Also, you might try e-mailing the author of the pc-unix
faq and ask if it is still being made. 

Jim
-- 
Jim Robinson                    Email:    jimr@plato.simons-rock.edu
84 Alford Road                  Phone:    (413) 528-7371
Great Barrington, MA 01230      Fax:      (413) 528-7380


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

From: adam@spam.tamu.edu (Adam Roach)
Subject: Digiboard under Linux?
Date: 5 Aug 1994 18:15:29 GMT

We are interested in running a Linux box as a dialin server, among
other things. Right now, we have an 8 port digiboard running under
DOS which will soon become available for this use. My question
is this: has anyone sucessfully used a Digiboard with Linux, and,
if so, how? I went through all of the FAQ's, but found no information
on this. 

Any input, suggestions, or experiences will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

-- 

===========================================================================
    Adam Roach  ---  adamr@tamu.edu  ---  PGP 2.6 Public Key Available
================= WWW URL: http://ftp.tamu.edu/~abr8030 ===================

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

From: fyl@eskimo.com (Phil Hughes)
Subject: Re: Preconfigured systems
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 1994 14:41:40 GMT

David Mathias (dmath@bluehen.cs.wustl.edu) wrote:
: In article <1994Aug2.151936.13645@cs.cornell.edu>,
: Matt Welsh <mdw@cs.cornell.edu> wrote:
: >In article <Ctw5B3.HMt@eskimo.com> fyl@eskimo.com (Phil Hughes) writes:
: >>karlf@onramp.net wrote:
: >>: Please tell us the two you have found. I am searching for one myself.
: >>
: >>Fintronic -- +1 415-325-4474
: >>PromoX Systems -- +1 408-733-2966
: >>SW Technology -- +1 214-907-0871
: >
: >Avoid SW Technology. For details, see Jonathan Kamens' recent posting
:  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: >about his experiences with them, message ID
: >     <pc-hardware-faq/vendor-reviews/swt_775344022@cam.ov.com>

: I disagree with this.  I bought a system from SWT nearly 6 months
: ago and have been quite happy.  A friend of mine also purchased
: from them and is also happy.  Not to suggest that Mr. Kamens was less
: than truthful but we only heard (read) one side of that story.
: It seems to me that we should be careful about making statements
: such as "Avoid company X" unless speaking from personal experience
: or very confident that we are in possession of all of the facts.

: David Mathias    Washington University in St Louis   dmath@bluehen.cs.wustl.edu


We are in the process of collecting info on both sides of this one.  Look
for it in Linux Journal #7.
--
Phil Hughes, Publisher, Linux Journal (206) 527-3385
usually phil@fylz.com, sometimes fyl@eskimo.com


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

From: jaggy@purplet.demon.co.uk (Mike Jagdis)
Subject: Re: IBSC
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 23:33:00 +0000

* In message <1994Aug03.194522.3050@ksmith.com>, Keith Smith said:

KS> It won't run BBx/4

I don't have this. What is the problem?

KS> It won't run Uniplex.

I have this. It works for me. The Xdesktop-ified version works for me. I do 
not have OnGo though. What is the problem?

KS> It won't run a MicroEMACS port of mine.

Why?

KS> It won't run LPI-RPGII

Why?

KS> I think I'll wait for the BETA.

The documentation for iBCS explains how to go about doing basic 10 second 
fault finding using by enabling tracing. With no details as to what version 
you are running against what kernel version and no trace output to indicate 
what is happening there is absolutely *nothing* that can be done. The BETA 
(when it comes) will most likely work no better for you. <shrug>

                                Mike  
 

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

From: jaggy@purplet.demon.co.uk (Mike Jagdis)
Subject: SCO Programs & Linux...
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 1994 23:41:00 +0000

* In message <31sb8d$bo3@taco.cc.ncsu.edu>, Patrick Brewer said:

PB> The fact that the above question was posted to this group
PB> makes me think
PB> that Wordperfect for SCO will run on Linux.  Will it?
PB> Does linux support SCO binaries?

Yes. Get the iBCS emulator module from tsx-11.mit.edu:pub/linux/ALPHA/ibcs2

                                Mike  
 

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

From: fawcett@connected.com (John W. Fawcett)
Subject: Re: Linux T-Shirts
Date: 5 Aug 1994 11:27:36 -0700

In article <1994Aug3.225635.8909@kf8nh.wariat.org>,
Brandon S. Allbery <bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org> wrote:
>In article <31ofjq$1imi@locutus.rchland.ibm.com>, zimmermn@rchvmv.vnet.ibm.com says:
>+---------------
>| >And a "Virtual Brewery" shirt that is a little hard to explain in ASCII.
>| >They are in the new SSC catalog.  Send e-mail to sales@ssc.com with your
>| 
>| Darn!  I just ordered from SSC and they sent me another copy of the old
>| catalog.  :-(  "Virtual Brewery"???  The mind boggles. :-)
>+------------->8
>
>All that virtual beer for Linus has to come from somewhere :-)
>
That was, in fact, the main idea.

My name is John Fawcett and I am the individual that created the design for
the Virtual Brewery.  I agree with Phil that it is very hard to explain in
ASCII.  I can say, however, that it is a full 3D ray trace (my eternal
thanks to the Persistance Of Vision [POV] team).  The image required over
30 CPU *hours* on an HP 9000/750 to render into a 1000x1000 image.

You can see a picture of the image (O.K., it's kind of small, but then
again I have a limited budget) in the next issue of the Linux Journal.
Order from either me or SSC; it's the same stuff.

I have completed a couple of other designs using POV as well.  These two
are "Floating Point Eggception" (an egg in the middle of a bunch of
floating "points") and "Segmentation fault" (a worm with an error).
Pictures of these will be in the the LJ issue after this, if I get my
advertisement revised.

Best,
John
fawcett@hebron.connected.com

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


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