Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #1
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 20:15:13 EST

Linux-Activists Digest #1, Volume #2             Tue, 31 Mar 92 20:15:13 EST

Contents:
  It's here! (Alan B Clegg)
  dec1.eecs.wsu.edu hates me (Adam Justin Thornton)
  dec1.eecs.wsu.edu hates me (Adam Justin Thornton)
  new mtools (thomas dunbar)
  where is dd??? (Will Clark)
  where is dd??? (Will Clark)
  Re: comp.os.linux (Theodore Ts'o)
  My ghostscript 2.4 port. (R. Ramesh)
  Upload of lpd.tarZ to tsx-11.mit.edu and nic.funet.fi (jim wiegand)
  What is linux (William A. Calderwood)
  Undelivered mail (Network Mailer)
  Posix libc, kermit, tcflush (David Tucker)
  Re: GCC/Make Probs (A. V. Le Blanc)
  Out of memory problem with gcc 2.1 (A. V. Le Blanc)
  Re: Out of memory problem with gcc 2.1 (A. V. Le Blanc)
  Re: Cann't compile lp (Peter Williams 8169821)
  Kernel Debugger and Keyboard Driver Available (Ross Biro)
  What is linux? (/9999999)
  First day user... Need some help... (Mike Dodds)
  ps095: problem with gcc2.1? (Dahai Li)
  Re: tape drivers (Peter Reilley)
  Cann't compile lp (Jiansheng Zhao)
  Cann't compile lp (Jiansheng Zhao)
  some silly questions (Animesh Karna)
  Re: GCC/Make Probs (Steve Ansell)

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan B Clegg)
Subject: It's here!
Date: 31 Mar 92 13:18:11 GMT

Well, great!  We now have our own little news group.  Officially!

                              Congrats, Linus!

-abc
-- 
[email-masked]                         Alan Clegg - Network Programmer
KD4JML (just my luck!)                  MCNC -- Center for Communications

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

From: [email-masked] (Adam Justin Thornton)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: dec1.eecs.wsu.edu hates me
Date: 31 Mar 92 19:01:08 GMT

I'm pretty positive that this was the place I snagged gcc2.0 from lo these
many days ago; since something is hosed with my gcc2.1, I've been trying to
get the canonical copy from dec1.<foo>.  However, it's no longer accepting
anonymous logins.  Does anyone know the story behind this?

Adam
-- 
"This howling in the distance, it's a captivating sound/ Can't tell if it's
ecstasy or pain." | These aren't Rice's opinions, just mine, thank God.
"Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile.  Nothing left to do but :-) :-) :-)"
>Radio Free Preterition from Pig Bodine and the Whole Sick Crew | 64,928<

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

From: [email-masked] (Adam Justin Thornton)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: dec1.eecs.wsu.edu hates me
Date: 31 Mar 92 19:01:08 GMT

I'm pretty positive that this was the place I snagged gcc2.0 from lo these
many days ago; since something is hosed with my gcc2.1, I've been trying to
get the canonical copy from dec1.<foo>.  However, it's no longer accepting
anonymous logins.  Does anyone know the story behind this?

Adam
-- 
"This howling in the distance, it's a captivating sound/ Can't tell if it's
ecstasy or pain." | These aren't Rice's opinions, just mine, thank God.
"Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile.  Nothing left to do but :-) :-) :-)"
>Radio Free Preterition from Pig Bodine and the Whole Sick Crew | 64,928<

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

From: thomas dunbar <[email-masked]>
Subject: new mtools
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 21:36:40 GMT

just get the new mtools (mtools.n.tar.Z) from nic.funet.fi. it's nice to
have one binary (with links).
  The nicest feature, tho, is that it uses a run-time configuration file
so that i can even say
   A /dev/at1
in the /etc/mtools file and have it default to reading my 1.2M B: drive.
   my complements to the chef

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

From: [email-masked] (Will Clark)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: where is dd???
Date: 31 Mar 92 21:08:17 GMT

Ok, another dumb question :-)

I've seen people post about using dd to write to a floppy, but I can't
find it on tsx-11.  Am I in space, or should I be looking somewhre
else?  Is it part of another tar file?  Was this in the FAQ and I missed it?

(I checked *my* file system too.)

Will Clark (It took me three days to discover that my tar trouble was
            caused by a defective floppy drive! :-(
[email-masked]
========================
SAIC has never given me a charge number for formulating opinions, so
according to them, I don't have any.

harlick@lindy is a friend's account, but you can send me email here, too.

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

From: [email-masked] (Will Clark)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: where is dd???
Date: 31 Mar 92 21:08:17 GMT

Ok, another dumb question :-)

I've seen people post about using dd to write to a floppy, but I can't
find it on tsx-11.  Am I in space, or should I be looking somewhre
else?  Is it part of another tar file?  Was this in the FAQ and I missed it?

(I checked *my* file system too.)

Will Clark (It took me three days to discover that my tar trouble was
            caused by a defective floppy drive! :-(
[email-masked]
========================
SAIC has never given me a charge number for formulating opinions, so
according to them, I don't have any.

harlick@lindy is a friend's account, but you can send me email here, too.

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

From: [email-masked] (Theodore Ts'o)
Subject: Re: comp.os.linux
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 23:03:53 GMT

   Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 16:06:01 CST
   From: [email-masked] (Michael K. Johnson)

   What is the status of the gateway as far as alt.os.linux vs.
   comp.os.linux?

   It might be worth posting a note telling what is happening there.

The status of the gateway is as follows.  Mail sent to the gateway will
now be posted to comp.os.linux, instead of alt.os.linux.  Articles sent
to either alt.os.linux or comp.os.linux will both be included in the
Linux-Activists digest, although we should encourage people to
transition over to comp.os.linux.

If you are a news administrator at your site, and you are running C
news, I encourage you to use the command:

        addgroup alt.os.linux =comp.os.linux

which will cause all incoming articles for alt.os.linux and put them in
comp.os.linux instead.

Presumably in a few weeks, we can rmgroup alt.os.linux.

                                                - Ted

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

From: [email-masked] (R. Ramesh)
Subject: My ghostscript 2.4 port.
Date: 31 Mar 92 22:06:54 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

I received several requests for my port of ghostscript.  Thanks for the
overwhelming response. Yes, it is stupid of me to assume only selected few of
you have lp support and have epson LQ hooked up to your m/c.  

I am currently trying to switch to gcc 2.1 once I have gs (i.e. ghostscript)
successfully compiled under it (gcc 1.40 has too many problems with include
files) I will get a set of cdiff's to the original source found in
prep.ai.mit.edu and post/upload them at appropriate place.

Ramesh

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

From: jim wiegand <[email-masked]>
Subject: Upload of lpd.tarZ to tsx-11.mit.edu and nic.funet.fi
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 00:29:15 GMT

Hi All;
      I have uploaded to tsx-11.mit.edu and nic.funet.fi
      lpd.tar.Z
      A very crude print daemon/lp utility for Linux.

      See the file README for a detailed description of the fact that
      there is nothing guaranteed about this program. It is submitted in
      hope that someone may find it useful.

      The lp utility can do some nice text formatting based on a printcap
      entry.

            enjoy
                 jim v5068u at vm.temple.edu [ = templevm.bitenet ]

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

From: [email-masked] (William A. Calderwood)
Subject: What is linux
Date: 31 Mar 92 23:00:01 GMT

I've heard people talk about linux. I guess it's some great new os?
Could some one post a short discription about it. ie
advantages/disadvantages what machines it works on (pc, sun).
And where you can get it.

Bill,
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

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

From: Network Mailer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Undelivered mail
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 00:37:57 GMT

============================Original message============================
Your mail was not delivered to some or all of its
intended recipients for the following reason(s):

Message syntax is unrecognizable. CMS Mail is Stupid!

====================RETURNED MAIL FILE====================
Date:         Tue, 31 Mar 92 19:29:53 EST
From:         jim wiegand <V5068U@TEMPLEVM>
Subject:      Symlink behavior  under chroot
To:           [email-masked],
              [email-masked]
======================================================================
hi all;
       i was trying to set up a dummy root directory using chroot
       and with symlinks below the fake root, a la ftp.
       problem: the shell does not follow these links, it says: command
       not found :=(.

       am i being stoopid or is this appropriate behavior for a symlink???

      got to know !!!!
                      jim v5068u at vm.temple.edu

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

From: [email-masked] (David Tucker)
Subject: Posix libc, kermit, tcflush
Date: 31 Mar 92 17:48:50 GMT

>From: [email-masked] (Douglas E. Quale)
>Date: 24 Feb 92 07:11:32 GMT

  said:

>Do we have a timetable for the rest of the GNU C standard library?
>...
>missing for a POSIX compatible libc.a is fpathconf, mkfifo, pathconf,
>siglongjmp, sigsetjmp, strtod, tcdrain, tcflush and tcsendbreak.  ...

I would like to use ckermit 5a(beta).  A 'make posix' goes fine up to the
link, at which point it can't find tcflush and tcsendbreak.  Does anyone
know if these are available now?

David Tucker @ATO / KC4ZGO / [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (A. V. Le Blanc)
Subject: Re: GCC/Make Probs
Date: 31 Mar 92 13:38:26 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Court Demas) writes:
>I have  installed GCC 1.4 (gccnew) and make (don't remember where it
>came from).  They're both in usr/bin although I've tried them in
>usr/local/bin also.  When I try to execute either one, I get:
>
>gcc: Error, unable to execute binary file:  Can't execute program.
>
>I know the actual gcc
>program is running because if I don't give any arguments (like a file to
>compile or whatever) it says "Must specify a file name".  

Try adding '-v' to the gcc command line.  This will display any
subprograms gcc is trying to execute, so that if it is having
trouble with, for example, cpp, you can spot it and (one hopes)
fix the problem.

     -- Owen
     [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (A. V. Le Blanc)
Subject: Out of memory problem with gcc 2.1
Date: 31 Mar 92 13:42:52 GMT

I have been having an odd problem with gcc 2.0 and now with
gcc 2.1.  I am using 0.95a plus the alpha patches.  Simple
programs compiled with 2.0, programs doing nothing as exotic
as a malloc, occasionally seem to grab 700-800 pages of memory
for no apparent reason.  Has anyone else come across this?

     -- Owen
     [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (A. V. Le Blanc)
Subject: Re: Out of memory problem with gcc 2.1
Date: 31 Mar 92 14:35:19 GMT

Earlier I reported that

>I have been having an odd problem with gcc 2.0 and now with
>gcc 2.1.  I am using 0.95a plus the alpha patches.  Simple
>programs compiled with 2.0, programs doing nothing as exotic
>as a malloc, occasionally seem to grab 700-800 pages of memory
>for no apparent reason.  Has anyone else come across this?

I should mention that this problem occurs with both static
and shared linked versions of programs, compiled with gcc 2.x,
whereas it does not occur with the same programs compiled
with gcc 1.4.  This suggests that the problem is caused by
a bug in the gcc 2.x library, but it is not impossible that
it has some other cause.

     -- Owen
     [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Williams 8169821)
Subject: Re: Cann't compile lp
Date: 31 Mar 92 23:37:16 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Jiansheng Zhao) writes:
|> 
|> Keywords: lp0.95a patch, lp
|> 
|> I patched and successfully compiled kernel with lp0.95a. When I boot up
|> linux, the printer seems ready to work. However, I couldn't compile
|> lp.c. to use lp command to print.
|> When I type "make lp", I got the following:
|> .../crt0.o: Undefined symbol _main reference from text ......
|> What is the solution? Thanks to all who helped, I am almost there!

lp.c is part of the kernel to support parrallel comms AND not a seperate
program.

Once you have installed the new kernel you need to create new devices in the
/dev directory e.g. /dev/lp0, /dev/lp1, /dev/lp2 (see the file lp.note included
in the patch for the major node (6 I think from memory??)).

During the boot sequence the kernel should state which lp devices are available.

Printing can then be achieved by 

cat filename > /dev/lp1

or something similar depending on the device(s) available.

With the current timeout values you have to be very quick changing the paper if
you run out in the middle of a job.

-- 
Peter Williams                |e-mail: [email-masked]
Key Centre for Design Quality |phone: +61-2-692 2053 or +61-2-660 6156
University of Sydney          |+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

From: [email-masked] (Ross Biro)
Subject: Kernel Debugger and Keyboard Driver Available
Date: 1 Apr 92 00:39:16 GMT

        I've written a simple kernel debugger, and made it available
at tsx-11.mit.edu.  It allows you access to the debug registers and
arbitrary kernel memory, as well as having a disassembler built in.
The main problems with it are that it seems to be very long (.o files
add up to about 80k) and that it requires a different keyboard driver
(which is included in the same file.)  It shouldn't be too hard to
patch the old keyboard driver to work with the disassembler, but I
didn't feel like doing it.

        The new keyboard driver has the following benefits/problems:

Benefits:
        Written in C, although the algorythm is confusing, it should
                not be too hard to modify.
        Stubs for arbitrarily redefining keys.
        No serious performance hit; it reenables the interrupts as
                quickly as possible, and takes care to be reenterant.
        Nearly all key combinations are distinguished; Alt-F1 is different
                from Shift-F1 is different from Alt-Shift-F1 etc.
        All extended key sequences begin with ESC-[.
        Alt can be changed to a meta-key (Set bit 8) by only changing
                8 bytes, and should be able to be done at run time.
                (not tested).
        Ctrl-Alt-Delete cannot be enabled.  (You may reboot from the
                kernel debugger by typing reboot).
        It should be possible to change keyboard Country at run-time.
                (not tested.)

        Does not lockup if you press a key which sends more than one
                scan code at boot time.

Problems:
        Currently only has support for American keyboards. (An untested
                 finnish mode can be selected at compile time.)

        The keystrokes sent for function/cursor keys are not compatible
                with the other keyboard driver (And probably with
                anything else, although an example .emacs file and a list
                of what most of the keys send should be available soon.)

        It's written in C, and probably slightly slower than the asm
                version that comes with linux.

        The algorythm it uses is confusing, and not as flexible as I
                would like (I chose it for speed and size.).

        You must use major dev 8 to use new the ioctl calls, although it
                still responds to everything else on the old major dev.

        Requires my configuration system (also available from tsx-11)
                which is sadly lacking in many ways, but still a
                step in the right direction.

        Certain Ioctl combinations can cause it to crash the system on
                the next keystroke. (Not really a bug, but a lack of
                sanity checking on the keytables, not tested.)

        And I'm sure many more.  I wrote the keyboard driver because
I wanted to have a keyboard on which I could distinguish all the key
combinations.  If you don't like the idea of it being written in C,
then don't use it; you don't need to complain about it.  If you have
any problems with it (and I'm sure you will), let me know; but as
my research is eating up more and more of my time; I don't know when
I will be able to work on either the debugger or the keyboard driver
in the near future.

        Ross Biro [email-masked]

(I apologize for the spelling, but the computer I'm writting this
on doesn't seem to have spell, and I don't intend to proofread this.)

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

From: [email-masked] (/9999999)
Subject: What is linux?
Date: 31 Mar 92 23:43:07 GMT

 I noted the new group linux to appear on usenet.
 What type of OS is linux?
 Regards

     Giuseppe Vitillaro (news administrator and builder
          at ipgaix.unipg.it, Perugia Italy) also [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Mike Dodds)
Subject: First day user... Need some help...
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 17:19:13 GMT

Hi,
        I've just yesterday installed Linux.95a on my 386sx/4Meg/80MegIDE
, and I'm having several problem.  
        1) After reading alt.os.linux, one of the most common asked 
question is, "what does gcc2.0 mean when it says, 'parse error before "("'"?
I've tracked the problem down to line 97 in stdio.h.  What causes this to occure?  I'm using this release's (.95a) tar, which brings me to my next problem.
        2) tar in this release seems to be buggy.  Several people
have tracked down the problem to this version only (.12 works, or so
I'm told).  So, should I go out and get the root image for ver .12?
Will that version of tar work for .95a?
        3) And, what if I want to boot of of my hard disk?  No one has
said word one about his in the newsgroup?  Is no one else interested, or
am I naive in merely asking?  
        4) Is there a better way to get software onto my machine than
downloading it to a MS-DOS PC, tar'ing it again, then rawrite it
to a floppy, and then sneaker-net it to my Linux machine?  If so,
some info on where to get this magical stuff would be appreciated.
        5) sh.  It's a problem.  Does anyone know where the source
for tcsh is?  I've got bash, but tcsh would be better.

I'm going to download 600K worth of utils for Linux at 2400 baud.  Again.
_______________________________________________________________________________

     Mike Dodds || The Magister

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

From: [email-masked] (Dahai Li)
Subject: ps095: problem with gcc2.1?
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Dahai Li)
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 18:39:36 GMT

Hi,

I am experiencing problem with ps095, compiled with gcc2.1.

I rebuilt the patched 0.95a kernel according to I Reid's post "Compiling kernel,
installing ps: a solution".

The compilation of of 0.95a (using gcc2.1) went without any problem.

However, on linking ps, ld complained about unresolved external "_ctype".
So I made the ctype.o of linux' lib.a one of ps' objects. It linked
succesfully.

But when I called "ps -U /usr/src/linux/tools/system", Linux chocked, gave
me a segment fault.

The system I am running Linux is a 2Meg Zenith 386 Laptop (Tubors PORT
386).

Any one has any idea what's wrong, and what should I do to overcome the
problem?

Thanks in advance.

Dahai 

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Reilley)
Subject: Re: tape drivers
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 17:14:25 GMT

[email-masked] (H.H. Bergman) writes:

>Quick questions for tape experts [I'm fairly new to tapes]: 

>       - Are tape device supposed to be block or character devices? Why?

        Tape device drivers are character devices.   They are not block
devices because they do not use the kernel buffer pool and therefore
are interfaced with read/write rather than a strategy routine.

>       - How should the tape device be named? /dev/rmt ? What if you have
>         different kinds of tape drives? /dev/ct as well?

        Any name is ok because it is a specified parameter to whatever
program is using it; dd, tar, cpio...   Names such as rmt, rct are
traditional for magnetic tape (often 9 track), cartridge tape.

>       - What density are the low/medium/high densities in bpi exactly?

        Many drives have the option of recording in a few different densities.
9 track drives talk in bpi; 800, 1600, 3200, 6250.   Cartridge drives
generally have densities like QIC24(QIC60), QIC120, QIC150 for 
60, 120, 150 mbytes respectivly.   

-- 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Peter Reilley ..... [email-masked] <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                     Well, that about says it.

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

From: [email-masked] (Jiansheng Zhao)
Subject: Cann't compile lp
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 17:39:09 GMT

Keywords: lp0.95a patch, lp

I patched and successfully compiled kernel with lp0.95a. When I boot up
linux, the printer seems ready to work. However, I couldn't compile
lp.c. to use lp command to print.
When I type "make lp", I got the following:
.../crt0.o: Undefined symbol _main reference from text ......
What is the solution? Thanks to all who helped, I am almost there!

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

From: [email-masked] (Jiansheng Zhao)
Subject: Cann't compile lp
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 17:33:00 GMT

I patched and successfully compiled kernel with lp0.95a. When I boot up
linux, the printer seems ready to work. However, I couldn't compile
lp.c. to use lp command to print.
When I type "make lp", I got the following:
.../crt0.o: Undefined symbol _main reference from text ......
What is the solution? Thanks to all who helped, I am almost there!

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

From: [email-masked] (Animesh Karna)
Subject: some silly questions
Date: 31 Mar 92 18:05:29 GMT

Hi!  I have a few silly questions regarding Linux.  If I understand 
correctly, Linux doesn't work with "extended partitions", which can
include, I presume, partitions created by special partitioning pgms
and all that.  Okay.  Now, in DOS (specifically, ver 3.3), we encounter 
the word "extended partition" in the FDISK program.  Let's say I have 
a 96-meg hard drive, for example.  I can allocate 32 megs as my primary 
DOS partition using FDISK.  Now, if I can then allocate an "extended 
DOS partition" of the remainder of the disk (64 megs), and put two 
"logical drives" of 32 megs into that "extended partition".  This gets
into confusing terminology: we tend to refer to the two "logical drives"
as partitions.  My question is this: in the above config, would I be
able to keep the first partition (the main DOS partition) and, say, the
first "logical drive" for DOS, and leave the second "logical drive" for
Linux?  

If I understand correctly, these partitions must be created by
DOS (or something else) before setting up a Linux file system.  Is this
correct?  If Linux has its own partitioning pgm, I imagine the above 
situation could be as simple as setting up 32 megs for the "extended 
partition" instead of 64 megs, plopping 1 "logical drive" into that
partition, and use the Linux partitioning pgm for the rest of the drive.

Phew.  I hope the above paragraphs make SOME sense!  ;-)

One simple question: Say I have two hard drives hooked up to my computer.
I want the primary hard drive (drive 0) to be a DOS drive.  I want the 
second hard drive (drive 1) to be a Linux drive.  Can this be done with
minimal pain and agony?  Someone told me, somewhere, that Linux must be
placed on the first drive (drive 0).

Thanks for the help!
-A.K.

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

From: [email-masked] (Steve Ansell)
Subject: Re: GCC/Make Probs
Date: 31 Mar 92 18:47:54 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Court Demas) writes:
>
>I posted about this before, but I'm still having problems:
>
>I have  installed GCC 1.4 (gccnew) and make (don't remember where it
>came from).  They're both in usr/bin although I've tried them in
>usr/local/bin also.  When I try to execute either one, I get:
>
>gcc: Error, unable to execute binary file:  Can't execute program.
>

Try either adding /usr/lib to your PATH variable or linking the files
/usr/lib/cc1 and /usr/lib/cpp to someplace that is already in your
path.  This was the problem when I got that very message.

-- 
                                                -Steven T. Ansell
                                                Unix Consultant
                                                Computing Services U.C.D.       

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

** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **

The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is:

    Internet: [email-masked]

You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux) via:

    Internet: [email-masked]

Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
    nic.funet.fi				pub/OS/Linux
    tsx-11.mit.edu				pub/linux
    tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de	pub/msdos/replace

The current version of Linux is 0.95a released on March 17, 1992

End of Linux-Activists Digest
******************************