Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #3
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 92 16:15:18 EST

Linux-Activists Digest #3, Volume #2              Wed, 1 Apr 92 16:15:18 EST

Contents:
  Re: ps095: problem with gcc2.1? (Greg Lee)
  Re: Device Drivers (Al Clark)
  Re: gcc 2.1 & tar problems (Brian E. Gallew)
  gcc2.1 -- where can I get it? (Bryan Collom)
  Emacs 18.58 (Wiegmann)
  Re: Booting Linux from a Hard Disk (Drew Eckhardt)
  Re: What is linux? (Tom Lathrop (588-0677))
  problems with lp patches for 0.95a (Bryan Collom)
  ST-506 and IDE drives on the same machine ? (Richard Lewis)
  ST-506 and IDE drives on the same machine ? (Richard Lewis)
  Re: What is linux? (Drew Eckhardt)
  LINUX INFO SHEET (old) (Kevin Cummings)
  TSX-11.MIT.EDU README for LINUX (Kevin Cummings)

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

From: [email-masked] (Greg Lee)
Subject: Re: ps095: problem with gcc2.1?
Date: 1 Apr 92 09:58:47 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Dahai Li) writes:
}...
}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.

Instead of this, try putting the ctype.h from the 2.1 distribution in
place of the ctype.h in linux/include.

--
Greg Lee <[email-masked]>

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

From: [email-masked] (Al Clark)
Subject: Re: Device Drivers
Date: 1 Apr 92 06:17:29 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Blah Blah Blah) writes:
>
>Hi. I posted a couple 'o' days ago, but my message must of died. I'm interested in writing some device drivers, but am unsure of linux's driver interface (I am familiar w/Xenix and Sunos). I get the feeling from looking over the kernel source that the interface is not tabular. I'm not sure. If anyone has insight, drop me a mail message or something. (I know you all know; I'll probably be flamed be being stupid, right?)
>
>sjr
>[email-masked]

look at linux/fs/block_dev.c and char_dev.c.  There are some tables used,
such as the crw_table in char_dev.c, but much of it is common code.  Note
that the tabular "swtable" type of design is only necessary on systems
where you need to add device drivers without kernel source.  Linux
is designed to have kernel source available (Thanks, Linus), so it
can share code where appropriate.
-- 
Al - [email-masked] - My opinions are my own.
      *** Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty! ***

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

From: [email-masked] (Brian E. Gallew)
Subject: Re: gcc 2.1 & tar problems
Date: 1 Apr 92 14:26:50 GMT

Excerpts from netnews.alt.os.linux: 29-Mar-92 gcc 2.1 & tar problems by
E [email-masked] 
> few problems getting it all to work. Firstly tar seemed to choke using the
> command line   tar xvofvz /usr/gcc2misc.Z    It just sits there for a 

try tar xvozf /usr/gcc2misc.Z

only one (1) v and placement of the f is important.  the -f switch
specifies that the target filename follows.  You are telling tar to look
at a file called vz!  Admittedly, the error handling (!?!) is poor
(non-existent?), but try it my way and see if it helps.

                                  -Brian

You drop the bomb -more-
It goes off... -more-
=========================================================================
|  My cluelessness is more real than apparent...                        |
=========================================================================
|  DEC measures their benchmarks with a calendar!!                      |
=========================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Bryan Collom)
Subject: gcc2.1 -- where can I get it?
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Bryan Collom)
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 15:18:56 GMT

Many people seem to be using gcc2.1 under linux.  Can someone
please list the ftp sites where I can get gcc2.1 for linux?  I
searched through the old alt.os.linux postings, but I could not
find where to get gcc2.1

Thanks,

Bryan Collom
[email-masked]

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

From: Wiegmann <[email-masked]>
Subject: Emacs 18.58
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 17:49:30 GMT

HI!

emacs 18.58 is now available for Linux. You can find it on the following
servers:

nic.funet.fi:   ~/pub/OS/Linux/xtra/emacs-18.58
tsx-11.mit.edu: ~/pub/linux/binaries/emacs-18.58

Suggestions or bug-reports send to:
        [email-masked] or
        [email-masked]

Please send it via email, because I get the articels of alt.os.linux
with a delay of one week. Our newsservers does not know about comp.os.linux,
yet.

        Bernd.

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

From: [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: Booting Linux from a Hard Disk
Date: 1 Apr 92 17:24:47 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Michael Smith) writes:
>Would it be possible to put the bootimage and a very small partition,
>and then set that partition as the boot partition ?
>
>Would this then allow us to boot from a hard disk (assuming the correct
>value was placed at offset 508 in the boot image) ?
>

Not without modifying bootsect.S - as drive 0 (A:) is hard coded 
in there.

The Good Thing to do is to use shoelace.  Shoelace is a small 
boot monitor that will allow you boot ANY file off of a Minix 
file system (I boot up off of /vmunix in my root partition,
and for testing can boot /usr/src/linux/Image, /vmunix.bak if
vmunix is corrupted, etc).  

Using WiniBoot, you can boot any partition on the drive too.

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

From: [email-masked] (Tom Lathrop (588-0677))
Subject: Re: What is linux?
Date: 1 Apr 92 16:51:46 GMT

What are the resource requirements for linux? That is, how much RAM
and disk space are required for a useful system? Does it have its own
file system, so it requires a separate partition? Does it use virtual
memory?

-- 
Tom Lathrop                          Eastman Kodak Company
Internet: [email-masked]          Rochester, NY USA 14652-3801
Phone: (+1) 716 588-0677             FAX: (+1) 716 588-2624

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

From: [email-masked] (Bryan Collom)
Subject: problems with lp patches for 0.95a
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Bryan Collom)
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 18:54:37 GMT

   I am having problems with the lp patches for 0.95a
(from archsci.arch.su.oz.au).  I applied the patches,
changed "outb(LP_B(offset),LP_DUMMY)" to "outb(LP_DUMMY,
LP_B(offset))", rebuilt the kernel, and rebooted with the
new kernel.  I got the message "lp_init:  lp1 exists".
I then issued the command "mknod /dev/lp1 c 6 0".  However,
when I type "cat somefile > /dev/lp1" I get "cat:  write
error: ENODEV".  If I type "echo "hello" > /dev/lp1", the
printer still does not budge and my bash shell is all
messed up (ie. prompt is wrong, commands hang, etc.).  The
special file /dev/lp1 does exist, and I have also tried using
other minor numbers with the same results.  Any idea what
is going on?   BTW, I applied the ps patches at the same time,
and ps seems to work fine.

Thanks,

Bryan Collom
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Richard Lewis)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: ST-506 and IDE drives on the same machine ?
Date: 1 Apr 92 18:24:32 GMT

I have a Viglen 386LS (2M RAM, 44M ST-506 Drive, Western Digital
Controller).  I have heard that it is possible to add a new IDE drive
and controller while maintaining the original ST-506. Does anyone know
if this is so and how can I do it ? 

Also, has anyone managed to estimate how much hard disc Linux is going
to require to be useful. OK that's like asking 'how long is a piece of
string' so how about some example estimates ? My minumum configuration
would include Linux, GCC, X11 (when available) .

Richard.

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

From: [email-masked] (Richard Lewis)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: ST-506 and IDE drives on the same machine ?
Date: 1 Apr 92 18:24:32 GMT

I have a Viglen 386LS (2M RAM, 44M ST-506 Drive, Western Digital
Controller).  I have heard that it is possible to add a new IDE drive
and controller while maintaining the original ST-506. Does anyone know
if this is so and how can I do it ? 

Also, has anyone managed to estimate how much hard disc Linux is going
to require to be useful. OK that's like asking 'how long is a piece of
string' so how about some example estimates ? My minumum configuration
would include Linux, GCC, X11 (when available) .

Richard.

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

From: [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: What is linux?
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 18:27:02 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Tom Lathrop (588-0677)) writes:
>What are the resource requirements for linux? That is, how much RAM

Technically, a 386 or above, 2M of ram, and a floppy disk.
Realistically, a 386sx or above, 4M of ram, and a hard disk partition
(Bigger is better, but I have full kernel and library source,
almost all "normal" Unix utilitis (including gcc2,
flex and bison (lex and yacc), sed, awk, perl, the mtools,
vi and nroff clones, etc in a 32M partition with a floating
5-10M free).

>
>and disk space are required for a useful system? Does it have its own

GCC2 is happy in 6M of memory, and swaps minimally with 4M of real memory
and 2M of swap.

>file system, so it requires a separate partition? Does it use virtual

Yes.  However, unlike BSD it will coexist with other operating systems
on the same physical disk, and it is possible to non-destructively
repartition under Messy-Loss.

>memory?

The supported virtual memory operations are : 

1.  Paging to disk.
2.  Shared COW (Copy On Write) pages, 
3.  Shared pages between executables with the same inode.
4.  Shared libraries.
5.  Demand paging of executables.

And a rudimentary mmap(2) is available.

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

From: [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings)
Subject: LINUX INFO SHEET (old)
Date: 1 Apr 92 18:49:09 GMT

Since comp.os.linux is a new group, and many sites are reading it
for the first time, its time to post the FAQs here!  (yes, I know
they were just recently posted in alt.os.linux).  I got these from
tsx-11.mit.edu:

LINUX INFORMATION SHEET
(last updated 13 Jan 1992)

1. WHAT IS LINUX 0.12
    LINUX 0.12 is a freely distributable UNIX clone.  It implements a
subset of System V and POSIX functionality.  LINUX has been written
from scratch, and therefore does not contain any AT&T or MINIX
code--not in the kernel, the compiler, the utilities, or the libraries.
For this reason it can be made available with the complete source code
via anonymous FTP.  LINUX runs only on 386/486 AT-bus machines; porting
to non-Intel architectures is likely to be difficult, as the kernel
makes extensive use of 386 memory management and task primitives.

     Version 0.12 is still a beta release, but it already provides much
of the functionality of a System V.3 kernel.  For example, various
users have been able to port programs such as bison/flex without having
to modify code at all.  Another indication of its maturity is that
it is now possible to do LINUX kernel development using LINUX itself 
and freely-available programming tools.

2. LINUX features
  - System call compatible with a subset of System V and POSIX
  - Full multiprogramming (multiple programs can run at once)
  - Memory paging with copy-on-write
  - Demand loading of executables
  - Page sharing of executables
  - Virtual memory: swapping to disk when out of RAM
  - POSIX job control
  - virtual consoles on EGA/VGA screens
  - pty's
  - some 387-emulation
  - ANSI compliant C compiler (gcc)
  - A complete set of compiler writing tools
    (bison as yacc-replacement, flex as lex replacement)
  - The GNU 'Bourne again' shell (bash)
  - Micro emacs
  - most utilities you need for development
    (cat, cp, kermit, ls, make, etc.)
  - Over 200 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, read, stdio, etc.)
  - Currently 4 national keyboards: Finnish/US/German/French
  - Full source code (in C) for the OS is freely distributable
  - Full source code of the tools can be gotten from many anonymous ftp sites
    (Almost the entire suite of GNU programs has been ported to Linux.)
  - Runs in protected mode on 386 and above
  - Support for extended memory up to 16M on 386 and above
  - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc.
  - Supports the real time clock

3. HARDWARE REQUIRED
   - A 386 or 486 machine with an AT-bus.  (EISA will probably work, also,
     but you will need an AT-bus hard disk controller.)
     Both DX and SX processors will work.
   - A hard disk implementing the standard AT hard disk interface--
     for example, an IDE drive.  SCSI drives are not supported yet.
   - A high-density disk drive--either 5.25" (1.2MB) or 3.5" (1.44MB).
   - At least 2 megabytes of RAM.  (LINUX will boot in 2 Mb.  To use
     gcc 4 MB is a good idea.)
   - Any video card of the following: Hercules,CGA,EGA,VGA

In addition, LINUX supports
   - Up to two serial lines
   - A real time clock 

4. PARTIAL LIST OF UTILITIES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE FOR LINUX 0.12 
   - The MTOOLS package (reading/writing to DOS filesystems)
   - The complete GNU filetools (ls, cat, cp, mv, ...)
   - The GNU C compiler with GNU assembler, linker, ar, ...
   - bison
   - flex
   - rcs
   - pmake (BSD 4.3 Reno/BSD 4.4  make)
   - kermit
   - Micro emacs
   - less
   - mkfs
   - fsck
   - mount/umount

5. LINUX BINARIES
    The LINUX binaries and sources are available at three
    anonymous FTP sites. These are:

    nic.funet.fi:/pub/OS/Linux
    tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux
    tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/msdos/replace

6. LEGAL STATUS OF LINUX
     Although LINUX is  supplied with the  complete source  code, it is
copyrighted software.  Unlike MINIX, however, it is available for free,
provided  you obey  to the  rules specified  in  the  LINUX  copyright.

7. NEWS ABOUT LINUX
     Since LINUX's  introduction to the public there has been a rapidly
growing mailing list, "[email-masked]". To subscribe to 
this  list,  mail to  "[email-masked]".  If the
traffic in this lists increases  further, there are  plans to swap ( at 
least partially ) over  to comp.os.misc, so  watch out  for  any  LINUX 
articles in  this group.  For the current status of LINUX, do "finger
[email-masked]".

8. FUTURE PLANS
     Work is underway on LINUX version 1.0, which will close some of the
gaps in the present implementation.  Various people are currently working
on:
     - A virtual filesystem layer 
     - STREAMS 
     - init/getty/login
     - Interprocess communication
     - IEEE POSIX P1003.1 / P1003.2 compatibility
     - SCSI support
If you want to help, join the mailing list.
=================================================================
Kevin J. Cummings                       Prime Computer Inc.
20 Briarwood Road                       500 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, Mass.                       Framingham, Mass.

InterNet:  [email-masked]
UUCP:      uunet!primerd.Prime.COM!cummings

Std. Disclaimer: "Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration,
                  I've come to the conclusion that your new
                  defense system SUCKS..."   --  War Games
=================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings)
Subject: TSX-11.MIT.EDU README for LINUX
Date: 1 Apr 92 18:57:18 GMT

=======================================================================

        Linux -- The free Minix like Un*x clone is here!

        Yes, we have Linux 0.95a!   (the latest and greatest!)

=======================================================================

Welcome to TSX-11's Linux FTP site!

Directory structure:

        docs            documentation (such as it is)

        INSTALL         contains various programs useful for getting
                        Linux up and running.

        SCSI            contains the SCSI patches from [email-masked],
                        including a bootable .12 kernel for those with
                        seagate adaptors only.

        images          contains the initial boot disk and root disk images

        binaries        various binaries for Linux
                        (use the tar and compress programs found on the 
                        root disk to unpack these)

        sources         sources to Linux, broken down by whether system
                        sources (including libc.a), sources to system
                        programs, sources to usr.bin, and library sources.

        patches         contains patches to Linux (typically, but not always
                        patches to the system sources, such as patches to
                        add new features to the kernel).

        ports           contains patches to make other programs compile on
                        a Linux system

        mail-archive    contains an archive of the Linux-Activsts mailing
                        list

        info            contains various useful informational files which
                        Linux hackers may find useful

TSX-11 does not yet have a mail server --- I'm working on it....

=======================================================================

To upload stuff --- please use the directory /incoming.  It is
world-writable, but not world-readable, so you (or anybody else) will
not be able to see stuff which you drop there until I move it to the
proper place the directory hierarchy.  

Please send mail to [email-masked] after you leave something there,
so I can pick it up as soon as possible.

=======================================================================

The email address for digests of alt.os.linux (soon comp.os.linux?) is

        [email-masked]

Anything mailed to this address will be posted to the appropriate
newsgroup.

All administrative requests (subscriptions/unsubscriptions/etc) MUST
go to the administrative address:

        [email-masked]

See below for what happens if you ignore this address :-)

=======================================================================

        Linux mailing list (is _MANUALLY_ kept) addresses:

                For subscribing and unsubscribing:

                        [email-masked]

                For mailing real articles:

                        [email-masked]

        Please, do NOT send subscribe/unsubscribe mails to
        [email-masked], or I and other people
        will *flame* you, and you'll notice, how your mailbox
        filled up ;-). You even might get dozens of copies
        of netiquette from net users ...

        How to find out, who's on the list ?

        Just "telnet joker.cs.hut.fi 25" ('25' or 'smtp')
        tell our smtp, you want to "vrfy linux-activists", then
        you have the list of users. Say "quit" to quit.

=======================================================================

current status can be obtained by using "finger [email-masked]"

Here's a sample entry:
[kruuna.helsinki.fi] 
Login name: torvalds                    In real life: Linus Benedict Torvalds
Directory: /home/kruuna/tkol/torvalds   Shell: /bin/tcsh
Last login Wed Mar 18 23:28 on ttyp5 from klaava
New mail received Thu Mar 19 05:45:04 1992;
  unread since Wed Mar 18 23:51:01 1992
Plan:

                Free UNIX for the 386

The current version of linux is 0.95a: it was released March 17th, and
is pretty close to what 1.0 will be : it needs some testing, but should
be good enough to use for many things.  0.95a contains mainly bug-fixes
to 0.95.

NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! Plain 0.95 had problems with some harddisks that
worked ok under 0.12, as well as a few bad bugs.  These have been
corrected (hopefully), but make sure you have the "a" version: the bugs
in plain 0.95 can crash your machine rather badly. 

Linux can be gotten by anonymous ftp from 'nic.funet.fi' (128.214.6.100)
in the directory '/pub/OS/Linux'.  This directory structure contains all
the linux OS- and library-sources, and enough binaries to get going.  To
install linux you still need to know something about unices: it's
relatively straightforward to install, but the documentation sucks raw
eggs, and people with no previous unix experience are going to get very
confused. 

Linux still requires an AT-compatible disk to be useful: there are
patches for a SCSI driver (currently ST-0[1|2]), but it hasn't made it
into the "official" kernel yet.  (The patches are against the 0.12
version, but they should work with little changes on 0.95)

There are now a couple of other sites containing linux, as people have
had difficulties with connecting to nic. The sites are:
        Tupac-Amaru.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE (137.226.112.31):
                directory /pub/msdos/replace
        tsx-11.mit.edu (18.172.1.2):
                directory /pub/linux

(and many additional sites: there are now sites in the uk, japan etc
that carry linux, but I have lost count)

There is also a mailing list set up [email-masked]'. 
To join, mail a request to [email-masked]'. 
It's no use mailing me: I have no actual contact with the mailing-list
(other than being on it, naturally).

For those of you able to read the alt.* newsgroups, there is also a
linux newsgroup available: alt.os.linux, which should hopefully become a
comp.* group when the votings etc are ready.

Mail me for more info:

                Linus ([email-masked])

0.95 contains these new things:

- ptrace (gdb is in beta-testing)
- VFS (at least a minimal stubs-version)
- bug-corrections (notably mm, but other bugs as well)
- better VC's (screen blanking, works on non-[EV]GA etc)
- init/login
- faster floppies

0.95a should correct these bugs in plain 0.95:

- floppy-reset gets called, and the machine may be unable to read
  floppies on certain hardware. 
- Some harddisks get read-errors (resulting in general protection errors
  etc)
- console and tty-drivers have known bugs - sometimes weird output when
  writing heavily to the screen. 
- extended partitions don't work after all.

=======================================================================

-- 
=================================================================
Kevin J. Cummings                       Prime Computer Inc.
20 Briarwood Road                       500 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, Mass.                       Framingham, Mass.

InterNet:  [email-masked]
UUCP:      uunet!primerd.Prime.COM!cummings

Std. Disclaimer: "Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration,
                  I've come to the conclusion that your new
                  defense system SUCKS..."   --  War Games
=================================================================

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

** 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
******************************