Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #38
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 14:00:19 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #38, Volume #2             Tue, 7 Apr 92 14:00:19 EDT

Contents:
  Sorry Linus (Jon Tombs)
  Re: Binaries considered harmful (Greg Lee)
  Re: mtools (mcopy) problems (Werner Almesberger)
  Re: Help Mr. Fortran (Craig Burley)
  Re: Binaries considered harmful (Daniel D Deavours)
  FS questions (Matthew Francey)
  Re. LINUX INSTALLATION PROBLEMS (Scott Dunn)
  BootAny help needed!! ([email-masked])
  Re: Help: Straighten Me Out on SCSI Controller Cards (Host Adapter?) (Mike Berger)
  HELP! Problems with rootimage. (Timo Jaakko Sillanp{{)
  GCC V2.x now available from tsx-11 (Theodore Ts'o)
  Byte Unix Benchmarks. (Jon Tombs)
  Linux & Ultra 12F ESDI? (Keith L. Fries)

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

From: [email-masked] (Jon Tombs)
Subject: Sorry Linus
Date: 7 Apr 92 10:45:40 GMT

The patch for linux 0.95c Linus probably doesn't want to see...

Apply to /usr/src/linux/include/linux/config.h

*** config.h^   Tue Apr  7 00:09:54 1992
--- config.h    Tue Apr  7 00:09:54 1992
***************
*** 16,22 ****
  #define UTS_SYSNAME "Linux"
  #define UTS_NODENAME "(none)" /* set by sethostname() */
  #define UTS_RELEASE "0"               /* patchlevel */
! #define UTS_VERSION "0.95a"
  #define UTS_MACHINE "i386"    /* hardware type */
  
  /* Don't touch these, unless you really know what your doing. */
--- 16,22 ----
  #define UTS_SYSNAME "Linux"
  #define UTS_NODENAME "(none)" /* set by sethostname() */
  #define UTS_RELEASE "0"               /* patchlevel */
! #define UTS_VERSION "0.95c"
  #define UTS_MACHINE "i386"    /* hardware type */
  
  /* Don't touch these, unless you really know what your doing. */

=======
Or should we be updating patch level?

--
 Jon                    <[email-masked]>
                        "I got in today just as the sun was crashing"

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

From: [email-masked] (Greg Lee)
Subject: Re: Binaries considered harmful
Date: 7 Apr 92 12:42:21 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt) writes:
}...
}Source should be freely available to anyone who wants it, 
}but a more convienient binary distribution should also
}be available.

Sounds good to me.  But there has never been source code available for any
of the versions of gcc, so far as I know, nor diffs against the fsf distribution.
I hope there will be.  I have never found source code for update.  The source
code I have for fsck doesn't come close to compiling with the current linux
include files.  I'm going to work on fsck.c (I question whether fsck -m works
properly now), but since I don't understand the filesystem, my prospects aren't
very good.

Anybody with any source, please upload.

--
Greg Lee <[email-masked]>

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

From: [email-masked] (Werner Almesberger)
Subject: Re: mtools (mcopy) problems
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 12:54:06 GMT

In article <x3mj=[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Toshiyasu Morita) writes:
> mcopy does nothing at all - when I type mcopy c:/gcc-1.40/gccinfo.1 gccinfo.1
> nothing happens. I can "mcat" the file and I can view it, but I can't
> copy it to my Linux directory.

If "nothing happens" means that mcopy returns without doing anything,
you've probably forgotten to make links for mread and mwrite. mcopy
execs mread or mwrite to do the transfers, but it doesn't warn when
the exec fails. Fix: chdir to the directory where mtools live and do
a  ln mtools mread; ln mtools mwrite  (or, if you're not using the
merged version, compile mread and mwrite and put them in the approp-
riate directory.)

If "nothing happens" means that mcopy hangs and has to be killed with
^C, you've probably compiled mcopy.c without -DMERGED. mcopy sets
argv[0] of the execed mread/mwrite to "mcopy" if -DMERGED is omitted,
which breaks the merged mtools. Fix: re-compile mcopy.c with -DMERGED

- Werner
-- 
   _________________________________________________________________________
  / Werner Almesberger, ETH Zuerich, CH      [email-masked] /
 / IFW A44  Tel. +41 1 254 7213                 [email-masked] /
/_BITNET:_ALMESBER@CZHETH5A__HEPNET/CHADNET:_[20579::]57414::ALMESBERGER_/

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

From: [email-masked] (Craig Burley)
Subject: Re: Help Mr. Fortran
Date: 6 Apr 92 18:52:36 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (James L Nance) writes:

   I remember reading a post here not too long ago from the person who was writing
   gnu FORTRAN.  I was wondering if this person, whose name I can not recall, has
   considered porting FORTRAN to Linux.  I would like to see if I can get Spice2g6
   ported to Linux, but parts of it (lots of it) are written in FORTRAN and
   I think
   it would be a Major job to translate them into C.

Hi, that was me.  If (99% likely) and when (within a month or so) I do get
a 486 box and start getting Linux up and running, I indeed would like to use
it as my main Fortran-compiler-development machine.  BUT, that might take a
while (especially if I have to do driver development to get my peripherals
working) and in the meantime I'll likely be modeming in to a Sun4 to do the
Fortran work.

Furthermore, GNU Fortran hasn't even reached alpha test yet, though from a
technical perspective it's pretty close (testing and some backend changes to
get COMPLEX support working still needed).

I suggest you ftp to research.att.com, login as netlib (I think; maybe it's
anonymous ftp, but I think they changed that), get f2c from ~dist/f2c or
some such place, and use that to compile your Fortran code for use on Linux.
f2c is pretty good; it's free (public domain); and when GNU Fortran comes
out (as alpha), it'll be inter-module compatible with f2c-compiled programs.
(f2c comes with it's own I/O and intrinsic libraries, so it ought to be quite
easy to get it running under Linux.)

If nobody seems to have gotten f2c ported to Linux by the time I get Linux
working on my machine, I'll do it myself and let people know what changes,
if any, need to be made.  I doubt it'll be much; I've gotten f2c running on
two 68k machines (HP and NeXT) and a Sun4 with a trivial amount of work.
(On the other hand, I haven't run a whole lot of Fortran code through it
anywhere, yet.)
--

James Craig Burley, Software Craftsperson    [email-masked]
Member of the League for Programming Freedom (LPF)

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

From: [email-masked] (Daniel D Deavours)
Subject: Re: Binaries considered harmful
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 14:29:24 GMT

Paul Allen <[email-masked]> writes:

>- Software that is not needed for bootstrapping should be placed in the
>  archives in source or diff form only.

>- Part of the process of installing a new Linux release is to recompile
>  everything.

        There's a lot of good reasonds for distributing binaries.  Emacs
18.58 is a good reason!  The source code is 4 megabytes compressed, and
the time it would take to compile it on a 16mH SX with 2 megs of ram and
a slow hard drive would be measured in days.  Don't even think about X.

>I may be missing something really obvious here, but I just don't see
>the need for all these binaries.  I'd rather just have sources.  With
>the exception of a few things that simply couldn't be compiled, Minix
>has always been a source-only system.  (You got the binaries when you
>bought Minix, and sources/diffs from the net kept you current from then
>on.) I see no reason that Linux needs to work differently.  

        Minix is mostly a 16 bit OS, and has silly silly size limits to
everything.  Linux is different because it can compile and run HUGE programs.
(I easily ported gnuchess, try that on Minix.)  Also, keeping the source
code around for all the utilities you need can be pretty hard on a limited
sized hard drive.  Further, what compiles on gcc1.37 may not compile on
1.40 or 2.0 or 2.1 (it should, but....)  It's just so much more convenient.
        I like the idea, however, of keeping around sources and diffs.
Shared libraries are one of them.  I think that keeping binaries, even though
some day they may break, are a good idea also.

>Paul Allen
>[email-masked]

Dan Deavours
[email-masked]

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

From: mstype!mdf (Matthew Francey)
Subject: FS questions
Reply-To: mstype!mdf (Matthew Francey)
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 14:48:52 GMT

well, i've read the FAQ sheet and i am unimpressed. :-)

or more precisely, i am showing remarkable restraint and calm in the
light of the information on this FAQ list.  i will refrain from rapid,
perhaps unthinking, decisions.  i will not drool *too* much.  wild,
incoherent singing in the middle of the night will be kept to an absolute
minimum.

hence, like any potential guinea pi..., err, customer, i have some
more questions before i sign my life away to LINUX:

1) is there a driver for my beautiful Adaptec 1542B card?  how difficult
   is it to make such a thing on a single diskette only system (which is
   what i would be left with)?  trivial 30 minute operation, or success
   would be only marginal after 4 months of 24hr non-stop hacking sessions?

2) is the file system size *really* limited to 64 megabytes?  this is a
   really serious flaw if true for (a) simple aesthetic reasons and (b)
   practical reasons for those with large disks ...  and if true, can this
   be easily fixed?  i have absolutely no care in the world about
   compatibility with MINIX file systems, or any other for that matter.
   i just want peak, or close to peak, fs performance.

otherwise, LINUX is looking like what i an looking for.  i have had it with
COHERENT and its 64+64 business and disgusting disk performance...

but its still a toss up between 386 BSD or LINUX.  but i haven't found out
anything about the BSD other than the fact it exists, is free, and a friend
tells me it panics alot...
-- 
Matthew Francey                   "You might not count in the new world order."
...!utzoo!sq!mstype!mdf                       -- Generation X (slightly edited)

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

From: [email-masked] (Scott Dunn)
Subject: Re. LINUX INSTALLATION PROBLEMS
Date: 7 Apr 92 08:20:03 GMT

Sorry to be a real pain in the but, but here's the next installment in
the ongoing saga of 'Scott Tries To Install Linux'.

Early this morning playing around trying to get things to work.  Decided
to boot up with 0.95 as suggested in I Reid's Beginners Guide.  Made an fs,
rebooted, and it worked, no probs.  Tried 0.95a and :

8 virtual consoles
4 pty's
HD timeoutHD timeout .......
dev 0300, block 0
Unable to read partition table of device 0300
HD timeoutHD timeout .......
dev 0340, block 0
Unable to read partition table of device 0340
Partition tables ok.                    /* Wonderful !!!! */
harddisk I/O error
dev 0341, block 1
Kernel panic : Unable to mount root

Back into 0.95, decided to install a few choice pieces of s/w just so
I could at least have a decent look around.  Everything worked, except
mtools (mcopy wouldn't work).  However on the whole it worked.

Before switching off, decided to reboot with 0.95a, just in case.
Amazing, it worked.  Closed eyes, took a deep breath, tried again, it
worked.  Installed some more s/w, mtools working properly.  Couldn't
install gcc at all.  One tar seems to be corrupted, one other returns
with 'out of swap space' and yet another does nothing.

Switched off, went to bed.

6.30 am, getting ready to leave, decided to try out linux,
0.95a - see above error message,
        switch to picture of me stomping around room (quietly) tearing
        at imaginary 'things' culminating in an almighty roar.
        Yes Linus, when you woke up at 6.30 and said 'What the ****
        was that?', now you know.

Tried again,
0.95 - works
0.95a -
HD timeoutHD timeoutHD timeoutHD timeout Partition tables ok.
39488/43545 blocks
14327/14515 inodes
226 buffers - 241424 bytes buffer space
Free mem : 1310720 bytes
All systems functioning

(none) Login :

0.95a seems to work in the above manner 1 in 10 attempts.  I am doing
nothing strange between reboots.

I would really appreciate it if somebody who could help would mail me
or post the group.  My configuration is as detailed in my previous 2 posts
and everything mentioned in them still holds

Remeber I can get 0.95a to works from hda1.  But for the moment at least
I need to keep DOS as it is installed.

Any help much appreciated,

Scott.

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: BootAny help needed!!
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:17:36 GMT

Hellllp!!!  I installed bootany on my system, it refuses to boot LINUX, but the
main thing is it's screwing up my clock and I want it off NOW...  Whoops.  I
don't see any uninstall.exe.  Basically I'm screwed, aren't I??  Do I have to
low-level format my HD??  Is there any way to get the dratted thing out of the
bootstrap?

Please mail any answers to [email-masked] - Thanks!!

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

From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Help: Straighten Me Out on SCSI Controller Cards (Host Adapter?)
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:06:52 GMT

[email-masked] (Bob Davis) writes:
>       I am *so* confused about SCSI -- all aspects of it. And I can't
>seem to locate answers. First, what do I get for the $250 for an Adaptec 1542
>SCSI controller that I don't get with the $150 controllers , or with the $35
>Seagate ST02?
*----
The extra money buys substantially higher performance.  The Seagate is
the bottom-of-the-line.  It uses the CPU heavily, and doesn't support
non-Seagate drives too extensively.  I don't know what kind of software
is available for tape or CD-ROM drivers.

The Adaptec 1542B is on the opposite end of the spectrum.  It's a
bus-master disk controller, and has very high performance if your
motherboard can handle it.  Software support is excellent.

At the higher end are EISA type controllers, and below the 1542B
are non bus-master controllers that are a lot smarter and faster
than the ST-01/02.

--
        Mike Berger
        Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
        AT&TNET     217-244-6067
        Internet    [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Timo Jaakko Sillanp{{)
Subject: HELP! Problems with rootimage.
Date: 7 Apr 92 12:48:47 GMT

I reported this problem two weeks ago but got no help.
So, here it is again.

I got rawrite.exe, bootimage and rootimage (0.95a) from nic.funet.fi.

I booted with bootimage diskette in drive A and Linux told 
me 'Loading....'.Then I selected one of the listed video modes.
Linux told me to insert rootimage diskette in drive A and press
ENTER. I inserted it and pressed enter. Diskette drive light
and motor went on for a second and that was all. Nothing else
happened.

I got a new copy from nic.funet.fi and tried again - still
didn't work. I have tried it on three different machines
but it doesn't work! Unfortunately all of those machines 
are 486/33 with AMI BIOS dated 05/05/91 or 06/06/91, so
I don't know whether it is a BIOS problem. My machine has
OPTI chipset, the other two have some other chipset.

Am I doing something totally wrong? 
I get rootimage.Z from nic.funet.fi (yes, binary mode is on),
uncompress it and write it to a floppy disk (1.44Mb) using
rawrite.exe. 
What should I do? 

Please at least tell me to shut up if I'm wrong. This uncertainty
is killing me.

TS.

[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Theodore Ts'o)
Subject: GCC V2.x now available from tsx-11
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 17:40:21 GMT

TSX-11 now mirrors the GCC V2 directory on banjo.concert.net.  The
directory is: ~ftp/pub/linux/mirrors/GCCv2

                                                - Ted

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

From: [email-masked] (Jon Tombs)
Subject: Byte Unix Benchmarks.
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:35:51 GMT

I have uploaded to tsx-11, and I will upload to nic (if the link will stay
up for long enought), the Byte Unix Benchmarks that came through in
comp.unix.sources a while back. These required /usr/bin/time and a gawk with
trig functions so I've included them in the upload (gawk-2.13.2 and
gnu time-1.3).  I expect it to appear as:

/pub/linux/sources/test_suites/benchmark.tar.Z
on tsx-11

In the mean time any _UK_ user can pick it up from ftp.robots.ox.ac.uk
in the same place.

As an idea of its output here the summary reports for my 486 and a Sparc1+

----
Sparc1+
Arithmetic Test (type = double)               2541.7     1494.0        0.6
Dhrystone 2 without register variables       22366.3    13077.0        0.6
Execl Throughput Test                           16.5       10.7        0.6
File Copy  (30 seconds)                        179.0       83.0        0.5
Pipe-based Context Switching Test             1318.5      947.1        0.7
Shell scripts (8 concurrent)                     4.0        1.7        0.4
                                                                 =========
     SUM of  6 items                                                   3.4
     AVERAGE                                                           0.6

----
486 33c
Arithmetic Test (type = double)               2541.7     1891.6        0.7
Dhrystone 2 without register variables       22366.3    19281.7        0.9
Execl Throughput Test                           16.5       89.2        5.4
File Copy  (30 seconds)                        179.0       44.0        0.2
Pipe-based Context Switching Test             1318.5     3738.0        2.8
Shell scripts (8 concurrent)                     4.0        5.0        1.3
                                                                 =========
     SUM of  6 items                                                  11.3
     AVERAGE                                                           1.9

Nice work Linus!  READMEs etc are in the archive. mail me directly if you
have any problems.

--
 Jon                    <[email-masked]>
                        "I got in today just as the sun was crashing"

                                            

                   

                                            

                   

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

From: [email-masked] (Keith L. Fries)
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 15:34:02 GMT
Subject: Linux & Ultra 12F ESDI?

From the FAQ:

> IDE and MFM seem to work with no problem. It works, also, for some
> ESDI drive (Joincom controller with Magtron drive after you have
> commented out the "unexpected hd interrupt"-message from hd.c).

Has anyone gotten linux to run with an Ultrastor Ultra 12F ESDI
controller?

Keith Fries
Hewlett Packard, Spokane Div.
[email-masked]

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

** 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:
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    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
******************************