Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #44
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 16:30:28 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #44, Volume #2             Wed, 8 Apr 92 16:30:28 EDT

Contents:
  Newuser help? (Ryan Mitchell)
  Re: Shoelace booting problems (Todd Radel)
  Re: Binaries considered harmful (Rogier Wolff)
  Re: bash ?   And Root disk software. (Kevin Cummings)
  Re: Binaries considered harmful (Kevin Cummings)
  Applying patches (cm445a17)
  Re: ksh in linux (thomas dunbar)
  Unfortunate, but true.... (Alan B Clegg)
  Re: Non-destructive repartitioning (was Re: What is linux?) (Anthony Frey)
  lots o problems, many to choose from (Herbert M. Zinn)
  lots o problems, many to choose from (Herbert M. Zinn)
  Scheme, Lisp for Linux? (Dennis Petrocelli)
  Scheme, Lisp for Linux? (Dennis Petrocelli)
  Re: Binaries considered harmful (Jim Winstead Jr.)

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

From: [email-masked] (Ryan Mitchell)
Subject: Newuser help?
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:08:04 GMT

This may be a really dumb question, so please forgive my ignorance...

I just installed linux on my HD yesterday and now I am interested
in getting gcc and some other programs to use with it.  How do I
go about getting these to my Linux partition?  It's easy enough
to transfer to DOS, but how can Linux access the DOS to move it
over?  It seems that kermit or some other comm program would be
necessary in Linux?

Please e-mail, as I'm still wading through a mess of unread 
articles.

Thanks,
Ryan
-- 
     ===============================/  /=============================*
     ========/   Ryan      /======/  /     [email-masked]  | 
     ======/   Mitchell  /======/  /  [email-masked]  |
     =========================/  /===================================*

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

From: [email-masked] (Todd Radel)
Subject: Re: Shoelace booting problems
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:29:22 GMT

Oops, stupid me.  I accidentally wrote out the unpatched version of the
kernel to the tar file -- i.e., it was looking for the root filesystem
on the floppy disk.  Sorry for the stupid question.

I might add that I now have GCC 2.1, VI, Kermit, tcsh, and many other
toys to play with.  Linux does indeed kick mucho ass!

Three cheers to Linus for a great job!

-- Todd

-- 
* Todd Radel                      Sysop, Dickinson Domain BBS                *
| CIS/English                     FidoNet: 1:150/160; VirtualNET @3023       |
| University of Delaware          REGISTERED Alpha Colony VI!                |
*         "You don't need to be crazy to be a sysop, but it helps!"          *

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

From: [email-masked] (Rogier Wolff)
Subject: Re: Binaries considered harmful
Date: 8 Apr 92 15:30:15 GMT

>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>>(Subject line with appologies to E. Djikstra.  :-))
>>
   [proposes to do source only distributions ]]

Everybody seems to disagree, however I think that some of the archives need to
be cleaned up: I downloaded Linux 0.95 yesterday: Total of 15Mb, It just fits
on 6 floppies if you delete all the binaries that are doubled (less than 10M)!

I think that someone should take a freshly installed system, and make nice 
uniform tar files for everything that is there.

                                        Roger
-- 
If the opposite of "pro" is "con", what is the opposite of "progress"? 
        (stolen from  kadokev@iitvax ==? [email-masked])
EMail:  [email-masked]   ** Tel  +31-15-783644 or +31-15-142371

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

From: [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings)
Subject: Re: bash ?   And Root disk software.
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 20:07:22 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (David.L.) writes:
> Where do I get am image or sources for bash ? do I need to get the earlier root
> image ? (.12 , .11 ) ? I'm using 0.95a.

My hard disk with 0.95 installed over 0.12 crashed.  After getting a new
drive, I found myself having to install from scratch.  So I went and
got the latest root disk 0.95a.  When I found that BASH was not on
it, I mounted the 0.95 root disk and copied both BASH (/bin/sh) and the
PASSWD executable from it to my new system disk (/usr/local/bin/bash,
and /bin/passwd).

In a related issue, When I formatted my new 200MB IDE drive under DOS,
I created one DOS primary (bootable) partition, and put the rest
of my DOS logical drives in the DOS extended partition.  This leaves
me two primary partitions for LINUX, which I configured using the
pfdisk on the 0.95a root disk.  However, the infamous extended partition
bug kept both the 0.95 and 0.95a fdisk from correctly reading my
partition table on /dev/hda.  This resulted in my inability to
know for sure which logical linux devices I needed to run mkfs and
mkswap on!  I had to get the fdisk from the 0.12 root disk, and
create a /dev/hd0 link to /dev/hda in order to find out which
was /dev/hd3 (/dev/hda3) and which was /dev/hd4 (/dev/hda4).

patches to the kernal are NO GOOD if you cannot be sure which
devices to make in order to put your system on hard disk!

Based on this, someone had better put together a BOOTIMAGE and
a ROOTIMAGE for 0.95c if we want users to be able to install
LINUX in systems that do not already have LINUX partitions!
You just can't expect non-hacker users to have to have 3 rootdisks
around to get all the necessary software in one place (never mind
the changing of the device names too.  Sigh).

When I get done re-creating my system, I'll be happy to post a list
of the software I had to download, in addition to what was on the
0.95a root disk, and install in order to make my system useable
to me.

=================================================================
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: Re: Binaries considered harmful
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 20:58:44 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Jim Winstead Jr.) writes:
> I have the (as I know it) most current source for all of this, and
> I'll be uploading them as a package today (hopefully) to tsx-11, etc,
> and they should be available soon.  Look for system-0.95a.tar.Z.
> 
> Included:
>       chsh    -       new to this release (change shell for a user)
>       doshell -       start a process on another tty
>       fdisk-x -       fdisk that understands extended partitions
>       fdisk   -       the old fdisk
>       hostname-       set your computer's name!
>       mkfs    -       make a filesystem
>       mknod   -       make a device
>       mkswap  -       make a swap device/file
>       mount   -       mount a filesystem
>       passwd  -       change a user's password
>       pwd     -       print working directory (from BSD)
>       rootdev -       display/change root device (rdev.c)
>       setterm -       set terminal characteristics
>       swapon  -       use a swap file/partition
>       sync    -       sync the filesystem (monster source! :)
>       umount  -       unmount a filesystem
>       update  -       background update thing - syncs filesystem
> 
> Like I said, keep an eye out for 'em - they are mostly the versions
> from the 0.95a root disk, with some cleanup of the code, the addition
> of a couple of minor utilities, and some other minor changes.

Not all of these executables are on the 0.95a root disk.  fdisk-x,
hostname, and passwd.  Who is packaging these executables for us?

(I downloaded hostname from tsx-11, and got passwd from my 0.95
root disk.  Where can I find fdisk-x?????)

=================================================================
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] (cm445a17)
Subject: Applying patches
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 17:19:32 GMT

Could anoyone explain to me how to apply kernel patches???
When I do a patch < diffs > result 2>&1, patch does not seem
to be finding the files to patch.  I keep my Linux sources
in /usr/src/linux.  Am i having problems because the diffs
include a diffrent path?  Thanks,

Jaime

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

From: thomas dunbar <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: ksh in linux
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 18:15:39 GMT

bash is not ksh but similar
 the default editing mode is emacs, pressing M-C-j (esc ctrl-j) switches
to vi-editing-mode ( C-e switches to back to emacs style)
   or at the shell prompt use:

      set -o vi
      set -o emacs
man.tar.Z has man-pages on bash (GNU's Bourne-Again SHell).

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan B Clegg)
Subject: Unfortunate, but true....
Date: 8 Apr 92 18:04:09 GMT

I will *NOT* be producing the "ABC Release of Linux .95a" before I go on
vacation.  I am currently over-whelmed by work, and won't have free-time
before leaving on Saturday morning.

In the off-chance that I do get some time, it will be devoted to getting
my scsi disk back working again, as that is where the sources that I have
so-far compiled are living... 8-(

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Anthony Frey)
Subject: Re: Non-destructive repartitioning (was Re: What is linux?)
Date: 8 Apr 92 17:58:39 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Adam Justin Thornton) writes:
>Using pfdisk, it's actually not that bad.  Use a disk optimizer to put all your
>stuff on the front of the disk.  Use pfdisk to create your partitions, making 
>sure that the DOS partition is bigger than all the stuff you now have in it.
>If it's your boot partition, use Norton or something to edit the boot record so
>that the whole filesystem believes it's the right size.
>
>Then boot from linux and mkfs on your new partition(s).  No problem.
>
>Adam
>

Hi everyone,

I think this non-destructive partitioning is the route I want to take. I've
done most things up to the point of running pfdisk and I feel fairly confident
of what I'm doing but there's one thing that's hanging me up. I guess this is
kind of a DOS question but there's probably more repartitioning going on here
than the average DOS newsgroup.

I'm running DOS 5.0 and Norton for DOS 5.0 and the Norton optimizer reports the
very last few clusters of the hard disk as being unmovable and owned by a file
called 'image.idx'. I believe this has something to do with an extra copy of
the DOS 5.0 boot image. The question is, does DOS absolutely need this file in
that particular location, or might it possibly create a new image in the last
few clusters of a new partion? If not, can this file be moved and how?

I've got an extra 40meg free on my hard drive that's got Linux written all
over it. Thanks! 
-- 
=============================================================================
Anthony Frey
[email-masked]                          "Building stereotypes
                                               for the 90's"

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

From: [email-masked] (Herbert M. Zinn)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: lots o problems, many to choose from
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:36:04 GMT

        Hi, this is my first post here so if this has already been dealt with
in a FAQ somewhere please let me know. I recently grabbed GCC2.1 beta, the
shared libs, and the kernel patches from tsx-11 and am having problems with
the libs. When I run the install.sh in /usr/lib/shared/obj, it invokes the
2.1 GCC with options -s -o on the make.a file. this (i assume) then invokes
the linker, which promptly bombs with "unknown option: ---" followed by a
usage message. Ive tried invoking it by hand and it always seems to generate
this error message. I'm using the ld that came in binutils.tar.Z, but I noticed
its only a couple hundred bytes different, could I perhaps have grabbed the
wrong one? 
        Another GCC2.1 problem: when I install the 2.1kern patches (aside from
the somewhat odd path [/mnt/linux/... for the kernel sources] that it puts in
every makefile) it generates parse errors on a lot of the linux kernel headers.
        This may have been covered elsewhere; are the /usr/src/linux/include
files duplicated in the old gcc1.4 /usr/include? are they in gcc2.1 includes?
        Finally, until I get around to digging through the famous ralph brown
interrupt list, has anyone else found the need to use more than 2 serial ports
at once? I don't know enough about the coding of comm routines myself, but,
since sharing IRQ's is basically nonfunctional for concurrent IO in DOS,
I have my third serial port (3e8) set to IRQ5. Anyone have patches || diffs
|| help in general with changing the serial drivers to use it? (Digging through
the includes didn't seem to help ;-) )
        Thanks in advance for any help, responses, email, flames, et cetera,
and a great big THANKS! to Linus and all the other code wizards for putting
together a great package!
                                                Herb
_____________________________________________________________________________
|Herb M. Zinn INET: [email-masked] USPS: 6211 N. Artesian Ave.    |
|"Standing is harder than moving."                 Chgo., IL. 60659-2828    |
|_______________-Moshe Feldenkrais___________ISDN:_312-274-8149_____________|

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

From: [email-masked] (Herbert M. Zinn)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: lots o problems, many to choose from
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:36:04 GMT

        Hi, this is my first post here so if this has already been dealt with
in a FAQ somewhere please let me know. I recently grabbed GCC2.1 beta, the
shared libs, and the kernel patches from tsx-11 and am having problems with
the libs. When I run the install.sh in /usr/lib/shared/obj, it invokes the
2.1 GCC with options -s -o on the make.a file. this (i assume) then invokes
the linker, which promptly bombs with "unknown option: ---" followed by a
usage message. Ive tried invoking it by hand and it always seems to generate
this error message. I'm using the ld that came in binutils.tar.Z, but I noticed
its only a couple hundred bytes different, could I perhaps have grabbed the
wrong one? 
        Another GCC2.1 problem: when I install the 2.1kern patches (aside from
the somewhat odd path [/mnt/linux/... for the kernel sources] that it puts in
every makefile) it generates parse errors on a lot of the linux kernel headers.
        This may have been covered elsewhere; are the /usr/src/linux/include
files duplicated in the old gcc1.4 /usr/include? are they in gcc2.1 includes?
        Finally, until I get around to digging through the famous ralph brown
interrupt list, has anyone else found the need to use more than 2 serial ports
at once? I don't know enough about the coding of comm routines myself, but,
since sharing IRQ's is basically nonfunctional for concurrent IO in DOS,
I have my third serial port (3e8) set to IRQ5. Anyone have patches || diffs
|| help in general with changing the serial drivers to use it? (Digging through
the includes didn't seem to help ;-) )
        Thanks in advance for any help, responses, email, flames, et cetera,
and a great big THANKS! to Linus and all the other code wizards for putting
together a great package!
                                                Herb
_____________________________________________________________________________
|Herb M. Zinn INET: [email-masked] USPS: 6211 N. Artesian Ave.    |
|"Standing is harder than moving."                 Chgo., IL. 60659-2828    |
|_______________-Moshe Feldenkrais___________ISDN:_312-274-8149_____________|

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

From: [email-masked] (Dennis Petrocelli)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Scheme, Lisp for Linux?
Date: 6 Apr 92 07:53:22 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Dennis Petrocelli)

        Is anyone working on porting any version of scheme or lisp to
linux?  I would be VERY appreciative of anyone's attempts to do so.  I
have successfully compiled a C implementation of Scheme, siod-2.7 
(Scheme in One Defun, from world.std.com), with gcc-1.4 on linux .95a.
I am hoping that someone might have tried to port a more substantial
version, such as scheme 7.1, from altdorf.ai.mit.edu. 

Dennis Petrocelli
[email-masked]

        BTW, way to go LINUS, et al !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        OS/2 - half the OS at twice the price!

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

From: [email-masked] (Dennis Petrocelli)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Scheme, Lisp for Linux?
Date: 6 Apr 92 07:53:22 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Dennis Petrocelli)

        Is anyone working on porting any version of scheme or lisp to
linux?  I would be VERY appreciative of anyone's attempts to do so.  I
have successfully compiled a C implementation of Scheme, siod-2.7 
(Scheme in One Defun, from world.std.com), with gcc-1.4 on linux .95a.
I am hoping that someone might have tried to port a more substantial
version, such as scheme 7.1, from altdorf.ai.mit.edu. 

Dennis Petrocelli
[email-masked]

        BTW, way to go LINUS, et al !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        OS/2 - half the OS at twice the price!

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

From: [email-masked] (Jim Winstead Jr.)
Subject: Re: Binaries considered harmful
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 19:46:26 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Jim Winstead Jr.) writes:
>> I have the (as I know it) most current source for all of this, and
>> I'll be uploading them as a package today (hopefully) to tsx-11, etc,
>> and they should be available soon.  Look for system-0.95a.tar.Z.
>> 
>> Included:
>>      chsh    -       new to this release (change shell for a user)
>>      fdisk-x -       fdisk that understands extended partitions
>>      hostname-       set your computer's name!
>>      passwd  -       change a user's password
>> 
>> Like I said, keep an eye out for 'em - they are mostly the versions
>> from the 0.95a root disk, with some cleanup of the code, the addition
>> of a couple of minor utilities, and some other minor changes.
>
>Not all of these executables are on the 0.95a root disk.  fdisk-x,
>hostname, and passwd.  Who is packaging these executables for us?

Right - I thought I made it clear that there was the addition of a
couple of minor utilities, such as hostname, passwd, chsh, etc.
fdisk-x is actually just a new version of fdisk, but I have kept the
old fdisk around for now.  Eventually, fdisk-x will replace fdisk.

As far as I know, nobody is packaging the executables - I'm releasing
the source, but not executables, since they can easily be compiled.
Once the ABC Release is out, this sort of issue will be moot - I
expect both binaries and sources for this to be part of that.  Until
then, you'll have to recompile them yourself, or find someone else to
do it.

>(I downloaded hostname from tsx-11, and got passwd from my 0.95
>root disk.  Where can I find fdisk-x?????)

The source can be found on tsx-11 in
/pub/linux/patches/fdisk-extended.c, or something very similar.  It
will also be available in the package I'm putting together.  The
executable, as of yet, is unavailable.

A quick, fairly uncertain word on a v0.95c root disk.  Don't count on
seeing one!  The 0.95a root disk will still work, and has no
unsurmountable problems.  I would much rather wait for the 0.96
release of Linux to do another root disk.  I may change my mind,
however, so keep your ears open.
-- 
Jim Winstead Jr. (CSci '95)    | "Catch a fish!"
Harvey Mudd College            |  -Geddy Lee,
[email-masked] |   San Diego Sports Arena
Disclaimer: Mine, not theirs!  |   January 20, 1992

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

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