Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #78
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 15:15:19 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #78, Volume #2            Thu, 16 Apr 92 15:15:19 EDT

Contents:
  addendum: "GCC2.1.......again" (Denise Tree)
  Re: tar files on floppy. (tim)
  Re: tar files on floppy. (tim)
  init, respawn (Daniel Hagan)
  Re: expr (tim)
  When will "Linux 1.0" come to the world ? (Michael K. Johnson)
  Re: 95c+: Selection --> nothing (I Reid)
  Re: 95c+: Selection --> nothing (I Reid)
  stuff at tsx-11.mit.edu (Michael K. Johnson)
  Re: How to set the path ? (Robert J. McNamara)
  Re: How to set the path ? (Robert J. McNamara)
  Re: IDE-drive performance with linux (Joseph Knapka)
  PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM THE LINUX MAILING LIST (Patrick Sinz)
  Re: How to set the path ? (Kevin Cummings)
  Re: How to set the path ? (Kevin Cummings)
  Re: mount:unable to open lock-file (Kevin Cummings)
  ACU.PKG (David.L.)

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

From: [email-masked] (Denise Tree)
Subject: addendum: "GCC2.1.......again"
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Denise Tree)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:02:59 GMT

In case it's significant to my GCC2.1 malaise....

        When I installed, on a newly reformatted drive, 0.95c+ a file called
.badblocks appeared in my root dir. mkfs -c complained about this during
installation. Are these areas available to mess up anything written to them
or does mkfs lock them out?

        I am using a seperate st251-1 MFM drive 7/8 full and bootlace. I 
have 8 megs memory and 4 megs swapfile.

Thanking in advance for any replies.............
Denise Tree (still obsessing over gcc2.1)
Towson State Univ.

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

From: [email-masked] (tim)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: tar files on floppy.
Date: 16 Apr 92 15:08:43 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (A. V. Le Blanc) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Lars Lindner) writes:
>>
>>When I have both boot and root images installed on HD and i want to
>>install more SW downloaded as .tar.Z files, in what way vill i get
>>them on a floppy to be able to install them on my Linux machine.
>
>>* Shall i use "rawrite" from DOS to put the files on floppy?
>
>The 'rawrite' program is intended for use with disk images.  It CAN
>write a tar file to a disk, and in fact this is how I originally
>installed Linux on my machine, but it is probably simpler to use
>copy and mtools.
>
>>* I rememer reading something like "Do not rawrite compressed files.".
>>  Why??
>
>The problem is, I think, that compress is written to read from a
>file or a stream, and that its I/O does not handle a raw read from a
>disk correctly.  Anyway it didn't when I first installed Linux.

the z option on GNU tar will allow this. i've done it many times
without problems.

>For larger files, it would be best to split them up, copy them over
>on separate floppies, and concatenate them, that is, assuming that
>you have no DOS partition on your Linux machine.  Unfortunately I
>cannot point you to any standard utility running on DOS which would
>do this painlessly.  I did this once with a GNUish DOS dd, which I
>found in the anonymous ftp at, I believe, grape.ecs.clarkson.edu.

included with djgpp, a port of gcc to dos, are two utilities split and
merge. split breaks up a file to whatever size chunks you want nameing
them with a common basename and numbered extensions. merge joins the
split up file back together again quite nicely. dos executables are
available and both compile without modification on linux (they should
compile with pretty much any c compiler on any system). they are
available where djgpp is. 

                tim

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

From: [email-masked] (tim)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: tar files on floppy.
Date: 16 Apr 92 15:08:43 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (A. V. Le Blanc) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Lars Lindner) writes:
>>
>>When I have both boot and root images installed on HD and i want to
>>install more SW downloaded as .tar.Z files, in what way vill i get
>>them on a floppy to be able to install them on my Linux machine.
>
>>* Shall i use "rawrite" from DOS to put the files on floppy?
>
>The 'rawrite' program is intended for use with disk images.  It CAN
>write a tar file to a disk, and in fact this is how I originally
>installed Linux on my machine, but it is probably simpler to use
>copy and mtools.
>
>>* I rememer reading something like "Do not rawrite compressed files.".
>>  Why??
>
>The problem is, I think, that compress is written to read from a
>file or a stream, and that its I/O does not handle a raw read from a
>disk correctly.  Anyway it didn't when I first installed Linux.

the z option on GNU tar will allow this. i've done it many times
without problems.

>For larger files, it would be best to split them up, copy them over
>on separate floppies, and concatenate them, that is, assuming that
>you have no DOS partition on your Linux machine.  Unfortunately I
>cannot point you to any standard utility running on DOS which would
>do this painlessly.  I did this once with a GNUish DOS dd, which I
>found in the anonymous ftp at, I believe, grape.ecs.clarkson.edu.

included with djgpp, a port of gcc to dos, are two utilities split and
merge. split breaks up a file to whatever size chunks you want nameing
them with a common basename and numbered extensions. merge joins the
split up file back together again quite nicely. dos executables are
available and both compile without modification on linux (they should
compile with pretty much any c compiler on any system). they are
available where djgpp is. 

                tim

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

From: [email-masked] (Daniel Hagan)
Subject: init, respawn
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Daniel Hagan)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:01:58 GMT

1.      I would like to know if there is a version of the init program which supports  the standard system V inittab format (i.e.  states, labels, run levels, actions ) which exists for linux or which can be ported to linux.
2.      Is it possible to defragment a linux partition
3.       Relating to (1), is there a simple way of permanently  allowing a login through a modem attached to a serial port.

        Any help or pointers to these questions would be greatly appreciated since I am new to the unix world.
        Thanks,
                        Daniel

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

From: [email-masked] (tim)
Subject: Re: expr
Date: 16 Apr 92 15:42:49 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Fureching Jeng) writes:
>I have installed gcc 2.1 on my machine. Unfortunately, I can't run g++ without
>
>"expr". Does anyone know where I can get "expr"?
>

expr is part of the GNU shell-utils. they can be gotten from
prep.ai.mit.edu or many other anonymous sites.

are diffs for the shellutils, binutils, and fileutils available
anywhere ? many of these (includeing expr since i changed to gcc 2.1)
give alot of errors when i try to compile them.

thanks,

                tim

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

From: [email-masked] (Michael K. Johnson)
Subject: When will "Linux 1.0" come to the world ?
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Michael K. Johnson)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 16:09:28 GMT

From: [email-masked] (david nugent)

   [stuff deleted]
   If what was meant by "unstable" was "dynamic" and "moving", I agree.

   I hope it remains that way. It's great working with an OS that mulitple
   people are working on at all sorts of levels. It's an even greater
   opportunity to learn.

Agreed.  I am learning a lot as I attempt my first device driver.

    > My experience with Linux indicates it is more stable
    > than DOS+DESQview on my machine, and allows me to get even more done,
    > with the small exception of word processing.

   But this is NOT FAIR! Anything remotely DOS-associated is definitely NOT
   STABLE in that sense by definition. No memory protection == not relatively
   stable.

Yes, but DESQview _does_ provide memory protection.  OS/2 2.0 provides
even better memory protection.  And someone real pedantic might point
to Linux's lack limit enforcement...

[stuff deleted]

   I previously ran Interactive UNIX for over 2 years. I remember seeing 3
   panic traps in the first attempt to install it on exactly the same hardware!
   I also installed it ans SCO's product on several machines as a part of my
   work and I can honestly say that while the facilities offered by Linux don't
   yet match the SCO/ISC product, that Linux certainly _feels_ and _acts_ more
   stable in most ways.

It certainly does better than the obnoxious NeXTen here at stolaf, and
the vaxen.  It is not yet as hardy as the suns, but it is getting there.

michaelkjohnson
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (I Reid)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: 95c+: Selection --> nothing
Date: 16 Apr 92 14:42:46 GMT

[email-masked] (I Reid) writes:

>Just a quick message to say I just patched the kernel diffs for selection into
>0.95c+ (did them by hand and they weren't difficult), rebuilt the kernel (using
>gcc 2.1) and rebuilt selection (just for good measure) and then, running the
>new kernel I tried it all. Nothing. Not a thing. I know that the serial port
>code shares interrupts between com1 (mouse) and com3 (modem). Is it possible
>that nothing is getting through because of this? Just thought I'd check before
>delving into the depths of things :-(

Well, I'm now sorted this one out. What seems to work for me is to have my
mouse on com1 but link /dev/mouse to com2. I think it's time to have words with
the service enginerr who dismembered my machine last week :-). I'll see if I
can get a patch for the unspoiled 0.95c+ kernel out tonight but I can't
guarantee it 'cos I want to try some things with it first (easy include/don't
include kernel patch compilation).

Iain

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

From: [email-masked] (I Reid)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: 95c+: Selection --> nothing
Date: 16 Apr 92 14:42:46 GMT

[email-masked] (I Reid) writes:

>Just a quick message to say I just patched the kernel diffs for selection into
>0.95c+ (did them by hand and they weren't difficult), rebuilt the kernel (using
>gcc 2.1) and rebuilt selection (just for good measure) and then, running the
>new kernel I tried it all. Nothing. Not a thing. I know that the serial port
>code shares interrupts between com1 (mouse) and com3 (modem). Is it possible
>that nothing is getting through because of this? Just thought I'd check before
>delving into the depths of things :-(

Well, I'm now sorted this one out. What seems to work for me is to have my
mouse on com1 but link /dev/mouse to com2. I think it's time to have words with
the service enginerr who dismembered my machine last week :-). I'll see if I
can get a patch for the unspoiled 0.95c+ kernel out tonight but I can't
guarantee it 'cos I want to try some things with it first (easy include/don't
include kernel patch compilation).

Iain

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

From: [email-masked] (Michael K. Johnson)
Subject: stuff at tsx-11.mit.edu
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Michael K. Johnson)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 16:50:18 GMT

files added at tsx-11.mit.edu:

sources/usr.bin/acu.tar.Z
                su.tar.Z
                tarsplit.shar.Z
docs/man/make.tex.Z

michaelkjohnson

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert J. McNamara)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: How to set the path ?
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:40:40 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Robert J. McNamara)

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthew Jackson) writes:

>Now I have a few questions (of course). When I was running the install scripts,
>I checked they were flagged as executable, and tried to run them. No go. I then
>tried /INSTALL/install and it worked ! OK, I thought Linux doesn't look in the
>current directory for a file before searching the path (ala DOS) (is this
>meant to work this way ? I am used to DOS and VMS, only just got started with
>Unix). OK (he thinks again), why don't I put the current directory in the path ?
>I typed set and got a list of the environment variables and there was one called
>PATH, so I tried set PATH=....:. and still no go. 
>
>So can someone tell me how to change the path under Linux ?
>
>Thanks in advance,

Yeah, that kinda screwed me up to for a bit since I was used to csh and 
dos...
Use that last method that you mentioned, but exclude the "set" command.
Just type "PATH=.:/bin:/usr/bin:<other paths>"

+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
| Rob McNamara          | Happy! Happy! |  Lankhmar BBS                     |
| [email-masked]      |   Joy! Joy!   |  1-916-757-6391                   |
| Lawrence Berkeley Lab |               |  1200/2400/9600/14.4k HST/v.32bis |
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert J. McNamara)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: How to set the path ?
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:40:40 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Robert J. McNamara)

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthew Jackson) writes:

>Now I have a few questions (of course). When I was running the install scripts,
>I checked they were flagged as executable, and tried to run them. No go. I then
>tried /INSTALL/install and it worked ! OK, I thought Linux doesn't look in the
>current directory for a file before searching the path (ala DOS) (is this
>meant to work this way ? I am used to DOS and VMS, only just got started with
>Unix). OK (he thinks again), why don't I put the current directory in the path ?
>I typed set and got a list of the environment variables and there was one called
>PATH, so I tried set PATH=....:. and still no go. 
>
>So can someone tell me how to change the path under Linux ?
>
>Thanks in advance,

Yeah, that kinda screwed me up to for a bit since I was used to csh and 
dos...
Use that last method that you mentioned, but exclude the "set" command.
Just type "PATH=.:/bin:/usr/bin:<other paths>"

+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
| Rob McNamara          | Happy! Happy! |  Lankhmar BBS                     |
| [email-masked]      |   Joy! Joy!   |  1-916-757-6391                   |
| Lawrence Berkeley Lab |               |  1200/2400/9600/14.4k HST/v.32bis |
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+

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

From: [email-masked] (Joseph Knapka)
Subject: Re: IDE-drive performance with linux
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:44:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Guido Kueppers) writes:
>Greetings,
>
>don't know whether this belongs here, but I'm experiencing a serious
>performance problem with my new IDE-drive under linux:
>I'm using a 386DX-20Mhz board with 4 MB of RAM and an unmodified 0.95c+ kernel.
>disk space. With the new drive I noticed that the machine and even the keyboard
>sort of froze under heavy disk I/O like running compress or tar.
>

[stuff deleted]

>I then tried to copy a 3 MB file from one partition to another. It took about
>2 minutes to complete with the keyboard freezing sometimes! Even copying from
>floppy drives isn't much slower. Copying the same 3 MB file under PC-DOS 4.0
>on the same drive takes about 20 seconds!
>I never had this sort of problem with my old MFM drives (20 MB Fuji and 40 MB
>Seagate ST-251 with WD controller). BTW while recompiling the system drive
>performance seems to be normal (takes about 20 minutes), at least I don't think
>the MFM drives were faster on that.
>Does anyone have explanations, hints, experiences? Any feedback is welcome.
>
>Thanks in advance
>Guido

My 486 running linux seems zippier in all things than the SPARC 1 I
use at school -- except disk access. Moving big files across
partitions is *deathly* slow, as is waiting for way big swappy jobs to
finish. I didn't realize this wasn't normal -- I thought it was just
'cause the ISA bus is so dang-blamed slow... I don't get HD timeouts
or anything. My drive is a 130M Maxtor IDE.

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

From: [email-masked] (Patrick Sinz)
Subject: PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM THE LINUX MAILING LIST
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:22:20 GMT

HELP! I can't get removed from the Linux Mailing List.
I received 1,5 Mbytes last two days that means a 400 dollars bill!!!!
PLEASE remove me from the list, or tell me how I should do before it's
too late.....
I've tried to send requests to "[email-masked]"
without success.
I'm desparate.

My mail address is on of the following (I'm not sure which I used when
subscribing and suspect perhaps it's the cause of the problem because
my requests didn't bounce):

[email-masked]
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!

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

From: [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: How to set the path ?
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:21:15 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Robert J. McNamara) writes:
> In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthew Jackson) writes:
> 
> >Now I have a few questions (of course). When I was running the install scripts,
> >I checked they were flagged as executable, and tried to run them. No go. I then
> >tried /INSTALL/install and it worked ! OK, I thought Linux doesn't look in the
> >current directory for a file before searching the path (ala DOS) (is this
> >meant to work this way ? I am used to DOS and VMS, only just got started with
> >Unix). OK (he thinks again), why don't I put the current directory in the path ?
> >I typed set and got a list of the environment variables and there was one called
> >PATH, so I tried set PATH=....:. and still no go. 
> >
> >So can someone tell me how to change the path under Linux ?
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> 
> Yeah, that kinda screwed me up to for a bit since I was used to csh and 
> dos...
> Use that last method that you mentioned, but exclude the "set" command.
> Just type "PATH=.:/bin:/usr/bin:<other paths>"

I found out that you get a "PATH" by default when you login.

put the line :

echo PATH=$PATH

at the top of your .profile file to see what your path is currently set to.
You can then append or prepend to it using the $PATH varibale, or you
can completely rewrite it using the method that Robert suggests.

Don't forget to EXPORT PATH before the end of your .profile file!

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

Work:  [email-masked]
Home:  [email-masked]

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)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: How to set the path ?
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:21:15 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Robert J. McNamara) writes:
> In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthew Jackson) writes:
> 
> >Now I have a few questions (of course). When I was running the install scripts,
> >I checked they were flagged as executable, and tried to run them. No go. I then
> >tried /INSTALL/install and it worked ! OK, I thought Linux doesn't look in the
> >current directory for a file before searching the path (ala DOS) (is this
> >meant to work this way ? I am used to DOS and VMS, only just got started with
> >Unix). OK (he thinks again), why don't I put the current directory in the path ?
> >I typed set and got a list of the environment variables and there was one called
> >PATH, so I tried set PATH=....:. and still no go. 
> >
> >So can someone tell me how to change the path under Linux ?
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> 
> Yeah, that kinda screwed me up to for a bit since I was used to csh and 
> dos...
> Use that last method that you mentioned, but exclude the "set" command.
> Just type "PATH=.:/bin:/usr/bin:<other paths>"

I found out that you get a "PATH" by default when you login.

put the line :

echo PATH=$PATH

at the top of your .profile file to see what your path is currently set to.
You can then append or prepend to it using the $PATH varibale, or you
can completely rewrite it using the method that Robert suggests.

Don't forget to EXPORT PATH before the end of your .profile file!

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

Work:  [email-masked]
Home:  [email-masked]

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: mount:unable to open lock-file
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:25:38 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Sid Boyce) writes:
> 
>    Does anyone know how I can recover the "LOCK-FILE".
> I boot from floppy at0, then root is on hda4 which is ok.
> hda6 (/usr) or any other filesystem does not mount.
> hda1 158MB MSDOG
> hda2/hda3 Minix
> hda4/6 as described above for Linux (created by Minix fdisk).
>          I hit this problem after perhaps removing a floppy from at0
> and not umounting it, then mounting another floppy.
>     Checking on Minix, everything on the Linux filesystems is still intact.
> Using either 0.95a or 0.05c boot floppies, I get the following......
> Partition tables ok
>     ......
> Free mem: 6291456 bytes
> mount: unable to open lock-file
> All systems funtioning
> /usr/bin/setterm: not found
> Welcome to Linux
> Login as "root" .......
> ******************************
> system comes up but can't mount anything of course.
> Regards
> Sid Boyce ... G3VBV
> **** Amdahl (UK) Tech Ops Group ****

This is becoming a FAQ.  look for /etc/mtab~  if it exists, delete it.

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

Work:  [email-masked]
Home:  [email-masked]

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

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

From: [email-masked] (David.L.)
Subject: ACU.PKG
Date: 16 Apr 92 17:51:06 GMT

Someone posted a uuencoded ACU.PKG, a couple days back. Supposedly containing a
'smarter' getty (for in/out links). What archiver was used to make ACU.PKG ?

I've been unable to get at the getty ;^} ..
--
---->   [email-masked]     OR      [email-masked]
David L.

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

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