Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #81
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 20:45:09 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #81, Volume #2            Fri, 17 Apr 92 20:45:09 EDT

Contents:
  Re: virtual consoles/pty's (Drew Eckhardt)
  SCSI / Adapted support.... I dont get it! (Mike Me)
  CBREAK mode, etc.: Questions (Todd Radel)
  Re: Graphics and IPC questions... (Brian Chojnowski)
  Re: virtual consoles/pty's (Joseph Knapka)
  Re: virtual consoles/pty's (Joseph Knapka)
  Re: expr (GNU shellutils) (Bill Bogstad)
  Badblocks on hd (LCDR Michael E. Dobson)
  TEX for Linux at tsx (Steve Ansell)
  Suggestion for Graphics (Nefaratu the Boutellian)
  Software index for linux (Bill Jones)
  make and .95a kernel rebuild (Chris Waters)
  Re: GCC2.1 (Wonderful !) (dynamic linking) (John Plevyak)
  Re: make and .95a kernel rebuild (Jim Winstead Jr.)
  trouble with curses (gary a moyer)
  GCC2.1 problems(still!) (Herbert M. Zinn)

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

From: [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: virtual consoles/pty's
Date: 17 Apr 92 09:43:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Joseph Knapka) writes:
>Here's a silly question: When I boot linux, it says "8 virtual
>consoles, 4 ptys". I know what ptys are, I think -- the guys I get to
>by alt-f[1-4]. So my question is, "What, exactly, is the difference

Nope. ALT-Fn selects virtual console n, which is /dev/tty[n].  
 
>between a pty and a virtual console?"

A pty is a "Pseudo TeletYpe".  It lets you give a pipe to something that 
expects to have a "real" tty attached to it, such as most editors,
an xterm, etc.  There are master (/dev/ptyp[n]) and slave ends
(/dev/ttyp[n]) to it.  One program can open a master end, and other programs
can read / write to the slave end to get / send to the master.  

A virtual console is a console... that is virtual - so you can have 
multiple terminal sessions on one physical console.  Basically, it's 
indistringuishable from any other tty device.

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

From: [email-masked] (Mike Me)
Subject: SCSI / Adapted support.... I dont get it!
Date: 17 Apr 92 07:31:32 GMT

Hi people, I relatively new to this scene and in need of some
assistance.

I have an EISA system, and I have been able to get LINUX to work.
It took me a while... but hey! Anyway, I really want to get away from 
this floppy method of running things, but CAN NOT seem to get the 
thing to recognize my HD.

I got the bootimage 95+, which supposedly has (some) support for the
ADAPTEC 17XX controllers.

I'm not quite sure what the problem is, but I thought that since the
same controller is also in charge of the floppies I might have a
chance
of getting this thing to work.

I end up with the folloing errors when running the bootimage 95+

0 host adapters detected
detected 0 disks , 0 tapes
hard disk I/O error
dev 0301 block 1
kernel panic, unable to boot.

Am I doing somethiong wrong?

Also, the 95+ tar file comes with some c source? Am I to compile this 
first? How can I on a floppy system?

Needless to say I'm confused, and could not find any help that
pertained to my problem in the FAQ pages.

Thanx, and I hope someone out there knows what I need to do to get
this to work.

Thanx,
        MikeE

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

From: [email-masked] (Todd Radel)
Subject: CBREAK mode, etc.: Questions
Date: 17 Apr 92 13:03:01 GMT

Thanks to everyone who helped me get my printer set up as /dev/lp1.  Now
for some more questions:

1) Is CBREAK mode broken in the .95c+ release?  I'm trying to write some
   stuff using the curses library, and I explicitly say cbreak();, but
   I still have to press <Enter> after every key I hit.  I also tried
   compiling XBBS version 7.91, which exhibited the same symptoms.

2) How do I set up a swap *file*?  Not a separate partition, but a file.

3) Is Linux set up to be 8-bit clean?  If I set up a BBS, will 8N1 callers
   have a problem?

AdvTHANKSance to all who respond...

-- Todd
   (getting better at this Linux stuff, but still a little confused...)

-- 
* 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: chojnows@osiris (Brian Chojnowski)
Subject: Re: Graphics and IPC questions...
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 15:08:59 GMT

        I plan to add a direct to screen library. Basically I envision
creating a terminal type that is a superset of vt100. Nothing as fancy or
system hog like X. Just a characterset based graphix system. So while we are
at it, if anyone has some info somewhere on how to write assembly stuff
under linux, I can start porting some of my dos-mode screen routines.

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

From: [email-masked] (Joseph Knapka)
Subject: Re: virtual consoles/pty's
Date: 17 Apr 92 16:07:08 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Joseph Knapka) writes:
>>Here's a silly question: When I boot linux, it says "8 virtual
>>consoles, 4 ptys". I know what ptys are, I think -- the guys I get to
>>by alt-f[1-4]. So my question is, "What, exactly, is the difference
>
>Nope. ALT-Fn selects virtual console n, which is /dev/tty[n].  
> 

So that means I have eight virtual consoles available, but I can only
use four of them with Alt-Fkey sequences... how can I use vc's 5 thru 8?

Thanks^2,

Joseph

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

From: [email-masked] (Joseph Knapka)
Subject: Re: virtual consoles/pty's
Date: 17 Apr 92 16:16:24 GMT

>>
>>Nope. ALT-Fn selects virtual console n, which is /dev/tty[n].  
>> 
>
>So that means I have eight virtual consoles available, but I can only
>use four of them with Alt-Fkey sequences... how can I use vc's 5 thru 8?
>
>Thanks^2,
>
>Joseph

Sorry to reply to myself, but a little expirimentation revealed that
the answer is, "You use the getty program to enable logins on the
other vc's, and then use Alt-F[5-8] to get to them..."

Joseph

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Bogstad)
Subject: Re: expr (GNU shellutils)
Date: 17 Apr 92 16:19:35 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Niels Skov Olsen) writes:
>expr is in the shellutils-1.6.tar.Z (or therabouts) on prep.ai.mit.edu.
>In this package are some other nice utils too.
>
>I compiled it with GCC2.1 with only small adjustments to the makefiles
>(I don't have echo) and a little finetuning in obvious places. I didn't
>make notes as I went along, so I don't remember the exact steps. It 
>should't be a problem though. Mail me if it is and I will try to 
>reconstruct what I did.

        Well, I'm trying to compile it with GCC 1.40 and have found the
following problems so far.

1. no echo - put the following in your /bin directory

        #!/bin/sh

        echo $*

2. va_list redefined in stdio.h vs. stdarg.h - I modified stdio.h to
        include stdarg.h rather then defining va_list itself.

3. No bison - get the binaries out of binaries/compilers on tsx-11.mit.edu
        (I haven't actually gotten this far yet...)

If I get a chance tonight, I'll add more to the list above...

                                Bill Bogstad
                                [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (LCDR Michael E. Dobson)
Subject: Badblocks on hd
Date: 17 Apr 92 17:17:31 GMT

If this is in one of the docs somewhere, please point me to it.

How does one deal with badblocks on your hard drive?  I am running into
some on both my root partition and my /usr partition.  Is there some way
under linux to identify and map them out?

Thanks!
-- 
LCDR Mike Dobson, Sys Admin for | Internet: [email-masked]
nmrdc1.nmrdc.nnmc.navy.mil      | UUCP:   ...uunet!mimsy!nmrdc1!rdc30
AT&T 3B2/600G Sys V R 3.2.3     | BITNET:   dobson@usuhsb or nrd0mxd@vmnmdsc
WIN/TCP for 3B2  R3.2           | MCI-Mail: 377-2719 or [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Steve Ansell)
Subject: TEX for Linux at tsx
Date: 17 Apr 92 18:16:53 GMT

In the binaries/usr.bin directory on tsx-11 there is a directory containing
what I assume to be the TEX package.   It contains the following files:

dvips.tar.Z
dvilj2p.tar.Z
ptex.tar.Z
texfile1.tar.Z
texpk300.tar.Z
textfm.tar.Z

It has been a long time since I have done anything with TEX, but I thought
that this would be an ample time (besides, if I can create documents under
Linux my DOS stuff will be almost completely useless!).  The problem is 
that there is no explaination (or none that I saw) as to what these files
are.  Before I download almost 2MB of stuff, I would like to know just
what I do and don't need.  I know that dvips and dvilj2 convert the TEX
output files into the respective printer language and I think that the 
texpk300 and textfm archives contain fonts (yes? no?).  The main program seems 
to lay in ptex and I am not sure, but I think texfile1 contains style sheets.
Could someone more knowlegable about TEX than myself confirm or correct this
and possibly tell me just how much of this is absolutely needed (I have very
limited HD space right now).  Of course, an installation guide would be 
nice, but I can usually hack my way through getting things installed if it
is possible.  If this is covered elsewhere (i.e. in some README I missed)
please direct me to the correct location.

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Nefaratu the Boutellian)
Subject: Suggestion for Graphics
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 19:36:27 GMT

To those who want a graphics library for Linux, you might profit from
a study of the source code to the new 16/256-color graphics library
for DJGPP, the port of GCC to 386-mode DOS. This new library came
out with version 1.06 and from working with betas I know it to be
quite powerful, but not a humungous remote - display system like X.

-T

-- 
-- Tom Boutell
President, Technology House, U of Delaware. Got a similar resident group at your
school? Please get in touch!
INTERNET:[email-masked] SNAIL: P.O.Box 295, Newark, DE 19715

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Jones)
Subject: Software index for linux
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 19:44:21 GMT

One thread that seems to be remaining at a constant level in both
alt.os.linux and here in comp.os.linux is what software is in what
package.  I know that I have had that trouble often (what, for instance
is in tubes.tar.Z??)

There has been some mention of keeping track of these packages in a
"master index" somewhere and I beleive that Marc Corsini has mentioned
trying to do that along with the FAQ.

Now that I have reliable and stable access to news and e-mail, I would
be willing to undertake such a project if enough people felt that it
would be useful.  What I am envisioning is

        1.  An index of what is available, what package it is in,
            and what it does (so far, it seems as though most
            everything is available at banjo.concert.net but the
            descriptions might still help people determine what they
            need).

        2.  A list of software that is currently being ported to linux
            and the status of such a port (if this can be obtained).

        3.  A list of all of the patches that have been made available
            along with the expected source code that each patch expects
            to find.
            
        4.  Any other software-related items of interest.

If something like this were available, I would hope that others, especially
newcomers to linux, would be able to use it.  In addition, it would help
cut down on the duplication of porting efforts and let people who are
working on the same project team up if they desire.

This would require the assistance of the authors of various programs and
ports so that it would remain up to date and, of course, would not be
mandatory that anyone participate.  But, it strikes me that this is the
time to try and get something like this set up -- before the volume of
linux software, familiar and unfamilar, becomes so great that no one
would desire to keep track of it.

As I said, if enough people express an interest in this, I would be more
than willing to undertake it.  Since I am not a software wizard (not even
close) this would be my contribution to the linux community.  So, how
about it?  Let me know.

Bill

========================================================================
Bill Jones                                      1-614-785-0358

[email-masked]                             Oh, to be in Montana now
[email-masked]                  that spring is here!
[email-masked]
========================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Chris Waters)
Subject: make and .95a kernel rebuild
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 17:50:49 GMT

Ok, I gather that GNU make won't cut it for the kernel rebuild or
something, but I'm still curious about this bit from the Makefile:

all

Version
        @./makever.sh
        [etc.]

Shouldn't there be some targets for "all"?  And maybe for "Version" as
well?  Do I have a damaged set of kernel sources?  (I got 'em from
tsx-11).

Other comments:

  Is there a limit on the size of the DOS files that mtools will handle?
I've had problems with files around 3 meg or so.

  Shouldn't "compress" and "uncompress" in the distribution root fs be
links?  I admit that this wouldn't save much space, but it would save a
tad.  Also, there's no link to "zcat".

  Is there a reason for the "dummy line" in /etc/passwd?

  In bash, MAIL seems to default to /var/spool/mail/username, rather
than to /usr/spool/mail/username?

Ok, that's all I've come up with in a couple of days of not-very-much-
spare-time-hacking.  I'm sure I'll be back with more comments,
suggestions, etc.  TTFN.

p.s. killer system--I am very impressed.  Major kudos to Linus. :-)
-- 
Chris Waters    | the insane don't |   I figure the odds be fifty-fifty:
[email-masked]| need disclaimers | I just might have something to say. --FZ

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

From: [email-masked] (John Plevyak)
Subject: Re: GCC2.1 (Wonderful !) (dynamic linking)
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 21:01:36 GMT

I agree with [email-masked] (Craig Burley), but I would
like to clarify and sum up a bit.

Craig writes:

> Either I misunderstand you or this is wrong. ... PRIMOS generally
> had pointers (especially unsnapped ones) in read/write segments (pointed to
> by the Link Base, LB%) along with ECBs (procedure Entry Control Blocks) and
> such.

I stand corrected.  In general, however, the problem is that if the functions are
not statically bound to offsets at the call site, dynamic linking either requires
(1) another level of indirection or (2) a fixup at the call site. Solution (1)
can be made more efficient if supported in hardware, and solution
(2) requires impure code.  In general, both these solutions have real performance
drawbacks.  In case (2) pointers to functions have to be handled as well.

Segmentation is related issue.  Segments can provide the extra level of
indirection for dynamic linking, handles for memory management etc, not
to mention other advantages.  The segment sizes are the issue ('286 and '386).
Too few large segments are not good for small blocks or functions, too many
small ones and you can't allocate large arrays.  The good and the bad... life.

The model for Unix has been flat memory, sharing by pages and basically
KISS.  I'm all for experimentation though.  My feeling is the proof is in the
pudding.  Build it.  If it works, everyone will use it.

john 

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

From: [email-masked] (Jim Winstead Jr.)
Subject: Re: make and .95a kernel rebuild
Date: 17 Apr 92 23:52:20 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Chris Waters) writes:
>Ok, I gather that GNU make won't cut it for the kernel rebuild or
>something, but I'm still curious about this bit from the Makefile:

GNU Make works fine for me....

>all
>
>Version
>        @./makever.sh
>        [etc.]
>
>Shouldn't there be some targets for "all"?  And maybe for "Version" as
>well?  Do I have a damaged set of kernel sources?  (I got 'em from
>tsx-11).

They may be damaged - mine say:

all:    Version Image

Version:
        @./makever.sh
        ...etc

>  Shouldn't "compress" and "uncompress" in the distribution root fs be
>links?  I admit that this wouldn't save much space, but it would save a
>tad.  Also, there's no link to "zcat".

Uncompress should be a link to compress, but I apparently screwed up
when tarring up the root disk and rewriting it to a freshly formatted
floppy.

>  Is there a reason for the "dummy line" in /etc/passwd?

I have had problems with adding entries to /etc/passwd, and that dummy
line fixed the problems, apparently.  I don't know if it's really
necessary.
-- 
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

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

From: [email-masked] (gary a moyer)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: trouble with curses
Date: 17 Apr 92 23:13:05 GMT

Has anyone had trouble using curses?  I am _trying_ to compile the
visual version of gnuchess (that uses cureses), however, the farthest
I get is "curses.h: parse error before line 100" and then it slowly
chokes and dies.  I can't remeber where exactly I got the curses
package from (some anon ftp site).  By chance is there a newer
version floating around anywhere?

using: gcc1.4, 2M ram, 4M swapfile, with straight gnu source
       gave up trying to use the included makefile, so am doing
       command line compiles (only two files anyhow...)

             Thx.  [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Herbert M. Zinn)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: GCC2.1 problems(still!)
Date: 17 Apr 92 15:49:52 GMT

        Still having problems with GCC2.1 and the 2.1sh-A package in particular. Any time I try to compile anything,
I get a linker error that reports "---" is not a recognized option, and then prints usage; in-between the first and
second -'s is a control character. I also cannot even begin to compile the 95c+ kernel; i get innumerable parse errors
in the 95c+ specific includes (/usr/src/linux/include/...) 

        I know I posted this before but I haven't been able to find any help either in FAQ's or elsewhere (although I 
did get email from a few people with the same problem, and no solution, thanks!) 

        I'm eaerly awaiting a chance to learn C++ in a unix like environment. I just hope I dont lose all sanity and
install BSD out of impatience!

        8-) 8-) 8-) Thanks in advance, and once again thanks to Linus for a great OS (at least up til it needed GCC2.1!8-) )

                                                Herb

:

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

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

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