Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #98
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 92 13:30:17 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #98, Volume #2            Thu, 23 Apr 92 13:30:17 EDT

Contents:
  printer on parallel port (Roberto Favaro)
  Re: Miscellaneous questions. (Joerg Pommnitz)
  Re: How to pronounce "Linux"? (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
  Dominion 1.06 et. al. (C. G. Albone)
  Porting to Linux (Bennett E. Todd)
  Re: all kinds of questions (autoparking) (Lance Pickup)
  Software index (Bill Jones)
  Everex modems and linux (Bill Jones)
  Re: help, cannot mount file system... (Kevin Cummings)
  Re: all kinds of questions (autoparking) (Kevin Cummings)
  dos emulator (Matthias Lautner)
  scsi setup? (Jim Burns)
  free (memory allocation table) (Peter Thomson)
  Questions: Large SCSI Partitions, native SCSI partitioning (Rainer Kirsch)
  Re: dos emulator (Drew Eckhardt)

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

Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
From: [email-masked] (Roberto Favaro)
Subject: printer on parallel port
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 10:55:47 GMT

Hi to all,

I have a little problem with my printer,that has a parallel port
:It doesn't work with Linux.
I have tryed to type 'mknod /dev/lp0 c 6 0' and then 
'echo "\n Hello \n" > /dev/lp0 ' but nothing has happened.
Which arguments with mknod have i to use ?
If anybody wants help me ....

Thanks in advance.

=============================================
| [email-masked]               |  Linux -> 1.0 !WOW!
| [email-masked]               |  I hope. :-)
=============================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Joerg Pommnitz)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Re: Miscellaneous questions.
Date: 23 Apr 92 10:32:12 GMT

[email-masked] (Rogier Wolff) writes:

>>[email-masked] (Scott Dunn) writes:

>>I'd like to ask the same question:

>>>2.   What is a working version of tar and un/compress?
>>>     A lot of problems seem to be solved by getting new versions of the
>>>     aforementioned.  However, nobody has indicated how to identify which
>>>     are the dodgy copies.
>>>     Sometimes when uncompressing it seems to get stuck in an infinite
>>>     loop which takes all system resources.  ie I can't login to another
>>>     terminal and kill the process.  Is this what is known as a 'race
>>>     condition' ?  Is this indicate a dodgy copy of un/compress ?

>>How can I fix these problems ?
>>What's the reason ?

>Compress starts to use memrory that it hasn't allocated when it gets
>invalid input. Most unices will then give it a "segment violation" and
>kill it. Linux currently simply allocates the memory, and lets the 
>application continue. This will be fixed in the future. (if nobody
>else does it, I will.)

>                                       Roger.

But my input is valid !!!
I checked it by decompressing the files on a sun !
Then I compressed it again using -B13 ,but compress (on LINUX) still hangs.
That's why I think there must be another problem.
BTW: The same compress with the same files works on another machine.

                                         Joerg 

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

From: [email-masked] (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Subject: Re: How to pronounce "Linux"?
Date: 23 Apr 92 12:32:16 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Ng Pheng Siong) writes:
>I apologize if this is considered trivial, but what is the
>proper pronunciation for "Linux"?
>
>Li     lee or lie?
>Nux    nuks or nerks? Nooks?

Oh god.  We just hashed this through on alt.os.linux.  It /definitely/
needs to go into the FAQ. 

'li' is pronounced with a short [ee] sound: compare prInt, mInImal etc. 
'nux' is also short, non-diphtong, like in pUt.  It's partly due to
minix: linux was just my working name for the thing, and as I wrote it
to replace minix on my system, the result is what it is...  linus' minix
became linux. 

I originally intended it to be called freax (although buggix was one
contender after I got fed up with some of the more persistent bugs :)
and I think the kernel makefiles up to version 0.11 had something to
that effect ("Makefile for the freax kernel" in a comment).  But arl
called the linux directory at nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux, and the name
stuck.  Maybe just as well: freax doesn't sound too good either (freax
is obviosly free + freak + the obligatory -x). 

                Linus

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

From: [email-masked] (C. G. Albone)
Subject: Dominion 1.06 et. al.
Date: 24 Apr 92 13:36:47 GMT

Hello netters,
 
        I have just recently ported dominion 1.06 to linux, and would
be interested in any comments by people who have done the same. One thing
that i have noticed is that it is so *slow*. It really sucks the power
out of my machine (a 386 25MHz with  4M RAM). It is bad enough when trying
to run the clients, but when updating the machine seems to grind to a halt.
On a related note, after running dominion, the machine seems to remain 
somewhat sluggish.. an example being the reboot program posted to the net
recently taking 10+ seconds to run on occasion. Also, it bombs when coming
out of the mail procedure (using it's internal mail system).

        On a related note, has anyone checked out conquer5 beta? 

well, enuff for now... back to world domination :-)

chris

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

From: [email-masked] (Bennett E. Todd)
Subject: Porting to Linux
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Bennett E. Todd)
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 14:30:30 GMT

I've brought up Linux 0.95c+ on my box. This box is an original AT with
a motherboard change. Original IBM Monochrome Display Adaptor (MDA),
original 30M MFM HD, etc. I swapped out the motherboard for a supercheap
386SX, stuffed 6M RAM in it, and away I go. The installation was a piece
of cake --- nice work, folks.

I started trying to port my favorite stuff to it. Rc(1) was easy, and
elle(1) wasn't too hard, but jove(1) has me stalled out.

In sysdep.h, the jove release has support for two styles of signals. It
looks like Linux implements a third sort. Is there a good book to get
for docs on the Posix interfaces that Linux supports?

Here's the relevent patch of code from the jove release:

#if defined(BSD_SIGS)
extern long     SigMask;

# define SigHold(s)     sigblock(SigMask |= sigmask((s)))
# define SigRelse(s)    sigsetmask(SigMask &= ~sigmask((s)))
#else
# define SigHold(s)     sighold(s)
# define SigRelse(s)    sigrelse(s)
# define killpg(pid, sig)       kill(-(pid), (sig))
#endif

I tried recoding these in terms of sgetmask and ssetmask, from the man
page on signal(2), but these don't seem to be available. When I did an
nm(1) on libc.a, I found ___sgetmask() and ___ssetmask(); however,
calling them didn't seem to do the trick.

Any ideas?

-Bennett (curmudgeon)
[email-masked]

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

Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
From: [email-masked] (Lance Pickup)
Subject: Re: all kinds of questions (autoparking)
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 92 13:32:02 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Rogier Wolff) writes:
|> Yes. Right. I have a broken 40M disk, and when you power down, it still
|> discharges a capacitor through the voice coil, which jams the head
|> behind a latch. (wouldn't autoparking be hard for stepper motor controlled
|> heads? at 24 ms average seek time, you'd need power for 0.1 seconds
|> to step the motor back home, worst case)

I could be wrong, but I thought that the way auto-parking worked was
that the head was spring loaded such that whenever power was removed,
it would just spring back into a safe location (i.e. you need power
to un-park it).
--
    ...Lance

=======================================================================
Lance Pickup                VNET/IBM Internet: lpickup@btv
IBM/Vendor Systems                   Internet: [email-masked]
Technology Products
Burlington, VT                          Phone: (802) 769-7104 (tie 446)
=======================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Jones)
Subject: Software index
Date: 23 Apr 92 15:43:20 GMT

Thnks to everyone who has responded concerning my idea of a software
index.  There were no responses against it and most of the mail I received
thought that it would be an extremely useful idea.  Therefore, I'll go
ahead and begin compiling an index of all of the software that I can
find.

Someone mentioned that this could be laid out in the same fashion as the
Minix index so I'll try to obtain a copy of that and see how the style
looks.

One thing, if you are a sysadmin at a site which is providing ftp access
to linux material and you are NOT at tsx-11.mit.edu, banjo.concert.net,
mcc.uk, or funet.fi, please mail me and let me know of your archive site
(particularly if you are not on the FAQ) and perhaps mail me a copy of
your linux file list.

If you are currently porting a software package or have ported one, let
me know as well so that I can give you credit (and allow others to send
flames if the package doesn't work :) ).

I'll try to have version one out in a couple of weeks and then perhaps we
can try to tie it into the FAQ and the beginners guide.

========================================================================
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] (Bill Jones)
Subject: Everex modems and linux
Date: 23 Apr 92 15:47:54 GMT

A while back I had posted two calls for help concerning my modem (an
Everex Evercom II) and linux.  Linux did not seem to even know that
the modem existed, either through kermit, uucp, or directly.

I borrowed an old 1200 bps TEAM modem from a friend, installed it,
changed nothing at all in my .kermrc or /etc/rc and all of a sudden
linux recognized the modem and I had communication with the outside
world.  Since then, the 1200 bps modem has been replaced with a Cardinal
9600 v.32, v.42bis modem and everything still works well.  When the
Everex is tried again, linux still fails to notice its existance.

The moral of the story seems to be:  Don't use an Everex Evercom II
modem under linux and expect it to work.

Hope that this helps other people with the same problem.

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

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

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

Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
From: [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings)
Subject: Re: help, cannot mount file system...
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 15:34:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (gary a moyer) writes:
> Hey netters!  I _accidentally_ messed up my ability to mount
> a file system!  I did it inadvertantly while trying to incorporate
> some _protection_.  Anyhow, what other files does mount access besides
> the actual device in /dev ?  I am getting the message:
> mount: unable to open lock-file
> 

WHY ISN'T THIS A FAQ??????????    Linus, PLEASE change the mount
message to write out the lock file pathname!  And possibly another
message about what to do about it.

In the meantime, if you are getting this problem, you have most likely
editted your /etc/mtab file.  rm /etc/mtab~   That's the file mount
tries to create to ensure no other process is updating the mount
table at the same time.

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

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

Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
From: [email-masked] (Kevin Cummings)
Subject: Re: all kinds of questions (autoparking)
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 15:38:25 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Rick Kelly) writes:
> These days, most hard disks greater than 40 megs will park themselves on
> power down.

ANd when I can find a list of which ones do, and which ones don't,
I'll beleive it.  In the meantime, better safe than sorry.

=================================================================
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] (Matthias Lautner)
Subject: dos emulator
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 15:29:54 GMT

Hi!

I'm working on a dos emulator for linux. I created a new system call for
this purpose. It devotes a 4 MB memory area of virtual process memory to dos 
and keeps the 8086 register set in a struct. Starting the vm86 system call,
the registers are transferred to the cpu and the process is running in
virtual 8086 mode using the specified memory area until a fault (eg. general
protection) happens or a signal is caught. Then the registers are stored back
to the struct and the system call returns as usual. The result of the call 
shows up the reason for interrupting. 

Whith this call it is possible to write a dos emulator. Any interrupt
statement or io machine code will result in a general protection trap an can
be emulated.

Very simple masm generated dos programs are allready running.

If someone is interested in helping me to implement the functions of the 
dos int 0x21 it would be grate. I'm currently working with 0.95c.

Matthias
-- 
*****************************************************************************
Matthias Lautner        Carl-Vornberger-Str. 21, 8701 Randersacker, Germany     
[email-masked]
*****************************************************************************

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

From: [email-masked] (Jim Burns)
Subject: scsi setup?
Date: 23 Apr 92 16:04:29 GMT

I got the scsi stuff from tsx-11 in pub/linux/scsi - it boots fine, but no
joy from the modified fdisk yet. My Dos driver says this when I boot from
my AHA1542 (floppy disabled):

Host Adapter #:         0       Host Adapter SCSI ID:   7
I/O Port Address:       330     DMA Channel:            5
Interrupt Level:        10      VDS Support LevelL      MultiSegRW

Host Adapter # 0 - SCSI ID 0 - Lun 0:   Maxtor LXT-213S

After creating dummy /dev/hd[15] on the 95a rootimage to make fdisk happy,
I get sd0 not found. Doing a 'mknod /dev/sd0 b 8 n' where n=0,16,32,48
still gets no joy from fdisk - something to the effect of trying to read
from non-existent block device. Any ideas? Thanx.
-- 
BURNS,JIM (returned student)
Georgia Institute of Technology, 30178 Georgia Tech Station,
Atlanta Georgia, 30332            | Internet: [email-masked]
uucp:     ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!gt0178a

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Thomson)
Subject: free (memory allocation table)
Date: 23 Apr 92 12:40:18 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Peter Thomson)

Hi can some one tell me if the command free reports back any more than
1Mbyte of memory. There is 2Mbytes on my machine but free states there is
only one. running multiple tasks and watching ps confirms this and swapping
starts at the 1Mbyte limit

                Thanks in advance Peter.

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

From: [email-masked] (Rainer Kirsch)
Subject: Questions: Large SCSI Partitions, native SCSI partitioning
Date: 23 Apr 92 16:27:12 GMT

Hello Linux Fans!

1.I would like to know, if the development of a SCSI software, which is able 
to handle large partitions (>100 MB) already has been started. If yes, tell 
me about the estimated release date.

2.Is it correct, that the existence of one large (about 180MB) partition, 
inhibits the usage of any other partition (on the same drive) to Linux?

3.Is there some software available to partition SCSI disks under Linux?

Many thanks in advance!
Rainer Kirsch

+------------------------------------------------------+
| [email-masked]                           |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Institute of Applied Electrotechnics and Electronics |
| TU-Vienna / Austria / Europe                         |
+------------------------------------------------------+

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

From: [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: dos emulator
Date: 23 Apr 92 16:33:51 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthias Lautner) writes:
>Hi!
>
>I'm working on a dos emulator for linux. I created a new system call for
>this purpose. It devotes a 4 MB memory area of virtual process memory to dos 
>and keeps the 8086 register set in a struct. Starting the vm86 system call,
>the registers are transferred to the cpu and the process is running in
>virtual 8086 mode using the specified memory area until a fault (eg. general
>protection) happens or a signal is caught. Then the registers are stored back
>to the struct and the system call returns as usual. The result of the call 
>shows up the reason for interrupting. 
>
>Whith this call it is possible to write a dos emulator. Any interrupt
>statement or io machine code will result in a general protection trap an can
>be emulated.
>
>Very simple masm generated dos programs are allready running.
>
>If someone is interested in helping me to implement the functions of the 
>dos int 0x21 it would be grate. I'm currently working with 0.95c.
>

The following questions are hypothetical :
1.  How many documented DOS calls are there?
2.  How many undocumented DOS calls are there?

The answer is "many".  The DOS kernel is ~50K of machine code.   You 
don't want to duplicate that.  Instead, you emulate what DOS runs on,
and catch all of the programs that run there too, and run a *REAL*
dos.

DOS runs on BIOS.  Question : how many BIOS calls are there?

Again, the answer is "many", so you don't emulate BIOS, use the
real thing, and emulate the underlying hardware where 
possible.

Something that runs simple MASM programs is sort of interesting, 
and lets you see how 386 virtual mode works.  Something that is 100%
MSDOS compatable is like a Tandy 2000 or DEC rainbow - it runs 
MSDOS - but it's not compatable.  A few small programs will 
run, but none of the programs that make me keep DOS on my
hard disk.  Something that is 100% BIOS compatable is getting
there, and I can run many programs - but anything that does
direct screen I/O is out - which rules out MOST of 
the programs out there.

Certain BIOS calls *should* be emulated, such as disk accesses,
which should be redirected out to unix devices.  Others, such
as most video routines, which read/write to your remapped
video buffer are OK.

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

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