From: Digestifier To: Linux-Activists@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Reply-To: Linux-Activists@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 20:13:09 EDT Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #248 Linux-Activists Digest #248, Volume #6 Tue, 21 Sep 93 20:13:09 EDT Contents: Disk caching bug in PL12, 13 (Daz) Linux is very unstable (Shannon Hendrix) Network Woes [from a network newbie!] (Jeffrey T. Noll) SoundBlaster CD-ROM support? (David Nicholson) Re: can't start xconsole in X for non-root user (Manuel Bouyer) Re: [Q] Comments on my configuration of PC please... (Mark A. Horton) Re: Adaptec 1542B vs 1542C vs 1740 ($ Burkhard Kohl) Re: Unable to access SCSI disk on Gateway 66E? (tom owen) Re: can't start xconsole in X for non-root user (wpwood@darkwing.austin.ibm.com) X386 support Paradise (accel) card? Auto-answer now works (was: Re: Auto-answer with uugetty or getty) (Willie Lim) where to get it and... Got trouble: Linux doesn't see UltraStor SCSI adaptor (Steve Benz) WANTED: X HW compatibility list (jesus ramos) Re: Tandy CD-ROm drive (Eberhard Moenkeberg) Re: BBS package (David Kraus) Re: PROBLEM: X386 freezing up station (David Kraus) XFree 1.3 hangs my system! (Surlinelli R. Cardino G. Maranzano L.) SoundBlaster CD-ROM support? (David Nicholson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: darrenp@dibbler.cs.monash.edu.au (Daz) Subject: Disk caching bug in PL12, 13 Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 13:47:56 GMT I am running a package called gf here which uses another fairly large package called sgmls via a popen command. The second package is a parser. The two work fine the first time, and then malfunction the second and subsequent times. Doing an ls -R / however clears the buffer cache apparently and the program will run again once. If anyone is interested in this bug, I can provide more details. I am using the extended 2 file system on a 486-50. The bug is does not exhibit itself in pl4 according to the author of pl 4. Daz. (You had better mail me, news reading time is scant) -- Darren Platt, Department of Computer Science darrenp@dibbler.cs.monash.edu.au Monash University, Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ------------------------------ From: shendrix@pcs.cnu.edu (Shannon Hendrix) Subject: Linux is very unstable Date: 21 Sep 1993 16:00:45 -0400 Reply-To: shendrix@pcs.cnu.edu (Shannon Hendrix) writes: I've just moved up from 10 to 12 (10 was very stable - only 1 unexplained crash ever over about 6 months) - but 12 has left me less happy - things But the p10 kernel hasn't been out for six months... csh / shendrix@pcs.cnu.edu / Christopher Newport University ------------------------------ From: jnoll@nmsu.edu (Jeffrey T. Noll) Subject: Network Woes [from a network newbie!] Date: 21 Sep 1993 19:20:03 GMT I'm hoping this is a real simple problem that someone can help me fix. I'm trying to get a linux box onto the net and it isnt working so hot. At boot up time, the rc comes up with the error: SIOCADDRT: network unreachable SIOCADDRT: network unreachable If i try to telnet, it just hangs for a while, if i take the cable out and try, it comes up with a bad cable error. Its the MCC p10 installation with a p12 kernel. This is what rc.inet1 looks like: HOSTNAME=`hostname` /usr/etc/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 /usr/etc/route add 127.0.0.1 IPADDR="128.123.1.55" NETMASK="255.255.255.0" NETWORK="128.123.1.0" BROADCAST="128.123.1.255" /usr/etc/ifconfig eth0 ${IPADDR} netmask ${NETMASK} broadcast ${BROADCAST} /usr/etc/route add ${IPADDR} /usr/etc/route add ${NETWORK} /usr/etc/route add default gw ${GATEWAY} metric 1 Thats it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Oh, BTW: its a 486-25 with a wd8003 8-bit card. Heres another question, at bootup, it seems to autodetect everything that goes into the CONFIG in net/inet in the kernel source, I defined it all anyway and compiled, but do i really have to? Thanks, Jeff ------------------------------ From: dnichols@garnet.msen.com (David Nicholson) Subject: SoundBlaster CD-ROM support? Date: 21 Sep 1993 13:13:41 GMT ------------------------------ From: bouyer@bsdtest.ensta.fr (Manuel Bouyer) Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix Subject: Re: can't start xconsole in X for non-root user Date: 21 Sep 1993 19:26:37 GMT In article <1993Sep21.100138.24996@syma.sussex.ac.uk>, tauq7@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Wai Ho) writes: |> Hi there, |> I've been unable to get xconsole to open the console when |> running X as a non-root user. The xconsole works fine for root or su |> but not for normal user. I have done the following but no success: |> 1) set root uid for xterm, xconsole, X386, xdm, xinit |> 2) set perm for tty0 to be 'rw' for all |> 3) /dev is now 'rwx' for all The user that run xconsole MUST BE the owner of /dev/console, and have the rw rights on it. At login, you have do a chown $USER /dev/console; chmod 600 /dev/console (or 655) whith xdm, it can be done in the script defined by the DisplayManager._0.startup resource. This script is run as root after the passwd controle. In the srcipt defined by the DisplayManager._0.reset: resource, you can do a chown root /dev/console;chmod 600 (or 655) /dev/console. If you uses startx, i thick you whill have to do a root seteuid program to do this. -- Manuel Bouyer email: bouyer@ensta.fr -- ------------------------------ From: mahmha@crl.com (Mark A. Horton) Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help Subject: Re: [Q] Comments on my configuration of PC please... Date: 21 Sep 1993 07:01:30 -0700 Taek-Soo Kim (tkim@zonker.ecs.umass.edu) wrote: : Hi there, : After some survey and recommendation, I decided to purchase : the following PC. Any comments would be very helpful. : 486-DX2 66 (Comtrade) : EISA : 16MB RAM : Adaptec 1742 scsi-2 controller : 545MB HD : Orchid Fahrenheit 1280+ or VA (32bit VLB) with 1MB. : 17" Monitor (MAG or CTX). WOW! what a box! How many users are you going to support? : As you can see, I have not fixed the monitor and the video card. : Any suggestion is welcome. Get a bigger SCSI disk -- prices being what they are, you can pick up a Toshiba 1.2GB 9ms. SCSI-2 drive for around $900. (us) it's worth spending a little more from the price of the 545 MB drive to get more storage. And it looks like you're sparing no expense in setting up a killer system! : I plan to attach scsi tape drive in the future, any recommendation : on this would also be appreciated. With the size disk you've got, get a large capacity one.. the 150s and 250s can get really annoying when you have to change tapes all the time. If you expect your system to grow and can afford it, get something like the Exabyte 8mm 2.3GB scsi drive (it's external, but very good) It'll cost more initially, but will be worth it in the future as you add more disk space. Also, you can use those home-video 8mm cartridges which you can get for as little as $3.00 each as opposed to 15-20 bucks each for the QIC tapes! -- this adds up to big savings when you implement a decent backup strategy. You can sometimes find the Exabytes used for very good prices - since it's scsi, it doesn't matter who makes it. I'm using one that came off a Sun workstation -- just plugged it into the buss, entered the appropriate "find ..... | cpio -ovO /dev/rmt0" command and it took off and ran fine! I am STILL trying to figure out where they put all that data on those tiny little tapes! Oh - if you go this route, don't let the salescritters talk you into "data-quality" media as opposed to vcr type tape -- this is utter bullshit - if it can record and reproduce a video signal, it has far greater bandwidth and frequency response than is needed for mere digital data! Hope this helps, Taek-Soo -- Mark : Taek-Soo Kim : ps. Thanks to those who responded on my previous posting : "[Q] Diamond grapics card and tape backup" ------------------------------ From: buk@taz.de ($ Burkhard Kohl) Crossposted-To: misc.forsale.computers.pc-clone,comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Re: Adaptec 1542B vs 1542C vs 1740 Date: 21 Sep 1993 13:30:53 GMT Doug McLaren (dougmc@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu) wrote: : - But what's the difference between the Adaptec 1542B and 1542C ? Well the 1542C supports SCSI-2 whereas the B does not. Furthermore 1542C allows you to enter the SCSI-select program for test and configuration purposes from ROM at boot time, so you don't need SCSI-select utilities :-) -- _/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ Burkhard Kohl _/ _/ _/ _/ buk@taz.de _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ die tageszeitung _/ _/ _/ _/ Germany _/ _/ _/ _/ 1000 Berlin 61 Phone: +30-259-02-120 _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ Kochstr. 18 FAX : +30-251-06-94 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Unable to access SCSI disk on Gateway 66E? From: towen@oregon (tom owen) Date: 21 Sep 93 09:45:31 EST Moti Thadani (thadani@unity.Convergent.Com) wrote: : I tried to install Linux on my Gateway 66E (EISA) PC and found : that the bootable floppy (disk a1) does not detect the 500MB : SCSI disk. It does detect the SCSI controller (which is the : Ultrastor, 24F I believe) and otherwise seems functional : (allows me to log in as root and when I try to run fdisk : /dev/sda it comes back saying "cannot open /dev/sda"). Is it : something I'm doing wrong? : -- : ________________________________________________________________________ : Moti N. Thadani (408) 456-5619 : Unisys Corporation thadani@sj.unisys.com : San Jose, CA : ________________________________________________________________________ The problem is that the ultrastor uses a non-standard chipset to control the SCSI peripherals. If you contact gateway and make a big fuss that you are having compatibility problems, they will replace the card. The card to demand is the Adaptec 1742. It is also a 32 bit EISA SCSI controller. I am currently waiting on my replacement card, since I had the same problem. I have heard of many successful installations using the adaptec card, so that is why I am recommending it. Good Luck.... =========================================================================== Tom Owen All opinions are expressly my own.... All flames go directly to /dev/null =========================================================================== ------------------------------ Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix From: wpwood@darkwing.austin.ibm.com Subject: Re: can't start xconsole in X for non-root user Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 14:14:26 GMT Reply-To: wpwood@austin.ibm.com (Bill Woodward) In article <1993Sep21.100138.24996@syma.sussex.ac.uk> tauq7@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Wai Ho) writes: > I've been unable to get xconsole to open the console when >running X as a non-root user. The xconsole works fine for root or su >but not for normal user. I have done the following but no success: > 1) set root uid for xterm, xconsole, X386, xdm, xinit > 2) set perm for tty0 to be 'rw' for all > 3) /dev is now 'rwx' for all > I'm currently running SLS's copy of Linux and Xfree 1.2. Can >someone enlighten me on this ? By convention, X programs that intercept the console will only do so if the person running them owns the console. I know that the xdm GiveConsole and TakeConsole scripts should take care of ownership of the console device, but if you just run startx, it probably doesn't. FYI, I'm not sure what the console device is under Linux (I'm at work right now), but on my RS/6000, it is /dev/console. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Bill Woodward | wpwood@austin.ibm.com <-- Try this first AIX Software Support | billw@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com Graphics Group | 512-838-2834 My other computer is a 386 running Linux !!! ------------------------------ From: rpgallan@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca () Subject: X386 support Paradise (accel) card? Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 20:45:44 GMT Does XFree1.3 or will XFree2.0 support the accelerated video card. If there is more than one such card, then I don't know which one, but it was selling for about $140 canadian (about two dollars american :-) just the other day.. Claims to speed up windows by a factor of 35. rpgallan@jeeves ------------------------------ From: wlim@gdstech.GRUMMAN.COM (Willie Lim) Subject: Auto-answer now works (was: Re: Auto-answer with uugetty or getty) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 15:42:40 GMT I have finally got my auto-answer to work consistently. I used the default file in /usr/local/lib/src/getty/etc/default/uugetty.ttys0 (or something like that I don't remember which exactly :-). There are several files in that directory, I used the one setup for 2400 baud. I also added a couple of delays to get things to work for my modem. Since I soft-linked /dev/modem to /dev/cua1, I copy that file to /etc/default/uugetty.cua1 and soft-linked /etc/default/uugetty.modem to it. /dev/cua1 is the same port I used for dialing out to my UUCP neighbor for my mail connection. That has worked beautifully for quite a while. I am still playing around with the settings in /etc/default/uugetty.modem(or cua1) As there are still some minor problems like "+++AT" gets printed on the remote screen on hangup and the /dev/modem line doesn't hang up when the other side hangs up. Willie (-: What is the test for computer literacy? The Linux test. People who can't hack it should be condemned to play with machines designed for the mouse-loving, button-pushing, know-nothing computer illerates. :-) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 11:00:34 EDT From: Subject: where to get it and... Where can I get linux? and what to grab in that directory? Thanks. -J Hdez. ------------------------------ From: steveb@wixer.bga.com (Steve Benz) Subject: Got trouble: Linux doesn't see UltraStor SCSI adaptor Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 15:27:16 GMT A friend of mine came to town this weekend with the intent of getting Linux installed on his machine -- I'd told him it'd be an easy one-afternoon task, but I'm afraid I ended up with egg on my face... When we booted Linux on his machine from the SLS A1 disk it claimed that it saw 0 hosts, 0 disks, 0 CD-ROM's, and 0 tape drives. Figuring that it was just a problem with that disk, we booted with HJ's rootdisk, but that didn't do any better. And according to the hardware compatability list, it oughta work. His machine is a Tristar GA-486VT 33MHz DX2 with an UltraStor 14f HF ISA SCSI Host adapter & a Seagate ST3550N hard disk at SCSI ID 0 & a Texel CDRom at SCSI ID 2. I'm hoping we just need to set some sort of jumper or something like that to get it to work, but I couldn't find anything that made sense to either of us. (The SCSI HowTo is definitely written for SCSI gurus -- or at least people who know alot about SCSI interfaces, which neither of us do.) In addition, and here's another case where I'm almost certainly being a bonehead or something -- when SLS boots, it chucks up a prompt that says something to the effect of remove the a1 disk and put in the ``utilities'' disk and then press 1 if you put it in a 5.25" A drive, 2 if you put it in a 3.5" A drive, etc. What utilities disk? I installed SLS myself about a million years ago, and I remember being stumped on that same question, but I somehow figured out what to do there, but this time things didn't work out that way... I thought for sure that this utilities disk was either A1 or A2, but neither of those approaches seemed to work. Finally I went over to my machine and constructed a floppy with a minix file system and a bunch of stuff that looked useful on it (fdisk, mke2fs, etc.) That worked, but it was pretty much for nothing since Linux didn't think /dev/sda was connected to anything. So anyway, that's my story, and I'd sure appreciate it if somebody could clear things up for me. - Steve ------------------------------ From: foncy@bu.edu (jesus ramos) Subject: WANTED: X HW compatibility list Date: 21 Sep 1993 16:58:12 GMT I'm looking for a site that has one of those lists, or someone that could e-mail me one. i always see regular lists, but none for X. Also, I 'm one of the happy :) owners of a diamond stealth VLB card, and I would appreciate if someone woulld tell me where to find a vide driver for this card for the X environment. Any help would be greatly appreciated Jesus Ramos foncy@acs.bu.edu ramos@brixton.cibadiag.com ------------------------------ From: emoenke@gwdu03.gwdg.de (Eberhard Moenkeberg) Subject: Re: Tandy CD-ROm drive Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 17:09:08 GMT Jonker N (njonker@cs.vu.nl) wrote: > Hey all, > I have a Tandy Cd-Rom drive (I *think* model ...1000 os some such) > in my machine, and I was wondering if anyone can tell me if there > is support for this drive in Linux, and if it is possible to install > one of the SLS or whatever releases available on CD, from this drive? > PLEASE RESPOND IN EMAIL! to Niels@OpUp.ORG. > Thanks, Niels. Please, tell us more about your drive and its interface board. 40 wires? Drive manufacturer: Matsushita/Kotobuki/Panasonic/Aztech? For those drives, ftp.gwdg.de:/pub/linux/cdrom/sbpcd04.tgz is waiting... Eberhard -- Eberhard Moenkeberg FIDO: 2:241/3410.27 Reinholdstr. 14 Internet: emoenke@gwdg.de 37083 Goettingen, Germany Voice: ++49-551-704325 ------------------------------ From: kraus@rtsg.mot.com (David Kraus) Subject: Re: BBS package Date: 21 Sep 93 09:41:41 In article <748545332.AA08065@psybbs.durham.nc.us>, Derek.Bischoff%f1.n3641.z1@psybbs.durham.nc.us (Derek Bischoff) writes: > DCA> You've missed the point. The above does not say SHELL PROMPT. It says > DCA> USER'S SHELL. Two different things. The shell could be a menu program > DCA> where the user never sees the shell prompt. > Well, actually Mark, I don't think he did. > yasee, Unix, as an Operating system, when you consider all the > built-in functions (news, mail, write or chat) It has the basic > makings to provide excelent BBS services. It makes sense > to provide a menu (bbs like) shell interface for the user to > protect him from the unix shell prompt, then use the built > in functions of mail, etc to do the work of the bbs. > I believe one of the greatest obstacles of doing that are the following: > One, for most bbs's it is a simple matter to remove a user from > the list of users for bbs management. It's a simple matter to do so on a unix-style system as well. There are even programs to do it in /etc. You just need to set permissions for your co-sysops to do it. > Two, Most bbs's use a singular user for the bbs for the following: > this way you can have NEW users, and this way you can have just > one user, one set of permissions to regulate and keep sheltered > from other users. (should you have any) I don't really follow what you're trying to say here.... > It is difficult for someone to get an id, create an entry in the > /etc/passwd file, allow him limited access, promote, etc, etc, etc > in the current OS. If you have one login for the bbs, and it > is public knowlege, you could build up users from that list. Loyal > and current users who would like their own id could be accomodated for. No it isn't. As a matter of fact, I have a friend (yes, it's not firsthand experience, but I know of what I speak) running a homebrew BBS that's nothing but a bunch of Perl scripts, used as a user's login shell. And he has a user 'new', that can create an account for a new user. He doesn't have to do anything by hand. Now, he also doesn't have any real access restrictions in his system. If you've got access to news, you get all the groups, etc. This is something that is desireable in a BBS/public access environment, since you may not want everyone reading everything that's out there. There have been hacks given to solve this (different groups for different newsgroups, but that turns into a maintenance nightmare as well), but none of them more than a hack.... Actually, what I think is a HUGE limiting factor to the unix BBS's is the fact that no 2 tools are consistant in their user interfaces. Mailers are completely different from news readers, when, in reality, news and email look about the same to the everyday user. For example - put a newbie down in front of elm, and then try to differentiate between when elm gets used and when trn gets used. And then try to explain why the commands are all different for the same sorts of functions (next article, next message, highlight bars as opposed to none, etc.). For the non-computer literate, or a person who hasn't had much experience (you know, the target market for most BBS's), the inconsistant command interface is a HUGE problem. Followups to comp.os.linux.misc, because comp.os.linux doesn't really exist any more.... -- Dave Kraus Internet: kraus@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group FidoNet : 1:115/439.8 Disclaimer: My employer's views and my views may necessarily differ. "Sun to burn out in 1.5 billion years! Clinton has a plan." - Outland ------------------------------ From: kraus@rtsg.mot.com (David Kraus) Subject: Re: PROBLEM: X386 freezing up station Date: 21 Sep 93 09:51:34 In article , cooper@s1.elec.uq.oz.au (Robert Cooper) writes: > platz_b3@hugo.rz.fh-ulm.de (RZ Diplomantenarbeitsplatz) writes: >>Hi, >>I got a problem when running X386. Sometimes the X-Server freezes >>the complete station. All X-Clients seem to stop ( clock doesn't >>update, xload doesn#t update ). I haven't tried to login into my >>station from remote, but i'm quite sure that the machine is hanging. >>The problem is that this doesn#t hppen all the time. Sometimes >>I can open lots of shell-windows and anything will work fine, but >>othertimes the statiob hangs after opening just two windows. >>I think my configuratuion in Xconfig is ok. I can create lots >>of processes if I don't use X386. >>I'm running linux 0.99p12 and XFree 2.0. Window-Manager is olvwm. >>Hardware: Cyrix 486DLC, VGA 16 ET4000 SVGA card, 8 MBYte RAM, >> 16 MByte Swap space > I am experiencing similar problems with Xfree 1.3. I also > have an ET4000 and 8MB RAM, but I have a 486DX 33. >>Question is: Is the defect described above a known failure >> (I hanve't found anything about it in README files). >> Can I do anything to avoid it? > Yes, I've done this too, and I think my setup is OK....looks > like the ET4000 drivers may be buggy. I have also tried > the NoSpeedUp option in Xconfig, but that doesn't make any > difference. I've been having lockups ever since I dropped in the ET4000, but I've been blaming the hardware. Generally, the lockup will occur when I'm moving a window. I'm using either TWM or FVWM - doesn't matter. Also doesn't matter how long the machine's been on, or how long I've been running in X. Or even, really what's going on. I can pull up an xterm, and when I go to place it, if I move it around as a wire frame too much, it'll freeze after redrawing bits of the frame. Also, another IMPORTANT data point: Same thing happens under DesqView/X, under similar conditions. So I can't blame XFree, unless they're both using the same style ET4000 drivers.... I haven't tried shutting off the speedup code - I'll give that a shot next, and see how long it takes to see the problems again. It's pretty random, but it's started to happen more and more again lately.... Followups to comp.os.linux.help, because comp.os.linux doesn't really exist any more... -- Dave Kraus Internet: kraus@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group FidoNet : 1:115/439.8 Disclaimer: My employer's views and my views may necessarily differ. "Sun to burn out in 1.5 billion years! Clinton has a plan." - Outland ------------------------------ From: calamaro@dist.dist.unige.it (Surlinelli R. Cardino G. Maranzano L.) Subject: XFree 1.3 hangs my system! Date: 21 Sep 1993 08:52:28 GMT Reply-To: calamaro@dist.dist.unige.it (Surlinelli R. Cardino G. Maranzano L.) Hi world!! I have installed the SLS 1.03 and all is almost OK except the fact that sometimes under X11 the system suddenly hangs without any possibility of escape, except the RESET button. Is it possible that Xmem or Xload could generate some problems ??? (I read something about the trouble caused by Xmem or Xload on the news but I don't remember....) Please someone can help me ???????? Thanks very very much!!! Bye, Luke. ===================================================================== _____ / ~ ~ \ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/ / o o \ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ \ U / _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/ \ . / _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ / | | \ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ / | | \ c a l a m a r o@dist.dist.unige.it _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ ===================================================================== ------------------------------ From: dnichols@garnet.msen.com (David Nicholson) Subject: SoundBlaster CD-ROM support? Date: 21 Sep 1993 23:49:16 GMT ------------------------------ ** 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: Linux-Activists-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux) via: Internet: Linux-Activists@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU 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 0.99pl9 released on April 23, 1993 End of Linux-Activists Digest ******************************