----------------------------------------------------------------------- Linux -- The free Minix like Un*x clone is here! Yes, we have Linux 0.97! (the latest and greatest!) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to TSX-11's Linux FTP site! Directory structure: docs documentation (such as it is) INSTALL contains various programs useful for getting Linux up and running. SCSI contains the SCSI patches from drew@cs.colorado.edu, including a bootable .12 kernel for those with seagate adaptors only. images contains the initial boot disk and root disk images binaries various binaries for Linux (use the tar and compress programs found on the root disk to unpack these) sources sources to Linux, broken down by whether system sources (including libc.a), sources to system programs, sources to usr.bin, and library sources. patches contains patches to Linux (typically, but not always patches to the system sources, such as patches to add new features to the kernel). ports contains patches to make other programs compile on a Linux system mail-archive contains an archive of the Linux-Activsts mailing list info contains various useful informational files which Linux hackers may find useful TSX-11 does not yet have a mail server --- I'm working on it.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To upload stuff --- please use the directory /incoming. It is world-writable, but not world-readable, so you (or anybody else) will not be able to see stuff which you drop there until I move it to the proper place the directory hierarchy. Please send mail to ftp-linux@tsx-11.mit.edu after you leave something there, so I can pick it up as soon as possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The email address for digests of alt.os.linux (soon comp.os.linux?) is linux-activists@news-digests.mit.edu Anything mailed to this address will be posted to the appropriate newsgroup. All administrative requests (subscriptions/unsubscriptions/etc) MUST go to the administrative address: linux-activists-request@news-digests.mit.edu See below for what happens if you ignore this address :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Linux mailing list (is _MANUALLY_ kept) addresses: For subscribing and unsubscribing: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi For mailing real articles: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi Please, do NOT send subscribe/unsubscribe mails to linus-activist@niksula.hut.fi, or I and other people will *flame* you, and you'll notice, how your mailbox filled up ;-). You even might get dozens of copies of netiquette from net users ... How to find out, who's on the list ? Just "telnet joker.cs.hut.fi 25" ('25' or 'smtp') tell our smtp, you want to "vrfy linux-activists", then you have the list of users. Say "quit" to quit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- current status can be obtained by using "finger torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi" Here's a sample entry: [kruuna.helsinki.fi] Login name: torvalds In real life: Linus Benedict Torvalds Directory: /home/kruuna/tkol/torvalds Shell: /bin/tcsh Last login Wed Mar 18 23:28 on ttyp5 from klaava New mail received Thu Mar 19 05:45:04 1992; unread since Wed Mar 18 23:51:01 1992 Plan: Free UNIX for the 386 The current version of linux is 0.95a: it was released March 17th, and is pretty close to what 1.0 will be : it needs some testing, but should be good enough to use for many things. 0.95a contains mainly bug-fixes to 0.95. NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! Plain 0.95 had problems with some harddisks that worked ok under 0.12, as well as a few bad bugs. These have been corrected (hopefully), but make sure you have the "a" version: the bugs in plain 0.95 can crash your machine rather badly. Linux can be gotten by anonymous ftp from 'nic.funet.fi' (128.214.6.100) in the directory '/pub/OS/Linux'. This directory structure contains all the linux OS- and library-sources, and enough binaries to get going. To install linux you still need to know something about unices: it's relatively straightforward to install, but the documentation sucks raw eggs, and people with no previous unix experience are going to get very confused. Linux still requires an AT-compatible disk to be useful: there are patches for a SCSI driver (currently ST-0[1|2]), but it hasn't made it into the "official" kernel yet. (The patches are against the 0.12 version, but they should work with little changes on 0.95) There are now a couple of other sites containing linux, as people have had difficulties with connecting to nic. The sites are: Tupac-Amaru.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE (137.226.112.31): directory /pub/msdos/replace tsx-11.mit.edu (18.172.1.2): directory /pub/linux (and many additional sites: there are now sites in the uk, japan etc that carry linux, but I have lost count) There is also a mailing list set up 'Linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi'. To join, mail a request to 'Linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi'. It's no use mailing me: I have no actual contact with the mailing-list (other than being on it, naturally). For those of you able to read the alt.* newsgroups, there is also a linux newsgroup available: alt.os.linux, which should hopefully become a comp.* group when the votings etc are ready. Mail me for more info: Linus (torvalds@kruuna.Helsinki.FI) 0.95 contains these new things: - ptrace (gdb is in beta-testing) - VFS (at least a minimal stubs-version) - bug-corrections (notably mm, but other bugs as well) - better VC's (screen blanking, works on non-[EV]GA etc) - init/login - faster floppies 0.95a should correct these bugs in plain 0.95: - floppy-reset gets called, and the machine may be unable to read floppies on certain hardware. - Some harddisks get read-errors (resulting in general protection errors etc) - console and tty-drivers have known bugs - sometimes weird output when writing heavily to the screen. - extended partitions don't work after all. -----------------------------------------------------------------------