HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: zlsiial@uts.mcc.ac.uk (A. V. Le Blanc)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: documentation for shoelace
Date: 9 Apr 92 10:05:11 GMT
Followup-To: LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
Organization: Computing Centre, University of Manchester


In article <1992Apr05.205524.801465@zeus.calpoly.edu> awozniak@zeus.calpoly.edu (The WOZ) writes:
>1) does shoelace _need_ to be in the root directory?  Can I remove
>    it later?

Yes, shoelace does not work unless it is /shoelace.  You can never remove
it.  It is something like a /vmunix file, in that its name and location
are hard-coded into the bootstrap loader.  When shoelace starts to
execute it searches for /etc/config, another hard-coded file name.
A sample /etc/config comes with it.

>2) The readme and config files refer to files in /etc/system (mm,
>    kernal, fs, and init)  The 0.95a dist does not have a /etc/system  Do I
>    need to get these files from somewhere?

These are a hangover from minix.  They should normally be commented
out in your /etc/config file.  Instead of /etc/system you should
use the Image file produced by a make in the linux directory.  I
keep this in /etc/Image, with the previous copy in /etc/Image.old.

>4) What is the file /usr/src/linux/linux/Image ? (Please tell me I'm
>    not going to have to recompile the kernal or something...)

You must indeed recompile the kernel, that is, unless you get a
compiled kernel from somewhere.  The interim version of Linux
which I am about to release in Manchester contains a precompiled
kernel (0.95c).

>3) What is the file bootlace used for?  It's not mentioned in the
>    readme file.

bootlace contains the code which is (sometimes) written by laceup
into a file system's boot block.

>5) When is the file disktab used?

disktab is used when configuring a floppy to boot using shoelace.

>6) How exactly does winiboot work?  What does it do?

winiboot is the part of shoelace that goes into the hard disk's boot
sector, as opposed to the file system's.

When you install shoelace, you give the command

     laceup -w 1 /dev/hda

This puts the winiboot file into the hard disk's boot sector and
sets a default of partition 1 as the one which will boot if you
don't type anything within a certain period of time.  Then you
give the command

     laceup /dev/hda1 wini

This installs the bootlace code into the boot block of the linux
partition.  This code is executed by the code in sector 0, and
this code finds /shoelace and executes it.  /shoelace finds
/etc/config and uses its instructions to find /Image.  Once
shoelace is executed, you can interrupt by typing RETURN, and
it allows you to boot from some file other than the configured
one.

Shoelace is pretty out-of-date and designed for a completely
different system.  We need someone to write a replacement.

     -- Owen
     LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
Xref: sparky comp.os.linux:189 alt.os.linux:2288
From: drew@ophelia.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: all kinds of questions
Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 22:34:28 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.191537.8035@coe.montana.edu> icsu8268@cs.montana.edu (Greenup) writes:
>
>Hello netters!
>   I just booted up for the first time two days ago, and now I'm a happy
>Linux user.  Well, almost.  I do have a few questions...
>
>1. is "agetty" different than "getty", if so,

No real obvious differences.

>3. does "sync" do a diskpark, or do I have to round up a routine for that?

No.  sync merely commits the buffercache to disk.  Buffers will be 
committed to disk when buffercache is full, or a sync()  syscall
is performed.  To prevent heinous catastrophees, update is 
run from /etc/rc. update syncs the disks every 30 seconds.

Most hard disks these days autopark, so that shouldn't be a problem.

>4. I've heard that there's some binary incompatibility coming up.
>      does the new work with the old or does the old work with the new,

Files linked with the new ld do not work with older kernels,
but older binaries run on the new kernel.

>      when (+/- a week) is this expected to take effect?

The new a.out.h is already used in the .95c+ kernel,
and the new gcc2.1 ld uses it.

>      is this tied in with the new compiler, or a new kernal goodie?

it's a header file upgrade to make us more 'normal'

>5. has anyone done any work on something similar to messydos's "snipper"
>      (a cut & paste print screen) or "buffit" (a scrollback buffer)

There is a cut and paste via mouse kernel patch, and the kernel 
supports screen dumps to a file.
From: quale@saavik.cs.wisc.edu (Douglas E. Quale)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: better graphics for Nethack
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:32:16 GMT
Organization: Undergraduate Projects Lab, UW Madison

If there are any Nethackers out there, you can use the nicer DECgraphics
display if you make a small addition to your termcap.  I had hesitated
posting this before because earlier releases didn't quite get all the
vt100 graphics characters right, but 0.95c+ has changed some of console.c
and everything seems ok now.  Great work.

Use ``export NETHACKOPTIONS=DECgraphics'' and make the following
addition to your termcap entry to add the alternate character set start
and end strings.  I also added the km (has meta key) flag so we can end
all the ``Why doesn't the Alt key work in emacs?'' questions.  These
additions probably belong in the root disk distribution of /etc/termcap.

	km:as=^N\E(0:ae=\E(B:

--
Doug Quale
quale@saavik.cs.wisc.edu
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: linux-0.95c known bugs
Summary: well, it was alpha...
Date: 8 Apr 92 09:03:21 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Well, only one known bug so far, but a couple of problems. I thought I'd
mention them before anyone else does, and we'll call them "features" :^)

The BUG:

  when using the readdir() system call, linux incorrectly doesn't let go
  of the last buffer used for reading: this results in the buffer being
  marked as used (and if you use readdir() heavily, the counter will
  eventually wrap around, which might result in incorrect marking as
  "not used").  This bug happily isn't easy to find: no current binary
  uses the readdir() system call unless you have gotten your hands on
  the new VFS gcc-2.1 release.  Thanks to Remy Card for finding this
  one. 

  Not too bad a bug though: the fix is very easy.  Add a 'brelse(bh);'
  in the minix_readdir() function, like this:

  	if (i) {
  		put_fs_long(de->inode,&dirent->d_ino);
  		put_fs_byte(0,i+dirent->d_name);
  		put_fs_word(i,&dirent->d_reclen);
  		return i;

  should really be :

  	if (i) {
  		put_fs_long(de->inode,&dirent->d_ino);
  		put_fs_byte(0,i+dirent->d_name);
  		put_fs_word(i,&dirent->d_reclen);
+ 		brelse (bh);
  		return i;

  That is, just add the brelse before the early return.  Sorry for the
  lack of real cdiffs - I'm not at home right now, and the above was
  taken directly from the bug-report mail.

The problems:

  I've had one report that the floppy-driver in versions 0.95x breaks
  when accessing drive nr 2.  It doesn't on my machine, but I'd
  appreciate it if people would test it out, and mail me about any
  problems.  So far, only one report, but that's one too many.

  0.95c doesn't correctly keep track of the 'rss' field in the
  task-structure.  A fix was already posted (and nothing breaks even if
  you don't apply the fix - ps just gives slightly incorrect output)

  And the expected troubles with the change of 'a.out.h' - the old gdb
  doesn't recognize new executables etc.

As soon as I get my own sources cleaned up, I'll send out a new binary
for the 0.95c+ kernel to the ftp-sites.  I've gotten a few mails from
people unable to recompile everything - either because of lack of
diskspace or some other problem.  Tomorrow I'll put the new kernel image
on nic.funet.fi and tsx-11 - it's basically the 0.95c kernel + the above
bugfix + the lp-patches (somewhat edited by me).

		Linus
From: zlsiial@uts.mcc.ac.uk (A. V. Le Blanc)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: passwd program?
Keywords: passwd
Date: 16 Apr 92 15:22:24 GMT
Followup-To: LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
Organization: Computing Centre, University of Manchester

In article <lmwj5qa.blake@netcom.com> blake@netcom.com (Blake McBride) writes:
>Is there a passwd program for linux?  If so where may I find it?

The version of the passwd program whose binary is included in the latest
'interim' linux from MCC is available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.mcc.ac.uk in /pub/linux/mcc-interim/0.95c+/sources in the file
misc.tar.Z.  This also contains the sources I used for df, swapon,
strings, kill, setterm, fsck, mkfs mkswap, stty, umount, mount, sync,
doshell, rdev, update, getty, hexdump, od, more, fdisk, su, hostname,
uname, init, last, login, who, and write, as well as all documentation
I received from those who wrote these programs.  The only one of these
programs which I wrote myself is fdisk; all others have been published
elsewhere, though I have made minor changes to all of them.

This file is among those mirrored at banjo.concert.net.

     -- Owen
     LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
From: wolff@dutecaj.et.tudelft.nl (Rogier Wolff)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Loadable Device drivers.
Keywords: devices, drivers, linux, project
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:55:11 GMT
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering


Hi everyone,

I will be doing a project involving the implementation of 
"loadable device drivers" in linux. This will facilitate developing
new device drivers: you should be able to:

gcc device.driver.c
unloaddevice <major>
loaddevice a.out b <major>

/etc/mount /dev/<myblockdev> /mnt

If anybody has suggestions, they are welcome. One thing though:
please don't tell me that you've done this already... I'd have to
go looking for another project.

					Roger
-- 
If the opposite of "pro" is "con", what is the opposite of "progress"? 
	(stolen from  kadokev@iitvax.iit.edu)
EMail:  wolff@duteca.et.tudelft.nl   ** Tel  +31-15-783644 or +31-15-142371
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: SVGA: 0.95c+ doesn't switch modes
Date: 15 Apr 1992 18:37:20 GMT
Organization: UT Health Science Center Houston


I just put a Trident SVGA9000 in my machine. When I boot 0.95c+ (and 0.95a,
too), it shows the list of available SVGA modes. When I select one, though,
the card is never put into the other mode; instead, I still have a 25x80
screen. If I select a mode with more lines, the last (n-25) aren't shown on my
screen at all. What's going on here?
-- 
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu      | adequately be explained by a .sig virus.
   "While we liked developing Windows applications, we never inhaled." --
              Philippe Kahn, in Infoworld, 13 Apr 1992
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: rattan@crs.cl.msu.edu ()
Subject: mtools binaries for linux request!
Followup-To: rattan@crs.cl.msu.edu
Keywords: mootls binary, linux, archive
Organization: Michigan State University
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 01:07:58 GMT

Where can I find 'mtools' binary for linux?
With Thanks,
- ishwar(rattan@crs.cl.msu.edu)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP)
Subject: Re: HELP! Problems with rootimage. (UPDATE)
Reply-To: hpa@nwu.edu (Peter Anvin)
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Distribution: comp
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 04:40:51 GMT

In article <TSILLANP.92Apr9013138@blob.hut.fi> of comp.os.linux,
  tsillanp@niksula.hut.fi (Timo Jaakko Sillanp{{) writes:
> A couple of days ago I complained that rootimage does not work
> on my computer. It still doesn't. But I have got a lot of 
> suggestions (many of which are quite similar to each other).
> Thanks to all who tried to help me.
> Here is a detailed list of my hardware and what I have already
> tried.
> 
> WB 486/33, cache 64Kb, AMI BIOS 06/06/91, OPTI chipset
> 8Mb 80ns RAM (yeah I know they are slow), cache is 25ns
> ISA bus
  ... etc ...

I have a similar setup on an Insight; 256K cache but same AMI/OPTI config;
after loading the boot image it gives me the SVGA modes and prompts me for
the root floppy, but when I press ENTER it just resets the machine...?

	/hpa

P.S. I use the 0.95c+ boot and 0.95a root images from tsx-11.mit.edu,
fetched 4/12/92.
-- 
INTERNET: hpa@nwu.edu   TALK:      hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
BITNET:   HPA@NUACC     HAM RADIO: N9ITP, SM4TKN
IRC:      Scalar        NeXTMAIL:  hpa@lenny.acns.nwu.edu
Ibland verkar det som jag tillh|r fel minoritetsgrupp...
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: terryd@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Terry Dawson)
Subject: A couple of simple previously answered (but missed) questions
Summary: Sorry, missed them thr first time
Keywords: stderr IDE linux questions
Organization: Sydney University Computing Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 05:15:35 GMT


Sorry to waste bandwidth reasking questions, but I missed reading them the
first time (saw them, they didn't affect me at the time, so I didn't read
them ... theres a lesson to be learnt there somewhere I'm sure :-).

Firstly,
When compiling with gcc 1.4, any code tht references stderr causes gcc
to complain that '___stderr' is undefined, or words to that effect, I
am sure this is a result of me not have gcc properly installed, I'm also
sure its going to be a fairly simple fix ..
What have I got wrong where ?

Secondly,
I am planning on purchasing a larger hard drive to dedicate to Linux,
I'm looking at a 105Mb IDE drive, and I was wondering if any problems
have been reported with using IDE drives with Linux 0.95a ?

Emailed replies would be greatly appreciated.

Terry



-- 
Terry Dawson, terryd@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU, vk2ktj%vk2ktj@vk2aqg.nsw.aus.oc
+61 2 925 1556 (voice), +61 2 922 5973 (fax).   __\*/__  0^Ooooo   _____
Xref: sparky comp.os.linux:260 alt.os.linux:2362
From: beaker@bass.bu.edu (Dennis Petrocelli)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,alt.os.linux
Subject: Scheme, Lisp for Linux?
Summary: Ported either?
Keywords: scheme lisp linux-ports
Date: 6 Apr 92 07:53:22 GMT
Reply-To: beaker@bass.bu.edu (Dennis Petrocelli)
Followup-To: comp.os.linux
Organization: Boston University


	Is anyone working on porting any version of scheme or lisp to
linux?  I would be VERY appreciative of anyone's attempts to do so.  I
have successfully compiled a C implementation of Scheme, siod-2.7 
(Scheme in One Defun, from world.std.com), with gcc-1.4 on linux .95a.
I am hoping that someone might have tried to port a more substantial
version, such as scheme 7.1, from altdorf.ai.mit.edu. 

Dennis Petrocelli
beaker@bass.bu.edu

	BTW, way to go LINUS, et al !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

	OS/2 - half the OS at twice the price!
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: odiug@messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Guido Muesch)
Subject: Re: Scheme, Lisp for Linux?
Keywords: scheme lisp linux-ports
Organization: RBI - RWTH Aachen
Date: 13 Apr 92 10:50:47 GMT

beaker@bass.bu.edu (Dennis Petrocelli) writes:


>	Is anyone working on porting any version of scheme or lisp to
>linux?  I would be VERY appreciative of anyone's attempts to do so.  I
>have successfully compiled a C implementation of Scheme, siod-2.7
>(Scheme in One Defun, from world.std.com), with gcc-1.4 on linux .95a.
>I am hoping that someone might have tried to port a more substantial
>version, such as scheme 7.1, from altdorf.ai.mit.edu.

>Dennis Petrocelli
>beaker@bass.bu.edu

>	BTW, way to go LINUS, et al !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>	OS/2 - half the OS at twice the price!

Well I am just a beginner to Linux but I tried to compile 'scm' which is
also a version of scheme.  I had nearly no problems with it.  The only
problem concerns floatingpoint, because there is no support for single
precision float in the gnulib (I think).  I also compiled an old version
of Xlisp (1.7 or so) with -Dfloat=double because of the missing single
precision float.  This one works fine whereas scm produces a math trap
error. I did this all using gcc 1.40 .....

Cheers Guido

-- 
    /\       bitnet: odiug%messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de@unido.bitnet
   /  \      email:  odiug@messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
__/    \  ________________________________________________________________
        \/   snail: Guido Muesch, Ruetscher Str.165/1413, 5100 Aachen
From: radel@ravel.udel.edu (Todd Radel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Shoelace booting problems
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:29:22 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware

Oops, stupid me.  I accidentally wrote out the unpatched version of the
kernel to the tar file -- i.e., it was looking for the root filesystem
on the floppy disk.  Sorry for the stupid question.

I might add that I now have GCC 2.1, VI, Kermit, tcsh, and many other
toys to play with.  Linux does indeed kick mucho ass!

Three cheers to Linus for a great job!

-- Todd


-- 
* 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!"          *
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: blake@netcom.com (Blake McBride)
Subject: passwd program?
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 02:55:34 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Summary: Is there a passwd program for linux?
Keywords: passwd

Is there a passwd program for linux?  If so where may I find it?

-- 
Blake McBride				Home (615) 790-8521
3020 Liberty Hills Drive		Work (615) 790-1088
Franklin, TN  37064			blake@netcom.com
U.S.A.
From: zlsiial@uts.mcc.ac.uk (A. V. Le Blanc)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: New 'interim' release of Linux
Date: 16 Apr 92 13:23:28 GMT
Followup-To: LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
Organization: Computing Centre, University of Manchester

I am pleased to be able to announce, only a week after the last
release, a new 'interim' version of Linux.  The kernel supplied with
this version is 0.95c+, including line printer support, and the four
disks supply binaries for just about everything, including the C and
C++ compilers.  I was unable to include Kermit or any of the big
packages (TeX, emacs, etc.), but just about everything else should be
there, I hope.

In addition to upgrading from 0.95c to 0.95c+, I have managed, I think,
to fix the bugs in make, which has now been used to recompile everything
else (including bash) without problems.  I have dropped encrypt, now that
passwd is available, and I have added encode, decode, and su.  Encode
and decode do UU- XX- and atob encoding and decoding.  I have not
included the new chsh program, which does not work quite as I would
wish, though the same thing could be said of su; I thought su was just
too useful to omit.  I am also including binaries for installing shoelace,
as well as a new version of bash, this time with job control, which just
won't work properly on my installation disk.

The software fits on four floppies.  As before there are two versions
of the first two floppies (for UK and US keyboards).  The file sizes
are
          boot-UK.Z       368827
          boot-US.Z       368799
          util-UK.Z      1123877
          util-US.Z      1126306
          comp.image     1228800
          comp2.image    1218560

I have not compressed the comp images because the compressed versions
are bigger than the uncompressed, as happens frequently with images
which contain compressed material.

Many thanks to all who helped out with comments on the last version
and on its (limited) documentation.  Now maybe I'll have a chance
to improve the documentation (what little there is) and get the
diffs out.

Files are available by anonymous ftp from ftp.mcc.ac.uk (and from
its mirror at banjo.concert.net) in /pub/linux/mcc-interim/0.95c+/images,
and the five README files in the directory /pub/linux/mcc-interim/0.95c+.
For those who lack rawrite.exe or (un)compress.exe for DOS, they are
available in /pub/linux/mcc-interim/dos-utils.

A more detailed description of this version follows shortly.

     -- Owen
     LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
From: arl@cs.hut.fi (Ari Lemmke)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: You're Linux FTP site admin?
Date: 7 Apr 92 18:55:22 GMT
Reply-To: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland


	Please join to the Linux Activists mailing list channel FTP.

	More information by sending mail to

		linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi

	Reply should work.

	arl
From: ps@gna.axis-design.fr (Patrick Sinz)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM THE LINUX MAILING LIST
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:22:20 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Axis Design 119 rue de Flandre, 75019 Paris, France


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 "Linux-Activists-Request@news-digest.mit.edu"
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):

ps@axis-design.fr
ps@gna.axis-design.fr
ps@axis-design.axis-design.fr

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!
From: r36110m@kaira.hut.fi (Mika Matti Jalava)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: gcc2.1 and gnulib?
Date: 13 Apr 92 16:26:12 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

What might I be doing wrong now? I've been trying to compile the
kernel and the build utility that comes with it. ld (the one from
binutils.tar.Z and also an old one) complains about not finding
gnulib. That isn't distributed with 2.1misc.tar.Z or 2.1lib.tar.Z.
Where do I find it or is there something else wrong?

	Mika
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler)
Subject: tape drive
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Distribution: comp
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 23:51:16 GMT


I have an 80386 MSDOS PC clon with a 250 MB Phantom Bactrax Tape Drive.
As nearly as I can tell, this tape drive only works with DOS.

If I want to be able to make tape backups of a disk drive with LINUX on
it, apparently I need another tape drive. Is that correct?

Assuming I need another tape drive, what tape drives have people found
compatible and effective with LINUX (and cheap!) ?

Allan Adler
ara@altdorf.ai.mit.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: jwinstea@jarthur.claremont.edu (Jim Winstead Jr.)
Subject: Re: When will "Linux 1.0" come to the world ?
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, WIBSTR
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 01:41:39 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.215610.22632%dr794348@cs.nthu.edu.tw> dr794348@cs.nthu.edu.tw (mr79) writes:
>Linux 0.95c is still in the period of development.

I follow you here....

>Everything is rather unstable.

"Everything"?  "rather unstable"?  What are you basing these
judgements on?  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.  (Which I hope to
overcome, once I figure out how the !@$*!@ to set up TeX.  I
appreciate the absolute lack of instructions included with the TeX
distributed for Linux.  Grr.)

>when will Linux 1.0 come to the PC 386/486 world ?

How about when Linux is stable?  Really, Linus has said before that he
had intended Linux 1.0 to be released when it was able to run GCC.  It
is obviously far beyond that point now, with the addition of SCSI
support, printer support, virtual console support, serial port
support, etc.

Linux 1.0 will be sooner if you help....
-- 
Jim Winstead Jr. (CSci '95)    | "Catch a fish!"
Harvey Mudd College            |  -Geddy Lee,
jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU |   San Diego Sports Arena
Disclaimer: Mine, not theirs!  |   January 20, 1992