HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: HD interrupts and IDE
Date: 30 Aug 92 22:16:12 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In article <1992Aug30.161030.5898@ncsu.edu> big@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Alan Porter) writes:
>
>
>I have been getting the infamous "Unexpected HD interrupt" messages 
>whenever I do anything that requires a lot of disk activity (like tar,
>or worse yet, rebuilding the kernel).
>
>Even more annoying, I also get the "HD timeout", the 4 second wait, and
>then the "HD-controller reset".
>
>First, my system:
>386-40, IDE drive (KLOC KL3120, 115 MB), 4 MB RAM, 60 MB Minix FS, 5 MB swap.

This is "normal" for kalok drives: they give these unexpected interrupts
for some unfathomable reason.  I actually have a OEM manual for kalok
drives (thanks to whoever got it to me), but it doesn't mention this
kind of behaviour, so I guess it's a "undocumented feature", ie bug. 

The problem can be at least partly fixed by defining HD_DELAY in hd.c to
something other than 0 - try different values until it disappears
(starting with 1000 or something like that).  It should get rid of at
least most of the errors, as the problem seems to be that the drive
isn't ready to accept a new command even though it indicates it is in
the status register. 

		Linus
From: jepstei@afterlife.ncsc.mil (John Epstein)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Swap files versus swap partitions
Date: 4 Sep 92 01:47:01 GMT
Organization: The Great Beyond

In article <1992Sep3.130335.18409@klaava.Helsinki.FI> wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius) writes:
>What reasons are there to prefer swap partitions instead of swap files? 
>...
>--
>Lars.Wirzenius@helsinki.fi

I use GNU tar to backup Linux to MS-DOS partition to backup with QIC-40 tape.
I haven't got +exclude swapfile to work.
I am repartitioning HD to have swap partition.
If I'm careful to tar and compress within limits of real memory or temporary
swapfile, I can use swap partition as MS-DOS "backup" partition and not
waste the "backup" partition.

BTW: If you plan on using a partition alternaately for MS-DOS and Linux,
it might have to a real vice logical extended partition.
OR at least MS-DOS partitions MUST be made before Linux logical partition.
MS-DOS (3.3 at least) fdisk expects to do its thing first.

Have not yet been brave enough to use Linux to format HD partition and then
mformat so that the whole backup could be done except QIC-40 from Linux.

John
jepstei@afterlife.ncsc.mil
From: lfoard@Turing.ORG (Lawrence C. Foard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Ethernet drivers
Date: 28 Aug 92 15:13:37 GMT
Organization: The Turing Project, Charlottesville Virginia.

In article <JOEL.92Aug28085516@skater.GSFC.NASA.Gov> joel@skater.GSFC.NASA.Gov ("Joel K. Gallun") writes:
>Hi,
>
>I have the source to the BSD 3c503 driver, but don't have any idea how
>to make in into a Linux driver.  If you want it, its yours. OR...
>if you can point me to the "Guide to writing a Linux device driver",
>I'll have a crack at it.

What guide  :-)
Linux is an OS for real hackers, the kernel source is the documentation...

Actually the funny thing is, it usually takes me less time to figure out
whats going on from relatively undocumented source than man pages. If I
had to read the man pages for the Linux kernel I'd probably still have
no idea whats really going on.

>BTW,  I have a bunch of 3c503s, too.

Want to sell any :-)
-- 
>>Unix/C Contract worker available 5 years C/unix work experience<<  ______
Available for Telecommuting/Travel and contracts on the T Line       \    /
in the Boston MA area. Send me e-mail for a copy of my Resume.        \  /
       -- VWIS 508-793-9568 (2400 baud), Linux support BBS.--          \/
From: najem@dante.cs.uiuc.edu (Ziad Najem)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Clue?
Date: 3 Sep 92 00:34:01 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL

David Reeve Sward <dsa3+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>Psst!  Buddy, can you spare a clue?

>A couple Linux-newbie(tm) questions:

>2) Just how do you move stuff from DOS to Linux via rawrite -> tar?  I
>grabbed tcsh.tar.Z from tsx, uncompressed it in DOS, rawrote it to a
>floppy, fired up Linux (thanks BootLinux & Boot.Sys!) and ran

No need to uncompress it in DOS, you can use compress, zcat or GNU tar
can do it. 

>tar -tvf /dev/fd0H1440

>It spat out the verbose file listing as (I assumed) it put the files on
>the HD. But!  There were no additional files on the HD.  df reported no
>used/free changes.  What am I doing wrong here?

the -t is to get the file listing and this is exactly what it did. use
-x to extract the files. So you can use, 

 $ tar -xvf /dev/fd0H1440 

or if the archive is still compressed and you're using GNU tar, use:

 $ tar -xzvf /dev/fd0H1440 

Also, since linux now has autodetecting disk type, you can simply use:

 $ tar -xzvf /def/fd0


>[ok, maybe not just a couple of questions]

>3) Is there a Common Lisp implementation for Linux?

Yes there is,  it is in beta testing and you can get it from the
author whom I forgot his name but is recorded in the project registry
list that gets posted periodicaly to this news goup. 

>4) mtools.  Where can I find docs for mtools?  (DOS is on C, Linux is on
>D with 3 partitions - 18M /, 63M /usr & 10M swap).

I got mine from the MCC distribution (0.95).

>Thanks!


 - Ziad
   najem@cs.uiuc.edu
From: scott@natinst.com (Scott A. Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Quick fix to "unknown option...ignored" problem with mount
Summary: Workaround to problem with strdup()
Keywords: mount, strdup()
Date: 27 Aug 92 13:50:52 GMT
Followup-To: comp.os.linux
Distribution: comp.os.linux
Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX

I was having the same problem with "mount" from tsx-11 that others have
recently posted about: mounting a filesystem without specifying any options
to the mount command resulted in the mount displaying the message "Unknown
option '<some random non-ascii characters>' ignored".  While apparently harm-
less, the message was kind of annoying.  I did some detective work and found
that the problem was with strdup() not correctly handling NULL pointers.
I have included my fix below.

Note that I am running 0.96c pl2 with gcc 2.2.2; has this problem with strdup()
been fixed in 2.2.2d?

----------------------------------8< cut here >8----------------------------
*** mount.c.old	Mon Aug 17 21:55:31 1992
--- mount.c	Mon Aug 17 23:35:34 1992
***************
*** 205,215 ****
    int mask = 0;
    char *options, *opt;
  
!   if ((options = strdup (opts)) == NULL)
      die (2, "mount: out of space");
!   for (opt = strtok (options, ",");
!        opt != NULL;
!        opt = strtok (NULL, ","))
      mask_opt (opt, &mask);
  
    if (readonly)
--- 205,215 ----
  	int mask = 0;
  	char *options, *opt;
  
! 	if (opts == NULL)
! 		options = "";
! 	else if ((options = strdup (opts)) == NULL)
  		die (2, "mount: out of space");
! 	for (opt = strtok (options, ","); opt != NULL; opt = strtok (NULL, ","))
      	mask_opt (opt, &mask);
  
  	if (readonly)
----------------------------------8< cut here >8----------------------------
-- 
Scott Taylor            |
(512) 795-6837          | "                              " -Marcelle Marceau
scott@natinst.com       |
         ** NI pays me to write their code, not their opinions **
From: zlsiial@uts.mcc.ac.uk (A. V. Le Blanc)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: mount for 0.97lp2
Date: 31 Aug 92 15:26:34 GMT
Reply-To: LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
Organization: Computing Centre, University of Manchester

In article <1992Aug30.161444.24307@athena.mit.edu> hammond@kwhpc.caseng.com writes:
>Where can sources be found for mount, umount, etc., for 0.97 and supporting
>the minix, extfs, and msdos filesystems?

The sources for the mount and umount commands supplied with MCC interim version
0.97p2 can be found in the file mcc-interim/0.97p2/source_files/misc.tar.Z;
this version supports the extfs and the MS-DOS filesystem mounts with all
options.

     -- Owen
     LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: rjl3f@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Robert Lockwood)
Subject: mv & extfs
Organization: University of Virginia Computer Science Department
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 14:33:20 GMT

My version of mv sometimes deletes but does NOT move the file.  Checking the
filesystem after one of these failed moves does indeed show that things are 
messed up.  I compiled mv myself from the GNU sources.  Is there a patch that 
I am missing or is anyone having similar problems.

-Bob
rjl3f@virginia.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: hlu@fili.eecs.wsu.edu (H.J. Lu)
Subject: Re: problems with 0.97pl2 and tcpip
Organization: Washington State University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 00:04:31 GMT

In article <2746@nlsun1.oracle.nl>, jhelberg@nl.oracle.com (Joost Helberg) writes:
|> X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
|>               at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
|>               of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.
|> 
|> 
|> I have 0.97pl2 up and running and tried to add tcpip0.8 into it.
|> 
|> the patch worked allright, compiled good too but:
|>   when loading the image i get unresolveds:
|>   	_outb_p
|> 	_inb_p
|> 	_outb
|> severals hundreds! from net/net.o. 
|> 
|> As the only code from net using outb/inb etc. is we.c It must come from there.
|> 
|> we.c includes asm/io.h, so I don't know why this goes wrong?
|> 
|> 
|> 

Just my wild guess. Did you use -O?

H.J.
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: peterd@pjd.dev.cdx.mot.com (Peter Desnoyers)
Subject: Re: VM86
Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 19:35:56 GMT

davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen) writes:

>In article <1992Aug29.091200.16019@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:

>| SIGALRM_handler()
>| {
>| 	check the screen memory in the vm86 box, and update the real
>| 	screen every now and then. Do any other regular house-keeping
>| 	fn's.
>| }

>  This can get to be fun trying to balance the overhead of fast screen
>updates with reasonable CPU usage. One technique used (by Locus) is to
>do a CRC of the screen memory in blocks, and only copy what has changed.

This might not be worthwhile if the bandwidth between the real screen
and the screen memory is comparable to the CPU bandwidth. Especially 
beware of using an overly simple checksum function on a bitmapped 
display, as it may not detect changes between different background
patterns that have the same repetition period. (this problem was seen 
on a screen-sharing program for the Macintosh)

[although if the real screen is on an ISA-bus card, and screen memory is
on the motherboard, it could very well be worth the effort.]

I like Bill Davidsen's idea of using a read-only memory trap to detect
writes to the screen, though. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to use
this method to divide the screen up into large chunks (e.g. 4 or 8) and
then copy only those blocks that have changed (if any) since the last
timer tick.

				Peter Desnoyers
--
From: keller@cse.ucsc.edu (Jeffrey Keller)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: GNU kids on the block?   (sorry... couldn't resist)
Keywords: Linux, Mach, CISC, RISC
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:46:51 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (CE/CIS Boards)
NNTP-Posting-Host: oak.ucsc.edu

In article <1992Aug27.135703.9312@crd.ge.com> davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes:
...
> Multi-server is the CISC
>of software, a sort of hypercube of processes rather than processors.
...
>
>  I like the Linux RISC-like approach, do only a few things, but very
>well and very fast. Build the complex functions out of sequences of
>simple operations. To me this means simple kernel calls and the library
>providing the complex stuff.
>
>  Don't take this as a rejection of multi-server by me, I'm unconvinced
>rather than convinced against. Sort of a software agnostic.
>
>--
>bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
>    I admit that when I was in school I wrote COBOL. But I didn't compile.

You realize that microkernel people would take the opposite position,
right?  That the microkernel is RISC-like, stripped down to the
essentials, with the server processes corresponding to subroutines?
And that a conventional kernel (even Linux) is CISC-like, trying to
anticipate what the user will need and handle it internally?  And, of
course, they'd probably argue that just as it is easier to tweak a
subroutine than microcode, it's easier to tweak a discrete server than
a part of the kernel.  Just an observation.

By the way, I also have mixed feelings about microkernels.  On the one
hand, I don't believe they can ever be as efficient as macrokernels;
on the other, (despite what Larry McVoy says) I believe that further 
evolution of OSes is essential and that microkernels can foster that.
I also think that it might be easier to make a microkernel secure,
but I'm not at all sure of it.

--
Jeff Keller <keller@cse.ucsc.edu>	CIS Board, UCSC
"If X is the answer, what was the question?" --David Fuller
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: edb201acot@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: Floppy interface tap units info request
Organization: Computer Centre, Monash University, Australia
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 01:55:17 GMT

Hi,
I'm trying to find out whether or not those tape backup units which use the
floppy interface connectors will work under linux. My information has it that
they don't require a device driver under DOS but only work with specific
software which is hence probably doing the job of the driver. 

Does anyone know anything more, specifically whether they can be used under
Linux without me having to write a device driver. 

The brand names that seem to occur most frequently are alloy and mountain.

Thanks for any help

Scott Thompson
int678t@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au
From: whitney2@husc10.harvard.edu (Wayne Whitney)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Minicom and X?
Keywords: Minicom X Arrowkeys
Date: 3 Sep 92 01:47:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc10.whitney2.715484826

sinclair@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (David A. Sinclair) writes:

>You can enable the arrow keys by doing a Cntrl-MB2 (on a three-button
>mouse anyway) while the minicom window is active; this will bring up a
>"VT Window Options" (or something like that -- I'm at work right now,
>so I can't check the menu name) menu, from which you can select
>"Enable application cursor movement keys" to enable your arrow keys.
>It'd be nicve to have this as a command line option to xterm -- does
>anyone know how to do this from the command line??!

Well, I finally got my man pages working today :-), and reading the
ones that come with the Linux port of X, and a general one on my local
host, it seems that you can pass xterm the arguments
  -xrm "XTerm*appcursorDefault: true"
or, alternatively, include this string as one line of a .XResources in
your home directory, assuming that your .xinitrc automatically does a
xrdb -merge on that file if it exists (the standard distribution
does).

So now all my XTerm's come up with "Enable Application Cursor Keys",
but I still find that minicom disables this option!! I can manually
reenable this, but I'd like to avoid this.  Is there anyway to change
this behaviour?
-- 
Wayne Whitney
whitney2@husc.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: satishc@microsoft.com (Satish Chittamuru)
Subject: Re: EISA bus machines
Date: 25 Aug 92 01:39:43 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Keywords: EISA

In article <BtE228.D6J@kingston.ac.uk> cc_s525@kingston.ac.uk (Francis Bell) writes:
 > Hi Linuxers,
 >        The FAQ says that Linux won't run on EISA machines. Can anyone
 > explain why, and suggest how difficult it would be to remedy ?

If the FAQ says that, then the FAQ is out of date. I am running linux 0.97
on a Compaq Deskpro 486/33M (one of the newer EISAs) with a Conner 302xx
(I don't remember the exact drive number) IDE drive and 16MB memory. Linux
runs just fine on it.

 > (_/   / (_(_/|_/ / <_    fgtbell@kingston.ac.uk


-- 
Satish K. Chittamuru				satishc@microsoft.com
=====
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein, either stated or implied, are
solely my own and do not reflect Microsoft's views in any manner.
From: nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Beta TCP/IP 
Distribution: world
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 20:33:59 GMT
Organization: Crynwr Software

In article <1992Aug27.221646.3008@amd.com> ching@angelo.amd.com writes:

   In article <714839549snx@crynwr.com> nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson) writes:   >In article <1992Aug25.233806.11161@morrow.stanford.edu>    bir7@leland.Stanford.EDU writes:
   >
   >   Currently only the Western Digital Ethercard Plus and compatibles
   >   are supported (wd80[01]3 boards).  If you have a different ethernet
   >   board you will either have to write your own driver or wait until
   >   someone else does (There is someone who claims to be working on
   >   drivers for many different ethernet boards.)
   >
   >Yes.  I'm going to get a NE2000 driver going first, because they're
   >so ubiquitious and cheap.  Any votes for what comes after that?
   >3Com's brand new 3c509 is a pretty high-tech card...

   My biased vote would be for a PCnet-ISA driver (it's the NE2100 card
   in a chip). It's a low cost, high performance, bus master ethernet
   chip which we are agressively designing into PC motherboards. Depends
   on whether you're interested in existing systems or future systems.
   Sorry about the commercial.

Vendors who want drivers get to pay me to write them.  :)
Sorry about the commercial.

-russ <nelson@crynwr.com>  I'm proud to be a humble Quaker!
Crynwr Software            Crynwr Software sells packet driver support.
11 Grant St.               315-268-1925 Voice
Potsdam, NY 13676          315-268-9201 FAX
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: d88-jwn@blofeld.nada.kth.se (Johan W}hlin)
Subject: Re: Help with Kermit5A
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 07:45:16 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.160532.27527@crd.ge.com> davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article <1992Aug25.004034.23206@engr.uark.edu>, tep@engr.uark.edu (Tim Peoples) writes:
>
>|    I too was only able to run kermit as root until I changed all of my
>| tty's to group "tty" (especially the serial port) and made the kermit
>| binary sgid tty.  I don't know if this was really needed but now any
>| user can run kermit.
>
>  Interesting. I have the serial ports set rw-rw-rw- (and /dev/tty) so
>group shouldn't matter. If it does I might seriously think it was a bug.
>All rw permissions should be created equal.

Kermit (as do almost all comm progs) also needs access to /usr/spool/uucp
I have set all comm progs group uucp and sgid. Then rw access for group
on all relevant files.
/Johan

>
>-- 
>bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
>    I admit that when I was in school I wrote COBOL. But I didn't compile.
From: frank@cs.yorku.ca (Frank Pikelner)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: How do you install programs?
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:43:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: yetti.1427
Distribution: world
Organization: York University, Dept. of Computer Science

In article <1992Sep1.202913.12043@bernina.ethz.ch>, almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Werner Almesberger) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug31.035350.4961@wimsey.bc.ca> stewart@wimsey.bc.ca (Jim Stewart) writes:
|> > Linux 0.97.1 mounts my dos filesystem on /dev/hda1 fine. I can get directory
|> > listings and can copy FROM the dos filesystem fine.  When I copy TO the 
|> > dos filesystem,  the cp (from root0.97.1) grinds away then comes back and
|> > tells me that the device is full...
|> 
|> cp is probably trying to make a hole. There was a bug in dosfs.6 (and
|> probably also in dosfs.5) that made this operation fail in the way you
|> describe.
|> 
|> I'd suggest upgrading to dosfs.7.
|> 
|> - Werner
|> -- 
|>    _________________________________________________________________________
|>   / Werner Almesberger, ETH Zuerich, CH      almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch /
|>  / IFW A44  Tel. +41 1 254 7213                 almesberger@rzvax.ethz.ch /
|> /_BITNET:_ALMESBER@CZHETH5A__HEPNET/CHADNET:_[20579::]57414::ALMESBERGER_/

I jus checked today and the new dosfs8 is out - have a look.
-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ---  ---    Frank Pikelner                                          /~\
 \    \  \   Technical Assistant, Department of Computer Science    <v.v>
  \-   \--   York University (Toronto, Canada)                      ,\^/;
   \    \    Internet: frank@cs.yorku.ca                            _{!}_
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: DISASTER AT MIT!!!!!
Date: 2 Sep 92 21:32:40 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

mal11@po.CWRU.Edu (Matthew A. Lewis) writes:
>If you have time, take a look a nic.funet.fi and the Linux directories.
>Everything is up to date there and there aren't any old FAQS or images
>laying around. Too bad it's so far away. We need a closer mirror.

Not exactly everything is up to date.  Among other things, there is a
uemacs binary (no sources as far as I could find) from December, 1991.
And I think I still saw the ancient make that only ran as root...

Don't take this as a flame (please, Arl :), but I didn't want anybody to
get a too rosy picture of nic.funet.fi.  Nic is actually pretty good,
and of course there is a _lot_ of stuff there.

--
Lars.Wirzenius@helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: scott@natinst.com (Scott A. Taylor)
Subject: Re: 0.97 patch 2 problems
Followup-To: comp.os.linux
Summary: be sure to use the correct version of mount
Keywords: mount
Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 13:57:02 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.010903.22445@random.ccs.northeastern.edu> mirons@ccs.northeastern.edu (Michael A. Irons) writes:
>
>	Hi all;
>
>   While were talking about mount, I've been having a problem with it from pl1.
>I can't get it to mount my SCSI partition read only. It accepts the switch, but
>still will let you write to it, and it tries to update accessed inodes, etc.
>
>						Mike Irons
>

Are you using an old version of mount?  The mount() system call got changed
slightly in 0.96c (pl1 or pl2, I'm not sure which); it expects to see a 
"magic number" in the upper two bytes of the options arg.  If it doesn't see
this, mount just ignores the options.  I doubt that older versions of mount
send the options in the correct format; get the latest mount sources from
tsx-11.mit.edu or any other fine ftp site near you.  I am going to post a 
fix to mount.c tomorrow that will fix a non-fatal error when mount tries to
parse the options and there aren't any.

>
>-- 
> --
>                                  Mike Irons;
>                       mirons@Dworkin.CCS.Nortehastern.EDU	(School)
>                 mirons%minix1.uucp@MecEng.COE.Northeastern.EDU	(Home)


-- 
Scott Taylor            |
(512) 795-6837          | "                              " -Marcelle Marceau
scott@natinst.com       |
         ** NI pays me to write their code, not their opinions **