Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #198
From: Digestifier <Linux-Misc-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Tue, 12 Oct 93 01:13:22 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #198, Volume #1                Tue, 12 Oct 93 01:13:22 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Xfree vs. BIOS (Bernd Meyer)
  Slackware 1.04 Goof and Fix! (Keith Hollister)
  Re: searching postgres users (Brendan Murray)
  Login Sources wanted (Chris Hafey)
  Re: Personal info about Linus (Risto Widenius)
  SLS1.03 and missing gcrt0.o and libgmon.a for profiling (Gautam H. Thaker)
  Re: Login Sources wanted (John Kennedy)
  Re: Linux magazine now accepting articles... (David E. Fox)
  Re: maxima:  Where can I find it? (David E. Fox)
  Re: Linux counter passes 2000 entries
  Re: Don't use SLS (Re: Which linux should I install...or which is best?)
  Re: Linux user count passes 2000 users (Philippe Bonal)
  Re: Don't use SLS (Re: Which linux should I install...or which is best?) (Rene COUGNENC)
  Re: JANA-CD where is it? (sjh@unixuser.chi.il.us)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.development
From: root@umibox.hanse.de (Bernd Meyer)
Subject: Re: Xfree vs. BIOS
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 14:54:47 GMT

kem@prl.ufl.edu (Kelly Murray) writes:

>Hmm, maybe you should try using dosemu to run the DOS setmode program
>before starting up X?  A kludge, but if it works..

You are aware that dosemu is a wonderful tool for NOT using dos programs?
If you hack it a little, you can use it to list all IO-activities that have
gone on while running a certain program, and then can use this info to
implement the same functionality in a native linux program. 

Bernie

-- 
We both know that the earth is round         | Bernd Meyer, EE-student
So we can't see the way before us to its end | "Nobody is a failure who has
We walk on this way, hand in hand,           |  friends" (from: "It's a   
And I hope you are still with me behind the horizon| wonderful life")

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

From: keith@ursa.com (Keith Hollister)
Subject: Slackware 1.04 Goof and Fix!
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 22:52:25 GMT

Just ftp'd Slackware 1.04 and I am _very_ impressed relative to the  
current SLS problems. Slackware is a very idiotproof install with the  
latest tweaks already installed. However, I noticed the provided kernel  
mounts the root partition read-write prior to the fsck (!!!). A simple  
rdev -R /dev/fd0 1 fixes the boot floppy, or adding a read-only flag to  
LILO's config file does the trick if you are using that. A minor fix, but  
an important one. Don't be fsck'in no mounted filesystems!

Again congrats to whoever put the Slackware distribution together. I will  
now recommend it to newbies rather than SLS. 

Keith Hollister
keith@ursa.com

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

From: brendan@news.otago.ac.nz (Brendan Murray)
Subject: Re: searching postgres users
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 00:17:06 GMT

Christoph Adomeit (ado@bigcomm.gun.de) wrote:
> Hi,
> who uses postgres and can help me by learning it ? Do you think it's stable
> enough to develop a multiuser application with it ? 

Does not the readme for the postgres 4.1 port indicate that it will not
support multiple users ( or at least that it will crash if you try it!)

I had a gawdawful time installing the port - I guess the guy that did
the port started with a Sun version of postgres, and I was using an
ultrix one. Patch did not do the things that I expected of it either.



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

From: chafey@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chris Hafey)
Subject: Login Sources wanted
Date: 12 Oct 1993 00:52:51 GMT

Hi All,
  I am running SLS 1.03 and have noticed that the wtmp entries are not
being written correctly.  It seems to think that people are still logged in,
when in fact they have logged out.  I suspect login as the problem, but am
not completely sure.  I have searched tsx-11 and can't find any files other
than rlogin.  Has someone patched this problem?  If not, where can I find the
sources for login?  Is the problem in another program (the shell?).  Any help
would be appreciated.


Chris Hafey
-- 
Chris Hafey                     |  True programming is rebooting the machine
chafey@ecst.csuchico.edu        |  after each crash until it works. 

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

From: widenius@polva.helsinki.fi (Risto Widenius)
Subject: Re: Personal info about Linus
Date: 12 Oct 1993 01:18:51 GMT


fro@hacktic.nl (fro) writes:

   I wonder if anybody has some personal data of Linus: What is his
   profession, what did he study, is he a professor... I'd really like to
   know a bit more about the man that created this OS. 

Well, since Lars no more reads these groups, maybe he'll never find out
that I reposted this. On the other hand, this may be my last post..

[open the cascade]
~From: wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius)
~Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
~Subject: Re: Linux history...
~Date: 3 Aug 92 16:52:01 GMT
~Organization: University of Helsinki

golding%eccx.dnet@esu36.cfsat.honeywell.com (DUDE LOOKS LIKE A STUD
PUPPY) writes:
>I like Linux alot, but have been wondering about the following for some time:
>Does anyone know the age/background/education of Linus Torvalds?

It was a dark and stormy night.  The whole castle was silent in
suspension.  The servants were in their rooms.  For once they were not
gossipping about their masters.  The count, a tall man with black hair
and almost white skin, was standing at the window in the library,
silently watching out in the rain.
        Suddenly there was a hideous cry that made the servants' blood
freeze.  They all felt that something evil had entered the world. 
Outside, the storm became even more violent, almost ripping the whole
Karpatian mountains to pieces.  The count ran swiftly to his wife's
bedroom, just in time to open the door to the doctor who came out.  In
the doctor's arms was a newborn baby.
        "It is a boy, count.  Your wife is well."
        "Quickly, he needs his first meal.  All men in my family have
their first taste of blood at birth."
        The butler came with a small bottle of blood, which the small
demon drank greedily.
        "He is a strong boy.  What will you call him?"
        "Linus, after my father, and Benedict, after my wife's.  We have
such great plans for him.  He shall take over the world, one day.  He
shall construct the most devilish computer program possible, and entice
millions of innocent people to use it, and then force them to obey him,
however heinous his demands may be.  He will even force them to believe
that they have to have timeouts when encountering an escape character!"

Such was the beginning of that demon we all fear.  The rest, as they
say, is history.

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) 

Actually, there are two things above that are correct: Linus' first and
second names.  Everything else is (in case you didn't notice) rubbish.

Linus is currently about 22 years and 7 months young.  He speaks
Swedish, English, Finnish (badly :), and a bit of Latin.  He studies at
the University of Helsinki, since fall of 1988, majoring in Computer
Science and minoring in maths and physics.  He is shortish (around 170 I
think), wears glasses, has a cat (at least when I've been at his place
he does, since Schrodinger (sp?) you can't be certain about cats), a
computer, and an unclean room.  Drinks beer, schnapps, and other things
if somebody else is paying.  He eats pizza and likes garlic.  He hacks. 
He's going to hate me.

What else do you want to know?
[close cascade]

-- 
rw

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

From: gthaker@atl.ge.com (Gautam H. Thaker)
Subject: SLS1.03 and missing gcrt0.o and libgmon.a for profiling
Date: 11 Oct 1993 23:08:57 GMT


SLS 1.03 is (again) seems to be missing gcrt0.o and libgmon.a
that one needs to profile programs. Where can I find these?

Any hint welcome (or a pointer to FAQ) if this is covered somewhere.

--
Gautam H. Thaker (gthaker@atl.ge.com) 609-866-6412 (fax x6397. Dialcom 8-777)
Martin Adv. Tech. Lab., MS 145-2; Route 38; Moorestown, NJ 08057. 767-4396 (H)

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

From: warlock@csuchico.edu (John Kennedy)
Subject: Re: Login Sources wanted
Date: 12 Oct 1993 01:37:58 GMT

In article <29cv53INNb3l@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>, Chris Hafey wrote:

-->  I ... have noticed that the wtmp entries are not being written correctly.
-->  It seems to think that people are still logged in, when in fact they have
-->  logged out.  I suspect login as the problem, ...

  Hmm.  `wtmp' is where (past) login attempts are recorded so you can have a
record of who logged in and when.  `utmp' is where people who are currently
logged in should be stored.

  The "login" (and friends) program may make the initial entry into utmp, but
as soon as it exec's the login shell, it's responsibility is discharged.  It's
the responsibility of other programs to clean up the utmp file.  Sometimes
this is getty (when it's started up again by init, waiting for someone to start
typing), probably telnetd/rlogind (when the login shell has exited and they
need to clean up after themselves, etc).

  If I were you, I'd check getty and the rlogin/telnet daemon source.  I
haven't poked into that part of the source yet, myself.

-- 
Windows/NT - From the people who brought you EDLIN

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

From: root@Belvedere%hip-hop.suvl.ca.us (David E. Fox)
Subject: Re: Linux magazine now accepting articles...
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 05:08:08 GMT

Michael Vore (mvore@access.digex.net) wrote:
: derek@aivru.sheffield.ac.uk (Derek Jones) writes:



: >OK folks, I'm biting, - there seems to be enough interest! I am intending to
: >distribute via email and will provide one of the following formats:

: >Postscript:       (If you've got Linux, you've got gs and ghostview, I've
: >                  tried this from copy of a previous mag I did under messydos 
: >                  and windoze and it works just fine!)

: What about us who don't have postscript printers. I have suffered thru gs 
: under Linux and MsDos only to find that it doesn't work!!  No I havn't 
: tried to hack it into submission.

Dunno why you are having problems with ghostscript since it works fine
on my linux box.

My vote would be for 'dvi' format - we could use dvips or dvieps or whatever
to print it out, and xdvi to view it.

: >LaserJet Ready:   (Just in case you haven't found gs...)

: /*---------------------------------------+------------------------------*/
:  Mike Vore  W3CCV                        | DC - Food-SIG, Ka-8 (MU)@W73 
:   mvore@digex.com || mvore@fedix.fie.com | Mid-Atlantic Soaring Assn.
: /*---------------------------------------+-------------------------------*/
-- 
David Fox                       root@Belvedere%hip-hop.suvl.ca.us
5479 Castle Manor Drive
San Jose, CA 95129              Thanks for letting me change
408/253-7992                    magnetic patterns on your hard disk.

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

From: root@Belvedere%hip-hop.suvl.ca.us (David E. Fox)
Subject: Re: maxima:  Where can I find it?
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 00:37:21 GMT

DAVID L. JOHNSON (dlj0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu) wrote:

: >Maple is certainly much better (and faster) than Maxima, but Maxima is free :-)
: >
: And maxima runs in linux, whidh maple does not (yet).  BTW, for those who don't
: know, you need clisp to compile/run maxima.  That comes with SLS, and both
: clisp and maxima can also be found in tsx-11.mit.edu.

Last time I went to sunsite.unc.edu (yesterday?) I noticed that maxima had
been removed because it's apparently commercial software. ;(


: -- 

: David L. Johnson                             ID:  dlj0@lehigh.edu
: Department of Mathematics
: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015       Telephone: 215-758-3759 (office)
:                                                         215-282-3708 (home)
: #include <std/disclaimer.h>
-- 
David Fox                       root@Belvedere%hip-hop.suvl.ca.us
5479 Castle Manor Drive
San Jose, CA 95129              Thanks for letting me change
408/253-7992                    magnetic patterns on your hard disk.

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

From: dan@archimedes.lance.colostate.edu ()
Subject: Re: Linux counter passes 2000 entries
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 02:41:22 GMT
Reply-To: dan@lance.colostate.edu


|> Yes, commercial software availablity.
|> 
|> ------> COFF/SCO/ISC compatibility,  ELF/Unixware compatibility,
|>         MS-"Windows" (WINE) capabilities.
|> 
|> I would have several uses for Linux IF it could run existing commercial
|> Unix software such as WordPerfect, Lotus, Aster*x, ClockWise, Codelink,
|> Mlink, Grammatik, AOM, Foxbase, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc....
|> 
|> For now, it stays at home :( 


Has anyone contacted these companies & asked them to consider developing their
product for linux?  I imagine they would laugh, until a few thousand signatures
on a petition requesting such a thing presented itself.  Think its possible?



|> -- 
|>   /--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
|>   | Mark A. Davis    | Lake Taylor Hospital | Norfolk, VA (804)-461-5001x431 |
|>   | Sys.Administrator|  Computer Services   | mark@taylor.wyvern.com   .uucp |
|>   \--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

-- 

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

  Dan Doner
  College of Engineering
  Colorado State University
  dan@lance.colostate.edu



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

From: dan@archimedes.lance.colostate.edu ()
Subject: Re: Don't use SLS (Re: Which linux should I install...or which is best?)
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 02:47:01 GMT
Reply-To: dan@lance.colostate.edu

In article <1993Oct7.001230.289@krikkit1.apana.org.au>, matt@krikkit1.apana.org.au (Matt McLeod) writes:
|> Ian Jackson (iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
|> : In article <280vc7$sgm@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>,
|> : Robert R. Novitskey <rrn@po.CWRU.Edu> wrote:
|> : >[...]
|> : >   Should I use Slackware or SLS to best suit my needs?
|> 
|> : Definitely not SLS.
|> 
|> : I would recommend not using Slackware either, as it is SLS-derived,
|> : though I hear that it has had quite a few of the nasty bugs fixed.
|> 
|> : Use either MCC or TAMU.  Both have had good reports; I've tried MCC
|> : and is is very good, though you have to download X separately (easy
|> : enough, especially compared to wrestling with bug after bug).
|> 
|> I'm afraid I've yet to see any serious problem with SLS.  After installing
|> SLS 1.03 I found that yes, some permissions weren't set quite right, but
|> after a little fiddling the whole thing works wonderfully. 
|> 
|> I really just can't understand all this stuff about "don't use SLS" that I
|> keep hearing...
|> 
|> Matt
|> -- 
|>                 Matt McLeod     (matt@krikkit1.apana.org.au)
|>     Sysop, Krikkit One Public Access Unix, +61 49 423565 (11pm-7am AEST)
|>              "Hey Rocky!  Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"


And you won't understand these problems, until you try to do something obscure
or unusual.  It wont work, you'll pull out your hair, and discover an SLS bug.

Or, maybe you do everthing the same way every time, and only do simple, well 
documented things.  Maybe you won't ever have to deal with an SLS bug.

Maybe...


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

  Dan Doner
  College of Engineering
  Colorado State University
  dan@lance.colostate.edu



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

From: philb@blips.frmug.fr.net (Philippe Bonal)
Subject: Re: Linux user count passes 2000 users
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 23:26:03 +0100
Reply-To: philb@frmug.fr.net

Hello,

hta@uninett.no (Harald T. Alvestrand) writes:
[..]
> BY DOMAIN
[..]
>   38 net       38 gov       37 at        35 dk        27 org
>   26 fr        20 ch        19 unknown   15 za        15 uucp

In France the net is very badly distributed.
Only some school and universities have the .fr  .

Many others users use *.fdn.org or *.fr.net or *.gna.org

In the 3rd case many users post on fr.comp.os.linux from a french bbs net
but they have not an email adress. The email adress you can see
(a_user@a_bbs.frmug.fr.net for example) is in reality only the email
adress of the bbs which make the connection beetween usenet world and bbs
world.

I think that the good thing would be to scan each country.comp.os.linux.*
and comp.os.linux.*


Philippe

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 philb@frmug.fr.net  Philippe Bonal (France)  Please,Not email > 25k without
 philb@blips.frmug.fr.net  bonal_p@epita.fr          inform me, No NeXT mail
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

From: rene@renux.frmug.fr.net (Rene COUGNENC)
Subject: Re: Don't use SLS (Re: Which linux should I install...or which is best?)
Date: 12 Oct 1993 00:33:25 GMT

Ce brave Andrej Bauer ecrit:

> 6) broken /usr/lib/makewhatis. If you run it, nothing is left of
>    your whatis files (not that they were useful in the first place).

> That's all for now. If anyone has a solution to feature no. 6, please
> tell me.

If you have Perl installed, you can use the one below, taken  from the
"adam" man package posted in alt.sources some weeks ago:


#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# makewhatis -- update the whatis database in the man directories.
#
# Mark Mielke
#
# davem@bnr.ca    - On the INTERNET
# markem@bcarh10d - Within BNR


require 'find.pl';

$0 =~ s,.*/,,;
$ENV{'PATH'} = "/usr/gnu/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/bin";

if ( $#ARGV < 0 ) {
    print STDERR "Usage: $0 directory [...]\n";
    exit 1;
}

$| = 1;

foreach $ManDir ( @ARGV ) {
    chdir($ManDir);
    open(whatis,"|sort|uniq > $ManDir/whatis.tmp")||die "$0: open: whatis.tmp: $!\n";
    foreach $SubDir (<man*>) {
        next if $SubDir !~ /^man[0-9A-Za-z]+$/;
        &find($SubDir) if -d $SubDir;
    }
    close(whatis);
    rename("whatis.tmp", "whatis")||die "$0: rename: whatis.tmp -> whatis: $!\n";
}

exit 0;

sub wanted {
    local($man_section) = "?";
    local($man_name) = "???";
    local($in_description) = 0;
    local(@description) = ();
    local($filename) = $_;
    return unless -f $filename;

    return if $filename !~ /^[^.]+\.[0-9A-Za-z]+$/;

    open(manpage, $filename) || do {warn "$0: open $name: $!\n"; return;};

    while ($_ = <manpage>) {
        chop;

        if (/^\.TH\s+\S+\s+(\S+)/) {
            $man_section = $1;
        } elsif (/^\.SH\s+NAME/) {
            $in_description = 1;
        } elsif (/^\.SH/) {
            $in_description = 0;
        } elsif ($in_description) {
            next if /^...$/;
            $_ =~ s/\\\(em/-/g;
            $_ =~ s/\\fI//g;
            $_ =~ s/\\fR//g;
            $_ =~ s/\\(.)/$1/g;

            if ($#description < 0 && /^\s*([^-]+) ?--? ?(.*)$/) {
                $man_name = $1;
                $desc = $2;
                $man_name =~ s/\s\s+/ /g;
                $man_name =~ s/^\s*//;
                $man_name =~ s/\s*$//;
                $desc =~ s/\s\s+/ /g;
                $desc =~ s/^\s*//;
                $desc =~ s/\s*$//;
                push(@description, $desc);
            } else {
                s/\s\s+/ /g;
                s/\s*$//;
                s/^\s*//;
                push(@description, $_);
            }
        }
    }

    close(manpage);

    if ($#description >= 0) {
        print whatis sprintf("%-20s", "$man_name($man_section)"), " - ";
        print whatis join(' ', @description), "\n";
    }
}

# end of makewhatis

--
 linux linux linux linux -[ cougnenc@renux.frmug.fr.net ]- linux linux linux 

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

From: sjh@unixuser.chi.il.us
Subject: Re: JANA-CD where is it?
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 00:04:31 GMT

In <29btk3$j7e@crl.crl.com> mahmha@crl.com (Mark A. Horton) writes:

>Well, I bit and sent email to JANA to order the JANA-CD subscription last
>week, even after seeing all the reports on the net about them.  I was
>wrong.  According to the posting, they would be back to you in one day
>from an email request - NOT! ; they have an 800 number (1.800.363.2083)
>for orders and questions - NO ANSWER! ; they say "call me collect at 
>home - 1.613.544.6020" - NO ONE HOME!

>OK, so I was stupid and bit... has anyone , repeat ANYONE, seen a real
>copy of this product or is it vapourware?  I'm just glad I didn't give
>them a credit card number!  Somehow I suspect that would have resulted
>in a "real" debit to my account!

Far as I know they're reorganizing.  I have a subscription.  Got
one copy of the first issue, two copies (????) of the second, and nothing
since.  Last I knew the next issue was coming out "any day now" but that
was about 6 weeks ago.

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


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