Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #791
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:     Wed, 9 Mar 94 11:13:10 EST

Linux-Misc Digest #791, Volume #1                 Wed, 9 Mar 94 11:13:10 EST

Contents:
  Re: DOOM for X (Philip Brown)
  Re: DOOM for X (Pat Breen)
  Re: Mosaic 2.2 problems (Alan Cox)
  Re: Incense ??? what's it for? (William Turner)
  Re: ex2fs / xiafs: File System Stability (Stephen Tweedie)
  Re: OpenGL on Linux? (Philip Machanick)
  System Freezes pl15f, xdm. (Alan Robert Clark)
  *** PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *** (misc-2.07) (Ian Jackson)
  Re: Panasonic 562-B drivers? (Pamela Wood)
  Re: BSD vs. Linux (Arne H. Juul)
  Panasonic 562-B drivers? (JULIAN BOOT, UNI OF QUEENSLAND)
  Re: GOD SPEAKS ON LINUX! (Glen Buhlmann)
  Re: ex2fs / xiafs: File System Stability (Jim Graham)
  Re: [SURVEY] Asus SP3/PCI system board experiences (J Rozes)
  Re: compiler quality (was "Reverse-engineering") (David Chase)

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

From: philb@cats.ucsc.edu (Philip Brown)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps
Subject: Re: DOOM for X
Date: 9 Mar 1994 10:59:20 GMT


In <2l8m9j$frb@daisy.cc.utexas.edu> ddt@daisy.cc.utexas.edu (David Taylor) writes:

>I did indeed use X because I want it to be portable.  It looks as though
>there will be other UNIX ports.



Hoorayy!!!

*clap* *clap* *clap*!!!

Finally, an enlightened games programmer! It's so heartwarming to have a
person with a clean programming mind doing high-quality games for a
change, instead of the usual hacks!

(although speaking of hacks, I trust the unix version will be a LOT nicer
to networks... I still haven't played DOOM yet.. I don't dare too, cause
I believe I'll crash our PC network?! :-> )

I'd just like to commend you, and say that if you get a loner machine to
compile a sparc version, you've got a customer right here!

-- 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Philip Brown, CIS major, UC Santa Cruz
Author of "kdrill", and "xmandel"
Winging my way out of academia soon...
philb@cats.ucsc.edu philb@soda.berkeley.edu

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps
From: c9220321@sage.newcastle.edu.au (Pat Breen)
Subject: Re: DOOM for X
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 23:44:14 GMT

: I mailed him, and he said that although he's working under Linux, he wants the
: port to be a generic X11 port, rather than a Linux specific port.  Hence not
: using svgalib.

Hmmm... I spose for the average Linux user, that aint so good...
Anyone interested in possibly getting an svgalib version going - would
anyone consider it for speed's sake??


Pat


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

From: iiitac@swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Mosaic 2.2 problems
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 10:19:58 GMT

In article <CMD7Ku.E97@specialix.com> jonb@specialix.com (Jon Brawn) writes:
>I have grabbed Mosaic 2.2 from somewhere (Sunsite probably), and I have the
>following observations:
>
>1) I can't type into forms which are embedded in hypertext documents
>   [I can paste into them from though]. I assume I haven't installed something
>   somewhere...
Snap.. Same problem: I've had this since Mosaic 2.0. I'm on the verge of
giving up on the damn program and sticking to the other WWW browsers. Mosaic
has gone from being large but smart to being large slow and buggy.
>
>2) When Mosaic is doing network transfers it uses select() with a timeval to
>   cause a short delay, so that the spinning globe and flowing data icon works
>   nicely - regrettably, Linux's select behaves differently to everyone elses,
>   and so the timeval struct gets decremented to zero, and so when Mosaic is
>   waiting for a transfer from somewhere, it consumes 100% of the cpu by drawing
>   the spinning globe.

If you've got the source and motif it's a one line fix

Alan


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

From: wturner@acorn.co.uk (William Turner)
Subject: Re: Incense ??? what's it for?
Date: 9 Mar 1994 12:32:07 -0000

In article <spears.762803409@sfu.ca> spears@kits.sfu.ca (Matthew Spears) writes:

>dpk5m@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (Daniel P. Key) writes:
>
>>I'm am unable to find much information on the *use of incense
>>to enhance meditation*.
>
>>Some folks are saying, now, that it's toxic...Doesn't seem that
>>something could have lasted so long without being helpful. My
>>question... what's incense really for....what does it do ?
>>...and are there any good *sources of information* ?
>
>   If it helps you relax, it's certainly helpful.
> 
>   Sri Chinmoy mentioned it in one of his many books.  He said that
>spirit beings find it hard to be near us and talk 

What is this doing in the Linux newsgroup?

Has it been crossposted from another group because they can hear
the stressfull screams eminating from the readers of this newsgroup
when their attempt to compile the kernel fails for the n'th time?

William

PS: How do you correctly pronounce 'X'? :-)

=================
Any opinions in the above passage are obviously the result of corruption
during transmission of this article 

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

From: sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Stephen Tweedie)
Subject: Re: ex2fs / xiafs: File System Stability
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 12:19:47 GMT

Hi,

In article <sinkr.763119612@universe>, sinkr@universe.digex.net
(Robert Sink) writes:

> Hello all - I was wondering if anyone could comment on the stability that 
> Linux offers running the ex2fs and/or the xiafs file systems?  Do they tend
> to operate well under pressure, etc?

Yes, they do.  I don't know of any outstanding ext2fs bugs, and only a
couple of xiafs ones.  A lot of effort has been put into making sure
that the Linux filesystem code in general, and ext2fs in particular,
is robust.

> What is MOST likely to happen if say the system suffers a power-outage 
> while doing disk-intensive processing.

That's the biggest difference between xiafs and ext2fs --- the
recovery (fsck) tools under ext2fs are significantly superior.  The
new ALPHA e2fsck in particular can undo a lot of damage which cannot
be fixed by other versions of fsck, and this version is being merged
into the standard e2fsprogs distribution.

However, a typical power outage under either filesystem should usually
not cause any data to be lost other than that which was active at the
time of the crash.  Of course, if you get a disk head crash as a
result, then all bets are off --- but in that case a better fsck is
really going to be a life-saver.

Cheers,
 Stephen.
---
Stephen Tweedie <sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk>   (JANET: sct@uk.ac.ed.dcs)
Department of Computer Science, Edinburgh University, Scotland.

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

From: philip@cs.wits.ac.za (Philip Machanick)
Crossposted-To: comp.graphics.opengl
Subject: Re: OpenGL on Linux?
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 1994 11:44:58 +0200

In article <BWH.94Mar7120915@beach.cis.ufl.edu>, bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu
(Brian Hook) wrote:

> Bzzzt.  SGI has stated publically (and privately) that litigation was
> definitely an option and in their best interests if someone uses their API
> to create a new product.  Go figure.  Now an API is copyrightable.  *sigh*

Oh well. As I said - observe the new meaning of the word "Open". Could
someone from SGI confirm this? I wonder though if this is enforceable. Of
course the way round this (at some performance cost perhaps) is to produce
a higher-level package that either does GL calls or is otherwise
implemented on non-GL platforms. Sort of negates the value of making an
"open" standard.
-- 
Philip Machanick                   philip@cs.wits.ac.za
Department of Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand
2050 Wits, South Africa
phone 27(11)716-3309  fax 27(11)339-7965

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

From: clark@YingTongDiddleIPo.ee.wits.ac.za (Alan Robert Clark)
Subject: System Freezes pl15f, xdm.
Date: 9 Mar 1994 14:08:37 GMT

Hi *

I am having trouble with system freezes. I am using Slack 1.1.2 which
came with the pl15f kernel. The freezes occur under xdm -- and its an
absolute freeze. No consoles, special keys, no mouse movement, no
telnetting into the box, no error messages in teh usual places, and 
the SCSI disk light remains on. Time to hit the microsoft button (the
one erroneously marked `reset':-) followed by an e2fsck that produces
tons of bad things that it needs to fix.

My previous kernel was pl13, but I cant use that anymore since I need
the AHA1522 driver.

Is it my Hardware or the 15f kernel? The last ``stable'' kernel seems 
to be pl13  (even with a number like that :-)

Advice?

--
Alan Robert Clark, Pr Eng     Computational Electromagnetics
Dept Elec Eng                         Wits University
P.O.Wits                   ``Bugs are later known as features''
2050 South Africa                 Ps 110:11; Ps 37/150
Fax (+27 11)403-1929       clark@YingTongDiddleIPo.ee.wits.ac.za(Pref)
Tel (+27 11)716-5404(24hr)      or clark@odie.ee.wits.ac.za
     **Linux 0.99pl15f - the choice of a GNU generation.**

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

From: ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ian Jackson)
Subject: *** PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *** (misc-2.07)
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 1994 11:03:00 GMT

Please do not post questions to comp.os.linux.misc - read on for details of
which groups you should read and post to.

Please do not crosspost anything between different groups of the comp.os.linux
hierarchy.  See Matt Welsh's introduction to the hierarchy, posted weekly.

If you have a question about Linux you should get and read the Linux Frequently
Asked Questions with Answers list from sunsite.unc.edu, in /pub/Linux/docs, or
from another Linux FTP site.  It is also posted periodically to c.o.l.announce.

In particular, read the question `You still haven't answered my question!'
The FAQ will refer you to the Linux HOWTOs (more detailed descriptions of
particular topics) found in the HOWTO directory in the same place.

Then you should consider posting to comp.os.linux.help - not
comp.os.linux.misc.

Note that X Windows related questions should go to comp.windows.x.i386unix, and
that non-Linux-specific Unix questions should go to comp.unix.questions.
Please read the FAQs for these groups before posting - look on rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/Intel-Unix-X-faq and .../unix-faq.

Only if you have a posting that is not more appropriate for one of the other
Linux groups - ie it is not a question, not about the future development of
Linux, not an announcement or bug report and not about system administration -
should you post to comp.os.linux.misc.


Comments on this posting are welcomed - please email me !
--
Ian Jackson  <ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>  (urgent email: iwj10@phx.cam.ac.uk)
2 Lexington Close, Cambridge, CB4 3LS, England;  phone: +44 223 64238

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

From: pjw@camelot.bradley.edu (Pamela Wood)
Subject: Re: Panasonic 562-B drivers?
Date: 9 Mar 1994 07:08:45 -0600

JULIAN BOOT, UNI OF QUEENSLAND (mail_jboot@uqvax.cc.uq.oz.au) wrote:
: It is probably a long shot, but what the hell...

: I am just about to install Linux and was wondering if there are any drivers
: for the Panasonic 562-B CD-ROM drive.  Any info on file name and/or FTP
: site would be appreciated.

: Thanks,

: -Julian
: cs307319@mailbox.uq.oz.au << by preference
: j.boot@uqvax.cc.uq.oz.au  << if I must
It takes a patched kernel. if you find one ftp'able, let me know! I can't 
install from CD because of it.

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

From: arnej@pvv.unit.no (Arne H. Juul)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: BSD vs. Linux
Date: 9 Mar 94 13:48:03


In article <1994Mar9.094748.4022@swan.pyr> iiitac@swan.pyr (Alan Cox) writes:

 > Most of the core utilities are the same - being the GNU utilities. Generally
 > speaking it looks like this
 >
 >                 BSD                  Linux
 > Shells       bash,tcsh,ksh           bash,tcsh,ksh
 > X windows    Xfree86                 Xfree86
 > Utilities    GNU                     GNU
 > Compiler     GCC                     GCC
 >
 > etc...


This is (partly) wrong. Linux relies much more on the GNU utilities
and libraries than does BSD.  This may be taken as a point in favour
of either OS depending on personal preferences. Also, some of the
utilities either are not GNU or are more-or-less modified.

The following table is probably more accurate, but bear in mind
that there really isn't any single 'BSD' and even less a single 'Linux'.

            BSD                Linux
Shell       ash, csh           bash, tcsh
C library   BSD                Homebrew GNU libc ???
vi          nvi                elvis
Compiler    GCC (modified)     GCC
Linker      GNU ld (w/mods)    GNU ld (w/even more mods)
X           Xfree86            Xfree86
Utilities   BSD                GNU

 > Apart from avoiding the BSD only oddities in programs and sticking to ANSI
 > and POSIX (no bcopy etc) I treat them both as the same thing for applications
 > work. I run Linux for the DOS emulator, the networking code and the fact it
 > 'feels' faster to me. The soon to be released intel IBCS (commercial unix
 > binary standard) support also matters here.
 >
 > Alan
 > iiitac@pyr.swan.ac.uk

Running Linux for its networking code seems somewhat odd to me.

  -  Arne H. Juul


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

From: mail_jboot@uqvax.cc.uq.oz.au (JULIAN BOOT, UNI OF QUEENSLAND)
Subject: Panasonic 562-B drivers?
Date: 9 Mar 94 22:51:16 AEST

It is probably a long shot, but what the hell...

I am just about to install Linux and was wondering if there are any drivers
for the Panasonic 562-B CD-ROM drive.  Any info on file name and/or FTP
site would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-Julian
cs307319@mailbox.uq.oz.au << by preference
j.boot@uqvax.cc.uq.oz.au  << if I must

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

From: gbuhlman@uoguelph.ca (Glen Buhlmann)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: GOD SPEAKS ON LINUX!
Date: 9 Mar 1994 14:20:43 GMT

Grant Taylor (gtaylor@god.ext.tufts.edu) wrote:
: I'll have you know I'm sitting right here in front of god, and god is
: running Linux.

: -grant

: -- 
: Grant Taylor                                    gtaylor@cs.tufts.edu
: Read the linux Printing-HOWTO -- get it from sunsite or mail server:
: To: listserv@god.ext.tufts.edu
: with message body:

--

I am God......and I use an Amiga......

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Glen Buhlmann                   | <glenb@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca>      |
| C.I.S. Department               | <gbuhlman@general.uoguelph.ca>        |
| University of Guelph            |                                       |
| Guelph, ON                      | The opinions expressed in this        |
| CANADA                          | document are not my own....they are   |
| (519) 836-5612                  | the result of extensive brainwashing  |
| (519) 821-5453                  | by IBM, Microsoft, and others.        |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

From: jim@n5ial.mythical.com (Jim Graham)
Subject: Re: ex2fs / xiafs: File System Stability
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 12:30:34 GMT

In article <sinkr.763119612@universe> sinkr@universe.digex.net (Robert Sink)
writes:

>Hello all - I was wondering if anyone could comment on the stability that 
>Linux offers running the ex2fs and/or the xiafs file systems?  Do they tend
>to operate well under pressure, etc?

DISCLAIMER:  I don't use xiafs, so this is a one-sided comment.  :-)

The ext2fs seems to be quite stable.  The island I live on sees rather
frequent power failures.  The next few months are the worst part of the
year (it's the rainy season), with power failures happening just about
every time the wind blows.  Let's put it this way---at the worst part of
last year, I saw 6--10 power failures in less than an hour at times.
Often, these failures don't come at a predictable time, so the system does
crash (anytime a storm approaches, I shutdown...fast!).

Now, with that in mind, I *DO* see filesystem problems, but much less
severe than I'd expect.  On other UNIXes, I've seen entire filesystems
(on an inactive machine) lost after a single power failure.  Since I
upgraded to the ext2fs (I was using the minix fs), I've seen *VERY* little
loss of data---normally, e2fsck can fix whatever went wrong in one pass.
Every now and then (as discussed in a post of mine on col.help), it can't,
but it appears that this might be due to an old copy of e2fsck.  :-)

>What is MOST likely to happen if say the system suffers a power-outage 
>while doing disk-intensive processing.

I'd rather not think about that possibility.....  Let's put it this way,
it probably wouldn't be pretty (under any filesystem).

Later,
   --jim

PS:  Yes, when I have the money, a UPS is very high on my list of
     priorities.  :-)   Unfortunately, even a small UPS is out of the
     question right now.

--
73 DE N5IAL (/4)                         < Running Linux 0.99 PL10 >
      jim@n5ial.mythical.com                 ICBM: 30.23N 86.32W
  ||  j.graham@ieee.org          Packet:  N5IAL@W4ZBB (Ft. Walton Beach, FL)
E-mail me for information about KAMterm (host mode for Kantronics TNCs).


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
From: jrozes@allegro.cs.tufts.edu (J Rozes)
Subject: Re: [SURVEY] Asus SP3/PCI system board experiences
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 15:28:17 GMT

Greetings folks...

I have seen mixed responses about the reliability of the Asus SP3 system
board and would like to collect more data on it. Sooo...

If you use this board with linux, please send me some email describing your
setup in as much detail as possible, along with any relevant experiences
you've had, good or bad. I am particulary interested in any BIOS mods you
made, what CPU you use and what cards/disks you use, how much memory, etc. 
Also what distribution/patchlevel and any software packages you use heavily. 
Basically as much detail as your little fingers care to type.

I will repost a summary if there is sufficient interest.

jonathan
jrozes@cs.tufts.edu

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

From: chase@Think.COM (David Chase)
Crossposted-To: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: compiler quality (was "Reverse-engineering")
Date: 9 Mar 1994 16:01:24 GMT

elan@tasha.cheme.cornell.edu (Elan Feingold) writes:
|> One of the nice things about gcc is that when a bug is found, it gets fixed
|> pronto.

|> In contrast, getting a patch from a commercial compiler vendor is like getting
|> teeth pulled, or something similar.

This is no big secret to people working on [workstation] "commercial compilers".
Perhaps that is why so much attention is paid to avoiding bugs in the first
place.  One reason for the delay, by the way, is that it takes a certain
amount of time to ensure that a "fix" for one bug does not introduce or reveal
a different bug, or change the behavior of the compiler in some annoying (though
still "correct") way.  Of course, the only way to demonstrate "quick turnaround"
is to have a bug that needs fixing :-).

Always consider the possibility that other people in the world are just as smart
as you are, just as experienced, and just as observant, but working under
different constraints.  There are situations in which GCC is the very best
compiler, and there are situations in which the costly non-free vendor compilers
are the very best compiler.

David Chase, speaking for myself
Thinking Machines Corp.

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


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