Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #822
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, 16 Mar 94 17:13:13 EST

Linux-Misc Digest #822, Volume #1                Wed, 16 Mar 94 17:13:13 EST

Contents:
  Re: Got my "Linux Journal"! (Keith Barrett)
  Floppy disk with 1.68MB, non-std. MS-DOS format. [Summary] (Thorsten Meinecke)
  Re: linux oracle  (David MacRae)
  Re: Opinions wanted about SCO-unix (vs AIX/Linux). (Mario EDUARDO)
  *** PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *** (misc-2.07) (Ian Jackson)
  Re: Quic-80 (sp?) backup tape and Linux (Peter Hiscocks)
  Gnu Tar (1.11.2) handling sparse files (Nick Holloway)
  Orchid F1280 VLB-related crashe (linux) (David L. Black)
  Re: Which Linux Distribution to choose? (D Parsons)
  Re: Opinions wanted about SCO-unix (vs AIX/Linux). (Roger Binns)
  Re: SoftPC/Linux? (Orc)
  WANTED .Xmodmap for swiss-french keyb (Valery Tschopp)
  Re: Linux box on the internet (Geoff Lane)
  Re: Linux 1.0 comes out on same day Apple announces new machines (Lawrence Foard)
  Re: XV for Linux??? (J.S. van Oosten)

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

From: barrett@aminet.uucp (Keith Barrett)
Subject: Re: Got my "Linux Journal"!
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 05:57:25 GMT

Please forgive me, but I have been away from this newsgroup for a while.

How does one "subscribe" to Linux Journal


Keith Barrett

-- 
-kgb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UUCP: ponds!aminet!barrett                  Keep circulating the tapes - MST3k

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

Crossposted-To: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted
From: thm@aglaia.IN-Berlin.DE (Thorsten Meinecke)
Subject: Floppy disk with 1.68MB, non-std. MS-DOS format. [Summary]
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 05:55:35 GMT

In article <TCTMB8UJ@harvey.in-berlin.de>, Thorsten Meinecke (that's me)
<thm@aglaia.IN-Berlin.DE> wrote:

> 1) What to do to get floppy disks with capacity greater than {1.2,1.44}MB?
> 2) Are there obvious drawbacks or caveats to consider when doing 1) ?
> 3) Are there any tools out there which enables one to perform at least
>    read-only operations on those non-standard floppies, on a normal, IBM-
>    compatible system running stand-alone DOS?

Thanks to all who replied!

> 1) What to do to get floppy disks with capacity greater than {1.2,1.44}MB?

  From: gfritz@ecn.purdue.edu (Geoffrey M Fritz)
  There are several programs out there to do this.  The two I am familiar with
  are Maxi and 2M (the one I use now).  I wasn't too fond of Maxi, and I
  found 2M more flexible [...]

  From: Ray Berry <ray@goshen.connected.com>
  get an archive called 'fdfmt18.zip' (a german program, by the way :).

MAXI161.ZIP, 2M13.ZIP and 2M13SRC.ZIP, and FDFORM18.ZIP can be found in
the `diskutil' directory of Simtel20 and its mirrors, for example at
ftp.wustl.edu:/systems/ibmpc/msdos/diskutil. There's an extended fd-format
patch for Linux, too, at sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/kernel/misc-patches
fdpatch2for15.tgz, which builds with the 1.0-kernel without any problems. 

> 2) Are there obvious drawbacks or caveats to consider when doing 1) ?

  From: Ray Berry <ray@goshen.connected.com>
  not really.  Only big one is that people without FDFMT can't read your
  disks.

;-), but not quite. A few extended formats are exchangeable (see below).

> 3) Are there any tools out there ...

Each of the three dos packages comes with a TSR utility which chains into
INT 0x13 and extends bios functionality, therefore granting read/write
access to non-std disk formats. Here is an overview of the solutions listed:

                                  2M13   FDFORM18   MAXI161  fdpatch'ed Linux 
Formats:
max. capacity of 3.5" HD (KB)    1,886    1,722      1,600       1,743   
max. number of tracks              82       82         80          83
max. number of sectors             23       21         20          21
copyleft/public domain            yes      yes         no         yes 
price (shareware)                  -        -       10 Can$        -

access to foreign formats          no      yes        yes         yes

At least it is possible to format a disk under MS-DOS using FDFORM18's,
say, /F168 switch, and read and write it under patched Linux. And vice
versa. Too bad, that 2M's incredible 1.85MB aren't as cross-platform
usable... 

> Any thoughts are highly appreciated.
> Thanks,
>    Th.
-- 
Thorsten Meinecke - 30 year old computer addict
Though this be madness, yet there's method in't

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

From: dmacrae@hocomms.demon.co.uk (David MacRae)
Subject: Re: linux oracle 
Reply-To: Dmacrae@hocomms.demon.co.uk
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 10:55:42 +0000

In article <1994Mar14.172643@dkbfpny.com> vlad@dkbfpny.com writes:

>Recently there was a thread on Oracle for linux; i tried to contact
>Joe Portman, who recommended joining IBCS2 channel to get ver 6 of
>Oracle, but he did not respond. The problem is i do not quite
>understand how to join this channel.
>
>I would appreciate any info on that.
>
>Thank you very much
>
>Vlad
>
>
Do I take this to mean that there is a port of ORACLE for Linux ??.

I'm currently having problems running CASEDES from my Linux based X
to a Data General based unix system where all the ORACLE binaries
are. Only the Matrix diagrammer works, all the other routines, most
importantly the Entity Diagrammer don't work. Any clues would be
greatly appreciated.

TIA
-- 
Dave MacRae                      |The views expressed here are mine and mine
John Menzies (UK) Ltd            |alone and do not reflect the views of my
Edinburgh                        |employers in any way.
Scotland                         |
dmacrae@hocomms.demon.co.uk      |

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

From: Mario.Eduardo@vu-wien.ac.at (Mario EDUARDO)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.advocacy,biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: Opinions wanted about SCO-unix (vs AIX/Linux).
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 12:19:19

In article <2m6126$gqp@camco.celestial.com> bill@camco.celestial.com (Bill Campbell) writes:
>From: bill@camco.celestial.com (Bill Campbell)
>Subject: Re: Opinions wanted about SCO-unix (vs AIX/Linux).
>Date: 15 Mar 1994 20:13:58 -0800

>In <2m5bd7$555@ftp.health.org> nathan@ftp.health.org (Nathan Bardsley) writes:

>:In article <d0bpl.763777041@dtek.chalmers.se>,
>:Patrik Larsson <d0bpl@dtek.chalmers.se> wrote:

>:>   What are the pros and cons for SCO-unix in general, and
>:>compared to AIX (and maybe Linux) in particular?

>:SCO is a nice system if all you're going to do is to run their
>:software.  If you want to compile your own applications or develope
>:some inhouse networking apps, good luck.  The SCO developement
>:package is, in a word, crippled.

>I would disagree with this, at least for the current DevSys.  I
>have very little trouble compiling most net.sources (many
>available on my system ftp.celestial.com).  The only thing that
>seems to cause problems is mmdf, and I'm using smail3.1.28 so
>that doesn't bother me at all.  There were some difficulties with
>the older systems (about 2-3 years ago), but these have been
>cleared up with ODT 2.0 and ODT 3.0 DevSys.

>Bill
>-- 

it is very simple to determine the quality of the SCO system :

get some public domain software (gnu cpio, gnu tar, gnu sed, inn, sendmail, 
various tcp daemons) and try to compile it. it was  a lot of work to compile 
GCPIO on ODT 1.1.0, and because of the compatibility ODT 1 to ODT 2 to ODT 3
it is lost time to try it on ODT 3. 

Mario EDUARDO

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

From: ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ian Jackson)
Subject: *** PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *** (misc-2.07)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 11:03:02 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: phiscock@ee.ryerson.ca (Peter Hiscocks)
Subject: Re: Quic-80 (sp?) backup tape and Linux
Date: 15 Mar 1994 19:11:28 GMT

Gonzalo Diethelm (gonzo@malloco.ing.puc.cl) wrote:

: Will Linux read and write to a Quic-80 backup tape? You know, one
: of those weird DOS concoctions that plug into the floppy drive
: bus and are used for backups.

: Gonzalo

Yes, but you have to get the ftape distribution and the modutils 
distribution and have a kernel later than patch level 15.
Took me a couple of hours to install all this: it works just fine!

The ftape and modutils and kernel are all available from
the ftp site sunsite.unc.edu.

Cheers -
Peter
--
Peter Hiscocks                            Phone: (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Department of Electrical Engineering      Fax:   (416) 979-5280
Ryerson Polytechnical University, Toronto, Canada


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

From: alfie@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Nick Holloway)
Subject: Gnu Tar (1.11.2) handling sparse files
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 12:10:08 GMT

I think the subject of tar apparantly not being able to deal with sparse
files came up on the GCC channel, but since this is of general interest,
I'm giving it a wider audience.

The auto-configuration of tar means that it will only attempt to deal
with sparse files if the symbol BSD42 is defined at compilation, which
in turn is only defined by configure if /vmunix exists.  Configure should
really be defining a symbol like HAVE_STBLOCKS for the compilation.

So, if you're compiling tar, add a -DBSD42 to the CFLAGS.  It won't
work on a Minix filesystem, since that doesn't report how many blocks
are being used, and a higher level makes that up from the size.

--
Nick Holloway |  `O O'  | alfie@dcs.warwick.ac.uk, alfie@warwick.UUCP,
[aka `Alfie'] | // ^ \\ | ..!uunet!mcsun!uknet!warwick!alfie

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

From: dave@hh.sbay.org (David L. Black)
Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix
Subject: Orchid F1280 VLB-related crashe (linux)
Date: 15 Mar 1994 23:00:13 -0800

I've experienced occasional lockups on my system running Linux 0.99.15
and 1.0, but *only when actively using X Windows*, specifically the 
XFree86-2.0 XF86_S3 server.

My SCSI adapter (Adaptec 1542B) is hung (light ON),
and for a while I thought the host adapter was at fault, but I dunno
now - it runs fine if I don't get on the console and start playing
around.

Something in the release notes for XFree86-2.1 prompted me to think
about this. My system continually chews on netnews, so heavy I/O
is a fact of life... so I'm wondering, should I suspect the video
card (local bus linear access to memory)??? 

Ideas/suggestions appreciated.

Dave
-- 
David L. Black                     dave@hh.sbay.org
Hip-Hop BBS  Sunnyvale, CA         KE6AJC @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: dfp10@thor.albany.edu (D Parsons)
Subject: Re: Which Linux Distribution to choose?
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:50:37 GMT

In article <2m62dn$dlu@news.u.washington.edu> olsenc@maxwell.ee.washington.edu (Clint Olsen) writes:
>In article <2lqq01$fqe@valhalla.cs.wright.edu>,
>student_of_mrizki <ceg4760x@kiwi.cs.wright.edu> wrote:
>>Hi Guys
>>   I'm thinking of installing Linux on my PC in the near future.  I don't
>>know which distribution is the least buggy.
>>    I have a 486/66 with 8 MB ram.  I'll have about 150MB fre for linux
>>and will be needing X-windows.
>>    I know that the FAQ suggests not using the SLS, but which one should I
>>get ?
>>                                Thanx upfront.
>
>I recommend Slackware wholeheartedly.  Any problems that have come
>up have been promplty fixed by Pat V.  You may want to wait a bit,
>because I think his new release with the 1.0 kernel is imminent.
>
>The other distribution that may be worth looking at is Debian, but
>I don't think it has matured yet to a fully stable distribution.
>
>Comments?
>WHat is the address of Slackware? What version of kernel does it have?

Do you have the phone number for Slackware? 

>-Clint
>--
>Clint Olsen
>University of Washington
>Electrical Engineering
>olsenc@maxwell.ee.washington.edu


-- 
Donald F. Parsons MD, Wadsworth Ctr. Rm C273, NY State Dept of Health, ESP,
PO Box 509, Albany, NY 12201-0509. (518)474-7047 Fax: (518)474-7992 
UseNet: dfp10@csc.albany.edu; Internet: dfp10@uacsc2.albany.edu
Moderator: hspnet-l@albnydh2.bitnet (Consulting by hospital Networks)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.unix.advocacy,biz.sco.general
From: rogerb@x.co.uk (Roger Binns)
Subject: Re: Opinions wanted about SCO-unix (vs AIX/Linux).
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 13:36:29 GMT

Henry van Cleef (vancleef@netcom.com) wrote:
: what is thrown at them, including some horrible spaghetti code.  While
: some people swear by GCC, I don't find it superior to the SCO compilers,
: either in speed of compilation, size and performance of generated
: objects, or much of anything else.  I have lived with the resources

Try this under ODT 3.0.

$ cc -o foo foo.c -L/auto/orkney/home/tools/keep/libs.i3sc/v1.2.3/graphics/rendering/original    
ld foo.o: -L path too long(/auto/orkney/home/tools/keep/libs.i3sc/v1.2.3/graphics/rendering/original)

Errr, the linker can't use -L paths longer than about 64 characters.

Next,

$ cc -c -Ddefa -Ddefb -Ddefc -Ddefe -Ddefg -Ddeff -Ddefg -Ddefh -Ddefi -Ddefj 
-Ddefk -Ddefl -Ddefm -Ddefn -Ddefo -Ddefp -Ddefq -Ddefr -Ddefs -Ddeft -Ddefu
-Ddefv -Ddefw -Ddefx -Ddefy  -Ddefz foo.c
foo.c
fatal error C1047: limit of -D# exceeded at 'defz'

So there you go - MAXPATHLEN for the linker has the Msdos limit (even though
it was SCO box that installed the library in the first place).  The second
limit is even more stupid.

Roger
--
 __  __ __  __                    
|  |\  /  /|  | Roger Binns         | `Don't go near Earth, its got human
|  | \/  / |  | Software Engineer   |  beings on it.  They are contagious.'
|  | /  /\ |  | IXI Ltd             |                           Lister
|__|/__/__\|__| Cambridge, UK       |   rogerb@x.co.uk

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

From: orc@pell.com (Orc)
Subject: Re: SoftPC/Linux?
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 00:38:27 GMT
Reply-To: orc@pell.com (Orc)

In article <1994Mar12.200341.9221@rpp386>,
John F. Haugh II <jfh@rpp386.cactus.org> wrote:
>Have you ever tried selling commercial software in the Linux environment?
>Even a hint of the word "commercial" or "proprietary" sets Linux users on
>a wild rampage.

   That doesn't seem to bother Metrolink.

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: tschopp@hei.unige.ch (Valery Tschopp)
Subject: WANTED .Xmodmap for swiss-french keyb
Reply-To: tschopp@hei.unige.ch
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 08:49:21 GMT

Hi networker,

I've soon look in sunsite /pub/linux/X11/misc but I've not found a
Xmodmap.sf (swiss-french). 

Does anyone know where I can found such keyboard mapping for X11.
A help to edit a new one is welcome too...

I need a XkeysymDB and xinitrc.olwm too.

E-mail me for response.

Thanks in advance.

Valery
---

        Valery Tschopp - Computer Center | phone : +41 (22) 734 36 85
  |||   The Graduate Institute for       |  fax  : +41 (22) 738 43 06
  O-O   International Studies, I.U.H.E.I |
  \-/   Avenue de la Paix 11a            | email : tschopp@hei.unige.ch
o0o-Oo0 CH-1202 GENEVA, Switzerland      | http  : //heiwww.unige.ch/



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

From: zzassgl@cs6400.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps
Subject: Re: Linux box on the internet
Date: 16 Mar 1994 08:40:24 -0000

Michael L. VanLoon (michaelv@iastate.edu) wrote:
: My recommendation is NetBSD.  I had my NetBSD box on the Internet for
: a year and a half in my office before I decided to bring it home.  It
: worked every bit as well as our Ultrix workstations (sometimes better)
: as a shared part of our campus ethernet.

But I can say the same about my Linux PC.  It's been running MCC Linux and
been connected to the campus ethernet (and hence the Internet) for over a
year now without any problems.  It's also more responsive than a Sun Classic
with three times as much memory!

--
Geoff. Lane. | Internet: zzassgl@cs6400.mcc.ac.uk | Janet: zzassgl@uk.ac.mcc
CS6400 Sys Admin, Manchester Computing Centre, Oxford Rd,  Manchester, M13 9PL

Adding manpower to a late software project only makes it later.

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

From: entropy@world.std.com (Lawrence Foard)
Subject: Re: Linux 1.0 comes out on same day Apple announces new machines
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 15:36:48 GMT

In article <14MAR199417503194@rigel.tamu.edu>,
Gerard R. Lazo <grl6732@rigel.tamu.edu> wrote:
>I overheard on NPR that Apple announced their new line of PowerPC
>computers today. It was touted that the prices/performance challenged
>Intel's Pentium. I thought it was ironic, coincidental, interesting
>that Linux 1.0 would make its debut on the same day. With all the
>applications that can be ported to Linux, it will be interesting to
>see how the different OS environments evolve.

Now lets get Linux ported to the Power PC before Windows NT :)
-- 
====== Call the skeptic hotline 1=900=555=5555 talk to your own personal . 
\    / skeptic 24 hours/day.     Just say no to victimless crimes.      . .
 \  / High quality Linux application development available.            . . .
  \/ The true theory of everything will run on a finite turing machine. . . .

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

From: jvoosten@compiler.tdcnet.nl (J.S. van Oosten)
Subject: Re: XV for Linux???
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 01:29:02 GMT

William Bushing (6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu) wrote:
: Is xv available for Linux? Ftp site? Thanks in advance!

Well, you could take archie, and search for the magic keyword 'xv'. Then you
could start up ftp, connect to the site archie so generously pointed out to
you, set your binary flag on and donwload 'xv-3.00.tar.gz' and
'xv-3.00a.patch'. Then, perhaps, if you might, you could gunzip it, progress
with 'tar -xf', and finally fire up 'make'. You could then best drink a few
cups of coffee or tea, whichever you fancy, and when you return, type 'xv'
and show any dirty picture you want on the screen.

Or you could sulk in the corner and wait until somebody walks up to you and
throws a floppy in you lap stating: "here it is."

Look. This is Linux (good). We've got gcc (even better). We've got X (funny,
isn't it ?). We've got libX*.a (the finishing touch). COMPILE IT YOURSELF !
Do a bit of handywork ! Be creative, wrench something useful out of that
machine of yours but don't bother us asking trivia ! Ask friends, collegues,
the guy you see playing around with xv on his Xterm... When you start it up
there's even an E-mail address of the author.

Of course it's available, that's why you get the source....... Binary
distribution of Unix stuff is hardly ever done.

But seriously *WOMP*: xv compiles fine under Linux, little to no trouble.
Could be a bit faster though...

J. v. O.

--
Don't utter the word 'vi' while I'm near. I might just die of a heartattack.
-- 
My PGP public key (you know when, why and how...) :

=====BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK=====
Version: 2.3
mQCNAi1lYqsAAAEEAMCgUKS7DxyGF8D7QIGYXxRuh2n9Q2+5gIrrb1n9iOl4Xlgo
cO8Y3DE71J5K6WhlpEGDqXZIwY/Xx8mxq80ZHJ3n0pHOUxOQGdxxMT1mrKotjE4Y
wmGqnQhMhpcCKgT/5+5xhuMEluyGQqjyud3PCDogJCC/Sia7eO9+56e/13btAAUR
tC1KLlMuIHZhbiBPb3N0ZW4gPGp2b29zdGVuQGNvbXBpbGVyLnRkY25ldC5ubD4=
=3brb
=====END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK=====

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


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