Subject: Linux-Development Digest #907
From: Digestifier <Linux-Development-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Mon, 11 Jul 94 21:13:05 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #907, Volume #1         Mon, 11 Jul 94 21:13:05 EDT

Contents:
  Re: e@mail of LinuX CDROM publisher wanted (Nicholas Dixon)
  Re: Parallel printer speed? (Jim Robinson)
  Re: TCP/IP networking for DOSEMU (Mark Evans)
  Adaptec 2842 VL SCSI controller support (Jay Raman)
  Last cry for help with Linux and sound!! (BRIAN KEITH PIPA)
  Re: CD-Rom and scsi host timeouts (Albert D. Cahalan)
  Re: [ANSWER] Linux seems to perform terribly f (Andreas Helke)
  Re: Energy Star Screen Saver for X? Monitor Shutdown codes? (Ian McCloghrie)
  Driver out for Xircom parallel-port ether adapter? (Jeff Uphoff)
  Re: Energy Star Screen Saver for X? Monitor Shutdown codes? (MATTHEW CROCKER)
  Re: Linux ext2fs vs. ufs vs. presto was Re: Fast File System? (Jeff Jonas)
  Re: Help: Modules in Linux kernel (Sam Oscar Lantinga)
  Re: Linux Performance Enhance ? (Alan Cox)
  Re: TCP/IP networking for DOSEMU (Alan Cox)
  SB CD-ROM (Boris Pitel)

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

From: nickd@compnews.co.uk (Nicholas Dixon)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: e@mail of LinuX CDROM publisher wanted
Date: 11 Jul 1994 15:23:42 GMT

There are at least 3 suppliers in tthe UK who offer various
distributions (usually on CD-ROM), although I can only remember the
names of two of them at the moment.

1) Lasermoon:
        support@lasermoon.co.uk         Technical Support
        orders@lasermoon.co.uk          Orders
        sales@lasermoon.co.uk           Sales enquiries
        info@lasermoon.co.uk            General Information
        lj@lasermoon.co.uk              Linux Journal Desk

2) info@ddrive.demon.co.uk

All three suppliers have ads in this month's (August 94) Personal
Computer World.

--
Nick Dixon

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

From: jimr@shorty.cs.wisc.edu (Jim Robinson)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Parallel printer speed?
Date: 11 Jul 1994 15:30:32 GMT

In article <jra.194.00087884@lawdept.daytonOH.ncr.com> jra@lawdept.daytonOH.ncr.com (John Ackermann) writes:

>I've done a bunch of tweaking with tunelp, but none of the changes makes any 
>significant difference:

Have you tried printing without tunelp?  I don't know about other
printers, but I found that on my system tunelp was causing problems
with my HP LaserJet 4M+.  I had tunelp running from when I used a
deskjet, and when I tried using the laser printer, the data would be
sent to the printer, and then it sat in the printer buffer without
printing.  I took tunelp out and it works fine now.

Jim

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

From: evansmp@mb52112.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans)
Subject: Re: TCP/IP networking for DOSEMU
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 18:09:28 GMT

Byron A Jeff (byron@cc.gatech.edu) wrote:
: In article <CsMy92.Ln@aston.ac.uk>,
: Mark Evans <evansmp@mb52112.aston.ac.uk> wrote:
: :Rob Janssen (rob@pe1chl.ampr.org) wrote:
: :
: :: The trouble is that Linux networking will be making responses to some of
: :: the packets that are really destined for the dosemu box, because the TCP/IP
: :: protocol specifications tell it to.  This is mostly solved by running a
: :: different IP address in the dosemu box than the Linux networking uses, but
: :: subtle problems remain.  (e.g. forwarding has to be turned off in both
: :: the Linux networking and the software running in the dosemu box)
: :
: :Allocating a virtual host for a dosemu session is rather trickier for IP
: :than for IPX. The problem is to do with the addressing differences between
: :the two protocols. (Remember that you can have an *arbitary* number of
: :dosemu sessions running.) For IPX you can have your machine regarded as
: :a network (it's IP address is a possible choice for the IPX network number),
: :then you use the pid as being the node number. For IP how do you do this?

: This is why I originally proposed setting up all the DOSEMU sessions in
: a virtual network and having Linux route packets between the outside world
: and the virtual DOSEMU network interfaces.

: All the elements to do this are available:

: - Linux can already route between networks.
: - The loopback driver already has conecptualized the virtual network interface.
: - DOSEMU already has a packet driver interface.

: THe only drawback that has been pointed out is that we'll actually be emulating
: the TCP/IP protocol stack (Like WATTCP or Trumpet) when in fact Linux already
: has a far superior TCP/IP stack. But that's the price you pay to emulate DOS
: software.

: Comments?

You are missing what I said about addressing, your virtual dos NIC needs to
have a registered IP address if there is ANY chance of it sending datagrams
outside the machine. How you assign such an address is a non-trivial problem.

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

From: raman@jay.EBay.Sun.COM (Jay Raman)
Subject: Adaptec 2842 VL SCSI controller support
Date: 11 Jul 1994 15:56:22 GMT
Reply-To: raman@jay.EBay.Sun.COM

Does Linux support adaptec 2842 VL SCSI controller?  
If so can any one point me where I can find the driver.
If one doesn't exist can some one give me pointers as to
how to modify the one for 154x series to 2842 VL?

Thanks

Jay
 




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

From: bkpipa@eos.ncsu.edu (BRIAN KEITH PIPA)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.mis
Subject: Last cry for help with Linux and sound!!
Date: 11 Jul 1994 17:04:23 GMT
Reply-To: bkpipa@eos.ncsu.edu (BRIAN KEITH PIPA)


I am trying to do a computer project with Linux and sound but I can't get the
kernel recompiled to support sound. I have gotten both the PAS and the SB
to work under DOS, but I can't get my newly compiled Linux kernel to boot.


I have tried recompiling the kernal NUMEROUS times to support sound.
I have tried it with a PAS and a SB (seperately - not installed at the same
time). With each I get varying degrees of
success. The closest it came to working was when it detected the SB
but said "unable to mount root". Sometimes it will freeze when it says
"Loading Linux" and won't say "Uncompressing Linux". Sometimes it gets farther.
One time it said "Unable to fill buffer - system halted".

Anyone have ANY idea what I'm doing wrong? Maybe I'm choosing one of the options
wrong when I'm compiling? I have read all the instructions and FAQ's I could
findbut there is no help with the compiling options or troubleshooting.

HELP!

This is being done on a 386 machine with an ethernet card hooked into a small
local network with one of the computers on the internet - if that helps any.
Linux works fine before I try to get the sound support.

Thanks for any help given
Brian
bkpipa@eos.ncsu.edu

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

From: adc@armstrong.coe.neu.edu (Albert D. Cahalan)
Subject: Re: CD-Rom and scsi host timeouts
Date: 11 Jul 1994 19:52:48 GMT

In article <UCHRIST.94Jul11133146@sunshine.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de> uchrist@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de (Udo Christ) writes:
   >>>>> "Laurent" == Laurent Chemla <laurent@brasil.frmug.fr.net> writes:

       Laurent> Description: From time to time, when accessing my scsi
       Laurent> cdrom (Chinon), mostly from an nfs mounted DOS host, but
       Laurent> also from the console itself, the kernel just hangs
       Laurent> during a read access. The cdrom drive is quite slow, and
       Laurent> I usually get some: kernel: SCSI host 0 abort() timed out
       Laurent> - reseting

       Laurent> in my /var/adm/messages file. It looks like sometime this
       Laurent> timeout occurs when the kernel is in the
       Laurent> linux/drivers/scsi/sd.c rw_intr() routine, leading my box
       Laurent> into a crash.


   I've got into the same problems using a NEC 3xi hanging on an aha1542
   SCSI Controller. I noticed it when i was using the "Linux Kongress
   CD", which i mounted, but didn't access for a while. After then
   accessing one of the files on that CD my CD-Drive sounded like it
   justs spins up the disk ( a rather funny noise although ), and the
   syslog report's " scsi host 0 timed out -- aborting command ".
   When i press ^C fast enough i can interrupt then and umount/mount the
   disk again. Then the story repeats from the beginning....
   I don't think of a hardware error, since i use my CD-Drive under DOS
   quite heavily.


Same problem with a Toshiba 0.5 speed drive that works from DOS.
" scsi host 0 timed out -- aborting command " prevents the system
from booting at all.  The system works with the CD disconnected.
The SCSI cable is also connected to 2 hard drives and a tape drive.
--

Albert Cahalan
adc@meceng.coe.neu.edu

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

From: andreas@orion.mgen.uni-heidelberg.de (Andreas Helke)
Subject: Re: [ANSWER] Linux seems to perform terribly f
Date: 11 Jul 1994 20:10:33 GMT

Tor Arntsen (tor@spacetec.no) wrote:
: In article 94Jul8143930@ascrib.dcs.ed.ac.uk, sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Stephen Tweedie) writes:
: >Hi,
: >
: >I just thought I'd mention that this is very much a work-in-progress
: >topic.  At the Heidelburg conference, Ted Ts'o and I discussed this at
: >some length, and Ted even found a glaring bug in the existing
: >readdir() system call (one which affects all long-filename
: >filesystems, by the way).
: >
: >So, I've currently got tentative bug-fix patches and performance
: >improvements for the directory handling code.  The bug-fix should also
: >mean that the ext2fs directory cache may now be re-enabled.
: [readdir description deleted]

: >Once they are tested, these patches should be in a kernel soon.  Watch
: >this space... :-)

: Sounds like something that should go into the 1.0x kernel as well..

You did not understand what a stable kernel is. Nothing will change in
1.0 unless it is an ablsolutely requiered bugfix. Even the less important
bug fixed do not go into 1.0 because they might prove to create trouble
elsewhere. And probably because the kernel developers do not want to bother
with the 1.0 tree any further. The last patch for 1.0 has been a few months
ago. 

The interesting things happen in 1.1. And 1.1.22 was the first kernel which 
gave me a reliable network. E.g. the Alpha kernel is much more usable for
me than the stable kernel.

Andreas
--

Andreas Helke

Institut fuer molekulare Genetik, Universitaet Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 230 
69122 Heidelberg, Germany

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

From: imcclogh@cs.ucsd.edu (Ian McCloghrie)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Energy Star Screen Saver for X? Monitor Shutdown codes?
Date: 11 Jul 94 20:57:20 GMT
Reply-To: ian@ucsd.edu

crocker@opine (MATTHEW CROCKER) writes:
>somebody correct me if I'm wrong...  but I'm pretty sure that most graphics
>cards DON'T support energy star monitors  (ie by sending them a signal to 
>shutdown.)   Most of the energy star monitors just look for a blank screen 
>(ie completly black) for a duration then they will shut themselves down.

I don't know about the Mag monitors, but the docs for my Sony
GDM-17se1 say that it goes into "power saving" mode if you drop the
sync signal (either horizontal or vertical) for more than a second or
two.  I've not seen any way to do this with XF86 (short of hacking the
X server, which I don't really have the free disk space to do), the
screen saver mode just paints black on the entire screen.  (In fact,
non-power saving monitors would probably be extremely confused by the
lack of a sync signal)

--
____
\bi/  Ian McCloghrie      | FLUG:  FurryMUCK Linux User's Group
 \/   email: ian@ucsd.edu | Card Carrying Member, UCSD Secret Islandia Club
GCS (!)d-(--) p c++ l++(+++) u+ e- m+ s+/+ n+(-) h- f+ !g w+ t+ r y*

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

From: juphoff@tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (Jeff Uphoff)
Subject: Driver out for Xircom parallel-port ether adapter?
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 21:47:28 GMT

The subject says it all...I just bought a laptop, and my employer has
several Xircom parallel-port ethernet adapters here (so I'd like to use
one of them and not have to buy a different one).  The README.DLINK file
in the kernel net drivers states (for the D-Link drivers):

        This is a set of Ethernet drivers for the D-Link DE-600/DE-620
        pocket adapters, for the parallel port on a Linux based machine.
        Some adapter "clones" will also work.  Xircom is _not_ a clone...

So, since the D-Link drivers don't work, has anyone been working
on/created a driver for the Xircoms?

E-mail copies of any responses would be most appreciated.

--
Jeff Uphoff -- "Uppie"                |  "The secret to good teaching is
National Radio Astronomy Observatory  |  sincerity.  As soon as you learn
Charlottesville, Virginia, USA        |  to fake that, you've got it made."

E-mail:  juphoff@nrao.edu, jeff.uphoff@linux.org
WWW:     http://tarsier.cv.nrao.edu/~juphoff/

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

From: crocker@opine (MATTHEW CROCKER)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Energy Star Screen Saver for X? Monitor Shutdown codes?
Date: 11 Jul 1994 19:11:30 GMT

shmueli@moomintroll wrote:
: Hello there, 

: I am desparately seeking a linux program that will send my energy-star
: compliant MAG 17" monitor (Gateway 1776 LE G) the necessary codes to
: switch it to different standby modes on inactivity. Please let me know
: if such exists!

: I would happily write something myself if I knew what the codes are (and
: how to send them...) So any information or pointers in that directions are
: also welcome,

somebody correct me if I'm wrong...  but I'm pretty sure that most graphics
cards DON'T support energy star monitors  (ie by sending them a signal to 
shutdown.)   Most of the energy star monitors just look for a blank screen 
(ie completly black) for a duration then they will shut themselves down.

Now,  last I knew X would blank itself after a duration and/or I linux
logins (text mode) also blank.  This should be enough (I hope)

-Matt/2

--
-Matthew S Crocker               "The mask, given time, comes
mcrocker@twain.ucs.umass.edu      to be the face itself."  -anonymous
*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*OS/2*
 *linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*linux*

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

From: jeffj@panix.com (Jeff Jonas)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: Linux ext2fs vs. ufs vs. presto was Re: Fast File System?
Date: 11 Jul 1994 14:32:13 -0400

In article <2uq32n$ph@news1.digex.net> vince@vtci.com (Vince Fleming) writes:
>Callum Gibson (callum@frost.bain.oz.au) wrote:
>: Nigel Gamble (nigel@gate.net) wrote:
>: > If you are concerned about power failure, the way to survive with
>: > no corruption and no performance hit is to use a UPS.  Why would you
>: > want to put any performance hit in the filesystem when there is a
>: > better way to address the power fail problem?

Since I'm joining this thread late, let me keep brief in order to
not repeat what may have come before: (1)

a) I believe that the "ordered writes" feature of SVR3 ment that
writes to the superblock or inode list was sync, all others async.

b) there are MANY failure modes other than power fail
for which a robust, reliable system must contend.
They're less frequent, but data cables can come out or another
peripheral may hog/corrupt the data bus (SCSI, etc).
With removable media, someone could pull out the disk while it's
active (unless the door physically locks when in use).
Floppy disks are a real sore point since the door cannot lock
on *most* models (2) so you have a tradeoff: do you perform
all writes sync to protect against removal, or perform some buffering
and achieve better performance?

>: Then you could do as our sys admin did and trip over the power cord between
>: the ups and the computer. (sorry Glenn). :-)
>
>Then you could kick youself and buy a system with an *internal* UPS. ;-}
>
>[on a serious note, the larger AT&T/NCR have this as an option for that
>very reason]

I recall seeing a DC power supply on display at an electronics
show with the following demo:
an electromagnet was holding a large hammer over a vase.
Pull the plug on the power supply and the hammer didn't drop
since the DC power was uninterruptable!
One would think that it's more efficient to convert the battery power
directly to regulated 5/12VDC than to make invert it to 120 VAC only to get
regulated to 5/12VDC.

(1) the old articles ahve already expired at my site, so I
cannot go back and read the full thread

(2) yes, I know that the Sun Sparcstations and Macs "eat" the disk
and won't "spit" it out while in use, but most PC floppy drives
do not offer that protection.
-- 
Jeffrey Jonas
jeffj@panix.com

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

From: slouken@cs.ucdavis.edu (Sam Oscar Lantinga)
Subject: Re: Help: Modules in Linux kernel
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 22:41:38 GMT

: why can't there be /proc/dev/hda,hda1,... sda1 etc? with /dev/ having
: symlinks just for compatibility/nostalgia? using mknod to create the
: device files is a bit silly when the kernel already knows what devices
: are present. And with the right code, kernel drivers and module
: drivers could request majors/minors, allocating them on the fly
: instead of worrying about all the paperwork of an official majors
: list.
: (The only thing that might need figuring out is to make sure
: /proc/dev/ would only have entries for valid minors, and I you would
: need a way to chmod the /proc/dev/ entries depending on how you want
: to control access)

        Hey!  What a great idea! 
Hum.  Okay:

A.  We would need some way for the device drivers to tell the proc
    filesystem what minor device numbers are valid.
B.  The proc filesystem would have to be come "standard" and MUST
    be mounted in a consistent place the first thing after kernel
    inialization.  Then /dev could be a symlink to that area. :)
C.  Formal names for each of the devices would have to be 
    formulated... i.e.  you couldn't make /dev/adrive and /dev/bdrive
    Unless... we changed the MAKEDEV script to create a tree of
    symbolic links to /proc/devices/???

Worth thinking about.  It would be very handy in some ways, and
also confusing in others.


: /proc/ read/write for /proc/modules. ie: 

: # ls /proc/modules

: 3c509.o               busmouse.o      msdosfs.o       

: # cp soundblaster.o /proc/modules

        Well.... that would be relying a bit much on the proc
filesystem in my book.  For one thing, it would be hard to return
intelligible errors on fail.  Another, what if someone did 'mv'
instead of copy?  module is lost forever.  Or if we let
/proc/modules/* be readable, what does it correspond to?  The in-core
memory used by the module?  The initialized module?

Good questions... this could be really cool. :)


        -Sam            (slouken@cs.ucdavis.edu)


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

From: iialan@iifeak (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Linux Performance Enhance ?
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 18:05:57 GMT

In article <CsMtGn.BxD@pe1chl.ampr.org> pe1chl@rabo.nl writes:
>At least this does the same as your code without those ugly goto's.

Either way Matthais is right its put a good 5% throughput improvement
on our loaded 4Mb machine. Linus are you listening 8)

Alan
-- 
Alan Cox: gw4pts@gw4pts.ampr.org      \\  //          GW4PTS@GB7SWN
=======================================\\//===================================
<<<<<<     Toolkits are for WIMPS :::: //\\Lib :::: the only way to fly >>>>>>
======================================//==\\==================================

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

From: iialan@iifeak (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: TCP/IP networking for DOSEMU
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 18:08:48 GMT


In article <1994Jul7.220403.2152@titan.westfalen.de> johannes@titan.westfalen.de (Johannes Stille) writes:
>There are possible problems, though: If you run SOSS under dosemu to
>access Netware servers or compressed DOS disks, I don't think you could
>run another NFS server under Linux. Also if you have some binary-only
>MSDOS program that wants to use a packet (or ODI, or NDIS) driver and
>contains the TCP/IP code itself, a dosemu integrated TCP/IP interface
>doesn't help.

SOSS is a different game. You have the source code so you can make it
use the kernel TCP/IP to chat to Linux. For that matter you can write
a filestore mirror much more simply than SOSS.

Alan


-- 
Alan Cox: gw4pts@gw4pts.ampr.org      \\  //          GW4PTS@GB7SWN
=======================================\\//===================================
<<<<<<     Toolkits are for WIMPS :::: //\\Lib :::: the only way to fly >>>>>>
======================================//==\\==================================

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

From: scibp6p@panix.com (Boris Pitel)
Subject: SB CD-ROM
Date: 11 Jul 1994 19:17:40 -0400

 Hi, everybody!
I am learning UNIX pogramming on FreeBSD :)). What I am trying to do currently
it is to write a driver for Sound Blaster CD-ROM. But the first barrier I met
 on this way 
is to find any programming info on how to control CD-ROM part of the SB card.
I contacted Creaqtive Labs, and tech. support lady told me that she doesn't
know where to get this information, that they, of course can sell me their
"Developer's kit", but doesn't have any information on CD-ROM part of the board!How can it be, I am unable to imagine. The only useful thing the Creative Labs.
tech. support gave me is that LINUX already has this driver?
   Now after long introduction, the question :
   Can anybody point me to the sources of this driver ( I hope it doesn't sound
like : "Give me your money, maan!"::)), or if it is not possible to the
programming info about Sound Blaster CDROM.
   Do you think that porting a CDROM driver from LINUX to FreeBSD will be
easier then just to write a driver from the scatch?
   All opinions, information and advices will be appreciated.
        Boris Pitel  

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


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