Subject: Linux-Development Digest #943
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:     Sun, 24 Jul 94 08:13:05 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #943, Volume #1         Sun, 24 Jul 94 08:13:05 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Xfree86: increase pallate? (Brandon S. Allbery)
  An Xconfig builder is now available for SVGA256 (others untested) (Elaine Walton)
  Re: New Linux kernels won't boot (Sam Oscar Lantinga)
  aha152x SCSI parity (Randy Hootman)
  Re: New kernel message at boot time? (Linus Torvalds)
  Re: Xfree86: increase pallate? (Eric Youngdale)
  Re: serious defect on linux (Adam DePrince)
  Re: Quotas and Accounting in Kernel? (Juha Virtanen)
  Re: 1.1.34 stuff (Juha Virtanen)
  Fix for problems with sound when system is idle. (Oliver Daudey)
  Re: OpneGL and Linux (Dirk Bernhardt)
  SBPro Question with Linux.. (Richard Whittaker)
  Re: fact on linux vs sun (Donald Becker)
  Re: Where's the source? (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
  Re: CD-ROM tray control (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
  procps-0.95 broken -- problem is in linux/sched.h (Nick Kralevich)

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

From: bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery)
Subject: Re: Xfree86: increase pallate?
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 1994 21:38:10 GMT

In article <CtCoMK.3nC@aib.com>, hohndel@aib.com (Dirk Hohndel) says:
+---------------
| I always wonder where you guys get the information about what we're 
| going to do, that you spread here as facts...
+------------->8

Probably the same place PC Week got its "information" about Novell releasing a
Linux-based system for sale this month.  (I suspect what "Corsair" really was,
was a prototype for the desktop for a future Unixware release.  Not that I
know any more about it than anyone except the Novell folks --- who aren't
talking.)

Welcome to the Net of a Million Lies...

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery         kf8nh@44.70.4.88               bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org
Friends don't let friends load Windows NT (tnx Sun)    A Linux iBCS2 developer

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

From: ewalton@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Elaine Walton)
Subject: An Xconfig builder is now available for SVGA256 (others untested)
Date: 22 Jul 1994 01:29:27 GMT

I completed and have been testing a program which will build an Xconfig
using some information from the user and X -probeonly.  You can get it
at sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/X11/config called mkxconfig.tar.gz.
-Sean

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

From: slouken@cs.ucdavis.edu (Sam Oscar Lantinga)
Subject: Re: New Linux kernels won't boot
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 1994 01:17:51 GMT

: >     I had the same problem myself, but when I did 'make clean; make dep'
: >and then remade the kernel, it worked fine.  It seems that 'make clean'
: >is a vital step with the new kernel patches coming out. 

: That made NO change.

        Hum...  I don't know what it could be.  It only happened to
me once, and then never again.  You reran lilo, of course... Hmm.

-Sam


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

From: rph@netcom.com (Randy Hootman)
Subject: aha152x SCSI parity
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1994 02:53:34 GMT

I need to disable parity in the aha152x driver. I have an NEC CDR25BJ and 
an NEC CDR210 CD-ROM drive and they only work in DOS with parity 
disabled. In the source for the aha152x driver, there is a printf that 
outputs that parity is enabled. BTW, I have an aha1522 SCSI adaptor.

Can I disable the parity at boot time by entering args that I don't know 
about or do I have to recompile to get what I need. If so, what do I need 
to do in the source to disable parity?

I can't figure out how to enable parity in the drives. Any help will be
appreciated. 

For the record, the hardware configuration I have works great in DOS and 
MS-Windows. No problems. However, if I try to enable parity on the 
aha1522 adaptor board DOS, my computer locks up while trying to access 
the CD-ROM (as it does under Linux with or without the parity enabled or 
disabled on the card itself). The aha1522 has the ability of the hardware 
settings can be overridden by the software.

TIA,
Randy Hootman
-- 

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
     "In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings,
      we pay ourselves the highest tribute." - Thurgood Marshall
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Randy Hootman                Randysoft Software             (408) 229-0119


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

From: torvalds@cc.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds)
Subject: Re: New kernel message at boot time?
Date: 23 Jul 1994 00:54:10 +0300

In article <30p3ks$cfm@crl5.crl.com>, Bogdan Urma <bogdan@crl.com> wrote:
>   With the new kernel 1.1.33 I'm getting a new kernel message at boot time.
>
>16384 bytes for swap cache allocated
>
>   What does this mean??

It just means that linux has allocated a bit of your memory in order to
make using the remaining memory more efficient (4 bytes per physical
page, to be exact: you have a 16MB machine?)

With 1.1.33 (and now 1.1.34 which cleans up some more and fixes ptrace,
for example), the kernel remembers which pages have been swapped out
even after thay are swapped in again so that the next time they are
swapped out they don't even need to be written to disk if they haven't
changed in the meantime.  With a 4MB machine this should result in
rather noticeable speedups of up to 30% when compiling the kernel, for
example. 

Idea and original code by Dmitry Gorodchanin, btw, with some rather
heavy hacking by me.  People with 4MB machines might like to test out
1.1.34: it should be reasonably stable and I'd really like to have some
comments (timings if possible) by a few testers who have less memory
than most of the normal kernel testers..  (people who test out the
latest kernel tend to have at least 8MB in their machines). 

Oh, lest I forget: If somebody hasn't noticed yet, the newer kernels
will also require people to actually set the "read-only" flag when
mounting read-only media like a write-protected diskette or a CD-ROM. 
You might think it's stupid (the kernel can find out on its own that
it's read-only), but if you want to have the right entry in your
/etc/mtab it needs to be done at user level.  So add that "ro" entry to
your /etc/fstab or use the "-r" flag when mounting.. 

                Linus

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

From: ericy@cais.cais.com (Eric Youngdale)
Subject: Re: Xfree86: increase pallate?
Date: 22 Jul 1994 22:11:32 GMT

Phil Johnson (johnsonp@sscnet.ucla.edu) wrote:
: In article <30ne0u$6gm@nic.umass.edu>,
: >I heard that millions of colors would arrive with XFree 3.1
:
: Perhaps you are joking, but someone out there will believe you.  
: XFree86[tm] 3.1 will not increase the colors available.

        I heard that you will only get the additional colors if you are 
using FreeLSD or NetLSD :-).

-Eric

-- 
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep.  But I have promises to keep,
And lines to code before I sleep, And lines to code before I sleep."

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

From: axd0822@hertz.njit.edu (Adam DePrince)
Subject: Re: serious defect on linux
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1994 05:42:36 GMT

In article <308f7k$6sf@crl.crl.com> bhogan@crl.com (Bill Hogan) writes:
>James Smith (smith@meishan.animal.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>: i just run 13,973 K code on linux with 16 mb ram
>: and it use swap memory.  The 1 minute cpu time
>: become 2 hr run time.   This is very serious defect
>: on swap memory.  Can anyone fix this?
[stuff deleted]
>should have happened or not, I would have to see the program you are
>talking about. 
>

Probally implemting a high order algorithum.  O(2^n) and the likes
have a tendency to do this.

Just my $2E-2

                                        Adam DePrince
                                        axd0822@hertz.njit.edu
-- 
===============================================================
Tic.                            |       Adam DePrince
                                |       axd0822@hertz.njit.edu

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

From: Juha.Virtanen@hut.fi (Juha Virtanen)
Subject: Re: Quotas and Accounting in Kernel?
Date: 23 Jul 1994 21:41:56 GMT
Reply-To: jiivee@hut.fi

>>>>> On 23 Jul 1994 12:08:14 -0700, toman@darkwing.uoregon.edu
(Joseph Toman) said: 
:> Quotas + accounting *should* definitively be a part of the standard
:> kernel!!!

I guess they'll become part of standard kernel after 1.2.x code
freeze on some 1.3.z kernel.

As a side note I tell that kernel patches as they're found in
acct-1.1.18.tar.gz package still apply to Linux-1.1.34
kernel. Works great!


Juha
--
Meskimen's Law:
        There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to
        do it over.

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

From: Juha.Virtanen@hut.fi (Juha Virtanen)
Subject: Re: 1.1.34 stuff
Date: 23 Jul 1994 21:48:14 GMT
Reply-To: jiivee@hut.fi

>>>>> On Sat, 23 Jul 1994 12:00:15 GMT,
c9108932@sage.newcastle.edu.au (Simon Ferrett) said: 

:> swap_duplicate: trying to duplicate unused page

I have also seen these messages. In my system they came from
atrun which was unable to run due to this problem. I also got a
message "swap-space map bad...".

:> I was getting these 2 at a time about every minute.. the
:> system was under no load, but there had been some stuf swapped
:> out previously...
:> I have 8M ram/20Mswap - AMI bios 486/50

Maybe your atrun isn't running properly either?

:> also - kmem ps 1.1.18 doesnt compile under the new kernel
:> anymore - is anyone planning of doing a fix up for this?

Don't know if this patch is currently enough for kmem-ps. I did
this when it broke under Linux-1.1.27.

============================================================================
--- fstat.c~    Fri Jun  3 05:09:19 1994
+++ fstat.c     Sat Jul  9 19:48:32 1994
@@ -367,14 +367,14 @@
 #include <linux/net.h>
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 #include <sys/un.h>
-#include <linux/ddi.h>
+/* #include <linux/ddi.h> */
 #include <linux/timer.h>
 #include <linux/ip.h>
 #include <linux/tcp.h>
 #include <linux/netdevice.h>
 #include <linux/skbuff.h>
-#include <net/inet/inet.h>
-#include <net/inet/dev.h>
+#include <linux/inet.h>
+#include <linux/etherdevice.h>
 #include <net/inet/protocol.h>
 #include <net/inet/sock.h>
 #include <net/inet/ip.h>
============================================================================


Juha
--
Meskimen's Law:
        There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to
        do it over.

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

From: traveler@backdoor.hacktic.nl (Oliver Daudey)
Subject: Fix for problems with sound when system is idle.
Date: 24 Jul 1994 07:51:35 -0000

Since my uplink had problems with their news and I'm not sure if this made
the outside world, I'm reposting it...

Some time ago my sound suddenly stopped working...  As soon as my system
was idle, the sound would get scrambled.  I tried all kinds of things, like
changing IRQ/DMA/address on my SB-Pro, without success...  The weird thing
was that it worked perfectly on a friend's system with the same kernel, so
I expected a hardware problem.  This was even more strange because it went
away by booting an old kernel, which seemed to indicate a software problem..

Just recently, it suddenly came to me that sys_idle() had been changed to
halt the CPU when the kernel is idle.  I decided to give it a try and removed
the hlt-instruction.  After that, everything suddenly worked again.  No more
need to start a CPU-intensive program just to be able to play some MOD's. :-)

I wonder if more people experienced this problem, as I didn't read anything
about it in the Linux-groups.  It seems to be a hardware problem, triggered
by software...  Maybe my motherboard handles the halts incorrectly.  I have
a Highscreen (one of this "exclusive" Colani-designs  :-)  ).  The mother-
board is a 4386-VC-V, equipped with a 486 DX/2-66, 8 Megs of RAM and 256K
cache...  Chipset is VIA VT82C480...  The soundcard is a SB-Pro, which is
reported at bootup as "snd2 <SoundBlaster Pro 3.2> at 0x220 irq 7 drq 1"...

Anyone with the same hardware, who has/had similar problems??

I also experience lockups when playing samples/MOD's under Linux as well as
Messy-DOS, but I guess this is not the right group to discuss them, however,
if you know a solution, please E-mail me...  I already tried disabling the
cache, which didn't help and also isn't desirable...  I also tried changing
the IRQ/DMA/address with no luck...  It seems to occur only when playing 
stops, not while playing...

Oh yeah!  Before I forget it, here's the patch.  If you experience similar
problems (scrambled sound when system is idle), you might give it a try...

I assume most of you know how to apply a patch...  Apply this one from your
`/usr/src/linux/kernel'-directory...

   Good luck!

=============<cut here>=============
--- sys.c-old   Fri Jul 22 03:34:18 1994
+++ sys.c       Fri Jul 22 03:34:46 1994
@@ -53,8 +53,6 @@
        /* endless idle loop with no priority at all */
        current->counter = -100;
        for (;;) {
-               if (!need_resched)
-                       __asm__("hlt");
                schedule();
        }
 }
=============<ereh tuc>=============

        Greets...

            Oliver......
--
   /----------------------------------------------------------------------\
   | traveler@backdoor.hacktic.nl  |  For my public PGP2.3-key, finger    |
   |                               |  traveler@hacktic.nl or send empty   |
   | Linux...  The full 32-bit,    |  mail to pubkey@backdoor.hacktic.nl  |
   | free Unix for 386 and higher. |  Support electronic privacy before   |
   |                               |  it's too late!  Use PGP!            |
   |      --- This message printed with 100% recycled electrons ---       |
   \----------------------------------------------------------------------/

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

Date: Wed, 20 Jul 1994 17:50:42 +0200
From: Dirk_Bernhardt@punk.fido.de (Dirk Bernhardt)
Subject: Re: OpneGL and Linux


Hi shih!

s> I would like to know if OpenGL would be implemented on linux, either now or
s> near future.

There is some kind of port called "vogl" resp. "vogle". As far as I know it is
a compatible port, although not everything is portet.

Tot schrijfs,

          /Krid/

============================================================================
  Dirk Bernhardt (Krid)              |
  - Dirk_Bernhardt@punk.fido.de      | "Your mind is the only prison
  - Dirk_Bernhardt@solaris.oche.de   |  that can ever bind your soul."
  PGP Key on demand                  |


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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
From: rwhittak@orion.docwhitehorse.doc.ca (Richard Whittaker)
Subject: SBPro Question with Linux..
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 94 06:10:01 GMT

Greetings from Whitehorse!.. 

I would like to use my SBPro as a base oscillator for my morse code key, but
in orderto do thius I need to get my SBPro to output a continuous signal of
about 5000hz.. I get the feeling that this is possible, but am not sure of
how to do so.. Any information on this would be muchly appreciated, E-Mails
are welcome.. :-)

                                        Cheers,
                                        RIch W.
--
Richard Whittaker: Snailmail: 1102 Pine St, Whitehorse YT Y1A 4E8
  Internet E-Mail: rwhittak@orion.docwhitehorse.doc.ca 
Geographic Coords: 60 Deg., 45', 53" N., 135 Deg., 7', 17" W. 
    Amateur Radio: VY1RW, VY1RW@VY1DX, VY1RW@VY1BBS, 145.010 MHz         

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

From: becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov (Donald Becker)
Subject: Re: fact on linux vs sun
Date: 21 Jul 1994 00:49:29 -0400

In article <30hf9o$o1n@aurora.engr.latech.edu>,
Don Garrett <dgarrett@orbit.cs.engr.latech.edu> wrote:
>  I still prefer the PC, but I'm really suprised out how much the full
>networking costs in performance. I am hoping that another 4M will help
>make up for a lot of the lost speed. And maybe a high-class networking
>card. (I have an old 8 bit card with DMA)

Errcckk!  An 8 bit ethernet card, and you are doing performance comparisons?
Most 8 bit cards suffer not only from the decreased bus width, but also by
having slower access time.  Putting one of these on a busy net, especially a
net with a lot of broadcast traffic, is a real performance hit.

-- 
Donald Becker                                     becker@cesdis1.gsfc.nasa.gov
USRA Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882         http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/people/becker/whoiam.html

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

Date: Sat, 23 Jul 1994 00:38:10 +0200
From: Eberhard_Moenkeberg@p27.rollo.central.de (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
Subject: Re: Where's the source?


Hello Karl Hakimian - staff and all others,

on 22.07.94 Karl Hakimian - staff wrote to All in
USENET.COMP.OS.LINUX.DEVELOPMENT:

KH> Is there a site where I can get the source to the slackware distribution?
Am I
KH> just blind and it has been sitting out there in plain sight begging to be
KH> ftp'ed and I have not seen it?

ftp.gwdg.de:/pub/linux/install/slack-src/

Greetings ... Eberhard


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

From: emoenke@gwdu03.gwdg.de (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
Subject: Re: CD-ROM tray control
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1994 10:50:17 GMT

BCL (cypress@connected.com) wrote:
:   I have just gotten my Matsushita CR-563 working with Linux and my SB16
: card. There are no problems with normal operations, but I need to be able to
: control the tray when there is no disk in it, and when it is already
: open(ie. close it).

The current sbpcd.c code (only in the 1.1.x kernels, last regarding change
was last week, I think) automatically closes the tray during an "open"
request and locks it.
If you say "CDROMEJECT" (you can only say that if the drive is "opened"), I
open the tray. Next "open" request closes it again (workman users have to
hurry :-).

 I've looked at the sbpcd.c code and hacked it to ignore
: drive open/no disk conditions, but the eject command will not close the
: door, or open it with no disk.

I could implement a separate CDROMCLOSEDOOR, but that probably would not
help you. One can only take actions upon an "opened" device, and you will
not get access to the device without a disk in it.

: I am working on a CD-ROM Jukebox using a mechanical arm to load
: my PC's tray and then close and play the cd.

It should be possible with the current versions of sbpcd (2.3 and above)
if you ALWAYS have a disk in.

Additionally, I could open the tray if an "open_device" request appears with
no disk in. But that would possibly lead to a horror scenario all over
the world if the trays come shooting out during "mount -a" ...

Cheers -e-
-- 
Eberhard Moenkeberg                                GGG   W   W  DDDD    GGG
                                                  G      W   W  D   D  G
E-Mail:   emoenke@gwdg.de                         G GGG  W   W  D   D  G GGG
Phone: +49 551 201551  Fax: +49 551 21119         G   G  W W W  D   D  G   G
Mail:                                              GGG   WW WW  DDDD    GGG
Ges. fuer wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH
Am Fassberg
D-37077 Goettingen           GERMANY
Private Email: Eberhard_Moenkeberg@rollo.central.de (FIDO: 2:2437/210.27)


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

From: nickkral@po.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Nick Kralevich)
Subject: procps-0.95 broken -- problem is in linux/sched.h
Date: 24 Jul 1994 11:48:10 GMT


Kernel version 1.1.34. 

I created a small test file with the following in it:

===== Begin =====
#include <linux/sched.h>

main ()
{
  printf("Hello");
}
===== End =====

However, when I tried to compile it, I came up with these error 
messages:

In file included from /usr/include/linux/fs.h:15,
                 from /usr/include/linux/sched.h:86,
                 from testfile.c:1:
/usr/include/linux/net.h:104: parse error before `select_table'
In file included from /usr/include/linux/sched.h:86,
                 from testfile.c:1:
/usr/include/linux/fs.h:181: field `i_sem' has incomplete type
In file included from /usr/include/linux/sched.h:86,
                 from testfile.c:1:
/usr/include/linux/fs.h:289: parse error before `select_table'
/usr/include/linux/sched.h: In function `add_wait_queue':
In file included from testfile.c:1:
/usr/include/linux/sched.h:473: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
/usr/include/linux/sched.h:476: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
/usr/include/linux/sched.h:476: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

[many repetitions of above line deleted]


From this I guessed that there was somthing wrong with the source code
for linux, although I can't figure out what.  I tried going through the 
source code, and I could find nothing wrong with it.

The line where it first has a problem is:

  int   (*select)       (struct socket *sock, int sel_type,
                         select_table *wait);

in net.h.  The error message was "parse error before select_table");

This problem is keeping procps-0.95 from compiling.  Without
a fix, the process version of ps can't compile.  I don't know 
what was the first kernel version where the program wouldn't 
compile, but I am testing it on 1.1.34.  It seems clear that there
is somthing wrong with the source code, but I spent 4 hours,
and couldn't find the first parse errror.  Agggggg!!!!!!!

If anything, this is just to let everyone know that this is broken.

Take care,
-- Nick Kralevich
   nickkral@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu

-- 
Nick Kralevich                        nickkral@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu
"A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems shorter than 
a minute.  But tell that same man to sit on a hot stove for a minute, 
it is longer than any hour.  That's relativity."  -- Einstein

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


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