Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #200
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 17:13:18 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #200, Volume #1                Tue, 12 Oct 93 17:13:18 EDT

Contents:
  Re: [ANSWER] Re: Why only compressed kernels? (Byron A Jeff)
  Re: Please help!! need sysinstall syntax for install from HD (Denis Endisch)
  Re: PPP for Linux? Well... almost as good (Heribert Dahms)
  Hildesheim Open Programming Contest (Arnd Gerns)
  Re: Kernel .99.13 and sig 11's (Gareth Bult)
  Unix manual, SLIP (Eric J. Forbis)
  Re: [ANSWER] Re: Why only compressed kernels? (Holger Veit)
  Re: Don't use SLS (Re: Which linux should I install...or which is best?) (Dave Clemans)
  Re: Personal info about Linus (Risto Widenius)
  Adaptec 2892 (Thomas M|lbach)
  Re: [ANSWER] Re: Why only compressed kernels? (Tim Smith)
  Re: Personal info about Linus (Mika Jalava)
  Re: test (Stephen Bryant)
  Linux on Disk/Tape $41 (Stephen Balbach)

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

From: byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff)
Subject: Re: [ANSWER] Re: Why only compressed kernels?
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 14:15:55 GMT

In article <29dmt4$1ec@news.u.washington.edu>,
Tim Smith <tzs@stein3.u.washington.edu> wrote:
>Stephen Tweedie <sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>>You got it in one.  The kernel boot image, plus LILO and the initial
>>kernel page tables, have all got to fit into this 640K limit.  If you
>
>Why?

It's been stated before but I will repeat. It's a hardware limitation. The
machine starts in real mode and has a discontinous address space (I/O
between 640K and 1M) Because of this the loader needs to get the kernel into
the first 640K. After that the machine is put into protected mode and all
the memory becomes available. 

Note this is not precise but is the general jist of what happens.

BAJ
---
Another random extraction from the mental bit stream of...
Byron A. Jeff - PhD student operating in parallel!
Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332   Internet: byron@cc.gatech.edu

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

From: dendisch@cat.physics.uwo.ca (Denis Endisch)
Subject: Re: Please help!! need sysinstall syntax for install from HD
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 14:15:40 GMT

hawks@seq.uncwil.edu (David Hawks) writes:

>I am very eager to get started, I mean really started.  I have read the
>FAQs and readme's, did I miss one?  I am installing the latesting version
>of SLS from tsx-11.mit.edu, pub/linux/packages/SLS/a*, b*, c* and x*.
>I have two disk drives.  The primary drive(master drive) is an MSDOS drive.
>The second drive( slave drive ) is my linux drive.  After installing
>the --> a <-- disks there is /dev/hda1(msdos) and /dev/hdb1(linux), 
>/dev/hdb2(linux swap).  I have the b, c, and x files on the msdos drive in
>the directory C:\INSTALL\B*..X*\*.tgz.  Even with a couple examples of
>sysinstall in the FAQs and READMEs I see no exact example that will work.
[some lines deleted]

mount your dos partition on /dos (or whatever you like).
'mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /dos'
Then use 'sysinstall -instsrc /dos/install -series b' to install all b*.
(The names of the directories in /dos/install must be like the names 
in pub/linux/packages/SLS on tsx-11.)
Denis
--
Denis Endisch                 Phone:  (519) 661 - 2111x6413
Department of Physics         Fax:    (519) 661 - 2033
Univ. of Western Ontario      email:  dendisch@uwo.ca
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7

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

From: DAHMS@ifk20.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de (Heribert Dahms)
Subject: Re: PPP for Linux? Well... almost as good
Date: 12 Oct 1993 14:51:38 GMT

In <29ai76$e5g@renux.frmug.fr.net> rene@renux.frmug.fr.net writes:

: Ce brave Michael O'Reilly ecrit:
: 
: > setup'. Write something that likes an 8bit clean line, and see how
: > many people mail you complaining that it doesn't work.. :)
: 
: Hum... In other countries than USA, (France for example...), write some piece
: of software which is NOT 8 bit clean, and see how many people tell you that
: they can't use it :-)
: 
: A great thing in the Linux story, is that Linus was born in a country where
: characters are not only A-z and keyboards not QWERTY... :-)
: 
Yeah, and many newsreaders or mailers aren't 8bit clean, too.
While your software may do processing which is 8bit clean, the source better
doesn't contain any special chars...
And what 8bit charset to use? ISO8859-1 (ISO-LATIN-1) of course, not PC-8 8-)

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


Bye, Heribert (dahms@ifk20.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de)

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

Crossposted-To: comp.unix.programmer,comp.graphics
From: gerns@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de (Arnd Gerns)
Subject: Hildesheim Open Programming Contest
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 14:45:50 GMT


                Hildesheim Open Programming Contest

                        Hildesheim, Germany
           
                    January 28 - January 30 1994

            First Announcement and Call for Participants

   In January 1994 the finals of the international "Hildesheim Open
   Programming Contest" will take place at the University of Hildesheim,
   Germany. The qualification round will start at October 20th, 1993.

   Concept of the game
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------
      For the Hildesheim Open a programming system for the simulation
      of a virtual world was developed and implemented. The task of
      the participating teams is to develop and implement strategies,
      which control the tokens in this virtual world.

      The world consists of an unknown maze, the tokens are mice with
      different capabilities. The mice fly in teacups through the maze
      and collect as much corn as possible. Each mouse belongs to a
      specific team, each team may employ several mice. Within one
      game several teams play against each other, thus there are many
      possibilities for cooperation or confrontation.

   Who may participate?
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Any team consisting of exactly three persons may participate. The
      participants should have knowledge of one of the programming languages
      C or C++.  The language spoken during the contest will be English.
   
   Qualification round
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------
      To be able to participate in the qualification round, access to
      a UNIX machine with X-Windows and C++ is necessary. The programming
      environment will be distributed as source code at October 20th, 1993.
      The sources will be available via anonymous ftp from
            ftp.informatik.uni-hildesheim.de
      in the directory pub/contest.

      Strategies coded in C or C++ can be sent to the University of
      Hildesheim till December 6th, 1993. All strategies will compete
      against several other strategies in order to find out the 16 teams
      with the best strategies. These 16 teams will be invited for the
      finals in Hildesheim.
   
   Finals
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------
      The finals will be held at University of Hildesheim, Germany. The
      programming task of the finals will base on that of the qualification
      round. Several new features will be added.
      
      Each qualified team will have access to three UNIX-workstations with
      X-Windows, thus the teams will be able to enhance their strategies to
      handle the new situation.

      For the finals a graphic version will be developed which presents
      the mice and other objects in real-time-3D graphic.

      The finalists will only have to pay for traveling expenses, the
      organizers provide accommodation and catering during the event in
      Hildesheim.

   Important Dates
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------
      October 20, 1993      Distribution of the game programming environment
      December 6, 1993      Deadline for application for the contest
      December 20, 1993     Invitation of 16 teams for the contest
      January 28-30, 1994   Hildesheim Open Programming Contest

   Further information is available from:
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------
      University of Hildesheim
      Hildesheim Open Programming Contest
      Arnd Gerns
      Samelsonplatz 1
      D-31141 Hildesheim

      Phone:   +49 5121 883 755
      Fax:     +49 5121 883 749
      E-Mail:  contest-info@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de
               gerns@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de

      If you are interested in the contest please subscribe to the
      mailing list contest@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de by sending
      a short note to contest-request@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de.

   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Feel free to distribute this announcement to local newsgroups and
      bulletin board services.


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

From: gareth@gblinux.demon.co.uk (Gareth Bult)
Subject: Re: Kernel .99.13 and sig 11's
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 23:24:26 GMT

I got a lot of Sig11's at one point back in 10 & 11. Turned out to be 
either a really obscure problem with the disk. Basically an IDE with a 
interittent fault actually on card part of the disk. (Really obscure...)
OR the fact that my GCC stuff was all out of sync...                                                                            
                                                                            
Anyway, a new disk and a complete GNU upgrade cured the problem)            
(I had other problems.. like the system seemed to work only when hot..!)    
                                                                            

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

From: forb0004@gold.tc.umn.edu (Eric J. Forbis)
Subject: Unix manual, SLIP
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 17:11:59 GMT

Has anyone seen the Linux Documentation Project's _Linux User's Guide_ as 
mentioned in Appendix B of  _Linux Installation and Getting Started_? I've 
checked tsx-11.mit.edu /pub/linux/ALPHA/LDP and /pub/linux/docs, as suggested, 
but didn't see them around.

According to the Linux Net-2 Howto, if you installed SLS 1.03 you should have 
all the Net-2 files installed. I installed the "Main" version (disk series 
a,b,c, and x), but do not have the /user/src subdirectories referred to in the 
Net2-Howto; I assume you need to install the full implementation of Linux to 
get all this. I'm up against a wall with disk space, though, and so would like 
to install as little beyond the "main" setup as possible. Would the S1 disk 
(source code) do the trick? The rest seems to be TeX and documentation.

For those who don't have the net2 files, the net2-howto suggests picking up 5 
or 6 files from 3 sites. I'd like to avoid this, if possible- I'm not Linux- 
savvy enough yet to deal with variations on a theme I don't know. 

How about the net2-debugged file? Does this require files from multiple 
sources?

Thanks,



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

From: veit@borneo.gmd.de (Holger Veit)
Subject: Re: [ANSWER] Re: Why only compressed kernels?
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 16:21:06 GMT

In article <1993Oct12.141555.18961@cc.gatech.edu>, byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff) writes:
|> In article <29dmt4$1ec@news.u.washington.edu>,
|> Tim Smith <tzs@stein3.u.washington.edu> wrote:
|> >Stephen Tweedie <sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
|> >>You got it in one.  The kernel boot image, plus LILO and the initial
|> >>kernel page tables, have all got to fit into this 640K limit.  If you
|> >
|> >Why?
|> 
|> It's been stated before but I will repeat. It's a hardware limitation. The
|> machine starts in real mode and has a discontinous address space (I/O
|> between 640K and 1M) Because of this the loader needs to get the kernel into
|> the first 640K. After that the machine is put into protected mode and all
|> the memory becomes available. 
|> 
|> Note this is not precise but is the general jist of what happens.
|> 
|> BAJ
|> ---
|> Another random extraction from the mental bit stream of...
|> Byron A. Jeff - PhD student operating in parallel!
|> Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332   Internet: byron@cc.gatech.edu

I believe the question "Why?" aims at another thing, namely:
If the 640K limit is a restriction, then *why* don't you load above
1MB, where you find sufficient contiguous memory? The stuff to
move code to there is already in the BIOS (INT 15h), even if it is
slow (actually, since the [34]86 can get as easily out of PM as into,
in contrast to the 286, only BIOS access itself is slow).
The bootstrap loader can, and does, reside in low memory (I doubt it will
ever reach the 640K size limit :-)), and when all necessary stuff has
been done, it switches to PM and calls the kernel at (physical) 1M.
Stuff is necessary in mm, of course to reclaim the now unused 640K
area and the inter-adaptor area.

-- 
         Dr. Holger Veit                   | INTERNET: Holger.Veit@gmd.de
|  |   / GMD-SET German National Research  | Phone: (+49) 2241 14 2448
|__|  /  Center for Computer Science       | Fax:   (+49) 2241 14 2342
|  | /   P.O. Box 13 16                    | Had a nightmare yesterday:
|  |/    Schloss Birlinghoven              | My system started up with
         53731 St. Augustin, Germany       | ... Booting vmunix.el ...

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

From: dclemans@$DOMAIN (Dave Clemans)
Subject: Re: Don't use SLS (Re: Which linux should I install...or which is best?)
Date: 12 Oct 1993 16:12:41 GMT
Reply-To: dave_clemans@mentorg.com

One side note... There is a problem with the TAMU boot disk.

I've got an IBM PS/1. This is one of the systems where the Linux IDE
driver can't automatically detect hard disk geometry.  (Apparently the
IBM BIOS/etc. stores that information differently than the clone BIOS's).

The SLS boot disk will work with this hardware if you give the
        hd=cylinders,heads,sectors
argument to LILO. The TAMU bootdisk claims it accepts that argument, but as
far as I can tell it completely ignores it. The IDE driver fails to
initialize in exactly the same way, whether the "hd=..." parameter
was given or not given.

dgc


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

From: widenius@polva.helsinki.fi (Risto Widenius)
Subject: Re: Personal info about Linus
Date: 12 Oct 1993 18:01:48 GMT

mjalava@ahti.hut.fi (Mika Jalava) writes:
>Risto Widenius <widenius@polva.helsinki.fi> wrote:
>>Linus is currently about 22 years and 7 months young.  He speaks
>>Swedish, English, Finnish (badly :), and a bit of Latin.
>Actually his Finnish is quite good, that must have been just a joke...

That excerpt is from Lars, not me, but I must say that I agree with his
opinion about Linus' Finnish - like a child speaking. Note also that
Linus nowadays is 23 years and [mumble] months old, err, young.

-- 
rw

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

From: tmolbach@ugle.runit.sintef.no (Thomas M|lbach)
Subject: Adaptec 2892
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 16:58:27 GMT


The Adaptec 2892 fast SCSI-II VLB harddisk controller comes with
DOS and windows drivers only. Does anyone know if there are plans for
making or if there exists OS/2 and Linux drivers??

Please also email any answers to me.
  _______   _   _    ___    _   _    ___    ___
 (__   __) | |_| |  / _ \  | \ / |  / _ \  / __) \  Thomas Molbach
    | |    |  _  | | ( ) | |  V  | | /_\ | \___   \  Norwegian Institute Of
    | |    | | | | | (_) | | |V| | |  _  |  __ \   \  Technology
    |_|    |_| |_|  \___/  |_| |_| |_| |_| (___/    \ tmolbach@lise.unit.no

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

From: tzs@stein3.u.washington.edu (Tim Smith)
Subject: Re: [ANSWER] Re: Why only compressed kernels?
Date: 12 Oct 1993 18:47:49 GMT

Byron A Jeff <byron@cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
>>Why?
>
>It's been stated before but I will repeat. It's a hardware limitation. The
>machine starts in real mode and has a discontinous address space (I/O
>between 640K and 1M) Because of this the loader needs to get the kernel into
>the first 640K. After that the machine is put into protected mode and all
>the memory becomes available. 

Why not load the kernel entirely above 1 meg?  On a *286* this is somewhat
hard to do, unless you want to use the undocumented LOADALL instruction,
but on a 386 or 486, it is no problem.  (In fact, doesn't SCO do this?  I'm
pretty sure ISC did this, too).  The problem with the 286 was that it was
hard to switch back to real mode from protected mode (which you need to
do, assuming that you are using INT 13h to read the kernel from disk),
but on the 386 it is easy to switch back.

--Tim Smith

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

From: mjalava@ahti.hut.fi (Mika Jalava)
Subject: Re: Personal info about Linus
Date: 12 Oct 1993 19:07:27 GMT

In article <WIDENIUS.93Oct12200148@polva.helsinki.fi>,
Risto Widenius <widenius@polva.helsinki.fi> wrote:

>That excerpt is from Lars, not me, but I must say that I agree with his
>opinion about Linus' Finnish - like a child speaking. Note also that
>Linus nowadays is 23 years and [mumble] months old, err, young.

Well, we must remember his mother tongue is Swedish and as a second
language, he speaks Finnish better than some that have it as their
first one. But of course it is worse than that of an average Finn.

So, maybe we should conclude that his Finnish is not too perfect, but
quite understandable, and that isn't an easy thing to achieve :-)

        Mika


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

From: bassman@isoit034.bbn.hp.com (Stephen Bryant)
Subject: Re: test
Date: 12 Oct 93 15:23:44 GMT

I'd be inclined to recommend installing from floppy, using SLS (Softlanding
Linux System). Admittedly, I've never tried using cd-rom, but I don't have
a drive or a linux install cd !  The floppy method avoids possible hardware
problems with unsupported cd drives, and the SLS kit has a complete install
program which even the most stupid people can use (ie: I've done it !).
If you're not going to use a network, see if you can get SLS1.02. There is
an SLS1.03 which supports networking, but the kernel is less reliable - it
tends to crash if you start getting people rlogging into it.

Bassman

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

From: stephen@clarknet.clark.net (Stephen Balbach)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Linux on Disk/Tape $41
Date: 12 Oct 1993 16:42:26 -0400

                      Linux SLS or Slackware 

Linux is a 32-bit multi-tasking UNIX OS for the PC.  

              32-bit multi-user/multi-tasking true Unix OS
              TCP/IP Networking
              GNU C/C++/Obj-C + other languages
              X Windows
              Printed Documentation available
              All source available



o SLS Package (Linux version 0.99p12, SLS version 1.03 most recent update)
  Full Set includes disks: A1-A4,B1-B7,C1-C3,D1-D2,S1,T1-T3,X1-X10

              Full set 5.25" 31 disks  $41.00  +S/H
              Full set 3.5"  31 disks  $56.00  +S/H
              Full set DOS QIC-40 tape $36.00  +S/H

  linux-sls@clark.net for more info on SLS package: auto-reply
  
o Slackware Package (Linux version 0.99p12, Slackware version 1.03)
  Full set includes disks: A1-A14,X1-X11,E1-E5,F1  

              Full set 3.5"  32 disks  $56.00  +S/H
              Full set DOS QIC-40 tape $36.00  +S/H

  linux-slack@clark.net for more info on Slackware: auto-reply

=====

Linux Mail-Order Books:

o "Linux Installation and Getting Started"
  (c) Copyright 1993 Matt Welsh
   
   150+ pg. laser printed professionally bound PostScript manual.  
   Excellent new user guide. $15 with a set or
                             $20 +S/H 

   For a description of this book send mail to linux-welsh@clark.net 
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=====

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*  Send mail to linux-compat@clark.net for a Hardware Compatibility Sheet
   automated reply

For a complete description of all packages mentioned above send mail to
linux-all@clark.net and an automatic mailer will reply.

=====

All releases include up to date FAQ's, META-FAQ, HOWTO's and most 
documentation covering Linux. Always shipping the most recent version
direct from the net.

All Linux material is freely available on the Internet and on many BBS's.  You
may FTP Linux and the books from TSX-11.MIT.EDU or SUNSITE.UNC.EDU  
Unless otherwise stated all Linux software is (c) Copyright under the GNU 
GPL liscence.  Credit to Peter McDonald for SLS, Patrick Volkerding 
for Slackware (see the auto-replies for more info).

WARRANTY:  Files or disks damaged during shipment will be replaced.  
           This offer does not include support from me, Slackware or
           SLS (although SLS will provide support for a fee). 

TERMS:  Check (5-day hold), money-order, cashier check, bank wire. 
        Credit Card orders via voice phone  (No e-mail CC#'s please!)
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*       Please add $4 S/H for each order.

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CONTACT:

        Stephen Balbach
        5437 Enberend Terrace
        Columbia, MD 21045
        (410) 740-1157

        stephen@clark.net

Clark Internet Services, home of ClarkNet public dial-up Internet services
local to Washington D.C./Baltimore/Northen VA. Send mail to
all-info@clark.net for more info about ClarkNet.

Full FTP, USENET, SLIP, Clarinet and more...
-- 
Stephen Balbach . Clark Internet Services . Washington D.C./Balt. metro
area . mail info@clark.net . FAX 410-730-9765 . Corp. accounts . Linux on
Disk . 31 disks $45 . stephen@clark.net . voice 410-740-1157


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


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End of Linux-Misc Digest
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