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Aftershock Issue 08

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Aftershock
 · 25 Apr 2019

  

|CanceR|-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|CanceR|
_ _
__________ / /´FTERSHOCK INC. \
/ | | | | | General Info on Linux |
/ | | _|__|_ | Issue #8 * 05/08/1993 |
/| | || \ \ _ . by Nitro-187 ._ /
||__|__||___ |
| |
\ / DISCLAIMER : Congress Shall make no law
\ / respecting an establishment of religion, or
| | prohibiting the free excersize therof; or
| | abriging the freedom of speech, or of the
| | press; or the right of the people peaceably
/´FTERSHOCK to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances..

|CanceR|-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|CanceR|

Hello all.... Wow the releases have been much more frequent...
I am not feeling myself today so I am deciding to release a
FAQ on one of the best fucking O/Ss for the PC. So good and
it is FREE. Cool Huh? Anywayz I'll let you check it out
fer yourself.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


I. LINUX GENERAL INFORMATION
=============================
*** This section is maintained by Matt Welsh (mdw@tc.cornell.edu). Mail
*** him if you have corrections, additions, other questions, etc.
*** Last update November 1992.


QUESTION: What is linux?

ANSWER: Linux is a small unix for 386-AT computers, that has the added
advantage of being free(*). It is still in beta-testing, but is slowly
getting useful even for somewhat real developement. The current
version is CURRENT_VERSION, date: KERNEL_DATE.

(*) Free means that you may use it, change it , redistribute it, as
long as you don't change the copyright. Free does not mean public
domain.


Linux is a freely distributable UNIX clone. It implements a subset of
System V and POSIX functionality, and contains a lot of BSD-isms.
LINUX has been written from scratch, and therefore does not contain
any AT&T or MINIX code--not in the kernel, the compiler, the
utilities, or the libraries. For this reason it can be made available
with the complete source code via anonymous FTP. LINUX runs only on
386/486 AT-bus machines; porting to non-Intel architectures is likely
to be difficult, as the kernel makes extensive use of 386 memory
management and task primitives.


QUESTION: Does Linux support GCC, TCP/IP, X-Windows, MGR, etc.?

ANSWER: Linux currently supports and uses a large amount of the GNU
software (i.e. GCC, bison, groff, etc) so all of that functionality is
there. X-Windows is also available, along with many client
applications. MGR is there too. TCP/IP is in testing, and is available
for you to try out.

(Dirk Hohndel:) TCP/IP is available. I use Linux boxes as Xterminals
and my "own" asterix has mounted half a Gig via NFS. Mitch DSuoza is
running an anonymous FTP server on his Linux box. This is definitely
more than testing. The newest SLS has a TCP/IP kernel by default.


See section VIII of this FAQ ("Features")!

In short, Linux supports many, many features and programs. One of the
biggest questions is:
"Does ***** work on Linux? Does Linux have *****?"
The answer, usually, is "yes". Just check out the rest of this FAQ,
the newsgroup, as well as the files on the FTP sites.


QUESTION: What is the current state of Linux?

ANSWER: read the comp.os.linux newsgroup, where the INFO-SHEET is
periodically posted.


QUESTION: I've just heard about linux, what should I do to get it?

ANSWER: FIRST read this FAQ, and especially section III (installation).
Choose a "release" of Linux (such as MCC, SLS, bootdisk/rootdisk, etc).
Download from your nearest FTP site, use the "rawrite" program as needed
to write the images to high-density floppies (5.25 or 3.5). Specific
instructions are given in section III and in the README files for each
release.

Note that some releases only give you the kernel and a few utilities, and
others give you everything you need (including X11, GCC, and more) in
that latter case the downloading is close to a douzen of SOFT. Just
check out section III for more info.


QUESTION: Does it run on my computer?

ANSWER: Linux has been written on a clone-386, with IDE drives and a VGA
screen. It should work on most similar setups. The harddisk should be
AT-standard, and the system must be ISA. (though *some* EISA success
has been reported [T. Koenig], Linux doesn't take advantage of the EISA
structure). A high density floppy drive -- either 5.25" or 3.5"-- is
required.

{Drew's information:
Linux supports anything that's register compatable with a WD1003 MFM
disk controller (ie, the original PC-AT disk controller.) Most AT
MFM, RLL, ESDI, and IDE setups look like this.

XT compatable disk controllers won't work.

Generally, the rule is if you have the disk configured into the
CMOS setup of your machine, it will work (because the BIOS is talking
to a WD 1003 compatable board), otherwise it won't.}

IDE and MFM seem to work with no problem. It works, also, for some
ESDI drive (you might have to comment out the "unexpected hd
interrupt"
-message from hd.c). There exists a high-level SCSI driver,
under which low-level drivers are placed; a ST-01/ST-02 low driver has
been completed see the FEATURES and the USEFUL ADDRESSES sections.


Otherwise the requirements seem relatively small: a 386 (SX, DX or any
486). Any video card of the following: Hercules, CGA, EGA, (S)VGA.

It needs at least 2M to run (with SWAP), and 4M is definitely a plus.
It can happily use up to 16M (and more if you want).

BTW There are problems with some MAXTOR drives on high speed machines
(sometimes switching off "turbo" helps). There may also be a problem
with "slow" memory (under 60ns) on fast machines. Again, the solution
is to turn off "turbo". Mixed SIMMs (3 and 9 chip versions) have also
reported to be problematic.

NOTE1: It doesn't run (yet?) on a MCA machine
NOTE2: There is a driver for XT but not tested by me (see below)
NOTE3: There is also a support for 8514 and S3.

From: smackinla@cc.curtin.edu.au (Pat Mackinlay)
Subject: ANNOUNCE: New XT disk driver
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 15:24:27 GMT

This is a short note to annouce the second release of the XT hard disk
drivers for Linux. This set of patches is for Linux 0.99 (pl0) and
should be available on tsx-11 under
/pub/linux/ALPHA/xtdisk/xtdisk2.tar.Z and
/pub/linux/ALPHA/xtdisk/README.xtdisk.

Just a brief introduction: this driver allows you to use XT-style (8
bit) hard drive controllers. The advantage of these is that you can
use them in conjunction with normal AT-style (16 bit) controllers,
IDE drives and SCSI drives. The major problem with them is the fact
that they are very slow, so swapping to one of these
controllers/disks is not recomended <grin>.

QUESTION: Why the suggested 4Meg, for Linux?

ANSWER: Linux uses the first 640k for kernel text, kernel data and
buffercache. Your mother board may eat up 384K because of the chipset.
Moreover there is: init/login, a shell, update possibly other daemons.
Then, while compiling there is make and gcc (2.01 ~770k).
So you don't have enough real memory and have to page.


QUESTION: How would this operate in an OS/2 environment?

ANSWER: Linux will coexist with *ANY* other operating system(s) which
respects the "standard" PC partionning scheme - this includes Dos,
Os/2, Minix etc.

WARNING: Linux and OS/2 *can* co-exist on the same machine. BUT, you
cannot use Linux's fdisk to make Linux partitions! See the warnings in
section III about Linux and OS/2.


QUESTION: Will linux run on a PC or 286-AT? If not, why?

ANSWER: Linux uses the 386 chip protected mode functions extensively,
and is a true 32-bit operating system. Thus x86 chips, x<3, will
simply not run it.


QUESTION: Will Linux run on a 386 Laptop?

ANSWER: It works, including X on most of them.


QUESTION: (Dan) How long has Linux been publicly available?

ANSWER (partial): Few months, v0.10 went out in Nov. 91, v0.11 in Dec.
and the current version CURRENT_VERSION is available since KERNEL_DATE.
But even it is pretty recent it is quite reliable. There are very few and
small bugs and in its current state it is mostly useful for people who
are willing to port code and write new code. As Linux is very close to a
reliable/stable system, Linus decided that v0.13 will be known as v0.95.
Believe it or not: the whole story started (nearly) with two processes
that printed AAAA... and BBBB...
BTW consult the digest#136 Vol2 for a complete story.


QUESTION: What is the proper pronounciation for "Linux"?

ANSWER: (Linus himself)
'li' is pronounced with a short [ee] sound: compare prInt, mInImal etc.
'nux' is also short, non-diphtong, like in pUt. It's partly due to
minix: linux was just my working name for the thing, and as I wrote it
to replace minix on my system, the result is what it is... linus' minix
became linux.

I originally intended it to be called freax (although buggix was one
contender after I got fed up with some of the more persistent bugs :)
and I think the kernel makefiles up to version 0.11 had something to
that effect ("Makefile for the freax kernel" in a comment). But arl
called the linux directory at nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux, and the name
stuck. Maybe just as well: freax doesn't sound too good either (freax
is obviosly free + freak + the obligatory -x).

(Rick's note for English speakers: Linux - "LIH-nuhks".)


QUESTION: What's about the copyright of linux?

ANSWER: This is an except of the RELEASE Notes v.095a: Linux is
NOT public domain software, but is copyrighted by Linus Torvalds. The
copyright conditions are the same as those imposed by the GNU
copyleft: The GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991 is part
of the source tree.


QUESTION: Should I be a UNIX and/or a DOS wizard to install/use Linux?

ANSWER: Not at all, just follow the install rules, of course it will be
easier for you if you know things about Unix. Right now Linux is used
by more than BIGNUM persons, very few of them enhance the kernel, some
adds/ports new soft, most of us are only (but USEFUL) beta testers.
Last but not least, various Linuxers work on manpages, newuser_help,
file-system organization. So join us and choose your "caste".

It is even used in production environments (Dr. G.W. Wettstein)


QUESTION: Does Linux use TSS segments to provide multitasking?

ANSWER: Yes!


QUESTION: If my PC runs under Linux, is it possible to ftp, rlogin,
rsh etc.. to other Unix boxes?

ANSWER: Kermit and ka9q have both been ported to Linux. Also, TCP/IP is
quite reliable, only a few clients are missing.
Read section XII. devoted to Ethernet and Linux.


QUESTION: Does linux do paging? Can I have virtual memory on my small
machine?

ANSWER: Yes, it does. Generally you set up a swap file or partition, and
enable it with the "swapon" command. Voila! Virtual memory.


QUESTION: Can I have tasks spanning the full 4GB of addressable 386
memory? No more 64kB limits like in coherent or standard minix?

ANSWER: Since 0.97pl? it uses 4 GB Process Space, 3 for userspace and
1 for the kernel space.


QUESTION: Does the bigger program sizes mean I can run X?

ANSWER: Yes! See section XI below for details on X11.


QUESTION: What are the differences, pros and cons compared to Minix ?

ANSWER (partial):
Cons:
- Linux only works on 386 and 486 processors.
- Linux needs 2M of memory just to run, 4M to be useful.
- Linux is a more traditional unix kernel, it doesn't use message
passing.

Pros:
- Linux is free, and freely distributable, BUT copyrighted.
- Linux has some advanced features such as:
- Memory paging with copy-on-write
- Demand loading of executables
- Page sharing of executables
- Multi-threaded file system
- job control and virtual memory, virtual consoles and pseudo-ttys.
- Linux is a more traditional unix kernel, it doesn't use message
passing.


QUESTION: What are the pros and cons compared to 386BSD ?

ANSWER: Linux and 386BSD started out as completely different projects,
with completely different goals and design criteria in mind. Personally,
my experience with 386BSD has shown that :
(a) its TCP/IP is more stable, and seems to work (on my NE2000 card,
which Linux doesn't support yet), but
(b) the interface and "feel" just wern't the same as Linux (which I liked
better :) ). You'll have to try it out for yourself. Here's information
from comp.unix.bsd, September 1992:

| This is a free BSD for the 386. It does NFS and X.
| Grab it from agate.berkeley.edu (128.32.136.1).
| Bill Jolitz is writing a book on it.
|
| It has a neat, small kernel, and is stable enough to run for a week or
| more without crashing/hanging. It works fine with 4MB RAM and 80MB
| disk. Running X however needs 8MB RAM, and supports only vanilla VGA.
| The TCP/IP implementation in this is functional, but not optimised.
| This means that FTP throughput is about 5KB/sec on Ethernet, when
| almost anything else gives you about 70KB to 100KB per second.
|
| Read comp.unix.bsd. That is almost entirely Jolitz's 386BSD now.
|
| 3. How much disk space for:
| *kernel
| *X
| *source to kernel
| *source to X
| Binary only: 49 M (30 disk, 5 swap, 14 extraction)
| Source: 125 M (49 bin, 37 disk, +6 extraction, 25 recompile)
| User software: +51 M
|
| X Binaries require about 61 Meg (?)
| I don't know about the sources.


To conclude this Q/A wrt Linux vs 386BSD, you should read the Linux News
Issue #5 of L. Wirzenius, where a true story of Mark W. Eichin is
reported.


QUESTION: How much space will Linux take up on my hard drive?

ANSWER: It depends on which release you choose. See the section
INSTALLATION below. Usually it's somewhere between 10 megs (for a
nominal system+swap space) and 30-40 megs (for everything plus space
for user directories, etc.).

BTW the full SLS needs around 60 MB (including TeX and other goodies).

=================
*** This section is co-written by Mark Komarinski, A. V. Le Blanc and
*** MM. Corsini. The official maintainer is Mark, if you have *any*
*** questions, critics \ldots, mail him at komarimf@craft.camp.clarkson.edu
*** Last Update 15.11.92


QUESTION: Is is possible to access DOS from Linux?

ANSWER: Yes.
(1) The mtools package allows you to access DOS files;
it emulates the DOS commands CD, COPY, DEL, DIR, TYPE, and others.
(2) Since approximately version 0.97 of the kernel, you can mount
DOS file systems as part of your Linux directory tree, providing you
have an appropriate mount command.
(3) A DOS emulator is in alpha test, which will allow some DOS programs
and utilities to run under Linux.


QUESTION: Why use mtools if you can just mount a drive?

ANSWER: Mtools is good if you want to do something quickly. For
example, if you want to get directories on a bunch of floppies. The
mount procedure requires you to mount the drive, get a directory, then
umount it. Mtools lets you get the directory with one command.

(Dirk Hohndel:) Mtools is really fast when copying disks. I mount the
SLS directory of my SUN to my linux box and use mcopy to get the files
on the disks. 3 times faster than using xcopy under DOS

QUESTION: How do I get the mtools package set up correctly?

ANSWER: The mtools package is available in source form on most Linux
ftp sites. The most recent version (As of Sept 1992) is mtools.n2,
and there are linked binaries and library (.a) files available as
well (for example, as part of MCC interim releases of Linux).
In the n2 release of mtools, there is only one executable binary
which works differently depending on its name: you can create hard
or symbolic links to it named mcopy, mdel, mdir, mtype, etc; this
is how the Makefile in version n2 of mtools does it, and it saves
several hundred kilobytes of disk space. Finally, you need the
correct information in the file /etc/mtools, which is described below.

QUESTION: What is the format of the file /etc/mtools?

ANSWER: A complete entry in the file /etc/mtools contains the following
fields: drive, device, fat, cylinders, heads, sectors, offset. Two
examples of entries from /etc/mtools are

A /dev/fd0 12 80 2 15
C /dev/hda1 16 0 0 0

which defines the DOS disk A: as accessible through the device /dev/fd0,
having a 12-bit FAT, 80 cylinders, 2 heads, and 15 sectors per track;
DOS disk C: is accessible through the device /dev/hda1, has a 16-bit
FAT, and its geometry is simply that of the hard disk where it lives.
The last three numbers can be 0 if you wish; this allows mtools to
try to figure out the disk's geometry itself, and perhaps to fail.
A 12-bit FAT is common for floppies, but may occur in small hard
disk partitions. A 16-bit FAT is common for hard disks.
This is an extract of my /etc/mtools file:
A /dev/fd0 12 0 0 0 # 3.5 1.4 Meg (autodetect)
B /dev/fd1 12 0 0 0 # 5.25 1.2 Meg (autodetect)
C /dev/hda1 16 0 0 0 # 1st partition of my Disk

QUESTION: Where can I find out more about mtools?

ANSWER: There are two detailed README files in the mtools.n2 distribu-
tion. These files treat compiling and using mtools. There is a file
README.mtools which treats only using mtools, which is a part of the
MCC interim version of Linux.


QUESTION: How do I use the DOS file system?

ANSWER: The DOS file system is part of the kernel. If you have a
kernel of level 97.1 or above, and an appropriate mount command, type

mount -t msdos [-o conv=text] /dev/hda1 /dos

to mount the partition /dev/hda1 as an MS/DOS file system on the
directory /dos. You'll need a recent mount command, from at least
release 97 or later of the root disk. Recent mount commands also
accept the options conv=binary|text|auto (default is binary) to
specify that text end-of-lines in DOS files are to be converted to
UNIX end-of-lines (by omitting carriage return characters) in no cases
(binary) or in all cases (text) or in cases that don't have 'well-
known binary extensions' (e.g., .EXE or .COM) (auto).


QUESTION: I want to use the DOS file system with either conv=binary or
conv=auto, but I want to convert text files from DOS to UNIX format,
or from UNIX to DOS format.

ANSWER: Use the utility todos/fromdos which comes as part of the
dosfs package, currently (Sept 92) in released in version 8, or
use the flip utility by Rahul Dhesi.

QUESTION: Where can I find out more about the DOS file system?

ANSWER: There is a README file included in dosfs.XX.tar.Z (the current
value of XX is 8), and an abbreviated version of this in the MCC
interim package.


QUESTION: Whenever I use mtools to read a 720K in an 1.44MB drive, I
get a long sequence of reset-floppy-errors, why?

ANSWER: This is what happens if you use the /dev/PS0 device (b 2 28),
to read a 720k floppy you have to use another device, for example
/dev/fd0. Or you may use the setfdprm utility.


QUESTION: This sounds me like a chicken and eggs problem, how can I
install the mtools package at the very beginning.

ANSWER: You have to use the rawrite stuff or the mount procedure.


QUESTION: Could someone explain how to use rawrite?

ANSWER: Well, rawrite is a DOS util, which write sequential sector of
a formatted disk/floppy. When a floppy has been rawritten, you can
(under Linux) untar it (use x, v, z and f flags). As an example:
a) under Dos use rawrite
rawrite
source: kermit.z
destination: a
b) boot under Linux, and perform a tar
tar zxvf /dev/fd0
tar zxvp < /dev/fd0


You DO NOT NEED TO MOUNT a rawritten disk


QUESTION: What is as86.tar.Z ?

ANSWER: It's the port of Bruce Evans' minix assembler, you need it to
be able to recompile Linux at your convenience. In fact this is ONLY
used for boot/setup.S and boot/bootsect.S they create 80x86 REAL mode
code.


QUESTION: Turbo (Microsoft) Assembler won't compile the Linux boot
code. In fact, some of the opcodes in these files look completely
unfamiliar. Why?

ANSWER: The Linux boot codes are written in Bruce Evans' minix
assembler, which has the same opcodes as the original minix assembler
ported to linux get as86.tar.Z Anyway there are a few differences
between these and normal DOS assemblers.

QUESTION: What about the dos emulator (dosemu)?

ANSWER: Dosemu is in alpha testing now, so it is very unstable and crashes
easily. Some programs (such as earlier versions of Turbo Pascal; TP
5.5 too) seem to work fine, but other programs such as dir /p will
crash the emulator.
Look in your favorite FTP site for the dosemu kit.


V. SOME CLASSICAL PROBLEMS
==========================

QUESTION: While running du I get "Kernel panic: free_inode: bit
already cleared"
. Also, du produces a ENOENT error for all the files
in certain of my directories. What's going on?

ANSWER: These are both consistent with a bad file-system. That's
relatively easy to produce by not syncing before rebooting, as linux
usually has 1.5MB of buffer space held in memory (unless you have <=4M
RAM, in which case the buffers are only about 0.5MB). Also linux
doesn't do anything special about the bit-map blocks, and as they are
used often, those are the thing most likely to be in memory. If you
reboot, and they haven't been written to disk ...

Just do an fsck on the device, the -a flag might repair it otherwise,
the only thing to do is to reinstall the filesystem from the Images.

A sync is done only every 30 seconds normally (standard unix
practice), so do one by hand (some people think you should do 3 syncs
after each other, but that's superstition), or by logging out from the
startup-shell, which automatically syncs the system. Unmounting a
filesystem also syncs it (but of course you can never unmount root).

Another (sad) possibility is that you have bad blocks on your disk.
Not very probable, as they would have to be in the inode-tables, just
a couple of blocks in size. Again there aren't programs available to
read a disk for bad sectors and put them in some kind of
"bad-sector-file". On IDE drives this is no problem (bad sectors are
automatically mapped away).


QUESTION: How can I partition my hard-drive to use Linux?

ANSWER: There are (at least) two ways to answer this. The easy way is
probably to use a program which will do it for you, such as the MS-DOS
fdisk, Minix fdisk, Xenix/Unix fdisk, or programs such as edpart.exe
or part.exe. With the 0.95a distribution, there is pfdisk. To use it
have a look in the beginner's guide written by I. Reid, it's clear and
it had worked for me like a charm. In the mcc-interim release ther is
also fdisk, which runs under Linux and manages partition tables
(it also creates extended partitions).

On the other hand, you can use a disk editor and modify the contents
of the partition table directly. This has been already done, and an
extensive explanatory note can be found in the mailing-list archives
(25th Jan. 92). You must also edit the bpb on the Dos partition you
are shrinking, otherwise Dos will step on Linux.

BTW It might be useful to set three (3) separated partitions for
Linux, one for the root, another one for the usr and a third one for
swap, as an illustration, my root partition is 10Meg, the usr is 22Meg
and instead of a swap partition I use a swap file. As an experience I
have used MS-DOS fdisk to partition my two hd and got no peculiar
difficulties.
You can, as long as you stay within the 64MB per filesystem limit
(Minix-filesystem limitation), have swap, root, etc, ... all on there.


QUESTION: I heard something about repartition a hard disk without
deleting everything on it, any clue?

ANSWER: It's not a program but a partition procedure which requires
a) a partitionning program
b) a sector editor
The procedure itself can be found (at least) in digest#132 Vol2.


QUESTION: What must I do to mkfs a floppy?

ANSWER: blocks are of size 1K so 1.44 floppy is 1440 blocks. The
floppy has to be formatted before this will work (e.g., fdformat can
do this from within Linux).


QUESTION: I have some trouble with tar/untar; any clue ?

ANSWER: The tar provided on .96 and latter is Pax (don't know for .98)
which do not accept the z flag. You can download the GNU tar at tsx-11
in /pub/linux/binaries/usr.bin


QUESTION: I can do this as root but not as non-root, is it a bug?

ANSWER: Except for an early make utility, the problem is caused by an
incorrect permission flag. The most common problems are about /tmp
which should be 1777 and /dev/ttys? which might be 766. So as root do

chmod 1777 /tmp ; chmod 766 /dev/ttys?


QUESTION: "du" reports twice the size showed with "ls -l", is it a
bug?

ANSWER: No it is not, the report is 512 bytes multiple (due to POSIX
requirement), for KB you just add the -k flag. You can add a du
function in your .profile which does this automatically, something
like du(){ /usr/bin/du -k $* }


QUESTION: Sometimes, I get "mount can't open lock file"; what does this
means?

ANSWER: This can happened for two reasons:
A) You try to mount something as non-root. In that case you can either
retry as root, or set the setuid bit to mount as follows:
- be sure that mount belongs to root, if not do 'chown root /bin/mount'
- set the setuid bit with 'chmod u+s /bin/mount'
BTW you have to do the same with umount (in order to be able to unmount)
Remark that it is NOT safe to allow anyone to perform mount/umount,
you should rather write a small utility that will make any user able
to mount/unmount a (and ONLY a) *floppy*
B) You are root. mount wants to open /etc/mtab and /etc/mtab~ - the
first one for reading, the second as lock file. If there is already a
mtab~ remove it. This can happen if you used once gnuemacs on mtab.

To forbid that case, just add the following entry in your /etc/rc file:
rm -f /etc/mtab


QUESTION: When I try "mount /dev/hd?? /user", I get error 2.

ANSWER: Be sure, that your mount point /user does exist; if not perform
a "mkdir /user".
BTW the error numbering is explained in /usr/include/errno.h


QUESTION: Since I have upgrade my Linux kernel, ps won't work anymore,
why?

ANSWER: Each time you upgrade (or re-compile the kernel), you should
perform a 'ps -U' (-U is for update the /etc/psdatabase).

Every time you boot a new kernel you have to do a 'ps U' to update
the psdatabase, after doing this you can remove the system file or
do a make clean.

The pathname to the system binary [/usr/src/linux/tools/system] is
stored in the psdatabase, so you only have to specify it if you have
moved your source tree or if you are creating the psdatabase for the
first time. The psdatabase is always '/etc/psdatabase'. The system
file is obtained in compiling the linux kernel (which I assume is
rooted in /usr/src/linux).

BTW: sometimes a patch makes recompiling ps necessary. Sometimes you
even have to patch the ps-suite.


BTW: there is also procfs in Linux. And one can find a BETA ps package
(wrote by Michael K. Johnson) based on these filesystems.

MKJ wrote in c.o.l.a:

tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/BETA/procps/procps.tar.Z is the latest
version of procps. Most of the reported bugs (i.e. all I can remember
at the moment ;-) have been fixed, a man page for ps has been added,
and several new programs have been added and/or fixed. A list of the
stuff provided:
ps
free (a real one, from Linus)
uptime (this needs work to be good, mine is a hack)
tload (a hack, but who cares?)
xload (from drew)
fuser (perl script prototype, hopefully the real thing in a
later release)

QUESTION: Since Linux 0.96b I have a lot of core file all over
my disk. How can I sweep them away ?

ANSWER: Use the following command
find / -name core -exec rm {} \;

BTW: think twice before using this command, there might be a John Core
user on your system; this command will erase his mail :)

(Rick) If you never want to see another core file, put this line into
your /etc/rc file:
ulimit -c 0

provided you are a bash user :))


QUESTION: I can only log-in as "root", is it normal ?

ANSWER: No, add "rm -f /etc/nologin" in your /etc/rc.local file


VI. MISCELLANEOUS HINTS
=======================
*** This section is maintained by Matt Welsh (mdw@tc.cornell.edu). Please
*** mail me if you have any changes/updates/questions. Thanks -mdw

Special gcc information are located in section IX. A special section is
devoted to it since it's *the* compiler of Linux. I have subsectionned
this part in 3 subsections: Misc/Device Major-Minor/Serial Information.

VI.A. Misc information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: It seems that $#@! ported on linux don't run correctly, what
do I do about reporting bugs?

ANSWER: (Matt Welsh) It's possible that either the program itself has a bug
or that Linux has a problem that this program brings out. :) But first check
that the size of the file(s) corresponds that of the files(s) on the FTP
sites where it's available. If they're different, either you downloaded them
incorrectly (i.e. you forgot to turn on "bin") or whoever put them on the
FTP site uploaded them incorrectly.

If that's not the problem, then post to comp.os.linux asking about the
program, to verify that it is a bug. PLEASE: when posting possible "bug
reports"
include all error and output information from running/compiling
the program. Just saying "it doesn't work" isn't very helpful. Also mention
your specific setup, Linux version, GCC version, etc. Some of these things
depend on running under certain versions and you may have missed that
information.

Note that my "ml-linux-bugs@dg-rtp.dg.com" bug reporting list has been
phased out. It turns out that Linux has so few bugs, most of which are
resolved on the newsgroup or through Linus before I can accumulate them
and post. :) In short: if there's a bug in Linux or in Linux-ported
software, it will usually be fixed in the next patchlevel or version.


QUESTION: Has $#@! been ported to Linux?

ANSWER: First check out the FTP sites and read the monthly INFO-SHEET,
as well as the new "Linux News" and the META-FAQ's (all of which are
either available on the FTP sites and/or posted to the newsgroup as they're
written). Also check out the "Linux Project Registry" (posted to the
newsgroup and on the FTP sites) which lists ongoing/current Linux projects.
Also look in the "old" Linux digests and mailing-list archives, kept on
tsx-11.mit.edu and nic.funet.fi. Also, see if there's a GNU(*) version
of the program you're looking for (which are available everywhere).
Since Linux uses GCC as its native compiler, most GNU software ports
directly to Linux without problems. If all else fails, ask on the
mailing list or newsgroup if the program is ported and where it's
available.


(*) GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix, which (besides being a recursive
acronym) is a project started by the Free Software Foundation (the FSF)
to write a freely distributable version of Unix. The GNU kernel is
named HURD, and is based on Mach. It is currently being written, and is
not yet done. Many of the GNU utilities, however, are completed and are
much more functional than the original Unix utilities. Since they are
freely available, Linux is using them as well.



QUESTION: I've ported $#@! to Linux, what should i do to add it in the
standard distribution?

ANSWER: (Matt Welsh) First read the previous Q/A, then talk to the
maintainers of the various releases (MCC interim, SLS, and so on)
about including your program with those releases. The best way to make
programs available to the rest of the world is to upload it to one of
the Linux FTP sites (such as tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/incoming or
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/Incoming).

BTW Whenever you submit binaries, please think that if you link them
with shared libraries, this might cause problems for those who (gasp!)
don't have the shared libraries installed. You can either link them
using -static, and if someone wants to build a shared version on their
own machine they can get the sources (which you should also make
available) and build it themself. Or else provide the shared lib.


QUESTION: I want to port $#@! to Linux, what are the flags?

ANSWER: Recall that Linux implements subset of SYSV and POSIX, so
-DUSG and -DPOSIX work in general.

NOTE1: SIGBUS is not there, and can be safely commented out in general.
NOTE2: see section related to GCC, in the third part of this FAQ, for
more details.

VI.B. Major/Minor device number
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*** This section is maintained by Rick Miller, any comments,
*** suggestions, remarks should be mailed to him at <rick@ee.uwm.edu>
*** Last Update: 17 Nov 1992 16:00:20 GMT

QUESTION: What are the device minor/major numbers?

ANSWER: Here's a preliminary listing from Rick Miller <rick@ee.uwm.edu>:

The Linux Device List
published by rick@ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller, Linux Device Registrar)

Many thanks to richard@stat.tamu.edu and Jim Winstead Jr.

Majors:
0. Unnamed . (unknown) .... for proc-fs, NFS clients, etc.
1. Memory .. (character) .. ram, mem, kmem, null, port, zero
2. Floppy .. (block) ...... fd[01][dhDH]{360,720,1200,1440} or fd[01]
3. Hard Disk (block) ...... hd[ab] or hd[ab][1-?] (Extended>4)
4. Tty ..... (character) .. tty{0,1-8,63,64-127,128-?} or ttys{0-3,1-4}
5. tty ..... (character) .. special tty: owner of its calling process.
6. Lp ...... (character) .. lp[0-2] or par[0-2]
7. Tape .... (block) ...... t[0-?] (reserved for Non-SCSI tape drives)
8. Scsi Disk (block) ...... sd[0-?] or sd[0-?][0-?]
9. Scsi Tape (character) .. st[0-?]
10. Bus Mouse (character) .. bm, psaux (mouse)
11. CD-ROM .. (block) ...... scd

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


And where can you get this wonderful O/S....


Well here we go again folks....

Linux SLS V1 Entire release (28 1.44mb disks, 28,955,336 bytes)
Self installing free UNIX for the PC

FREE BY MAIL...............

Here are the conditions:

1. You MUST be a member of MAC's Place BBS (in good standing)
MAC's Place is a free access BBS, so a simple logon and
registration will qualify you.
919-891-1111 at 16.8K USR Dual standards (two lines)

2. Only released on QIC-120 media (DC2120 tapes)

3. Send a FORMATTED DC2120 (QIC-120 tape) to:

MAC's Place BBS
P.O. Box 911
Dunn, NC 28335

4. The tape must be FORMATTED

5. Send return postage (in form of stamps NOT MONEY!)
and return labels

6. The tape must be FORMATTED (get the hint!)

***************************************************************
7. If any of the above conditions are not met, it will be sent
back, "return to sender"
***************************************************************

MAC's Place will also offer the SLS V1 release via the BBS as
as FREE/NO TIME download, to those at 9600 bps or better. This
means you can download the entire sls release in one shot and it
doesn't count against you in time or downloads. At 14.4 or 16.8
it goes quicker than you'd think.

The release will be 28 files on tape that you can put to disk
yourself. It is compressed using LHARC (mostly for storage
because internal files are unix compressed)

Make sure you send return postage in the form of stamps, not money.
I want nothing in return for this. In this day and age were
everyones has an angle, we'd like to prove not everyone
is out for themselves. We do this in the TRUE spirit of OPEN
systems and maybe we'll give 'ol Bill Gates a small
nightmare (doubtful!)

Enjoy and if this is anything like the last time I did this
PLEASE be patient, I processed 100's of orders last time.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|
Call These Systems..... | Wanna Join /´FTERSHOCK or CanceR? |
| Call up a board and leave what you |
CUM <708>961/0927 | can do what you wanna do and |
Room 101 <708>265/1984 | whatever else. Later.. |
13th Avenue <206>PRI/VATE | |
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|
(C)1993 /´FTERSHOCK/CanceR What Rights? -EoF-

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