Linux-Development-Sys Digest #833, Volume #6 Tue, 15 Jun 99 15:14:33 EDT
Contents:
Re: Can Linux Boot and Run without a BIOS? (Brian McGroarty)
Re: Problems with Soundblaster 64 PCI (ES1370) (Andres Heinloo)
Re: TAOs: Much to do about nothing? (Brian McGroarty)
Re: distribution, compilation and downloading from the net (Medical Electronics Lab)
Re: Can Linux Boot and Run without a BIOS? (Medical Electronics Lab)
Re: TAO: the ultimate OS (David Fox)
Boot problem ("Jackson C. Allen")
Re: TAOs: Much to do about nothing? (Donal K. Fellows)
Re: New to Programming (Scott Lanning)
Re: Help installing mod_php3 3.0.8 on RH 5.2 (D.R.P. Charbonneau)
Linux kernel/networking related question ... (Ramesh Shankar)
Kernel Hang ( linux 2.2.x x<=10 ) (Charles-Edouard Ruault)
Re: driver for 724 XG chipset sound card ("Peter King")
Can't export '/' (David Yeung)
2 NICS ("Jackson C. Allen")
Re: What are the differences between mySQL and mSQL? ("Anthony W. Youngman")
Re: TAO: the ultimate OS (Crispin Cowan)
Re: the ultimate OS (Crispin Cowan)
Re: TAO: the ultimate OS (The Ghost In The Machine)
Re: New to Programming (Medical Electronics Lab)
Re: Can Linux Boot and Run without a BIOS? (Medical Electronics Lab)
Using pentiums debug registers under linux (Markus Jochim)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian McGroarty)
Subject: Re: Can Linux Boot and Run without a BIOS?
Date: 15 Jun 1999 09:02:48 -0500
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Can Linux boot from chaos and run, without a BIOS?
>regards
No, you're in BIOS operations before a byte ever passes thorugh
the drive cable. There is at least one OSS BIOS project under way.
Visit www.deja.com or www.goole.com to find more.
--
Brian McGroarty - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MASSIVELY filtered. Prefix subject with [NOTSPAM] if posting via AOL.
------------------------------
From: Andres Heinloo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.dev.sound
Subject: Re: Problems with Soundblaster 64 PCI (ES1370)
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 16:47:51 +0300
Hi!
I just installed the soundcard into another machine and it works! So it
was most probably a hardware problem.
Andres.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian McGroarty)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: TAOs: Much to do about nothing?
Date: 15 Jun 1999 09:00:11 -0500
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sam Holden) writes:
>On 15 Jun 1999 10:33:09 GMT, Gordon Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>Technolord ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>>: He just requires to know what can and cannot
>>: be done (placing a bed in a 1.5mx1.5m room isn't possible) and then
>>
>>Off topic I guess, but that is possible if you think a little laterally,
>>The diagonal in that room is 2.1m and there's still (just!) room for a
>>door, window and clothes locker. It'll be a little cozy.
>>
>>I'm ignoring children's rooms. (Too easy ;-)
>And the fact that beds are not 1 dimensional objects...
/me stands the bed on end...
Nor are rooms. ;)
--
Brian McGroarty - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MASSIVELY filtered. Prefix subject with [NOTSPAM] if posting via AOL.
------------------------------
From: Medical Electronics Lab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: distribution, compilation and downloading from the net
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 09:09:30 -0500
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Hi. Is it possible to have Linux kernel
> compiled on the net and then downloaded?
> Why not? I guess this makes intallation
> much easier. Pick the components and
> then have it generated for downloading.
> It also eliminates the problem of
> different distributions. -YKY
I was just reading the docs last night, and you should
be able to do that. There is a way to do it for XFree86
files, so it should be possible for the kernel too. All
your machines have to be identical tho!
Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike
------------------------------
From: Medical Electronics Lab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Can Linux Boot and Run without a BIOS?
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 09:12:43 -0500
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Can Linux boot from chaos and run, without a BIOS?
In principle, yes. What boots the boot?
Usually a bios!!
Suppose you have a system with only RAM, no
proms. How do you boot it? Somehow, you have
to load executable code into it, and when the
processor comes out of reset, it will begin
to execute that code. If it's a linux boot,
you're on the way. How'd you get the data into
RAM?
Answer the last question, and you've done it!
Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike
------------------------------
From: d s f o x @ c o g s c i . u c s d . e d u (David Fox)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: TAO: the ultimate OS
Date: 15 Jun 1999 07:35:11 -0700
Bill Anderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> "Vladimir Z. Nuri" wrote:
>
> > what is the sound of one hand
> > clapping?<g>
>
> come on, this was answered years ago. ;-)
> Place your hand next to your ear and move it back and forth. ;-)
Lets not drag Zen Buddhism down with us -- that's not clapping.
--
David Fox http://hci.ucsd.edu/dsf xoF divaD
UCSD HCI Lab baL ICH DSCU
------------------------------
From: "Jackson C. Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Boot problem
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 10:54:30 -0400
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I just compiled the kernel on Redhat 5.2 and can not boot the new
image. When I boot I get the message loading linux and then a line
End of data on input
System halted
maybe not those exact words, but I think you get the picture.
The steps I did to create the new kernel
make config
make dep
make zImage
copy arch/i386/boot/zImage to /boot/zImage.new
edit /etc/lilo.conf
add label new and path to /boot/zImage.new
lilo (I forget options at the moment, was following a the readme)
shutdown and reboot selecting new
I know I may not have show exactly all the steps I have done, but I feel
if this is a know problem someone will point me to some docs or just
give me the answer.
BTW: When I tried to do a make without zImage then I think lilo tells me
the kernel is too big. I have also tried make bzImage and run into the
same problem when I reboot.
Thanks in advance.
Jack Allen
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Donal K. Fellows)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: TAOs: Much to do about nothing?
Date: 15 Jun 1999 15:01:54 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Sam Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Gordon Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Technolord ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>>: He just requires to know what can and cannot
>>: be done (placing a bed in a 1.5mx1.5m room isn't possible) and then
>>
>> Off topic I guess, but that is possible if you think a little laterally,
>> The diagonal in that room is 2.1m and there's still (just!) room for a
>> door, window and clothes locker. It'll be a little cozy.
>>
>> I'm ignoring children's rooms. (Too easy ;-)
>
> And the fact that beds are not 1 dimensional objects...
You seem to be assuming that the sleeping surface of the bed must be
horizontal...
Donal.
--
Donal K. Fellows http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~fellowsd/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- The small advantage of not having California being part of my country would
be overweighed by having California as a heavily-armed rabid weasel on our
borders. -- David Parsons <o r c @ p e l l . p o r t l a n d . o r . u s>
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Scott Lanning)
Subject: Re: New to Programming
Date: 15 Jun 1999 15:15:30 GMT
Robert Ascio ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: Any tips on Linux Programming? Any book recommendations?
:
: The extent of my programming knowledge is limited to the three
: semester hour college course in "C" programming
Then....
Kernighan & Ritchie, The C Programming Language:
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/index.html
and their homepages:
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/index.html
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/index.html
Also, especially if you're interested in system programming,
without a doubt, I'd recommend "Advanced Programming in the
Unix Environment". Don't be intimidated by the "advanced"; that
just refers to the extent of detail it gives, not particularly
the knowledge it assumes. (c.f. http://www.kohala.com/~rstevens,
which is a great source of Unix information in itself).
While I'm citing The Giants, http://Sunburn.Stanford.EDU/~knuth/
And, finally, *Linux* programming....
Check out "Beginning Linux Programming". Here, I found the
webpage: http://www.wrox.com/Store/Details.asp?Code=680
The book has easy to understand descriptions, but is actually
quite detailed.
LDP site. HOWTOs, FAQs, and especially the kernel guides.
http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/mirrors.html
Hope that helps.
--
Scott Lanning: [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://physics.bu.edu/~slanning
"Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of
one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer."
--Edsger Dijkstra
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (D.R.P. Charbonneau)
Subject: Re: Help installing mod_php3 3.0.8 on RH 5.2
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 21:34:51 GMT
Tony Kueh ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: Hi,
: I'm trying to install MOD PHP3 3.0.8 RPM on a RH 5.2 system. However, I
: can't seem to find the package that includes libttf.so.2. Can someone tell
: me which package I need to upgrade to get this file?
: Thanks.
When in doubt, always check http://www.freshmeat.net or ask the folks in
#php on EFNet.
--
==========
"We danced on the brink of an unknown future,
to an echo from a vanished past."
- John Wyndham, _Day_Of_The_Triphids_
==========
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://etriaph.taitned.org/
http://xfiles.tainted.org/
http://etriaph.l33t.com/
==========
Guardian Angel Etriaph of the Eastern Eden Gate
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ramesh Shankar)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking
Subject: Linux kernel/networking related question ...
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 22:59:08 GMT
I have been trying to figure out which is the correct news group for
Linux kernel related (I mean system software as opposed applications)
discussions. In case I posted in the wrong news groups, any pointers
would be apprecited. Also, I am new to Linux.
After a while I have figured out that Linux v2.2 has support for SMP
and that the Linux v2.2.10 kernel uses a giant lock with a global run
queue for thread scheduling. Am I right or am I mistaken?
Secondly, is Linux TCP/IP (more generally the networking code)
multithreaded/parallelised? I downloaded the Linux v2.2.10 source and
am trying to figure out whether the TCP code is
multithreaded/parallelised or not, but it would be easier if someone
could give me some pointers on it. Does the SMP version distribute
interrupts (specifically LAN) across all processors or do the
interrupts fire only one processor?
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
S.R.
=========================================================================
Ramesh Shankar E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Novell Inc.
Provo, UT
U.S.A.
All opinions expressed are my own. I don't speak on behalf of Novell
E-MAIL ADVERTISING IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED TO THIS ADDRESS.
=========================================================================
------------------------------
From: Charles-Edouard Ruault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.dev.kernel
Subject: Kernel Hang ( linux 2.2.x x<=10 )
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 17:32:56 +0000
Hi all,
i'm experiencing a very annoying problem with the server that is the
file server for my company ( i'm trying to make them believe in Linux
but some people are starting to laugh :-( )
It's an AMD K6-2 400 on an epox motherboard, 128MB RAM , IBM IDE HDD ,
AHA 2940 SCSCI card on which i've plugged a IOMEGA JAZ and an intel
ehterexpress pro 100 NIC card.
since the beginnig ( kernel 2.2.x ) i've been experiencing a lot of
random system hangs ( no messages on the console or in the log files ).
The only way after such a hang is to do a hard reset.
I know some other people have been experiencing the problem and i've
also seen on kernel traffic ( http://www.kt.opensrc.org/ ) that Alan Cox
found some interesting problems in the inode_truncate functions.
>From the 2.2.10 patch, it seems that some changes have been made to this
part of the kernel but for me, it made things WORSE: i had two hangs in
less than 24h while before ( kernel 2.2.9 and below ) the system could
stay up for a few days.
I've been running the same kernels on different systems and never had
the problem. It seems to be really specific to this machine.
It is sometime loaded ( a few users, a CVS server, a samba server for 8
Windoze machines, and an http server running mod_jserv and mod_ssl )
If you need more information regarding my configuration, please feel
free to email me, i'll be happy to help pinpoint the problem !
Thansk for your help/advices
--
Charles-Edouard Ruault
------------------------------
From: "Peter King" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: driver for 724 XG chipset sound card
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 16:48:42 +0100
Sorted this one as well got to
ftp://www.se.opensound.com/pub/oss/linux/osslinux392o-glibc-2210-UP.tar.gz
Peter King <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Any one know where I can get a driver for the Yamaha 724 XG chipset sound
> card.
>
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
------------------------------
From: David Yeung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Can't export '/'
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 07:07:19 +0800
I put an export entry in the /etc/exports file:
/ cozumel(rw,no_root_squash)
and then run 'exportfs -a'. I get the following error:
cozumel:/: Invalid argument
Anyone knows why? Is it a security feature in order to
disable exporting the root filesystem? If yes, how can
I disable this security? I am running RH 6.0.
Thanks
david
------------------------------
From: "Jackson C. Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: 2 NICS
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 11:14:53 -0400
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have installed a second NIC in my system running Redhat 5.2. It does
not see the second one. The first one is io=0X300 irq=10 and the second
one is io=0x310 irq=11. They are both eexpress cards. Looking at the
source I see a table for address 0x300, 0x270, 0x320, 0x340, there are
more but I fogey at the moment. So this tells me it is not going to auto
discover my second card because the address I used is not in the list.
Plus the boot messages warn about auto discovery and suggest using
io=xx.
You are wondering why I chose the address I did. It was the next
address listed in the softset utility for the card.
I did some more reading and ran across the statement that if you are
using multiple NIC cards of the same type you have to rebuild the kernel
including the NIC type, no module. Then you have to pass some lilo boot
time options (ether=0x300,10,eth0 ether=0x310,11,eth1). That presents
another problem I have already posted, getting the new kernel to just
boot. Also I am not sure where to put the options so I do not have to
type them in each time I boot. I know I have probably read it, just
don't remember where.
Now my real question for this post is why can't I still use modules and
be able to specify in /etc/conf.modules the address and irq some how.
Next question, has anything changed in Redhat 6.0 that address this
unliked feature? I have been thinking about getting it anyway for some
of the other feature I will need. I am trying to set up a system as a
firewall/gateway/proxy/DNS server to connect my house network to a cable
modem when I get it.
Thanks in advance.
Jack Allen
------------------------------
From: "Anthony W. Youngman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.lang.java.databases
Subject: Re: What are the differences between mySQL and mSQL?
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 00:19:38 +0100
Reply-To: "Anthony W. Youngman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In article <7k1vru$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, orc@p.? writes
>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>Don Baccus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>In article <ViA53.1666$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>>bryan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>>again, like I said, with multiple writers contending for common
>>>resources, yes you're right. for the "one writer, many readers" you
>>>do NOT need xactions.
>>
>>Not necessarily true. If you have several related tables
>>that need to be logically updated at once, the atomicity of
>>the transactional model is, well, useful if there's a crash
>>while records are being inserted or updated.
>
> Denormalize, denormalize, denormalize.
>
> Yeah, you might bloat your rdb by a factor of 10 to do this,
> but disk and core is getting cheap these days.
>
Or use a SQL-capable multi-value database instead...
Unfortunately, I don't know of an Open Source one that actually exists
right now (I'm leading the project trying to write one).
mvDBMS has a lot going for it over SQL, it's just not the "buzzword of
the month" :-(
--
Anthony W. Youngman - wol at thewolery dot demon dot co dot uk
Trousers with a single hole in their waistband are topologically equivalent
to a doughnut. These sugarcoated trousers have yet to catch on at fast-food
outlets! (SuperStrings by F. David Peat)
If replying by e-mail please mail wol. Anything else may get missed amongst
the spam.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Crispin Cowan)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: TAO: the ultimate OS
Date: 15 Jun 1999 01:35:59 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Vladimir Z. Nuri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Crispin Cowan ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>: You then go on in discussion with various parties to demonstrate that
>: you have no idea what you are talking about, making your "expert
>: opinion" on such design issues seriously suspect. MANY people have
>: wish lists, and most of those people know far more about what they're
>: talking about than you do. So we cannot just take your word for it.
>: You must either substantiate your design with scholarly justifications
>: or with an implementation and experiments before anyone can take you
>: seriously.
>"write it all yourself and give it to me, and then I will stop calling you
>a bozo..
NO! "Stop writing like a bozo and we will stop calling you a bozo." :-)
>otherwise you have nothing and are wasting my time..
>and please shut up meantime while you are working on it"
>From everything that I have read, you really do have nothing. YOU
think you have something, because you got your wishes vaguely
organized. But you don't have anything to CONTRIBUTE, because the
wish list does not inform us in any meaningful way without motivation,
and you've said quite clearly that you can't be bothered to think about
the details.
Crispin
=====
Crispin Cowan, Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science, OGI
NEW: Protect Your Linux Host with StackGuard'd Programs :FREE
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/DISC/projects/immunix/StackGuard/
Microsoft: Putting the "lame" in "layman"
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Crispin Cowan)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: the ultimate OS
Date: 15 Jun 1999 02:09:59 GMT
In article <7k4c9k$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Crispin Cowan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Disclaimer: I worked on the follow-on Synthetix project, producing the
>Pu et al (... Cowan ...) paper in SOSP'95. We did Synthesis-like
>things inside the HP-UX kernel, producing speedups in the x3 range.
Forgot the useful part :-)
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/DISC/projects/synthetix/
Crispin
=====
Crispin Cowan, Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science, OGI
NEW: Protect Your Linux Host with StackGuard'd Programs :FREE
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/DISC/projects/immunix/StackGuard/
Microsoft: Putting the "lame" in "layman"
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (The Ghost In The Machine)
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: TAO: the ultimate OS
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:22:59 GMT
On Tue, 15 Jun 1999 00:50:18 -0600,
Bill Anderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>"Vladimir Z. Nuri" wrote:
>>
>> Nix ($}xinix{[email protected]) wrote:
>>
>> .."a wish list is not a design"
>>
>> I acknowledge this .. but a wish list that people agree on is a
>> CONSENSUS.. a direction!! a map to the future!!
>> something that all the "rugged invidividualist"
>> programmers aound here deride as a sort of evil socialism or
>> corporatism.
>>
>> so I have a long wish list.. so what? who has articulated
>> these wishes as important before? no one has pointed me
>> to any essays.. I await eagerly.
>
>
>Essays? we don't need no essays! ;-)
>
>Does anyone here disagree with the following:
>
>o Security is an issue in computing, and should be taken into account.
>o Stability is an issue in computing, and should be taken into account.
>o Coolness is an issue in computing, and should be taken into account.
o Functionality is a desire.
o Performance is a desire.
o Good documentation is a desire.
We now have 6 conflicting values. Which one is the most important?
(I'm not quite sure how to characterize "coolness"; I am pretty
sure that's in the eye of the beholder. :-) )
>o We want a cool, stable, and secure operating system.
And one which is fast and supports the hardware and software needed
to get my job done (or to play the games I want, depending
on my mood and my location).
>
>?
>
>I believe I can get a consensus on that, and not need 44K to do it.
>Who *hasn't* (M$ doesn't count ;-) articulated that security and
>stability are important??
Oh, they're important. It's just not clear if they're the most
important to everybody.
However, they're probably not the least important, either,
unless one lives on the bleeding edge and writes operating systems
for breakfast on a computer that's used for nothing else, and
is willing to live with frequent system crashes. :-)
>
>There is a place for some ego amongst hackers/programmers; that place is
>in cool, functional code, not in "I wrote down the bleedingly obvious
>first."
>
>You may likely consider this as a flame, but sometimes the bleeding
>obvious needs restating.
It's as plain as the nose on one's face, but, without a mirror,
how can one see it?
>
>--
>Bill Anderson
>"Sometimes I feel compelled to state the obvious. The again, sometimes,
>I do not." --me
----
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Medical Electronics Lab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: New to Programming
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 12:39:33 -0500
Scott Lanning wrote:
>
> And, finally, *Linux* programming....
>
> Check out "Beginning Linux Programming". Here, I found the
> webpage: http://www.wrox.com/Store/Details.asp?Code=680
> The book has easy to understand descriptions, but is actually
> quite detailed.
>
> LDP site. HOWTOs, FAQs, and especially the kernel guides.
> http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/mirrors.html
That last one looks great for me! Thanks!
Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike
------------------------------
From: Medical Electronics Lab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Can Linux Boot and Run without a BIOS?
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 12:37:36 -0500
Pete Zaitcev wrote:
> With front panel keyswitches. My PDP-11 did that.
Yeah, I remember those. The older guys here remember the
Link-8, it had the same switches.
>
> Also, on one of systems which I worked even earlier with
> there was a hardware boot. You pressed "IPL" button,
> then the CPU sent a signal to a peripheral processor
> to read 24 bytes into the core and jump there.
> Typically it contained one more command for the peripheral processor.
>
> But of course these two methods are not feasible in modern CPUs
> due to the insane amount of initialization code which it must
> execute before it gets into a reasonable state. Think DRAM refresh
> start for example...
I've built systems with nothing but *static* ram. That allows
me to power it up, hold the reset line low, fill it's memory across
the bus and then boot.
If the thing is going to be stand alone, then it has to have ROM
someplace, and it might as well be a BIOS ROM. EPROMS are cheap
and flash rom isn't all that much more expensive, so there's
little point in building a system without some kind of boot code.
Remember playing adventure on the PDP's? All text..... :-)
Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike
------------------------------
From: Markus Jochim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.sys.intel,de.comp.lang.assembler.x86,alt.os.linux,alt.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.question,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux
Subject: Using pentiums debug registers under linux
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:01:25 +0200
Hello everybody,
I have some questions concerning the debug-registers of the Intel
Pentium processors and how to use them under linux.
(It is not helpful to give me any hints about which program could
be used for debug reasons because I do not want to use the
debug registers in order to debug, but I want to use them in order
to (for example) manipulate some register values at a specific point
in an application in order to test the fault-tolerance of such an
application)
What I want i the following:
An application program must run under linux and it must be able
to set breakpoints for this application by using the debug registers
DR0 - DR3 and DR6, DR7.
Do I understand it right, that I can arrange things as follows?:
1) I can write an exception handler which will handle the #DB Interrupt.
This exception handler must be part of the kernel (must be linked to
the kernel) and there must be an entry in the interrupt description
table that leeds to my handler when an #DB Interrupt occures.
2) There is a Task-State Segment (TSS) associated with my application
program. (Is this alway true?)
The T-flag (debug trap flag) of this TSS must be set.
If this is the case, the a #DB exception will be produced
whenever linux schedules my application program.
3) The exception handler written in 1) must first of all test
(with the help of the BT flag in register DR6) wether
the #DB interrupt was produced by a task-switch or not.
If the #DB interrupt was produced by a task-switch, then
the exception handler must fill the registers dr0 - dr3
with the breakpoints I want and the breakpoint conditions
must be set in dr7.
If the #DB interrupt was not produced by a task-switch, then
if can find out with the help of the data in dr6, which
breakpoint was responible for the #DB and the exception
handler can react in the way I want it to react.
4) The breakpoint mechanism will work now. If the application
task runs and linux decides to schedule another task, then
the bits: l0 to l3 of the register d7 will automatically
be cleared by the processor in order to avoid unwanted
breakpoints in the new scheduled task.
Are the steps 1) to 4) correct?
Here are some further questions:
Questions concerning step 2:
i) How can I influence the bits in the TSS? Only at the moment
when linux establishes the task or also later by self-written
system call which could be called by my application-programm?
If I want to move data to a debug-register while I am in
protected mode, then I must be on the protection level 0.
Do system calls run on the protection level 0 or are for
example only device drivers running on 0 ?
Questions concerning step 3:
i) How can I know, that there isn't another task with a TSS
that contains a T-flag which is set to 1?
How could the handler find out that "_my_ application" caused
a #DB interrupt because of a task switch?
ii)The user must be able to tell the handler at which point in
the instruction stream a breakpoint must occure. How could
this communication be realised? Is it possible for the
handler to gain access to the symbol table of the
application programm in order to allow the user to
deal with symbolical breakpoints?
Questions concerning step 4:
i) From the Intel processor documentation I know, that the bits
l0 - l3 are automatically cleared. But is there a need for
this? The debugregister contain linear adresses (= effective
adresses + 32 bit segment base adresses which means
physical adresses if paging is off) and these are unique.
So another task cannot be interrupted by such a breakpoint???
Thank you very much in advance...
Markus Jochim
--
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Markus Jochim Raumnummer: 502
Universitaet GH Essen Telefon: 0201 - 183 4092
Fachbereich Informatik
Schuetzenbahn 70
45117 Essen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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