Linux-Misc Digest #108, Volume #19 Sat, 20 Feb 99 06:13:11 EST
Contents:
Re: Linux has too many problems (David Steuber)
Re: User "shutdown" of L2.0.34 (Mavi Gozler)
Re: help needed mounting fd0 (Gerald Willmann)
Re: H E L P !!! ("softalk")
Re: Multilink PPP in Linux with 2 x V90 = 105,333 bps? (Jason Clifford)
Re: Best Free Unix? (why FreeBSD?) (Jason Clifford)
Re: Can Applixware open Micorsoft Word formatted files (i.e. .doc (Jason Clifford)
Re: Compressed filesystem in Linux ? (Like doublespace)
Re: Microsoft Publisher look alike? (Bob Tennent)
Linux Compatible modem? ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: 2.2.1 won't read my hard disk - HELP PLEASE! (Tim Moore)
Re: RedHat 5.2 -> 2.2.x required updates RPMs available (Tim Moore)
Re: Help with LILO (Anders Lindb�ck)
Re: .Tar/.gz question (John Thompson)
Question on compressed kernel (was Re: Compiling kernel, get errors) (Brian Newman)
Re: .Tar/.gz question (Michael Powe)
Re: floating point accuracy on Linux? (Georg Schwarz)
Re: RedHat 5.2 Printer problem (Bob Tennent)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Steuber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux has too many problems
Date: 18 Feb 1999 23:30:25 -0500
"TomX" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
-> I believe all the problems I met are caused by my hardware,
-> but why Linux developers can't test on more hardware list?
Many Linux developers are students with a very limited budget. In any
case, you need access to lots of hardware to test for it all. This
takes money. Most individuals can't afford to do all that.
Linux does have problems. Lots of them. But to tell the truth, I'll
take it over Windows of any flavor any day.
Just my opinion.
--
David Steuber
http://www.david-steuber.com
s/trashcan/david/ to reply by mail
Where was it you said you wanted to go today? Sorry, you can't get
there from here.
------------------------------
From: Mavi Gozler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.linux
Subject: Re: User "shutdown" of L2.0.34
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 09:24:21 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Unruh) wrote:
> In <7agfk6$mbn$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mavi Gozler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
>
> ]I want to know how a user can shutdown or "make busy" a system running Linux
> ]2.0.34. With Linux 1.x.y, it was easy for me to start a script that kept
> ]repeatedly calling 'inetd' and somehow made the system busy or locked,
> ]requiring a resetting of the system by the sys admins to restore its normal
> ]operation, the intention of doing so.
>
> Uh, if you want the sysadmins attention, why don;t you go talk to him
> instead of trying to destroy the machines he is responsible for.
Of course, all the replies have been very sensible and reasonable--namely, let
the sysadmin do it, and I have not bothered to go into the details of why I
would want to do such a thing, since most people don't want to know why but
would rather I get to the point.
The fact is, and to my utter amazement, the system administrators that run
this company's host systems are overgrown kids that treat many users on the
system like they are dirt. The boss of the company is rather ineffectual,
and when a user registers a complaint about a lack of service that should be
offered by the system, and the sysadmin is called to account, the sysadmin
BSes his way out
At any rate, the reasonable alternatives are as follows:
1. Realize that the company I am presently working for is all smoke and
mirrors and find a company that has its act together with respect to running
its host systems and who have infotech staff who don't run the systems like
you have to eat from their hands to get anything. I just wonder how many
companies in the world that qualifies.
2. Try to convince the boss that the sysadmins are bozos and must be made to
do their jobs or find jobs elsewhere.
3. Live with the fact that the sysadmins here are bozos and just try to make
the best of a bad situation.
4. When the system fails to provide the expected service, exploit a weak
point in the system that shuts down the system, and forces a re-boot, so that
all the elements are re-started and working. We have already seen in this
group that this is a non-starter.
The problem that prompted this original post involved a defect in the mail
system in particular. Most bizarre to me, the mail server on one host that
holds the mail shows my /var/spool/mail/user file was shown to be full of
mail but the POP3 server always reports 0 messages. The sysadmin tells me
the file is "blocked" and can't send the mail, and that the only solution is
to take the raw mail file, delete the entry (my username) in the directory,
then send me the raw mail file, which I have to piece through on a text
editor. This seems to be a routine solution. The jerk tells me when I
complain: "my mail's working, why not yours?" This is his answer to most
user complaints, not just mine. I tell him that if he didn't mess around
with the system to "secure" it, this kind of crap wouldn't happen, but he
insists that he's doing the right thing. One of the big problems here is
that the "system administrators" here spend too much of their time at
rootshell not with the intention of improving system security but of running
interesting programs merely intended to snoop unnecessarily on user sessions
or which do things like making /etc/passwd or /etc/groups or other init files
unreadable. Oh, and to "improve security", they have also disabled the
ability of users to change their passwords AT ALL, and so the user always
users the same password to get his mail, and must use a remote client btw to
get his mail since they have also disabled logins to all but a few users who
really ARE likely to damage the system.
So this is the situation we have here. None of this would be explained in
this post, but because of the responses to this question, this explanation
absolutely became necessary.
No one ever asked to "destroy" machines or data, but rather to get the system
in a state that would force its shutdown, with the idea that the re-start
would set up the system to work for a month or two until the accumulation of
problems caused failures of this kind, failures that would not affect the
sysadmins' ability to operate the system but represented a pain in the ass
for users, whose complaints would be met with deaf ears, until they had to
bother the boss in a manner that would get him to yell at the incompetent
sysadmins. Have I now made myself clear?
You should---ALL OF YOU WHO RESPONDED THUSLY---read the posts carefully and
not rush to any judgments.
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------------------------------
From: Gerald Willmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.setup,linux.admin,linux.help
Subject: Re: help needed mounting fd0
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:32:10 -0800
try the following line in /etc/fstab
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto defaults,noauto,user 0 0
and then you can mount DOS or ext2 floppies as a user and write to them
Gerald
------------------------------
From: "softalk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: H E L P !!!
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 09:10:02 -0000
Hi
I had the same problem with RedHat 5.1. I know this sounds strange but try
leaving th video card as it is and select a different monitor. (that worked
for me) CYa
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PS I use SUSE 6.0 now much better setup utils - YaST - SaX - etc
Robert Criss wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Ok, I admit it I'm a rank amateur at this (RH5.2) Linux stuff. I am the
>information systems administrator for the company I work at and I
>understand NT pretty well. I thought I would pick up Linux in a snap.
>No way homie! I would like to use Linux as server on a couple of
>machines on the network. I will survive this. Right now I would just
>be tickled pink if someone would tell me how to get more than 640X480
>out of my Trident TGUI9440 PCI video card. When I was setting up Linux
>(all things considered, a pleasent experience) it found the card easy
>enough but would only let me set the resolution to 640X480 in 256
>colors, no options. Now I don't know how to increase the Res. The card
>has 2meg of ram and I know it is capable of 1024X 768 because I was
>using it in another computer at that Res. Help! I'll completely
>reload Linux if necessary.
>P.S. ( I would like to add that although I can't get Linux to give me
>any decent video resolution, I have managed to make it talk to the
>network and I can access it from other machines on the network. Maybe
>I'm just concentrating on the important stuff a little too hard.).
>
------------------------------
From: Jason Clifford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.x,uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Multilink PPP in Linux with 2 x V90 = 105,333 bps?
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 09:53:31 +0000
On Fri, 19 Feb 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Care to explain how... EQL is NOT ML-PPP and the ML-PPP driver for
> linux only works in kernel 2.1.36-2.1.48 and was incompleate. do you
> know something we don't?
Going from the documentation in /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/README.eql that
is what it is billed as although I note that the documentation is old and
the utilities it refers to are not present on a standard RH system.
To be honest I have never set up EQL as I have never needed it.
Jason Clifford
Definite Linux Systems
http://definite.ukpost.com/
------------------------------
From: Jason Clifford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Best Free Unix? (why FreeBSD?)
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 10:18:36 +0000
On Thu, 18 Feb 1999, Robert S. Sciuk wrote:
> With all due respect to yourself, the Linux zealots, GNU lovers the world
> over and anyone else who might be offended by what I'm about to say, the
> GPL _is_ pretty restrictive to people who might actually be trying to make
> a living at software development.
Only for those who want to make a living off of other people's work. There
is nothing to stop you writing a proprietary application to run on a GPL
platform so long as you do not integrate someone else's work that is
GPL'd.
> The GPL is a good thing for hobbyist
> software, but ultimately being GPL'led might just be the thing which
> prevents Linux from going mainstream in a corporate world.
Tell that to Oracle, SyBase, IBM, Corel, etc.
> Stallman's vision is slightly myopic with respect to the forces which
> drive innovation. I respect his/your/anyone's right to give away whatever
> they like, but the GPL is akin to the Bolshevik forced collectivization at
> the turn of the century ... it takes away others rights to derive
> proprietary products. That is something to which I cannot subscribe.
It takes away no rights whatsoever. You do not have inherent rights to
other people's works - only those rights they choose to assign to you - a
view that is opposed by RMS.
> John Dyson believes fervently in that approach, and I, for one, agree with
> him. He's simply correct.
His views and yours on the subject are valid but they are not 'simply
correct' to the exclusion of others as the above implies.
> This does not mean that there is no place in
> the world for GPL'led software. I fear that it will relegate that
> software forever to the hobbyist realm -- and we all know that Linux is
> better than that.
Reality has shown you to be wrong on thsi front.
> If you really want to tick off Bill Gates, I think that the `free'
> software license is the way to do it -- and after all, isn't what this is
> really all about?? ;-}
This is not about ticking off Bill Gates - his own employees seem to be
doing that - it is about producing high quality software - hence Open
Source.
Jason Clifford
Definite Linux Systems
http://definite.ukpost.com/
------------------------------
From: Jason Clifford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Can Applixware open Micorsoft Word formatted files (i.e. .doc
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 10:33:54 +0000
On Thu, 18 Feb 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Is the reverse also true? Will Microsoft Word and Excel open Applixware files?
No, however you can export Applix files ina format that MS will open.
Jason Clifford
Definite Linux Systems
http://definite.ukpost.com/
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ()
Subject: Re: Compressed filesystem in Linux ? (Like doublespace)
Date: 19 Feb 1999 10:56:02 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
:
: I have ran out of HD space on my Linux partition. The obvious solution is of
: cource to add an additional harddisk, but I want to know:
:
: Is there a compressed filesystem available for Linux, working something like
: Stacker of micro$ofts Doublespace, which can save some 50% of the space?
:
There used to be something called dmsdosfs (I think), it was compatible
with Doublespace - Files could be shared between Linux and Windows. I
used it some time ago, it worked ok for me.
--
Stefan Sitter ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Institut fuer Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie
Universitaet Muenchen
------------------------------
From: r d t@c s.q u e e n s u.c a (Bob Tennent)
Subject: Re: Microsoft Publisher look alike?
Date: 19 Feb 1999 14:13:15 GMT
On 19 Feb 1999 04:46:03 PST, Tom Napolitano wrote:
>
> Has anyone encountered a Unix/Linux replacement for Microsoft
>Publisher? I do a bimonthly newsletter and have to admit that it
>is much more flexible than Tex or anything else for that matter in
>this application. Maybe an X GUI frontend to Tex could do the job,
>but I'm not aware of any.
>
Look at LyX. You will likely need to set up a suitable style for your
purposes.
Bob T.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux
Subject: Linux Compatible modem?
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 07:50:43 GMT
Hi everyone!
Could you tell me whether I can use either a Diamond Supra Express 56K v90
modem or a ZOOM DUalMode 56K modem with Linux?
I need to know of some success reports before I buy one - so a reply to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
-ashutosh
LINUX ROCKS :)
============= Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ============
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 00:50:01 -0800
From: Tim Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 2.2.1 won't read my hard disk - HELP PLEASE!
Hard to tell without error logs. Did you try booting from the pre-2.2.1
kernel?
> I've upgraded my kernel to 2.2.1, and everyting seemed to have gone
> fine. But, when I rebooted, /dev/hdb5 and /dev/hdb6 (/usr/local and /var
> respectively) streamed out _loads_ of errors. I fscked them, and they
> seemed okay, so I rebooted, and got loads of errors again. I did a mkfs
> and then fscked each fs, and the same thing happened. / (/dev/hda3) is
> just fine, and is only an ext2 partition like the others.
--
[Replies: yy -> y]
"Everything is permitted. Nothing is forbidden."
WS Burroughs.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 23:45:01 -0800
From: Tim Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: RedHat 5.2 -> 2.2.x required updates RPMs available
Tim Moore wrote:
>
> ftp://ftp.us.kernel.org/pub/redhat/updates/5.2/kernel-2.2/
If this one ^ is flakey, try this one v instead.
ftp://ftp.us.kernel.org/mirrors/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat-5.2/updates/
--
[Replies: yy -> y]
"Everything is permitted. Nothing is forbidden."
WS Burroughs.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Anders Lindb�ck)
Subject: Re: Help with LILO
Date: 20 Feb 1999 12:29:46 +0100
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
James Fitzgerald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> skriver:
>I am complete Linux novice who put an installatino of Red Hat 5.0 on a spare
>drive of my computer in order to check it out and try to learn the OS. I
>later upgraded my Windows installation from Win95 to Win98 and that
>overwrote the master boot record and wiped out LILO.
>
>My question is do I have to reinstall Linux from scratch, or is there some
>way to get LILO back onto the master boot record. I tried booting from my
>Linux floppy boot-disk and explored the options that gave me. RESCUE seemed
>possibly most relevant, but I don't know enough at this stage to accomplish
>what needs doing.
Rerunning lilo should re-install it in the MBR and you can again use Linux.
Reinstalling Linux is nearly never an option to solve problems - useually
one can fix the problem in other ways.
Anders
------------------------------
From: John Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: .Tar/.gz question
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 00:13:58 -0600
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> I'm, you guessed it, a newbie to Linux, and for that matter, Unix. I have a
> question about .tar and .gz files. What is the difference between .tar.gz
> and a plain .tar file? I know they're compressed files, but is one an
> executable?
A plain .tar file is not compressed; a .tar.gz or .tgz file
is a .tar file that has been compressed with gzip.
> Will it install automatically upon decompression?
GNU tar has a switch ("z") that pipes the output of tar
extraction through gzip to automatically decompress when you
extract the tarball.
> Is there something like Winzip (sorry) with a GUI that will handle these files?
> Maybe a Linzip? hehe. I'm not afraid of the command line, but I have enough to
> remember as it is, and at my age...
Look for "TkZip." It handles .tar, .tgz, .zip, .rpm and
probably other formats and can display archive contents and
text files therein.
--
-John ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
------------------------------
From: Brian Newman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Question on compressed kernel (was Re: Compiling kernel, get errors)
Date: 18 Feb 1999 12:57:39 -0800
This is something that the kernel README and HOWTO don't make clear; if my
system uses "vmlinuz" as the kernel, doesn't the "z" mean that it's compressed?
When my system boots, it always says "Uncompressing the kernel......". Does
that mean that, when I build a kernel image, I should copy it out of
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/compressed instead?
====================
Shade and sweet water,
Brian -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://www.aracnet.com/~bnewman
VW info at http://www.newsguy.com/~bnewman/vw
------------------------------
From: Michael Powe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: .Tar/.gz question
Date: 18 Feb 1999 13:23:31 -0800
=====BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE=====
Hash: SHA1
>>>>> "usa" == usa archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
usa> I'm, you guessed it, a newbie to Linux, and for that matter,
usa> Unix. I have a question about .tar and .gz files. What is
usa> the difference between .tar.gz and a plain .tar file? I know
usa> they're compressed files, but is one an executable?Will it
usa> install automatically upon decompression? Is there something
usa> like Winzip (sorry) with a GUI that will handle these files?
usa> Maybe a Linzip? hehe. I'm not afraid of the command line,
usa> but I have enough to remember as it is, and at my age...
A tar file is not compressed. Tar (from`tape archive') is just an
archive file -- a collection of other files. You compress a tar file
(aka `tarball') with a compression program like gzip. Gzip
compresses/uncompresses a file in place; that is, when you do `gzip
file.tar' it replaces file.tar with file.tar.gz. This is somewhat
counterintuitive to the Windows user, who is used to the pkzip default
behavior of creating a separate file.
GNU tar has an option to invoke gzip, so the two or three basic command
lines are very easy:
tar zxf to extract file.tar.gz
tar zcf to create file.tar.gz
tar ztf to list files in file.tar.gz
I believe there are some X-based clients for handling tarballs, but
I'm not familiar with them. The three commands above will probably
comprise 98% of your use of tar and gzip.
mp
- --
Michael Powe Portland, Oregon USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.trollope.org
"Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write."
-- Anthony Trollope
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------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Georg Schwarz)
Subject: Re: floating point accuracy on Linux?
Date: 18 Feb 1999 22:09:31 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rob Komar) writes:
>To test this, I modified the original test program posted here
>to loop many times, compiled two versions of it (one with default
>FPU settings and one with 64-bit FPU mode), and ran the two
>simultaneously, redirecting the output from each to two separate
>files. top showed both running together, each using about 48.5%
>of CPU. The one with default FPU settings always printed -5.5e-17
>for `a-b*c', and the one set to 64-bit mode always printed out 0.0.
>If the FPU were set globally, then I would expect the one that
>explicitely set the FPU control word would determine how both
>mostly behaved. Since they behaved differently even though running
>simultaneously, it looks to me like the FPU control word was different
>for each process.
Interesting. Did anybody find out, whether the FPU control word is
inherited to child processes?
Also, why does FreeBSD get the "correct" output without any tricks?
Finally, since only 64 bit are saved, doesn't it make sense for any
program not specifically tailored to take advantage of some numbers
explicitely being held in registers to set the FPU to 64 bit only? Does
this give some speed increase?
--
Georg Schwarz ([EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], PGP 2.6ui)
Institut f�r Theoretische Physik +49 30 314-24254 FAX -21130 IRC kuroi
Technische Universit�t Berlin http://home.pages.de/~schwarz/
------------------------------
From: r d t@c s.q u e e n s u.c a (Bob Tennent)
Subject: Re: RedHat 5.2 Printer problem
Date: 18 Feb 1999 21:51:08 GMT
On Thu, 18 Feb 1999 15:55:12 -0500, Dan Noe wrote:
>I have a new machine with RedHat 5.2 and a HP DeskJet 560C printer.
>When printing postscript or ascii the printer prints a page saying "
>Unrecoverable error: rangecheck in .putdeviceprops
>(1488)op_array(486)0x817b0d4:e "
>
Are you using the cdj550 driver for ghostscript?
Look at the comment above the relevant entry in /etc/printcap.
Can you preview the Postscript document OK using ghostview or gv?
Bob T.
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
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