Linux-Misc Digest #172, Volume #20 Wed, 12 May 99 17:13:13 EDT
Contents:
Re: rpm and Data Typ 9 ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Ken Thompson on Linux (Marco Anglesio)
Re: LILO.CONF (TS Stahl)
turning off screen blanking ("Tim Kelley")
RE: Module problems: lo, eth0 and ppp (Martin van Roon)
Re: man anything gives a blank screen and END (Zoran Cutura)
IPCHAINS and Web Server ("Chris Montgomery")
Re: Aliases question in sendmail. (Pierre Bodart)
x11amp and CD's (Janet)
Re: Proper use of /usr/local (Re: The Best Linux distribution?) (John Fieber)
Re: Redhat 6.0 broken? (Johan Kullstam)
modprobe: can't find module binfmt-0 (?????) (John Allman)
Re: File system for NT and Linux (Klaus-Guenter Leiss)
RH6.0 - Staroffice 5.0 does not work (Peter Englmaier)
Re: Telnet to WINE/Linux App Server Running Office97 (Jim McCusker)
Re: Samba and printing. ("David Murray")
Seeking advice for a new machine (Sam Choi)
*.tgz ("Nevyn")
Re: Proper use of /usr/local (Re: The Best Linux distribution?)
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows (Leslie Mikesell)
Re: Linux and windows floppy drive problems ("Baumans")
Re: Tape Backup software (Johannes Niess)
Re: GNU reeks of Communism (NF Stevens)
Re: Problem with /dev/ttyS2 (Andrew Comech)
Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows (Leslie Mikesell)
Re: Ken Thompson on Linux (Jerry Lapham)
Re: Linux and windows floppy drive problems ("Baumans")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development.system
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: rpm and Data Typ 9
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 14:20:16 GMT
In comp.os.linux.development.system Folkert Meeuw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> what is Data Typ 9 and why is it not supported by rpm ?
It is supported by RPM, it's just that your version is too old.
Get a later version from www.rpm.org
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Marco Anglesio)
Subject: Re: Ken Thompson on Linux
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 14:53:49 GMT
On Wed, 12 May 1999 08:04:12 +0100, Rob Fisher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>This is an area where I believe Linux may struggle. If you look at
>things like DiskSuite or LVM, they're hugely complicated pieces of
>software, which by their very nature have to be exceptionally reliable.
>It's going to be hard for the bedroom hackers to match them.
Might I ask why? There are no new principles involved in the creation of
logical volume management software or journaling filesystems, and the
details of implementation are for the most part in the public domain, in
journal articles and the like. A "bedroom hacker" can read with the best
of them. Perhaps even better; many "bedroom hackers" are firmly located in
academe.
Likewise, very complex tasks have been accomplished by "bedroom hackers",
such as the linux kernel. I don't think that that's necessarily a
shortcoming in this sense, either. While a corporation might do it faster
by firehosing money and resources at the problem, it brings to mind the
development aphorism "Quick, Good, Cheap: Choose Two".
marco
--
,--------------------------------------------------------------------------.
> Marco Anglesio | One of me stayed on the ground, <
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | without provisions or hope or <
> http://www.the-wire.com/~mpa | sight or legs, and refused to leave. <
`--------------------------------------------------------------------------'
------------------------------
From: TS Stahl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Re: LILO.CONF
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 14:26:51 -0500
Sorry, Janine, Winbloze has to be on the *FIRST* drive, no exception. Put
w95 back on hda and your problems will go away. BTW, linux could boot from
magnetically encoded licorice, if need be.
Janine Roe wrote:
> Hi!
> I am having some problems with booting into windows with lilo. Here's
> my situation:
>
> Orignally had one 4 gig hard drive partitioned with 1 gig for linux and
> 3 gig for windows95
>
> Added a new 6 gig hard drive and moved windows95 to this drive.
> Changed the old windows partition to linux native.:
>
snip
>
> New drive info:
>
> Disk /dev/hdb: 240 heads, 63 sectors, 839 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 bytes
>
> Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hdb1 * 1 1 420 3175168+ b Win95 FAT32
> /dev/hdb2 421 421 838 3160080 5 Extended
> /dev/hdb5 421 421 838 3160048+ b Win95 FAT32
> snip
--
Scott Stahl
MIS Asst.
Illinois Housing Development Authority
------------------------------
From: "Tim Kelley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: turning off screen blanking
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 09:59:19 -0500
Where is this done? I'd like for my console to NOT turn off ... I can't
find the setting for this ...
--
Tim Kelley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Martin van Roon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: RE: Module problems: lo, eth0 and ppp
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 14:52:11 +0000
I had the same problem. I've traced it down to not having ip aliasing
turned on in the kernel. If turned on most likely these messages will
disappear.
The messages are generated by the linuxconf command called from the
script: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-aliases.
Also removing linuxconf will get rid of the messages.
I am running:
kernel-2.2.5-15
linuxconf-1.14r4-4
Good luck,
Martin
------------------------------
From: Zoran Cutura <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: man anything gives a blank screen and END
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 16:55:48 +0200
John Allman wrote:
>
> it's not just in an xterm. it's at the command line.
>
> ------------------ Posted via SearchLinux ------------------
> http://www.searchlinux.com
Hi John,
you should check, if the man-files are on your host.
type " echo $MANPATH" to see in which path's man is looking for files.
In these path's one would find some directories like man1, man2, man3,
...
or cat1, cat2 ...
Change to one of these paths and cat (if files are zipped use
gzip -dc filesname.gz) one of the files. It should apear
as nroff source (nroff is used for typesetting). Otherwise the files are
or not useable for man.
I hope this helps!
Bye
Zoran
--
LISP is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you
will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a
better programmer for the rest of your days. Eric S. Raymond
========================================================================
_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ from: Zoran Cutura,
_/ _/ _/ IMH-Innovative Motorentechnik Prof. Huber,
_/ _/ post: DaimlerChrysler AG, EP/VES, T900,
_/ _/ 70546 Stuttgart, Germany,
_/ _/ phone: +49711 17-42353
_/ _/ _/ mobil: +49171 4488407
_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PGP fingerprint: F0 C3 30 F4 B3 7E 22 36 1C 51 B7 60 A9 BB 23 BE
------------------------------
Reply-To: "Chris Montgomery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Chris Montgomery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: IPCHAINS and Web Server
Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 13:59:59 -0700
If I run IPCHAINS to use a Linux box as a firewall, is it a security problem
to also run a web server or other services on that same machine? For
example, I would allow all traffic out from the internal network and only
HTTP into the web server on the firewall.
Thanks,
Chris.
------------------------------
From: Pierre Bodart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.development.system
Subject: Re: Aliases question in sendmail.
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 17:04:30 +0200
Nico Zigouras wrote:
> I have a question that is more relevant to sendmail, but since I am
> running it on my Linux
> box, I will ask it here. I have an alias for all the users on my system.
> As the admin, I
> want to send to all these aliases. No problem. But I want to prevent
> regular users from
> being able to respond to all or send a new message to all. Essentially I
> just want a to all
> email only to be allowed as sent from the admin box.
Two solutions :
1) comment out your alias after each mail you have sent (and rebuilt
your alias file).
2) use a mailing-list agent like LISTSERV Lite or SmartList.
Pierre
------------------------------
From: Janet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: x11amp and CD's
Date: 12 May 1999 12:20:04 -0700
Does anyone know if x11amp can play CD tracks? And if so, how do I make
it play them?
Janet
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Fieber)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Proper use of /usr/local (Re: The Best Linux distribution?)
Date: 12 May 1999 14:33:36 GMT
In article <7hauq8$klo$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
>> "system", that's the key word here. *System* re-install, not system
>> + kitchen sink.
>
> Why would you ever want to keep running some old apps on purpose when
> the upgrade is available?
Lots of reasons. "Upgrade" doesn't always mean better...an upgrade
may fix bugs A, B, and C but introduce bugs X, Y and Z, each of which
is a showstopper for you. Upgrades can create problems with anything
that depends on the software in question, requiring a cascade of
upgrades. (This is how Microsoft operates...you have to upgrade
everything if you want to upgrade anything.) Upgrades, no matter how
minor, can upset users if the user interface changes. For some,
happy users may be a condition of continued employment.
In short, if it isn't broken and the upgrade doesn't offer compelling
improvements, it may be best to leave things as they are.
-john
------------------------------
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Redhat 6.0 broken?
Date: 12 May 1999 14:48:00 -0400
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Thomas B. Quillinan) writes:
> XuYifeng ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> : Is Redhat6.0 broken and refuse to install new kernel?
> : I have installed kernel source file 2.2.7 and make a kernel, the kernel
> : is only 470K,
> : but when I run lilo, it always complains that "Kernel /boot/zImage is
> : too big",
> : why?!
>
> It seems that lilo is a little broken in RH6...I have the same problem.
> do a make bzImage instead of a make zImage - That works for me!
it's not lilo's fault. it's the brain dead design of the intel x86
processor. a zImage suffers from the 640k 16 bit memory access
limitation. the bzImage avoids this by expanding and loading in
stages but that has been problematic with certain machines -- mostly
laptops.
--
johan kullstam
------------------------------
From: John Allman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: modprobe: can't find module binfmt-0 (?????)
Date: 12 May 1999 15:32:40 GMT
everytime linux loads it gives me that message and everytime it shuts down.
i tried configuring my soundcard and it said an unexpected error occured
with the modprobe program - i suspect it's to do with that. any ideas on
how to fix it? i don't even know where to begin.
================== Posted via SearchLinux ==================
http://www.searchlinux.com
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Klaus-Guenter Leiss)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware
Subject: Re: File system for NT and Linux
Date: 12 May 1999 14:52:13 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
>
>
>I want to use WinNT 4.0 and Linux to share the same data partition on a
>disk. (size 9GB). The problem is that Linux does not support NTFS in the
>"normal" distribution of the Kernel 2.036. On the other side WinNT does
>not recognize ext2fs from Linux.
>
>P.S.:Since sometimes I have problems accessing the news-server I would
>be thankfull for a direct e-mail to me.
>
You can get an etx2 driver for NT at
http://www.cyco.nl/~andreys/ext2fsnt/index.html
I have not used it and i assume you could have the same
problems as with the NTFS driver for Linux.
Regards
Klaus Leiss
------------------------------
From: Peter Englmaier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RH6.0 - Staroffice 5.0 does not work
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:43:31 -0400
After upgrading to RH6.0 the star office 5.0 (filter upgrade)
stopped working.
Any idea, why?
Peter.
------------------------------
From: Jim McCusker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: Telnet to WINE/Linux App Server Running Office97
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:11:00 -0400
Brian Eckrose wrote:
>
> Is it possible to run Office97 on a Linux/WINE application server from a
> remote system via a telnet session (with X display exported)?
Yes, but WINE doesn't run Office 97 correctly yet. Excel seems to do a
good job, but the rest seem to be crash-prone, so far.
Jim
--
Jim McCusker | Class of '99, BA Computer Science & Cognitive Science
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://cif.rochester.edu/~fprefect
~Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it,
poorly.~
~~Henry
Spencer
------------------------------
From: "David Murray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Samba and printing.
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.networking
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 19:55:05 GMT
You're missing something here...
> 18 [printers]
> 19 path = /usr/spool/lp1
> 20 writable = no
> 21 public = yes
> 22 guest ok = yes
> 23 printable = yes
Try changing the path to /var/spool/samba or try something like this:
[printer1]
comment = public printer
path = /var/spool/lp
public = yes
writable = no
printable = yes
That's my $0.02
--DavidM
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sam Choi)
Subject: Seeking advice for a new machine
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:48:07 -0400
Hi,
I'm interested in using linux on an intel box to run a
MOO for educational purpose.
Can someone give me some general advice?
1) Are there particular platforms that work better or
worse than others? Any particularly good or bad
for linux?
2) Is any version of linux significantly better or
worse than another? I'm thinking of just going
out and buying Red Hat for convenience.
3) Are there any issues related to flavors of MOO that
work better with linux and, specifically, linux on
an intel machine?
I appreciate any advice you can offer. Please email
responses and I'll summarize if people request it.
Cheers,
Sam
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "Nevyn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: *.tgz
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 21:31:07 +0100
very simple question i know but how do i uncompresscompleatly a tgz
file....i used gunzip(?) an it made a tar file that i can nothing
with...what do i do next?.....if anyones willing to help..mail me an answer
@ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Proper use of /usr/local (Re: The Best Linux distribution?)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:34:17 GMT
Leslie Mikesell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>snip<
: But if your system upgrade includes new shared libraries, you are much
: less likely to hit this kind of problem if you replace everything at once
: with a new combination that has already been tested together.
This is *only* the case in the insane libc of the week games that
Linux distributions like to play.
--
-Zenin ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
My code is filled with comments! It's just that my comments are
written in Perl.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows
Date: 7 May 1999 01:46:41 -0500
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From Apache's httpd.conf:
>
> # Limit on total number of servers running, i.e., limit on the
> # number of clients who can simultaneously connect --- if this limit
> # is ever reached, clients will be LOCKED OUT, so it should NOT BE
> # SET TOO LOW. It is intended mainly as a brake to keep a runaway
> # server from taking the system with it as it spirals down...
> MaxClients 150
>
> See also `man login.conf'
So how do you pick the number which allows the maximum service
when you have a mix of normal httpd's which may be serving
static files or perl CGI's, and mod_perl httpd's which may or
may not be connecting elsewhere for an upredictable amount of
time? And you need to cover the possibility that a bug in
the CGI's cause those programs to hang on occasion.
>: Rebooting is just the fastest way back, and the only sure one if you have
>: really hit any resource limits.
>
> You shouldn't have hit them in the first place on a properly
> configured system (see above), and even if you have it should not
> cause any permanent detrimental effects to the system. At least on
> FreeBSD I've never had any such effects from running out of swap and
> I wouldn't tolerate a system that did.
Mine often gives (on FreeBSD):
Error: Invalid reply: "inetd in realloc(): warning: junk pointer, too
low to make sense."
to ftp logins after such a problem. It can be fixed by restarting
inetd, but I really don't trust a system with problems like that.
> Much of the code I develop
> sucks up the entire swap on a regular basis (I run it under
> unlimited resource settings durring *testing*) so I know this
> condition well. I have *never* crashed this box so much as once and
> never needed to reboot for anything other then a kernel change
> and/or system upgrade.
Try doing something that starts more than 30 perl scripts a second
continuously. Then do something that makes the scripts take longer
to complete.
>: I like to see uptimes measured in months, but once in a while a quick
>: reboot is the best choice.
>
> Rooting my box takes about three minutes minimum. Waiting for dead
> sockets to go away takes far less time then rebooting, and lingering
> sockets have *nothing* to do with hitting resource limits, only the
> process not terminating them correctly.
Yes, but all of these things happen at once, and it can take several
minutes between prompts as you are trying to fix it. And, as I
mentioned, I do have problems left over from the situation that a
reboot fixes cleanly (I agree, I shouldn't but...).
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "Baumans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux and windows floppy drive problems
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:36:16 GMT
Nitin Mule wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Hi,
>
>Check /etc/fstab for the entry corresponding to your floppy device eg
>/dev/fd0. If it specifies ext2fs as file system type, change it to
>msdos. Or simply be explicit while mounting dos formatted floppy. Type
>mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 (or whatever floppy device you have). Hope this
>helps.
>
Actually, my problems were in windows, and were created because(probably)
something that linux screwed with when it installed
>Nitin.
>
>
>Baumans wrote:
>>
>> I use a 3.5 inch floppy drive. It works fine normally, but
>> when I have linux installed, it always says that (in windows) any
>> (formatted)
>> floppy isn't formated. This happened both times when I installed linux
>> twice, and when I uninstalled
>> linux the first time, it worked. Do you know any way to fix it without
>> uninstalling linux.I use slackware linux 3.6 .
>>
>> --
>> webpage: http://johntb.freeservers.com
>> -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
>> Version: 3.12
>> G! d- s--:- a---- C++ ULU++++ P+ L+ E W++ N++ o K- w+
>> O! M- V- PS PE+ Y+ PGP- t+@ 5 X R tv+ b++ DI++++ D-
>> G e-- h! !r y-
>> ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Johannes Niess)
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,hk.comp.os.linux,tw.bbs.comp.linux
Subject: Re: Tape Backup software
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 17:43:22 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (IEEE Project) wrote:
>You may also consider cpio which is a standard Unix command.
>You can also use no-rewind tape device file if you want to write multiple
>sessions in a single tape.
>Wolfgang Ganzert ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>: For the KDE window environment there is the kdat program. It allows
>: multiple tars on a single tape and has a GUI which is easy to use. On my
>: systems it does not run stable but maybe this is because I'm using KDE
>: 1.0. Maybe with 1.1 the problem is fixed, I don't known.
>: Wolfgang
>: Ron Flory wrote:
>: > > I'm looking for a very easy & good DAT tape backup software.
>: > > Any idea?
>: >
>: > depends how fancy it needs to be. 'cat file.tar.gz > /dev/st0' works
>: > fine for me.
>: >
>: > ron
Amanda is my backup program of choice. It is GPL, with a very helpfull
mailing list, it handles dozends of client computers with a lot of
operating systems (Linux, other Unixes, Windows via Samba), it
distributes your load (one tape might contain a level 0 from one disk
and a level 2 from another), output of a selfcheck is mailed and it
handles tape changers. And Idiot can handle it after setup.
Volunteers for writing a GUI will get a lot of help.
I don't know about a missing feature and it is very reliable. Why
spend money for a backup program with less features?
You can find eveything about it at www.amanda.org
Johannes Niess
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (NF Stevens)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.linux.advocacy,gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: GNU reeks of Communism
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:45:26 GMT
Mike Coffin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Michael Powe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>> That's nonsense. Libertarianism is founded on the principle of `might
>> makes right.' It's Social Darwinism in a pin-striped suit.
>
>NO, *that's* nonsense. Libertarianism is founded on the principle
>that might *doesn't* make right. You have managed not just to be
>wrong, but to be precisely wrong, 180 deg. wrong, utterly wrong,
>wholly wrong, completely wrong. You have achieved the absolute apex
>of mistakeness; you have scaled the lofty peaks of counterfactualism,
>you have encompassed erroneousness; you have achieved a zen state of
>speciousness.
Libertarianism may not be founded on the principle of "might
makes right" but that state of affairs is the logical outcome
of trying to implement libertarian ideals.
>
>(Got to keep contradicting the Big Lies. :-)
The biggest lie is that libertarianism would increase freedom
for any but the select few.
Norman
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Andrew Comech)
Subject: Re: Problem with /dev/ttyS2
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 12 May 1999 11:57:06 -0500
On 12 May 1999 01:49:04 -0700, Michael Powe wrote:
>I'm having a strange problem with /dev/ttyS2, which is my dialout
>port. After I've boot up, I can't dial out on it because I get
>"permission denied." The perms are then 644: crw-r--r--. After I
>change the perms to 666: crw-rw-rw-, I then can dial out. However,
>the perms keep getting changed back. I did not have this problem
>until I upgraded to kernel 2.2.7 last week -- that included a complete
>system upgrade for all subsidiary elements listed in the kernel
>documentation -- pppd 2.3.7 &c.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>mp
Hi Michael --
Strange that you can not dial out; I have permissions like
crw-r----- 1 root dialout 4, 66 May 12 11:54 /dev/ttyS2
and being personally an active member of dialout group, I can
dial out on this port..
Best,
a.
PS. I hope I am not violating yet another of usenet rules!.. ;-)
--
Looking for a Linux-compatible V.90 modem? See
http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~comech/tools/CheapBox.html#modem
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows
Date: 12 May 1999 15:50:49 -0500
In article <7hc5rg$lb1$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Vernon Schryver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>You seem rather interested in swap space. Why stop at 50% instead of 30%,
>70%, 90% or 100%? What is magic about 50%?
It is just the common thread on my machines - they are still struggling
along at 50% but melt down pretty quickly above that in any circumstance
where new processes continue to start. I suppose this is sensitive to
the amount of swap space you provide, but you have to make that decision
anyway and it seems like that is about the way things should work.
>The standard dictum about
>swap space for 25 years has been that if it ever needs to use swap space
>for active processes, the system is toast. As CPU speeds have increased
>by about 1000 times but disk (and 'drum') speeds have by only about 4,
>the dictum is 500 times more true than it was in ancient days when Seymour
>Cray &co said all those bad things about virtual memory.
And it is even worse on CPU-driven IDE disks.
>You could be right about sendmail causing VM thrashing on your system,
>but I'd be surprised. If the system does a reasonable job on fork(), if
>it uses copy-on-write for the new sendmail processes, then I'd expect far
>higher costs from what sendmail does to ../spool/mqueue. If the system
>uses copy-on-write, and if it allocates swap space conservatively (e.g.
>based on the total size of the process including the currently read-only
>copy-on-write pages instead of the number of writable pages), then most
>of its allocated swap space will never be written or read.
This particular machine didn't have a lot of real memory, and the
problem didn't start until an absurd number of processes were
running. It was set up to deliver a newsletter where the subscribers
were paying for the service and the people taking the money were
careful about getting the email address right. The settings really
weren't bad for the intended purpose - it would basically peg a
T1 for about 15 minutes and be done. The problem showed up when
it tried to deliver to a much larger list where users had typed
in their own addresses in a web form. The list was processed
through smartlist, which breaks it up in sorted chunks and (I think)
watches the load as it goes. The meltdown happend much later
when the initial processes had stalled talking to slow/dead sites
and the number of queue runs cranked up.
>If mqueue contains 500 jobs, then mqueue will contain about 1500 files.
>At the start of every 30-second queue run, sendmail will be reading and
>sorting mqueue, and reading and parsing 500 of those ~1500 files so that
>it can discover which files are locked by other processes and what job
>should be started first. Besides parsing the qf* files, it will be trying
>to open corresponding lock files. Sendmail will do the equivalent of 500
>`ls` commands every 30 seconds as it reads each job, and then checks the
>lock file. Could the system do `repeat 500 ls .../mqueue` fast enough?
>That was a major problem with the file directory structures in classic
>BSD and System V.
I think it could until VM thrashing gets added to the pot.
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jerry Lapham)
Subject: Re: Ken Thompson on Linux
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 16:19:29 -0400
In <7h9s7h$2oa$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, on 05/11/99
at 06:17 PM, Tom Payne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> On the desktop, Linux is hampered mainly by its inability to run the
> standard desktop software, which is distributed mostly as Win32
> binaries. The WINE project, however, is gaining momentum and can now
In the long run, WINE may not even be necessary. If Corel provides a
quality Word Perfect Office suite for Linux and the box makers start
preloading it, even MS Office may be in trouble.
Another encouraging sign I've read is that some companies are starting to
require that documents be provided in RTF instead of MS Word format in
order to avoid Word macro viruses.
-Jerry
--
============================================================
Jerry Lapham, Monroe, OH
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Written Wednesday, May 12, 1999 - 04:19 PM (EDT)
============================================================
MR/2 Ice tag: Wear tank tops. Support the right to bare arms.
------------------------------
From: "Baumans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux and windows floppy drive problems
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:12:58 GMT
Nitin Mule wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Hi,
>
>Check /etc/fstab for the entry corresponding to your floppy device eg
>/dev/fd0. If it specifies ext2fs as file system type, change it to
>msdos. Or simply be explicit while mounting dos formatted floppy. Type
>mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 (or whatever floppy device you have). Hope this
>helps.
>
Actually, my problems were in windows, and were created because(probably)
something that linux screwed with when it installed
>Nitin.
>
>
>Baumans wrote:
>>
>> I use a 3.5 inch floppy drive. It works fine normally, but
>> when I have linux installed, it always says that (in windows) any
>> (formatted)
>> floppy isn't formated. This happened both times when I installed linux
>> twice, and when I uninstalled
>> linux the first time, it worked. Do you know any way to fix it without
>> uninstalling linux.I use slackware linux 3.6 .
>>
>> --
>> webpage: http://johntb.freeservers.com
>> -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
>> Version: 3.12
>> G! d- s--:- a---- C++ ULU++++ P+ L+ E W++ N++ o K- w+
>> O! M- V- PS PE+ Y+ PGP- t+@ 5 X R tv+ b++ DI++++ D-
>> G e-- h! !r y-
>> ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
------------------------------
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