Linux-Misc Digest #892, Volume #26 Mon, 22 Jan 01 17:13:03 EST
Contents:
Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade (Floyd Davidson)
Basic floppy question (Kyle Parfrey)
Help with cable modem setup...Please... (NoClue)
Re: Unpacking ISO-images without a CD burner (Bill Unruh)
Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade (ekk)
Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade (ekk)
Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade (ekk)
Convert MPG to AVI on linux? (Brian Wheeler)
.src.rpm Error "File Is Not A Regular File" In Redhat 7.0 (Beret)
Error in function strcoll (Rafael Amer Ramon)
Anyone Interfaced Motient/RIM and Linux? (Neal Rhodes)
Re: Basic floppy question (GYULAI Mihaly)
USB CDWriter (Web Daemon)
Re: How to use accented characters in BitchX? (GYULAI Mihaly)
Re: Basic floppy question (Hugh Lawson)
Re: mounting as nonroot? (Doc Evil)
Re: Basic floppy question (Doc Evil)
cant bootstrap gcc (Dirk Groeneveld)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Floyd Davidson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade
Date: 22 Jan 2001 09:58:47 -0900
ekk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Thanks, Jamess for your advice. The person whose job I inherited told me
>that the swap space should be double the amount of RAM for up to 512 MB,
>1.5x for 512 - 1024, and 1x for above 1024 MB.
That is not valid for Linux, though it may have been good advice
for certain UNIX systems about ten-fiften years ago... ;-)
>I'm not terribly sure why he
>thought so much swap was required, but I think he arrived at those ratios
>through experience dealing with many different machines and RAM amounts.
>The machines he set up are stable and rarely get bogged down, as long as the
>users don't push them over the RAM!
Which might have been purely an accident, given the above advice.
To determine the size of RAM and the size of swap necessary for
a given machine you need to know something about the memory
requirements for the processes that will be running.
There should be enough RAM that swap is not normally used. (One
way to look at that is just buy as much RAM as the budget will
allow.)
Then, swap should be sized to bring the total virtual memory
(RAM-size + swap-size) to a large enough number that it will
_never_ be exceeded by the requirements of running processes.
Hence if your processes commonly use 600Mb of memory day in and
day out, you certainly want more RAM than that. Likewise if
your processes only use 128Mb, something more than that would
be enough.
If the machine using 600Mb normally will on rare occassions use
up to as much a 800Mb, then 786Mb of RAM and 210Mb of swap would
be just fine. If the machine that normally uses about 128Mb can
also hit a high of 800Mb, the perhaps something like 196Mb of
RAM and 800Mb of swap would be right. In both cases the total
virtual memory is 996Mb, which is a comfortable margin more than
the 800Mb known to be necessary.
As you can see, if the absolute maximum requirement for virtual
memory is the same (in this case 800Mb), then the more RAM that
is installed the less swap is needed. For that reason ratios
such as 2:1 swap to RAM are just not a useful method to determine
RAM and swap space on a Linux box.
And that is why it was suggested that on the machine where you
have reduced the RAM from 1G to 512Mb it might be more appropriate
to _increase_ the amount of swap space. (That assumed you were
running the same processes before and after the memory change.)
A couple of other points need to be mentioned. One is to use
the "free" command, but be aware that it also reports how much
RAM is being used to buffer/cache disk i/o. Having more RAM
than is required for processes will allow Linux to use it to
speed up disk i/o. Hence, once again... buy all the RAM that
your budget allows.
The other point is that disk space is cheap now. Being very
conservative about swap space made sense in years past, but
it is false economy today. My rule of thumb right now is that
whatever your wildest dream about swap space requirements might
be? double it. Or better yet, triple it. It's cheap and you
can't lose.
Floyd
>Thank you kindly,
>Ken
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>> ekk wrote:
>> >
>> > Trying to make a judgement call without enough experience -
>> >
>> > I just upgraded from 512 RAM to 1 GB. My swap space is 768. Should
>> > I increase the swap? We do often use all of the RAM available on a
>> > machine, but we of course try to avoid using the swap.
>> >
>> > In the same way, I also downgraded a 1 GB RAM machine to 512 (bad RAM).
>> > Do I need to lower the swap space?
>> >
>> > In both situations disk space is not a concern.
>> >
>> > I assume the best way to adjust the swap is to use Partition Magic?
>> > I don't want to go through a whole reinstall of either machine.
>> >
>> > Ken
>>
>> I have 256 MB RAM and 128 MB swap on my box. It hardly ever uses any of
>> the swap at all except for programs like Netscape, and then it uses very
>> little swap. I don't think that you need more than 128 MB of swap when
>> you have a lot of ram.
>>
>> jamess
>> --
>> "On the side of the software box, in the 'System Requirements' section,
>> it said 'Requires Windows 95 or better'. So I installed Linux."
>>
>> -Anonymous
>
--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.ptialaska.net/~floyd>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Kyle Parfrey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Basic floppy question
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 19:51:53 GMT
Hello all --
I have had suprising difficulty getting floppies to work properly for
me. If I just copy files from the terminal they go to md-dos system and
my file names get wrecked. I tried formatting the disk as ext2 with
kfloppy but then I can't write to it. Is there a way to use a floppy
normally, except with it being recognised as a linux disk, with proper
file names and all??
Thanks,
Kyle
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (NoClue)
Subject: Help with cable modem setup...Please...
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 20:07:15 GMT
first things first...I'm with @home have a Diamond HomePNA NIC
in the ctrl panel its under the others area not the networking
Devices..
When I do dmesg i get :
eth0: PCnet/Home xxCxxx at 0x1040, 00 90 XX XE ba assigned irq 5
where x's are there are numbers....
and thats all I get for eth0.
now dhcpcd is not on my system...been dling different ones my rpm
manager keeps saying only take ones w/ number <= 3. so I've been
trying different ones.
I'm sure I have 99% of everything set up in LinuxConf correctly, but
under Basic Host Information, do I put a IP in the IP area or let dhcp
assign one? if so what IP num?
Sorry about all the q's I"m still learning..
Douglas
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Unruh)
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Re: Unpacking ISO-images without a CD burner
Date: 22 Jan 2001 20:11:13 GMT
In <XHPa6.65677$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
]I try to download and install Linux on my computer, but I haven't got a CD
]burner.
]The only download methods I can find on the net is iso-images or all the
]individual files from FTP, which would take me days to download.
Actually, the iso is just equal to the size of all of the files summed
together.
]So I'm wondering if there's any way to unpack or convert the ISO-images to
]individual files without having to burn a CD.
Do you have linux already? If so then yes it is easy. Just mount the iso
as a loopback and copy everything to another directory. IF you do not
have linux already, then things are harder.
]Or if anyone know of a site to download SuSE Linux 7 as a ZIP or similar
]archive file.
]All help appreciated, and please no answers like "buy a CD burner".
Buy it on a CD from one of the buring sites (eg www.cheapbytes.com,
www.linuxmall.com) for about $4+ SH.
]Audun
------------------------------
From: ekk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:57:51 -0500
I appreciate your thorough response.
Ken
>
------------------------------
From: ekk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:58:56 -0500
I like your analogy! That helps alot-
Ken
Steve Wolfe wrote:
> > Thanks, Jamess for your advice. The person whose job I inherited told me
> > that the swap space should be double the amount of RAM for up to 512 MB,
> > 1.5x for 512 - 1024, and 1x for above 1024 MB.
>
> Ideally, you should have more RAM than you'll use, and some swap for a
> backup. If you don't have that much RAM, then your RAM + swap should be
> more than you'll use, and then some for safety. If you regularly use a half
> gig of swap, then having a gig total (perhaps more) would be a good idea -
> but I hate to think of the performance at that point. With RAM getting
> cheaper and cheaper, I'm of the opinion that swap is simply there for
> extremely abnormal situations.
>
> > I'm not terribly sure why he
> > thought so much swap was required, but I think he arrived at those ratios
> > through experience dealing with many different machines and RAM amounts.
>
> No, he just read them. "rules of thumb" on swap are about as useful as
> saying "Oh, a size 12 ought to fit any woman that's between 50 and 150
> pounds." Like women, each machine (and it's uses/needs) are different, and
> need individual consideration.
>
> > The machines he set up are stable and rarely get bogged down, as long as
> the
> > users don't push them over the RAM!
>
> There you go, his magic numbers for swap haven't helped. You're still
> stuch in the fact that swap is a few hundred (or thousand) times slower than
> RAM. If your machine is swapping, you're hamstrung. If not, you're OK.
>
> steve
------------------------------
From: ekk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Swap size / Memory upgrade
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 15:07:17 -0500
I appreciate everyone's helpfulness. My faith in newsgroups has been restored
(after being squashed by the first response to my posting)
Thanks-
Ken
Martin Eriksson wrote:
> Linux will not put data on the swap disk until main memory get full. Why
> people recommend as much swap as memory is uncomprehendable to me. Maybe in
> some critical servers where you just CANT let processes die because of
> memory shortage.
>
> But for example, if ONE instantiation of a program uses 1GB RAM... you
> should count on the event that accidentally TWO such processes start, and
> thus will use 2GB RAM. Then you would want to have 1.5GB swap "just in
> case".
>
> Well, you get it... The actual point is: Linux does not use more swap only
> because you give it more swap space.
>
> "ekk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > Trying to make a judgement call without enough experience -
> >
> > I just upgraded from 512 RAM to 1 GB. My swap space is 768. Should
> > I increase the swap? We do often use all of the RAM available on a
> > machine, but we of course try to avoid using the swap.
> >
> > In the same way, I also downgraded a 1 GB RAM machine to 512 (bad RAM).
> > Do I need to lower the swap space?
> >
> > In both situations disk space is not a concern.
> >
> > I assume the best way to adjust the swap is to use Partition Magic?
> > I don't want to go through a whole reinstall of either machine.
> >
> > Ken
> >
> >
> >
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian Wheeler)
Subject: Convert MPG to AVI on linux?
Date: 22 Jan 2001 20:27:52 GMT
I need to convert a bunch of MPG videos to AVI. Is there a way to do this
on linux?
Brian Wheeler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Beret <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.linux,alt.os.linux
Subject: .src.rpm Error "File Is Not A Regular File" In Redhat 7.0
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:34:44 -0600
I have been trying to install many distros of Linux and I always seem
to hit this same brick wall. I get the basics up and running,
Internet access, sound, correct resolution etc but then I get
frustrated, delete the partitions run fdisk/mbr and then go back to
Windows for a while. Then I get restless, (I have been using and
repairing Windows for almost 10 years) and try another time.
-What is this brick wall, you are asking? I CAN"T RELIABLY INSTALL
ANY APPS (excuse the shouting). I have been running around for months
reading docs, how-to's, helps and mans to no avail. The ng's are my
last resort.
Now let's cut to the chase and get to the latest error message.
I wanted to install the Redhat Errata RPM's for 7.0. and after a lot
of struggling and researching I found
http://www.buberel.org/linux/source-rpm.php I then realized that my
command " rpm -i whatever.src.rpm" didn't do anything because those
files, even though they have an extension of .rpm, they also have a
"pre-extension???" of .src This means that they must be processed
differently from .rpm's
I followed the steps and when I got to
rpm -Uvh ncftp-3.0beta19-2.i686.rpm
I just got the following error: " File Is Not A Regular File"
Also when I try and run the -i rpm command on regular .rpm's I also
get an error which is roughly "can't install this file"
I have been reading the ng's for a long time and some of you really
know this black art that is Linux really well. If it weren't for you
Linux would have gone the way of OS2 a long time ago. Keep up the
good work :-)
------------------------------
From: Rafael Amer Ramon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Error in function strcoll
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 21:38:03 +0100
Hi.
When I compile and run this program
#include <locale.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *str1 = "amerr";
char *str2 = "amers";
char *str3 = "amer ramon";
setlocale(LC_ALL,"en_US");
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str1,str3));
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str2,str3));
setlocale(LC_ALL,"es_ES");
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str1,str3));
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str2,str3));
setlocale(LC_ALL,"fr_FR");
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str1,str3));
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str2,str3));
setlocale(LC_ALL,"de_DE");
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str1,str3));
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str2,str3));
setlocale(LC_ALL,"pt_PT");
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str1,str3));
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str2,str3));
setlocale(LC_ALL,"it_IT");
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str1,str3));
printf("%d\n",strcoll(str2,str3));
exit(0);
}
I get the result
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
but the correct result is 1 in both cases.
I use the Slackware-current distribution of Linux.
The same error occurs with different distributions of Linux?
Does anyboy know how can I fix this problem?
Thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 15:52:19 -0500
From: Neal Rhodes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Anyone Interfaced Motient/RIM and Linux?
Anyone done anything interfacing Linux to the Motient/RIM/Blackberry
Wireless network, either using the Blackberry devices or the OEM
modem?
--
==============================================================================
Neal Rhodes MNOP Ltd (770)-
972-5430
President Lilburn (atlanta) GA 30247 Fax:
978-4741
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.mnopltd.com/
------------------------------
From: GYULAI Mihaly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Basic floppy question
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 21:20:36 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Kyle Parfrey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I tried formatting the disk as ext2 with
> kfloppy but then I can't write to it.
Maybe you don't have in the kernel the module for ext2 filesystem...
(?)
Is it your own compiled kernel or a pre-made one?
If you want to use the content on the floppy in DOS, you can
compress the files into one file and to copy the compressed file onto
floppy.
This way you can give it a 8.3 readable name (e.g. data1312.zip)
You can make .ZIP file with the 'gzip' util.
Good luck!
--
GYULAI Mihaly
http://gyulai.freeyellow.com
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
------------------------------
From: Web Daemon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: USB CDWriter
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:33:16 -0700
Is there a way to use a USB or PCMCIA CDWriter??
I have the MiniCDRW from Archos. But I cannot figure out how to get it
working.
Is there a driver like usb-scsi, pcmcia-scsi??
Thanks
------------------------------
From: GYULAI Mihaly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: How to use accented characters in BitchX?
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 21:26:33 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> I use BitchX 1.0c18 on the console.
>> My problem is that I can't use accented characters.
>> (In other programs I can).
> You don't give many details, and to be honest, I don't
> even know what BitchX is.
It's an IRC client.
> ... I have a little textfile I made up so on those occasions when I
> need a character ...
Thanks for your effort, but I need something different.
As I can use accented chars with other apps, I am sure it's a
BitchX specific setting, or it's a bug... :(
I hope someone from Europe use BitchX with national chars,
and can tell me how to set it up... :)
--
GYULAI Mihaly
http://gyulai.freeyellow.com
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Hugh Lawson)
Subject: Re: Basic floppy question
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 21:28:59 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Kyle Parfrey wrote:
>Hello all --
>I have had suprising difficulty getting floppies to work properly for
>me. If I just copy files from the terminal they go to md-dos system and
>my file names get wrecked. I tried formatting the disk as ext2 with
>kfloppy but then I can't write to it. Is there a way to use a floppy
>normally, except with it being recognised as a linux disk, with proper
>file names and all??
Try this:
use mkfs to make an ext2 file system on /dev/fd0
mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /some/mount.point
cp long.file.name /some/mount.point
If you can't do the first or second steps, it may be a permission
problem. You may as some user be trying to do things that user lacks
permission for. If you can do the first and second steps, you can
probably do the third one.
--
Hugh Lawson
Greensboro, North Carolina
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Doc Evil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: mounting as nonroot?
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:45:07 +0100
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> When I try to mount a device (e.g. -- floppy & zip disks) as nonroot,
> I get the following error:
>
> mount: must be superuser to use mount
>
> Can anybody suggest the bst way to enable user access to the mount
> command?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ken
>
> Sent via Deja.com
> http://www.deja.com/
Hi
This is how I mounted my Zip.
/dev/scd4 /zip vfat noauto,user,exec 1 2
noauto means,that you must mount it manually, user means that all user
have the permision to mount ist and exec means that executable files
could be executed.
Hope that helps.
Doc Evil
------------------------------
From: Doc Evil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Basic floppy question
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:47:59 +0100
Kyle Parfrey wrote:
>
> Hello all --
> I have had suprising difficulty getting floppies to work properly for
> me. If I just copy files from the terminal they go to md-dos system and
> my file names get wrecked. I tried formatting the disk as ext2 with
> kfloppy but then I can't write to it. Is there a way to use a floppy
> normally, except with it being recognised as a linux disk, with proper
> file names and all??
>
> Thanks,
> Kyle
I use the mtools and I haven't had no problems like this...
Doc Evil
------------------------------
From: Dirk Groeneveld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: cant bootstrap gcc
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:42:20 +0100
Hi!
I'm unsuccessfully trying to set up my system from scratch, for the first
time with a 2.4.0-kernel and the new glibc (2.2.1). I pretty much followed
the instructions from the linuxfromscratch-howto, ignoring their version
numbers but getting the latest stable stuff, right up until i got stuck.
I build gcc and glibc with a small SuSE distribution and --prefix'ed it
into the new system.
Now, trying to recompile gcc, he tells me this:
[...] conversion from 'int' to non-scalar type 'streampos' requested
[...]
I thought it was a good idea to bootstrap it (via make bootstrap), but it
didn't help, same result.
Yes, I am using a separate build directory, and I am make'ing distclean (i
even deleted the whole gcc-build dir and did it all over again).
I'm using gnu as and gnu ld (all built from the SuSE system), and
./configure'ing it with --with-gnu-as and --with-gnu-ld.
I have not yet tried to do anything with the kernel save for untarring it
and checking out make menuconfig.
Dirk
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
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