Linux-Setup Digest #465, Volume #21 Mon, 18 Jun 01 10:13:09 EDT
Contents:
Re: 2.4 Kernel Upgrade Questions (Steve Martin)
Re: alsaconfig and suse 7.2/kernel2.4.4 (Robert Davies)
Re: Linux on AMD (Robert Davies)
Re: extreme newbiness (Robert Davies)
Re: Changing physical location of IDE drive (Robert Davies)
Re: why is there no cut/copy option??? ("Peter T. Breuer")
Re: Re: How to use USB Cable Modem on Linux? (patrick)
Re: How can I find containing text in some files??? (Jason Wood)
Re: VIA Issues roundup ("Wayne Osborn")
Re: How to use USB Cable Modem on Linux? (Rod Smith)
Re: Lilo and kernel to big (Jason Wood)
problem with accessing Zip under linux (Tuan Pham-Dinh)
Re: why is there no cut/copy option??? (Leonard Evens)
Re: why is there no cut/copy option??? (Michael Knight)
Re: Mandrake 8.0 freezing with DMA problems, please help! (Robert Davies)
Re: VIA Issues roundup (Robert Davies)
Re: A query about System.map and installing a new kernel (Robert Davies)
Re: Rebuilding Kernel, how to save original dependancies? (Robert Davies)
Re: 128MB RAM. No swap partition needed? (Robert Davies)
Re: How to save configuration information for doing installation next time? (Robert
Davies)
Re: Top 10 posters (Robert Davies)
initrd and /boot/vmLinuz: is the /boot kernel used? (Tim Richardson)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: 2.4 Kernel Upgrade Questions
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 08:05:21 -0400
Rand Simberg wrote:
> >Cons:
> > Still has gcc 2.96 as the default GCC, you still have to
> > use kgcc for the kernel
>
> That's a big problem. I hate hacking kernel sources.
This doesn't really require hacking kernel sources, just
the Makefile in two places, which is not really such a
big PITA.
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: alsaconfig and suse 7.2/kernel2.4.4
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 11:01:36 +0100
Denis Leroy wrote:
> Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:<1708652.rtZ34EBddD@localhost>...
>>
> I haven't checked the recent state of the Alsa drivers, i'm guessing
> they're making fast progress and soon will be ready for the mainstream
> distributions.
>
> Last i tried it, it had severe performance problem, it would cut off
> sound output on all disk access (on a cheap eMachine, at the time only
> Alsa supported that chipset). Plus 8-bit unsigned sound did not work, and
> it had that annoying feature where it would mute all the sounds
> everytime you boot up.
I think they are, but ALSA will work with other kernel sound drivers. It
is an architectural thing, with lots in user space to, an improvement on
OSS.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux on AMD
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 11:05:31 +0100
Dave Uhring wrote:
> Robert Davies wrote:
>
>> ganesh wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I have a sony desktop with AMD athlon(1GHz) and 128 MB RAM. Can I
>>> install linux on it. I already have windows Millenium running on it(It
>>> came installed)
>>
>> Yuck, how will you recover the OS if you don't have a CD-ROM?
>>
>>> Where can I download or purchase the specific Linux version. Also where
>>> can I find instructions for partitioning the drive.
>>
>> Good distro like SuSE-7.2 or Mandrake 8.0 will do it for you.
>>
>> It may be wise to invest in a 2nd harddrive, so you can install linux
>> without interfering with your windows disk at all, otherwise you have to
>> defragement and resize the windows partition, as part of the linux
>> installation.
>>
>> Rob
>>
>
> One of the very cute things that Microsoft did with WinMe was to make it
> impossible to perform a soft install. He doesn't need a CD-ROM for
> recovery because it won't work anyway.
Not sure if you are being sarcastic here, but if he screws up his Windows
partition badly enough, then he would not have access to their 'cute'
thing. He would also have tremendous difficulty recovering from backup if
he is unable to re-install the OS.
That is why it is a bad idea, and you should refuse to use an OS which
won't install off seperate media (usually CD-ROM or DVD).
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: extreme newbiness
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 11:10:55 +0100
Glitch wrote:
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Sean9182"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Also, I don't advise making Linux partitions using fips.exe in DOS. Use
> Linux partitioning tools to make linux partitions. You don't use Linux's
> fdisk to make a dos partition do you? The partition types will be
> incorrect if u use a DOS fdisk program and Windows will think the linux
> partitions are Windows partitions, which you definitely DO NOT want.
Ironically I actually fixed a disk that had looked like it had gone bad, by
recreating the partitons using sfdisk(8). It was the only partitioning
tool that could recover the corrupt partition table.
Since I rebuilt the Windows partitions, avoiding Win extended type, and
using the more common partition types for Windows, which it accepts. I
would not advise anyone to use fdisk(8) on a disk with these Win partition
types, as they risk corrupt partition tables, and may well loose their
data, or think the disk is bust.
sfdisk(8) has solved the problems, fdisk(8) really _is_ somewhat buggy just
like the man page says, and sfdisk(8) is now my favourite, though the UI is
terrible, just as the man page says.... ;)
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Changing physical location of IDE drive
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 11:20:22 +0100
Mike W. wrote:
> Thanks guys, finally I made it work. I was getting the "LI boot hang",
> but I fixed it by telling LILO that hde was bios 0x80 and hdg was bios
> 0x81. The docs say if you don't tell it, it "guesses" which drive is which
> bios #. I guess it "guessed" wrong. I don't know why it was a problem.
Bit late to this thread, but the LDP (www.linuxdoc.org) 'Upgrading your
Harddisk Mini HOWTO' is an excellent resource.
The only trick it misses, is 'cd /mnt/local; chroot . lilo' to reduce the
need for editting lilo.conf after the reboot, and reinstalling.
> One kind of gets the feeling the people who designed these systems were
> lacking serious wattage. Talk about gratuitous complexity. I mean,
> how many identities/names does a drive need to have? 0x80, /dev/hde,
> master on 3rd ide channel, C:, "the drive with my Windows stuff"---
> and only two are meaningful: physical location, and what's on the drive.
Yep, but it wasn't really designed, it's a legacy from DOS days. The BIOS
device number crap is needed to boot Windows, and any other OS has to play
along with it.
I'd really like something logical in BIOS, that lets you set, ide0/master
to 0x80, or whatever. Similarly in the boot menus, setting C:, D: etc is
braindamaged, when they get recalculated by repartitioning!
I wish it were true that similar lack of foresight is not shown by Linux
distros, but unfortunately this is not the case. Depending directly on
daemons and libraries, like 'named', 'sendmail' and libogg.so.3 is rife.
Really the Debian way of defining capabilities and for packages to depend
on those, rather than named software variants and versions is much better.
Rob
------------------------------
From: "Peter T. Breuer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.windows.x.kde
Subject: Re: why is there no cut/copy option???
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:13:39 +0200
In comp.os.linux.misc John Beardmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> How do you centre click with a two button mouse ?
You hit both at once (having sleected Emulate3Buttons in the X
configuration).
Peter
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 05:49:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: patrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Re: How to use USB Cable Modem on Linux?
I'd rather not buy an ethernet card if I don't have to. Is there no
way to deal with the USB port?
In reply to:
http://www.etin.com/article/Article.jsp?
messageID=34229402&folder=comp.os.linux.setup
----
Posted on http://www.etin.com - the FREE public USENET portal on the Web
Complete SEARCHING, BROWSING, and POSTING of text and BINARY messages!
------------------------------
From: Jason Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: How can I find containing text in some files???
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 13:23:32 GMT
Robert_L wrote:
> Hi,
> "man grep" for instructions.
>
>
> example:
> grep relay filename1 filename2
> or grep relay * #search through all files in the directory
> Hope this helps
> Robert_L
How about if I wanted to search for text in all of the files in a directory
and all of it's subdirectories?
Jason
------------------------------
From: "Wayne Osborn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: VIA Issues roundup
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 21:23:48 +0800
<snip!>
Ok, from my investigations, the reported issued pertain to DMA.
As I understand it, DMA file transfer across IDE channels can result in
errors, when large files are transfered.
I am using KT133A chipset, kernel 2.2.16, single IBM ATA100 drive (hdparm
-X69). As I do not perform file transfer across IDE channels, I do not
have a problem. Anyone having problems with multiple UDMA drives
installed on seperate IDE channels ????
Soundblaster Live, I beleive again the issue is with DMA, but am not in a
position to speak based on experience.
--
Wayne A. Osborn, SCADA Engineer.[dnar AT iinet DOT net DOT au]
Registered Linux User #212818. [2.2.16-22-Win4Lin-686] [i686]
9:20pm up 1 day, 6:19, 7 users, load average: 2.15, 2.12, 2.04
...I'm a Lisp variable -- bind me!
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rod Smith)
Subject: Re: How to use USB Cable Modem on Linux?
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 13:26:14 -0000
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
patrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> In reply to:
> http://www.etin.com/article/Article.jsp?
> messageID=34229402&folder=comp.os.linux.setup
This is an extremely awkward way to provide a reference. Please just
quote relevant material and use a news reader that preserves references
so that others can go back in a thread. Obviously your free Web-based
newsreader isn't doing that.
> I'd rather not buy an ethernet card if I don't have to. Is there no
> way to deal with the USB port?
A USB-based cable modem requires Linux drivers, and AFAIK no such device
has those drivers. Therefore, you will NOT be able to do this unless you
want to write your own drivers. If the device has an Ethernet port, use
it. If you simply don't want to open your computer to add the card,
Linux DOES support a few USB-to-Ethernet adapters, but they're more
costly than a regular Ethernet card, and they'll probably chew up more
CPU time. PCI Ethernet cards are cheap; you can get one for $15 or less
at CompUSA, Micro Center, or the like.
--
Rod Smith, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux & multi-OS configuration
------------------------------
From: Jason Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Lilo and kernel to big
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 13:36:00 GMT
I had this problem recently.
In my case, it came out because I was trying to give lilo the wrong file as
the kernel image - i copied this one to /vmlinuz
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/compressed/bvmlinuz (i think)
when it should have been
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
Maybe your having the same problem?
Jason
Will Muir wrote:
> That is what I did also tried make install and make bzdisk. I come out
> with a kernel around 530 k big.
> <Robert M. Taylor>; Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:u9eX6.19510$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>> Try make bzImage. This uses different compression and creates a smaller
>> kernel image file.
>> Will Muir wrote:
>>
>> > When I compile a new kernel and try to install it with Lilo I get an
> error
>> > message like "kernel is to big", I thought that this was an old issue
> for
>> > Lilo. What is causing this and what do I do to fix it? I am running
>> > Debian potato which I believe comes with Lilo 2.21 though I am not
>> > sure.
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance
>> >
>> >
>>
>> --
>> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>> Bob Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> bob@osprey:~
>>
>
>
>
------------------------------
From: Tuan Pham-Dinh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: problem with accessing Zip under linux
Date: 18 Jun 2001 17:39:10 +0200
Hi all,
I have a strange problem with my Zip drive. What ever the disk
in th drive I always get this error message
mount -t vfat /dev/hdd4 /zip
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdd4,
or too many mounted file systems
Note that The drive is recognized at boot:
hdd: IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI Floppy, ATAPI FLOPPY drive
However, trying to mount the drive, the kernel sent this message wgich
can be viewed by dmesg:
hdd: The drive reports both 100663296 and 100646912 bytes as its capacity
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,68)
hdd: hdd1 hdd2 hdd3 hdd4
ide-floppy: hdd: I/O error, pc = 28, key = 5, asc = 21, ascq = 0
end_request: I/O error, dev 16:44 (hdd), sector 0
FAT bread failed
Note that the same disk can be read on another linux machine, so this
is not really a problem of the disk. However, on this machine fdisk
reports
Disk /dev/hdd: 64 heads, 32 sectors, 95 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
and dosn't list any partition (prssumably it cannt read the partition
table correctly) while on the other machine which works, it reports 96
cylinders (and not 95).
This is not a problem of the drive either: DOS and Windows are capable
of reading the disk correctly. So this must be a problem of Linux.
Why? How to correct this ?
Any pointer is appreciated.
--
PHAM Dinh Tuan | e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Laboratoire de Modelisation et Calcul | Tel: +33 4 76 51 44 23
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex 9 (France) | Fax: +33 4 76 63 12 63
=======================================================================
------------------------------
From: Leonard Evens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.windows.x.kde
Subject: Re: why is there no cut/copy option???
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 08:18:07 -0500
"Jeff D. Hamann" wrote:
>
> Why is there no cut/copy option in the GNOME terminal window? That's really
> annoying since I want to build a script file using sql statements from MySQL
> and want to be able to paste them into a script file, but don;t want to run
> the entire script each time to find out of the query in question worked
> correctly.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff.
I'm not sure exactly what you are doing, but why don't you use an
editor window like gedit which does have those commands? You can
edit more than one document in one gedit window or even open
two such windows and use copy and paste commands between them.
If you also keep a terminal window open, and you write out the file
after modifying it, you can run the script to see the results.
With vi, you can even execute the script without using a terminal
window, and of course with emacs, you can do almost anything
you want.
Or, as several people have suggested, you can use the mark and
paste X operations.
I do this sort of thing with TeX all the time. I edit in one window,
compile in another and view the results in a third.
You should think of a terminal window as the Linux version of a
DOS window, except of course that it gives you much more power.
--
Leonard Evens [EMAIL PROTECTED] 847-491-5537
Dept. of Mathematics, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Michael Knight)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.windows.x.kde
Subject: Re: why is there no cut/copy option???
Date: 18 Jun 2001 06:51:13 -0700
John Beardmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, David
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
> >"Jeff D. Hamann" wrote:
>
> >> Why is there no cut/copy option in the GNOME terminal window? That's really
> >> annoying since I want to build a script file using sql statements from MySQL
> >> and want to be able to paste them into a script file, but don;t want to run
> >> the entire script each time to find out of the query in question worked
> >> correctly.
> >
> >Highlight the text you want to copy then move to the window you want to
> >paste it into and center click where you want it.
>
> How do you centre click with a two button mouse ?
>
Oh good grief....
If you have a two-button mouse, make sure you have 3-button emulation turned on
under X-windows.
The middle button is activated by pressing both left and right at the same time.
Obviously this is annoying, and often results in you losing whatever you had
highlighted when you goof trying to emulate the middle button.
If you are using a serial mouse, MEI/Microcenter has a nice 3-button
opto-mechanical serial mouse for about $7 US. I've been using those since 1992.
I bought 5 of them back then, and I'm on my 3rd one now. And all 5 combined were
cheaper than the Microsoft/Logitech 3button mouse offering somewhere between $50-$100
at the time.
-Michael
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Mandrake 8.0 freezing with DMA problems, please help!
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:33:09 +0100
Dave Uhring wrote:
> Yu Di wrote:
>
>> Dave Uhring <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>> news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>
> From the admittedly limited experience I have had trying to use a 2.4.X
> kernel on older hardware, I have found that the best solution is to turn
> off DMA in the BIOS until you can get a 2.2.19 kernel built and installed.
Hopefully VM problems will be fixed in 2.4.6 based kernels, lots of patches
for that and VIA have gone into latest test kernels.
Mandrake seem to have picked a bad release of 2.4.x, the 2.4.0 that SuSE
had seems to have fewer problems, and at least with SuSE 7.1 and 7.2
there's an easy choice to install and boot with either kernel.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: VIA Issues roundup
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:40:46 +0100
Michael Perry wrote:
> Been tracking several VIA/southbridge related issues lately for my own
> edification and would like to know if I missed any. So here goes:
> I'm kind thinking of summing up a lot of this stuff on a simple web page
> or something to help folks out with finding information, patches and
> fixes, and archived discussion links from a lot of different reading I
> have done on the subject lately.
It's a big job :
The systems I know of that had trouble with PC133 memory were AsusA7V and
Abit KT7RAID. The guy who wrote cpuburn Robert Redelmeir IIRC, tracked
down the Abit one.
There's a motherboard review which suggests some boards more solid than
others, but they tested delivered boards without BIOS upgrades AFAIK.
I put in a post, summarising some info pages, I think you read it.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: A query about System.map and installing a new kernel
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:36:26 +0100
Jason Wood wrote:
> I am currently trying to install Kernel 2.4.4 on my computer, but I have a
> problem.
When you make the kernel, you'll find a new file called System.map is
created, in the current directory IIRC, not the boot/arch directory.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Rebuilding Kernel, how to save original dependancies?
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux.mandrake
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:51:30 +0100
Mark Johnson wrote:
> OK, I'm about to reconfigure and rebuild my kernel. However, if something
> goes wrong I want to be able to start from scratch without reinstalling.
>
> What file or files do I need to archive before I start mucking with all
> the various options under xconfig?
>
> Is it possible to archive to configuration and then blow away to new
> dependancies with the originals? Does it work that way?
>
> thanks for your help!!!
The kernel file and it's modules. Something like /boot/vmlinuz and
/lib/modules/2.4.4. System.map is less important.
Best to try out new kernel, under new name and lilo entry, experimental.
You may need to make new initrd's.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 128MB RAM. No swap partition needed?
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:49:01 +0100
Michael Perry wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Jun 2001 01:06:16 GMT, Jonathan M. Slivko
>> You should always have a swap partition of at least twice the ammount
>> of available physical RAM.
>> - -- Jonathan
>>
> I question the need for a swap partition of double the size of available
> RAM
> if you have a system with anything over 128mb. I don't know the
> conventional wisdom, and I always create a swapfile when I do an
> installation. My systems though run 384mb and 512mb of memory each. This
> would mean I would need a gig of swapfile for the second system. I
> believe
> that I created a much smaller swapfile for the second system. More like
> 128mb or so. I run 2.4.5 on both and some swap gets written to on
> occasion. I would cheerfully be corrected if others running over 128mb of
> physical
> memory see a need to create a swapfile with double the size. I see so
> little swapfile used that I really do not see the need for humongous
> swapfiles when you have a half-gig of system memory. Both systems are
> quite
> fast anyways. They are both 1g athlons with KT133 boards. I have other
> issues I guess with them; but swapfile use has never been up there.
Read the kernel list archive on this, marc.theaimsgroup.com.
'Break the VM in 5 easy steps' in one thread is one. Then you will
understand the issues, you have enough RAM that you normally don't go into
swap, once you do with 2.4 your system will perform poorly.
Linus has made this very, very clear. The rule is this : Either , at least
2x Phys RAM, or no swap at all.
Basically the reason is if you use less, you can have state where, the VM
is trying to page in/out the whole of physical memory, in worst cases it
needs double RAM.
Yes, 2.2 Linux got by with less, though my exp. was that greater stability
was achieved by using > 2x RAM, though some patches to kernel round 2.2.17
addressed the isssue.
The 2.4 VM is being changed to reclaim swap space more agressively,
possibly it will revert to behaviour more like 2.2. That still does not
change the official requirements according to the developers.
128MB is not enough, but if you have 512MB, or 1GB then it becomes more
reasonable not to use swap partitions.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: How to save configuration information for doing installation next time?
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:42:23 +0100
Mark Johnson wrote:
> Ok, I spent about 45 minutes, custom selecting my packages. Is there any
> way that I can print that selection out so that next time I can remember
> exactly what I picked?
>
>
> Also, it would be really convient if I could someone tell the installer to
> use these settings so I don't have to spend 45 minutes picking them again
> but i don't think that's going to happen....
>
> thanks for the info...
If it's kernel config, make oldconfig will help, though saving Config files
is best option, explicitly.
Each distro has it's own way of automating installs, read the Docs they
provide on how to do it, package lists should be a basic feature.
Rob
------------------------------
From: Robert Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Top 10 posters
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:34:18 +0100
Michael Heiming wrote:
> Top 10 posters for the 7 day period ending 2001-06-18.
> (comp.os.linux.setup)
>
> posts kbytes name address
> 1 78 168.9 Robert Davies [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Whoops!! Better go back to lurking ;)
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tim Richardson)
Subject: initrd and /boot/vmLinuz: is the /boot kernel used?
Date: 18 Jun 2001 07:09:57 -0700
If I boot with initrd, is the kernel image in /boot used when the real
/ partition is mounted?
I ask because if I have some hardware that requires a non-modularised
driver, (a USB mass storage device), do I need to make sure that the
initrd image has this module compiled in, or just the kernel image
that I will put in /boot?
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Setup Digest
******************************
