NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/os/linux/16120

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Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #487
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Date:     Thu, 5 Nov 92 18:30:48 EST
Subject:  Linux-Activists Digest #487

Linux-Activists Digest #487, Volume #3            Thu, 5 Nov 92 18:30:48 EST

Contents:
  Re: uucp/mail/news FAQ (Robert Kiesling)
  fixed font (Alexander Tuninga)
  **!** Critics/Comments and a Request for Help **!** (Rene Felix Wies)
  Re: /usr/X386/lib/X11 <-> /usr/lib/X11 (Guido Muesch)
  Re: fig2dev (James Michael Chacon)
  -News & a FEED! (tim foley)
  TeX/xdvi Question. (Dean Jansa)
  Re: Bootmanager and LILO (Martin Rex)
  Re: Bugs in LINUX tar (?) (James Michael Chacon)
  Linux/386BSD on Compaq Deskpro 386/25 (peter da silva)
  Re: Toronto Linux Users (Patrick Naubert)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: rak@loft (Robert Kiesling)
Subject: Re: uucp/mail/news FAQ
Date: 5 Nov 92 13:25:01 GMT


   rak@loft (Robert Kiesling) writes:

   >In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Vincent D. Skahan) writes:
   >   once again, I see no reason to write (and have to support) a c.o.l.
   >   FAQ for things that are already either documented in FAQ's or in books
   >   you can buy.

   >   there are a variety of groups regarding uucp including comp.mail.uucp.
   >   'elm', 'mush', and 'smail' have their own newsgroups.

   [stuff deleted...

   that's why there's news.admin, news.software.readers, news.answers,
   comp.mail.uucp (and so on...) as well as the (fine) O'Reilly+Assoc series
   of books including 'managing uucp and usenet'., Evi Nemeth's "Unix System
   Administration Handbook",. etc. Why reinvent the wheel?

   you're not supposed to do this stuff if you're clueless.
   USENET is not for kiddies.

Absolutely.  The best reply is usally "rtfm!"  At least to the
postings I've seen here...

   [ more stuff deleted ...

   you don't have to do ANYTHING to set it up differently from any other
   unix (a credit to the folks involved!).

   There are no Linux-specific-things to do, therefore there are no Linux-specific
   pointers required. I set up uucico to run from cron at home and I don't
   do *anything* manually except read the news/mail that comes in...

   comp.os.linux is (I thought) intended to further the o/s and associated
   stuff, not to be what the news.* hierarchy is already chartered to do.

   The other groups have their charters.  Questions regarding items inside their
   charters should go to them, not c.o.l.

   [ deleted ...

   >In his uucp internals FAQ, Ian Taylor wrote, "(This FAQ) does not
   >describe how to configure UUCP, nor how to solve connection problems,
   >nor how to deal with UUCP mail.  There are currently no FAQ postings
   >on any of these topics, and I do not plan to write any."

   There is not a FAQ because it's documented already in vendor documents,
   the O'Reilly books, etc.  There is no *need*. Grab the mailpak .tar.Z
   file(s), extract them, and type 'make'.  Then grab the newspak stuff
   and do the same.

   >   Just go out and buy O'Reilly+Assoc's "managing uucp and usenet"...
   >   And subscribe-to/read news.answers for the FAQs.

   >The nutshell manual is great, *once* Taylor uucp is configured to
   >correctly use BNU or V2 format config files.  It also tells how to
   >test the link in a way that's mostly non-disruptive, and has the
   >clearest description of rs-232 harware handshaking I've read.  But it
   >says nothing about configuring Taylor UUCP specifically.  Nor smail,
   >nor Vixie cron, nor any specific newsreader.

   But you already get HDB if you run Ed Carp's mailpak, which uses the
   HDB configuration.  You don't have to do anything...it's done for you.
   [...Ed, do I get a royalty every time I tell somebody you did good?...]

   Care and feeding of smail is a reasonably non-issue if you grab the
   smail3.1.28 I provide as part of 'newspak'.  I have about 4 lines of
   total configuration files to set system-specific stuff.  The incredible
   things you *could* do with smail are well-documented in the smail docs
   and in the comp.mail.smail newsgroup. I asked a question via email to
   Steve Robbins who provided excellent info that I included when I uploaded
   newspak (in the smail stuff).

   care and feeding of vixie cron is extremely well documented in the
   docs that come with it.  A no-brainer.

   each newsreader comes with excruciating detail in docs and once again
   the OR+A book(s) are the best sources of info. There is no need to
   write anything.

   sigh...
   there IS NO system-specific stuff to be done any more.
   Grab newspak.  Grab mailpak.  Grab vixcron.  type make.  Miller Time.

... Installing -- and using -- news software does not end with typing
"make."

I was not able to ftp mailpak on my own miniscule ftp funding.  I
grabbed it on disk from someone else in town (thanks again, Rob!).
Installing the binaries was, in fact, a no-brainer, all credit to Ed.
Newspak was not released when I installed c-news here, unfortunately.
It would have saved a lot of time.  Then there is the administrivia,
coordinating with uucp neighbors, etc., etc.

Installing SLS or MCC, for example, is also intended (I assume) to be
easy as possible.  I still see lots of postings from people who have
questions.

   A person getting started running news gets news/mail fed from
   somewhere.  If they have no clue, and they don't try to get a clue, they
   live with the implications of their lack of action.

And so do other Linux activists.  The "Usenet is not for kiddies"
sentiment is usually stated in reference to MS-LOSS or Mac people.  It
would be great if Linux activists can avoid that.

                                                        Everybody is a
   beginner once.  Everybody screws up.  No biggie. If a rookie admin
   doesn't get in touch with his uucp neighbor(s) to help prevent him from
   screwing up BIG deserves what he/she gets.

I did lean heavily on my uucp neighbors (thanks, Dave and Marc).  Both
are non-pc architecture machines.  Anyway, it's easy for a rookie admin to
edit their Systems file, type "postnews" and send stuff out into the
world with no idea where it's going -- a no-brainer.

   I strongly disagree about the need to document something in general
   in a comp.os.linux group. You must disagree, cool. Have fun.

No real disagreement, IMHO.  Just a matter of how to do this.  Would
you consider including one or two of these many docs in newspak?
Newspak is a necessary and important part of Linux -- thanks.  I admit
to not having looked at it (yet).  I've had too many other things to
do.  Soon, though.

Yours was the only negative response out of the dozen or so I have
received, mostly from beginners.  That's not enough to prompt me to go
to the trouble of writing and distributing a FAQ or a meta-FAQ.  Nor
does it seem from the responses to me that enough people are having
problems with installation to justify it.  I'll wait and see if I
receive other responses.

-- Bob
--
===============================================================================
Robert Kiesling                             "Durum et durum non faciunt murum."
[e-mail]                                                -- Anon
vela!plex-1!loft!rak

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Alexander Tuninga)
Subject: fixed font
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 14:51:22 GMT



There were people ( including me) having problems with
Xfree86.
The errormessage: can't find default font fixed giving up

I solved the problem by editing the .../fonts/misc/fonts.dir file
and changing the *.Z stuff * whithout the suffix.

Maybe you should compress all the fonts in .../fonts/misc, I'm
not an X-wizard.

Still I hope I helped somebody

Alex

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Rene Felix Wies)
Subject: **!** Critics/Comments and a Request for Help **!**
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 15:55:27 GMT


Hi all,

I managed to install linux (SLS 0.98) with X11, TeX and xfig.
Its ok to read dvi-files with xdvi, but I realy would like
to get my postscript files out on my printer:

     Printer: HP DJ500C

So I'm looking for someone who has been able to compile

     ghostview
     ghostscript
     transfig

PLEASE mail me your makefile or any other information on how
to set up my printer.

THANKS IN ADVANCE,
                    Rene'


BTW: I posted a similar article a few weeks ago and
received a number of replies from people telling me
that they had NO problems compiling ghostscript and
ghostview.
-- Great, BUT I AM having problems and need HELP.

BTW2: Posting my first article and mentioning that
I had the SLS release running resulted in a vast
number of mails, asking me how I got X11, SLS and
the rest running. I replied to all these mails -
most of the problems are explained in the FAQ or
were already answered in some other postings. So
please read the news before asking questions. "I
know its somewhere in the FAQ, but...." is no longer
an excuse - READ the FAQ and the news - that's what
they're there for. Scanning approx.14000 articles
is a lot, but its not getting less if people keep
on posting old questions - AND many of the linuxers
will stop reading all articles if only old stuff
crops up. Splitting the group (into beginners and
advanced users) makes little sense, but a little
more patience and discipline would help. (Maybe
we could have comp.os.linux.X11 ..TeX ..Emacs
..Ghost ..Printing ..GCC. and keep the installation
news in comp.os.linux.)

Despite the above discussion, I need HELP with
ghost* and my HP DJ500C printer.
--Rene'

reply to: [e-mail]
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Guido Muesch)
Subject: Re: /usr/X386/lib/X11 <-> /usr/lib/X11
Date: 5 Nov 92 10:27:25 GMT

[e-mail] (David Tucker @ATO / KC4ZGO) writes:


|I tried xfree 1.1 this weekend.  When I tried to start X386 it complained
|that it couldn't find /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc so I had to make a link
|/usr/X386/X11 to find the fonts.  Then it worked.  Why is it looking in the
|wrong place?  Also when I try to run X386mono, why does it say can't execute
|binary file.  Can someone tell me what the size and sum should be for it.
|As an aside is there a newer, better version of X11 that I should be using?

The font directories are defined in /usr/X386/lib/X11/Xconfig.
Maybe you are using the wrong Xconfig.
X is normally started via startx which is a shellscript which then
will start xinit. It makes no sense to start X386mono alone (beside
testing purposes). Just make ln -s X386mono X , edit your Xconfig so
it has definitions for vga2 and do startx. I think the exact things are
discussed in the READMEs.

Guido

|Thanks for the help.  Sorry if this has already been asked.

|David Tucker / [e-mail]
--
   /\    email:  [e-mail]
__/  \  ______________________________________________________________________
      \/ snail: Guido Muesch, Ruetscher Str.175/1104, W-5100 Aachen (Germany)

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (James Michael Chacon)
Subject: Re: fig2dev
Date: 5 Nov 1992 08:50:04 -0600

[e-mail] (Marcus Wunderlich) writes:

|Hi Linuxers,

|during the last weeks I saw some of you looking for the binary
|fig2dev which translates fig-files into latex- or postscript-format.
|Some days ago I compiled it and if some of you are interested I try
|to make it available as a binary.

|Marcus

Also, the source is in the X11R5 contrib stuff under the transfig
directory if anyone wants to compile their own. I know that I compile
everything myself for my system just to be sure I have all the defaults
the way I want them

James


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (tim foley)
Subject: -News & a FEED!
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 14:59:33 GMT


Date Entered: 11-05-92 09:57

  Could someone post the fixes that were necessary to get the May version of
C-news to work for Linux...I haven't yet installed it due to space but I
should be getting an extra ESDI drive soon, so that should be solved.

  Also, anyone in the Toronto/Mississauga (Ontario, Canada eh!) region
willing to provide a news feed?  HST speed only, I don't have a V.32 or a
dual standard (yet!)...gotta hot-rod the Z28 first!

                                                        Tim


---
   ATP/Linux 1.3b    ----[ Another Smug Linux User ]----
   RM 2.00 : RoseNet<=>Usenet Gateway : Rose Media 416-733-2285

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Dean Jansa)
Subject: TeX/xdvi Question.
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 14:58:20 GMT

A quick question to a TeX/xdvi guru:

When I run xdvi on a test.dvi file, I get the following output.
I _do_ end up being able to view the file.  But the "cannot move"
error bugs me.  If it could move it, I assume I wouldn't have to
wait for xdvi to process the font each time, correct?

BTW, if I run it as root, I get no output, xdvi just snaps up.  Hmmm...

Thank you for your time.

% xdvi test.dvi
- /usr/TeX/lib/tex/MakeTeXPK cmmi10 300 300 magstep\(0\)
mf "\mode:=localfont; mag:=magstep(0); scrollmode; input cmmi10" < /dev/null
This is METAFONT, C Version 2.71

(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/cmmi10.mf (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/cmbase.mf)
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/mathit.mf (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romanu.mf [65]
[66] [67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80]
[81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] [89] [90])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/itall.mf [97] [98] [99] [100] [101] [102] [103]
[104] [105] [106] [107] [108] [109] [110] [111] [112] [113] [114] [115]
[116] [117] [118] [119] [120] [121] [122]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/greeku.mf
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/greekl.mf
[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
[26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/italms.mf [64] [96] [123] [124] [125] [126] [127])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/olddig.mf [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55]
[56] [57]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romms.mf [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45]
[46] [47] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [91] [92] [93] [94] [95]) ) )
Font metrics written on cmmi10.tfm.
Output written on cmmi10.300gf (128 characters, 13684 bytes).
Transcript written on cmmi10.log.
This is GFtoPK, C Version 2.3
[./cmmi10.300gf->./cmmi10.300pk]
'METAFONT output 1992.11.05:0831'
13684 bytes packed to 6624 bytes.
mv: cannot move `cmmi10.300pk' to `/usr/TeX/lib/tex/fonts/pktmp.94': Permission denied
mv: pktmp.94: No such file or directory
Can't find font cmmi10 at 300 dpi; using 329 dpi instead.
- /usr/TeX/lib/tex/MakeTeXPK cmr10 300 300 magstep\(0\)
mf "\mode:=localfont; mag:=magstep(0); scrollmode; input cmr10" < /dev/null
This is METAFONT, C Version 2.71

(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/cmr10.mf (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/cmbase.mf)
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/roman.mf (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romanu.mf [65]
[66] [67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80]
[81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] [89] [90])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romanl.mf [97] [98] [99] [100] [101] [102] [103]
[104] [105] [106] [107] [108] [109] [110] [111] [112] [113] [114] [115]
[116] [117] [118] [119] [120] [121] [122]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/greeku.mf
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romand.mf
[48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romanp.mf [36] [38] [63] [62])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romspl.mf [16] [17] [25] [26] [27] [28])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romspu.mf [29] [30] [31])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/punct.mf [33] [60] [35] [37] [39] [40] [41] [42]
[43] [44] [46] [47] [58] [59] [61] [64] [91] [93] [96])
(/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/accent.mf [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [32]
[94] [95] [125] [126] [127]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/romlig.mf [11] [12]
[13] [14] [15]) (/usr/TeX/lib/mf/macros/comlig.mf [34] [45] [92] [123] [124]) )
 )
Font metrics written on cmr10.tfm.
Output written on cmr10.300gf (128 characters, 13184 bytes).
Transcript written on cmr10.log.
This is GFtoPK, C Version 2.3
[./cmr10.300gf->./cmr10.300pk]
'METAFONT output 1992.11.05:0832'
13184 bytes packed to 5464 bytes.
mv: cannot move `cmr10.300pk' to `/usr/TeX/lib/tex/fonts/pktmp.102': Permission denied
mv: pktmp.102: No such file or directory
Can't find font cmr10 at 300 dpi; using 329 dpi instead.
%

Dean Jansa
Computer Systems Lab
University of Wisconsin - Madison
[e-mail]



------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Martin Rex)
Subject: Re: Bootmanager and LILO
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 92 16:02:14 GMT

Kees de Bruin ([e-mail]) wrote:
: I'm using Linux for quite some time now, but are currently using a
: shoelace/bootmanager combination to boot DOS/OS2/Linux. Because I
: want to shift to version .98 using the SLS and knowing that shoelace
: does not work wit SLS.98, I was wondering if I can use LILO and the
: bootmanager together.

WHAT ???  I'm also using a shoelace/bootmanager combination, and I boot
linux off my second disk (SCSI) with the 0.98pl1 kernel.
Who claims that shoelace doesn't work with 0.98 ???

What I am wondering is, if lilo works with bootmanager --
I've never tried it because I'm happy with shoelace, and it's so easy
to replace the Image by just copying (cat'ing) a new one in place,
and that's it.  It seems that lilo requires a new installation
everytime the Image is changed.  I did not understand the lilo
docs on my first reading so I will probably stick with shoelace.

-Martin

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (James Michael Chacon)
Subject: Re: Bugs in LINUX tar (?)
Date: 5 Nov 1992 09:04:57 -0600

[e-mail] (Joshua M Yelon) writes:

|Last night I switched from minix FS to ext FS.  Here are the steps
|I went through:

|* tarred my whole filesystem using gnu tar, split tarfile onto floppies.
|* reformatted hard disk using mkefs.
|* reloaded software from floppy using the tar on the 0.98 rootdisk.

|Much to my chagrin, though, the tar on the root floppy didn't seem
|to quite understand the tarfile format: it loaded the files up ok,
|and got all the chmod bits right, but got most of the file ownerships
|wrong!  Needless to say, this took a long time to fix.

|It may be important that I use UID's greater than 1000...  although
|I can't see why that would be a problem, it IS unusual.
|

It sounds as if you changed userid's from when you tarred up the system
and when you restored it. I have noticed this problem when I untar something
I get off of ftp. If I am root and untar it the ownerships stay the same
as the person who tarred it up. Gnu tar has some option to stop this I
am sure, but I can't remember it off hand.

James


------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd
From: [e-mail] (peter da silva)
Subject: Linux/386BSD on Compaq Deskpro 386/25
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 00:22:16 GMT

I'm considering buying a used Compaq Deskpro 386/25. I'll be using a Maxtor
XT4380E or Miniscribe 9380E with an as yet undetermined ESDI controller. Has
anyone run Linux or 386BSD on a similar platform? What sort of controller
would work best in this environment (don't say SCSI, I have a good deal on
the drive)? What sort of things should I be watching out for?
--
% Peter da Silva % 77487-5012 % [phone] % Har du kramat din varg idag?
(<<VV$@\\$'&O 9$O%'$LT$&$"V6"$&$<4$?'&$ #I&&?$=$444@)24 24 scale newpath/P true
def 3 21 moveto{dup 36 eq{pop/P P not def}{dup 7 and 4 sub exch 56 and 8 div 4
sub P{rlineto}{rmoveto}ifelse}ifelse}forall stroke showpage %          `-_-'

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Patrick Naubert)
Subject: Re: Toronto Linux Users
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 13:46:13 GMT

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (DHALIWAL BIKRAM SINGH) writes:
|Are there any Linux or PC-Unix-32bit-clone users out there that live
|in Toronto (or in that case at U of T)?????????????
|It would be a real help to those who need it.
|
Well, there are a few (I counted 2 so far...) in Ottawa....


------------------------------


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End of Linux-Activists Digest
******************************