On Jun 17, 1996 at 17:34, Keith Richardson of 3:711/934.6 wrote:

 KR> only a cs major would say that, the rest of the world are sane (:

Negative opinion - I'm the only sane one, the rest of the world has gone to
the dogs..  :)

 db>> You want write-only code?  Try sed or Perl!  ;-)
 KR> i have had a copy of perl for some time, i am waiting for a burst of
 KR> insanity to get to try it.

I started when I wanted to put an end to all this sh/sed/awk/whatever mess,
replacing it all with a single self-contained Perl script (one script, one
language, one solution).

[fdisk]
 KR> the dos one seemed to run fine

I must admit I haven't had any problems with it either - as I said, I just
read that someone else had definitely had problems, and only the OS/2 FDISK
worked for them.

 db>> is 2Gb, containing all the usual installed packages).
 KR> i dont accord linux that much resources at present, it is a toy and
 KR> learning tool...

I had some space to spare...

 KR> i have to do a lot more with unix in the near future as it spreads
 KR> into the mainstream. i have given /root 650 megs and /swap and /home 50
 KR> meg each, with 48 megs of ram i dont expect a lot of swapping to go on!

About that, yup..  :)  I assume with /root being 650Mb you've left /usr
there as well?  That's where most growth/usage will probably be, too.

 KR> i have compiled the kernel properly this time and have upgraded the

There are some options in the kernel that can be tweaked, that aren't
presented by the normal compilation procedure (like enabling multiple block
mode on IDE devices, speading up the SCSI bus reset, etc.).  Just browse
the code, make the change, recompile and away you go.

 KR> kernel to 1.3.30.

2.0.0 went from beta to production release circa June 9.  ;-)

I'm sticking with 1.2.13 until the next round of distributions are
produced, with updated libraries, compilers, kernel, X11 (3.1.2E) and so
forth.

 KR> that was fun with no docs (:

Errm .. you didn't bother reading the "README" in the Kernel
source directory?!  ;-)

 KR> i do still have a problem, i cant make the damn thing print.
 KR> i specified parallel printer support in the kernel configuration, but
 KR> running lpr just gets rude messages.

You've setup a printer *device* in the kernel, but you haven't setup any
printer queues, nor directed those queues to any devices.  Running
"lpr" is just trying to print to whatever default queue is setup
on your machine, which depends on the distribution you are using.

For example, here is my "/etc/printcap" file from my desktop
workstation at work:

ljna|lp|hpj|Network Analyst - HP LaserJet 4L:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lp1:\
        :lp=/dev/lp1:\
        :lf=/var/adm/lpd-errs:pw#80:mx#0:
lwhd|postscript|PostScript|Help Desk - Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lwhd:\
        :lp=:\
        :rm=bacall:\
        :rp=lwhd:\
        :lf=/var/adm/lpd-errs:pw#80:mx#0:

The first entry defines a printer queue called "ljna" (LaserJet
Network Analyst - purely arbitrary name choice), with aliases of
"lp" and "hpj", and a long name as shown.  The spool
directory is "/var/spool/lp1", the actual kernel device to which
this printer is attached is "/dev/lp1", and the log file (for
errors) is "/var/adm/lpd-errs".  Printing is to an 80-column-wide
page, with no maximum limit on print job size.  There's no filters
installed yet because I haven't had time to do that (so consequently,
printing to this printer doesn't quite work properly).

NOTE: Your "LPT1" may be "/dev/lp0" or
"/dev/lp1" depending on whatever shitty restrictions the BIOS and
PC architecture may care to impose - just try one, and if it doesn't work,
try the other one (my "/dev/lp0" fails with an error, but
"/dev/lp1" works).

The second printer queue is called "lwhd" (LaserWriter Help
Desk), with alises and long name as shown.  "sd", "lf",
"pw" and "mx" are as for the HP printer.  See how
"lp" is empty?  This is because the printer is not directly
connected to this PC, of course;  in this case, I'm piggy-backing on the
printer queue of another machine (bacall), and that printer queue on that
remote machine is also called "lwhd".

Depending on what filters and network transports you install, you can
directly print to SMB (NetBIOS) printers, AppleTalk printers, IPX printers
and IP printers, of any description (my work PC just runs IP at the
moment).

The spool directory is simple enough:

   1 drwxrwxr-x   2 root     lp           1024 Jun 12 11:47 ./
   1 drwxr-xr-x  16 root     root         1024 Jun  4 09:57 ../
   1 -rw-------   1 root     lp              4 Jun 12 11:45 .seq
   1 -rw-r--r--   1 root     lp              3 Jun 19 18:15 lock
   1 -rw-rw-r--   1 root     root           27 Jun 12 11:47 status

These files are maintained by the printer subsystem, so just create
zero-length files with the right permissions/ownership and it should be
fine.

If you don't already have the error log file:

   0 -rw-r-----   1 root     root            0 Jun  4 16:17 lpd-errs

No need to reboot, if lpd was already running.  Check as per:

 -----[ snip, snip ]-----

bash# ps -ax | fgrep -i lpd
   47  ?  S     0:00 /usr/sbin/lpd
  148 pp0 S     0:00 fgrep -i lpd
bash#

 -----[ snip, snip ]-----

Check that things are okay on your queues with "lpc stat".  Of
course, if you're using the "Red Hat" distribution, just do the
wimpy thing and select the printer manager from the graphical control
window.  :-)

 KR> also is there a way of looking at .dvi files on screen?

Run up X11, and use "xdvi" - it may compile a whole heap of NTeX
fonts, then display your document on the screen.

 KR> i also have some uglies with x-windows that look like video driver
 KR> problems.

What video card?  Mine's an ATI Graphics Pro Turbo (Mach64), which uses the
newer "GX" chip, so that the ol' XFree86 3.1.2 Mach64 X server
didn't work;  moving up to the latest beta (now at 3.1.2E) fixed that
magnificently.

Binaries for XFree86 are available on the 'net, mirrored at the University
of Sydney, Department of Physics.  "x.physics.usyd.edu.au" if I
remember correctly.

 KR> linux is an interesting toy, but doesn't seem ready for prime time yet

This is what FreeBSD users crow about - Linux's development is so chaotic,
which has both its advantages and disadvantages, whereas FreeBSD is locked
to a small development group, that releases the same thing to everyone.

When it comes to "prime time", it depends what you want to do - I
certainly wouldn't consider running a production Oracle database on it, or
anything like that.  Enterprise-wide file/printer services though, is
another story.

 db>> Well, if you'd done it "properly" from the start...  ;-)
 KR> you are right, i should have used w95 to do it (:

Oh dear, some people never learn.  ;-)  I've been given the absolutely
joyous (ahem) task of setting up a Windows NT Server 3.51 box for running a
Lotus Notes demo - bloody hell, after a million FDISK's to kill that
!{at}#^$&{at}#$ On-Track Disk Mangler yet keep the full disk visible to NT,
then opening the box to fix the CD-ROM so that NT could read its own
installation media, now fighting with the network card .. shit, the Linux
installation was easier!  :)

Cheers..

    - dave
    d.begley{at}ieee.org

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