1  From: Lars.Wirzenius@helsinki.fi (Lars Wirzenius)
  2  Subject: Linux News #4 (October 26 - November 6, 1992)
  3  
  4  
  5  			 L i n u x   N e w s
  6  
  7  	  A summary of the goings-on of the Linux community
  8  
  9  	    Issue #4, October 26 through November 6, 1992
 10  
 11  
 12  	       "The rumors our demise are exaggarated"
 13  
 14  
 15  
 16  
 17  **** Highlights in this issue
 18  
 19  - comp.os.linux splitting in voting stage
 20  - xsysinfo
 21  - kernel 0.98 pl3
 22  - LILO version alpha.6
 23  - Updates to SLS
 24  - tvtwm
 25  - Xview3 libraries and tools
 26  - poeigl 1.7 and admutil 1.4
 27  - Linus got some money
 28  
 29  
 30  **** Editorial
 31  
 32  This issue is even more late than the previous one.  I haven't had
 33  time and energy to do very much about Linux News (and a bunch of other
 34  things), so I missed last week completely, and even now this issue is
 35  rather quickly done.  Sorry about that.
 36  
 37  A major thing happening in comp.os.linux right now is the vote for
 38  splitting the group into subgroups.  This has been discussed sometimes
 39  quite heatedly for a long time, and I won't say much more about it,
 40  except that I personally hope for at least the creation of
 41  comp.os.linux.announce, if only because it would make it easier for me
 42  to do Linux News (I wouldn't have to hunt for announcements, I could
 43  just pick them from one newsgroup).
 44  
 45  
 46  **** Legalese
 47  
 48  Linux News can be copied, re-published, printed, hung on walls, used
 49  as toilet paper, and used in any other way you wish.  If you
 50  distribute LN outside comp.os.linux and the LINUXNEWS channel, please
 51  tell me: the more people I know are reading LN, the more eager I am to
 52  put energy into it.
 53  
 54  In fact, if you read Linux News, and think that it is a Good Thing,
 55  and you want to make me happier, send me a post card to the following
 56  address:
 57  
 58  	Lars Wirzenius
 59  	Ohratie 16 C 198
 60  	SF-01370 VANTAA
 61  	Finland
 62  
 63  (Letter bombs, as long as they are marked as such, can go to the same
 64  address. :-)
 65  
 66  I take no responsibility whatsoever for any information in Linux News,
 67  or any problems due lack of information.  If you get killed due to
 68  Linux News, mail me, and I'll feel sorry for you, but that's just
 69  about all I can do.
 70  
 71  
 72  **** Notices
 73  
 74  Linux News is only a summary, if you want more information about a
 75  given subject, please see the source that is referenced at the end of
 76  each note (for Usenet articles, the reference is the Message-ID of the
 77  article).  I try to include all the relevant information, including
 78  ftp sites and filenames, as given in the announcements (I probably
 79  won't have the time or energy to check filenames, or to find pointers
 80  to other ftp sites).  If possible, I will try to indicate directories
 81  with a trailing /, e.g. ``pub/linux/SLS/''.
 82  
 83  I won't include announcements on mailing lists or testing releases,
 84  only things that are meant to be used generally (I admit that the line
 85  can be somewhat difficult to draw, since the whole system is
 86  pre-release).
 87  
 88  
 89  **** News section
 90  
 91  
 92  October 27.  Gabor Herr announced xsysinfo, a program for X that
 93  displays information about kernel parameters in a graphical form.  The
 94  displayed values are CPU load, CPU idela, memory size, cache size, and
 95  swap size.
 96     The program requires Linux 0.98 (or later), a working ps (0.97.6 or
 97  later), the 4.1 jump libs and XFree 1.1.
 98     FTP: tsx-11.mit.edu: xsysinfo-1.0.tar.Z (in /incoming at time of
 99  announcement, final directory not known);
100  sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/Incoming/.
101     (Source: <1992Oct27.111232.35261@news.th-darmstadt.de>)
102  
103  
104  October 27.  Linus Torvalds announced version 0.98, patchlevel 3 of
105  the kernel.  Both context diffs and full source are available.
106     0.98 pl3 fixes the following things:
107     * all known NULL-pointer problems (see announcement of 0.98pl2 in
108  Linux News #3)
109     * minor 387-emulation problems
110     * ASK_SVGA, broken by pl2
111     There are no new features.
112     IMPORTANT: There is a major bug in 0.98pl3.  The bug will cause the
113  super-block to not be properly updated when mounting/unmounting
114  filesystems, which will destroy the filesystem.
115     FTP: nic.funet.fi: pub/OS/Linux/testing/Linus/
116     (Source: <1992Oct27.194952.14193@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
117  <1992Oct29.121938.16664@klaava.Helsinki.FI>)
118  
119  
120  October 28.  Werner Almesberger announced LILO version alpha.6.  LILO
121  is a generic boot loader Linux, which allows one to boot Linux from
122  the hard disk.
123     The new version fixes bugs.  Also, it should be better at booting
124  other operating systems.  Problems with bootin MS-DOS 5 should be
125  fixed.
126     FTP: sunsite.unc.edu: pub/Linux/incoming/ and tsx-11.mit.edu:
127  pub/linux/ALPHA/lilo/, files lilo.6.tar.Z (source and documentation),
128  lilo.6.ps.Z (documentation in PostScript format).
129     (Source: <1992Oct28.023703.10271@bernina.ethz.ch>)
130  
131  
132  October 28.  Linux News #3 contained an announcement of Wampes for
133  Linux, but it didn't include a description.  Olaf Erb described it
134  today follows:
135     ``It is a package for packet-radio. It includes a program like
136  ka9q-net that allows logging into the unix machine over ax.25, NET/ROM
137  and telnet. It includes a convers-server, bbs program and some other
138  utils.''
139     FTP: see previous issue.
140     (Source: <1992Oct28.205832.22507@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>)
141  
142  
143  October 29.  Qi Xia announced bug fix version 0.9.1 of cksum.  cksum
144  is a POSIX conforming checksum utility.
145     FTP: sunsite.unc.edu: pub/Linux/Incoming/ and tsx-11.mit.edu
146  (filenames or final directories not given).
147     (Source: <1992Oct29.162508.6753@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>)
148  
149  
150  November 1.  Peter MacDonald announced new fixes for SLS.  Check the
151  HISTORY file and obtain the packages that have been listed as changed,
152  especially the z?fix.taz packages (which are collections of patches
153  and fixes).
154     (Source: <1992Nov1.201314.11156@sol.UVic.CA>)
155  
156  
157  November 4.  Peter MacDonald announced a new addition to SLS: the
158  Interviews programs idraw and iclass.  They are in their own series,
159  in anticipation of the full Interviews environment.
160     (Source: <1992Nov4.175627.21814@sol.UVic.CA>)
161  
162  
163  November 5.  Peter MacDonald announced new fixes for SLS.  This should
164  fix the problems with permission problems in root.  Also, ghostscript
165  with most drivers was added.
166     (Source: <1992Nov5.204626.314@sol.UVic.CA>)
167  
168  
169  October 30.  R. Ramesh announced an upload of tvtwm, a window manager
170  for X.
171     All binaries were compiled with jump table 4.1, gcc 2.2.2d7 and
172  Xv2.1 shared libraries.  tvtwm requires m4.
173     FTP: sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/Incoming/, files tvtwm-src.tar.Z,
174  tvtwm-bin.tar.Z and m4.Z.
175     (Source: <1992Oct30.161702.6567@utdallas.edu>)
176  
177  
178  November 1.  Ed Rodda announced Pari 1.37 for Linux.  It is a
179  sophisticated math solver.
180     FTP: math.ucla.edu: pub/pari (no binaries, but is reported to
181  compile easily).
182     (Source: <921031117@orca.wimsey.bc.ca>)
183  
184  
185  November 2.  Kenneth Osterberg announced the Xview3 library and tools
186  ported for Linux.  Xview is a user-interface toolkit for X.  It
187  follows the Open Look GUI specification.
188     The package contains libxview.a, libolgx.a, olwm, olwmslave,
189  cmdtool/shelltool, props, textedit, and clock.  Headerfiles for xview,
190  olgx, and pixrect, man pages, and online help files are also included.
191     This release contains binaries and diffs against xview sources.
192  Installation requires gcc.
193     FTP: tsx-11.mit.edu: xview3.tar.Z (directory not yet known),
194  sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/incoming/.
195     (Source: <lmfken.720695460@bluese2>)
196  
197  
198  November 3.  Peter Orbaek announced poeigl 1.7 and admutil 1.4.
199     Poeigl contains init, getty, login, hostname, mesg, users, who, and
200  write.
201     Admutils contains chsh, ctrlaltdel, init, last, newgrp, passwd,
202  shutdown, reboot, halt, fastboot, fasthalt, su, and an example
203  /etc/rc.
204     This is a source code only release.  It should be compilable with
205  Linux 0.97pl4 and gcc 2.2.2.
206     FTP: nic.funet.fi and tsx-11.mit.edu: poeigl-1.7.tar.Z and
207  admutil-1.4.tar.Z (directories not known at time of announcement).
208  ftp.daimi.aau.dk: /pub/Linux-source/ (presumably the same filenames).
209     (Source: <1992Nov3.090246.29076@daimi.aau.dk>)
210  
211  
212  November 6.  Peter Anvin announced the final sum for the USA Linux
213  fund collection, $785 and $750 after wire transfer charges.
214     Linus thanks everybody, and reports that his computer has now been
215  paid in full.  He has also received other donations (both money and
216  things), for which he is also grateful.