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Linux News Issue 04
L i n u x N e w s
A summary of the goings-on of the Linux community
Issue #4, October 26 through November 6, 1992
"The rumors our demise are exaggarated"
**** Highlights in this issue
- comp.os.linux splitting in voting stage
- xsysinfo
- kernel 0.98 pl3
- LILO version alpha.6
- Updates to SLS
- tvtwm
- Xview3 libraries and tools
- poeigl 1.7 and admutil 1.4
- Linus got some money
**** Editorial
This issue is even more late than the previous one. I haven't had
time and energy to do very much about Linux News (and a bunch of other
things), so I missed last week completely, and even now this issue is
rather quickly done. Sorry about that.
A major thing happening in comp.os.linux right now is the vote for
splitting the group into subgroups. This has been discussed sometimes
quite heatedly for a long time, and I won't say much more about it,
except that I personally hope for at least the creation of
comp.os.linux.announce, if only because it would make it easier for me
to do Linux News (I wouldn't have to hunt for announcements, I could
just pick them from one newsgroup).
**** Legalese
Linux News can be copied, re-published, printed, hung on walls, used
as toilet paper, and used in any other way you wish. If you
distribute LN outside comp.os.linux and the LINUXNEWS channel, please
tell me: the more people I know are reading LN, the more eager I am to
put energy into it.
In fact, if you read Linux News, and think that it is a Good Thing,
and you want to make me happier, send me a post card to the following
address:
Lars Wirzenius
Ohratie 16 C 198
SF-01370 VANTAA
Finland
(Letter bombs, as long as they are marked as such, can go to the same
address. :-)
I take no responsibility whatsoever for any information in Linux News,
or any problems due lack of information. If you get killed due to
Linux News, mail me, and I'll feel sorry for you, but that's just
about all I can do.
**** Notices
Linux News is only a summary, if you want more information about a
given subject, please see the source that is referenced at the end of
each note (for Usenet articles, the reference is the Message-ID of the
article). I try to include all the relevant information, including
ftp sites and filenames, as given in the announcements (I probably
won't have the time or energy to check filenames, or to find pointers
to other ftp sites). If possible, I will try to indicate directories
with a trailing /, e.g. ``pub/linux/SLS/''.
I won't include announcements on mailing lists or testing releases,
only things that are meant to be used generally (I admit that the line
can be somewhat difficult to draw, since the whole system is
pre-release).
**** News section
October 27. Gabor Herr announced xsysinfo, a program for X that
displays information about kernel parameters in a graphical form. The
displayed values are CPU load, CPU idela, memory size, cache size, and
swap size.
The program requires Linux 0.98 (or later), a working ps (0.97.6 or
later), the 4.1 jump libs and XFree 1.1.
FTP: tsx-11.mit.edu: xsysinfo-1.0.tar.Z (in /incoming at time of
announcement, final directory not known);
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/Incoming/.
(Source: <1992Oct27.111232.35261@news.th-darmstadt.de>)
October 27. Linus Torvalds announced version 0.98, patchlevel 3 of
the kernel. Both context diffs and full source are available.
0.98 pl3 fixes the following things:
* all known NULL-pointer problems (see announcement of 0.98pl2 in
Linux News #3)
* minor 387-emulation problems
* ASK_SVGA, broken by pl2
There are no new features.
IMPORTANT: There is a major bug in 0.98pl3. The bug will cause the
super-block to not be properly updated when mounting/unmounting
filesystems, which will destroy the filesystem.
FTP: nic.funet.fi: pub/OS/Linux/testing/Linus/
(Source: <1992Oct27.194952.14193@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
<1992Oct29.121938.16664@klaava.Helsinki.FI>)
October 28. Werner Almesberger announced LILO version alpha.6. LILO
is a generic boot loader Linux, which allows one to boot Linux from
the hard disk.
The new version fixes bugs. Also, it should be better at booting
other operating systems. Problems with bootin MS-DOS 5 should be
fixed.
FTP: sunsite.unc.edu: pub/Linux/incoming/ and tsx-11.mit.edu:
pub/linux/ALPHA/lilo/, files lilo.6.tar.Z (source and documentation),
lilo.6.ps.Z (documentation in PostScript format).
(Source: <1992Oct28.023703.10271@bernina.ethz.ch>)
October 28. Linux News #3 contained an announcement of Wampes for
Linux, but it didn't include a description. Olaf Erb described it
today follows:
``It is a package for packet-radio. It includes a program like
ka9q-net that allows logging into the unix machine over ax.25, NET/ROM
and telnet. It includes a convers-server, bbs program and some other
utils.''
FTP: see previous issue.
(Source: <1992Oct28.205832.22507@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>)
October 29. Qi Xia announced bug fix version 0.9.1 of cksum. cksum
is a POSIX conforming checksum utility.
FTP: sunsite.unc.edu: pub/Linux/Incoming/ and tsx-11.mit.edu
(filenames or final directories not given).
(Source: <1992Oct29.162508.6753@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>)
November 1. Peter MacDonald announced new fixes for SLS. Check the
HISTORY file and obtain the packages that have been listed as changed,
especially the z?fix.taz packages (which are collections of patches
and fixes).
(Source: <1992Nov1.201314.11156@sol.UVic.CA>)
November 4. Peter MacDonald announced a new addition to SLS: the
Interviews programs idraw and iclass. They are in their own series,
in anticipation of the full Interviews environment.
(Source: <1992Nov4.175627.21814@sol.UVic.CA>)
November 5. Peter MacDonald announced new fixes for SLS. This should
fix the problems with permission problems in root. Also, ghostscript
with most drivers was added.
(Source: <1992Nov5.204626.314@sol.UVic.CA>)
October 30. R. Ramesh announced an upload of tvtwm, a window manager
for X.
All binaries were compiled with jump table 4.1, gcc 2.2.2d7 and
Xv2.1 shared libraries. tvtwm requires m4.
FTP: sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/Incoming/, files tvtwm-src.tar.Z,
tvtwm-bin.tar.Z and m4.Z.
(Source: <1992Oct30.161702.6567@utdallas.edu>)
November 1. Ed Rodda announced Pari 1.37 for Linux. It is a
sophisticated math solver.
FTP: math.ucla.edu: pub/pari (no binaries, but is reported to
compile easily).
(Source: <921031117@orca.wimsey.bc.ca>)
November 2. Kenneth Osterberg announced the Xview3 library and tools
ported for Linux. Xview is a user-interface toolkit for X. It
follows the Open Look GUI specification.
The package contains libxview.a, libolgx.a, olwm, olwmslave,
cmdtool/shelltool, props, textedit, and clock. Headerfiles for xview,
olgx, and pixrect, man pages, and online help files are also included.
This release contains binaries and diffs against xview sources.
Installation requires gcc.
FTP: tsx-11.mit.edu: xview3.tar.Z (directory not yet known),
sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/incoming/.
(Source: <lmfken.720695460@bluese2>)
November 3. Peter Orbaek announced poeigl 1.7 and admutil 1.4.
Poeigl contains init, getty, login, hostname, mesg, users, who, and
write.
Admutils contains chsh, ctrlaltdel, init, last, newgrp, passwd,
shutdown, reboot, halt, fastboot, fasthalt, su, and an example
/etc/rc.
This is a source code only release. It should be compilable with
Linux 0.97pl4 and gcc 2.2.2.
FTP: nic.funet.fi and tsx-11.mit.edu: poeigl-1.7.tar.Z and
admutil-1.4.tar.Z (directories not known at time of announcement).
ftp.daimi.aau.dk: /pub/Linux-source/ (presumably the same filenames).
(Source: <1992Nov3.090246.29076@daimi.aau.dk>)
November 6. Peter Anvin announced the final sum for the USA Linux
fund collection, $785 and $750 after wire transfer charges.
Linus thanks everybody, and reports that his computer has now been
paid in full. He has also received other donations (both money and
things), for which he is also grateful.
