October 2001 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] ATAPI (internal) ZIP drive

by Skip Gaede

On Monday 08 October 2001 10:51 am, Skip Gaede wrote: > I need help! > > I upgraded my system to a new MLB and a faster CPU. With the new board, I > can't read or write to my ZIP drive (under Linux). I have a SCSI system, > with an Adaptec 78xx controller, an Adaptec RW CDROM (also ATAPI), and the > ZIP drive. > > Kernel: 2.4.10 > > Under ATAPI, I've checked only use SCSI emulation and under SCSI I've > checked SCSI CDROM. > > My board has both conventional ATA connectors and PROMISE ATA100 > connectors. The CDROM is attached to the conventional primary controller as > master and the ZIP is attached to the secondary controller as master. > > The drives are being supported as ide-scsi devices. Parameters passed in at > boot time include hda=scsi and hdc=scsi > > Anyone have any ideas? > Folks, It's taken a while, and I actually learned a lot about device drivers and the ide device drivers in particular. To sum it up, there was a bug in both the ide-floppy and ide-scsi drivers, which I was able to fix. The problem, at least on my system, was that the Zip drive issued an interrupt stating it was ready to receive a packet command somewhere in the vicinity of 30 msec before it was ready to actually receive the packet. My initial fix was not elegant. It involved sitting in a wait loop inside an interrupt service routine. Gadi Oxman, the original author, pointed out the error of my ways, and suggested that I implement it using the timer queue in the ide driver. The original fix used 70% of the cpu waiting on the timer. The revised fix uses < 1%. Later, Skip

Oct. 26, 2001

Lancaster MA Linux activities POSTPONED

by Andy Stewart

HI gang, There were a few people who had volunteered to come with me to Lancaster MA to do some Linux work this Saturday, October 27th. Well, I just got word that this will not happen this weekend, through no fault of our own. Warren's granddaughter will be born this weekend, hence, he's a little busy, and he asked us if we could come on another day (yet to be determined). (Warren is the director of the council on aging in Lancaster). I apologize for any inconvenience that this late notice might cause. I just found out myself. My thanks to those of you who were prepared to volunteer your time. -- Andy Stewart Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org

Oct. 26, 2001

Re: [Wlug] oh crud, ext3 has screwed my /home directory!

by Brad Noyes

you may be able to get back some of the files that you lost by using debugfs. This might only work with ext2 (not sure how compatible ext3 is with ext2. But its hard to say if that will help since we don't know what the 'wrong command' was. You may want to research this before you try it, i'm just recalling this from memory. But if you want to use debugfs to recover data: - umount your partition. - type 'debugfs /dev/<your_partition>. - at the prompt, type 'lsdel'. This will list all the files and their inodes that have been deleted (no file name though). - when you see a inode that you want to recover, type 'dump <inode#> /tmp/<new_file_name>. (for example, 'dump <42> /tmp/project1'. -brad On Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 10:51:52PM -0400, Wesley Allen wrote: > OK, I'm an idiot. I should have realized the the "no fault > possible" upgrade to ext3 was too good to be true. Perhaps I read a bit > too much this time and figured, "Hey, it's only adding a journaling > file, right? What can possibly go wrong.?" > Well, I followed the directions, but I'm tired and I ran the wrong > command. I erased my /home directory! Oh excrement, I was just working > on a web site for a client, it looked really nice, and now it's ALL GONE. > Well, I haven't written to the partition yet, so the inodes are > still there, right? How do I recover data? Most of it is not a > problem, but I had 2 projects that I really want to get back. > From now on I will do two things: > > 1. NEVER attempt that "cool thing I've been wanting to check out" > when I'm exhausted and haven't slept in a while. > 2. BACK-UP! > > Just please help! >

Oct. 25, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Speaking of bad things happening to file systems...

by Marc Hughes

If it was me, I would download the SUSE live eval CD and boot off of that. It will give you a basic linux system to work with without changing the hard drive. Then use that to copy the files off of the machine to a safe place. I haven't tried this out in a while, but I'm fairly sure you can get networking running right off the CD. Of course this is all assuming the filesystem on the drive isn't pooched. You can also replace "SUSE live eval CD" with any of the single floppy disk distributions. -Marc On Thu, 2001-10-25 at 08:20, Stephen C. Daukas wrote: > This is a story about a ZIP drive, Windows 2000 Pro, and how I think Linux > might save the day. So, if you have any good ideas before I go down this > path, please let me know! > > So, this all started when I tried to install a Zip drive on my wife's > laptop (IBM A20m) running Win2k Pro. I was doing this so she could back-up > her important files (e.g., Quicken) before we began installing additional > software and RedHat Linux. The Zip drive screwed the OS - couldn't boot > after the install program said to reboot. Windows! > > Next, I tried the various Windows mechanisms for trying to recover and > repair the OS. No luck - things got a bit worse (but I won't bore you with > the details). I even went so far as to call IBM's support center to see if > they had a way of restoring to defaults in a non-destructive way. No > Luck. In fact, the support engineer I spoke with told me he tried to get a > ZIP drive going on his system running Win2k Pro and after working with > Iomega for 3 hours - he gave up. > > My wife says its OK to wipe the disk and start over, but I know better > (esp. after 16 years of marriage)! > > So I had a bright idea (well, an idea anyway). If I had partition magic, I > could partition the disk, install Windows 2000 on the new partition, get > all of her important files across the network to one of my other PCs, then > wipe the disk and start over. BUT, I don't have partition magic (sigh). > > Then it hit me - why couldn't I do this with Linux? I want to have Linux > and Win2k on the laptop when I'm done anyway, so why not partition the > hard drive and then go from there? > > So, because I don't want to take any chances with my wife's files, here are > some overly cautious questions: > > 1. During the install of RedHat 7.1, I assume I can re-partition > non-destructively and end up with a bad Win2k and a good RedHat when I'm > done. Does the RedHat install try to test to see if there is another OS or > does it just let me re-partition at will? (Never installed Linux with > Windows before.) > > 2. If I install RedHat 7.1 in the second newly created partition, can I > read the files from the 2000 partition? IBM tells me they always go FAT16 > with their distributions, but its a large disk so it might be FAT32. > > 3. If there is a problem with reading the Win2k file system, or if you > think going this route is a bad idea, is there a way to run just the > partitioning portion of the RedHat install to make a partition that I can > install Win2k into? > > The goal here is to get files off of the existing Win2k file system and > then to wipe the machine and start over... > > Thanks in Advance! > Steve > > > Stephen C. Daukas > stephen(a)daukas.com > (508) 845-9809 - Home > (508) 845-5015 - Fax > (508) 612-2149 - Mobile > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Oct. 25, 2001

Speaking of bad things happening to file systems...

by Stephen C. Daukas

This is a story about a ZIP drive, Windows 2000 Pro, and how I think Linux might save the day. So, if you have any good ideas before I go down this path, please let me know! So, this all started when I tried to install a Zip drive on my wife's laptop (IBM A20m) running Win2k Pro. I was doing this so she could back-up her important files (e.g., Quicken) before we began installing additional software and RedHat Linux. The Zip drive screwed the OS - couldn't boot after the install program said to reboot. Windows! Next, I tried the various Windows mechanisms for trying to recover and repair the OS. No luck - things got a bit worse (but I won't bore you with the details). I even went so far as to call IBM's support center to see if they had a way of restoring to defaults in a non-destructive way. No Luck. In fact, the support engineer I spoke with told me he tried to get a ZIP drive going on his system running Win2k Pro and after working with Iomega for 3 hours - he gave up. My wife says its OK to wipe the disk and start over, but I know better (esp. after 16 years of marriage)! So I had a bright idea (well, an idea anyway). If I had partition magic, I could partition the disk, install Windows 2000 on the new partition, get all of her important files across the network to one of my other PCs, then wipe the disk and start over. BUT, I don't have partition magic (sigh). Then it hit me - why couldn't I do this with Linux? I want to have Linux and Win2k on the laptop when I'm done anyway, so why not partition the hard drive and then go from there? So, because I don't want to take any chances with my wife's files, here are some overly cautious questions: 1. During the install of RedHat 7.1, I assume I can re-partition non-destructively and end up with a bad Win2k and a good RedHat when I'm done. Does the RedHat install try to test to see if there is another OS or does it just let me re-partition at will? (Never installed Linux with Windows before.) 2. If I install RedHat 7.1 in the second newly created partition, can I read the files from the 2000 partition? IBM tells me they always go FAT16 with their distributions, but its a large disk so it might be FAT32. 3. If there is a problem with reading the Win2k file system, or if you think going this route is a bad idea, is there a way to run just the partitioning portion of the RedHat install to make a partition that I can install Win2k into? The goal here is to get files off of the existing Win2k file system and then to wipe the machine and start over... Thanks in Advance! Steve Stephen C. Daukas stephen(a)daukas.com (508) 845-9809 - Home (508) 845-5015 - Fax (508) 612-2149 - Mobile

Oct. 25, 2001

Re: [Wlug] oh crud, ext3 has screwed my /home directory!

by Scott Venier

I think the question that have have to ask is WHICH wrong command ended up getting run that borked your filesystem? Scott On Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Wesley Allen wrote: > OK, I'm an idiot. I should have realized the the "no fault > possible" upgrade to ext3 was too good to be true. Perhaps I read a bit > too much this time and figured, "Hey, it's only adding a journaling > file, right? What can possibly go wrong.?" > Well, I followed the directions, but I'm tired and I ran the wrong > command. I erased my /home directory! Oh excrement, I was just working > on a web site for a client, it looked really nice, and now it's ALL GONE. > Well, I haven't written to the partition yet, so the inodes are > still there, right? How do I recover data? Most of it is not a > problem, but I had 2 projects that I really want to get back. > From now on I will do two things: > > 1. NEVER attempt that "cool thing I've been wanting to check out" > when I'm exhausted and haven't slept in a while. > 2. BACK-UP! > > Just please help! > >

Oct. 25, 2001

oh crud, ext3 has screwed my /home directory!

by Wesley Allen

OK, I'm an idiot. I should have realized the the "no fault possible" upgrade to ext3 was too good to be true. Perhaps I read a bit too much this time and figured, "Hey, it's only adding a journaling file, right? What can possibly go wrong.?" Well, I followed the directions, but I'm tired and I ran the wrong command. I erased my /home directory! Oh excrement, I was just working on a web site for a client, it looked really nice, and now it's ALL GONE. Well, I haven't written to the partition yet, so the inodes are still there, right? How do I recover data? Most of it is not a problem, but I had 2 projects that I really want to get back. From now on I will do two things: 1. NEVER attempt that "cool thing I've been wanting to check out" when I'm exhausted and haven't slept in a while. 2. BACK-UP! Just please help!

Oct. 25, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Volunteers sought for Lancaster, MA project

by Aljerin L. Butler, Jr.

Andy Stewart wrote: > HI gang, > > I am seeking a couple of volunteers to help out with our Linux project in > Lancaster, MA. I have one confirmed volunteer plus myself. I think 2-3 > more people would probably be enough. > > Here's what we'll be doing as far as I know: > > 1) Installing CUPS > 2) Installing 2(?) printers > 2.5) possibly a scanner plus SANE > 3) Insuring this all works from all Linux machines > 4) Installing SAMBA > 5) Insuring access to printers from 1(?) Windows machine > 6) Possibly tweaking an old ISA NIC > > The date is this Saturday, October 27th, around 11 AM - 3 PM (if it takes > that long). Let's see how many of those bullet items we can accomplish. > > Please RSVP to me so that a) I know who's coming, and b) I can insure we > don't have too many people. The physical space at the Lancaster location > isn't conducive to a large crowd. I'll send you directions after you RSVP. > > Thanks in advance! > > -- > Andy Stewart > Founder > Worcester Linux Users' Group > Worcester, MA, USA > http://www.wlug.org > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug Andy, Count me in. I just need directions in how to get there from Marlboro (Rt. 495). Al Butler

Oct. 23, 2001

Volunteers sought for Lancaster, MA project

by Andy Stewart

HI gang, I am seeking a couple of volunteers to help out with our Linux project in Lancaster, MA. I have one confirmed volunteer plus myself. I think 2-3 more people would probably be enough. Here's what we'll be doing as far as I know: 1) Installing CUPS 2) Installing 2(?) printers 2.5) possibly a scanner plus SANE 3) Insuring this all works from all Linux machines 4) Installing SAMBA 5) Insuring access to printers from 1(?) Windows machine 6) Possibly tweaking an old ISA NIC The date is this Saturday, October 27th, around 11 AM - 3 PM (if it takes that long). Let's see how many of those bullet items we can accomplish. Please RSVP to me so that a) I know who's coming, and b) I can insure we don't have too many people. The physical space at the Lancaster location isn't conducive to a large crowd. I'll send you directions after you RSVP. Thanks in advance! -- Andy Stewart Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org

Oct. 23, 2001

Re: [Wlug] suse rpms

by Andy Stewart

On Sunday 21 October 2001 02:00 pm, you wrote: > hi all, > > I am trying to install php module for suse 7.2 (personal ed.) > but rpm shows that there are libraries to install before mod_php4-core > and mod_php4. > > I ask two things: > 1 - is there an easy way to determine which suse package includes, for > example, libpdf.so.0 Not that I know about. I would search the ls-lR.gz file or the INDEX.gz for pdf and see what comes up. In fact, I have SuSE 7.2 PRO and the RPM package that you want is pdflib.rpm. For me, its on CD #4, but your mileage may vary. > > 2 - is there an easy way to determine which path at ftp.suse.com > includes that suse package? Once you know where it is on the CDs, you can peruse their ftp site and find that same directory under the updates directory to see if there is a more current package. > > thanks, > baris Anytime! > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- Andy Stewart Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org

Oct. 21, 2001