Subject: Linux and RISC OS

From: [email-masked] (Ian Molton)
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 03:37:53 BST

When will the RISC OS front end of Linux be improved?

At the moment it is totally unusable.

Some instructions would be nice. the website is MOST unhelpful.

I have downloaded all the stuff, BUT.

the partition manager is playing up.
I can get my drive to register
(it's a 425Mb Conner on ICS IDEFS.)

I have to type in the no. of cylinders (839, good, that's OK)
But I cannot ADD / Delete / edit any partitions.

I can't decompress the kernel.

I have the StrongARM kernel. is it Gzipped? zipped? not compressed?!

how can I tell? how do I decompress it?

Etc. etc. If I could even _create a partition_ it would be nice.....

-Ian

-- 
Hawk Software  HTTP://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hawk/
If at first you don't succeed.... Destroy all evidence you ever tried.

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From: Alan Cox <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 12:12:18 +0100 (BST)

> Some instructions would be nice. the website is MOST unhelpful.

Good so write a new web site, and fix the riscos front end. 

Alan

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From: Joseph Heenan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 13:45:22 +0100

> At the moment it is totally unusable.

Erm. Well, several of us are using it, so that can't be true ;)

I expect it is slightly daunting if you don't follow the
instructions.

> Some instructions would be nice. the website is MOST unhelpful.

ftp://ftp.arm.uk.linux.org/pub/armlinux/distrib/riscos/INSTALL

(off the top of my head...)

> But I cannot ADD / Delete / edit any partitions.

You need to prepare the disc with HForm first. See stages 8 & 9.1
through 9.9 of INSTALL.

> I have the StrongARM kernel. is it Gzipped? zipped? not compressed?!

Not compressed.

> how can I tell? how do I decompress it?

Try booting from it.

>From INSTALL:

5  Perform this step if you wish to check that the kernel you have will run.
   (recommended)
..
5.3  Type:
	ADFS::0.$.!Linux -bootkernel ADFS::0.$.Kernel
      Where ADFS::0.$.Kernel is the kernel image you wish to use.

HTH,

Joseph

-- 
Joseph Heenan
email: [email-masked], [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Ian Molton)
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 12:48:16 BST

>> When will the RISC OS front end of Linux be improved? At the moment it
>> is totally unusable. Some instructions would be nice. the website is
>> MOST unhelpful.

> Good so write a new web site, and fix the riscos front end. 

Why should I?

I would, IF I KNEW HOW TO!

I may do just that, once I can get it to work at all and find out how it
works...

If anyone would like to tell me how to make partman work, I'd apprecite it.

I may just write a website, once I get it all going.

I know a few people who have dropped linux because they couldn't make it
work... I intend to stick at it, but I need some help!

-Ian

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From: [email-masked] (Ian Molton)
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 21:30:44 BST

More linux problems, I'm afraid...

I've now found the instructions.

I have got as far as partitioning the Harddisc. this is proving to be a
pain in the arse.

I have three discs.

A quantum fireball 3.2Gb
A conner CFS425A (420Mb)
and a conner CFS210A (210Mb)

What I would like to do is install the linux frontend (ie. !linux et al)
on the Quantum, and devote ALL of the other two drives to linux.

This would give me a 420Mb linux drive and a 210Mb swapdrive.

Should I leave a Midget RO partition on the drives? will I get errors from
the filer if there is no RiscOS partition?

I intend to put the two linux drives on an ICS IDEFS based card.

My ICS board is partition aware. (apparently)

anyway.

I put my 210Mb drive onto ADFS to use HForm on it (Hform only seems to work
on ADFS)

I ran Hform.

I got stuck. I don't know how to shring the ADFS partition. do I set the
drive as having fewer cylinders?

anyway, after that (with or without the 'right' number of cylinders, I tried
both) I ran !partman (after a complete reset) and tried to edit the
partitions.

I typed in ADFS (the drive is still on ADFS for the time being)
I typed in 5 (it is drive 5, atm.)

My drives info appeared, and this in the partitions box.

Partition   Start sector   End sector   Size   Type
                 0           416479     203Mb  Free

Then I tried to create / edit partitions, wherupon, nothing happened.

I could highlight the one partition that appeared, but I could not delete
or edit it.
I could not create a new partition either.

HHHHEEEELLLLPPPP!!!! (it's driving me nuts!)

-Ian

-- 
Hawk Software  HTTP://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hawk/
I like you but I wouldn't want to see you working with sub-atomic particles.

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From: Richard Townsend <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 22:32:36 +0100 (BST)

> I've now found the instructions.

Good move!

> This would give me a 420Mb linux drive and a 210Mb swapdrive.

210Mb swap is silly. As a rule, swap should be approx 2 or 3 times your 
RAM size. Also, I think that the swap and linux root partition should be 
on the same drive.

> the filer if there is no RiscOS partition?

Probably a good idea

> I put my 210Mb drive onto ADFS to use HForm on it (Hform only seems to work

IDEFS should come with its own formatter...

> drive as having fewer cylinders?

Yup. Leave heads, sectors the same, just change cylinders....

> Partition   Start sector   End sector   Size   Type

OK, you have no ADFS stuff on the drive. Try re-running hform with 
non-zero cylinders....

> I could not create a new partition either.

Tried double-clicking on free? That should do something....

You MUST follow the instructions in the file INSTALL to a tee, or you get 
stuffed....

> HHHHEEEELLLLPPPP!!!! (it's driving me nuts!)

Rich

+-------------------------------------+--------------------+
| Richard Townsend                    |                    |
| Department of Physics & Astronomy   | "Old pond,         |
| University College London           |   frog jumps in -  |
| Gower Street                        |    plop"           |
| London WC1E 6BT                     |                    |
| Work: (0171) 419 3410               |              Basho |
| Home: (0171) 284 0888 Ext 8037      |                    |
+-------------------------------------+--------------------+

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 23:14:55 +0100 (BST)

> Why should I? 

Because you should.  There is little point in attempting to install this
version unless you know what you are doing, so writing new instructions on
how to do so would be helpful for later new users of the OS.  If you don't
understanmd Unix (or at least Linux), you probably shouldn't be installing
this release IMHO.  Admittedly I haven't actually tried to install
anything yet - I've been busy with exams and NFS (now V3... ;-)

> I would, IF I KNEW HOW TO! 

Better.  Good.

> I may do just that, once I can get it to work at all and find out how it 

That's the attidude: if you don't know, find out, then write some docs. so
other people who don't know can find out...

-- 
Dickon Hood.

Due to Windoze NiceTry, my .sig is out of order.
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
We apologise for the inconvenience.

This account expires on 040797, so spam sent after that will probably be
bounced.

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From: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 01:04:22 +0100 (BST)

> RAM size. Also, I think that the swap and linux root partition should be 

You probably want 8-32MB swap for a 4MB machine, depending on what you
want to do with it.  There's no reason why root and swap should be on the
same drive, and in fact you really want swap on a _different_ drive to any
partitions you expect to access a lot, for performance reasons.

p.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 20:35:03 +0100 (BST)

> If anyone would like to tell me how to make partman work, I'd apprecite it.

In addition to the instructions on the Web site, there is also a help file
in PartMan, as per the standard RiscOS filer help.  All the RiscOS tools
contain a file <name>.!Help.
   _____
  |_____| ------------------------------------------------- ---+---+-
  |   |       Russell King      [email-masked]         --- ---
  | | | | http://whirligig.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~rmk92/home.html  /  /  |
  | +-+-+                                                     --- -+-
  /   |               THE developer of ARM Linux              |+| /|\
 /  | | |      *  who wishes that he was in Hong Kong  *      ---  |
    +-+-+ -------------------------------------------------  /\\\  |

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From: [email-masked] (Ian Molton)
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 23:43:02 BST

[email-masked] wrote:

>> I may do just that, once I can get it to work at all and find out how
>> it  works... 

> That's the attidude: if you don't know, find out, then write some docs.
> so other people who don't know can find out...

I do try to do this. I'm trying to get my first taste of unix / linux
here...

-Ian

-- 
Hawk Software  HTTP://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hawk/
Smeg... I forgot to ask if there were any curry houses in Dallas.......

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From: [email-masked] (Ian Molton)
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 11:27:49 BST

> In addition to the instructions on the Web site, there is also a help
> file in PartMan, as per the standard RiscOS filer help.  All the RiscOS
> tools contain a file <name>.!Help.

I know, but it won't behave itself :-(

-Ian

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From: [email-masked] (Ian Molton)
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 11:41:17 BST

Philip Blundell <[email-masked]> wrote:

>>  RAM size. Also, I think that the swap and linux root partition should
>> be  on the same drive.

> want to do with it.  There's no reason why root and swap should be on
> the same drive, and in fact you really want swap on a _different_ drive
> to any partitions you expect to access a lot, for performance reasons.

Mmm. Okay...
How about 420Mb linux
60Mb swap (other drive)
the rest of other drive also linux?

-Ian

-- 
Hawk Software  HTTP://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hawk/
You Embezzeled money? From the Nagus??? Father would be proud!

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From: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 11:49:47 +0100 (BST)

> the rest of other drive also linux?

That should be OK, though I still don't understand what you want to do
with all that swap space.  You machine will probably grind to a halt long
before you use it all up.

p.

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From: Richard Townsend <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 11:57:26 +0100 (BST)

> before you use it all up.

Surely it depends on how much RAM is in the machine. If 32Mb, 60Mb is 
about right (too small, if anything)....

Rich

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From: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 11:56:47 +0100 (BST)

> about right (too small, if anything)....

No, you're thinking of BSD.  Linux doesn't allocate swap space in parallel
with RAM, so if you have 32MB of RAM and 60MB of swap you just have 92MB
of virtual memory.  I guess you could make a case for wanting that much
swap, but I'd be surprised if you actually used it.  Plenty of people run
fine with only 60MB or so of virtual memory. 

My machines have about 50MB of RAM and about 200MB of swap - they
occasionally run heavily into the swap space, but most of the time only
around 2MB of it is used.

p.