From: barrett@aminet.uucp (Keith Barrett) Subject: TAMU problems Date: 27 Mar 93 02:17:49 GMT Reply-To: barrett%aminet.uucp@nuconvex.com OK, I Finally got around to trying out Linux (TAMU). First, let me say that Linux looks GREAT! Can't believe it's free. Easy to use (well, as easy as any unix is). I'm excited by the possibilities. I LOVE the fact I can mount my msdos partition and xfer files, and X. Nice work! However, I have MANY problems, some of them major. I realize I'm behind in release version, and I will try to upgrade asap, but I'd like to know if anyone has seen these, or if there are solutions. Some of these problems are bigtime show stoppers for me, as I require UUCP and bi-modem communications to work. Minor problems first -- 1. Is there ANY way to change this tiny font being displayed? It's much too small. 2. What's this "MINIX-fs magic match failure" message that appears on every startup? The whole system seems fine, including all 3 partitions and files systems. efsck doesn't clear it either. I suspect it's some dumb script trying to do something and getting a partition type wrong. I get a similar error if I use fsck instead of efsck. 3. Are there any non-Xwindows programs to enable/disable audio CD's? 4. No BRU. I like tar, but I wish I had both. I encounter systems that do have BRU and not TAR. 5. To keep the system reliable (especially on a pwer failure reboot), I included an execution of efsck in my startup. Is there a way for rc.local to "determine" if this is needed rather than always doing it? 6. I can't get XDM to work. It's flaky, and the few times I actually got the login screen to come up, it wouldn't take input. 7. It took me a while to figure out that uucp and news didn't come with sample files for everything that's needed. "Dialers", "newsgroups", and a few others were missing. Also, there was no sample entry in Devices for an ACU. I eventually resolved these. OK, now on to the major things I REALLY could use help with. Right now, these stop me from using the system at all. 8. I can't get mail to function correctly on the local system. I can send mail to myself, but when I send to a user that has forwarding on (in their mail file), the letter seems to vanish. If I set root up as forwarded and send mai lto it, the end-user (and root) can't receive it. When I send to an external site -- same thing. I can't locate it anyway (files, queues, etc.), and can't find a log record of it's failure. 9. mail is getting a dummy domain suffix from somewhere - I can't figure it out. It's something like "myorg.mydomain" 10 If I set getty up on the serial port, and attempt to use kermit to make an outgoing interative connection, getty is still in the way and modem responses cause an inifinate "login" attempt loop. Trying uugetty did the same thing (and curiously, uugetty doesn't support standard switches). What do I do about this? How does one set up a bi-directional modem port? I though uugetty would be the way, but it doesn't even know "-r". 11. There doesn't seem to be any flavor of a "mailsurr" on the system. Why? How does one set up a default and "SMARTER HOST" addressing? 12. uucico and uuxqt core dump on me. I can't get them to run at all. I don't know what to do about this. Anyone else getting this? Is there anyway to still use VC's while X windows is up? It seems to be an exclusive choice. Thanks! I hope there are answers. Keith Barrett -- -kgb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UUCP: nuconvex.com!aminet!barrett Keep circulating the tapes - MST3k DDN: barrett%aminet.uucp@decwrl.dec.com // My life is my own - the prisoner Alternate: barrett@pamsrc.enet.dec.com \X/ Amiga 3000UX - The Next Generation ==============================================================================