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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.announce:57 comp.os.386bsd.questions:2493 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!olivea!pagesat!netsys!agate!agate!usenet From: burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil (Dave Burgess) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: 386bsd/NetBSD FAQ Section 5 Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.questions Date: 15 May 1993 22:13:06 -0700 Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 206 Sender: cgd@agate.berkeley.edu Approved: 386bsd-announce-request@agate.berkeley.edu Message-ID: <9305131744.AA13424@hrd769.brooks.af.mil> NNTP-Posting-Host: agate.berkeley.edu Section 5. (Kernel Replacements) 5.0 Introduction Contents: 5.1 Available Kernel Replacements 5.1.1 keycap/codrv 5.1.2 pcvt 5.1.3 syscons 5.1.4 Fast Symbolic Links 5.1.5 npx fixes 5.1.6 CGD's COM drivers 5.1.7 Tom Ivar Helbekkmo's wd.c replacement 5.1.8 Interruptless LPT Driver Kit Notes: If you know of any replacements for the kernel, please send [FAQ COORDINATOR NAME HERE] a message detailing the package (possibly include a README), where it can be found, and what version of the OS (ie. NetBSD, 386bsd 0.1 + pk 0.2) it was designed to run under. When the exact directory is not listed for a package, the places to look on agate.berkeley.edu are in unofficial/drivers and unofficial/from-ref/sys.extras. Many a goodie can be found in these directories. 5.1 Available Kernel Replacements 5.1.1 keycap/codrv These server as replacements for the generic pccons driver that comes (by default) with 386bsd 0.1. Holger Veit (author of these) writes: "The same type of driver, but keycap has the version number 0.1.1 and codrv has the version number 0.1.2. The latter is much improved and downward compatibil. Codrv was developed to provide a universal way of mapping national keyboard layouts during runtime (ie, not by patching the kernel tables) and providing better X11 support. Codrv uses a superset of the pc3 terminal emulation, and a termcap-like database for keymaps (therefore "keycap"). X11 is supported by two dedicated console raw devices /dev/kbd and /dev/vga, which avoids all the existing problems pccons has with X11. The latest version has vritual consoles. Codrv will become part of patchkit 0.2.4" This package is available on agate.berkeley.edu. 5.1.2 pcvt A superset of pccons, this driver supports virtual consoles, and some form of database oriented keyboard mappings. It was also designed to emulate a vt220 terminal as best as possible. This is also available on agate. 5.1.3 syscons Another superset of pccons that was designed to emulate SCO as well as possible. Many of the ioctls from SysV have been implemented. XFree86 requires special patches to be run with kernels using this console driver. Available on agate. 5.1.4 Fast Symbolic Links The following is taken from the README for the fast sym-links patch: "This cruddy but complete hack answers one of the objections to symlinks: that they are slow, and cost an entire frag. Symlinks of less than length 60 are stored in the inode itself. Symlinks longer than this are still in the inode. To make the illusion of normality complete, dump and fsck also need changing. Additionally, I made dumpfs verbose to excess." Available on agate. 5.1.5 npx fixes There are some problems with the floating point error handling routines, and there are some fixes available for this problem. The code for these fixes is available on agate.berkeley.edu in unofficial/from-ref/sys.extras/bde-npx. Note the most of the code is applicable to floating point hardware as opposed to emulation. 5.1.6 CGD's COM drivers Chris G. Demetriou (cgd@blah blah blah) has written some COM drivers for 386bsd. These, among other things, support multi-port serial packages. The latest (and last) version is 0.2, and is available on agate in unofficial/from-ref/sys.extras/cgd-com-ports. Please note that this is not going be developed any further by the author, and no new versions will appear. Users who do not absolutely need the features this provides are encouraged to use the newest drivers that come with the patch-kits. 5.1.7 Tom Ivar Helbekkmo's wd.c replacement Tom Ivar Helbekkmo (tih@barsoom.nhh.no) has rewritten much of the wd.c file that handles common hard disks, and added many new features to the code. The patches to use these can be obtained from barsoom.nhh.no in pub/386bsd. Users should consult the README file for more information. 5.1.8 Interruptless LPT Driver Kit An Interruptless lpr driver kit is available from agate.berkeley.edu in unofficial/drivers/lpt. This driver was designed with faster performance and lower system load in mind. See the INSTALL-NOTES that come with the package for more details and installation information. 5.2 Floppy Disk problems. One of the most common problems in 386BSD involves working with new boot sector and/or reformatting a floppy. Dave Silvia provided this section on using floppy disks. 5.2.1 How do I get a bootable floppy? Several ways, ranging from brain-dead-but-works to simplest. Classification into categories is left to the reader (is there really a difference between 'brain-dead' and 'simple'?:') 1) rawrite (or dd) dist.fs (or fixit.fs) to a disk, mount it, cd to the mount point, and execute: rm -rf . you now have a bootable floppy!;^} 2) Take your existing dist.fs or fixit.fs boot disk and diskcopy it on a DOS machine. Mount and rm as in 1) above. Again, you have a bootable floppy!;^} 3) Run disklabel on the floppy, e.g.: disklabel -w -r fd0a floppy5 where 'floppy5' is a 'name' for an entry in the disktab file in /etc. You'll get a couple of ioctl errors because writing a label to a floppy isn't supported (yet?), but the boot blocks have indeed been written. 4) Write the boot blocks to the floppy: cat /usr/mdec/fdboot /usr/mdec/bootfd | dd of=/dev/rfd0a or, more simply: cat /usr/mdec/fdboot /usr/mdec/bootfd > /dev/rfd0a Methods 3) and 4) require you to run newfs on the floppy, e.g.: newfs /dev/rfd0a floppy5 If you have a floppy that was originally bootable, but the boot blocks were somehow damaged, you can use method 3) or 4) to restore bootability (do _NOT_ run newfs). You _could_, through the convolutions of copying a floppy whose boot blocks are damaged to a temporary location and then recopying to a bootable floppy, use method 1) or 2) (if you really want to!;^}) 5) If the disk is already newfs'ed and is otherwise ready to use, disklabel will write the boot blocks on the disk. Read the man page for disklabel. 5.2 Unit Record 5.2.1 Printers 5.2.2 Terminals/Keyboards 5.2.3 Modems 5.3 Network -- Please send submissions for comp.os.386bsd.announce to: 386bsd-announce@agate.berkeley.edu