[PLUG] Kernel oops accessing /dev directory

[Bill Jonas <bj@netaxs.com>]

This was a question I asked a few meetings back...

Basically, my ZipSlack (http://www.slackware.com/zipslack/) installation
would crash whenever I would hit the /dev directory with user
commands; the answer that seemed to make the most sense was, "cp is
barfing when it hits /dev/mem," but even that didn't make a whole lot of
sense to me.

There was an announcement of an upcoming interview with Pat V on /.
today, and somebody made mention of this phenomenon (so at least I know
I'm not crazy).  It turns out that it is due to a bug in the UMSDOS code
in the 2.2.7 (Slack4 used kernel 2.2.6) through 2.2.13 (which is what
Slack7 uses) kernels.

A comment posted by an AC
(http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/03/13/109238&threshold=-1&commentsort=3&mode=nested&pid=51)
addressed this, and also mentioned that the slackware-current directory
tree uses 2.2.14, so this should be fixed.  A couple links posted were
to http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/~rdw/home.html and
http://linux.voyager.hr/umsdos/.

Just thought some of you might like to know.  (Or am I the only
Slackware fogey out here? <g> Actually, ZipSlack (and BigSlack by
extension, I guess) would be neat for a quick-and-dirty let's-do-it type
of thing you could use for introducing Windows users to Linux (a la
PhatLinux).  Let me know if you want to borrow my CDs and burn a copy.  
Or pick one up for fifteen bucks.)

Bill
-- 
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought.
But World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- A. E.
Harry Browne for President: http://www.harrybrowne2000.com/
Stop abusive software patents!  Start typing http://www.noamazon.com/


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