[linrad] Debian Etch and Linrad

[w3sz <comcast.net; w3sz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, All,

More on Linrad and Debian Etch.  This is just "for your information".   
Since I have 02.03 working I am OK and don't need 'help' with things at  
this point.

1.  The fatal error I get compiling linrad-01.35 with Etch [and gcc-4.0.3]  
is due to the fact that in the Makefile for linrad 01.35 on line 27 it  
says "--cref\" but it needs to say "--cref \".  When I make that change,  
then things compile with no errors.  OF course, everytime you type  
"./configure" it creates a new Makefile, and then you need to make this  
correction again.

2.  When I then run linrad-01.35, compiled as above, it locks up on the  
second parameter-setting screen for wcw or ssb with the error message:
Using VESA driver, 8000KB. VBE3
svgalib 1.9.24
svgalib:Signal 11: Segmentation fault received.
I can escape from this with cntl-alt-F7 and get back to my terminal window.

It is interesting that Linrad-02.03 produces no such errors with identical  
settings of the display parameters from within Linrad.

3.  Linrad-02.03 runs OK except for the 'clicking' I mentioned last night,  
and it won't let me pull [using the mouse] some of the boxes [e.g.  
polarization angle] around consistently.  Sometimes they will move,  
othertimes the mouse cursor disappears when I place it on an edge and  
nothing happens when I pull.  If I click things too fast Linrad gets upset  
and stops working properly.  That is, it locks up and won't accept further  
commands.  I can 'escape' with escape and restart Linrad again and all is  
OK.

4.  My Lin2FT1000 add-on c module works fine under Debian Etch with  
Linrad-02.03 for controlling the FT1000MP frequency from within Linrad via  
a serial port.  I had to put it in hwaredriver.c rather than in  
users_hwarederiver.c because the latter generates error messages involving  
one of the voids [I think mouse_on_users_graph(void) ].

5.  In adding my c-caddon to Linrad 02.03 and recompiling it under Debian  
Etch I got a lot of error messages [actually warnings, but the way Linrad  
compiles these stop compilation just as if they were errors] that had not  
appeared under the old gcc compiler in Debian Sarge [or anywhere else I  
tried it].  Specifically, with gcc-4.0.3 I had to change a constant that I  
was using as a float but to which I hadn't added a .0 by explicitly adding  
the .0 as otherwise the compiler generated a warning message that it was  
too large to be a long integer.  Also, I had used a bunch of char  
variables that I had defined as "unsigned char" and this generated a huge  
number of gcc 4.0.3 warnings that stopped compilation.  These said  
"pointer targets in passing argument x of 'strcat' differ in signedness".   
By changing the "unsigned char" to "char" these warnings disappeared and  
things compiled OK.  I found quite a few references on the web to  
difficulties and differences in compilation due to the gcc 4.0 compiler vs  
older versions, and a number of them referred to the 'enhanced' warnings  
generated by 4.0 as being a nuisance.  When the compiler is set to fail on  
warnings, instead of a nuisance these changes become a real problem.  I  
started to remove the gcc 4.0.3 compiler and substitute the 3.4 compiler,  
but there was a HUGE number of dependencies that would have affected much  
of the GUI installation and the basic function of ETCH, and so I left  
4.0.3 installed and instead figured out the problems as noted above.

My favorite part of all of this was learning how to sneak into Debian Etch  
when you have somehow neglected to set up a password for root or the user  
accounts while installing it.  In case this ever happens to you, just type  
'rescue' at the boot prompt from your netinst iso disk, select the  
/dev/hda [/dev/hda6 in my case] on which your linux installation resides  
[or you may be able to just type 'rescue root=/dev/hda6 3', and when you  
get to the boot prompt [which requires no password this way] type 'passwd  
root' and give the root password you want, and then 'passwd w3sz' or  
whatever the user acct name is, and give the password for that account.

I hope this is not too boring.  I am just posting these things to the list  
so that when [?if?] others follow and proceed to Debian Etch they won't  
have to suffer thru all of this without a map.

Hope all of that helps, and

73,

Roger Rehr
W3SZ

--
Roger Rehr
W3SZ
http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/

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