[9fans] New release

[9fans] New release

[rob pike]

A new release of Plan 9 is now available at
	http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9
You can download a full distribution or an update relative to the
previous release, dated July 29 2000.  For a variety of reasons the
update is larger than previous ones, but still much smaller than the
full release.

Although this is primarily a maintenance release, it contains a number of new
things.

	- The open source license has been updated to improve some of the
	more contentious clauses and to add language about the Plan 9
	trademark.
	- More VGA cards are supported, particularly the 3dfx, and more now
	have support for hardware acceleration.
	- The AccuPoint II's extra buttons are now connected to `button 2' of
	the mouse interface; thanks to Ionkov for the crucial piece of information.
	(See mouse(8).)
	- The cpu command now has the ability to encrypt the data on its
	communication channel. This facility is enabled by default, use
		cpu -e clear
	to turn it off.
	- Acme now has a command language for editing, essentially identical
	to sam's.
	- Formatted I/O for floating point has been rewritten to provide the
	best possible answer always.
	- There is a full set of `rune string' routines installed in the C library.
	- Pipefile(1) is installed; it is used by the accupoint support and by
	Kenji's ktrans.
	- Lp will now print to an HP DeskJet and in fact to any Ghostscript-
	supported device.
	- New command leak(1) detects memory leaks in running programs
	without prior arrangement; thanks to Russ Cox.
	- Scat now has the ability to orient the maps to place the zenith up;
	thanks to Doug McIlroy.
	- /bin/termrc has a simple mechanism to enable system-dependent
	configuration. cpurc should do the same, but doesn't, for historical
	reasons.

There are doubtless many more minor things.

-rob

Re: [9fans] New release

[Douglas A. Gwyn]

Excellent!  Thanks to all who contributed.

Re: [9fans] New release

[Richard Miller]

>	- Lp will now print to an HP DeskJet and in fact to any Ghostscript-
>	supported device.

I think some parts of this are missing:
	/sys/lib/lp/process/gspipe
	/sys/lib/lp/spooler/pcpcl
maybe more?

-- Richard Miller

Re: [9fans] New release

[jmk]

Ish Rattan <ishwar@pali.cps.cmich.edu>:
	Is 3Dfx card from 2000 or 3000 series (3DFX 3000 VooDoo3 16Mb RAm etc..)?

1000, 2000 or 3000.

Re: [9fans] New release

[Ish Rattan]

On Sun, 15 Oct 2000 jmk@plan9.bell-labs.com wrote:

> if made to recognise the different PCI device id's, I believe the 3Dfx
> Voodoo3 driver will work with the Banshee and Voodoo5 cards. If someone

Is 3Dfx card from 2000 or 3000 series (3DFX 3000 VooDoo3 16Mb RAm etc..)?

- ishwar

Re: [9fans] New release

[forsyth]

in /rc/bin/service/tcp25, you might need to
comment out the line with 9fs emelieother (unless you've got one).

Re: [9fans] New release

[jmk]

Some additional comments on the new update:

the elnk3 driver has code for the 3C905C. The only person I know
who has tried this reported problems but it works for me. I have
since fixed some usage of compatibility features removed by 3COM
between the 3C905B and 3C905C;

the 2114x driver may work with some cards using the PNIC and PNIC2
'near-clone' chips. There are many other such chips out there and I'd
be happy to add in the support if anyone has worked on it;

thanks to others, the PCMCIA NE2000-clone driver (ec2t) has been
made to automatically recognise the Accton EtherPair-PCMCIA and Netgear
FA410TX cards. Code has also been added to allow other compatible
cards to be recognised via plan9.ini - see the man page;

the ATA driver will recognise the Serverworks IB6566 controller and as
it is PIIX compatible, DMA modes can be enabled;

the 82365 PCMCIA driver deals better with multiple controllers;

if made to recognise the different PCI device id's, I believe the 3Dfx
Voodoo3 driver will work with the Banshee and Voodoo5 cards. If someone
has such and would be willing to try it would be appreciated. There is
no acceleration at the moment;

the following laptop/chip combinations are known to work:
	Toshiba Portégé 3440CT		S3 Savage4/IX-MV
	Compaq Presario 3060		S3 Aurora64V+
	Digital HiNote Ultra 2000	C&T 65554
	IBM Thinkpad 600X		Neomagic 256ZX
The Toshiba only has a USB floppy and isn't a good candidate for
downloading the distribution;

someone is working on a driver for the Matrox G200 and G400 cards but
it wasn't quite ready in time for the update.

--jim