Linux Programming Unleashed

Title: Linux Programming Unleashed Authors: Kurt Wall, Mark Watson, and Mark Whitis Publisher: Sams (Macmillan Computer Publishing) ISBN: 0-672-31607-2 LC Card Number: 98-89984 Publication Date: Aug 27, 1999 Pages: 844 Cover Price: $49.99 Street Price: $27 to $40 Size: 7-3/8"x9-1/8"x2"x1-3/4" Weight: 3 Lbs

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About the book

About these pages

Author's Home Pages

• Kurt Wall
• Mark Watson
• Mark Whitis

Buy a copy

Order Linux Programming Unleashed from amazon.com for $39.99

Local Resellers

The case of the missing CD-ROMs

Note that the link above has been broken. The new page for the first edition is at http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672316072 and the downloads are at http://www.samspublishing.com/content/images/0672316072/downloads/code.zip

My Chapters

• Chapter 2: Setting up a Development System
• Chapter 9: File Descriptor I/O
• Chapter 10: File Pointer I/O (stdio)
• Chapter 11: Process Control
• Chapter 12: Accessing System Information
• Chapter 13: Error Handling
• Chapter 14: Memory Management
• Chapter 25: device drivers
• Chapter 36: Secure Programing
• Apendix: Symbol Table Library

Listings

Newer versions of some of these are availible on my software page.

• chapter36.tar.gz
• stepper.tar.gz
• chapter9.tar.gz
• child.tar.gz
• libsandutils.txt
• symbol-0.55.tar.gz
• userchange.tar.gz
• schematic.fig

Table of Contents

Information for readers

Links

Contact Information

Listing

• Chapter 9: File Descriptor I/O
  chapter9.tar.gz
• Chapter 11: Process Control
  child.tar.gz
• Chapter 12: /proc filesystem libsandutils.txt
• Chapter 25: Device Drivers
  schematic.fig
  stepper.tar.gz
• Chapter 24: Libraries: Symbol Tables
  symbol-0.55.tar.gz
  userchange.tar.gz
• Chapter 36: Secure programming
  chapter36.tar.gz

Related Pages (My content)

• My Linux Page
• Software packages I have released
• My Home Page

Notes, Erratta, and Updates

Chapter 2: Setting up a development system

In chapter 2, I mention that you can find certain documents on one of the acompanying CD-ROMS; unfortunately, the publisher omitted the CD-ROMs without bothering to correct the text.

I mentioned the Slink-e interface which allows you to control most consumer electronics. The device did not have a linux driver but the protocol was documented. I now have a Slink-e so there might be a Linux driver in the foreseable future.

The mentioned X10 CM10a interface which allows carrier current control of lights and appliances connected to X10 modules is controlled by the program "heyu". I have noticed a problem with that program. It will not run correctly unless I have used pppd on the same line previously. Since I haven't been able to isolate the critical port settings yet, I run pppd :-).

At the time this chapter was written, it was hard to find inexpensive tulip cards based on the prefered 21140 chips. Now that the newer tulip drivers should be availible on most current linux distributions, it should be ok to use the more 21143 chips or clones and inexpensive tulip compatible boards are availible. Linksys LNE100TX Etherfast 10/100 cards are readily availible ($25 from NECX,$30 from Data Comm Warehouse and at your local Staples or Office Depot. These are based on tulip clones (PNIC or Linksys relabled PNIC) which work with recent versions of the tulip driver (Including those shipped with Redhat >=5.2). Linksys has a Linux Support Page for these cards and they even include Linux drivers on the disk.

If you don't really need to buy a new printer, don't. Try to avoid supporting the manufacturers who make printers and don't document or provide drivers for them. All of the major inkjet printer manufacturers make printers which are not documented. The newer a printer is, the less well it is likely to be supported under Linux. So, you might be better off spending $35 at your local thrift store for an old printer. You can print text ok on most printers except most windows only printers. But if you want good quality photo printing, which many of us expect these days, your options are very limited. If I were to buy a new printer now, it would probably be a Epson 740 or 640. Other candidates might be an HP 880C or a Lexmark Optra 40. I have not used any of these, however.

• HP (Hewlett Packard)
  HP used to be good about documenting their products. Now, they only partially document their products, if at all. Avoid all PPA printers which use a proprietary undocumented protocol. HP does not document how to program PhotoREIT or PhotoREIT II modes; without these modes, their products are not interesting. Very limited support for the PPA printers based is availible based on reverse engineering. HP does have a web page which documents the PCL commands used by most of their PCL printers but it does not include PhotoREIT modes and it lacks enough detail to actually program even the most rudimentary graphic modes.
• Lexmark
  Almost all Lexmark Inkjet printers speak undocumented proprietary languages. A notable exception would be the $380 Optra Color 40 which speaks postscript and prints at 600x600. The OptraR+ laser printer is a standard postscript device and supports lpd remote print spooling with the network interface so it will work.
• Epson
  Programming of epson printers is not documented. It has been pretty well reverse engineered and Linux support for Epson 6xx/7xx series printers is oriented towards photo printing.
• Canon
  Canon has a very lousy record when it comes to cooperation. Older cannon printers will work, sortof. In ten years of trying, I have never gotten one shred of documentation out of canon. Older 6xx series printers probably worked ok. I have used a BJC4000 for years - I am definitely not satisfied with the photo printing quality. You will notice that there is not a single canon model still in production which is listed in the printer compatibility database as working perfectly.

I have written a driver for Costar label printers and Costar has donated printers in support of this effort.

Chapter 25: Device Drivers

Although, I reported that Quickcam 's work, avoid all the newer Quickcam's. The manufacturer has reverted to their prior bad habbits regarding documentation.

Since this chapter was written, I have written a device driver for many of the common label printers (Avery Personal Label Printers and Costar Labelwriter XL). This device driver runs in user mode and takes input in Plain PBM format. A PBM driver will work with any version of Ghostscript and is a separate program so there are no licensing issues to worry about. New: costar contacted me and volunteered to send me their newer printers for development and testing purposes.

There were some compilation problems with the stepper driver on 2.2.x kernels due to significant incompatibilities introduced in the new kernel. Working on fixes.

The parameters are backwards on verbose_outb() and outb() in a couple places. It is outb(value, port) rather than outb(port, value);

Newer kenels (such as 2.2 and 2.4) introduce various incompatibilities that prevent the sample device driver, or one written according to the instructions, to fail to compile. I have written some notes on porting old device drivers to linux kernel 2.4

Chapter 35: Secure Programming

From:
  sprintf(command, "fgrep -i %s address.book", name);
  system(name);
To:
  sprintf(command, "fgrep -i %s address.book", name);
  system(command);

Publisher's site

Their Support Page now, finally, has the files which would have been on the CD-ROm which the publisher decided to omit at the last minute.

Second Edition

I did not choose to be involved in the rewrites for the second edition. The downloads for that edition are at: http://www.samspublishing.com/content/images/0672320215/downloads/code.tar.gz . Note that the first edition is readily availible used for a few bucks.

Affiliates

I have my own company, Free Electron Labs, and I worked for DBD Group. Both contributed to the book.

As a member of the Amazon Associates program, I recieve a commision for each copy of the book which is ordered by clicking on the "Buy Now" link above. Indeed, this is the only way I directly profit from increased sales of the book since I don't get residuals. I am also a satisfied amazon.com customer; I am not easily satisfied, either.