response 366 of 480:

Dec 5 14:18 UTC 2003

A brief introduction to how quotes work in shell scripts:

Single quotes (' ') tell the shell "pass this on as a unit without
changing it."  This is handy if you're passing arguments with special
characters in them, like filenames that contain spaces or ampersands.
(For example,  rm File With Spaces.txt  will try to delete three files,
"File", "With", and "Spaces.txt".  rm 'File With Spaces.txt'  will
remove one file called "File With Spaces.txt".)  

Double quotes (" ") allow some processing, like replacing variables with
their values, but otherwise they act like single quotes.

Backquotes (` `) tell the shell, "run this command and used the output
as an argument."  This is a very powerful feature and is used a lot in
shell scripts.  It's as if you'd copied the output of the command and
pasted it onto the command line.

response 368 of 480:

Dec 5 17:04 UTC 2003

It's been a long time since I used dosemu.  I think it works with
programs that use BIOS calls.  It'd be pretty useless if it didn't.

response 370 of 480:

Dec 5 22:06 UTC 2003

No need to recompile.  You might try www.dosemu.org for details.

response 372 of 480:

Dec 6 09:59 UTC 2003

Any DOS program that works with *documented*
system calls from Microsoft will work on DOSemu,
or that's the plan. DOSemu does *not*, afaik,
attempt to work for any program that uses
*undocumented* DOS calls (nor, it has to be said,
did M$ ever support programs that did, since they
reserved the rught to change those syscalls from
version to version of DOS). DOSemu also does not,
according to the authors, attempt to work for any
program that uses features of the 386 and higher
processors (so presumably the DOS Protected Mode
Interface and any program that use it [Windows
3.x in enhanced mode?] are useless under DOSemu.
Finally, since UN*X only uses the BIOS to boot, I
believe it's unlikely any program which makes
BIOS calls will work, or work correctly.

response 374 of 480:

Dec 6 16:34 UTC 2003

        'permissions' just refers to file protection.
        You can set files and directories to be readable,
        writeable, etc. by certain users or
        groups of users.

response 376 of 480:

Dec 7 00:20 UTC 2003

It sounds as if there are a couple of problems here. Firstly, in order for
a program to be used by a user, either the user must "own" the program, or
the user must have rights to run ("execute") the program. Most proframs are
owned by root and can be executed by anyone, as the following listing shows:

-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         807k Apr 14  2002 /usr/bin/vi

This information can be obtained by using a file manager or by typiing "ls
-la" in a terminal or terminal window (similar to a DOSbox on Windows).

For our purposes the important parts are:

-rwxr-xr-x

and:

root    root

The first line shows us the type of the file (marked by -, meaning a regular
file such as an executable or a text file), then the permissions, three each
for the "owner" (usually the person that created the file) the owner's group
(people other than the owner in a defined group who may have more rights than
everyone else) and "others", or everyone else. In this case, the owner has
permission to read, write, and execute file; the group and "others" have
permision to read and execute but not write to the file (only necessary if
we wish to change or delete the file).

The next line (or third and fourth colums in the original) show the owner and
the group of the file, both of which are named "root" (in WinXP terms, the
Administrator). So in this case, even though root owns the file, everyone can
use it.

if the third character in any group of "rwx" characters is "-", then the
relevant use, group, or others do not have the permission that would be
represented by the appropriate letter if they *did* have it; thus:

-rwxr--r--      1       root    root    18:49 29 April 92       /sbin/mkfs

Here the root user can read, execute, or write to the file "mkfs", but no-one
else may execute or write to it.

Sometimes files need to be run by "ordinary" users, but need special access
to some feature owned by root, such as a device (the screen, a disk, etc.).
In this case a program will be "setuid" or "setgid" root. In this case the
"x" for the owner or group will be replaced by an "s".

The upshot of this is that this sounds like what neeeds to happen for dosemu
to work properly.

To change dosemu to setuid root, find out where the binary is by typing:

whereis dosemu

at a prompt. If there is more htan one file, the first file ~or the first file
that has "bin/dosemu" as part of the name) should be the name of the file you
need. If you have x, you should be able to change the permissions by logging
in as root and right clicking on the file in a file manager, then putting a
tick mark beside the setuid option in the properties dialog box.

If you don't have the X Window System, it's alittle more complicated. The
permissions on files can be represented by a number, where for each group of
three permissions, a "mark" out of seven is given, calculated by adding
together:

read permission (score 4)
write permission (score 2)
execute permission (score 1)

so a file with the following permissions:

rwxr-xr-x

Would score 755.

added to that, setuid programs sscore another 4, and setgid programs two, so
the preceding file with setuid permisions would score 4755, represented as:

-rwsr-xr-x

To set permissions, look at the permissions of the file and prepend a 4, so
that to change the preceding file /bin/mkfs to setuid, type:

chmod 4744 /bin/mkfs.

This should also solve the problem of saving the file once you've dited it.

the reason why you can only see the dosemu directory is because dosemu
emulates a complete (legal) dos environment. dos cannot access linux
partitions, so the dosemu environmeent is essentially "black box" inside the
linux operating ystem. However, since linux can access both dos filesystems
and filesystems created in a file (which is what the dosemu environment looks
like to linux), it shold be posible to access files created in dosemu by
mounting the file as a loopback device (/dev/loop) with type "lo". Full info
on the "mount" command can be found by using the command "man mount".

response 378 of 480:

Dec 7 02:39 UTC 2003

jimd Re: dosemu
dosemu would not let a user with root privelages create a freedos environment.
adduser did work, but with a warning that it would not run on this
display."
DOS programs did work but couldnt access any disk or drive.  Now that I've
seen how it works I doubt that dosemu affords me any of the advantages I'd
hoprd for.  Time to put my efforts into learning C and loading linux from DOS.


Sindi:  I wonder if we could use dosemu in terminal 1 and linux in terminal
2 and write up something in 1 and access it from 2.  Quicker than rebooting
to use DOS.  

response 380 of 480:

Dec 7 15:08 UTC 2003

I forgot to mention that we cannot take your advice literally:

We don't have whereis.  We use find -name.
We don't have the usual man command, which requires groff and takes up 8MB
total for all the required programs.  We have a little script that someone
just wrote, which combines zcat, find -name, man2html, and lynx.
We don't have the man pages for mount, which came with busybox, only --help.

We have about 120MB of useful programs plus a compiler.  This includes X and
Opera and four other browsers and lots of documentation.  photopc antiword
two console mode viewers  kermit two X-mode image editors  spreadsheet
calculators   Have we missed any good console mode programs?

Today I am still coughing a lot.  Jim finally started sneezing.  I may have
sneezed twice in the middle of coughing, hard to tell.  

response 382 of 480:

Dec 7 21:59 UTC 2003

'basiclinux' based on slackware 7.1.  A selection of useful files and we can
add whatever else we like if we install it to hard drive.  There is one way
to find things instead of three ways.

Today we downloaded a couple of DOS C compilers so Jim can learn to write C
in DOS with his editor that works only in DOS.  One produces assembly language
that you can then assemble and link (link and assemble?).

I coughed from midnight to 3, and from 6:30 to 7 am and for a while again when
I woke up again at 9 but since then the coughing has been less intense and
once this afternoon I actually sneezed and my nose is getting slightly runny
so maybe things will progress enough that I can get infused tomorrow on
schedule.  Jim started coughing a bit two days before me and today has stopped
coughing and starting sneezing a bit and blowing his nose so when the
pharyngitis hits on Wed. I hope to be at that stage.

The problem is where are they going to put me for infusion for 5 hours where
I will not be likely to infect people with low immunity.  Maybe the hallway,
or an examining room somewhere?  By the time they start me it is usually 4
pm and the doctors tend to go home by 5.  

We went walking yesterday and today and admired the squirrels and the new
additions on the backs of old houses.  My legs still feel wobbly, which I
don't think was the case in previous cycles after the first ten days.  They
said side effects might start getting worse after cycle 4.   I can walk
anyway, and don't feel about to pull muscles.  Yesterday we saw the neighbor
in her 80s out walking alone and Jim apologized to her for me that I was
contagious and did not want to get her sick by walking with her.  

Since we will be using the car tomorrow for the first time in three weeks,
Jim fixed a tape deck and two boomboxes to drive to Kiwanis on the way to the
hospital.  Today a broken vacuum cleaner arrived.  

response 384 of 480:

Dec 8 18:51 UTC 2003

We tried full distributions of redhat, caldera, and suse.  The first two were
unbearably slow to load and the third was still slow and they all put all
sorts of things on that we did not want such as KDE or GNOME.  I could put
ALL the files from Slackware basic installation but I don't want most of them.
Easier to add than to subtract things like running processes at the same time
every day, loading random number generators, etc.  

I am back from the hospital.  They said to come again Wed. 8 am for my
infusion, agreeing with me that I should not be coughing at the other patients
or risking additional health problems until my cough is getting better.  I
might need two more infusions after this, depending on the Jan 5 CT scan,
which they will evaluate Dec. 29.  Someone will call me when they find me an
earlier CT scan, but they were booked solid. I should schedule these things
more than 2 weeks in advance, such as last time.  

response 386 of 480:

Dec 8 23:30 UTC 2003

With luck they will get a cancelation or decide to cram me into an already
full schedule.  I think the CT scan machine is in use 24 hours a day, like
the X-Ray machines.  The problem is that they are closed Dec 24 and 25 so
things filled up fast for the other three days that week.  

They decided they did not need to take my blood again this Wed. before I saw
the doctor so I don't need to be there until 8 am.  

Three things could happen on the next CT scan (assuming they find a time for
me):
1.  No changes since last time, when they found no enlarged lymph nodes but
the two masses in the spleen were still there, but 1/2 the original diameter.
This would mean that these masses do not respond to treatment - either they
mutated or they are not tumors.  It might be possible to distinguish the two
cases by a PET scan.  If not tumors, I don't need more therapy.

2.  The masses are smaller, in which case they continue therapy for two more
sessions since they have been responding to treatment.

3.  The masses have disappeared, in which case they might still continue
therapy but maybe not ? 

I lost two pounds since 3 weeks ago, not good but they forgave me since I have
been sick.  Today we went to the Chinese buffet and I made myself eat a plate
of food including noodles and potatoes, and two ice cream cones, and a cream
puff.  And Jim bought me juice so I would not drink calorie-free water.  

Today I tried to get permission to put one of the comfortable chairs from teh
waiting room into the hallway (against regulations), the phone area, or the
video area (always empty) but was not allowed to do this.  So I asked if I
could sit and cough in patient library, at which point the librarian went to
argue my case, but while she was arguing it the technician called me to be
weighed so I got to wait in an exam room and we brought a chair there.  For
once everything was practically on time instead of 2 hours late for the doctor
and 3-4 for the infusion.  A pity I had to postpone but Wed. I have 8 am
doctor and 9 am infusion and they cannot have gotten too far behind yet.

I may know by Dec. 24 whether I am done with chemotherapy this year.  It will
be a lot easier to gain weight afterwards, and to walk, and talk, and breathe
properly.  And maybe eventually even sing and dance again.  In the meantime
I got some more library books and Jim brought home a curbside  laser printer
to keep busy at home when he gets tired of learning to program in C.

We stopped at my apartment and I did a bit of organizing.  Jim cleaned up for
our visitor by piling things from the kitchen and bedroom neatly in one
corner.  Sheets, jars, clothing, broken stereo equipment, books, a can of pens
and pencils, telephone, sewing kit.....  No wonder our visitor thought I was
rather a packrat.  She helped by leaving us a broken boombox, a bag full of
straws in paper wrappings, her collection of free chopsticks, a few pots, the
remains of some sweatpants.....  I brought the collection of headphone parts
here and hope to recycle most of it, along with the basket cases among the
portable tape players (the ones we gave up on three times already).  Now that
we have a CD burner Jim might just want to concentrate on the crate full of
broken portable CD players instead.

response 388 of 480:

Dec 9 15:26 UTC 2003

People keep saying I am brave but I am really a coward.  I don't have a lot
of choice about going through with this.  Other people go through much worse.
I do have some choice about my attitude towards the treatment and how hard
I try to eat properly and get my strength back by exercising even though I
am tired.  

I find it helps to admit I am a coward. I bring Jim with me when I give blood
and hold his hand.  Nobody else there is holding anyone's hand.  Yesterday
I held the padded chair arm instead as Jim was not there, and I joked with
the technician to distract me as I have always been afraid of needles.  All
of the infusion patients have some friend or relative with them, not just to
fetch things (the nurses will do that) but to relieve the stress.  It helps
to share your problems by talking with the other patients.  They all have it
worse than me and they are mostly pretty cheerful about it anyway.  In our
case the alternative to therapy is much worse than therapy.  I would have
either starved to death or stopped breathing by now without therapy.  

Today I am not coughing as much and I expect to do infusion tomorrow.
They rescheduled the CT scan for Dec. 24.  I hope someone will be able to read
the results before Monday the 29th.  I go at 2 pm.  I don't eat or drink for
6 hours before that, so either I get up to eat at 5 am, or I go 14 hours
without eating or drinking.  

Today I get a sample of what I will feel like after therapy ends.  This is
my first day not to have had an infusion for more than 21 days.  My hands feel
even better than yesterday - numb only at the very fingertips and along the
sides of my thumbs.  Starting tomorrow they will be number again for 2 weeks.
My feet still feel like my socks are pasted to them.  I can feel only
pressure.  My tongue feels less sandpapered than it did yesterday.  They have
timed the treatment interval really close - let people start to recover a bit
but not too much.  

Treatment for five days a week for 3 weeks at a time must be worse.

They will continue using a half dose of vincristine so my hands will be only
half numb.

I told the nurse I would expect to need two additional treatments so that I
would be pleasantly surprised if I did not, rather than disappointed if I did.
I will try to look forward to six additional weeks of vacation if needed.
I wonder who is going to shovel the snow for me at the house we are building.
Usually the neighbors and I try to be first to do everyone's walk.  They are
going to get WAY ahead this year.  

response 390 of 480:

Dec 9 21:48 UTC 2003

I am a coward but I try not to act that way when other people are around. 
I have screamed when the IV went in, but not near other patients.

To celebrate this bonus day, we went for a walk in the drizzle.  Jim showed
me a path around the local apartment complex, through a small overgrown patch
of woods with green horsetails and ice and lots of vines and black raspberry
shoots (purple bark).  There is a wooden bridge (slippery when wet) over a
small creek which contains a supermarket shopping cart and three bicycles.
We decided to leave them all there.  The banks are steep.  We continued to
a very small park consisting of a sidewalk between back yards and a half
basketball court (you reverse direction frequently).  There was a crow cawing
in a treetop and a few very chubby squirrels who could not be bothered to run
very far from us.  It started to rain harder so we came back.  

My muscles are behaving today.  Maybe the weight loss was what made them
misbehave longer than usual last cycle.

The author of Two Years Before the Mast wrote about how they just got through
their hardest two months.  They had to make one more trip along the coast of
California, then unload all 40,000 hides and everything else, and fumigate
the ship by burning charcoal and brimstone to kill the rats and cockroaches,
then beat the dirt off the hides and put them back onboard and stuff them into
as little space as possible with help from song.  Another related ship lent
them some crew members who brought new songs.  The old songs were worn out
and not working too well any more. Yo heave ho variety.

After the really hard two months, they have 6 months of travel back around
South America to Boston.  I am on pretty much the same schedule but I don't
need to get my feet as wet. 

Jim just fell asleep in preparation for getting up and leaving at 7 am
tomorrow after packing breakfast and lunch.  This time we won't need supper.

I typed up a summary of things that chemotherapy has cured, to make the nurse
and doctor happy.  They really liked my summary of side effects during cycle
four.  I had one rather strange symptom since 1995 - sort of an allergy to
cold with flu-like symptoms.  I was sleeping in socks whenever it got under
75, and in long sleeves and long pants in all weather, and I no longer have
this reaction to cold.  (Of course it is winter so I am sleeping in warm
clothing again).  Before developing this symptom, suddenly, I had three weeks
of what I thought was the worst flu in my life, following several months of
working on the house we are building, in the cold.  Lymphoma can follow viral
infection.  I don't know if the virus itself causes the lymphoma by inserting
a DNA copy of its RNA into the cell's DNA, or whether my own immune system
was just so worn out that it could not do its usual job of killing cancer
cells.  But I think I have had the lymphoma for 9 years.  Maybe it won't come
back for at least that long.  I will not be working at 20 degrees again.