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8. Frequently encountered error messages.

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8.1 Unknown terminal type linux and similar.

In an early 1.3.x kernel the default console terminal type has changed from console to linux. You must edit /etc/termcap to change the line reading:

   console|con80x25:\
to
   linux|console|con80x25:\
(there may be an additional dumb in there -- if so it should be removed.)

In order to get the editor to work you may need say TERM=console (for bash and ksh) or setenv TERM console (csh, tcsh) first.

Some programs use /usr/lib/terminfo instead of /etc/termcap. For these programs you should upgrade your terminfo, which is part of ncurses.

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8.2 During linking I get Undefined symbol mcount

This is usually due to a bad interaction between a brokenness in SLS and the C library release notes. Your libc.a has been replaced by the profiling library. You should remove libc.a, libg.a and libc_p.a and once again install the new libraries (following the release notes, of course).

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8.3 lp1 on fire

This is a joke/traditional error message indicating that some sort of error is being reported by your printer, but that the error status isn't a valid one. It may be that you have some kind of I/O or IRQ conflict - check your cards' settings. Some people report that they get this message when their printer is switched off. Hopefully it isn't really on fire ...

In newer kernels this message reads lp1 reported invalid error status (on fire, eh?).

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8.4 INET: Warning: old style ioctl... called!

You are trying to use the old network configuration utilities; the new ones can be found on ftp.linux.org.uk in /pub/linux/Networking/PROGRAMS/NetTools (source only, I'm afraid).

Note that they cannot be used just like the old-style programs; see the NET-2 HOWTO for instructions on how to set up networking correctly.

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8.5 ld: unrecognized option '-m486'

You have an old version of ld. Install a newer binutils package -- this will contain an updated ld. Look on tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/GCC for binutils-2.6.0.2.bin.tar.gz.

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8.6 GCC says Internal compiler error.

If the fault is repeatable (ie, it always happens at the same place in the same file -- even after rebooting and trying again, using a stable kernel) you have discovered a bug in GCC. See the GCC Info documentation (type Control-h i in Emacs, and select GCC from the menu) for details on how to report this -- make sure you have the latest version though.

Note that this is probably not a Linux-specific problem; unless you were compiling a program many other Linux users also compile you should not post your bug report to any of the comp.os.linux groups.

If the