[net.unix] Microport System V/AT help request

sam@lanl.ARPA (Sam A Matthews) (10/01/86)

	I'm having a problem with Microport's System V/AT running on a 
Kaypro 286i, maybe someone out there in netland can help me. First, my 
configuration:

	Kaypro 286i
	640k RAM
	30Mb HD
	1.2Mb Floppie (one)
	Everex EGA board
	NEC Multisync Monitor
	Sys V/AT "Complete system"

	I have 2 partitions, 10Mb DOS, 20Mb UNIX.

The problem: When I do a "soft boot" with Ctrl/Alt/Del, I get an error message
in the middle of the screen: "Unexpected SW Interrupt 06 at F000:0059  Type
(R)eboot, any other key to continue" The system hangs at this point requiring
a complete power down to fix. 

Microport's telephone support suggests that the problem is with Kaypro. However,
they also point out that they don't have a Kaypro and so cannot duplicate the
problem to be sure.

Has anybody out there tryed Sys V/AT on a Kaypro? Has anybody ever seen this 
message? Does it indicate a hardware problem or an incompatibility? 

Also, does anybody have a nroff/troff printer driver for an Ebson compatible
parallel printer?

Thanks in advance!

Sam Matthews			       /\|/\     "We put a star
sam@lanl.ARPA			     --> * <--      in a box."
(ihnp4 or cmcl2)!lanl!sam	       \/|\/
Opinions are my own and not necessarily those of your government. 

asgard@cpro.UUCP (J.R. Stoner) (10/03/86)

In article <8114@lanl.ARPA>, sam@lanl.ARPA (Sam A Matthews) writes:
> 
> 	I'm having a problem with Microport's System V/AT running on a 
> Kaypro 286i, maybe someone out there in netland can help me. First, my 
> configuration:
> 
> 	Kaypro 286i
> 	640k RAM
> 	30Mb HD
> 	1.2Mb Floppie (one)
> 	Everex EGA board
> 	NEC Multisync Monitor
> 	Sys V/AT "Complete system"
> 
> 	I have 2 partitions, 10Mb DOS, 20Mb UNIX.
					^^^^^^^^^
> 
> The problem: When I do a "soft boot" with Ctrl/Alt/Del, I get an error message
> in the middle of the screen: "Unexpected SW Interrupt 06 at F000:0059  Type
> (R)eboot, any other key to continue" The system hangs at this point requiring
> a complete power down to fix. 
> 
> Also, does anybody have a nroff/troff printer driver for an Ebson compatible
> parallel printer?
> 
> Sam Matthews			       /\|/\     "We put a star
> sam@lanl.ARPA			     --> * <--      in a box."
> (ihnp4 or cmcl2)!lanl!sam	       \/|\/

I am running SVAT on a Chop-Suey model clone.  This machine has never had
compatibility problems.  My suspicion is that the error on your Kaypro does
not appear consistently.  I get this too and I suspect it is a bug in the
machine code fragment that patches the CtlAltDel entry point to perform the
full memory test instead of the "quick" boot sequence.  If there was a
delayed interrupt from the hard disk when the back-patching was supposed to
occur, I can see where the problem would lie.

On another note, I can't see how you can do real work with all three
portions existing on one 20Mb partition.  It is a saving grace if you can
get the second hard disk in your system.  I am using the second drive to
hold the USENET files (20Mb/week).

ron@vsedev.VSE.COM (Ron Flax) (10/06/86)

In article <111@cpro.UUCP> asgard@cpro.UUCP (J.R. Stoner) writes:
>> 
>> The problem: When I do a "soft boot" with Ctrl/Alt/Del, I get an error message
>> in the middle of the screen: "Unexpected SW Interrupt 06 at F000:0059  Type
>> (R)eboot, any other key to continue" The system hangs at this point requiring
>> a complete power down to fix. 
>> 
>I am running SVAT on a Chop-Suey model clone.  This machine has never had
>compatibility problems.  My suspicion is that the error on your Kaypro does
>not appear consistently.  I get this too and I suspect it is a bug in the
>machine code fragment that patches the CtlAltDel entry point to perform the
>full memory test instead of the "quick" boot sequence.  If there was a
>delayed interrupt from the hard disk when the back-patching was supposed to
>occur, I can see where the problem would lie.
>
I have had a similar problem, when I do a Ctl-Alt-Del on my BELL
Technologies MPE (PC-AT Clone) it says 'system will be rebooted...' or
whatever, then just sits there looking dumb as if to say what next
boss?  I then have to reset the computer by hitting the reset button.
Not too much of a problem although I suspect that the powerfail
routines and/or autobooting will fail if I am not there to kick the
computer...  Microport are you listening?

--
ron@vsedev.VSE.COM	(Ron Flax)
UUCP:	..!seismo!vsedev!ron
ARPA:	vsedev.VSE.COM!ron@seismo.CSS.GOV

neighorn@percival.UUCP (Steve Neighorn) (10/16/86)

In article <183@vsedev.VSE.COM> ron@vsedev.VSE.COM (Ron Flax) writes:
>I have had a similar problem, when I do a Ctl-Alt-Del on my BELL
>Technologies MPE (PC-AT Clone) it says 'system will be rebooted...' or
>whatever, then just sits there looking dumb as if to say what next
>boss?  I then have to reset the computer by hitting the reset button.
>Not too much of a problem although I suspect that the powerfail
>routines and/or autobooting will fail if I am not there to kick the
>computer...  Microport are you listening?

I too use SYSTEM V/AT on a 'Can Intel Really Go This Fast?' clone, and on
my first go around with the unix, I had the same problems as you and others
have written about regarding Microport's 'hardened' I/O. But with the release
of the 1.36 kernel, the problems have gone away. Apparently, in the latest
release, the hardened became more hardened. When I press cntrl-alt-del, my
disk-active light shines for a few moments, then the system prints a reboot
message. Now this works fine and good, but it still is a bit scary, so I
usually stick with a sync;sync;sync;init 0 script to bring the system
down. It takes a bit longer but it is what I am used to, and it's nice to
get the wall messages.

Now if I could only figure out how to get my printer working. I have a
Star NB-15, which works beautifully at 300 cps draft in PCDOS, but as soon
as I boot into V/AT, the printer ready lights go out. I have run the
advanced diags over my machine overnight; I have tried three different
printer cables, I have reconfigured with lpadmin a dozen times, but I get
the same frustrating results. Lpstat says everything is AOK. Lp sends me
mail that says the file was printed. The printer remains a several hundred
dollar paperweight as long as I am in unix. Right now I am copying files to
a PCDOS disk and then printing them off with a PCDOS text formatter, which
isn't as nearly as nice as the V/AT text-processing utilities. Does anyone
out there have V/AT *and* their printers working?



-- 
Steven C. Neighorn               tektronix!reed!percival!qiclabs!neighorn
Portland Public Schools      "Where we train young Star Fighters to defend the
(503) 249-2000 ext 229           frontier against Xur and the Ko-dan Armada"

asgard@cpro.UUCP (10/18/86)

In article <241@percival.UUCP>, neighorn@percival.UUCP (Steve Neighorn) writes:
> 
> Now if I could only figure out how to get my printer working. I have a
> Star NB-15, which works beautifully at 300 cps draft in PCDOS, but as soon
> as I boot into V/AT, the printer ready lights go out. I have run the
> advanced diags over my machine overnight; I have tried three different
> printer cables, I have reconfigured with lpadmin a dozen times, but I get
> the same frustrating results. Lpstat says everything is AOK. Lp sends me
> mail that says the file was printed. The printer remains a several hundred
> dollar paperweight as long as I am in unix. Right now I am copying files to
> a PCDOS disk and then printing them off with a PCDOS text formatter, which
> isn't as nearly as nice as the V/AT text-processing utilities. Does anyone
> out there have V/AT *and* their printers working?

The trick I had to do to make printer work is as follows.  Use mknod to 
create /dev/lp2 (the same as the other printer character special inodes,
but the minor device number is 2).  Link this to /dev/lp.  Then do the
things with lpadmin to make the model and profile files for lp.  You should
use the dumb device and edit out the loop with the stty's in the shell
script /usr/spool/lp/interface/whatever.  To test the device and hardware
configuration do ls -l >/dev/lp and you should get the entire listing of
wherever you happen to be with no lost characters if all is kosher.

--
May the farce be with you.

J.R.