wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (08/09/88)
I see that version 3.51b for the Unix PC may be lurking in the wings now. Hmmm. What I'd like to know is what patches fix what bugs. When I bought my 3.51 operating system in october 1987, it came with a disk labeled "communications patch", which I dutifully installed at the time I loaded the operating system. None the less I had various and sundry crashes and kernel panics on both tty000 and on ph1. AT&T didn't believe me when I accused the uucp software of being the rat, and replaced my motherboard instead. The machine continued to crash repeatedly, so the HOTLINE personell emailed me a replacement copy of uucico, which proved an interesting study in frustration, as uucico was the source of the bugs to begin with! It took AT&T's machine about six tries to get it through with a crash or two in between. The "new" uucico seemed to work better but arrived without any attendant documentation. The machine still crashed every couple of days. We had gotten HDB from the STORE back when it was on line. Last time I checked it had apparently been withdrawn. That's too bad since they don't sell HDB now either for the Unix PC. Anyway, I was getting frustrated enough with the officially supported version of uucp that I figured that I didn't have much to lose by loading up the rebel HDB. I was quite shocked to find that HDB was quite well done and looked just like HDB known as "The Basic Networking Utilities" that comes with the 6300+ or the WGS Unix brand operating system. The only difference is that the Unix PC keeps its locks in /usr/spool/uucp rather than the more customary /usr/spool/locks. We use a Unix PC with a 20 meg disk as a communications front end for our vax. We run a Trailblazer modem off the tty000 port. We decided to roll the dice and try running tty000 at 19.2K buad so far its been working for us. We are running a 3b1 on the other side of town as a news server. That machine, impulse, also has a trailblazer. We routinely transfer files as large as 250K bytes for news. With both the Unix PC and 3b1 running HDB we usually get about 1000 - 1300 characters per second. I feel pretty confident about those stats since those are 250 K files. The trailblazer modem has about a 30 K byte buffer, so transfers of small files often give unrealistically high xferstats results. The point of my meandering is that HDB apparently works and it is working very well for us. The question is, why is AT&T not releasing it? Must be internal politics or whatever. I wouldn't mind paying some bucks ($50-$100??) to get an officially supported upgrade of, say, mailx and the HDB kit? /bin/mail really is quite an excuse for mail. I know; use elm or mush. But it would be nice to have a good mailer that was a supported product. One good thing I can say about the original uucp on the 3b1 is I like the fact that modemcap gives you a little more control over interpreting modem result codes and bialing out appropriately than HDB does. Does anybody know about the status of HDB now that it has been withdrawn from the STORE? Despite its quirks, I still really like my 3b1, and there aren't too many things around I'd trade it for. Well, maybe a 386 WGS. --Bill wtm@neoucom.UUCP
rjg@sialis.mn.org (Robert J. Granvin) (08/10/88)
>I see that version 3.51b for the Unix PC may be lurking in the >wings now. Hmmm. What I'd like to know is what patches fix what >bugs. [ ... ] The exact details of 3.51b are unknown to even most within ATT. It's not even confirmed that it would be called 3.51b... >The point of my meandering is that HDB apparently works and it is >working very well for us. The question is, why is AT&T not >releasing it? Must be internal politics or whatever. Basically, this is the story as I know it... HDB was in some sort of "functional development" when the 3b1 was withdrawn from the market. For all practical purposes, HDB works, and works well, but it's not entirely complete, mostly in the areas of verifications and repairs of existing problems. Since the machine was withdrawn, there was little interest or desire to make available a product that would be required to be supported, so HDB fell by the wayside. There's a catch-22 with HDB also. It's published everywhere that anything from The Store! is without warranty and unsupported. However, HoneyDanBer is a supported product no matter where it originated. Therefore, HDB from The Store! would have to have some measure of official support... :-( >Does anybody know about the status of HDB now that it has been >withdrawn from the STORE? Again, this is "as I have been told"... HDB is not a released product for the 3b1. Only ATT and VARs have access to it. For a short while, HDB was placed in the public area on The Store!, and those that got it then are entitled to keep it, in an unsupported mode, but cannot redistribute it to anyone else. The actual details and "legality" elude me. I'm sure someone else who knows the story intimately will post or mail the detailed stories... -- Robert J. Granvin "Martyrs are just dying National Information Systems, Inc. to be heroes." rjg@sialis.mn.org ...{{amdahl,hpda}!bungia,rosevax}!sialis!rjg
scs@lokkur.UUCP (Steve Simmons) (08/11/88)
In article <724@sialis.mn.org> rjg@sialis.mn.org (Robert J. Granvin) writes: |>The point of my meandering is that HDB apparently works and it is |>working very well for us. The question is, why is AT&T not |>releasing it? Must be internal politics or whatever. | |Basically, this is the story as I know it... [[gives nice summary, |many thanks]] | |>Does anybody know about the status of HDB now that it has been |>withdrawn from the STORE? | |Again, this is "as I have been told"... HDB is not a released product |for the 3b1. Only ATT and VARs have access to it. For a short while, |HDB was placed in the public area on The Store!, and those that got it |then are entitled to keep it, in an unsupported mode, but cannot |redistribute it to anyone else. The actual details and "legality" |elude me. Shall I comment on the legality of releasing something to the public and then attempting to pull it back? No, I won't -- I'm not a lawyer. But if the answer to the question: "At the time that you got HDB from The Store, did AT&T have you sign a licence that you could not redistribute?" is: "No." then my decidedly non-professional opinion is that they're SOL (Short Of Luck). If there are any brave people with HDB and the same opinion, can you guess what I'd like? -- + Steve Simmons, Inland Sea Software, Ltd. scs@lokkur.uucp + | 9353 Hidden Lake, Dexter, MI. 48130 313-426-8981 | + UNIX Admin and Training Services "Just eight scenic miles from Hell" +
rrr@naucse.UUCP (Bob Rose ) (08/12/88)
> | For a short while, > |HDB was placed in the public area on The Store!, and those that got it > |then are entitled to keep it, in an unsupported mode, but cannot > |redistribute it to anyone else. > [ May thing about not being a lawer BUT ] > .... If there are any brave people with HDB and the same opinion, > [ that is AT&T is SOL ] can you guess what I'd like? BRAVO, BRAVO, more, more, well, make that email, email. I would really like a uucp that is worth more than just something to take up bits on my disk. (Ok, my uucp is worth something. I can mail out on it but every time I try to receive mail uucico times out, what brain damage!!!) -bob