[comp.sys.mac] Macput/MacTerminal/Finder problem; has anybody else seen this?

robertfe@microsoft.UUCP (02/14/87)

I just had a very strange experience with macput and MacTerminal. 
While downloading a file, macput and MacTerminal got out of sync 
(as they often do in the presence of line noise). I got the cannonical 
"File was not properly received" dialog, and then got the tail end 
of the macput output on my screen. After hitting control-X a couple 
of times, I got back to the unix shell prompt. I then immediately 
selected "Quit" from the MacTerminal "File" menu.

The Mac bombed on the way back to the Finder. It was suffiently dead that
it couldn't put up a dialog box; it just looped, trying to draw the border.

I rebooted the machine, and it told me that the disk needed minor repairs.
I clicked "O.K." (being a brave sort), and the Mac again crashed in the 
manner described above, i.e. looping, trying to draw the dialog.

I tried rebuilding the desktop; after the rebuild dialog, the mac crashed
again.

I then booted from another diskette (one with macsbug installed), and tried
to mount the diskette with MacTerminal on it. It again asked me about minor
repairs, and when I clicked "O.K.", it dropped into macsbug with an 
address error. After playing around in the debugger for a bit (the tran-
script of the session is at the end of the article), it turns out that
it had crashed in "OPENRF" in the ROM.

I eventually typed 'G', and much to my surprise, everything proceded 
as normal. The disk mount succeeded, and I was able to remove the file 
that I had been downloading by dragging it into the trash. This seemingly 
repaired the disk.

I have a Mac 512KE, System 3.2, Finder 5.3,  and an admittedly 
very old MacTerminal 1.0 [Dated Aug.12,1984] 

A couple of questions and comments:
	- Has anybody seen this behavior before?
	- My guess is that MacTerminal trashed the desktop file. 
	  I'm not so concerned that it happened (it's what you get
	  for using ancient pre-release software), but it bothers
	  me that the finder couldn't repair the disk or at least 
	  die gracefully with an error message. 
	- Can anybody comment on whether this is a known
	  bug in MacTerminal, and if it has been fixed in the latest 
	  release?
	- I guess this is a good reason to finally go through all my disks
	  and bring them up to date with the most recent MacTerminal (the
	  contents of the disk in question were ancient). Anyone else in the 
	  same situation perhaps should take heed.


			We may note that, in these experiments,
			the sign "=" may stand for the words
			"is confused with".
				- G. Spencer Brown
				  The Laws of Form
--------------

uw-beaver!microsoft!robertfe			Rob Ferguson, XENIX Group
						Microsoft, Redmond, WA.	

<The above opinions and positions in no way represent Microsoft Corporation>

============= Warning! Grotty bits following =====================

This is what I found when the Finder died and I dropped in macsbug:

>
ADDR ERR0001D4E1
41438A:					BMI.S	*+$0016		; 004143A0
PC=0041438A	SR=00002009	TM=000008FE
D0=000053CE	D1=00018640	D2=0000500C	D3=0000001E
D4=000003CE	D5=00000000	D6=00000236	D7=000001D8
A0=00018634	A1=0001D4E1	A2=0006F6AE	A3=00000002
A4=0000FE6A	A5=00070E3E	A6=0006F618	A7=0006F5A2
>SC
	SF @06F618	FR 00D39C
	SF @06F65A	FR 013D2E
	SF @06FAF6	FR 014F0E
	SF @06FCDE	FR 014D1A
	SF @06FEC6	FR 0165DC
	SF @0700AE	FR 010538
>WH PC
000A	00A5CA	OPENRF
>G
	

	...and it continues properly. The disk mounts, I can remove the
	file and empty the trash, and the machine subseqently boot
	from the disk without trouble.
			- rif