[comp.sys.hp] More Generic HP Questions and Thanks

lindner@cs.umn.edu (Paul Lindner) (12/19/90)

I really want to thank you all for helping me get up to speed administrating
my new HP workstations.  I truly would be quite in the dark without the
great tips everyone supplied me with.

So here goes.  My problems with YP was that (duh) I had to manually
add the +::0:0::: lines to /etc/passwd and /etc/group, easy oversight.
I got decent versions of finger and talk from me10.lbl.gov.  I also got
the new HP X server.  I compiled the R4 clients and libraries easily.
(The HP server is actually faster than the Xhp server... wow!, and it
now correctly does titlebar squeezing! yeah!)  This all went quite smoothly.

I did encounter a problem with the /etc/exports file.  Apparently you cannot
just put a directory that you want to export like under SunOS.  You have
to put a "file-system" name in there.  (In this case / instead of /usr/local).
This brings up another problem: Can I repartition drives?  mediainit
is weird.


So now for the questions (Yes I still haven't received a tape drive
or manual set yet, sigh....) 

1. Are the vtdaemon, rlbdaemon, nftdaemon, and rfadaemon worth running?
   Our current setup is based around Suns, i.e. the HP server is a YP
   slave to a Sun YP master.  Everyone around here uses telnet or rsh
   (er make that remsh).  Will any of HP's software break without these
   weird NS daemons?  We're planning on using Softbench and some
   strange 68000 embedded system emulator thingie that I haven't touched
   yet.  I've already disabled rwhod which is a bit of a network/compute
   hog.

2. What options can I disable from my kernel?  The machines that I have
   are 400t's with 200 meg SCSI disks and not much else.  I've already
   removed all but the SCSI disk driver.  I also got rid of the
   tape drivers, ane printer drivers.  I think I've got most of the
   unecessary junk out of the kernel.  Does anyone have any tips for
   the optimal settings for the various operating system parameters?
   This ties with problem #1, if I get rid of the stuff in #1 can I
   safely get rid of NS services in the kernel?

3. Does anyone know of an automounter for the HP that will read Sun's
   auto.master and auto.direct maps?  I realize that I could use the
   virtual home directory madness, but I would rather not.  Otherwise
   I may consider writing a little shell script that converts 
   auto.direct files into the appropriate HP maps.  (This would
   be automagically used in the YP Makefile, so I really wouldn't
   have to fiddle with it once it worked.)

4. Is there an equivilant to pstat that I'm somehow missing?

5. I'm still working on my port of PLP (my favorite lpd replacement.)
   If someone's already done this, let me know.. please!

Thanks in advance!

-- 
Paul Lindner, Univ. of MN   \ Microcomputer /  Pauls Law: You can't
IT Sun dude, & UofM ACM pres \ Workstation / fall off the floor.
lindner@boombox.micro.umn.edu \ Networks  / {...!rutgers!umn-cs!lindner}
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