[comp.os.misc] Coherent Digest Vol. 91.1, No. 1

rose@galtee.cs.wisc.edu (S Rose) (01/03/91)

Coherent Digest Vol. 91.1, No. 1      Wed Jan  2 14:12:31 CST 1991

Today's Topics:

   dial in uucp
   Re:  printers and modems
   printers and modems
   varargs.h
   ash by Free Cloud Software
   coherent installed
   Need info on /usr/bin/modeminit
   screen saver only works on MDA video adapters
   ps bug?
   shar files
   s.l.o.w serial ports
   Problem Installing Coherent

Administrivia:

  The Coherent Digest is a forum for discussion of the MWC Coherent 3.x 
  operating system.  Send submissions to "coherent@cs.wisc.edu" and 
  administrivia to "coherent-request@cs.wisc.edu".  Previous issues are 
  archived for anonymous FTP access on piggy.ucsb.edu in the directory
  "pub/coherent/mail-list".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 27 Dec 90 17:17:57
From: hdrock!john@rex.cs.tulane.edu (John Welch)
To: lafayet!coherent
Subject: dial in uucp

I can get uucp to dial to another system just fine.
I cannot get UUCP set up properly to let another system 
dial in.
I have the machine set to the name of the system callin in.
I have the logname set to the login account the calling in system
logs in as.
/usr/lib/uucp/uucico is the shell that is run when that system 
calls in and logs on.
MY system changes com2r to crw------- owned by root automatically
with out my doing anything and despite what I had set it to.
Every diredtory and program (but com2r) is 777 on the protections.

Anyone have any Ideas?
>/<

John Welch                         Core Laboratories a division of
____    ____     ____              Western Atlas International Inc.
\   \  /   /\   /   /\             =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 \   \/   /  \ /   /  \            Humans   (903) 566-1436
  \  /   / \  /   /\   \           Internet lafayet!hdrock!john@rouge.usl.edu
   \/___/   \/___/  \___\          Bang.....!uunet!lafayet!hdrock!john

You can't go home again, unless you set $HOME.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 07:13 PST
From: das90@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Danny Smith)
To: TIMBUCK@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu, coherent
Subject: Re:  printers and modems

I had similar problems until I tried LPT2 (even tho DOS said it was LPT1).
I may have had to relink /dev/lp to get it to work.

------------------------------

Date: 28 Dec 90 13:46:07
From: mwc!hal@uunet.UU.NET (Hal Snyder)
To: cohmail@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: printers and modems

> I can't get the @#%*! printer to work in Coherent!  Every command I
> use that's supposed to write something to the printer responds with the
> error message "cannot open /dev/lp".

As root, try this:
	cd /dev
	ln -f lpt2 lp

> How do I initialize a modem for dial-in access?  I
> can dial out using kermit, and it answers when I dial in, but it doesn't
> respond once it answers.

See /usr/bin/modeminit for a sample script.  Modifications may be needed to
suit your particular modem type.  You also need an entry in /etc/ttys for
com3r (or com3pr) - see the Lexicon entry for "ttys".  Then
1.  execute the modeminit script (you can make this automatic every time
    you start COHERENT by adding the line
    	/usr/bin/modeminit
    to /etc/rc).
2.  enable com3r (or com3pr if that's what you have in /etc/ttys).

Mark Williams Tech. Support		(708)-291-6700 (voice)
uunet!mwc!support			(708)-291-6750 (fax)

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 17:27:54 CST
From: David Fenyes <dfenyes@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu>
To: coherent
Subject: varargs.h

Hello, and Happy holidays!!

I'm posting this because it could be useful for people doing ports.
I don't claim that it's fully debugged, or that I've tested it
exhaustively, but I've used it with Clam(1), Kenneth Almquist's ash(1),
the GNU file utils, and more without problems.  If there are any glaring
bugs, please let me know :-)

David.

--
David Fenyes                                  dfenyes@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu
University of Texas Medical School            Houston, Texas
----------------------Cut Here-------------------------------


/*----------------------------------------------------------------------
varargs.h -- varargs definitions for Mark Williams C under Coherent 3.10

This is for compatibility/ porting purposes.

  By David Fenyes,   Dec. 1990.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Be aware that the (char) type is passed as a 16-bit word, so it may be
better to retrieve (char) variables as 
 x = (char) va_arg(args,short);

the same goes for any byte-sized type.

This can be fixed by using the following macros instead (untested):

------
#define rsizeof(x) ((sizeof(x) + sizeof(x) & 1)
#define va_arg(ptr,type) ( \
        ptr = (char *) ((int)ptr + rsizeof (type)), \
        (type) (* ((char *) ((int)ptr - rsizeof (type)))) \
)
------

This leads to some loss of efficiency, because although all the constants
are folded during compilation, an auto-increment addressing mode can't be
used for stack manipulation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

#if !defined(VARARG_H) && !defined(va_dcl)

#define va_dcl char va_alist;
#define va_start(ptr) (ptr = &va_alist);
#define va_arg(ptr,type) * ( ((type *) ptr)++)
#define va_end(ptr)


typedef char *va_list;


#define VARARG_H 1

#endif /* !defined (VARARG_H) */

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 17:38:49 CST
From: David Fenyes <dfenyes@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu>
To: coherent
Subject: ash by Free Cloud Software

Hello, folks,

I'm curious about Free Cloud's ash shell, which claims to have job
control (!), as well as history, aliases, etc.  Who has tried this
shell?  Does it have command line editing?  What is it comparable to?
How does the job control work? i.e. Does it have HALT, fg, bg, etc. ala
BSD?  Which shell does it resemble most--ksh,sh,csh, etc?
Is its command interpreter relatively free of bugs (unlike sh), and does
it handle large "here documents" gracefully?
(ie, can it run Larry Wall's config.sh)

I realize that for $35 it may be worth buying it just to find out,
but I'm a student whose car just gasped its last, so I'm in the poorhouse.

BTW, is ash derived from the ash by Kenneth Almquist archived on simtel20?
Is source available?

Please email me directly, as I seem to have been cut off from the mailing
list :-(, and don't know how long it will take to get back on.

Thanks,
David.
--
David Fenyes                                  dfenyes@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu
University of Texas Medical School            Houston, Texas

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 17:03:18 PST
From: gp@ohsu.EDU (Glen Plam)
To: coherent
Subject: coherent installed

I got coherent installed in my Horizon 386 without any problems.  I have
AMI 386 bios so I must always use RESET to reboot but that's no big deal.
The only real problem I ran into is I have a 160meg hard drive.  When I 
frist got coherent I installed it on partition 3 of 5 not a real great idea.
Once I learned that coherent didn't care about the 32meg limit I had to redo
my drive gave coherent 60 or so meg and left the rest to dos.  

I had no problem with uucp that anybody who has used uucp hasn't had.  Them
there chat scripts are always a problem.  Once I waved the right bit wand I
got it up and running.  

One idea for mwcbbs is to date the downloads.  I had no idea if the new mail
and uux is for me or the 'older' guys on the coherent net.



------------------------------

Date: 26 Dec 90 14:01:02
From: mhm!root (Mohd H. Misnan)
To: coherent@uop.edu
Subject: Need info on /usr/bin/modeminit

	Just wondering what "modeminit" really is. I tried to find out 
from man and manual but still I can't find it. Is it a file to initialize
modem to receive incoming call (remote access?)? I have tried to call
my Coherent from my friend's computer but my modem won't answer it 
because it was not in answer mode. Is there any way to solved this 
problem? For more information, my modem is Premier P2400E and it is
Hayes compatible modem. Thanks for any help.

Hamid

+---------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Mohd H. Misnan	    |  UUCP: mhm!{root|hamid}@uop.uop.edu |
| 810, West Stadium Dr #6   |  INET: hmisnan@madvax.uop.edu	  |
| Stockton, CA 95204.	    |  	     acs17111@uop.uop.edu	  |
+---------------------------+-------------------------------------+ 

------------------------------

Date: 30 Dec 90 05:52:23
From: citrus!root@csusac.ecs.csus.edu (Joel M. Baldwin    Superuser)
To: coherent@csusac.ecs.csus.edu%
Cc: root@csusac.ecs.csus.edu%
Subject: screen saver only works on MDA video adapters

Has anyone else noticed that there is a screen saver that turns off
the video to the screen after so many minutes on the MDA video adapter,
but that on EGA ( don't know about VGA and others ) this doesn't happen?

I really missed this after re-configuring the video card in my system.

Any comments mwc?  Is this something that could be changed in the future?

Joel M. Baldwin					H ( 916 ) 383-9470
N6NPL						W    "    452-1481
uunet!csusac.ecs.csus.edu!citrus!root		Sacramento CA.		/\../\

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 21:28:35 -0600
From: "Predrag S. Bundalo" <pred@iitmax.iit.edu>
To: coherent
Subject: ps bug?

	I've just noticed that there is a bug in ps:

	I was logged in as root on the console and on a terminal attached
	to com1.  who confirms this.  When I do a ps -alx, though it tells
	me that root is using the console and COM2.  Is MWC aware of this
	bug? (It is a bug, isn't it?)

	-Pred

 ______________________________________________________________________________

  Predrag S. Bundalo                  Internet: pred@iitmax.iit.edu
  Illinois Institute of Technology    Internet: SysPredrag@Karl.iit.edu
  Academic Computing Center           BITNET  : SysPredrag@iitVax 
  VAX/VMS and Unix Systems Staff      Internet: pred@elof.iit.edu
  Chicago, Illinois


------------------------------

Date: Sun, 30 Dec90   2:43:00 CST
From: lawton.FIDONET.ORG!root%ames.UUCP@spool.cs.wisc.edu (John Johnson)
To: coherent@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Subject: shar files

  I have a quick fix for shar'd files here using awk to
  change the redirection commands that Coherent doesn't
  like. Try this for fixing most files...

  create a shell file called sharfix containing:

  cat $1 | awk -f /usr/bin/awk.list


  next, create the awk script /usr/bin/awk.list containing:

{
if ($1 == "sed")
       print $1,$2,$5,$6,$3,$4
}
{
if ($1 == "cat")
       print $1,$4,$5,$2,$3
}
{
if ($1 != "sed" && $1 != "cat")
       print $0
}

  Don't forget to chmod sharfix to execute status.
  Try shelling the shar'd file first, if it has redirection
  errors, run sharfix on it and it might just help.

usage:  sharfix infile.sh > outfile.sh



--  
-----
John Johnson - via FidoNet node 1:385/16.0

e-mail: ...uunet!letni!rwsys!lawton!jjohn
        jjohn@lawton.FIDONET.ORG


------------------------------

Date: 01 Jan 91 12:42:27 EST
From: Larry Rachman <74066.2004@CompuServe.COM>
To: <coherent>
Subject: s.l.o.w serial ports

First of all, to whomever confirmed the 's.l.o.w com port' problem,
thanks, but I seem to have lost your reply. As the first step in isolating
any problem is finding a repeatable way to cause it, I offer the
experiment than follows. Now, you may say that this falls in the category
of "Doc, it hurts when I do this...So don't do that"; but I point out that
this is only one of several ways of causing the problem, and that other,
less repeatable ways exist, (such as releasing from kermit, or uucp).
 
THE PROBLEM:
Under certain conditions, a serial port can get into a state
where it outputs characters at about 10 per second, although at the
correct baud rate. It __seems__ (I could be wrong) to happen only when
not logged in, and only with the interrupt-driven serial port drivers.
 
HOW TO CAUSE IT:
First, make up a longish message of the day (/etc/motd) file (about one
screen's worth). Initialize a com port to 2400 baud (1lLcom2r).
Then, build the following reversing cable:
 
Coherent side                       Terminal device side
 
TXD (2)                      -->       RXD (3)
RXD (3)                      <--       TXD (2)
CTS (5), DSR (6), DCD (8)    <--       DTR (20)
DTR (20)                     -->       CTS (5), DSR (6), DCD (8)
GND (7)                      <->       GND (7)
 
(My terminal device is another PC running Procomm Plus, which can 'hang up'
by momentarily dropping DTR. This will look like DCD,etc. dropping, and
log out the Coherent port.)
 
Finally log in on the serial port, and about halfway throught the message
of the day, momentarily drop and restore DCD,etc to the Coherent port, to
log it off. After a few attempts, the port will get into the 'slow' state.
 
'kill quit 1' will not fix the port, _BUT_ if you 'wink' DCD again, the
port will restore to normal operation. If you enter a character before
winking DCD, merely winking DCD will not restore the port. You must then
wink DCD once, and __while the login message is printing__ wink DCD a
second time, to fix it.
 
IDLE SPECULATION:
My hardware configuration is a '386SX clone with the AMI bios, that runs
flawlessly with Coherent in every other way (has been up continuously for
over 12 days as I am writing this). One item of interest is that the
serial port chips used are not Western Digital brand, and may have a
subtle difference in the way interrupts are handled. I speculate that
some sort of interrupt related to the RS-232 control lines is not being
cleared properly, and once set, masks the 'receive character' interrupt.
 
CONCLUSION:
I'm going to fax a copy of this to Mark Williams Co., and see what they
have to say about it. Comments or suggestions from anyone else are more
than welcome; a Trailblazer that runs at 10 chars/sec isn't of much use
to anyone!
 
                                        Larry Rachman
                                        74066.2004@compuserve.com
                                        516-427-1112 (voice)
                                        516-427-8705 (fax)
 
 
 


------------------------------

Date: Wed, 2 Jan 91 07:05:16 -0800
From: "Mohd H. Misnan" <acs17111@uop.edu>
To: coherent
Subject: Problem Installing Coherent

[This is not my problem but my friend's problem who doesn't subscribe to
this mailing list yet. You can either reply to him using the e-mail
address below or reply to me and I will forward to him. Thanks for any
help.

Hamid								       ]

My problem was that Coherent stopped installing after scanning for bad
blocks. It said something like certain files weren't found, thus unable
to create root file system. And then, it just said that installation of
Coherent was aborted before completion. Again & again it did that.

My system. It is a generic 25MHz 386 with DTK BIOS (like the one listed
in the list of compatibility) and with a 66 Mbyte (RLL) of Microscience
1060 hooked up to a Data Technology DTC7287 disk drive controller (also
listed in the list of compatibility).

I use an old IBM PCjr Color Display adapted to the system with certain
peripherals. The monitor card, however, is a Paradise Autoswitch EGA 350.
I may try installing Coherent for one more time today, because I think I
have corrected some information for the CMOS table. If this correction
does not contribute to installing Coherent completely,  I guess I have
no other choice but to return the goodies and, maybe, ask for the latest
version. (I have version 3.0.0).

I did call Mark Williams, but the technician could not help me. He wondered
if there could still be some incompatibility with my system. Maybe, you can
forward this mail and see what other Coherent users would like to say.

Thanks again.


A. Rahman Jamaluddin
Electrical Engineering
Purdue University
School of Engineering & Technology at Indianapolis
Indianapolis, INDIANA
[IALN500@INDYCMS.BITNET] 

------------------------------

End of Coherent Digest Vol. 91.1, No. 1
***************************************
-- 
	Scott Rose
	rose@cs.wisc.edu