raymond@ele.tue.nl (Raymond Nijssen) (05/31/90)
I have a 386 running ISC 386/ix release 2.0.1, and AT&T's Simultask (=VP/ix) version 2.0, and it runs quite stable, except when I start Norton's NCD program (the DOS version under VP/ix): it first scans the entiry dirtree of my (native) DOS partion, which is mounted by the line mount -f DOS /dev/dsk/0p1 /dos Second, it finds way too much directory entries, and then, the HD controller activity LED comes solid for a number of seconds, soon followed by a panic: kernel mode trap 0x000000E, a registerdump, etcetera. I wonder how a program like NCD, which uses, as it seems to me, only MS-DOS calls, can cause not only the VP/ix application to crash, which would be comparably bearable, but also the whole system. Minor detail: the DOS partition was damaged severely, and could only be fixed after a number of manual fixes and restores. I would like to know if other users have the same experience and how these instabilities can be avoided in the future. Greetings, Raymond. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- raymond@ele.tue.nl Raymond Nijssen
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (05/31/90)
In article <505@al.ele.tue.nl> raymond@ele.tue.nl (Raymond Nijssen) writes: >I have a 386 running ISC 386/ix release 2.0.1, and AT&T's Simultask (=VP/ix) >version 2.0, and it runs quite stable, except when I start Norton's NCD >program (the DOS version under VP/ix): it [crashes in an unpleasant way.] Hmmn, I didn't know the AT&T vp/ix even worked with 386/ix. In any event, the problem may well be the familiar NDOSINODE one. The standard table of in memory DOS pseudo inodes is too small, to fix it you run /etc/kconfig and give it a new parameter NDOSINODE and set it to about 400, then build and install a new kernel. However, there is another approach you might try. The way you are getting from vp/ix to the DOS disk is extremely convoluted: first Unix is simulating Unix files on top of the DOS file system, then vp/ix is using simulated remote networked DOS files on top of the simulated Unix files on the DOS file system. vp/ix, being DOS after all, can get to the DOS file system directly. Unmount the /dos partition and add to your vpix.cnf file a line like D /dev/dsk/0p0 and when you use vp/ix, your D: disk will be your actual DOS partition unconfused by two levels of simulation. Avoid direct disk access from vp/ix at the same time the disk is mounted, there's no locking between the two and the disk can get scrambled. Shameless commercial: Even better, install the new Norton Utilities for Unix and use the Unix ncd command which works on a mounted /dos partition just like on any other part of the file tree. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl Marlon Brando and Doris Day were born on the same day.