Sun-Spots-Request@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) (09/13/88)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Friday, 9 September 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 223
Today's Topics:
Re: pcnfs and sun networks
Re: Notification on receiving new mail
Re: SunOS 4.0 problem with .rhosts
Re: format of a .o file
Sun's 4.0 Changes Seminar
Re: Sun's 4.0 Changes Seminar
Neat bit of packaging technology from Sun
FREE Exhibit Space for Student Ada Applications
How to put lots of Ethernet controllers on your Sun
MAPST difficulty
magic and spice on sun-4/110?
Sun4 4.0 serving Sun3 3.4?
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Date: 6 Sep 88 11:54:13 GMT
From: brad@cayman.com (Brad Parker)
Subject: Re: pcnfs and sun networks
Reference: v6n197
monty%tartarus@gargoyle.uchicago.edu said:
> my feeling about this product is that it is truly a second rate and
> inferior product--almost amateur--and that sun should either show some
> professionalism about it or get out of the market. as for our other sun
> products, we are very pleased with them. its only this one product that we
> find so poor.
I don't think your comments are fair. Bridging the ms-dos and unix worlds
with NFS requires some compromises. PC-NFS does a good job in a difficult
environment (ms-dos is a harsh, cruel world; unix is a dream in
comparison).
It does provide NFS functionality and a good TELNET. I would not call the
implementation or functionality amateur. It does work well in most
environments and is easy to use and install (we use it every day). I have
never seen it crash or do the "wrong thing" (although, it would be nice if
it used portmapper instead of assuming 2049 ;-) (sorry Geoff, had to throw
that one in)
Your comments are valid but your conclusion does not survive close scrutiny.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 15:41:51 BST
From: Richard Tobin <richard%aiai.edinburgh.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Notification on receiving new mail
It appears that the program I sent yesterday doesn't work very reliably.
It works a few times then fails. I don't have sources (for inetd or
comsat) so I'm not going to try and understand what's going on. Sorry.
-- Richard
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 12:15:18 edt
From: mp@allegra.att.com
Subject: Re: SunOS 4.0 problem with .rhosts
I believe the problem comes as a result of an improvement someone
(presumably at Sun) made to _checkhost() in rcmd.c in the C library. The
vanilla BSD rcmd.c has some of the most contorted, nonportable code you're
likely to see, including things like:
if ((domainp = index(ldomain, '.') + 1) == (char *)1)
return(0);
It looks like someone tried to clean up the code by introducing an integer
variable called "nodomain" to use as the sentinel rather than stuffing
magic values in domainp. Unfortunately, domainp is initialized data, and
the libc makefile compiles rcmd.c with the -R flag, which means the data
segment is merged with the text segment and is read-only. So executing
the statement "nodomain = 1" will cause a segmentation violation.
The fix I feel most comfortable with would be to recompile the affected
programs with a copy of _checkhost() tacked onto the end of each. The
best fix would be to change rcmd.c (I presume "nodomain" can just be moved
into bss) or its Makefile and re-make the static and dynamic versions of
libc. If anyone has been dying to see if libc can be re-made without
breaking the world, try it and let us know the results.
Mark Plotnick
allegra!mp
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 00:20:52 EDT
From: attcan!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Re: format of a .o file
>In v6n185, utzoo!henry writes:
>>Danger! Your Sun software license (if it's like ours) specifically forbids
>>decompiling or disassembling!
>
>If this is the case, what do people with source code do when "dot-dot"
>releases come out? Sun doesn't supply source code for dot-dot releases -
>I asked - and it's always desirable to have the source match the binary.
Our usual procedure is to swear, fume, seriously consider not upgrading at
all, and renew our determination that we are never, never, never going to
buy another Sun CPU unless Sun gets its collective head out of its
collective and starts supplying sources in a sane manner to
those who can make good use of them.
Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 09:29:24 EDT
From: bdrc!jwc@mcnc.org (Joan Curry)
Subject: Sun's 4.0 Changes Seminar
Yesterday I attended Sun's seminar on Changes for the SunOS 4.0 Operating
System, the one they are offering at key cities throught the US. The one
that is advertised as lasting from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM with 1/2 hour for
lunch and "other scheduled breaks."
It lasted a total of *three hours*. We did sketchily cover most of the
important changes in 4.0, except for shared libraries (which was not on
the announced seminar outline), subnetting in 4.0 (which was on the
outline I got), and secure RPC and NFS (also on the outline). To be fair,
the instructor was quite willing to stay into the afternoon and answer
questions. Still, paying $200 for a 3-hour class followed by questions is
quite different from paying $200 for an all-day class.
People who have signed up for future offerings may want to ask Sun whether
they have expanded the seminar to be consistent with the announcements
they made about it.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 09:02:05 PDT
From: sfhowe@sun.com (Stephen Furney-Howe)
Subject: Re: Sun's 4.0 Changes Seminar
Thank you for your comments. The duration of the seminar is in part a
function of the content and in part a function of the class size and
participation. For seminars where the attendance has been 20 to 30
people, the program has lasted the full day. This is because the
experience of the audience is varied and there are more people to ask
questions and generate discussion. Where the number of attendees is
smaller, or where the expertise level of the audience is high, the program
may run shorter.
In response to comments from you and others, we have made revisions to the
seminar materials to address in more depth topics that have generated
additional questions and interest. Two revisions have been made since
July and a third is in progress. The third revision will include
information on SunOS 4.0 Networking Changes (including information on
subnetting), and an appendix on shared libraries.
This seminar program was designed to provide experienced system
administrators of Sun systems with an overview of the major changes
associated with the SunOS 4.0 release. We appreciate your comments on
this program. They will help us continue to refine the offering to
address the areas of greatest interest. If you have any other comments or
questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.
With best regards,
Steve Furney-Howe
Professional Services Product Group Marketing
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
------------------------------
Date: 7 Sep 88 17:17:11 GMT
From: phri!roy@philabs.philips.com (Roy Smith)
Subject: Neat bit of packaging technology from Sun
I'm all for ragging on a company in public when they do something I think
is really stupid, but the flip side is that when I see something really
clever, I just gotta tell the world...
We just got some tapes from Sun. Of course, they shipped 1/4" cartridges
instead of the 1/2" reel-to-reel tapes we ordered. Anyway, I discovered
that the cute styrofoam shipping inserts Sun uses to hold a 2400' reel of
tape are also designed to hold 4 1/4" cartridges. Hey, it may not be
much, but it impressed me. Shows somebody has some good ideas.
Now, if they could just learn to fill those clever inserts with the right
kind of tapes... :-)
--
Roy Smith, System Administrator
Public Health Research Institute
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net
------------------------------
Date: 8 Sep 88 10:23:01 GMT
From: eberard@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Edward Berard)
Subject: FREE Exhibit Space for Student Ada Applications
Ada Expo is a large Ada trade show which will be held in Southern
California at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 9-12, 1988. A large
booth has been reserved for student Ada applications. The intention is to
provide inexpensive (i.e., FREE) exhibit space for interesting and
promising Ada applications created by college and university students
What will be provided will be booth space and electrical power. Students
will be responsible for providing their own hardware, software, and
literature. The Ada Expo staff is receptive to offers from vendors who
would like to provide hardware or software for the students to use.
The rules are simple:
1. Eligible participants must be college or university students
who have created Ada applications which appear to be useful.
These applications can be targeted towards any audience, but
they must be written in Ada.
2. Those applications deemed to be worthwhile will be provided
FREE booth space in a large community booth at Ada Expo '88.
Since space is limited, applications will be considered on a
first-come-first-serve basis.
3. The applications would have to be engineered to a large degree
using the Ada language. Specifically, while mixed-language
applications would be considered, all accepted applications
would have to be at least 50% written in Ada.
There are currently more than 200 validated Ada compilers. Literally
hundreds of colleges and universities have at least some Ada-related
courses.
If you are interested, or simply want more information, contact Jan
McCusker at Ada Expo '88, P.O. Box 3867, Frederick, MD 21701, or call
(301) 662-9400.
-- Ed Berard
(301) 695-6960
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 10:02:43 CDT
From: slevy@uf.msc.umn.edu (Stuart Levy)
Subject: How to put lots of Ethernet controllers on your Sun
There are two reasons you can't do it immediately: Sun doesn't tell you
the necessary switch settings, and the supplied OBJ/if_ie.o is compile for
NIE = 2.
Here's how we configure extra Ethernet cards. The following slice of
config file should be self-explanatory if you also read the Sun Hardware
Installation Manual's instructions on adding a second (ie1) Ethernet. The
addresses shown here are somewhat arbitrary; they were chosen not to
overlap each other nor any other device we had. These are just the
combinations we've tried. Though we've run cards with each of these
switch settings, and though I had no reason to stop at ie6 except that it
filled an 80-char line, we've only actually operated 4 extra cards
(ie1..4) at once.
#
# ie controller & VME-Multibus adapter switch settings:
# ie1 is as described in the Sun Hardware Installation Manual.
# Switches which change on other cards are:
# ie U503 sw 1-8 -- addr (A12-19) of 16K block of regs within Multibus space
# ie U505 sw 1-4 -- addr (A12-15) of block of buffer RAM within Multibus space
# ie U506 sw 1-8 -- size of buffer RAM (64K, 128K, or 256K, in strange code)
# adap DIP 7 sw 1-8 -- addr (A23-16) of Multibus space within 16M VME space
# adap DIP 8 sw 1-8 -- size (A23-16) of Multibus space
# adap DIP 12 sw 1-8 -- interrupt vector (bits 0-7)
#
# Sun sets ie1's interrupt vector to 1b (68000 generic level 3 interrupt)
# rather than 75 (as listed in the config file), God knows why. 75 works too.
#
# Switches: x = off O = on
#
# U506 codes: 256K=xOOxxOOx 128K=(forgot) 64K=OxxOOxxO (switch order 1-8)
# All presently set at 256K.
#
# Controller ie1 ie2 ie3 ie4 ie5 ie6
#------------------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------
#Multibus space size 0x100000 0x080000 0x080000 0x080000 0x080000 0x080000
#Adaptor DIP 8 sw1-8 OOOOxxxx OOOOOxxx OOOOOxxx OOOOOxxx OOOOOxxx OOOOOxxx
#
#Multibus space addr 0xE00000 0xC80000 0xC00000 0xB80000 0xB00000 0xA80000
#Adaptor DIP 7 sw1-8 xxxOxxxx xxOOxxxx xxOOOxxx xOxxxxxx xOxxOxxx xOxOxxxx
#
#interrupt vector 0x1B 0x76 0x77 0x78 0x79 0x7A
#Adaptor DIP12 sw1-8 xxOxxOOO OxxOxxxO xxxOxxxO OOOxxxxO xOOxxxxO OxOxxxxO
#
#ie registers addr 0xE88000 0xC88000 0xC08000 0xB88000 0xB08000 0xA88000
#ie ctrlr U503 sw1-8 xxxOxxxO xxxOxxxO xxxOxxxx xxxOxxxO xxxOxxxx xxxOxxxO
#
#ie RAM addr 0xE40000 0xCC0000 0xC40000 0xBC0000 0xB40000 0xAC0000
#ie ctrlr U505 sw1-4 xxOx xxOO xxOx xxOO xxOx xxOO
#
device ie0 at obio ? csr 0xc0000 priority 3
device ie1 at vme24d16 ? csr 0xe88000 priority 3 vector ieintr 0x75
device ie2 at vme24d16 ? csr 0xc88000 priority 3 vector ieintr 0x76
device ie3 at vme24d16 ? csr 0xc08000 priority 3 vector ieintr 0x77
device ie4 at vme24d16 ? csr 0xb88000 priority 3 vector ieintr 0x78
device ie5 at vme24d16 ? csr 0xb08000 priority 3 vector ieintr 0x79
device ie6 at vme24d16 ? csr 0xa88000 priority 3 vector ieintr 0x7a
The other part is coming up with if_ie.o willing to handle lots of ie's.
If you have source this is easy, just recompile. If you don't it may
still be possible as follows (though I haven't tried this).
If_ie.o contains six uninitialized arrays whose sizes are proportional to
NIE. Since they're uninitialized, they appear in the .o file as "common"
areas defined only by their size. So the ambitious adb'er could just
change their sizes by the factor {desired_NIE}/{old_NIE}, where old_NIE = 2.
The tables are
00000640 C _iepgmap
00000008 C _ieinfo
000004d0 C _ie_softc
00000640 C _iecbmap
00000640 C _iememmap
Also there are two NIE references in the code which need to change. Right
at the beginning of iereset(), its parameter is compared to NIE. And at
the beginning of iepoll() is a loop over ie_softc using a pointer and
ceasing at &ie_softc[NIE]; so the .o file appears to compare a pointer to
the size of ie_softc, i.e. initially 0x4d0. Beware that optimization may
have moved that test to the end of the routine. Don't ask me if you want
to undertake this -- you're on your own.
Stuart Levy, Minnesota Supercomputer Center
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 14:48:57 BST
From: Dr R M Damerell (RHBNC) <damerell@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk>
Subject: MAPST difficulty
On a SUN 3/60 with SUN-OS 3.5, a 1/4" cartridge tape /dev/rst0
mapst -g
gives:
1: nread=512000,mt_dsreg=0,mt_erreg=0,mt_resid=-24576
file1:
then a flood of messages like:
n: nread=512000,mt_dsreg=0,mt_erreg=0,mt_resid=-24576
where n goes from 1 up to about 400, then:
nread=10400,mt_dsreg=0,mt_erreg=130,mt_resid=-24576
404: unknown error on /dev/nrst0: mt_get.mt_erreg=130
The tape is readable by tar -f /dev/rst0 Other tapes give similar
errors. Please could you kindly tell me what this means?
thankyou, Mark
------------------------------
Date: 8 Sep 88 13:52:39 GMT
From: young@ll-vlsi.arpa (George Young)
Subject: magic and spice on sun-4/110?
Has anyone got magic and spice to work on a sun-4/110? We have the
Berkeley CAD tools up on sun-3's but we're concerned about their
portability to a sun-4. We would be using SunOS 4.0 . Patches, hints,
horror stories are welcome. Please respond by email if possible -- we
hope to decide soon.
George Young, Rm. B-141 young@ll-vlsi.arpa
MIT Lincoln Laboratory young@vlsi.ll.mit.edu
244 Wood St.
Lexington, Massachusetts 02173 (617) 981-2756
------------------------------
Date: 8 Sep 88 06:13:22 GMT
From: dm@wgivax.UUCP (Don Mosley)
Subject: Sun4 4.0 serving Sun3 3.4?
Question about Sun4 and/or SunOS 4.0:
We are currently running a Sun3/180S with SunOS release 3.4. In addition
to our own software, we are using 20/20, Dpict, and Interleaf WPS third
party software. There are 2 problems:
1. If we upgrade OS to 4.0, Interleaf tells us that WPS will not run.
They will NOT be coming out with a 4.0 version of WPS since it is going
away. Dpict is no longer supporting the Sun platform, so they have no
interest in whether it runs or not. The folks at 20/20 say it might run
under 4.0, they haven't tried yet.
2. If we do a CPU upgrade to a Sun4 (assuming OS 4.0), we would have to
buy Core TPS from Interleaf, but they won't have a Sun4/4.0 version for at
least 6 months. The Dpict package (business graphics) would have to be
replaced entirely. 20/20 is predicting a Sun4/4.0 version in 9-12 months
(!!).
Are other people seeing this same type of dilemma ? It seems that none of
Sun's own add-on software (3.X versions) will run under 4.0. An
alternative that seems attractive is to buy a diskless 3/60C and maintain
it at OS 3.4 indefinitely.
Is it possible to have a Sun4 running OS 4.0 as a server for a Sun3 client
running OS 3.4 ? Anyone doing this ? Problems ?
Thanks for your help,
Don Mosley
Washburn Direct Marketing
ph. 704 334-5371 uucp: ...!mcnc!unccvax!wgivax!dm
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End of SUN-Spots Digest
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