Sun-Spots-Request@RICE.EDU (William LeFebvre) (05/03/88)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Monday, 2 May 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 69 Today's Topics: Re: Clients not responding immediately Re: SUN screendump to Apple laserwriter? Re: using line drawing characters? Re: Need suggestions about graphics software CALL FOR NOMINATIONS -- SUN USER'S GROUP Sun386i Details corrected Memory for a Sun 3/60 SLIP for Sun QIC-150 (or 120) SCSI driver wanted exceptional conditions in select(2) Questions concerning streaming 9-tracks tape decks on Sun-4/280's Query on Fujitsu M2246 Disks Mouse problems Send contributions to: sun-spots@rice.edu Send subscription add/delete requests to: sun-spots-request@rice.edu Bitnet readers can subscribe directly with the CMS command: TELL LISTSERV AT RICE SUBSCRIBE SUNSPOTS My Full Name Recent backissues are available via anonymous FTP from "titan.rice.edu". For volume X, issue Y, "get sun-spots/vXnY". They are also accessible through the archive server: mail the request "send sun-spots vXnY" to "archive-server@rice.edu" or mail the word "help" to the same address for more information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 14:06:55 PDT From: Brent Chapman <capmkt!brent@cogsci.berkeley.edu> Subject: Re: Clients not responding immediately Reference: v6n61 > Yes, another simple question with simple answer: Simply, when our 3/260 > server reboots, our 3/160 and four 3/50 clients fail to notice that the > server is once again available. They insist that the nfs server is > unavailable. After waiting approximately 1/2 hour, then they see the > server. Another department here is having the same problem. Has anyone > else experienced this problem? All suggestions, etc., etc. are more than > welcome. We are running SunOS 3.4. It could possibly be that the "timeo" (timeout) parameter for that filesystem (specified in /etc/fstab) is set to some unreasoably large value. According to the manual page for 'mount', when an NFS request is made, the kernel waits 'timeo' tenths of a second for a response; if none is received, it sends the request again and doubles the timeo parameter. It continues to alternate this "resend and wait twice as long as before" until it either gets a response or the number of retransmissions passes that set by the "retrans" parameter. By default, timeo is 7 and retrans is 3, meaning that you should have to wait at most .7 + 1.4 + 2.8 + 5.6 = 10.5 seconds before it gives up. If someone has changed the 'timeo' parameter to something larger on the clients, that might be the problem. -Brent Brent Chapman Capital Market Technology, Inc. Senior Programmer/Analyst 1995 University Ave., Suite 390 {lll-tis,ucbvax!cogsci}!capmkt!brent Berkeley, CA 94704 capmkt!brent@{tis.llnl.gov,cogsci.berkeley.edu} Phone: 415/540-6400 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 88 07:32:15 EDT From: Chuck Musciano <chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com> Subject: Re: SUN screendump to Apple laserwriter? There is no need to download anything in order to print rasters on your LaserWriter. We use the pssun command, which (I believe) was supplied on the TransScript tape supplied with the LaserWriter from Sun. A typical invocation to print your screen: screendump | pssun -l 1.5 1.5 -2 -r | lpr We find it convenient to put this in your root menu, allowing quick and easy screen dumps. The resulting PostScript file is about 151K. The pssun options move the lower left corner to the point 1.5" from the left and bottom edges, replicate all the pixels to increase the image size, and rotate the page into landscape format. You wind up with a 7.68" x 6" image that takes about five minutes to print. Whoever installed your printer software should have installed the pssun man page, so see it for more information. Chuck Musciano Advanced Technology Department Harris Corporation (305) 727-6131 ARPA: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 88 07:42:49 EDT From: Chuck Musciano <chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com> Subject: Re: using line drawing characters? > I am new to the sun world (sun-light?) and am trying to port a program > over from the pc to the sun. The program uses pc line drawing characters > quite a lot....BUT - a little test program that displays all characters > from 0-255 shows nothing above 0x7f...The question is how can I make the > line drawing characters show up!!! As all Sun users are leaping to the keyboard to say the same thing, I'll try to get there first. The PC character set is just that, the PC character set. The Sun character mapping has no characters above 0x7f (DEL). However, if you are enterprising, you could use fontedit(1) to draw them all, in all of the screen fonts (in /usr/lib/fonts/fixedwidthfonts). Others porting PC software might be interested in using the results of your efforts. Chuck Musciano Advanced Technology Department Harris Corporation (305) 727-6131 ARPA: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 88 07:56:57 PDT From: danny@ford-wdl1.arpa (Daniel Abramovitch) Subject: Re: Need suggestions about graphics software All the abilities that you mentioned are pretty much standard in Pro-Matlab. (Matlab stands for Matrix-Labaratory.) You can do your graphics in a Sun window and print it out on a variety of laser printers. Versions exist which run on PCs, MacIIs, MicroVaxes (both Unix and VMS), Appollos and Suns. The Postscript file can be saved and then included into a LaTeX document using the \special command and dvi2ps. (I've done this quite a bit.) The wire frame graphs are done via a command called `mesh'. On a color screen, there are color lines (which can be output to an HP-Pen plotter). When going to a black and white device, these colors are translated into different line types. Finally, Matlab is a lot more than just a graphics package: it is a mathematical too which allows you to code your matrix equations (e.g. Kalman filters, control systems designs, statistical problems) the same way that you would write them on paper. The phone number is: The Mathworks 617-65\pi (617-653-1415) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 22:47:15 EST From: bzs%bu-cs.bu.edu@bu-it.bu.edu (Barry Shein) Subject: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS -- SUN USER'S GROUP Nominations for the Board of Directors Bim Toth President, Sun Microsystems User Group Each member of the Board of Directors of the User Group volunteers to work hard to build a strong organization that is a constructive, intelligent, and vigorous agent for Sun users worldwide. Of the seven voting User Group board positions, three (currently occupied by Gilmore, Morin, and Weiser) are subject to election this spring. A Director's term is two years. The election procedure is governed by Article VI, Section 1 of our bylaws. We presently solicit nominations for these positions from our members. Please send your nominations in writing via US mail to the User Group's accountancy firm: Sun User Group Nominating Committee, c/o Bendall, 5120 Campbell Avenue, Suite 501, San Jose, CA 96130. Nominations should be postmarked no later than midnight, April 30. A nominating committee, whose membership will be published, will see to it that ballots are mailed to all members by May 15. Closing date for receipt of ballots will be June 30. Our accountant's tabulations will be announced by July 15. ------------------------------ Date: Sun Apr 24 18:09:49 1988 From: portal!cup.portal.com!jxh@sun.com Subject: Sun386i Details corrected As I feared, my earlier comments reporting on my first experience with a Sun Roadrunner (Sun386i) were slightly inaccurate. I have since received messages from people at Sun's East Coast Division (the origin of the RR) clarifying certain features. Fearmongering was not my intention, but I may have caused consternation in certain circles with my earlier posting. (If Sun-spots were less delayed, the damage might have been less.) Well-behaved MS-DOS programs will run, BUT SO WILL SOME OTHERS. I stand corrected. Display adapter writes are, indeed, trapped and emulated IF they are for CGA, Hercules, or "one other" (identity unclear). EGA and VGA require additional hardware. This extra "display hook" board uses only one slot for one to four "adapters" (I gather that memory can be added to achieve this multipicity), and will be available from a third party, not Sun. I/O instructions can be executed by Virtual-8086 tasks (MS-DOS windows) owing to the amazing feature of the I/O bitmap in the 80386. I had not done my homework, and I dared not imagine that this was actually done. A given process can be given direct access to a set of ports; other attempted INs and OUTs will be trapped. This access is set up by reading a file called boards.pc which identifies which I/O addresses are required by a given task. Of course, sharing these is another matter; I don't know how the contention is resolved. I/O devices are considered "resources" just as are drives A:, etc. I think (it's not clear from my information to date) that there are PC-like peripherals inside the box (8237, 8259A) that can be accessed in this manner to achieve remarkable PC compatibility. I have yet to try this, but it seems that an attempt was made to support programs that use I/O Channel DMA channels, IRQ lines, etc. I doubt that there is any memory out there that is refreshed by DMA channel 1, but there's no need to carry things so far that ugliness is duplicated for the sake of compatibility. As I said, I wish some Sun employee would post the facts so that inaccuracies in my understanding of these details do not get taken as Gospel, causing people to avoid buying the machine on the basis of my postings. I hope no one is doing *that*. My intention is to spread knowledge so that people will join me in porting things there, so I may benefit from their experience. Further clarifications as they transpire. Jim Hickstein, VSAT Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA (408) 435-8016 jxh@cup.portal.com -or- ...!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!jxh ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1988 08:25:23 LCL From: Philip Green <PMGREEN@suvm.acs.syr.edu> Subject: Memory for a Sun 3/60 try Clearpoint Research Corp. 99 South St. Hopkinton MA 01701 1-800-CLEARPT We received ours in approx. two weeks. Phil Green Syracuse University ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 12:02:10 PDT From: roode@orc.olivetti.com (David Roode) Subject: SLIP for Sun Where are some good on-line distribution centers for the latest SLIP source code such as will run on a Sun which does not have SunOS source? [[ The sun-spots archives has the source to a serial line IP driver. It claims to include support for generic 4.2BSD and Suns running 3.x. Standard 4.3BSD already has SLIP in it. NOTICE TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ALREADY RETRIEVED A COPY OF slip.shar: if you retrieved it before 11:23 CDT on May 2, then get yourself another copy. The shar file that origially appeard in the archives had some bad bytes in it. You can tell it's bad because it reports error while being unpacked. The copy currently in the archives is correct. It is called "sun-source/slip.shar" and can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from the host "titan.rice.edu" or via the archive server. For more information about the archive server, send a mail message containing the word "help" to the address "archive-server@rice.edu". --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 14:09:52 +0200 From: Richard Niklasson <rn@tts.lu.se> Subject: QIC-150 (or 120) SCSI driver wanted I am trying to use a Tandberg Data TDC 3660 with my SUN 3/50. The problems is that the SUN st (scsi-tape) driver is only supporting QIC-11 or QIC-24 format. Anyone out there who having a QIC-150 st driver or knowing how to make one? It doesn't have be a public domain ...... Richard Niklasson ! INTERNET: rn@tts.lu.se Dept of Communication Systems ! ARPA: rn%tts.lu.se@ucbvax.berkeley.edu Lund Institute of Technology ! UUCP: ...!{uunet,mcvax,munnari}!enea!tts.lu!rn Box 118 ! EARN/BITNET: erlangrn@seldc51 S-221 00 LUND, Sweden ! PHONE: +46 46109008 FAX: +46 46145823 ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 88 19:25:17 GMT From: lloyd!wse%hscfvax@husc6.harvard.edu (Bill Edwards) Subject: exceptional conditions in select(2) We are currently developing an application that implements inter-process communcation using sockets in the UNIX domain as STREAM sockets. We have certain requirements that dictate we identify particular "exceptional conditions" during communications. The documentation on select(2) says that it can identify which socket descriptors have any pending "exceptional conditions". However we have not been able to find any documentation that describes what the "exceptional conditions" are or how they are identified. Is there anybody out there who can shed some light on this problem? We are using Sun UNIX release 3.2 [[ "Out of band" data, perhaps? --wnl ]] Thanks in advance, Charlie Garcia Bill Edwards wse%lloyd@husc6.harvard.edu ARPA Camex;75 Kneeland St. ...!{harvard,husc6}!hscfvax!lloyd!wse UUCP Boston, MA 02111 edwards@{harvunxu,harvunxw} BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 88 13:39:27 GMT From: trw@hrc63.co.uk (Trevor Wright "Marconi Baddow") Subject: Questions concerning streaming 9-tracks tape decks on Sun-4/280's I'm likely to have a pair of Sun's 9-track streaming tape decks on a Sun-4/280 (I think the decks originate from Fujitsu). Main use of these will be to backup local discs and those across the network. Can any users of the same hardware setup confirm a) that the decks stream flat-out OK and b) with two drives can we get dump to move to the 2nd drive when it's filled up the first. Also, can anyone recommend a neat disc backup package with all the right admin features to handle automated incremental/full backups of a large community of Sun's (25+) - I've seen Reel mentioned in Catalyst.. Thanks TREVOR WRIGHT, GEC-Marconi Research Centre, Chelmsford UK Arpanet: yc23%a.gec-mrc.co.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 88 09:17 CST From: <KUSALIK@SASK.BITNET> Subject: Query on Fujitsu M2246 Disks We are thinking of buying some Fujitsu M2246 ESDI disks to hang off of SUN-3/50's. Does anyone have experience with these disks on SUN configurations they could share? Any compatability problems? Any problems formatting? Reliability? Tony Kusalik kusalik@sask.bitnet kusalik%sask.bitnet@relay.cs.net ..!{alberta,ihnp4}!sask!kusalik kusalik%sask.bitnet@jade.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 88 11:07:45 EDT From: "Pawel Stefanski" <stefan@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> Subject: Mouse problems We have such a problem: old-type mouses (black with grey keys) which were connected to our SUN-2 gradually refused to work (when plugged, there is no light from any of the two small lamps on the bottom). However, when we substituted them for IBM-PC mouse (or mouse taken from SUN-3) the new one works fine. Also the old one sometimes works, but only if it is plugged in and the machine is rebooted, if we change (unplug) the mouse later, it 'hangs'. Any suggestions? Pawel A. Stefanski, Phone (703)764-6057, (703)323-2713, (stefan@gmuvax2.gmu.edu) Machine Learning Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030. ------------------------------ End of SUN-Spots Digest ***********************