Sun-Spots-Request@RICE.EDU (William LeFebvre) (04/12/88)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Sunday, 10 April 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 50 Today's Topics: Re: Changes in user mail interface (2) backups in multiuser mode Our experience with 2.3 gbytes cartrige storage system Crashes due to timeouts NEC Silentwriter LC-890 "RS-232" Help needed with SunView background proc's le0: ENP/STP bits SPARC User Manual? Experience with 56Kbps Interfaces? How to set-up the mail environement? 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: 31 Mar 88 21:00:22 GMT From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.arpa (Mike Khaw) Subject: Re: Changes in user mail interface (1) Reference: v6n37 woods@handies.ucar.edu (Greg Woods) writes: > ...Sun has decided to reverse the sense of the 'R' and 'r' commands > in /usr/ucb/Mail... 1) It's consistent with the change in 4.3bsd's mail user-agent. 2) 4.3bsd probably changed it because naive users tend to type "r" when meaning to reply to just the sender, then get all kinds of flames from everyone else on the list who didn't care to get their maildrop cluttered with irrelevant mail. I don't recall offhand what it is, but I think 4.3bsd mail lets you revert to the old sense of "R" vs. "r" via an option in your .mailrc -- with any luck, SunOS does the same. Mike Khaw internet: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.arpa usenet: {uunet|sun|ucbvax|decwrl|uw-beaver}!mkhaw%teknowledge-vaxc.arpa USnail: Teknowledge Inc, 1850 Embarcadero Rd, POB 10119, Palo Alto, CA 94303 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Apr 88 22:45:20 EST From: Chris Torek <chris@mimsy.umd.edu> Subject: Re: Changes in user mail interface (2) Reference: v6n37 woods@handies.ucar.edu (Greg Woods) writes: >...Sun has decided to reverse the sense of the 'R' and 'r' commands... Not only did they do this, they did it in what can only be described as a stupid way (although it could have been worse). For years ucbmail has had a runtime configuration option to control this; the option can be set globally for any machine in /usr/lib/Mail.rc, and locally for any user in ~/.mailrc. Which one you believe is `right' (or is that `Right'? :-) ) amounts to a religious argument. It has, however, always been configurable. On 4BSD systems, if you put the command set Replyall in /usr/lib/Mail.rc or ~/.mailrc, that reverses the sense of r/R (so that you get the behaviour ascribed to the Sun above). That is, Replyall means `R'=>all and `r'=>sender. If your system administrator has put this in /usr/lib/Mail.rc and you personally worship the opposite convention, you simply put the command unset Replyall in your own .mailrc. This variable is in fact documented in mail(1), at least in 4.3BSD. Now, when Sun changed Mail, they did it not by putting a set Replyall in the distributed /usr/lib/Mail.rc. Instead, they changed the source so that the default is `r'=>sender, `R'=>all. They *also* changed the variable from `Replyall' to `replyall'. Now, if you `set replyall', you get the 4BSD behaviour; to switch to the Sun behaviour you must `unset replyall'. Fortunately, Mail allows any name to be set or unset, regardless of whether it is used internally or currently set. Hence if you wish to guarantee the 4BSD behaviour, put the commands set replyall unset Replyall in /usr/lib/Mail.rc or ~/.mailrc. If you wish to guarantee the present SunOS behaviour, use instead the commands set Replyall unset replyall While you are at it, you might add a comment to help the next administrator figure out why all the foolery: # set replyall makes Sun r=>all, R=>sender; # unset Replyall makes 4BSD r=>all, R=>sender. If no one at Sun had noticed the Replyall variable, I might forgive them this mistake---the option is somewhat obscure---but that they changed the name shows that they knew exactly what this did. Of course, had they not changed the name, .mailrc files would be machine-dependent, so good did come of it after all. The best solution would be for Sun to back this change out of future releases, and instead put a `set Replyall' in the distributed versions of /usr/lib/Mail.rc. In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris [[ Soon everyone will be using their own workstations complete with a much better (mouse oriented) interface to the mail system, and ucbmail will become obsolete and never used. Well, I can dream, can't I? --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 88 12:50:44 EST From: warsaw@cme-durer.arpa (Barry A. Warsaw) Subject: backups in multiuser mode > I wondering if there is a way to backup Sun systems without having to goto > single-user mode, as this causes background processes (long cpu intensive > jobs) to die. > > Does anyone have a solution to this or recommendations ? We've been using a software package called Ubackup from a Virginia company called Unitech. Among other things, it allows you to do backups in multiuser mode with very little impact on the rest of the system. Essentially you create a 'backup' script that outlines which files you want to backup. Ubackup then backgrounds the job and returns control to the operator. Ubackup also does things like automatic media control, verified dumps, etc. Its a very nice system although I haven't really had time to play with some of the more robust features. Its not terribly expensive either and would be worth looking into. My only complaint is that they use their own ascii-type menu system which doesn't use termcaps and is somewhat bizzare. You can control ubackup from the command line as well. The biggest plus is that the people there are friendly and very willing to help. For more information: Unitech Software, Inc. 1800 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 101 Reston, Virginia 22091 (703) 264-3301 Barry Disclaimer: I have no connection with Unitech except as a user of their software. My opinion does not in anyway imply an endorsement of the product by my employer. [[...or by the moderator or his employer, or anyone else for that matter. --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Wed Mar 30 13:50:11 1988 From: portal!cup.portal.com!Clement_-_Vaillancourt@sun.com Subject: Our experience with 2.3 gbytes cartrige storage system We just installed a Delta Microsystems SS-200T tape drive on our Sun 3/280 SCSI interface. It use a 8 mm video cartrige from Sony. We used the manual installation procedure and it run very well! It does support tar, dump and rdump. With dump from a local disk we saved 280 mbytes in 40 minutes. It is even a bit faster than the big 9 tracks tape at 6250 bpi. The restore works the same way... Very good product! Clement Vaillancourt, Institut de Recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, 1800 Montee Ste-Julie, Varennes, P. Quebec, Canada. UUCP: sun!cup.portal.com!clement_-_vaillancourt clouso!ireqs3!vaillancourt sun!sunlegende!amadeus!vaillan Tel.: 514-652-8238 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 88 10:53:53 PST From: richk@larry.cs.washington.edu (Richard Korry) Subject: Crashes due to timeouts Our Sun 3/280 running Sun 0S 3.3 has hardly ever crashed in 9 months of use. But over the past 2 weeks it has gone down 3 times with the same error. Here are snippets from the log messages: ----------- rlogin: trap address 0x8, pid 7811, pc = f01c85c, sr = 2008, stkfmt b, context 6 Bus Error Reg a0<INVALID,TIMEOUT> data fault address b46dd774 faultc 0 faultb 0 dfault 1 rw 1 size 0 fcode 5 KERNEL MODE page map 20000000 ---------- sendmail: trap address 0x8, pid 3641, pc = f01c85c, sr = 2008, stkfmt b, context 5 Bus Error Reg a0<INVALID,TIMEOUT> data fault address d73d0e78 faultc 0 faultb 0 dfault 1 rw 1 size 0 fcode 5 KERNEL MODE page map 20000000 --------------- sendmail: trap address 0x8, pid 20662, pc = f01c85c, sr = 2008, stkfmt b, context 4 Bus Error Reg a0<INVALID,TIMEOUT> data fault address c60cbfcc faultc 0 faultb 0 dfault 1 rw 1 size 0 fcode 5 KERNEL MODE page map 20000000 I can send more info if anyone needs it. Is this old stuff or does anyone have any ideas before I start rummaging through kernel sources... thanks rich ------------------------------ Date: 31 Mar 88 9:47 -0800 From: David Harris <david@pharm.ubc.ca> Subject: NEC Silentwriter LC-890 "RS-232" We recently purchased a Sun 3/60 and a NEC Silentwriter LED array printer. Its "RS-232" port drives 0-5V only. While this works on our AT clone and an Atari ST1040, it doesn't work with the Sun (I guess that's called getting burned with standards :-). The problem presents with the Sun not receiving any debug info from the printer, but more importantly, not receiving XON/ XOFF from the printer -- hence, ends of long jobs (>3 pages) are lost to the void. None of the retailer, distributor, or NEC are interested in fixing the problem but would rather pass the buck. I resent this! My fix to the problem was a TTL->RS232 driver chip in the interface cable. If anyone what's details, drop me a line. Some other people here solved the problem with a commercial printer buffer and a commercial line driver would do the trick too (at greater expense but less time !-). David P. Harris, PhD MD Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, CANADA V6T 1W5 (604) 228-6216 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 88 15:52:55 EST From: warsaw@cme-durer.arpa (Barry A. Warsaw) Subject: Help needed with SunView background proc's Okay, another obscure question for those who have hacked with SunView. Let me first explain my final objective and then the methods I've tried to achieve this. BTW, I'm running OS 3.3 I have a sunview application with multiple frames; a base frame and 5 sub-frames. The various frames have different combinations of subwindows consisting of canvases and panels. The panels are populated with panel items. I want the application to handle a set of keystrokes no matter which frame/subwindow/panel_item it was typed over, but I need to know which frame received the keystroke. I've been able to make all the windows and panel items respond to a keystroke but as yet haven't been able to link the window object that gets the event to the subframe that its in (at least not in all cases). Here's what I've done so far: I set up the base frame and populated it with two panels and a canvas. In the canvas, I set WIN_CONSUME_PICK_EVENTS to include WIN_UP_ASCII_EVENTS and I set the WIN_EVENT_PROC to be my_canvas_p. In my_canvas_p, I check for the desired keystroke and if its what I'm looking for, window_get(canvas, WIN_OWNER) gives me the frame that canvas is a part of. To get all panels and panel_items to respond to keystrokes, I do the following in both PANEL definitions: PANEL_ACCEPT_KEYSTROKE, TRUE, PANEL_BACKGROUND_PROC, my_bgnd_p, PANEL_EVENT_PROC, my_bgnd_p, The event proc handles events falling on the panel (ie: not over a panel item) and the background proc handles events falling on all the member panel items. This is my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, my_bgnd_p checks for the desired keystroke and then, if its the one I want, it tries to find the frame that the object belongs to. If the object is a panel then WIN_OWNER attribute finds the frame. However if its a panel_item, then WIN_OWNER doesn't find the frame or the parent panel. So I figure that PANEL_PARENT_PANEL will find the parent panel owner of the item and then I could use WIN_OWNER of the parent to find the frame. For some reason though, PANEL_PARENT_PANEL returns zero! Now I know something else is going on here because I've used PANEL_PARENT_PANEL successfully when the panel item handle is passed by the *item's* notify proc (PANEL_NOTIFY_PROC) instead of the panel's default background proc. I suspect that the background proc is passing something different than the notify proc. This might cause PANEL_PARENT_PANEL to barf. I should point out that I can't seem to find a clean way to find out if my_bgnd_p is getting a Panel or a Panel_item. It looks like either type can be passed to my_bgnd_p but how do I find out which it is? Right now I just do the procedure describe above as if it were a Panel and if that fails, I try it for a Panel_item (which also fails). The obvious solution would be to make the background proc different from the event proc in the panel definition; one would handle panels and the other panel-items. I'd rather not duplicate code though and anyway I'm not sure my understanding of the differences between the background and event procs is right. Another alternate method would be to query which frame contains the cursor at the time of the event, or which frame is the keyboard (or pick) focus at the time of the event. I haven't yet found a way to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. NAME: Barry A. Warsaw TELE: (301) 975-3460 USMAIL: National Bureau of Standards ARPA: warsaw@cme-durer.arpa Rm. B-124, Bldg. 220 UUCP: {...}!uunet!cme-durer!warsaw Gaithersburg, MD 20899 ------------------------------ Date: Wed Mar 30 14:20:55 1988 From: portal!cup.portal.com!Eldon_R_Mast@sun.com Subject: le0: ENP/STP bits One isolated segment of our LAN is causing 18 of our 3/50's to produce the famed: le0: Received packet with STP bit in rmd cleared le0: Received packet with ENP bit in rmd cleared le0: Receive buffer error - BUFF bit set in rmd to their consoles. We have replaced transceivers, TDR'd the cable segment, swapped fan-out units, and re-done and re-shielded all cable connections. This isolated segment is serviced by a pair of fibre-optic repeaters that connect us to the segment containing the two 3/280 fileservers that serve the 18 client 3/50's. The 3/280's never produce the messages. (Never see the trashed packets.) I have exausted my LANanalzing skills. It seems to me that there exists a device (3/50 or transceiver or repeater) that continues to transmit on the net when it should be "backing off." Have any of you experienced/solved similiar problems? I have noticed that three of the 3/50's on that segment are running ROM rev 2.0. These 3/50's will always fail internal and external le diagnostics. Is this a bug in the le diagnostic routines for 2.0 or could this be my problem? For fun can anyone tell me exactly what the rmd structure is? Eldon R Mast Telenet Communications 703-689-6372 Eldon_R_Mast@portal.COM [[ For anyone who is still having STP/ENP problems, they were discussed in Volume 6 issues 28 and 40. If anyone has any further information about the cause of or the fix for this problem, please send it in. --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 88 13:46:30 EST From: moss!codas!novavax!proxftl!jesse@rutgers.edu (Jesse Perry) Subject: SPARC User Manual? I hear great things about the SPARC processor, but rarely anything specific. Can anyone tell me where I can get a copy of the SPARC User Manual to learn more? Jesse Perry Proximity Technology uunet!proxftl!jesse ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 88 14:49:19 CST From: scrumb@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Steve Crumb) Subject: Experience with 56Kbps Interfaces? Does anyone have experience with high-speed serial interfaces for DDS circuits (i.e. 56Kbps)? We are beginning some experimentation with linking Suns across 56Kbps serial networks and are looking for vendors and products that would help us in this research. If you know of a vendor of serial interfaces that run at 56 or 64Kbps could you pass their name and contact person along? Thank you Steve Crumb National Center for Supercomputing Applications (scrumb@ncsa.uiuc.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 88 08:56:32 CST From: Stephan Wasserroth <wasserroth@fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de> Subject: How to set-up the mail environement? I have the following problem with setting up the mail environement (spool directories, spool files, mail aliases) on out SUNs. First, our configuration of the machines: 1 3/280S used as NFS-file-server (exports /usr2), YP-master-server and ND-server for 7 diskless 3/50 and 3/60 machines, 1 3/160C used as NFS-file-server (exports /usr4), YP-slave-server and ND-server for 3 diskless machines, 1 3/50 with local disk, 1 3/260 with local disk, 1 1/160 with local disk. About 70 percent of the home directories are located on /usr2, the other users have their home directory on /usr4. These both directories are network-wide mounted. All users may login on any machine, we don't have "personal" workstations. The first step I have done already, is linking of the client spool directories (/usr/spool/mail) to either /usr2/spoolmail or /usr4/spoolmail (using the respective server). The best solution is of course to have only one network-wide spool-directory (say on /usr2), but in that case, the other machines are not able to use mail, if the serving machine is dead. So I need advise for a setup, which allows any user to login on any available machine, get his own mail, send mail to any other machine without knowning on which machine the receiver will login -- AND the setup should work with only one server running. Any ideas?? DFN-EAN: <wasserroth@fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de> ARPA: <wasserroth%fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de@relay.cs.net> GMD-FOKUS Stephan Wasserroth Hardenbergplatz 2 System Manager for D-1000 Berlin 12 VAXes and Sun-WS Fed. Rep. of Germany ------------------------------ End of SUN-Spots Digest ***********************