Sun-Spots-Request@RICE.EDU (William LeFebvre) (02/23/88)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Sunday, 21 February 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 18 Today's Topics: Re: Screen Scrolling problems (2) Re: Adding new clients Re: Strange failure of bind(2) on diskless clients revised screen(1) - there is no FBIOGTYPE ioctl bug 512 byte tcp packets in SunOS3.4 CDC Wren IV Problem with HP Laserjet filters Problems with X windows on Sun 3/60s Help with cputime limit error make question Anyone using NSE? NFS 2.0 support? 8mm Cassette Backup Systems? WORM drives? Sun consoles and keyboards at 300 m. on optical fibers? High-Speed Data Acquisition on Dual Port Memories with Sun 3/16? SUN rasterfiles -> QUIC? DSUN? Multibus-Vmebus adapter for digitizer? Sun Driver/Emulator for Mac II? 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 stored on "titan.rice.edu". For volume X, issue Y, "get sun-spots/vXnY". They are also accessible through the archive server: mail the word "help" to "archive-server@rice.edu". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Feb 88 13:54:43 GMT From: montnaro@sprite.steinmetz.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) Subject: Re: Screen Scrolling problems (1) In v6n12, Naim Abdullah asks: >Sometimes the console of my Sun 3/60 goes into "jump" mode (I usually >notice this when the system has been up a long time). When the screen >is full and it tries to write a new line, instead of scrolling, it >*clears* the screen and starts at the top of the screen. Sounds to me like you might have logged into another machine that for some period of time thought you were using a VT100. The VT100 and Sun both have an escape sequence related to scrolling that, unfortunately, have different semantics. In the VT100, ESC[P1;P2r sets the scrolling region to lines P1 through P2. In the Sun, ESC[P1r changes the type of scrolling. P1 == 0 puts the console in wrap mode, such as you are experiencing. Any arguments beyond the first are ignored by the Sun terminal emulator. So ESC[0;23r would put you in wrap mode on a Sun, but set the scrolling region to the full screen on a VT100. You commonly get that escape sequence from editor initialization, or from some of DEC's VMS full-screen tools, such as MONITOR. For more info, check out "man 4 cons". Skip (montanaro@ge-crd.arpa, uunet!steinmetz!sprite!montanaro) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Feb 88 14:39:14 -0500 From: dan@wilma.bbn.com Subject: Re: Screen Scrolling problems (3) I had this problem too, when I first got my Sun. In my case, the problem was that I was somehow turning on "jump mode" on the console. From console(4S): ESC [ # r Set scrolling Takes one parameter, # (default 0). Sets (to #) an internal register which determines how many lines the screen scrolls up when a line-feed function is performed with the cursor on the bottom line. A parameter of 2 or 3 introduces a small amount of "jump" when a scroll occurs. A parameter of 34 clears the screen rather than scrolling. The initial setting is 1 on reset. I don't know what was turning it on, but sending ESC [ 1 r (I think it was) to the console cleared it up. An ESC [ s (reset) ought to fix it too. Dan Franklin [[ Thanks also to Jonathon Biggar, jonab@cam.unisys.com, for similar information. Either method described above should "undo" the problem. --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 88 11:46 +0100 From: Jiri Dvorak <dvorak@iam.unibe.ch> Subject: Re: Adding new clients Some weeks ago I considered adding a diskless client to our 3/160 (with only one client, installed by Sun). As the the new client is not yet arrived (delivery delays ...) I never really tried the procedure. What I intend to do is quite similar to the procedure described by James Davenport (v6n11). But instead of running diag it may be possible to divide (by means of nd.local) an existing partition (e.g. /usr) into - the new clients root and swap partition - a big root partition for a dummy client (and perhaps a small dummy swap partition) The second client's root partition is mounted to replace the previous partition (/usr): /dev/ndl? /usr 4.2 ... in /etc/fstab. Is there a serious flaw in this alternative ?? Jiri Dvorak EAN: dvorak@iam.unibe.ch or dvorak@iam.unibe.chunet University of Berne or dvorak%iam.unibe.ch@relay.cs.net Switzerland UUCP: ..!uunet!mcvax!iam.unibe.ch!dvorak BITNET: u07j@cbebda3t.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Feb 88 16:10:51 PST From: Craig Leres <leres%lbl-helios@lbl-rtsg.arpa> Subject: Re: Strange failure of bind(2) on diskless clients Here's an excerpt from a posting I made last year on this problem: Date: Tue, 18 Aug 87 20:37:02 PDT From: Craig Leres <leres> Subject: Re: Strange ftp problems I have a 3/140 that was giving me the "ftp: bind: can't assign requested address" error message. The problem was garbage in the sockaddr struct in the ie_softc struct. This was because /etc/rc.local was setup to ifconfig le0 instead of ie0 (I had copied a 3/50 root when setting up the 3/140.) I suspect there is some nd magic that partially sets the ethernet data structures; this explains why the 3/140 could boot and work (almost normally) even though its ethernet interface had not been properly ifconfig'ed. You say that you are ifconfig'ing le0 in rc.boot, but is it possible that something is wrong and this isn't really happening? On my Suns, (which currently run 3.3) I use the following in rc.boot: /etc/ifconfig ec0 $hostname -trailers netmask 0xffffff00 /etc/ifconfig ie0 $hostname -trailers netmask 0xffffff00 /etc/ifconfig le0 $hostname -trailers netmask 0xffffff00 If your problem turns out to be something else, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Craig ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 88 14:10:36 EST From: dupuy@westend.columbia.edu (Alexander Dupuy) Subject: revised screen(1) - there is no FBIOGTYPE ioctl bug The ioctl bug which I discovered was nothing more than a coding error in the screen program I submitted. Here is a corrected posting. My apologies for the misleading information. @alex [[ The updated shar file is available in the archives as "sun-source/screen.shar". The file is 5861 bytes in length. It can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from the host "titan.rice.edu" or via the archive server with the command "send sun-source screen.shar". For more information about the archive server, send a mail message containing the word "help" to the address "archive-server@rice.edu". --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 88 18:40:15 GMT From: coherent!celeste@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Celeste C. Stokely) Subject: 512 byte tcp packets in SunOS3.4 unido!tb@uunet.uu.net mentioned that since he upgraded to SunOS3.4, his Suns only use 512byte tcp packets. This was not the case in 3.2. Yep, you're right. I filed the bug when I worked in Sun Tech Support Networking, and here's the fix. By the way, it's allegedly fixed in 3.5, but since Sun hasn't seen fit to send me the 3.5 I ordered, I don't know for sure. (grumble, grumble!) The patch fixes a problem with the TCP MSS MSS, the Maximum Segment Size, is a TCP level parameter which refers to the maximum size TCP segment supported by the host. The segment size is negociated as part of the TCP connection establishment. The MSS should be 1024, not 512 bytes. Oops! This is Sun bug # 1005485. patch tcp_mss+ac and tcp_mss+bc to be 400 instead of 200. adb -w /vmunix tcp_mss+0xac?w 400 tcp_mss+0xac: 0x200 = 0x400 tcp_mss+0xbc?w 400 tcp_mss+0xbc: 0x200 = 0x400 ..Celeste Stokely Coherent Thought Inc. UUCP: ...!{ames,sun,uunet}!coherent!celeste Internet: coherent!celeste@ames.arpa or ...@sun.com or ...@uunet.uu.net VOX: 415-493-8805 ------------------------------ Date: Tue 9 Feb 88 14:22:03-EST From: Ken Burner <KB13@te.cc.cmu.edu> Subject: CDC Wren IV I've heard back from a couple of people about this -- mostly replies of the form "we haven't tried that, but we intend to soon. Let us know what you find out." Yes, I'll be glad to let the net know if we get the problem worked out, but for now we're still stuck. Here's the situation. We have a CDC Wren IV (5.25") 297MB disk with an embedded SCSI interface (CDC model 94171). The *drive* speaks SCSI, so does not require an intermediate Emulex or Adaptec board. We've gotten a Sun2 to format (selecting "Emulex" as the controller), read and write the disk with no problem (many thanks to David Anderson for his help with the physical formatting parameters). However, connecting the drive to a Sun 3/50 or 3/60 produces interesting results: viz., the system can read info from the drive, including the manufacturer's defect list, which means the format is good and the system can find its way around ok. But, if we try to format the drive or write to it in any way, a hardware error results. We've checked the cabling thoroughly and verified that the SCSI signals are all connected properly between the Sun 3 and the disk, the whole business is properly grounded, and so on. We're stuck. Device driver problem? Why would it be different on the Sun2 than Sun3? Sun3/50-60 SCSI problem? Nope, other disks with separate SCSI adapters (e.g., Micropolis/Adaptec in Sun "shoebox") work fine. Have you noticed how easy it is to get in touch with *marketing* people and how difficult it is to contact *technical* people within companies like Sun and CDC. This is part 2 of our frustration during this whole experience. If there is anyone out there who knows anything about this, we'd sure appreciate some help. I promise to summarize how we resolve this problem, since I know others out there are about to set out on this same path. -Ken Burner Carnegie-Mellon kb13+@andrew.cmu.edu (or address above) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 88 09:33:05 EST From: darkstar!brian@uc.msc.umn.edu (Brian Utterback) Subject: Problem with HP Laserjet filters Gareth J. Barker: > I just picked up a copy of your package of HP LaserJet filters, etc. from > the SUN_SPOTS archives...when I use 'lpr' with your printcap and filters > the job prints more than once. I'm not sure how many times it would print > if left to itself, as I've always stopped it with 'lprm'. Any suggestions? I'm glad that you found it useful. The problem that you are experiencing is most likely due to the fact that my filter writes out accounting info. If it experiences any trouble, it (incorrectly) returns a staus code 1, which says to reprint the job. LPRD then reprints it, with the same error as before. A sure fix is to change the exit(1) to exit(0). However, I think the correct fix is to change the exit(1) to exit(2). I don't know the ramifications of this however. The best solution is, of course, to check if the AF exists or by some other method determine if accounting info is required. Brian Utterback |UUCP:{ihnp4!cray,sun!tundra}!hall!blu Cray Research Inc. |ARPA:blu%hall.cray.com@uc.msc.umn.edu One Tara Blvd. #301 | Nashua NH. 03062 |Tele:(603) 888-3083 [[ From the "4.2BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual" (page 4): "A filter must return a 0 exit code if there were no errors, 1 if the job should be reprinted, and 2 if the job should be thrown away." The only real difference between exiting with a 2 and a 0 is that an exit code of 2 will make lpd log a warning message to that effect (under 4.2 I think it ends up on the console; under 4.3 it is syslogged). --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 88 18:00:07 EST From: rbw@rice.edu Subject: Problems with X windows on Sun 3/60s Apparently, they don't mix. Or at least here they don't. We have X v 10 rel 4, and it works fine on our 3/50s and 3/160. It does, however, have extreme difficulty on the 3/60s - e.g. no mouse tracking, no I/O, etc. Has anyone else tried X on a 3/60, or can give me some new ideas? -Richard Ward rbw@cs.williams.edu Williams College, Williamstown, MA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Feb 88 16:22:14 -0800 From: zanden%athena.uci.edu@ics.uci.edu Subject: Help with cputime limit error I have been getting an error while running a C program (which is about 2.3 Megabytes in size). The error says "Cputime limit exceeded". When I run the program under dbx I get "Signal XCPU (exceeded time limit) in MEfree at 0x54690". I initially thought there might be some time limit set but when I type "limit", it says the CPU time is unlimited. Also I have typed "unlimit" before running the program to ensure that no limits are set. Nevertheless, I get the same error. Does anyone have any ideas as to what this might be? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Feb 88 15:35:27 est From: M.V.S. Ramanath <ram@deepthot.uwo.cdn> Subject: make question Make (on a Sun 3-50/SunOS 3.2) produces the following diagnostic: $! nulled, predecessor circle when run on a makefile containing: a.c: a yacc a mv y.tab.c a.c but appears to correctly run yacc and mv. On a VAX running BSD4.2 the diagnostic does not appear. Is this cause for concern? I can find no reference in the Sun manuals to '$!'. Any explanations ? ram@uwovax.BITNET or ram@julian.UUCP or ram@uwocsd.UWO.CDN or ...!decvax!utzoo!julian!uwocsd!ram ...!ihnp4!watmath!julian!uwocsd!ram ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 88 18:37:34 GMT From: tuck@unc.cs.unc.edu (Russ Tuck) Subject: Anyone using NSE? I have been impressed by what I've read about Sun's new Network Software Environment (NSE). A group at my site is considering buying it, but would like to talk to a real user first. (Since I think the release date is later this month, this is likely to be a Beta-test user.) If you have used NSE, or know someone who has, I would appreciate your sending me your name and electronic address or phone number. I won't take a lot of your time, but I'd like to ask a couple of simple questions and get your overall opinion of NSE. Thank you in advance for any help or information. (If there is sufficient interest, I'll post a summary of what I learn.) Russ -- Russell R. Tuck, III CSNET: tuck@unc Computer Science Dept., Sitterson Hall ARPA: tuck@cs.unc.edu University of North Carolina UUCP: {ihnp4|decvax}!mcnc!unc!tuck Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA Phone: (919) 962-1755 or 962-1932 ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 88 23:43:41 GMT From: km@emory.UUCP (Ken Mandelberg) Subject: NFS 2.0 support? I hear the rumor that the Mac II with AU/X uses NFS 2.0. NFS 2.0 was gone before we moved to the Sun world, so I don't know the consequences of this. Is there any problem in running NFS 2.0 against the current NFS 3.2 (and future 4.0) servers on Suns? Is there a functionality loss in 2.0 other than the rather recent file locking function that came with 3.2? Ken Mandelberg | {decvax,sun!sunatl,gatech}!emory!km UUCP Emory University | km@emory BITNET Dept of Math and CS | km@emory.ARPA ARPA,CSNET Atlanta, GA 30322 | Phone: (404) 727-7963 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 88 10:58:33 EST From: Del Armstrong <dela@galaxy.ee.rochester.edu> Subject: 8mm Cassette Backup Systems? We're starting to look at some of the 8mm cassette tape systems, such as the system advertised by Perfect Byte (inside cover SunTechnology). They claim to be compatible with standard tape software (tar, dump, etc.), hold over 2 gigabytes on a $10 media, and provide extensive error correction support. Has anyone any experience or opinions on these 8mm video cassette based systems? Which brands are you using, or considering? Do they really work as advertised? How are you dealing with maintenance on these guys? If it seems appropriate, I'll submit a summary. Thanks Del Armstrong dela@galaxy.ee.rochester.edu Department of Electrical Engineering University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14623 (716) 275-5342 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 88 14:21:14 EST From: Robin Rohlicek <rohlicek@bbn.com> Subject: WORM drives? Is anyone using WORM drives on sun 3's or sun 4's? I've seen several ads for 5 1/4" SCSI drives but many don't have drivers available for the suns yet. Also, is the 12" variety interesting? thanks, Robin Rohlicek BBN Labs, Cambridge MA ------------------------------ Date: Mon Feb 8 13:44:52 1988 From: portal!cup.portal.com!Clement_-_Vaillancourt@sun.com Subject: Sun consoles and keyboards at 300 m. on optical fibers? We are interested to put the monochrome consoles and the keyboards of some Sun 3/180 at 300 meters away from the cpu. We want to use optical fibers for speed and for electrical insulation. Those systems will be used in our High-Power laboratory for electrical equipment testing. Do you think it is feasible? Was it done before? Clement Vaillancourt, Hydro-Quebec Research Institute, 1800 Montee Ste-Julie, Varennes, P. Quebec, Canada, J0L 2P0 VOICE: 514-652-8238 ------------------------------ Date: Tue Feb 9 06:04:21 1988 From: portal!cup.portal.com!Clement_-_Vaillancourt@sun.com Subject: High-Speed Data Acquisition on Dual Port Memories with Sun 3/16? We are interested to expand some Sun 3/160 with two external VME chassis. We want to install 32 x 12 mega-bytes dual port memories (384 mb). On each of these memories we would connect an analog to digital converter on the VSB port. Each analog to digital converter would operate at 1 mega-sample per second; storing two bytes of data every microsecond in it's own attached memory. For the data acquisition no data flow on the VME Bus. When the acquisition is done we would like to look at the data by mapping at some of the memories and plot the data on the monitor. To expand the Sun VME Bus we are thinking of using some VME Bus Repeater 2000 from HVE Engineering Inc. Did anybody work on something similar? Are we going to get any problems with this huge external memory (384 mb.)? Did anybody use this bus repeater? We will appreciate all your comments! Clement Vaillancourt, Hydro-Quebec Research Institute, 1800 Montee Ste-Julie, Varennes, P. Quebec, Canada, J0L 2P0 VOICE: 514-652-8238 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Feb 88 08:31:15 EST From: Bob Stein (517) 353-8661 <bob@steinr.pa.msu.edu> Subject: SUN rasterfiles -> QUIC? We have a Talaris 1500 attached to a VMS VAX 750. I would like to be able to print SUN rasterfile screendumps on it. I can send files to the vax using Sun decnet software over ethernet. Does anyone have a program to translate the rasterfile format to QUIC language that the Talaris understands. Thanks in advance. Bob Stein bob@steinr.pa.msu.edu stein@msupa.bitnet steinrt@clvax1.cl.msu.edu ------------------------------ Date: 9 Feb 1988 1238-EST From: hsw@tycho.arpa (Howard Weiss) Subject: DSUN? Anyone have a copy of the troff post-processor DSUN to preview troff output on a SUN? If anyone has the code, can you please mail it to me directly. thanks, Howard Weiss hsw at tycho.arpa ------------------------------ Date: 9 February 1988 1009-PST (Tuesday) From: bbaker@nprdc.arpa Subject: Multibus-Vmebus adapter for digitizer? Does anyone have experience interfacing a Datacopy 600/130 digitizing camera to a sun 3 via the Multibus-Vmebus adapter? This camera was originally attached to a sun 2(100u,Multibus) machine and worked well. However, when interfaced with a sun 3 via a Multibus- Vmebus adapter, the DMA enable bit in the status register is always high. There seems to be no way to clear this bit and I assume the problem is between the Multibus-Vmebus adapter. I used the "vme2mb" program from Sun-Spots to set the dip switches on the adapter card. Any information regarding this specific problem or Multibus-Vmebus adapters would be helpful. thanks, Burt Baker ( bbaker@nprdc.arpa ) Navel Research & Development Center San Diego, CA (619) 553-7685 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Feb 88 00:17:52 EST From: Thomas Kurfurst <thomas@csri.toronto.edu> Subject: Sun Driver/Emulator for Mac II? I would like to be able to use a Sun System 3/50 and 3/60 remotely from my Mac II. Does any form of driver or emulator exist that allows the Sun to drive the Mac II screen remotely. I guess I am looking for a Sun terminal emulator or something like that? Please note that I want to utilize the Sun graphics capabilities via the Mac II so that dvitool or some other Sun applications may be viewed on the Mac II's screen. Any and all pointers or info would be greatly appreciated. Thank You. ------------------------------ End of SUN-Spots Digest ***********************