Sun-Spots-Request@RICE.EDU (William LeFebvre) (10/02/87)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Thursday, 1 October 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 46 Today's Topics: Administrivia: delays & duplicates TeXhax mailing list TCP performance Sun-3/60 SIMM memories for cheap Diskless nodes and trailers on ethernet interfaces lpr -i won't indent Problems with netstat Help with CI300 printer setup *please* Device Driver for Exabyte 8mm Tape System? Why does uuxqt send mail to daemon? VME tape controllers and tape drives? Environment considerations for Sun 4? Is there a *good* way to time programs? SUN DECNet? SCSI devices for Sun 3's? Using icons? yet another emacs icon X icon ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Oct 87 12:04:03 CDT From: William LeFebvre <phil@Rice.edu> Subject: Administrivia: delays & duplicates We have been experiencing some mailer problems at this end. My apologies for the delays in getting issues out, and my most sincere apologies for the multiple copies of issue 45 that many of you received. They were caused by human error and not by bouncing mail messages. If anyone did not receive the last issue (note that the issue you are currently reading is number 46), you may retrieve it from the archives via either FTP or the archive server. I have several issues lined up and will try to send them out one a day until the backlog is cleared. I hope the mailer holds out! William LeFebvre ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 18:24:58 +0100 From: olsen!lance%mcvax.uucp%cernvax.bitnet@jade.berkeley.edu Subject: TeXhax mailing list There is indeed an international moderated mailing list (similar to Sun-Spots) for TeX/LaTeX/MetaFont users & abusers. For information and/or subscription contact texhax-request@score.stanford.edu. There is also bitnet redistribution from TEX-L@TAMVM1.BITNET. lance ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Sep 87 14:19:23 PDT From: weiser.pa@xerox.com Subject: TCP performance Although Van Jacobson modestly states you don't want to run his code if you have Sun 3.4, I continue to measure large performance differences in extreme cases. I get the following times for transferring 10 megabytes memory-to-memory (in other words, the client generates the bytes from thin air, and the server puts them all into the same buffer): 33 secs SunOs 3.4 23 secs The Berkeley 4.3 + fixes courtesy of Van Jacobson, on top of 3.3. This times are measured from Sun-3/260 to Sun-3/260 on the same ethernet. Base load on the ethernet was 10-20%, so conceivably these times could improve a bit. I suspect that what accounts for the difference is that the SunOS 3.4 never seems to generate an ethernet packet larger 576 bytes or so when operated through tcp, even though with UDP it generates the full 1500+ byte packets. netstat -i gives an MTU of 1500. -mark ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Sep 87 19:24:08 PDT From: hoptoad.UUCP!gnu@cgl.ucsf.edu (John Gilmore) Subject: Sun-3/60 SIMM memories for cheap I've heard, from people who should know, that the 1MB CMOS SIMMs (Single Inline Memory Modules) used as main memory in the Sun-3/60 are the same ones used in recent Macintoshes (Mac SE and Mac II). These are available at various computer stores. The local free computer rag has ads for them at $270/meg (M.A.C, +1 800 BUY-A-MAC) or $600/2meg (Hellman's +1 415 453 7924). I recommend checking the speed rating of the ones you find for sale. Compare it to the rating of the ones already in your Sun. You'll probably have to decode the numbers on the chip-package itself, since most microcomputer salescritters don't know the time of day let alone the access time of their RAMs. I have *not* tried this -- I don't even have a Sun-3/60. Caveat emptor. John Gilmore ------------------------------ Date: 25 Sep 87 13:09:59 GMT From: ncifcrf!randy@seismo.css.gov (The Computer Grue) Subject: Diskless nodes and trailers on ethernet interfaces I just had a rather annoying experience which I thought people should know about. It turns out the Sun diskless clients are incapable of booting off of servers which have 'trailers' configured on their ethernet interface. I just upgraded my network to class B with subnetting and switched to using trailers at the same time, and it didn't even occur to me that the problem could be the trailers; I was completely sure that it was some weird interaction of subnet masking and routing table entries. Grrr. I post this in the hope that I can save somebody else a few hours of pain. (Sun software support was very helpful, though this bug was new to them also). Running Sun OS 3.4. -- Randy Smith Randy Smith @ NCI Supercomputer Facility c/o PRI, Inc. Phone: (301) 698-5660 PO Box B, Bldng. 430 Uucp: ...!uunet!mimsy!elsie!ncifcrf!randy Frederick, MD 21701 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Sep 87 09:13:55 PDT From: John Bossert <bossert@thebes.thalatta.com> Subject: lpr -i won't indent I'm unable to get the 'lpr -i' command to indent. Tabs are being properly expanded elsewhere. Using a Citizen 120D printer in Epson compatibility mode with the following printcap entry: # # Citizen 120-D (Epson compatible) # lp|120-D Citizen:\ :lp=/dev/ttyb:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:br#1200:\ :fs#06020:fc#0300:sh:\ :of=/usr/lib/lpf:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs: Am I missing something, or is this a bug in lpr. I'm running SunOS 3.3 on a 3/50. In-Real-Life: John Bossert, Thalatta Corporation, (+1 206 643 7187) Domain: bossert@Thalatta.COM Path: uw-beaver!uw-entropy!thebes!bossert ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Sep 87 14:01:23 EDT From: John Delsignore <jdelsign@bfly-vax.bbn.com> Subject: Problems with netstat I recently installed SunOS 3.4 on a Sun server and it's clients, and /usr/ucb/netstat no longer works when run on a 3.4 client. It works in all modes on the 3.4 server, and it works on the 3.4 clients with the -i or -r switches, but it does not work on the 3.4 clients when requesting the default socket info. It simply exits without printing anything with an exit status of 0. What follows is a typescript of the described behavior. WALNUT is the client and OAK is the server: Sun UNIX 4.2 Release 3.4 (CLIENT50) #1: Thu Sep 10 17:45:27 EDT 1987 walnut>netstat walnut>echo $status 0 walnut>netstat -i Name Mtu Net/Dest Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Collis Queue le0 1500 128.89.0 walnut.bbn.c 109496 21 54710 0 1826 0 lo0 1536 127.0.0 localhost 5842 0 5842 0 0 0 walnut>netstat -r Routing tables Destination Gateway Flags Refcnt Use Interface 128.89.0 walnut.bbn.com U 14 13967 le0 default enet1-gw.bbn.co UG 0 0 le0 default enet2-gw.bbn.co UG 0 0 le0 127.0.0 localhost U 6 5840 lo0 walnut> walnut>rlogin oak Last login: Tue Sep 15 09:51:02 from walnut.bbn.com Sun UNIX 4.2 Release 3.4 (OAK) #2: Tue Sep 8 17:37:31 EDT 1987 oak>netstat Active connections Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state) tcp 0 0 localhost.1954 localhost.sunrpc TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 oak.bbn.co.1953 socrates.b.sunrpc TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 oak.bbn.co.1952 pythagoras.sunrpc TIME_WAIT etc... oak> Interestingly, if I run the exact same netstat program on a 3.1 client, it works! oak>cd /usr/ucb oak>pwd /nfs/oak/usr/ucb oak>rlogin nexus Last login: Tue Sep 15 09:59:34 from 128.89.1.4 Sun UNIX 4.2 Release 3.1FCS (ND5075) #2: Tue Feb 10 08:37:45 EST 1987 nexus>/nfs/oak/usr/ucb/netstat Active connections Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state) tcp 0 0 localhost.1128 localhost.sunrpc TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 nexus.bbn..1127 oak.bbn.co.sunrpc TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 nexus.bbn..1126 socrates.b.sunrpc TIME_WAIT etc... nexus> Has anyone run into this problem? Thanks, John D. ------------------------------ Date: 25 Sep 87 18:54:22 GMT From: root@hamachi.LGN.UUCP (Gary K. Sloane) Subject: Help with CI300 printer setup *please* We have a C.ITOH 300+ printer. We use a serial interface on a Sun-3/180 running 4.2bsd w/SYSV enhancements (Sun release 3.4). The serial port we are using for the printer is on a Systech 16-port ALM. We are experiencing two problems: Problem #1: ---------- The printer repeatedly displays error code '13', which means "data more than over run buffer" has been sent; in english, we are not handshaking correctly. The printer is set up to run XON-XOFF, and so (I thought) was the Systech port. Here is the printcap entry we are using: lp|ci300:\ :lp=/dev/tty00:br#9600:xc#0177777:xs#040:fs#06000:fc=#040:tr=\f:\ :sd=/usr/spool/lpd:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs:of=/usr/lib/lpf: What am I doing wrong? Is there some special setup needed for the Systech port? Problem #2: ---------- We cannot get the printer to underline correctly. The CI300+ has an "underline mode", which is turned on with "ESC 2 21" and turned off with "ESC 2 20". Does anyone out there have a printer filter suitable for use with the CI300+? It would be greatly appreciated. We are a strictly UUCP site, and not in the pathalias database, so please send your answers via email to ...!nosc!hamachi!sloane --Gary Sloane, LOGICON San Diego ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Sep 87 11:24:32 PDT From: Gregory G. Brown <gregb@lll-lcc.arpa> Subject: Device Driver for Exabyte 8mm Tape System? Has anyone brought the Exabyte 8mm Cartridge Tape System (Helical Scan) up on a Sun System? We have purchased several of these units but do not want to write a device driver if one has already been written. Are there any 3rd party vendors who support this unit on a Sun? This unit with up to 2,000 Mbytes of storage has great potential for a Sun workstation environment. Thanks in advance Greg Brown Lawrence Livermore Laboratory gregb@lll-lcc.arpa ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Sep 87 10:13:30 EDT From: cayman!cayman!brad@harvard.harvard.edu (Brad Parker) Subject: Why does uuxqt send mail to daemon? Every time uuxqt runs here it sends mail to daemon which looks like this: Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 08:46:13 EDT From: daemon To: daemon uuxqt cmd () status (exit 0, signal 0) We're running Sun OS 3.2. I did similar things under BSD 4.2 and I've never seen behavior like this before. Does anyone know how to turn this off? (now that I look at this, I wonder if cron has something to do with this behavior). This happens each time cron runs a one line shell script which runs uucico. The cron line looks like: 45 1,5,8,18,21 * * * su daemon </usr/lib/uucp/uucp.mail The shell script just says something like /usr/lib/uucp/uucico -r1 -sxxxxx help? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 18:56:46 +0100 From: olsen!lance%unizh.uucp%cernvax.bitnet@jade.berkeley.edu Subject: VME tape controllers and tape drives? Having finished our disk controller demo derby we'd now like to flagellate ourselves by staging a tape controller / tape drive beauty contest. We are interested in VME controllers (we know about Interphase and Ciprico) and any brand of 6250bpi 1/2" tape drive that people have experience with, especially Cipher, CDC, and Fujitsu. We would also like to know if people are using high-density cartridge backup systems like those available from Megatape. These claim to put more than 400meg on a cartridge and backup or restore an entire Eagle in less than an hour. Any information, good, bad, fact or rumour, will be greatly appreciated and summarized back to the list. lance Lance Berc lance@pescadero.stanford.edu (forwards to:) Olsen & Associates olsen!lance@uunet.uu.net Seefeldstrasse 233 8008 Zuerich Switzerland (011) (41) 1''55'22'24 ------------------------------ Date: 25 September 1987 12:55:30 CDT From: Steven G. Krantz <C31801SK%WUVMD.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> Subject: Environment considerations for Sun 4? Hello, We are installing a SUN 4 system here at Wash U. We will have a 4/280 fileserver and several 4/60 drone workstations. What special environmental considerations are there regarding the fileserver? Temperature limits? Humidity? Dust/pollen? Thanks for any information. Steve Krantz ------------------------------ Date: 25 Sep 87 18:54:44 GMT From: root@hamachi.LGN.UUCP (Gary K. Sloane) Subject: Is there a *good* way to time programs? We have a real-time sequencer (NOT a true scheduler) running on Sun-3s. It is integrated nicely with shared memory and IPC, and is used by us to develop FORTRAN based real-time simulations and training systems. We can schedule processes to start at 20 msec intervals, and support preemption and multiple frame rates for scheduled processes. We are limited to the 20msec interval by the granularity of the Unix clock. This (for us) isn't a problem; we actually can schedule 3-4 programs to run in the same frame, and our real-time requirements do not require faster iteration rates. Our PROBLEM is that we are trying to measure milliseconds of performance with a ruler calibrated to the nearest 20 milliseconds. Is there any way (existing that I don't know about, ease to kludge with what we have, requiring 3rd party software, or anything else) to measure execution time (user and system) with a granularity better than 20msec? Am I missing something? Please send your help to me via email, I will summarize and post if anything positive comes of it. Send to me at ...!nosc!hamachi!sloane and do NOT trust pathalias as we are not registered in the database. --Gary Sloane, LOGICON San Diego ------------------------------ Date: 25 Sep 87 21:08:09 GMT From: msf@amelia (Michael S. Fischbein) Subject: SUN DECNet? Has anyone any experience, good, bad, or indifferent with the SUN/DECNet product? We are connecting a SUN network to a VMS VAX and looking for the least expensive effective way to have them talk. SUN DECNet looks better than VMS TCP/IP. Any comments? Please email your responses. I'll summarize, of course, and post. mike Michael Fischbein msf@prandtl.nas.nasa.gov ...!seismo!decuac!csmunix!icase!msf These are my opinions and not necessarily official views of any organization. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Sep 87 18:15:38 EDT From: berger@datacube.com (Bob Berger) Subject: SCSI devices for Sun 3's? Well I have not heard anything from anyone on the net about connecting generic SCSI peripherals to Sun's. I want to add Disk and Tape to Sun 3 computers. I would like to do it with as little pain as possible and the priceing should be in line with the cost of the computer. Currently if I get a Sun 3/50 for under $5k, I have to pay $8k for 140Meg Disk and 60 Meg tape subsystem. The amount of disk is barely enough and the subsystem cost much more than the computer. The question is: Can I hook generic SCSI peripherals up to the Sun 3's SCSI port? I've been told by one source that we could purchase Maxstor disks and either Emulex or Adaptec SCSI controllers and it should all plug and play with the standard sun drivers. Another source though, said that there IS some magic in the firmware Sun uses in the SCSI controlers in their shoebox disk subsystems. If you don't have the special firmware, you will have some intermittant errors. Is this true? Another possibility would be to take one of these lovely large capacity winchester from Maxstor, Rodine, Toshiba, or Fujuitsu that have built in SCSI interfaces and hook them up to the Sun 3 SCSI ports and have them work with the standard Sun drivers? This would be a very cost effective solution. Has anyone successfully done any of the above? Are there any tricks? One last thing I'm looking for is an alternative source for VME SCSI interfaces that is compatable with the one Sun uses in their 3/{140,110,160,260,280} seires. Or a company that makes a high performace SCSI VME interface that comes with drivers that are known to work with Suns. Bob Berger Datacube Inc. Systems / Software Group 4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960 VOICE: 617-535-6644; FAX: (617) 535-5643; TWX: (710) 347-0125 UUCP: berger@datacube.COM, ihnp4!datacube!berger {seismo,cbosgd,cuae2,mit-eddie}!mirror!datacube!berger ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Sep 87 09:58:37 EDT From: shn@think.com Subject: Using icons? How do I take the icon files that are sent via Sun-Spots and turn them into useful Sun icons? Sami H. Nuwayser - shn@think.com - Thinking Machines Corporation [[ Read the manual page for suntools(1) under the section titled "Generic Tool Arguments". It describes the "-WI" option, which is what you want to use. --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Sep 87 09:54:38 MDT From: hwe@lanl.gov (Skip Egdorf) Subject: yet another emacs icon I have felt that icons should be related in the sense that all editor icons should be somwhat similar in order to allow editors to be spotted easily. To that end, here is a modification to the Sun textedit icon for emacs. It emphasizes our use if emacs for Lisp, and the quill pen seems to characterize the classic style of emacs vs. the modern ball-point image of the suntools textedit. Skip Egdorf hwe@lanl.gov /* Format_version=1, Width=64, Height=64, Depth=1, Valid_bits_per_item=16 */ 0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xF888,0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xF888, 0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1A22,0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1A22, 0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1888,0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1888, 0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1A20,0xC200,0x0000,0x8008,0x1A06, 0xC423,0x0091,0x0044,0x181A,0xC47F,0xF7F9,0x39C4,0x186A, 0xC46E,0xF579,0x39E4,0x1994,0xC200,0x0000,0x8008,0x1E64, 0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1888,0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x2108, 0xC020,0x0000,0x0000,0x4632,0xC046,0xEFCF,0x79F1,0x48D2, 0xC047,0xEFEF,0xFDC3,0x9020,0xC020,0x0000,0x000D,0x60C8, 0xC002,0x0000,0x0011,0x8302,0xC004,0x6F9D,0x9DA1,0x0C42, 0xC004,0x7FDF,0xDFC2,0x3188,0xC002,0x0000,0x0144,0x7F08, 0xC000,0x0200,0x0289,0xC322,0xC000,0x04EC,0xE490,0x0422, 0xC000,0x04FE,0xE8E0,0x0888,0xC000,0x0200,0x1083,0xF088, 0xC000,0x0200,0x2100,0x0A22,0xC000,0x04E7,0x623C,0x3A22, 0xC000,0x04F6,0xA400,0x5888,0xC000,0x0201,0x287F,0x9888, 0xC000,0x0202,0x3180,0x1A22,0xC000,0x0492,0x27FC,0x1A22, 0xC000,0x04F6,0x4008,0x1888,0xC000,0x020A,0x8030,0x1888, 0xC000,0x000B,0x7840,0x1A22,0xC000,0x0012,0xC780,0x1A22, 0xC000,0x0012,0x3000,0x1888,0xC000,0x0024,0x0F00,0x1888, 0xC000,0x0048,0x0C00,0x1A22,0xC000,0x0050,0xD000,0x1A22, 0xC000,0x00A0,0x2000,0x1888,0xC000,0x0163,0xC000,0x1888, 0xC000,0x02BC,0x0000,0x1A22,0xC000,0x0540,0x0000,0x1A22, 0xC000,0x0A80,0x0000,0x1888,0xC000,0x0D00,0x0000,0x1888, 0xC000,0x1700,0x0000,0x1A22,0xC000,0x3800,0x0000,0x1A22, 0xC7F0,0x4000,0x0000,0x1888,0xC400,0x8000,0x0000,0x1888, 0xC400,0x0000,0x0000,0x1A22,0xC400,0x0000,0x0000,0x1A22, 0xC400,0x0000,0x0000,0x1888,0xC400,0x0000,0x0000,0x1888, 0xC7C2,0xEE38,0x3870,0x1A22,0xC403,0x3244,0x4488,0x1A22, 0xC402,0x2244,0x4080,0x1888,0xC402,0x2244,0x4070,0x1888, 0xC402,0x2244,0x4008,0x1A22,0xC402,0x2244,0x4488,0x1A22, 0xC7F2,0x223A,0x3870,0x1888,0xC000,0x0000,0x0000,0x1888, 0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFA22,0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFA22 [[ In the archives as "sun-icons/hwe-emacs.icon". --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Sep 87 15:26:41 EDT From: dupuy@amsterdam.columbia.edu (Alexander Dupuy) Subject: X icon Here's an icon I use for my X server under overview. /* Format_version=1, Width=64, Height=64, Depth=1, Valid_bits_per_item=16 */ 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0xFFE0,0x001F,0xFC00,0x0000, 0xFFE0,0x001F,0xFC00,0x0000,0x3F80,0x0007,0xF000,0x0000, 0x0F00,0x0003,0xC000,0x0000,0x0780,0x0007,0x8000,0x0000, 0x0380,0x0007,0x0000,0x0000,0x01C0,0x000E,0x0000,0x0000, 0x01E0,0x001E,0x0000,0x0000,0x00E0,0x001C,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0070,0x0038,0x0000,0x0000,0x0078,0x0078,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0038,0x0070,0x0000,0x0000,0x001C,0x00E0,0xFFFF,0xFFFF, 0x001E,0x01E0,0x8000,0x0001,0x000E,0x01C0,0xBFFF,0x8001, 0x0007,0x0380,0xA000,0x8001,0x0007,0x8780,0xA000,0x9FF9, 0x0003,0x8700,0xA000,0x9009,0x0001,0xCE00,0xA000,0x9009, 0x0001,0xFE00,0xA000,0x9009,0x0000,0xFC00,0xA01F,0xF809, 0x0000,0x7800,0xA010,0x0809,0x0000,0x7800,0xBFF0,0x0FF9, 0x0000,0x7800,0x8010,0x0801,0x0000,0xFC00,0x8010,0x0801, 0x0001,0xFE00,0x8010,0xFFFD,0x0001,0xCE00,0x9FF0,0x8005, 0x0003,0x8700,0x9010,0x8005,0x0007,0x8780,0x9010,0x8005, 0x0007,0x0380,0x9010,0x8005,0x000E,0x01C0,0x9010,0x8005, 0x001E,0x01E0,0x9FF0,0xFFFD,0x001C,0x00E0,0x8010,0x0801, 0x0038,0x0070,0x801F,0xF801,0x0078,0x0078,0xFFFF,0xFFFF, 0x0070,0x0038,0x0000,0x0000,0x00E0,0x001C,0x0000,0x0000, 0x01E0,0x001E,0x0000,0x0000,0x01C0,0x000E,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0380,0x0007,0x0000,0x0000,0x0780,0x0007,0x8000,0x0000, 0x0F00,0x0003,0xC000,0x0000,0x3F80,0x0007,0xF000,0x0000, 0xFFE0,0x001F,0xFC00,0x0000,0xFFE0,0x001F,0xFC00,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000 @alex --- arpanet: dupuy@columbia.edu uucp: ...!seismo!columbia!dupuy [[ In the archives as "sun-icons/ad-x.icon". --wnl ]] ------------------------------ End of SUN-Spots Digest ***********************