[comp.windows.x] Help with MacX/Ultrix

cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill) (01/04/91)

Does anyone have MacX working with Ultrix?  I've spent several hours
trying to get it working without success, and the manual is remarkably
uninformative about what MacX is really trying to do.  I am not running
A/UX, and the normal Unix box X users have not been much help, since
there is no Unix on the server side.

We have dxterm on the Ultrix  machine, but most often, after issuing a
remote command, nothing at all happens.  I suspect that for some reason,
MacX is not able to login to issue the dxterm command, but can't really
tell.  Nothing shows up in the status window...  Once, out of about 30
tries, I got a "login denied" message.

Any information at all may be helpful....

abm@alan.Apple.COM (Alan Mimms) (01/08/91)

In article <926@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>, cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill) writes:
|> Does anyone have MacX working with Ultrix?  I've spent several hours
|> trying to get it working without success, and the manual is remarkably
|> uninformative about what MacX is really trying to do.  I am not running
|> A/UX, and the normal Unix box X users have not been much help, since
|> there is no Unix on the server side.
|> 
|> We have dxterm on the Ultrix  machine, but most often, after issuing a
|> remote command, nothing at all happens.  I suspect that for some reason,
|> MacX is not able to login to issue the dxterm command, but can't really
|> tell.  Nothing shows up in the status window...  Once, out of about 30
|> tries, I got a "login denied" message.
|> 
|> Any information at all may be helpful....

Since you don't mention many details (e.g., what Ultrix you're using, etc.),
I'm going to take a shot or two in the dark:

[1] If you have Ultrix 4.0 you likely are experiencing a problem in which
Ultrix "rexecd" daemon simply does not work.  MacX uses the "rexec"
protocol to start remote commands.  DEC is aware of this and recommends
you use "/etc/rexecd" from another Ultrix release as a workaround.

[2] If your Macintosh's TCP/IP address does not appear in the /etc/hosts
file of the Ultrix machine, you might be encountering a problem which I
have heretofore only seen on Suns, but might have made its way into Ultrix
by now: if you have no /etc/hosts entry for a client of the "rexec" service
the "rexecd" simply closes the connection with no output or other code to
tell you why.  This is somewhat unfriendly, IMHO.

If neither of these helps, I would appreciate some e-mail to try to track
this down.  Apple and DEC have an Alliance, you know, and we'd like our
stuff to work together as painlessly as possible.

Sorry you're having troubles.
-- 

Alan Mimms (alan@apple.com, ...!apple!alan)   | My opinions are generally
A/UX X group                                  | pretty worthless, but
Apple Computer                                | they *are* my own...
"Laugha whila you can, monkey boy..." -- John Whorfin in Buckaroo Bonzai
"Never rub another man's rhubarb" -- The Joker in BatMan

mattf@cac.washington.edu (Matthew Freedman) (01/08/91)

>[1] If you have Ultrix 4.0 you likely are experiencing a problem in which
>Ultrix "rexecd" daemon simply does not work.  MacX uses the "rexec"
>protocol to start remote commands.  DEC is aware of this and recommends
>you use "/etc/rexecd" from another Ultrix release as a workaround.

Under Ultrix 4.0 MacX's rexec will work only if you log into the
ultrix machine as root.  I believe they fixed rexecd in Ultrix 4.1,
or any of the pre-4.0 versions should work too.

Under multifinder you can also log into the ultrix machine with a
regular NCSA telnet window, and then start off your first xterm with the
display pointed to your MacX screen.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
= Matthew M. Freedman                                                 =
= U. of Washington Information Systems       mattf@cac.washington.edu =
= 4545 15th Ave. NE; 4th Floor               (206) 543-5593           =
= Seattle, WA  98105                                                  =
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-