pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) (02/23/90)
While waiting inbetween logins, I'd like to make the display manager show the name of the node as well as the usual "login:" prompt. Does anybody know how to do this? I've played around with the various "startup*" files for the DM to no avail. It seems like the three windows at the bottom are some sort of special case; any other windows get removed when the user logs out. I'm one of a few people who look after a labful of Apollo machines and it would make my life a little easier if I could find out node names at a glance. Any help would be greatly appreciated. --- Peter Phillips <pphillip@cs.ubc.ca> | If an airplane crashes on the US/Canada UBC Computer Science, Vancouver,B.C.| border, where are the survivors buried?
dan@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Dan Freedman) (02/25/90)
In article <6900@ubc-cs.UUCP> pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) writes: >I'm one of a few people who look after a labful of Apollo machines and >it would make my life a little easier if I could find out node names >at a glance. Well, it might sound a bit quaint, but why not stick a label on the front of each machine with its name on it. This solution has the advantages of being relatively stable with respect to operating system upgrades, and has been known to work well in a heterogeneous distributed environment. Your local stationary store should be able to ship you the solution on the media of your choice, with quite reasonable maintenance fees. All of the labels that I have seen not only support English, but deal nicely with right-to-left scripting styles such as Hebrew. Kanji support should be available by the time you read this. Dan Freedman Dan Freedman University of Calgary Computer Science Department 2500 University Drive N.W. dan@ksi.cpsc.UCalgary.CA Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4
pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) (02/25/90)
In article <2550@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> dan@ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca.UUCP (Dan Freedman) writes: >In article <6900@ubc-cs.UUCP> pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) writes: >>I'm one of a few people who look after a labful of Apollo machines and >>it would make my life a little easier if I could find out node names >>at a glance. > > >Well, it might sound a bit quaint, but why not stick a label on >the front of each machine with its name on it. This solution has Thanks for the advice. Pieces of dead trees with scribblings on them don't inspire too much confidence in me. Who is to say what is actually written on the paper is up to date? What is someone removes the paper? The node node is just one example of information I might want to display. Suppose some software package is available on a select few nodes. It would be nice to put up a message like "this node has lisp++" or "you can't run lisp++ here" and be able to do it remotely rather than trucking over to the lab with scotch tape & paper in hand. So, the question remains. Is there any way to convince the display manager to leave any sort of message on the screen between logins? Or even change what the "login:" prompt says? Surely the display manager is at least as flexible as the BSD login program. --- Peter Phillips <pphillip@cs.ubc.ca> | If an airplane crashes on the US/Canada (604)-228-4392 | border, where are the survivors buried?
lori@hacgate.scg.hac.com (Lori + 7/9) (03/01/90)
In article <6923@ubc-cs.UUCP> pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) writes: > Is there any way to convince the display manager >to leave any sort of message on the screen between logins? Or even change >what the "login:" prompt says? I'm assuming that something about ENV NODEID isn't what you are looking for here, so a few more thoughts: Look at the MSG command and see if it does what you want. You can read environment variables from the DM with ENV, grab the string in a buffer, (not lost even after logout), and dump it out in the DM output window with MSG. Remember if you call it with XDMC from a shell script, you have to enclose the whole command string in double quotes (under Aegis, anyway). Or maybe you could fiddle with the '&' command. Or even CV or CRPAD a file up in a corner at logout. Please let us know what you get to work. ...lori
dan@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Dan Freedman) (03/03/90)
In article <6923@ubc-cs.UUCP> pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) writes: >The node node is just one example of information I might want to display. >Suppose some software package is available on a select few nodes. It >would be nice to put up a message like "this node has lisp++" or >"you can't run lisp++ here" and be able to do it remotely rather than >trucking over to the lab with scotch tape & paper in hand. You might try putting things in the /etc/motd file which is displayed whenever anyone logs in (yes, I know, you'd like to know about this stuff BEFORE you log in). Another possibility is to put up an X window after someone logs out, in which the information you need is presented. Dan Freedman Dan Freedman University of Calgary Computer Science Department 2500 University Drive N.W. dan@ksi.cpsc.UCalgary.CA Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4
ananth@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ananth Annapragada) (03/04/90)
n article <6923@ubc-cs.UUCP> pphillip@cs.ubc.ca (Peter Phillips) writes: >The node node is just one example of information I might want to display. >Suppose some software package is available on a select few nodes. It >would be nice to put up a message like "this node has lisp++" or >"you can't run lisp++ here" and be able to do it remotely rather than >trucking over to the lab with scotch tape & paper in hand. If what you want to do is leave a window of some kind displaying all the relevant node parameters, that would be kind of inconvenient to do in the login line. What you might do rather is run a server (via crp or suchlike) which crpad's a parameter file to the screen upon logout, and wakes up ever so often to check if the pad is up or not... Make sense?
ashley@cheops.eecs.unsw.oz (Ashley Aitken) (03/14/90)
You could just insert a pseudo user, for example, nodeinfo (with no password), which could have a small shell script as its shell, to display (in the display manager window) the name and id of the node. I was hoping the folks in charge of our network would perhaps do this, but alas ... You still have to login though. I agree with you that it would be much nicer (and rather obvious I feel) to display the node name (and perhaps the node id) at the login prompt. Perhaps you aren't supposed to know! The network is the computer ... Its all transparent ... :-) Cheers, Ashley Aitken. ashley@cheops.eecs.unsw.oz.au