barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) (03/27/91)
Our DECsystem 5400 (Ultrix 4.0, Rev. 179) started crashing mysteriously one day. We traced the problem to LAT (/etc/lcp in rc.local), and DEC had a kernel patch for the problem: >The kernel modules in file lat.24SEP90.tar correct the following problems: >... > 2) PANICS > The following panics have been fixed: > > "unaligned access" - caused by receipt of a large status message This fixed the crashing, but has hosed our Imagen printer. It has been connected to a DECserver 200 terminal server for many months in its current configuration, working perfectly. As soon as we installed the LAT patches on our 5400, the Imagen refused to print binary files (such as TeX DVI files). The symptoms are that the files enter the printer but do not come out. If you send an ordinary text file to the printer, it "pushes out" the pages of the old binary file printout (totally garbled). In addition, print jobs sometimes just hang, saying "no daemon present" or "waiting for imagen to connect" (lpq messages). Ultrix Software Support tried to help us for a while, but finally said (oh, those famous words), "Sorry, the Imagen is not a supported printer" and that was the end of the help. So now, the best printer in our department doesn't work anymore. (1) Can anyone help? So far, we have already tried using different ttys for the printer, and moving the "op" and "ts" printcap items onto the /etc/lcp command line. No dice. I am toying with the idea of setting up a remote print queue on a different machine for the Imagen. But this is a last resort, since our "other machines" are unreliable. (2) Has anyone else gotten these LAT patches and had a similar problem? (3) Will DEC ever consider my problem as an Ultrix LAT problem, or is this unlikely ever to be "fixed" in later versions of Ultrix? Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett, Department of Computer Science Johns Hopkins University | | INTERNET: barrett@cs.jhu.edu | | | COMPUSERVE: >internet:barrett@cs.jhu.edu | UUCP: barrett@jhunix.UUCP | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) (03/28/91)
In article <7834@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> I wrote: >As soon as we installed the LAT patches on our 5400, the Imagen refused to >print binary files.... >In addition, print jobs sometimes just hang, saying "no daemon present" or >"waiting for imagen to connect" (lpq messages). I forgot to mention how I fix the problem (temporarily). I kill and restart LAT (/etc/lcp -t, followed by /etc/lcp -s -h ...), and the queued file prints. Sometimes I have to kill/restart several times. The next time I send a file, it hangs in the queue again. Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett, Department of Computer Science Johns Hopkins University | | INTERNET: barrett@cs.jhu.edu | | | COMPUSERVE: >internet:barrett@cs.jhu.edu | UUCP: barrett@jhunix.UUCP | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
jv@mh.nl (Johan Vromans) (03/28/91)
In article <7834@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> I wrote: > As soon as we installed the LAT patches on our 5400, the Imagen refused to > print binary files.... > In addition, print jobs sometimes just hang, saying "no daemon present" or > "waiting for imagen to connect" (lpq messages). I have the same problems, but I can add extra information. I have two systems (DECsystem5000/200's) that are clustered together. They run Ultrix 4.0. They share the /usr file system, but they have their own private / and /var . Their kernels are identical. In the original set-up, system ONE did the printing via LAT, and system TWO printed remote on ONE. Both system accepted LAT sessions. Then system ONE started crashing with the problems described in the referenced articles. So I disabled LAT on ONE, and had system TWO printing directly via LAT. This way I had two systems running, though only one of them supported LAT. Then I patched the kernel of ONE, after which it could handle LAT again. But now it exposes the printer problems. System TWO, with an un-patched kernel, still runs, accepts LAT connections and prints via LAT. If the problem were in the network or in the terminal servers --we have DECserver200's-- I would have expected both systems to suffer. If it were in the (Ultrix-) software, I would also expect both systems to suffer equally. Both systems are doing well on TCP/IP and NFS, so the network hardware seems reliable. Wonderful, isn't it? Johan -- Johan Vromans jv@mh.nl via internet backbones Multihouse Automatisering bv uucp: ..!{uunet,hp4nl}!mh.nl!jv Doesburgweg 7, 2803 PL Gouda, The Netherlands phone/fax: +31 1820 62911/62500 ------------------------ "Arms are made for hugging" -------------------------