[comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt] Printer Problem And Minidisk Problem

rcsh@yamnet.UUCP (/999999999) (03/28/89)

 Recently had posted a request for feedback for a printer driver 
 (perceived) problem. My RT then proceeded  to die (inode count 
 on a minidisk, more later), I was down for a couple days and 
 lost about two days of news. Fearing I may of missed the 
 any posting concerning the printer problem.  I'm asking anyone
 who posted any comments to repost, I also lost mail. 

 On to a more serious issue, the one that caused my problems.
 I tried to create a filesystem on a 300 Meg minidisk for 
 news. Having run out Inodes on the previous filesystem I
 was determined to create a filesystem more apropos to News,
 that is, one with a excess of Inodes.  I tried a straight mkfs
 first:

 mkfs /dev/hd7 605469:96000

 This proceeded to create the filesystem with the default inode
 amount (5% of the number of blocks).

 To beat this I created a proto file of an empty directory and
 specified the block and Inode count in the proto file. Then 
 made the filesystem using this proto file. With the filesystem
 built I do a df, AIX tells me that I've already used 68% on my
 inodes on this empty filesystem. Thinking that df might be brain
 damage I proceeded to create 40,000 files with no problem.
 Presuming I was fine, that df was hosed, I ran uucico with this 
 filesystem as /usr/spool and am kindly informed I have no free
 Inodes!  I have tried reducing the number of total blocks from
 605469 all the way down to 520000 in an attempt to get this 
 working....no luck.

 Any Ideas?
 
 Here is a long transcript of the series of commands to just
 create the filesystem. This is on a 6150 model 135, running
 AIX 2.2.1 and the very latest updates. Comments have been added,
 enclosed in hard brackets ([]).

 --Begin Transcript--

[ First create the minidisk on the *Porta-file* ]

	MINIDISK CUSTOMIZING COMMANDS



Minidisks commands are:


Command	Description

add		Create a new minidisk
change	Change mount characteristics of an existing minidisk
delete	Delete an existing minidisk
show	Show minidisk information


To EXIT the minidisks command, press F3.

To USE a minidisks command, type the command and press Enter.

> add

Processing minidisk information...


Will there be an AIX file system on this minidisk ?
	yes
	no


Type yes or no and press Enter.


> no
The following block sizes are available for this minidisk:

512
1024
2048


To choose from the list, type the blocksize and press Enter.

To SHOW minidisk information in requested blocksize, press F2.


> 512

Type the number of 512 blocks for this minidisk and press Enter.



To SHOW minidisk information in requested blocksize, press F2.


> 605469

The following fixed disks are available:

hdisk0
hdisk1
hdisk2
hdisk5



Type the fixed disk on which to create this minidisk
and press Enter.

To SHOW minidisk information in requested blocksize, press F2.


> hdisk5

If you do not choose a location for this minidisk on the disk,
the minidisk will be placed in the first available free space on the disk.
Do you want to choose a location ?

	yes
	no


Type yes or no and press Enter.

To SHOW minidisk information in requested blocksize, press F2.


> n

Minidisk Name: hd7

The following information can be changed:
Name	Description		Current   	Possible Choice		Choices

bs	Block Size			512			512,1024,2048
nob	Number of Blocks	605469
fd	Fixed Disk			hdisk5   	hdisk0,hdisk1,...


To CHANGE a current choice, type the name followed by your new choice
(example: nob 1000), and press Enter.
To CANCEL creation of this minidisk, press F3.
To CREATE this minidisk with the current choices, press Enter.
To SHOW minidisk information, press F2.


>

Creating the minidisk...

The minidisk has been successfully created.  The minidisk name
is hd7


To CONTINUE, press Enter.

> 

End Minidisk Session.

[ Now the proto-file ]

# mkdir empty_directory
# proto empty_directory >proto_file
# vi proto_file				[ Add Filesystem Spec Lines ]
# cat proto_file
: Prototype file for empty_directory
/etc/boot 605469 96000    
: FS line:	 boot  num_blks  num_inodes
d--755  0 0   
  $
$
# mkfs /dev/hd7 proto_file
mkfs: destroy /dev/rhd7 (y)?y
Bootstrap Length 28148 (0x6e18), seglen 77824 (0x13000)
Device /dev/rhd7:
	From prototype: proto_file
	fs size: 605469		inodes:  96000   [ <- Note number of Inodes ]
	interleave: 508:4	cluster: 2048
	fsys id: NONAME		pack id: VOLXXX
	boot pgm: /etc/boot
# mount /dev/hd7 /usr/empty/directory
# df
Device             Mounted on            total     free  used     ifree  used
/dev/hd0           /                     38684     8700   77%      9395    6%
/dev/hd2           /usr                  96808    40652   58%     23506    6%
/dev/hd6           /vrm                   3992     1012   74%        32   75%
/dev/hd1           /u                     2772     2752    0%       732    0%
/dev/hd3           /tmp                   4776     4644    2%      1275    0%
/dev/hd11          /v                   137776   117212   14%     31279    2%
/dev/hd10          /w                   139556    82268   41%     14730   17%
/dev/hd7           /usr/empty_directory 593404   593400    0%     30462   68%
[ ** Note Inode Free (ifree) count and percentage! ** ]
# ls -a emp*
.
..
#

-- End Transcript --

Any input would be greatly appreciated, this is getting to be a bit 
too much.

The remaining question in my mind is if I drive my '88 Honda CRX 
(standard model) into an 6150 RT, model 135 running AIX 2.2.1, impacting
at 55 mph, will it damage my car at all?


--
Greg Noel [Gn] Delphi Information Systems, Westlake Vlg, Ca. 
The food is bad, and the portions are small.  -W Allen

njs@scifi.UUCP (Nicholas J. Simicich) (03/29/89)

In article <106@yamnet.UUCP> rcsh@yamnet.UUCP writes:
> (A lot of stuff about not being able to create a file system 
> with a lot of inodes).

Well, unfortunately, AIX/RT is uses 16 bits for ino_t, as an unsigned
short.  So there is no way you can have more than 2**16-1 (65535)
inodes.  I suspect that poor df is underflowing or something.
Unfortunately, however, I've never been successful in convincing mkfs
to actually construct a file system with more than 32000 inodes.  I
suspect it is a hard coded limit, set that way out of paranoia worries
regarding programs that might want to treat the inode number as a
signed short.  Makes it tough to keep a full feed for two weeks, but I
found some groups to expire early :-).

In any case, the output from df seems bogus.

Additionally, 2.2 as distributed had the disappearing inode bug.  If
you are trying to run news on 2.2, make sure you get a recent version
of the fix diskettes from support.

-- 
Nick Simicich --- uunet!bywater!scifi!njs --- njs@ibm.com (Internet)

jim@applix.UUCP (Jim Morton) (03/30/89)

In article <106@yamnet.UUCP>, rcsh@yamnet.UUCP (/999999999) writes:
>  I tried to create a filesystem on a 300 Meg minidisk for news. Having run 
>  out of Inodes on the previous filesystem I was determined to create a 
>  filesystem more apropos to News, that is, one with a excess of Inodes.  
>  I tried a straight mkfs first:   mkfs /dev/hd7 605469:96000

I always find it easier to just do a backup by NAME, boot up the installation
and maintenance diskette, and use the "make a file system" option which asks
you for how many inodes (files). Then reboot AIX and restore your partition's
files. Make sure you do a backup by name, though, or you won't be able to 
restore your files or it will restore the same old minidisk layout and file
system parameters.
--
Jim Morton, APPLiX Inc., Westboro, MA
UUCP: ...harvard!m2c!applix!jim
      jim@applix.m2c.org

gn@yamnet.UUCP (/999999999) (04/08/89)

In article <568@scifi.UUCP>, njs@scifi.UUCP (Nicholas J. Simicich) writes:
> In article <106@yamnet.UUCP> rcsh@yamnet.UUCP writes:
> > (A lot of stuff about not being able to create a file system 
> > with a lot of inodes).  [Including Proto file examples ]
> 
> Well, unfortunately, AIX/RT is uses 16 bits for ino_t, as an unsigned
> short.  So there is no way you can have more than 2**16-1 (65535)
> inodes.  I suspect that poor df is underflowing or something.
> Unfortunately, however, I've never been successful in convincing mkfs
> to actually construct a file system with more than 32000 inodes.  I

This turns out to be the problem, and I have successfully created 
a minidisk/filesystem with 64000 inodes. You are correct, mkfs will
not except more then 32000 as a parameter, so you have to fool it.
The way I accomplished this is with a proto generated file. The 
problem isn't just with df though, if it was, I could live with it -
uucp also checks if there are enough inodes to do business and fails.

Thanks to those who helped me out on this.

Has anyone had any luck with the problem of the open to the printer 
that never fails?  No help from IBM on this (not surprisingly).

From the front line:

Level I & II support for AIX 2.2 ends 5/1. IBM policy states that they 
will support both the current version and the previous version
of AIX. Asking about what appears to be a contradiction, I was told
that there was no contradiction, they will be supporting 2.1
(previous version) and 2.2.1 (current).  The changes between 2.2 and
2.2.1 strike me as much more severe then that of 2.1 to 2.2. Bad news
when you have an installed base of +300 machines mostly running 2.2,
and none running 2.2.1 (we haven't upgraded our turn-key package yet).
This lack of support is discouraging, and would upset me much more if
support was actually able to resolve the problems I've been encountering
with AIX (gumbyware like snaconfig for one).  Anyone had any real luck
(other then quickly delivered updates) from IBM support?
Isn't there a charge to update to 2.2.1 ? (we have a couple of machines
running 2.2.1, but I don't handle the purchasing) 

--
Greg Noel [Gn] Delphi Information Systems, Westlake Vlg, Ca. 
Nothing Works, and Nobody Cares -W. Allen
-- 
--
Greg Noel [Gn] Delphi Information Systems, Westlake Vlg, Ca. 
The food is bad, and the portions are small.  -W Allen