jonm@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Jonathan Meyer) (12/14/89)
Replies to me please - I'll summarise if enough interest is shown. Warning - long and probably of minor interest . CONTENTS (I've saved these up for a few weeks now :-) -- tar and remote drives -- sendmail problem -- suggestion for interactive -- fussy booting -- GNU gas -- fdisk+mkfs -- nfsd question -- termcap entries -- ffs -- summary -- tar and remote drives ---------------------------------------------- I am connected to a network of suns, several of which have tape drives. I assume that I can use rsh+tar to backup to these drives - does anyone have experience with this? If I make a backup accross a network, and the worst happens - my drive crunches - can I restore from remote sites without having to reinstall the whole of my unix system? It seems that the provision for remote restoration of partitions is limited, considering that most sites probably have more unix boxes than tape drives. -- sendmail problem --------------------------------------------------- I may have a corrupted sendmail, since every time I try to run it as a daemon, it just leaves a core dump in /usr/spool/mqueue. If I try to send remote mail manually, it gets to the stage of trying to make an ethernet connection to the mail host, and gives up. Could this be a problem with my rpc mechanism? I am running version 5.8 of sendmail, and 2.0.2 386/ix +NFS + TCP/IP - do others have these problems? -- suggestion for interactive ----------------------------------------- I recently read that SCO's updates were available using dialup UUCP. Since I currently am waiting for the X Server update disk, from which I only want one file, this sounds like a great idea. -- fussy booting ------------------------------------------------------ My system can be quite fussy when it comes to booting - when the systems lid is off, the system often won't boot. Serial cards are especially offensive. Printers are best kept plugged in and on, since they can be the cause of the problem. I agree with what others have said on the net: if it won't boot, strip the system to bare essentials, and try again. The idea of copying my kernal to the boot floppy sounds good - I'll try that soon. My monitor can also cause problems if I switch it on and off to much, so I just leave it on, and use a screen blanker. My keyboard also occasionally causes problems. Mostly, these are teething problems, and my system now runs quite happily so long as I don't tamper with him! -- GNU gas ------------------------------------------------------------ I need to do some hand-coded assembler work, and so need a good assembler that works on System/V machines. The as(1) is fine, except that manuals don't exist for it, and it is AT&T syntax instead of Intel syntax, which is used on the Sequent Symmetry that we have here. So I got GNU/gas1.34 from the nets. It compiles fine, and seems to work, but it produces object modules that are described by file as: amain.o: pdp11/pre System V vax executable not stripped The as(1) produces object modules like: test.o: iAPX 386 executable not stripped - version 30821 Is this a problem? Does gas generate COFF or not? Does anyone know of good documentation of the mnemonics of gas for the 386/387, since the gas-doc.tex file I have is only a general description of gas. -- fdisk+mkfs --------------------------------------------------------- For those of you that are interested, I found breaking my DOS partition into a smaller DOS partition and a unix partition very simple. I just used fdisk, as described in the installation manual regarding creating more than DOS/386ix partitions on the drive, used mkfs as per mkfs(1), ran labelit(1) to give the fs a name, and modified /etc/fstab to mount the drive on bootup. I will soon get lost+found working, as per letters to this newsgroup above. More info available on request. -- nfsd question ------------------------------------------------------ Every time I use filesystems which are nfs mounted from our suns, the nfsd on the sun jumps straight to the top of the load monitor for that sun, and stays there. The load goes from about 3.0 to about 9.0! This seems to happen only when I am doing intensive disk access (eg compiling remote files), and not when I copy individual files. Does anyone else have this problem, and a simple fix. Details available on request. -- termcap entries ---------------------------------------------------- I run X11 version 1.0 using VGA graphics. The xterm termcap entries seems to be lacking some features, like cursor keys, since vi doesn't work with cursor keys unless you set term to vt100 or some such. Doing that means that pagers like more leave ugly lines on the window when they print "-- more --" in bold at the bottom of each page. Is this fixed in version 1.1, or can someone send me the correct termcap entry. (xterms is no better). When I rlogin to another machine from an xterm, the stty gets the rows and columns wrong (columns 0!). Any clues as to why? This doesn't happen on other X machines that we have here. Finally, what equivelants are there for the AT386 on berkeley machines? Do I have to go to every host we have here and modify the termcap? Or can I set TERM to vt100 or some such? -- ffs ---------------------------------------------------------------- The fast file system is VERY fast! I only have a 386sx, pushed to 20mhz, but the system runs very quickly. Impressed - you try using a HP Bobcat, and then complain about the speed of 386/ix! In fact, I am constantly puzzled by speed factors: ps(1) runs far quicker on my humble 386 than it does on a sun4, and logins are quicker as well. Now all I need is those pretty BSD extensions :-) -- summary ------------------------------------------------------------ I bought Interactive 386/ix while I was working in USA for a while last year. I have been very happy with 386/ix - though I wish I was still in the states, since support and upgrades were easier to come by there, and updates don't arrive here as quickly. If I were still in the States, I could probably pester Interactive for questions to above, but it is quicker and easier to post comp.i386 - so hard luck. Regarding people moaning about ISC (mentioning no names), this does not seem at all constructive. Whilst spending $3000 on an operating system is a lot, NOVELL charge that for their 386 fileserver software, and that only has networking on it - no X Windows, no utilities, no mail routers, no multiuser capabilities. The system doubtless has bugs. Support is charged per minute, and even their brochures cost money! I'm not complaining - just trying to put things in perspective. Jon
palowoda@fiver.UUCP (Bob Palowoda) (12/16/89)
From article <1909@syma.sussex.ac.uk>, by jonm@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Jonathan Meyer): > Regarding people moaning about ISC (mentioning no names), this does not > seem at all constructive. Whilst spending $3000 on an operating system > is a lot, NOVELL charge that for their 386 fileserver software, and that > only has networking on it - no X Windows, no utilities, no mail > routers, no multiuser capabilities. I guess the more you pay for the OS the louder the moans and groans are going to be. At least you compared one overpriced package with another. Still compareing ISC to Novell seems improper. Try comparison's in the same OS, like ISC vers Intel's vers Dell's vers ESIX vers SCO vers ATT. I suspect when S5.4 goes resale ISC's 3.2 will not be worth as much. Novell isn't going to drop thier prices they have no competition. That in my book is worse than ISC. Or even SCO. (Uggh, I can't beleive I said that). > The system doubtless has bugs. Name a system that dosn't have bugs? > Support is charged per minute, and even their brochures cost money! I'm > not complaining - just trying to put things in perspective. If the customer is made aware of the fact that they charge for service I can't see anything wrong with this. In fact I wish all the software companys drop there prices 100 to 200 dollars of the product and tell the customers that if they need service to pay for it. Make it a pay industry so that the worth of the service can be evaluated. i.e. When someone pays SCO 600 for thier level one support and indicates so on the net, but has a problem the readers take that information as wieghted value. When someone talks about they can't get there uucp working right and calls in, what IS the value of responsible service? You have nothing to make a judgement on because you don't have idea what you paid for the service. Either that or do it free no stings attached. ---Bob -- Bob Palowoda pacbell!indetech!palowoda *Home of Fiver BBS* login: bbs Home {sun|daisy}!ys2!fiver!palowoda (415)-623-8809 1200/2400 Work {sun|pyramid|decwrl}!megatest!palowoda (415)-623-8806 2400/9600/19200 TB Voice: (415)-623-7495 Public access UNIX XBBS