[comp.unix.aix] Miscellaneous questions - RS6000

ijlustig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Irvin Lustig) (12/09/90)

We've been using our 530 for a few months now.  I believe that we
have Version 3.1 (release 3001??) of AIX.  Some oddities that we've
noticed...
1) Occasionally, a user will log out from the machine, but who and
   finger show the user as still logged in.  finger will show the
   user as being idle for many many days (sometimes 300 days!).  Then
   at some later arbitrary time, the user disappears.  Has anyone else
   seen this?
2) We have MANY DEC LK 201 keyboards that have one key that generates
   a delete (ASCII 127) and no key that generates a backspace.  These
   keyboards are either on Vaxstations, which have vt100 or vt200
   emulator windows, or on vt220 terminals.  If you connect (via telnet)
   up to the RS6000 and try to set term=vt220, then vi does not work properly
   as the delete key gets mapped to the 'x' command in vi.  Presumably,
   this is because the terminfo mapping for the vt220 has an entry for
   kdch1, and vi looks at that.  The only solution I could find was to
   create two new terminal types, vt100-p and vt220-p, which are the
   same as vt100 and vt220, but leave out any key definition for kdch1.
   Was there some simpler solution???  Was IBM wrong in including the
   kdch1 key definitions in the terminfo for the vt100 and vt220?
   A check of the terminfo (infocmp, tic) descriptions on an SGI
   machine and a Sun indicated that the presence of kdch1 in the
   IBM descriptions was incorrect.
3) We built the xedit that was supplied in /usr/lpp/X11/Xamples/clients
   and have found that it bombs if you edit a file name with exactly
   8 characters in it. Apparently this is the X11R3 xedit.  Does IBM
   have an intention of supplying X11R4?  Or do we need to port it over
   ourselves?
4) I heard a rumor that Radio Shack is suing IBM for trademark 
   infringement for use of the name RS/6000.  Anyone want to
   substantiate this?

I apologize if these discussions have occurred already on this
newsgroup.  I have just started reading it, and am not sure I'll
have the time to keep up.  Please post any responses to the group
AND send me a copy via e-mail.  Thanks in advance for any help/comments!

	-Irv Lustig
	Assistant Professor
	Dept. of Civil Engineering and Operations Research
	Princeton University
	irv%basie@princeton.edu

jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II) (12/10/90)

In article <4585@idunno.Princeton.EDU> ijlustig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Irvin Lustig) writes:
>4) I heard a rumor that Radio Shack is suing IBM for trademark 
>   infringement for use of the name RS/6000.  Anyone want to
>   substantiate this?

So far as I know the rumored lawsuit has to do with some car
company that holds the trademark on "RS 6000".  However, IBM
does not use this trademark, so I don't see how anyone can
sue IBM.

The "official" name of the machine is "RISC System/6000", and
the "official" abbreviation is "S/6000", not "RS/6000".  There
are quite a few people on networks who refer to the machine
as the "RS/6000", but that isn't IBM's fault (just as there
are people who still refer to it using a certain Spanish
word ...)

I happen to own a Tandy 6000, and it isn't an "RS/6000".  The
"TRS-80" machines never made it past "Model 16B" - there was
never a "RS/6000" from Tandy Corp.  All of the > 1000 numbered
systems were "Tandy xxxx".  (I also own a TRS-80 Model 16B,
and even it isn't an "RS/16B" ;-)
-- 
John F. Haugh II                             UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832                           Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org

eddjp@edi386.UUCP ( Dewey Paciaffi ) (12/10/90)

In article <4585@idunno.Princeton.EDU> ijlustig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Irvin Lustig) writes:
>We've been using our 530 for a few months now.  I believe that we
>have Version 3.1 (release 3001??) of AIX.  Some oddities that we've
>noticed...
-1) Occasionally, a user will log out from the machine, but who and
-   finger show the user as still logged in.  finger will show the
-   user as being idle for many many days (sometimes 300 days!).  Then
-   at some later arbitrary time, the user disappears.  Has anyone else
-   seen this?

Yes,  I've seen this and no longer trust the output of 'w', 'who', and
'last'. Something is screwy in AIX's perception of who's logged in and
who isn't.


-- 
Dewey Paciaffi           ...!uunet!edi386!eddjp

3003jalp@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Applied Magnetics) (12/11/90)

In article <4585@idunno.Princeton.EDU> ijlustig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Irvin Lustig) writes:

>We've been using our 530 for a few months now.  I believe that we
>have Version 3.1 (release 3001??) of AIX.  Some oddities that we've
>noticed...
>1) Occasionally, a user will log out from the machine, but who and
>   finger show the user as still logged in.  finger will show the
>   user as being idle for many many days (sometimes 300 days!).  Then
>   at some later arbitrary time, the user disappears.  Has anyone else
>   seen this?

Yes.  I telnet to another workstation (RISC6K's only) and find myself
logged in several times, according to `who'.  However, `ps -fu <me>'
shows only the `ps' and the waiting shell.  As if /etc/utmp wasn't
getting updated at logout --but I'm guessing.

--Pierre Asselin, R&D, Applied Magnetics Corp.  I speak for me.

gs26@prism.gatech.EDU (Glenn R. Stone) (12/11/90)

In <125@edi386.UUCP> eddjp@edi386.UUCP ( Dewey Paciaffi ) writes:

>In article <4585@idunno.Princeton.EDU> ijlustig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Irvin Lustig) writes:
>-1) Occasionally, a user will log out from the machine, but who and
>-   finger show the user as still logged in.  finger will show the
>-   user as being idle for many many days (sometimes 300 days!).
>Yes,  I've seen this and no longer trust the output of 'w', 'who', and
>'last'. Something is screwy in AIX's perception of who's logged in and
>who isn't.

The '6000 is not the only place I've seen this behaviour; Sun 3/60's 
running SunOS 3.5 and 4.0.3 will do this too.  I think it has something
to do with the way /etc/utmp is (not) written....  Rebooting the 
machine invariably clears the problem, for what it's worth...

I've not seen last do what it does on the '6000 elsewhere, though.
That phenomenon is entirely unique....

-- Glenn R. Stone
gs26@prism.gatech.edu