morris@hssiarl.uucp (Morris Forbes) (01/29/91)
I have, over the past few years, installed quite a few versions of Unix on a variety of platforms. These have included releases of System V from Microport, AT&T, Intel, Bell Technologies, SCO, UHC, and Interactive Systems. Now, I have added the new release of System V release 4 from Dell, and I am pleased to say that it was the most trouble free installation (by far) to date. Good thing - there is almost no documentation shipped with it..... The only real problem I found was with the installation of their TCP/IP using a WD 8003E and tying to a thick ethernet drop through an external transceiver. The self configuration they have builtin to the system does not appear to handle thick ethernet properly (they tell me it works fine with thin). The solution was fortunately simple - just modify the wdn file in /etc/conf/sdevice.d/ and rebuild the kernal. This overrides their self-configuration (and you have to determine values that won't conflict with the rest of their self-configurations), but seems to be a quick and easy thing to implement. I am running on a AMI 33mhz 80486 motherboard with a 600 mb SCSI disk drive and Adaptec 1542B controller, Dell's GPX graphics card (really a Renaissance GRX card) at 1024x768 and a Wangtek 150mb cartridge tape drive. Installation was almost completely automatic and the system has been running for several weeks now with no problems at all. My hats off to Dell for this really clean package. Now, if you'll just ship a little more documentation with it ........ ======================================================================= Morris Forbes Manager, M.I.S. Hughes Simulation Systems, Inc. Standard disclaimers apply .......... ======================================================================= -- Morris Forbes uucp: ...redsim!hssiarl!morris
sblair@upurbmw.dell.com (Steve Blair) (01/29/91)
Several customers have expressed confusion about manual sets for SYS V.4 . AT&T has licsensing issues, and in the licsensing issues also comes manuals. People looking for SYSV.4 manuals can get them from: UNIX PRESS Prentice Hall NUTshell Handbooks We(as others do) make available documentation that defines what *we've* done with our SYSV.4 implementations. If you want to purchase the manuals from us, fine then. However, you can also get them from "other" sources. Now, mind you that I don't really care where you get them from *personally* but with the amount of changes that are staring at you with *ANY* SYS V.4 port, you should really spend the $$ 200->400 to CYA.. Not a flame on any SYS V.4 vendor, just some realities... -- Steve Blair DELL UNIX DIVISION sblair@upurbmw.dell.com ================================================================
davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (01/30/91)
In article <1991Jan28.212845.18306@hssiarl.uucp> morris@hssiarl.uucp (Morris Forbes) writes: | The only real problem I found was with the installation of their TCP/IP | using a WD 8003E and tying to a thick ethernet drop through an external | transceiver. The self configuration they have builtin to the system | does not appear to handle thick ethernet properly (they tell me it | works fine with thin). We were a beta site and saw that same problem. They were very helpful and even offered to have someone come out if we couldn't fix it. We thought it might be confused by our class A network. The guys at Dell were sure we had the wrong net mask and broadcast address ;-) I'm waiting to try it with a GRX card, and I hope the performance is better on that system. With the 640x480 I've been running tvtwm (the virtual root window twm) and that works very well if you have enough memory. That's true of all V.4 I've tried, they suck memory. -- bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen) sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
jrh@mustang.dell.com (James Howard) (01/31/91)
In article <1991Jan28.212845.18306@hssiarl.uucp>, morris@hssiarl.uucp (Morris Forbes) writes: > > My hats off to Dell for this really clean package. Now, if you'll just > ship a little more documentation with it ........ > > ======================================================================= > Morris Forbes > Manager, M.I.S. > Hughes Simulation Systems, Inc. I assume that you realize that man pages are distributed online, and printed documentation is available if you want it. If you are interested in more information that what is available including the online docs, I would like to know what you feel is missing so that we can look at correcting that in future releases. James Howard Dell Computer Corp. !'s:uunet!dell!mustang!jrh (512) 343-3480 9505 Arboretum Blvd @'s:jrh@mustang.dell.com Austin, TX 78759-7299
andy@xwkg.Icom.Com (Andrew H. Marrinson) (02/01/91)
morris@hssiarl.uucp (Morris Forbes) writes: >The only real problem I found was with the installation of their TCP/IP >using a WD 8003E and tying to a thick ethernet drop through an external >transceiver. The self configuration they have builtin to the system >does not appear to handle thick ethernet properly (they tell me it >works fine with thin). I don't think this has anything to do with thick vs. thin. It has to do with old vs. new WD8003 cards. Newer WD8003 cards have an EEPROM in which you can store the shared memory address once and it remembers it from then on. Older ones don't have this, instead the driver must tell the card the shared memory address at boot time. We originally used an older card on thin Ethernet, and had the same problem you described. When we switched to a newer WD8003 (and maybe programmed its EEPROM with a DOS utility from WD) the auto-configuration worked fine. > The solution was fortunately simple - just >modify the wdn file in /etc/conf/sdevice.d/ and rebuild the kernal. Yes, this also works. Note that they point out that you must do this for the 16 bit WD card (in the one manual you do get with DELL V.4). I think that is because that card doesn't have the EEPROM. In general I was also quite pleased with Dell's V.4. I wish they were a little more flexible about non-Dell hardware, although I can understand there reticence to support it more fully. We are using non-Dell hardware ourselves, and I don't think we are having any serious problems because of this, but it does make me nervous that support might be refused at any time because of this. It will be interesting to see what Interactive does... -- Andrew H. Marrinson Icom Systems, Inc. Wheeling, IL, USA (andy@icom.icom.com)
richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) (02/01/91)
> > My hats off to Dell for this really clean package. Now, if you'll just > > ship a little more documentation with it ........ > > >I assume that you realize that man pages are distributed online, and printed >documentation is available if you want it. If you are interested in more >information that what is available including the online docs, I would like >to know what you feel is missing so that we can look at correcting that in >future releases. Are the on-line docs in source form or pre-formatted? -- Richard Foulk richard@pegasus.com
dewey@dell.dell.com (Dewey Coffman) (02/01/91)
In article <1991Feb1.111039.5463@pegasus.com> richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) writes: >> > My hats off to Dell for this really clean package. Now, if you'll just >> > ship a little more documentation with it ........ >> > >>I assume that you realize that man pages are distributed online, and printed >>documentation is available if you want it. If you are interested in more >>information that what is available including the online docs, I would like >>to know what you feel is missing so that we can look at correcting that in >>future releases. > >Are the on-line docs in source form or pre-formatted? > > "pre-formatted", distributing source is illegal and this applies to nroff source as well as 'C' code. Sorry... dewey -- Dewey Coffman Dell Computer Corp. 9505 Arboretum Blvd. DOMAIN: dewey@dell.com Austin, TX 78759-7299 UUCP: dell!dewey, sooner!dewey
jrh@mustang.dell.com (James Howard) (02/01/91)
In article <1991Feb1.111039.5463@pegasus.com>, richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) writes: > > > My hats off to Dell for this really clean package. Now, if you'll just > > > ship a little more documentation with it ........ > > > > >I assume that you realize that man pages are distributed online, and printed > >documentation is available if you want it. If you are interested in more > >information that what is available including the online docs, I would like > >to know what you feel is missing so that we can look at correcting that in > >future releases. > > Are the on-line docs in source form or pre-formatted? Pre-formatted. AT&T says source to man-pages is like the rest of the source, in that it requires a source license ($$$). I'm sure if you send AT&T enough dinero, they will be happy to send you the man source... James Howard Dell Computer Corp. !'s:uunet!dell!mustang!jrh (512) 343-3480 9505 Arboretum Blvd @'s:jrh@mustang.dell.com Austin, TX 78759-7299
peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (02/02/91)
In article <14736@uudell.dell.com> jrh@mustang.dell.com (James Howard) writes: > Pre-formatted. AT&T says source to man-pages is like the rest of the > source, in that it requires a source license ($$$). I'm sure if you send > AT&T enough dinero, they will be happy to send you the man source... You know, it occurs to me that a hack to convert nroff -manned output to nroff -man source might be relatively easy to do with a little shell, perl, awk, tcl, or whatever script. The macros are simple enough and the output predictable enough that it shouldn't be too hard. Randall? -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' peter@ferranti.com +1 713 274 5180. 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"
lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) (02/02/91)
In article <3I59Z5G@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: : In article <14736@uudell.dell.com> jrh@mustang.dell.com (James Howard) writes: : > Pre-formatted. AT&T says source to man-pages is like the rest of the : > source, in that it requires a source license ($$$). I'm sure if you send : > AT&T enough dinero, they will be happy to send you the man source... : : You know, it occurs to me that a hack to convert nroff -manned output to : nroff -man source might be relatively easy to do with a little shell, : perl, awk, tcl, or whatever script. The macros are simple enough and the : output predictable enough that it shouldn't be too hard. Randall? Geoff Collyer is working on one of those, according to Henry Spencer. I don't know when he plans to finish it by. But it'd be a fun little project. By the way, it "Randal", if you're referring to my partner in crime. Larry Wall lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) (02/05/91)
As quoted from <andy.665376798@xwkg> by andy@xwkg.Icom.Com (Andrew H. Marrinson): +--------------- | In general I was also quite pleased with Dell's V.4. I wish they were | a little more flexible about non-Dell hardware, although I can | understand there reticence to support it more fully. We are using | non-Dell hardware ourselves, and I don't think we are having any | serious problems because of this, but it does make me nervous that | support might be refused at any time because of this. | | It will be interesting to see what Interactive does... +--------------- It's a pity neither is likely to support Altos MDC/2, so we could drop SCO Uglix and get a *real* Unix... [1/2 :-)] +--------------- | Andrew H. Marrinson | Icom Systems, Inc. +--------------- (Surely not *that* Icom...! --never mind. ;-) ++Brandon -- Me: Brandon S. Allbery VHF/UHF: KB8JRR on 220, 2m, 440 Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG Packet: KB8JRR @ WA8BXN America OnLine: KB8JRR AMPR: KB8JRR.AmPR.ORG [44.70.4.88] uunet!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery Delphi: ALLBERY
richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) (02/07/91)
>You know, it occurs to me that a hack to convert nroff -manned output to >nroff -man source might be relatively easy to do with a little shell, >perl, awk, tcl, or whatever script. The macros are simple enough and the >output predictable enough that it shouldn't be too hard. Randall? I put a fair bit of work in on doing that, and found that it gets pretty difficult in some places. Like man pages that have tables in them and such... lots of other little gotchas too. -- Richard Foulk richard@pegasus.com
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (02/09/91)
In article <3I59Z5G@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >In article <14736@uudell.dell.com> jrh@mustang.dell.com (James Howard) writes: >> Pre-formatted. AT&T says source to man-pages is like the rest of the >> source, in that it requires a source license ($$$). I'm sure if you send >> AT&T enough dinero, they will be happy to send you the man source... >You know, it occurs to me that a hack to convert nroff -manned output to >nroff -man source might be relatively easy to do with a little shell, >perl, awk, tcl, or whatever script. The macros are simple enough and the >output predictable enough that it shouldn't be too hard. Randall? In faaaact .. I vaguely recall a posting in comp.sources.misc sometime in the last few months by Henry Spencer which was *exactly* that. (Written in shell+awk). As I recall there was a comment at the beginning to the effect "I don't believe I did this." -- <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- MS-DOS ... The ultimate computer virus.