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Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1,comp.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!nyx10!jbunch From: jbunch@nyx10.cs.du.edu (John B. Bunch) Subject: comp.sys.3b1 FAQ part1 Message-ID: <1993Nov29.023542.5998@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Followup-To: comp.sys.3b1 Summary: This Posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) about 3b1 computers. It should be read by all who want to participate in the comp.sys.3b1 newsgroup. X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver for the Denver community. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users. Sender: usenet@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (netnews admin account) Reply-To: 3b1-faq@nyx.cs.du.edu Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 02:35:42 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 925 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.sys.3b1:9236 comp.answers:2813 news.answers:15137 Archive-name: 3b1-faq/part1 Version: $Id: 3b1-faq-part1,v 2.3 1992/06/30 23:17:26 jbunch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | Answers to some frequently asked questions about the AT&T UNIX PC, | | as well as some frequent problems, hints, and solutions. | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [$Revision: 2.3 $ $Date: 92/06/30 23:17:48 $] Send updates to 3b1-faq@nyx.cs.du.edu. Part 1 of 2 This article contains answers to the following questions: 1) What exactly are the AT&T UNIX PC, PC7300, and 3B1? 2) What is the operating system? Its origins? 3) What are the "OSU Archives"? 4) Who supports these machines? Are there any user groups? 5) Where can I get my machine serviced or fixed? 6) How do I get my free Personal Calendar program? 7) What is "THE STORE!" and how can I access it? 8) Is there any GNU software available? 9) Is the X Window system available for the UNIX PC? 10) What's MGR? 11) How can I get a full 360kB when I format a MS-DOS floppy on the UNIX PC? 12) Are there any other utilities for fiddling with MS-DOS floppies? 13) What commercial software was available for the UNIX PC? 14) Can I use the GNU C compiler in place of the hard-to-find development set? 15) What do I with old object-file archives? 16) How do I restore from a backup when one of the floppies is bad? 17) How can I make a floppy-disk-based UNIX for fsck'ing the hard drive? 18) How can I get the machine to ask the device and program to boot from? 19) How do I get multiple login windows? 20) What the heck is a +IN suffix on a file? 21) What do the HDERR (FDERR, or TPERR) messages in /usr/adm/unix.log mean? 22) Why are the header files missing after an install of the Development Set? 23) Why is the machine is booting over and over? 24) Is HoneyDanBer UUCP available to replace the stock uucp software? 25) Why doesn't the On-Board Modem (OBM) work with some other modems? 26) How do I get my on-board modem to be a dial-out-only modem? 27) Does the on-board modem support 2400 bps? 28) Why aren't the lpadmin, accept, and reject commands working right? 29) Why are all the jobs on the printer always followed by a formfeed? 30) Why can't I send bitmapped images to the printer correctly? 31) How do I configure a Hayes compatible external modem on the UNIX PC? 32) Any tips on building Cnews? 33) What are lipc and nipc, and how can I use nipc instead of lipc? 34) What third-party hardware is available? 35) Can I put a 68881 math coprocessor in my machine? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- General ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) What exactly are the AT&T UNIX PC, PC7300, and 3B1? The name "UNIX PC" is a catch-all name for a set of machines developed by Convergent Technologies (now part of Unisys) and sold by AT&T in the mid to late 80's, all having the same basic configuration: o 10MHz 68010 with custom MMU o demand paged, virtual memory UNIX (max. process size 2.5M) o 10/20/40/67MB disk o 512k/1M/2MB RAM o monochrome, quasi-Hercules display As marketing strategies changed and basic features were added, the original offering (the PC7300) became known as the 3B1. The 7300 machines featured 512k RAM on the motherboard with a 10 or 20MB disk. The later 3B1 machines had 1M or 2M on the motherboard, and came with a 40 or 67MB disk. Accommodating the larger, full-height drives in the 3B1 required that a hump be added to the sloping, wedge-shaped case top. The 3B1 also has a heftier power supply. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2) What is the operating system? Its origins? The operating system is based on UNIX System V Release 2, with extensions from BSD 4.1, BSD 4.2, System V Release 3 and Convergent Technologies. The most recent version is 3.51, with a 3.51m FIXDISK (2.0) available. The FIXDISK was available from AT&T directly, but is now only available on the OSU Archives as FIXDISK2.0+IN. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3) What are the "OSU Archives"? OSU-CIS is an Ohio State University computer system which holds a very large selection of UNIX-PC-related programs and files. David Brierley (dave@galaxia.network23.com) is the current maintainer of the archives. Ohio State graciously allows both anonymous FTP and UUCP access to this archive. For FTP from the Internet, access is via the machine archive.cis.ohio-state.edu (IP address: 128.146.8.52). They recommend the following L.sys (Systems) entries: # # Direct Trailblazer # dead, dead, dead...sigh. for the 3rd time in as many months. # #osu-cis Any ACU 19200 1-614-292-5112 in:--in:--in: Uanon # # Direct V.32 (MNP 4) # dead, dead, dead...sigh. # #osu-cis Any ACU 9600 1-614-292-1153 in:--in:--in: Uanon # # Micom port selector, at 1200, 2400, or 9600 bps. # Replace ##'s below with 12, 24, or 96 (both speed and phone number). # Can't use MNP with V.32 on -3196 # osu-cis Any ACU ##00 1-614-292-31## "" \r\c Name? osu-cis nected \c GO \d\r\d\r\d\r\d\r\d\r\d\r\d\r in:--in:--in: Uanon The file ~/att7300/README.Z contains a detailed list of the archive's contents and should be the first thing to get. Another source of software for Internet-connected sites is the anonymous FTP area on ftp.cs.caltech.edu. Andy Fyfe (andy@cs.caltech.edu) maintains new versions of TeX and GNU utilities in the pub/3b1 directory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4) Who supports these machines? Are there any user groups? The primary support for the machine is the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.3b1. There are a lot of dedicated people who enjoy these machines and post a wealth of information to the network. If you are in the Silicon Valley area, contact Thad Floryan (thad@btr.com) for information on how to go to the "AT&T UNIX User's Group" meeting on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Although it's a generic AT&T UNIX group, a large number of the members (including Thad) own UNIX PC's. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5) Where can I get my machine serviced or fixed? This is difficult, since AT&T no longer supports the machine. The only remaining possibility appears to be ``A Small Computer Repair Company'' (ASCRC). They will diagnose your problem, and repair or replace the part that is broken. They will try their hardest to repair the item first. You need to send the computer (or just the component in question) to them. They will repair/replace it and ship it back. Their turn-around time is usually 48-72 hours. They repair AT&T's 6300, 6300+, 7300, 3B1 and UNIX PC computers. For more information and/or to arrange servicing, contact: A Small Computer Repair Company 5762 Dichondra Place Newark, CA 94560 (415) 430-9226 or (415) 793-6980 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Software ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6) How do I get my free Personal Calendar program? Enclosed with the documentation of many or all UNIX PC's was a card which you could send in to receive a free copy of the Personal Calendar program. The machine is discontinued, so sending in the card now won't accomplish anything, but that doesn't mean that you're out of luck. Many machines were shipped with the calendar program in /etc/fixes. Install it as follows (the name of the program is "pcal"): Append this to your /usr/lib/ua/Office file: Name=Calendar Default = Open Open=EXEC -d /usr/bin/pcal -c Help=EXEC -d /usr/bin/uahelp -h /usr/lib/ua/ua.hlp -t Calendar Append this to your /usr/lib/ua/Preferences file: Name=Calendar Default = Open Open=EXEC -d /usr/bin/pcal -p Help=EXEC -d /usr/bin/uahelp -h /usr/lib/ua/ua.hlp -t Calendar If you are using the pcal that is located in /etc/fixes: $ su Password: # mv /etc/fixes/pcal /usr/bin # mv /etc/fixes/pcal.hlp /usr/lib/ua # chown bin /usr/bin/pcal /usr/lib/ua/pcal.hlp # chgrp bin /usr/bin/pcal /usr/lib/ua/pcal.hlp # chmod 755 /usr/bin/pcal # chmod 644 /usr/lib/ua/pcal.hlp ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7) What is "THE STORE!" and how can I access it? THE STORE! was owned and operated by AT&T, but is no longer available for dialup uucp. All publicly accessible software that was formerly available there has been moved and archived on the OSU archives (see above). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8) Is there any GNU software available? There are fairly recent versions of gcc, g++, gas, gdb, and emacs as binary-only cpio archives on OSU as well at CalTech (see above). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9) Is the X Window system available for the UNIX PC? No, X has not been ported, and probably won't ever be ported to the UNIX PC. X is quite large, and there have been several discussions about porting it in comp.sys.3b1, but it's probably not worth the effort. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10) What's MGR? MGR is an alternative windowing environment developed by Steve Uhler at Bellcore and ported to the UNIX PC by Brad Bosch and Brian Botton. The MGR windowing environment can replace the standard /dev/window environment on the UNIX PC quite nicely (it does prevent some UNIX PC specific programs from being run since the wind.o loadable device driver is not loaded). MGR's user interface is quite similar to a SunWindows environment, and raster operations are quite fast. MGR is a user program, not a driver (besides the pty driver), so it doesn't take up precious kernel space. It does require a hardware modification called the VIDPAL. The VIDPAL (developed by Brian Botton [...!att!iexist!botton]) is a daughterboard that sits sandwiched between the 68010 CPU and the motherboard and allows direct access to video memory from a user process. At one time, Brian had provided VIDPAL kits but no longer does so. If you want to try out MGR, but can't get a VIDPAL board, you may want to try out John Milton's VIDPAL emulator -- a software-only solution to video memory access. It is certainly slower than a real VIDPAL, but is interesting none the less. The VIDPAL emulator was posted to comp.sources.3b1 and so should be archived at standard archive sites like uunet.uu.net. A beta source distribution of MGR is on OSU, and can also be gotten via anonymous ftp from max.physics.sunysb.edu (129.49.21.100). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11) How can I get a full 360kB when I format a MS-DOS floppy on the UNIX PC? The md_format program defaults to formatting floppies with 8 tracks per sector (320kB). Use the "-9" option to get 9 tracks per sector (360kB). A further suggestion is to get windy ("windy.cpio.Z" at OSU) and use it to run the md_format program, since md_format is one of those which tends to turn your full-screen UNIX window into a little, horrible-looking window. Windy fixes this by running the command in its own window. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12) Are there any other utilities for fiddling with MS-DOS floppies? The best of the bunch is Emmet P. Gray's Mtools package, which is available on OSU. The utilities in this package allow one to copy files, delete files, rename files, make directories, format disks, etc. The 2.0 version of Mtools also supports the C:, D:, etc. drive partitions of the DOS-73 emulator. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13) What commercial software was available for the UNIX PC? What follows is a list Steve Urich (beyo@beyonet.UUCP) typed in from an old TRC catalog listing UNIX PC commercial software. At the end of this list are a few more products seen by other folks on Usenet. UNIX PC SOFTWARE Model Description AT&T650002 GSS Terminal. Access to host graphics; Tektronix 4014 EGM AT&T650005 3270+ Emulator. For SNA networks through dial-up or dedicated lines AT&T650007 AT&T Electronic Mail. menu driven with lots of options for sending notes & files AT&T650008 TCP/IP Ethernet, includes ICMP, UDP, NVT, PTP, SMPT, TFTP & remote cmnds AT&T650101 Voice Mail Software. Send and receive text and vioce mail AT&T650S01 UNIX PC Network. Starlan messaging, file transfer and e-mail AT&T650S02 UNIX PC Server. Starlan file server for MS-DOS networks. AT&T651002 GSS Drivers+ VDI based software for printers AT&T651003 UNIX System V Release 3.51 AT&T651004 GSS Toolkit. Graphics programming including metafile, plotting & windows. AT&T651005 GSS Metafile Interpreter. Library of functions for VDM standard AT&T651006 GSS GKS. C tool implements the GKS standard AT&T651007 GSS Plotting System. Chart building capabilities. AT&T651008 GSS Window Manager for C language windowing. AT&T651010 Informix C-ISAM. Tool for ISAM without a full RDBMS. AT&T651018 Development Tools. Commercial and scientific ISAM sort/merge AT&T651021 UNIX Utilities 3.51. AT&T651201 MS Basic. Basic with over 120 commands from Microsoft. AT&T651202 SMC Basic. Business Basic III compatability. AT&T651203 SMC Run Time. Executable only; non-development version. AT&T651204 RM Cobol. 1974 ANSI standard; certified by GSA. AT&T651205 RM Cobol Run Time. Executable only; non-development version. AT&T651209 LPI Fortran. Fortran 77 meeting ANSI X3.9-1978 AT&T651210 LPI Pascal. ANSI/IEEE standard supported by LPI Debug. AT&T651211 LPI C Full implementation with LPI's modular component architecture. AT&T651216 LPI Debug. Interactive source level debugger works with all LPI products. AT&T651219 RM Fortran. High preformance implementation of F77 and ANSI 3.9-78. AT&T651221 Animator. Integrated with MF Level II Cobol. AT&T651223 Cobol LVL II. ANSI-74, ISAM tools, source compatible with compact Cobol II AT&T651224 Forms II. Visual programming tool for screen based forms generation. AT&T651226 Cobol LVL II Run Time. Executable only; non-development version AT&T651227 SVS Fortran. ANSI-77 including Symbolic Debugger. AT&T651229 SVS Pascal. Combines ISO and UCSD standards AT&T651232 AT&T BASIC Interpreter. Standard Basic with many extensions AT&T651233 AT&T BASIC Compiler. Full implementation of ANSI X3.60-78 with extensions. AT&T651237 UNIFY. Multi-user RDBMS. AT&T651702 dBASE III. Ashton-Tate and AT&T AT&T651706 QUICKCODE III. Automate dBASE III programming. AT&T651707 dUTIL. Toolkit for dBASE III programmers. AT&T651713 FILE-IT. Easy to use personal DBMS which builds informix files thru menus. AT&T651713 INFORMIX. The most flexible true relational multi-user programming language. AT&T651714 INFORMIX Run Time. Executable versions of Informix programs. AT&T651715 SMART DBMS. Powerful relational database integrated with the Smart package. AT&T651L60 BASIC ORACLE. Fully compatible with IBM's SQL/DS and DB2 AT&T651L61 TURBO ORACLE. ANSI Standard SQL; C language precompiler. AT&T652004 Multiplan. Microsoft's spreadsheet solution. AT&T652009 GSS CHART. Interactive standalone package for mainframe quality graphics. AT&T652010 GSS Sound Pres. Fully featured interactive graphics on a wide variety of devices. AT&T652016 AT&T SUPERCOMP 20. The multiuser standard of spreadsheets. AT&T652017 BUSINESS GRAPHICS. Turn your 20/20 data into charts. (Requires Supercomp 20). AT&T652022 PAINT POWER. Sophisticated but easy to use drawing package. AT&T652026 SMART SFTWR SYS. Database-Spreadsheet-Wordprocessor. AT&T652029 TEAM POWER. Office work groups for 2 to 5 users sharing all resources. AT&T652202 MS WORD. Microsoft's professional word processor for UNIX. AT&T652204 AT&T Word Processor. Easy to use word processor. AT&T652208 Crystalwriter. Powerful word processing with English language commands. AT&T652209 Wordstar 2000. MicroPro's best selling word processor. AT&T652210 SMART WORD PROCESSOR. Professional word processor which works with Smart. AT&T653001 BUSINESS ACCTING. Complete business accounting system. AT&T653002 OC/INV. Complete package for managing incoming orders and product control. AT&T653003 PAYROLL. Complete payroll and personnel management. AT&T653004 A/P. Comprehensive control system-can be integrated with G/L. AT&T653005 A/R. Maintains customer profiles and accounts-can be integrated with G/L. AT&T653006 GENERAL LEDGER. Fully automated package for maintaining business records. AT&T?????? Wordmarc Composer. Word processing package. AT&T?????? Pegasys. Computer-aided design. AT&T?????? Image Director AT&T?????? Samna. Word processor. AT&T?????? Q-Office. Office integration AT&T?????? User Agent Design Tool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Software development ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14) Can I use the GNU C compiler in place of the hard-to-find development set? In theory, anyway, most of what you need from the Development Set can be obtained elsewhere. There are at least five things that you need to do C programming on the UNIX PC: o a C compiler Use GCC (binary available in languages/gcc-gas.tar.Z on OSU-CIS) o an assembler Use GAS (binary available in languages/gcc-gas.tar.Z on OSU-CIS) o a linker/loader (/bin/ld) This is included in the Foundation Set. o system header files Alex Crain (alex@umbc3.umbc.edu) has created a set of ANSI header files which appeared in Volume 1, Issue 49 of comp.sources.3b1, with one patch. o libraries This is the tough one. There are a bunch of libraries that come the Development Set which would be difficult to replace. One of the most important (/lib/libc.a) is on the Encryption Set disks in the Foundation Set. Supposedly FIXDISK2.0 contains one or more updated libraries. The network and OSU remain good sources for strings, POSIX, dirent, etc. libraries. Of course, there are other libraries like /lib/libm.a (math) and /lib/libld.a (COFF access) which might be more difficult to replace. This writer hasn't actually heard of anyone actually pulling this feat off, but sometimes he has trouble paying attention. ("Eh?") (Thanks to Glenn Thobe for providing up-to-date information.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15) What do I with old object-file archives? The object-file archive format was changed from release 3.0 to 3.5 of the operating system. There is a utility to convert these archives to the new format. # convert oldarchive.a newarchive.a Or you can run: # arconvert # file oldarchive.a newarchive.a oldarchive.a: 5.0 archive newarchive.a: 5.2 archive That will convert all the archives in /usr/lib and /lib that are in the old 5.0 archive format to the new 5.2 archive format. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Administration ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16) How do I restore from a backup when one of the floppies is bad? Get the public domain program called "afio". It's available in the OSU archives. It supports reading the floppy disk backup set, and will ignore errors and recover when it finds the next cpio ASCII header if you use the "-k" option. The backup set must be written using cpio and the "-c" option must have been used during the writing of the diskettes. The syntax for afio to restore is: # cd / # afio -ivk /dev/rfp021 ^ use the k option to allow dealing with corrupted archives ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17) How can I make a floppy-disk-based UNIX for fsck'ing the hard drive? Make a copy of the "Floppy Filesystem Disk" (Disk 3 of ##) of the Foundation Set as follows. Insert the original floppy filesystem diskette, and have a formatted, 10 sectors/track diskette ready. Type the "fpcp" command and copy it. Now that you have a copy, place a copy of /etc/fsck on it. While you're at it, save your /etc/inittab in case it gets destroyed in the future and you can't get the machine to boot. # mount /dev/fp021 /mnt # cp /etc/fsck /mnt/etc/fsck # cp /etc/inittab /mnt/etc/inittab.save # sync # umount /dev/fp021 Now you have a disk that will help you do a standalone filesystem check. To use this, first boot the system using the "Floppy Boot Disk" (Disk 2 of ##). It will stop and ask you to insert the Floppy Filesystem Disk. Insert your copy instead. When it comes to the first question, interrupt the script with <DEL> to get a "#" prompt. The disk is already mounted as /mnt, so unmount it: # umount /dev/fp002 warning: /dev/fp002 not in mount table Do your filesystem check: # /etc/fsck -D -S /dev/rfp002 Reboot the system: # sync # sync # reboot NOTE: the root filesystem is the floppy filesystem, so the "-s" option to fsck salvages the floppy root filesystem, not the root filesystem on the hard drive. This is why "-s" is not used above. *** THE FOLLOWING IS NOT FOR THE UNINHIBITED OR CASUAL USER *** For the real UNIX hacker out there (who is fortunate enough to have a tape drive on your machine) you could grab the fp_unix.sh.Z, conf.sh.Z and kern.cpio.Z files from the OSU Archives. This is a set of tools, along with the kernel object files for 3.51m, that will let you link in the tape driver (tp.o) to your floppy UNIX kernel and give you full control of the tape device from the floppy UNIX. This is very handy for doing full backups or restores from the floppy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18) How can I get the machine to ask the device and program to boot from? By default the UNIX PC is set up with the non-verbose system loader. This can be changed to the "verbose" loader which will ask what program and device to load from. *** WARNING *** Any time you write to the disk device like the following, be extra careful that you type the correct device name. A backup is always recommended. Insert a blank diskette in the floppy drive. # fdfmt.vl # /etc/ldrcpy /dev/rfp020 /dev/rfp000 Reboot your machine and you'll be able to load from the floppy or the hard disk whatever program you desire (not that there is too much you can load). It may be useful to copy the several diagnostic utilities to the hard disk (for easy retrieval). Insert your diagnostic disk ... # mount /dev/fp021 /mnt -r # mkdir /dgn # cp /mnt/s4diag /dgn/s4diag # umount /dev/fp021 This can be repeated for diagnostics like, STARLAN, Voice Power, DOS-73, Floppy Tape, etc. Name the diagnostic programs something unique (slndiag, vpdiag, dosdiag, etc.) Now you can load from the hard disk /dgn/s4diag, /dgn/vpdiag, etc.. and have that diagnostic utility handy when needed. NOTE: After you do this procedure your system will not reboot automatically (after power failures) without some user input. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 19) How do I get multiple login windows? It is fairly easy to start up several windows with logins on them: all you need to do is add additional getty commands to the /etc/inittab file. Don't be afraid to edit your /etc/inittab, even though there is a big warning at the top of the file -- nothing will happen if you are careful. vid:2:respawn:/etc/getty window 9600 vd2:2:respawn:/etc/getty window 9600 vd3:2:respawn:/etc/getty window 9600 ^ NOTE: in all cases there is a space character there. This will start up 3 windows with logins. Using the <Shift><Suspd> key, you can cycle through all of them. Another option is to get the Boyd Ostroff's "wlogin" package, posted to comp.sources.3b1 and available from the archives. This program can either replace or work with /etc/getty on the console and lets you have multiple overlapping 24 line x 80 character windows using a smaller font. It will work with or without wmgr, smgr, ph and ua. The number of windows and their position is fully configurable by the user. If desired, it can provide a simple alternative windowing environment to the UA, allowing you to remove ua and all its associated files, thus freeing up over 1 MB of disk space. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20) What the heck is a +IN suffix on a file? On the UNIX PC, "+IN" denotes an "Installable File". If you were to use the UA it would show that it's an Installable File. The Installable format is just a normal cpio archive. The file can be installed by hand by doing: # mkdir /tmp/install # mv FILE+IN /tmp # cd /tmp/install # cpio -icduvmB < ../FILE+IN [...] # ./Install A list of other Suffixes appears in the file /usr/lib/ua/Suffixes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 21) What do the HDERR (FDERR, or TPERR) messages in /usr/adm/unix.log mean? There are several possible causes for these. One of course is a bad disk, or a disk that has gone bad. But one should check the other options before determining the disk is really bad. Dirty power supply contacts have been known to cause these problems. Open the machine and clean the power supply contacts on the ribbon-type cable that goes from the supply to the motherboard. A weak or faulty power supply could also be your problem. Test the power supply voltages (with the hard drive and motherboard connected as a load), using some sort of Y-connector off the power cable to the hard drive. Test the +12VDC and +5VDC supplies with a meter, and make sure they are within acceptable tolerances. If they are too low, intermittent HDERRs will occur. There are several adjustment screws on the power supply (marked +5, +12, -12) that can adjust these values. Turning clockwise will increase the value, and counterclockwise will decrease it. Faulty power can make a good hard disk or motherboard appear to be bad. More commonly you'll find FDERRs in your /usr/adm/unix.log file. Every time you format a new floppy disk, you'll get at least one. Floppy disks are prone to more errors, especially if you get those bargain basement brand types. TPERRs might appear if you have a bad or defective cartridge tape block. If you start seeing a lot of these during your backup or verify phases, it would be a good idea to re-format the tape and run another surface check (to check for possibly bad streams, or good streams that have gone bad). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22) Why are the header files missing after an install of the Development Set? One of the packages' Install scripts (apparently that of "Curses/Terminfo Programmers Package"), copies curses.h to /usr/include anticipating that the directory has already been created by a previous package's Install script. If /usr/include doesn't exist yet because the packages weren't installed in the right order, the Install script will make a *file* called /usr/include, which is really curses.h. To prevent this from happening, install the packages in this order: Curses/Terminfo End User Package Development Set 3.5x Curses/Terminfo Programmers Package --------------------------------------------------------------------- 23) Why is the machine is booting over and over? The stock /etc/rc that called when the machine boots up writes the output of the fsck(1M) to the hard disk (/etc/.lastfsck). This is definitely a problem. Many people prefer having control over what fsck does rather than running fsck with the "-y" option and having it do all the work. A lot of times fsck will delete files or clear them and you have no control over what it's doing. Check out the fsokay.cpio.Z package on OSU, it contains some enhanced /etc/rc scripts and tools to make the booting phase of the UNIX PC a lot cleaner and more reliable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24) Is HoneyDanBer UUCP available to replace the stock uucp software? HDB binaries and documentation are available on OSU as the following files: ~/att7300/STORE/HDB3.5+IN.Z ~/att7300/STORE/HONEYDOCS+IN.Z ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 25) Why doesn't the On-Board Modem (OBM) work with some other modems? One problem is that the OBM seems to create answerback tones which identifies itself (for some reason) as an MNP reliable modem (!). This confuses some MNP modems and the Telebit Trailblazer (only if set in MNP reliable mode). These cannot be altered in the OBM, but often a system which cannot call the UNIX PC OBM can be called by the UNIX PC OBM. Another problem is that the OBM has trouble establishing a UUCP connection when calling Telebits configured in locked-speed mode. Chris Lewis (clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca) has written a program called phfix which can be invoked from /etc/rc to correct this particular problem using the (undocumented?) PIOCOVSPD setting on the OBM. The result is that the OBM can successfully connect with locked-speed Telebits, and they can connect back. The program is not on OSU or in any comp.sources.3b1 archives, so it is presented here: /* Sample program for bashing the OBM into tone dial and setting PIOCOVSPD to permit talking to certain modems (particularly telebits). The documentation mentions 2.3% speed change for PIOCOVSPD. That's all I know. You are free to do whatever you wish with this code, but please leave this comment in. Chris Lewis, clewis@ecicrl.uucp, Jan 2 1991. */ #include <stdio.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <sys/phone.h> main(argc, argv) int argc; char **argv; { int f; struct updata upd; f = open("/dev/ph1", O_RDWR | O_NDELAY, 0); if (f < 0) { perror("/dev/ph1"); exit(1); } ioctl(f, PIOCGETP, &upd); /* retrieve Phone parameters */ #ifdef NEVER /* if you want to play with these go ahead - for some reason my 3b1 always comes up in PULSE */ upd.c_lineparam &= ~PULSE; /* reverse the sense to set to pulse dial */ upd.c_lineparam |= DTMF; /* reverse the sense to set to pulse dial */ upd.c_feedback |= SPEAKERON; upd.c_feedback |= LOUDSPK; ioctl(f, PIOCDISC, &upd); /* apply PIOCOVSPD for talking to some modems*/ #endif ioctl(f, PIOCOVSPD, &upd); /* apply PIOCOVSPD for talking to some modems, eg: Telebits */ ioctl(f, PIOCSETP, &upd); /* set phone parameters */ } ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 26) How do I get my on-board modem to be a dial-out-only modem? The easiest way to do this is to edit (with your favorite editor) the /etc/inittab file. Change the line: ph0:2:respawn:/etc/getty ph0 1200 to: ph0:2:off:/etc/getty ph0 1200 ^ NOTE: There is a space character in front of the first "ph0" in the lines above. ph0 may be ph1 if you are using line 2 for the on-board modem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 27) Does the on-board modem support 2400 bps? In what Convergent considered future releases of the UNIX PC (P6), there was to be a 2400 bps modem. This machine was never fully developed to production levels, and therefore there is no 2400 bps modem. As the existing OBM is a proprietary AT&T chip, the likelihood of there being a drop-in upgrade is remote at best. Interesting trivia: The P6 machine was to have a color video, 60MB QIC tape, as well as a 68020 CPU paired with a 68881 FPU. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 28) Why aren't the lpadmin, accept, and reject commands working right? The lpadmin(1M), accept(1M), and reject(1M) commands require the user to be logged in as (or su'd to) user "lp". Being root will not work. # su lp $ disable lp1 $ /usr/lib/lpadmin -plp1 -mdumb -v/dev/lp $ enable lp1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29) Why are all the jobs on the printer always followed by a formfeed? The line printer driver follows each close(2) of /dev/lp with a formfeed. There is no way to disable this, except by avoiding the driver altogether and going straight to the raw printer device. # su lp $ /usr/lib/lpadmin -plp1 -mdumb -v/dev/rawlp ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 30) Why can't I send bitmapped images to the printer correctly? 8-bit, bitmapped images need to go to the raw printer device, /dev/rawlp. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 31) How do I configure a Hayes compatible external modem on the UNIX PC? Thanks to Jim Adams, included in the OSU Archives is an informational posting (posted to unix-pc.uucp and comp.sys.att) on how to set up your external modem under HDB uucp. The file is named HDB_Modem.Z. The file uses the "hayes" modem as the example, although information could probably be extracted for uses with other modems. If you want information on how to set up your Telebit Trailblazer modem, get the file tb-setup.sh.Z on OSU. This posting was too large to include in its entirety here, so a completely separate posting was made. He goes into how to set up the modem, proper cabling, proper Devices and Dialers entries, and a discussion on HFC (hardware flow control). Additionally, the "modemon" package by Boyd Ostroff provides a simple way to configure external modems. It consists of a small program executed via inittab which can reset your modem and execute any desired AT commands each time a getty is spawned on the serial port. This allows you to configure the modem differently for incoming and outgoing calls and is especially handy if your modem doesn't have nonvolatile parameter RAM. The package includes complete documentation and examples of how to set up an external modem. It was posted to comp.sources.3b1 and is available in the archives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 32) Any tips on building Cnews? A sample build.def from Jan Isley (jan@bagend.uucp) follows with the following interesting characteristics noted: - news account is uid=20, gid=20 - bin owns the executables - using Doug Gwyn's dirent library (available on OSU) - using a mailer that understands @ addressing (like smail 2.5) - UNIX PC kernel does not support setuid(geteuid()) - other site-specific stuff (machine name and organization) newsuid="news" newsgid="news" binuid="bin" bingid="bin" binsrc="no" mess="no" unmess="no" newsarts="/usr/spool/news" newsctl="/usr/lib/news" newsbin="/usr/lib/newsbin" newsumask="002" newsmaster="usenet" newsconfig="/usr/lib/news/bin/config" chown="/bin/chown" chboth="yes" chgrp="/bin/chgrp" unixkind="usg" addrsize="big" dbmopt="" faststdio="no" storeval="yes" faststrchr="yes" sete="no" ranlib="no" symdef="yes" cc="ccc" copts="-O" ldopts="-s" postlibs="-ldirent" hostname="no" uname="yes" uucptype="hdb" dftype="ustat" dfdirs="no" archive="yes" spacelow="yes" nfsgroup="no" server="newsie" manpages="/usr/man" manmess="no" rbin="/usr/bin" doui="no" bin="/usr/bin" atok="yes" postdefltdist="" paranoid="no" whoami="bagend" mailname="bagend.uucp" organization="1 Bagshot Row, the Shire" postdefltgroup="" newspath="/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" fake=" fsync.o mkdir.o symlink.o strerror.o" fakehdrs=" ../include/string.h ../include/sys/timeb.h" immediate="no" inputstall="yes" defsub="" mustsub="" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 33) What are lipc and nipc, and how can I use nipc instead of lipc? /etc/lddrv/lipc is the loadable device driver that implements System V inter-process communications on the UNIX PC (semget(), etc.). /etc/lddrv/nipc is a newer implementation of this driver which fixes an IPC bug, but was never fully tested. The default driver loaded by /etc/lddrv/drivers is lipc, and in fact, this is the driver which the program ipcs looks for when it reports on IPC usage. No bugs with nipc have been uncovered since it was made available (87?), and many people would rather run the "better" driver than stick with the old lipc. There are two approaches for replacing lipc with nipc. The most obvious way is to edit /etc/lddrv/drivers to replace lipc with nipc for when the system is next booted, then replacing the in-core lipc with nipc with the following sequence: # cd /etc/lddrv # ./lddrv -dv lipc # ./lddrv -av nipc Unfortunately, ipcs will not find the lipc driver, and so won't give any IPC status. This can be overcome by wielding a binary editor in the general direction of /usr/bin/ipcs, replacing the hard-coded instances of "lipc" with "nipc". Another method is to remove lipc from core (./lddrv -dv lipc), rename its files to something benign (lipc -> lipc.old, lipc.o -> lipc.o.old, ifile.lipc -> ifile.lipc.old), rename the nipc files to be lipc (nipc -> lipc, nipc.o -> lipc.o, ifile.nipc -> ifile.lipc), and finally reload the new lipc (./lddrv -av lipc). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Upgrading ----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 34) What third-party hardware is available? Presently there are no known distributors that have a selection of UNIX PC hardware. The best source for hardware is the network, reading comp.sys.3b1 and misc.forsale. There is always someone selling UNIX PCs and the appropriate hardware expansion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 35) Can I put a 68881 math coprocessor in my machine? AT&T had listed a 68881 feature as being available for the UNIX PC, but it was never fully developed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Local Variables: mode: outline outline-regexp: "-- [a-zA-Z]+\\|60\\|[0-9]+)" eval: (hide-body) End: -- John B Bunch * * * I don't want the world, I just want your 280 Quail St. 1st Floor * * * half.... -TMBG Albany, NY 12208 * * * jbunch@nyx.cs.du.edu (518) 436-3810 * * * Proud Albany has Gay Rights!