Sun-Spots Digest, v6n136
William LeFebvre
Sun-Spots-Request at RICE.EDU
Tue Jul 12 12:19:14 AEST 1988
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Monday, 11 July 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 136
Today's Topics:
Re: Looking for feedback on 15-pin Ethernet connectors
Re: Upgrades for 3/50
Re: Question about the value of a source licence
Re: QIC format documentation
Re: what does a vt100tool do
Security hole in "lockscreen"
SunOs 3.5 - suntools and swap problems
Sun-3/Sun-4 Compatibility
"My Mac can do it, why can't the Sun?"
Revenge of the 68881
New 386i comes with root passworded! Help!
getting ethernet address of a physical interface?
Sound on a Sun?
Courier fonts and troff?
using lpr for plot spooling?
ISIS?
VIEWDATA FOR SUNS?
Public Domain Common Lisp Compatible lisp?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 88 10:02:51 PDT
From: harker at parns.nsc.com (Robert Harker)
Subject: Re: Looking for feedback on 15-pin Ethernet connectors
Seeing a few comments on replacing the funky slide clips with RS-323 "jack
screws" (which is what I do, solves 80% of my network problems) Cabletron
Systems offers their cables and transcievers with a "jack screw" option,
you have to ask for it though. Their phone number in Calif. is
(408)986-0566. Also check out their transciever with excelent diagnostic
LEDs built-in standard.
Robert Harker, All around good guy.
harker at nsc.com
{sun,decwrl,hplabs}!nsc!harker
------------------------------
Date: 30 Jun 88 23:05:08 PDT (Thursday)
From: herbst.HENR801c at xerox.com
Subject: Re: Upgrades for 3/50
Reference: v6n123
I believe that Helios has an upgrade for t/50 memory -- as I recall there
are some tradeoffs, but I don't really recall -- I was there to look at
SCSI disk shoeboxes I don't have any 3/50's...
Helios is located in San Jose, CA. The sales rep is Mike Brown (He knows
his way about the local bars, too - but that's another story).
tom.henr801c at xerox.com
I in no way represent Helios, except that I might let Mike buy me a drink,
or two. Especially if Sun training is as boring as it was last time.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 88 17:45:00 BST
From: mcvax!ritd.co.uk!mr at uunet.uu.net
Subject: Re: Question about the value of a source licence
Reference: v6n125
Briefly, our experience is:
- we bought a src lic because we needed some device driver source
from Sun
- I won't let the full source on the net (people will "play"
unnecessarily)
- we do considerable device driver development without the source
itself.
- don't buy one unless you *need* one.
Martin Reed, Racal Imaging Systems Ltd
uucp: mr at ritd.co.uk,{mcvax!ukc!ritd,sun!sunuk!brains}!mr
Global String: +44 252 622144
Paper: 309 Fleet Road, Fleet, Hants, England, GU13 8BU
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 07:53:16 EDT
From: Mike Jipping <jipping at frodo.cs.hope.edu>
Subject: Re: QIC format documentation
> I remember seeing someone mentioning QIC tape format documentation in this
> forum. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me where to find it.
v6n48 had a few tidbits on the QIC format -- in two messages from K.
Richard Magill and Ron Hitchens. These were sorta side notes, however --
just enough to whet your whistle. Since Sun went to QIC-24 format tapes
for their distribution, they have paid a little more attention to
documenting the format. Try page 84 in the "System & Network
Administration" manual in the 4.0 distribution manual set. That's not
much detail either, however. It's a start.
-- Mike
Mike Jipping
Hope College
Department of Computer Science
jipping at cs.hope.edu
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 11:16:34 EDT
From: Edward L. Lafferty <ell%linus at mitre-bedford.arpa>
Subject: Re: what does a vt100tool do
Reference: v6n122
More important than the double height stuff is the fact that the emulator
acts like a vt100 to the remote host, for example, when the remote host
queries (electronically) the terminal as to its type, the emulator sends
the correct escape sequence for a vt100. The shelltool will not respond
correctly and many systems (DEC based, especially) will refuse to work
since they depend on the fact that the termnal is a vt100.
Regards,
Ed
External:
<ell at mitre-bedford.ARPA>
<ell at linus.UUCP>
------------------------------
Date: 30 Jun 88 16:10:42 GMT
From: Ian Phillipps <mcvax!camcon!igp at uunet.uu.net>
Subject: Security hole in "lockscreen"
There is a security hole in "lockscreen", thus:
If the control sequence for open window, "^[[1t", is sent to a shelltool
or cmdtool window which is behind a lockscreen, it pops to the front and
can then be used normally. All that is required to do this is login or
rlogin access under any user id.
The cure, if you want to take lockscreen seriously, is to set "mesg n" on
each and every window.
[[ ... which you cannot do because you don't own the pseudo ttys---root
does. --wnl ]]
UUCP: ...!ukc!camcon!igp | Cambridge Consultants Ltd | Ian Phillipps
or: igp at camcon.uucp | Science Park, Milton Road |-----------------
Phone: +44 223 358855 | Cambridge CB4 4DW, England |
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 88 08:28:48 CDT
From: AARON KONSTAM <79343382 at TRINITY.BITNET>
Subject: SunOs 3.5 - suntools and swap problems
We run a 3/160 server and two 3/50 clients. I have just installed SunOS
3.5 and I am having two types of related problems. 1. When I bring up
suntools and try to open up four shelltools the last opens with the
message "out of swapspace cannot continue". If I have two windows open
and try to open dbxtool it either ignores the request or prints the
message in the console window: pr_make from fd error: valloc failed
pr_open pixrect create failed for /dev/fb window subwindow creation failed
could not create window
All this happens on the server. suntools has no problem of the same sort
on the clients which have the same amount of swap space. Why is this
happening and how can I fix it.
2. Ok so I thought some additional swap space on the server might help. I
repartioned the disk to allow sd1d to be a swap area in addition to sd0b.
Now the manual implies if you add a line to fstab saying:
/dev/sd1d / swap ignore
and in rc there is an execution of swapon -a the entry in fstab will make
sd1d a swap partition. Do you also have change the line in the kernal
conguration file to:
config vmunix root on sd0 swap on sd0b and sd1d
By the way at no time could I detect through vmstat -S that the swap area
was bein used up. How can I tell if sd1d is really being used. The
behavior of suntools is essentially unchanged on the server even when the
swap area is supposidly doubled. I am confused. Can someone help. Mail
answers directly to me. I will sumarize on the net if the answers seem of
general interest.
[[ Aaron later sent me this followup message: --wnl ]]
Evidently there really was not enough swap area. But the line in
/etc/fstab should look more like:
/dev/sd1d swap swap sw 0 0
which the second argument (the first swap) is probably ignored. Also the
kernal must be reconfigured with somthing like. root on sd0 and swap on
sd0 and sd1 and sd1d
It is not enough to change the fstab and then type: swapon -a.
If you do you get a message like: /dev/sd1d not a device.
I can't find this in any manual. If somone knows where it is I would sure
like to hear about it.
Aaron Konstam
Trinity University
San Antonio, TX
79343382 at trinity.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 06:39:18 CDT
From: Scott Guthery <spar!ascway!guthery at decwrl.dec.com>
Subject: Sun-3/Sun-4 Compatibility
Claims of Sun-3/Sun-4 source compatibility should be consumed with a grain
of salt. The following runs on Sun-3 but not on Sun-4 since the Sun-3 is
byte addressable whereas the Sun-4 is not. Folks doing things like
communication packages where there is lots of encapsulation going on
should probably not plan to just compile and run.
struct a {
int b;
}
main()
{
struct a *c();
c()->b = 1;
}
struct a *c()
{
return((struct a *)((char *)malloc(sizeof(struct a)+1)+1));
}
[[ I'm not surprised. That code doesn't look very portable. --wnl ]]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 15:37:33 EDT
From: rochester!srs!dan at rutgers.edu
Subject: "My Mac can do it, why can't the Sun?"
I recently set up a Mac user on our Sun. She was used to being able to
print text by using the mouse, so to make her feel at home, I added the
two commands
"print selection" printSelection
"show selection" showSelection
to /usr/lib/rootmenu (and my ~/.rootmenu). Both commands are one-line
shell scripts:
#!/bin/csh -f -e
# print current text selection
echo "" | cat /tmp/winselection - | sed 1d | lpr -h
#!/bin/csh -f -e
# show current text selection in a Suntools vi window
shelltool -Wh 10 vi /tmp/winselection
I find them handy, hope others do, too.
Dan Kegel "Take this job..."
srs!dan at cs.rochester.edu rochester!srs!dan dan%srs.uucp at harvard.harvard.edu
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 88 11:43:26 EDT
From: valdis at sun.mcs.clarkson.edu
Subject: Revenge of the 68881
Well, we finally went and sprung the bucks to have 68881's installed in
all the Suns on campus. So now we have 25 Sun 3/50's with 68881's, and 3
260/280 machines with FPA's.
After some testing, it appeared that the FPA boxes would also run code
compiled with -f68881 (altho they don't use the FPA). So in a valiant
attempt to speed things up, I re-compiled the X11R2 library with the
-f68881 option. Now, whenever I try to link against this library, I get a
ld diagnostid 'Undefined: f68881_used'.
What puzzles me is that the "Floating Point Programmer's Guide"
(800-1552-10) states at the bottom of page 5:
"An executable program composed of severally independently compiled
modules can contain only one kind of in-line hardware floating-point. ...
Although the practice is not recommended, you can link together modules
compiled with -fsoft, -fswitch, and any one type of in-line hardware
floating point."
The library is compiled -f68881, the program is defaulting to -fsoft. So
why do I get the diagnostic?
(For those who care, I learned my lesson and recompiled X11R2 with
-fswitch. And next time I won't compile stuff at 2AM, from home, without
manuals :-)
Valdis Kletnieks
Sr. Systems Programmer
Clarkson University
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 88 18:00:16 EDT
From: Jeffrey A. Sullivan <jasst3 at unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>
Subject: New 386i comes with root passworded! Help!
I am in charge of setting up our new Sun 386is. I put one up and got it
runnin but need to edit the /etc/hosts, and passwords and clock, but I
can't get into the root directory to do so!
I tried logging in from the boot screen as "root" with no password, with
the domain name as the password, and with the machine name as password. I
tried su with no account and with root as the account in all of the above
permutations. I have had a call in to Sun for a few days, but we can't
hook up, as I am seldom in my office. How the heck to I get into the root
to make everything better? Help!
Jeffrey Sullivan | University of Pittsburgh
jas at cadre.dsl.pittsburgh.edu | Intelligent Systems Studies Program
jasper at PittVMS.BITNET, jasst3 at cisunx.UUCP | Graduate Student
[[ Can't you boot the machine in single user mode? Or is it set up to
disallow that as well? If you can boot it in single user, you should get
a shell running as root. --wnl ]]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 01:47:37 EDT
From: Charlie C. Kim <cck at cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>
Subject: getting ethernet address of a physical interface?
Does anyone out there know how one retrieves the ethernet address of a
physical interface under SunOS 3.x or 4.0? (Actually, most interested in
an answer about 4.0).
The information is useful when building protocol drivers on top of the NIT
facility.
Please send replies directly to me. I will summarize and repost to
sun-spots at a later time.
Charlie C. Kim
User Services
Columbia University
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 08:43:42 BST
From: David Walker <prlb2!prlhp1!davidw at uunet.uu.net>
Subject: Sound on a Sun?
I am interested in grabbing and reproducing sound (mainly speech but music
as well) on a sun3/60. Our sun man doesn't know of any available sw/hw for
performing this task. If anyone in netland has looked at this could you
mail me your results. Sound quality is not very important, a sample rate
of 15 khz would do, and of course the cheaper the better. I don't want to
spend time putting my own board together or writing comms software to
controll a PC via RS232.
Thanks, david walker.
davidw at prl.philips.co.uk
[[ Get an Amiga (sorry, couldn't resist). --wnl ]]
------------------------------
Date: 30 Jun 88 22:32:45 GMT
From: alan at jane.jpl.nasa.gov (Alan S. Mazer)
Subject: Courier fonts and troff?
Two questions about troff:
1) Is it possible to use the Apple Laserwriter Courier font from troff? (We
can already kludge the Postscript output file to substitute the Courier font
for one of the standard 4 fonts, but is there any easier way?)
2) More generally, is it possible to embed postscript commands in troff
text source? From within troff text, we tried to use
\!_postscript_commands_
but the Laserwriter just printed the _postscript_commands_ as ordinary text.
-- Alan ..!cit-vax!elroy!alan
elroy!alan at csvax.caltech.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 88 14:36:12 EDT
From: Kerien.Fitzpatrick at cive.ri.cmu.edu
Subject: using lpr for plot spooling?
Has anyone used lpr as a means of spooling files to a plotter? We have a
Draftmaster II [Hewlett Packard] and the spooling software that came with
our software package is primitive at best.
What I would like to do is to use lpr to spool the files to the plotter.
Does anyone know if this is possible and if it is - how difficult would it
be [do I have to write an output filter?]?
Any info as to reading material, etc. would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Kerien Fitzpatrick
Field Robotics Center
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412)268-6564
Arpanet:fitz at cive.ri.cmu.edu
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 11:15:40 EDT
From: jfjr at mitre-bedford.arpa (Freedman)
Subject: ISIS?
I apologize for being redundant or even dense but I was flashing through
older issues of Sun-Spots and I thought I saw something about ISIS - a
distributed OS?? for Suns. This flashed by fast, I wasn't paying attention
and I lost it. I am interested. No need to tie up resources more than
necessary. Could someone kindly e-mail the information. Once again, my
apologies.
Jerry Freedman,Jr
jfjr at mitre-bedford.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 88 16:25
From: Robert_Leiser_YARD_LTD%eurokom.ucd.ie at cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: VIEWDATA FOR SUNS?
Does anyone know of a system called Viewdata, a prototyping package for
SUNs? We have heard it mentioned but our local supplier has neverr heard
of it, nor is it listed in the SUN catalogue. }i We'd like to know what
it does, what it costs and whether it is useful for prototyping in HCI.
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jul 88 19:19:07 GMT
From: mkkam at wael.cs.uh.edu (Francis Kam)
Subject: Public Domain Common Lisp Compatible lisp?
Anyone knows any public domain lisp compatible to Common Lisp? My
intention is to port that to Sun OS Rel 4.0. Thank you.
Francis Kam Computer Science Department
Internet: mkkam at wael.cs.uh.edu University of Houston
CSNET: mkkam at houston.csnet 4800 Calhoun
Phone: (713)749-1748 Houston, TX 77004.
------------------------------
End of SUN-Spots Digest
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