SQE - The heartbeat that won't die

[Daniel Packman]

The current release of x_st_mgr (1.2) with the current release of firmware
for the Xstation 130 (1.3) with the current operating system release
(3.01.0005.0012) *requires* heartbeat (SQE) to be enabled for thick-wire
ethernets.

If you have heartbeat disabled on your DELNI (or clone), the tftp process
will succeed in transferring 332 packets and then you will get the
ubiquitous message "cannot connect to fileserver".  Enabling SQE will
allow the fileserver connection to work, but may not be an option on
networks that specifically disable SQE. [Note, the documentation gives
several other possible reasons for this error message.  This is only
one more reason.]

The xstation 120 using the old X11r3 code (bootfile) seems to work fine
without heartbeat.  There still seems to be a problem with it using the
new X11r4 code (bootfile1).  A battle over this was fought back in the
ancient days of 3.01.0002 (last year), but it seems the war continues.

Dan Packman     NCAR                             INTERNET: pack at ncar.UCAR.EDU
(303) 497-1427  P.O. Box 3000                       CSNET: pack at ncar.CSNET
                Boulder, CO  80307-3000      DECNET  SPAN: 9583::PACK