386/ix: Queries, Comments and Information

[Jonathan Meyer]

Replies to me please - I'll summarise if enough interest is shown.

Warning - long and probably of minor interest .


         CONTENTS

(I've saved these up for a few weeks now :-)

 -- tar and remote drives
 -- sendmail problem
 -- suggestion for interactive
 -- fussy booting
 -- GNU gas
 -- fdisk+mkfs
 -- nfsd question
 -- termcap entries
 -- ffs
 -- summary

-- tar and remote drives ----------------------------------------------

I am connected to a network of suns, several of which have tape drives.
I assume that I can use rsh+tar to backup to these drives - does anyone
have experience with this? If I make a backup accross a network, and the
worst happens - my drive crunches - can I restore from remote sites
without having to reinstall the whole of my unix system? It seems that
the provision for remote restoration of partitions is limited,
considering that most sites probably have more unix boxes than tape
drives.

-- sendmail problem ---------------------------------------------------

I may have a corrupted sendmail, since every time I try to run it as a
daemon, it just leaves a core dump in /usr/spool/mqueue. If I try to
send remote mail manually, it gets to the stage of trying to make an
ethernet connection to the mail host, and gives up. Could this be a
problem with my rpc mechanism? I am running version 5.8 of sendmail, and
2.0.2 386/ix +NFS + TCP/IP - do others have these problems?

-- suggestion for interactive -----------------------------------------

I recently read that SCO's updates were available using dialup UUCP.
Since I currently am waiting for the X Server update disk, from which I
only want one file, this sounds like a great idea.

-- fussy booting ------------------------------------------------------

My system can be quite fussy when it comes to booting -  when the
systems lid is off, the system often won't boot. Serial cards are
especially offensive. Printers are best kept plugged in and on, since
they can be the cause of the problem. I agree with what others have said
on the net: if it won't boot, strip the system to bare essentials, and
try again. The idea of copying my kernal to the boot floppy sounds good
- I'll try that soon. My monitor can also cause problems if I switch it
on and off to much, so I just leave it on, and use a screen blanker. My
keyboard also occasionally causes problems. Mostly, these are teething
problems, and my system now runs quite happily so long as I don't
tamper with him!


-- GNU gas ------------------------------------------------------------

I need to do some hand-coded assembler work, and so need a good
assembler that works on System/V machines. The as(1) is fine, except
that manuals don't exist for it, and it is AT&T syntax instead of Intel
syntax, which is used on the Sequent Symmetry that we have here. So I
got GNU/gas1.34 from the nets. It compiles fine, and seems to work, but
it produces object modules that are described by file as:

amain.o:        pdp11/pre System V vax executable not stripped

The as(1) produces object modules like:

test.o:         iAPX 386 executable not stripped - version 30821

Is this a problem? Does gas generate COFF or not? Does anyone know of
good documentation of the mnemonics of gas for the 386/387, since the
gas-doc.tex file I have is only a general description of gas.


-- fdisk+mkfs ---------------------------------------------------------

For those of you that are interested, I found breaking my DOS partition
into a smaller DOS partition and a unix partition very simple. I just
used fdisk, as described in the installation manual regarding creating
more than DOS/386ix partitions on the drive, used mkfs as per mkfs(1),
ran labelit(1) to give the fs a name, and modified /etc/fstab to mount
the drive on bootup. I will soon get lost+found working, as per letters
to this newsgroup above. More info available on request.

-- nfsd question ------------------------------------------------------

Every time I use filesystems which are nfs mounted from our suns, the
nfsd on the sun jumps straight to the top of the load monitor for that
sun, and stays there. The load goes from about 3.0 to about 9.0! This
seems to happen only when I am doing intensive disk access (eg compiling
remote files), and not when I copy individual files. Does anyone else
have this problem, and a simple fix. Details available on request.

-- termcap entries ----------------------------------------------------

I run X11 version 1.0 using VGA graphics. The xterm termcap entries
seems to be lacking some features, like cursor keys, since vi doesn't
work with cursor keys unless you set term to vt100 or some such. Doing
that means that pagers like more leave ugly lines on the window when
they print "-- more --" in bold at the bottom of each page. Is this
fixed in version 1.1, or can someone send me the correct termcap entry.
(xterms is no better).

When I rlogin to another machine from an xterm, the stty gets the rows
and columns wrong (columns 0!). Any clues as to why? This doesn't happen
on other X machines that we have here.

Finally, what equivelants are there for the AT386 on berkeley machines?
Do I have to go to every host we have here and modify the termcap? Or
can I set TERM to vt100 or some such?

-- ffs ----------------------------------------------------------------

The fast file system is VERY fast! I only have a 386sx, pushed to 20mhz,
but the system runs very quickly. Impressed - you try using a HP Bobcat,
and then complain about the speed of 386/ix! In fact, I am constantly
puzzled by speed factors: ps(1) runs far quicker on my humble 386 than
it does on a sun4, and logins are quicker as well. Now all I need is
those pretty BSD extensions :-)

-- summary ------------------------------------------------------------

I bought Interactive 386/ix while I was  working in USA for a while last
year. I have been very happy with 386/ix - though I wish I was still in
the states, since support and upgrades were easier to come by there, and
updates don't arrive here as quickly. If I were still in the States, I
could probably pester Interactive for questions to above, but it is
quicker and easier to post comp.i386 - so hard luck.

Regarding people moaning about ISC (mentioning no names), this does not
seem at all constructive. Whilst spending $3000 on an operating system
is a lot, NOVELL charge that for their 386 fileserver software, and that
only has networking on it - no X Windows, no utilities, no mail
routers, no multiuser capabilities. The system doubtless has bugs.
Support is charged per minute, and even their brochures cost money! I'm
not complaining - just trying to put things in perspective.


Jon