ISC Installation problems partially solved

[George Vokalek]

OK, I have ISC 2.2 up and running after a 5-day fight.

First, some outstanding problems:

Looking Glass bombs with the following message:

Program Abort: 'vsxerr' not set

The local vendor currently has another customer with the same
problem.  The vanilla installation of LG does not seem to leave
much room for errors, and the only documentation is user documentation
(ie useless for problems).

Question:

When I run twm with the supplied defaults.twmrc as my resource
file, everything works except that the xterm windows completely
ignore keyboard input.  The cursor sort of flashes every time I hit
a key, but no input is echoed or processed.  I can use the mouse to
clip text within the xterm window and the shell will execute it.
Anybody got ideas?

**********************************************************************

Now for problems and solutions:

Problem: My hard disk has 1661 cylinders and ISC bombs if I try to
        make the unix partition use cylinders above 1024, despite
        the fact that it states explicitly that it can manage it.

        The error I was getting was:

        PANIC: athd_int never got non-busy, got 0x000000D1

        This error would always occur during the construction of
        /usr2 (or whichever file system crossed the 1024 boundard,
        I presume).  My disk is a 1661cyl x 53 sec/tk x 15 head
        unit, with a WD1007V ESDI controller.

Solution: Use fdisk to make 2 partitions.
        type    start   end
        unix    1       1020
        other   1021    1661

        After doing this, use the mkfs utility to build a filing
        system on the second partition.  The special file (driver)
        for the second partition is /dev/dsk/0p2.  This is documented
        in the maintenance section of the manual.

        After doing a mkfs, you can mount the new partition.  Thus
        you lose no disk capacity, which is the important thing.

        One thing I am not sure about is how to map out bad blocks
        in this 'other' partition.  Can someone offer hints here?


Problem: Things go crazy if you have 2 partitions called 'unix'
        created by fdisk.  All of the formatting and installation
        will occur on the second 'unix' partition.

Solution: make only 1 unix partition, call the remainder 'other' or
        'DOS' even if you plan to put a unix file system on them
        using the above method.


Problem: NMI traps  occuring during installation or use.

Solution: In my case it was the VGA card.  Some apparently use
        NMI (via the IO CH CK signal), but mine does not have
        a jumper (that I can find) to disable its use.

        The problem in my case was visible during installation.
        I installed by using a Hercules card.  After installation,
        I put the VGA card in and it *worked*.  Except during
        floppy accesses, and system shutdowns.

        I don't think the problem is software, since I have just
        installed the latest bios in the VGA, with no effect.
        (my VGA is an EXPERT using TRIDENT chips, BIOS TVGA V1.03).

        Fix : buy a new VGA card if you can't jumper yours to work.


Problem: File system on INSTALL floppy disk fills up after entering
        160 (ie many) bad blocks into the formatting utility.

Solution: Hit CTRL-\ while the INSTALL disk is in the drive.
        Type 'rm /usr/lib/keyboard/*' to delete all the keyboard
        map files which you probably wont use anyway (if you choose USA
        keyboard).  This will give you about 10k more room on the disk
        Then type 'shutdown' and reboot the system when prompted.


Problem: TMC830 with Maxtor 4380S causes hangs during 'Booting Unix..'
        phase.

Solution: No satisfactory solution yet.


..G..