386/ix Installation

[Tom Yager]

This posting had some good first-timer's questions about ISC, so I thought I'd
chime in. Any but inexperienced users may tune out.

In article <66FcL1w162w at dkatrig.ka.sub.org>, trig at dkatrig.ka.sub.org (Georg Trietsch) writes:
> I just installed Interactive 386/ix ver. 2.0.2 on a machine at work
>         386 25 Mhz Cache, 8 MB RAM
>         Adaptec 2322B ESDI Controller
>         300 MB CDC fixed disk, 1,2 MB Floppy
>         2 serial ports, 1 parallel
>         3COM Etherlink II
> 
[ ...trouble getting tty01 to work... ]
Before the serial port issue, check to see which Logitech mouse you're
running. If it's a "C9" mouse (white case, three buttons, stylish Logitech
"eye" logo in front-center), you should configure X Window for a Mouse Systems
mouse, NOT Logitech. This is the line for /usr/lib/X11/Xconfig:

mouse       MSC-S   "1200 3"    0   /dev/tty00

Now, for tty01:
You're not running into a user limit. ISC doesn't come configured with the
second serial port enabled. Lots of people use the tty01 interrupt (IRQ 3)
to run network, tape, and other "extra" device adapters.

To enable tty01, set the file /etc/conf/sdevice.d/asy to read thus:

asy     Y       1       7       1       4       3f8     3ff     0       0
asy     Y       1       7       1       3       2f8     2ff     0       0

Use tabs between the entries. Once you've changed the file (the first line
should already be there), fire up the "kconfig" utility. That brings us to
the next step...

> - Which are the kernel parameters to get best performance of the
>   hardware shown above?

While in kconfig, select "Configure kernel", then "Add default parameters for
memory size". From that menu, select the 8MB configuration. That's a fair
start. Then, select "Configure high performance disk driver." Tell it you have
one standard AT controller, no SCSI controller, and you don't want a RAM disk.

>From the configuration menu, press "m" to get back to the top-level menu. You
will be asked if you want to save the configuration files; enter "y". Then,
select "build a kernel." You'll know in a few seconds if your changes conflict
with other items in the configuration. The most likely problem would result
from having set your network card to run at IRQ 3. If that's the case, change
the card's interrupt address (see your hardware docs), then run
"sysadm hbtcpmgmt" to set the board to the new interrupt. Then run kconfig
and build the kernel again.

At the end of the build, you'll be asked if you want to install it. The answer
is yes. Your system will then be shut down, and when it comes back up, it
should be in a reasonable configuration for your hardware.

If you plan heavy usage of X11 (lots of programs at once), TCP/IP or NFS, you
may want to make additional changes to your kernel parameters. I (or another
netter) can help you with that if you need it--it's pretty simple, but it does
increase the overhead of your kernel, perhaps significantly. Run for a while
using ISC's defaults and see how it feels. Check the console (alt-sysreq, F8)
for error messages periodically. If you run out of some kernel resource,
you'll read about it there.

> 
> - Where is the *rc or configuration file to get the C-Shell as standard.
>   In the C-Shell manual a 'chsh' command is given but I didn't find it
>   in the file system.

Shell selection is done in the /etc/passwd file. You need to find your
entry in it (your username is at the beginning of the appropriate line), and
edit the line so that the last item is "/bin/csh". Your entry may show
/bin/sh in that spot now, or it may be blank (the line ends with a ":").
Save the file (it's write-protected; use ":w!" from vi or ex). The change
will take effect the next time you log in.

> 
> - Is anybody out there already running an Oracle Server on a 386/ix
>   system?

I'm not, but I've run other DB servers. There are two significant points to
consider. First, DB servers are usually memory hogs. They are large programs,
keep sizeable tables in memory, and generally take up a lot of your machine's
resources. Second, they tend to exact a heavy toll in disk access. If there
are going to be multiple users pounding on this database, I guarantee you will
feel the performance loss. In general, because of the combination of these
two aspects, I'd say you should brace yourself for some periods of slowness.
X Window will be the worst culprit, since that's even more of a pig than a
DB server (at least a DB server keeps some of its data on disk!).

You should make sure you have lots of swap space (I'd say 16MB, or 32K blocks) 
because you will almost certainly run out of real memory running X and 
Oracle together. Upping the swap area size will probably keep you running, 
but you should leave open the option of switching the Oracle server to another
machine in the future. Getting more memory for your current machine may make
life easier, too.

Unfortunately, adding swap space is a bit of a pain unless you're willing
to reinstall (read the manual entry for the "swap" command). I may be
crying "wolf," here, since the Oracle server may not be as overbearing
as the others I've seen. Again, try it for a while before you fix anything.

> 
> Thanx for your response,
> regards Georg.
> * -----   .    | UUCP  : trig at dkatrig.UUCP       |  Georg Trietsch  *
> * / /  /   _/  | Voice : +49 721 406357          |  West - Germany  *

Good luck.
(ty)

-- 
+--Tom Yager, Technical Editor, BYTE----Reviewer, UNIX World---------------+
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