From: piggy@HILBERT.MATHS.UTAS.EDU.AU (La Monte Yarroll)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Some Nettiqette (was Re: Is there any hope left?)
Date: 7 Jan 93 01:23:18 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

1) Postings like the following one should be handled by EMAIL--don't post
stuff to the newsgroup if it isn't going to be of general interest.

ONLY if email bounces should you post the the group.  If email
bounces, post only a brief article like:

        Mail to so-and-so <user@bum.dom> failed--can someone help me
        reach this person?

2) When you DO post, DON'T QUOTE THE WHOLE BLOODY MESSAGE!  Try to
pare down your quoted message to just the few lines that are relevant.
People out there reading news don't want to wade through piles of
quoted material to find your one line bon-mot.  Furthermore, remember
that thousands of organizations pay real money to move news--it is
polite to keep your messages small to keep the load down.

[The following is included as an example of what NOT to do.]

BTW, cool machine name--I like it better than the old name :-).

In comp.os.coherent you write:

>What revision of Coherent do you have?  Call! Tech support! at this point
>it is worth the call.       Ed MWC Tech Support



>>
>> I mailed the info below to MWC Support, but maybe someone else will be
>> able to give me some advice (I really hope I am overlooking
>> something).  I have been rather unlucky in the installation and usage
>> of Coherent so far, which I blamed on the flaky hardware.  So, I just
>> purchased a new computer, especially to run COH on it.  Here are the
>> specs:
>>
>> Motherboard     Micronics Gemini 486/33 w/16 MB of memory
>> BIOS            Phoenix 80486 ROM BIOS Plus Version 0.10 G17-2
>> Disk Controller SCSI Adaptec 1542B
>> Disk            340 MB SCSI Maxtor
>> Video           Oak 512 + VGA B&W monitor
>> Keyboard        Northgate Omni Key 101
>>
>> Since I wanted to be sure that it would work this time, I purchased
>> (as you can see) all brand name components this time (at a
>> considerable extra expense).
>>
>> This machine was to be used as a serial terminal server, so video was
>> pretty much irrelevant.
>>
>> Yesterday and today I attempted 8 installations, all failed at various
>> points.  Here is the story of the 7 aborted installations last night:
>>
>> 1. While attempting to create a filesystem in the root partition (1):
>>
>>    cr2=c399fce eax=ffc3a0d8 ebx=7 ecx=ffc3a0c8 edx=0 esi=ffc3a0c8
>>    edi=ffc3a0dc ebp=fffffc18 esp=fffffbe8 err #14 eip=ffc05c42 uesp=7
>>    cmd=     efl=11097 sigcode=#11 User Trap
>>
>> 2. During copying files from the first diskette.  I did not jot down
>>    the register dump.
>>
>> 3. During copying files from the first diskette:
>>
>>    eax=fe70e8 ebx=ffc39cc8 ecx=ffc390e8 edx=0 esi=ffc390e8
>>    edi=ffc38f18 ebp=fffffac0 esp=fffffa90 cs=81 ds=21 es=13 fs=0 gs=0
>>    err #6 eip=ffc05bed uesp=ffc39cc8 cmd=cpdir efl=11002 sigcode=#14
>>    User Trap /nefl=41796 No Single Stepping the Kernel
>>
>>    42040f 1 2b3d7508 1 1 41ed 3 0
>>    0 2a0 5a5 87b 0 0 0 0
>>    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2b3d7508
>>    2a 75b0 7d 2a75b07d 0 560d01 0 2bsd74cb 0 0
>>
>>    eax=1046 ebx=ffc40278 ecx=1246 edx=1246 esi=1246 edi=c ebp=fffffc20
>>    esp=fffffc04 cs=81 ds=21 es=13 ss=8f08 fs=0 gs=0 err #1
>>    eip=ffc0b2db uesp=ffc4026c cmd=cpdir efl=41696 bad kval ffc1f23c,
>>    11(2)
>>
>> 4. While building the kernel.  Floppy light was on for a while, the
>>    hard disk, then floppy, then newline was output to the screen, all
>>    disk activity stopped but floppy light was on.  Machine was frozen.
>>
>> 5. While building the kernel.  Floppy light was on for a while, the
>>    hard disk, then floppy, then newline was output to the screen, all
>>    disk activity stopped but floppy light was on.  Machine was frozen.
>>
>> 6. While building the kernel.  Floppy light was on for a while, the
>>    hard disk, then floppy, then newline was output to the screen, all
>>    disk activity stopped but floppy light was on.  Machine was frozen.
>>
>> 7. Didn't get as far as in the previous 3.  During the question "where
>>    do you want to mount it (regarding partition 2):
>>
>>    eax=1c ebx=ffc394e8 ecx=21 e x=21 esi=ffc39394 edi=1286
>>    ebp=fffffc0c esp=fffffbe0 cs=81 ds=21 es=21 ss=13 fs=0 gs=0 err #6
>>    eip=ffc01fef ue p=1286 cmd=sh err #6 eip=ffc01fef uesp=1286 cmd=sh
>>    efl=11212 sigcode=#4 User Trap
>>
>>    /etc/build: command "/bin/cho
>>    eax=0 ebx=4007d0 ecx=40115c edx=4 esi=0 edi=0 ebp=7ffffa2c
>>    esp=fffffce4 cs=b ds=13 es=13 ss=13 fs=0 gs=0 err #6 eip=7c21
>>    uesp=7ffffa1c cmd=build efl=11206 sigcode=a4 User Trap
>>
>>    eax=ffc38ee4 ebx=4 ecx=ffc3900c edx=0 esi=ffc39004 e
>>
>> Today I tried the eight installation, this time without virtual
>> consoles.  It got to the point where it created the system and told me
>> to take the floppy out.  It started to throw registers on the screen
>> and resetted computer.  I proceeded with installation of remaining
>> floppies after rebooting.  While attempting to create passwords for
>> user root I got message: "Cannot find passwd" "/etc/passwd: Command
>> "passwd root" failed".  Then, a moment later, while attempting to
>> create a new user, I got another message, "Cannot find sort".  Then,
>> while uncompressing the dictionary, the whole machine froze (no drive
>> lights of any kind, no register dump).
>>
>> Does anyone have any ideas???  I am beginning to give up on Coherent.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tony
>>
--
La Monte H. Yarroll     Home:           piggy@baqaqi.chi.il.us
   Work:                piggy@hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au
   AKA:                 piggy@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
   Once upon a time:    postmaster@clout.chi.il.us
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent