HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
Subject: Re: Laser Optics wiring
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 15:18:34 GMT
Keywords: lightening

In article <1992Sep6.185845.8665@compu.com> fr@compu.com (Fred Rump from home) writes:
>We plan to install an ODT system that will be connected to several remote 
>buildings either to other ODT boxes, PCs or terminals. Could be either serial 
>or ethernet.

>This is in Florida lightening country and previous installations in the area 
>have always resulted in painful lessons about surges, blowouts etc. 

>Has anybody learned to over come this problem with fiberoptics cabling? 
>Products?  Sources?  Can this be done by an inexperienced installer (as far as
>fiber is concerned) We would really like to have some kind of a mux box that 
>would be connected via one fiber cable but have several more common serial or 
>ethernet lines at each end.

I have not used the fiber options, but you might look at the Specialix
RIO system.   RISC based using the Inmos Transputer, and is a high
performance serial system.   Each 8 ports has it's own driver internal
to each box, and you can link the boxes together.   I have a site where
we are using the RIO's with just normal twisted pair inteconnects.

You can use their fiber drivers at $495 list per pair to connect any of
these, and you could go back to metal from any box.  Limit is 16 boxes
and while not the most efficient method, they could be daisy chained
for the full length.  They guarantee 1000 meters on fiber so you could
stretch your terminals out for 16 kilometers :-)   And they can handle
up to 115k.  (I was told 'unofficialy' that while they do guarantee
1000 meters, if you use good glass 3000 meters should be no problem).

I'd recommend an installer whose is experienced with fiber.

-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org  bill.vermillion@oau.org
                - bill@bilver.uucp 
                - ..!{peora|ge-dab|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill

Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: dthomas@mcl.bdm.com (David Thomas)
Subject: Re: Are the Registration cards too much wor
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 16:28:35 GMT
Organization: BDM International, Inc.

One reason why people may not want to send in their cards is because
of SCO's support policy.  When you buy a system, they give you 30 days
of free technical support from the time you install it.  If you send in
the registration card, it starts the 30 clock ticking.  If you wait until
you need some kind of technical support, you can claim that you just
installed it and start the 30 day clock at that point.

Please note that I am neither advocating nor condoning this type of
behaviour, just pointing out that SCO's policy provides a disincentive
to filling out thte registration card.

David B. Thomas				dthomas@mcl.bdm.com
BDM International, Inc.			Voice: (703) 848-6121
7915 Jones Branch Drive FX/3B309	Fax: (703) 848-6089
McLean, VA 22102		
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: apl@world.std.com (Anthony P Lawrence)
Subject: Tecmar tape drive and 2.3.4 Xenix
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Distribution: biz
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 22:30:40 GMT

Simple story:  upgraded client to 2.3.4.

The Tecmar (wangtek controller) tape drive was installed in 2.3.2
as 300H, dma 3, int 5, type T.

And so it is in 2.3.4 :-)

Tape is seen on boot. 'tape status' works.

tar tvf /dev/rct0 spins the tape, gurgles a few times, and then

LOCKS THE MACHINE SOLID!

Yuck.  I'm going to swap in a different unit Monday unless someone
has a clue...



(before you say it:  xnx149 is for 2.3.2, and yes it was installed)

		Tony

Lawrence & Clark, Inc		(617) 762-0707	(206) 323-2864
Xenix/Unix support,etc 	 	 Boston		 Seattle
From: davidf@golem.uucp (David J. Fiander)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: Mailing lists with MMDF
Keywords: MMDF MAIL MAILING LIST
Date: 8 Sep 92 23:22:15 GMT

According to philp@world.std.com (Philip D Pennie):
>An aside: SCO support mentioned that there is a 1024 character limit on
>mailing lists withing the the alias.list file.  Does anyone know if this also
>holds for external files?

No, it doesn't.  Alias include files can be any length at all.
This is actually a big complaint I have with SCO MMDF.  The
MMDF commands have to be built with a custom version of the dbm
functions in order to handle the larger than usual size of the
items in the database.  This means that application writers
can't query the database using the standard functions anymore.

This change was made just so that users didn't have to create
external alias files for aliases that were longer that 256
bytes (or so).  But using include files also mean that the
database has to be rebuilt less often (you don't have to
rebuild the database when you edit an included list); is
smaller (the database only contains the name of the file to
include); and, if the standard versions of the dbm functions
had been used, is compatible with the standard devsys versions.

- David
From: news@xenitec.on.ca (xenitec.on.ca News Administrator)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
Subject: Problem with stty on 3.2.4 with a Consensys Powerports board
Date: 5 Sep 92 05:11:46 GMT
Organization: [resent by] The SCOGEN gateway and Propagation Society
Resent-From: mmdf@xenitec.on.ca
Submit-To: scogen@xenitec.on.ca
Precedence: bulk


   We recently upgraded a client from Xenix to Unix and ran into a
weird problem:  users could no longer type the characters 4 or ( on
terminals attached to the multiport serial card (Consensys Powerports
8-port board, using driver rev 6.4, which was current at least as of
two months ago).  After a while, I managed to find the culprit, though
I don't know where responsibility for the problem lies.

   What we found was that as soon as we used the stty command to change
the interrupt key to anything other than DEL, any 4 or ( we entered
would simply vanish into the ether.  The problem could not be corrected
by setting the interrupt key back to DEL; the only way to restore
normal operation was to log out, at which time everything went back to
normal.  We only had one user who actually needed this command, and
fortunately she uses the console (which does not suffer from this
problem), so we simply enclosed the stty command in an if statement in
the .profile.

   I did stty -g before and after stty intr ^C, and only one byte
changed, as one might expect.  Running stty intr <DEL> would restore
the stty settings to their original state.  What I found, however, was
that running stty `cat before` (where before is the file into which I
redirected the original output of stty -g) would produce an error
message, something about being unable to set the keyboard into AT mode
(unfortunately, I don't have the message at hand).

   Has anyone else had this problem?  We do not have it on another
system running 3.2.4 but with an Equinox Megaplex card; these are the
only two 3.2.4 systems in our client base.  I suspect it is some form
of interaction between the Powerports driver, which claims to support
all forms of Unix 3.2 from all PC Unix vendors, and 3.2.4, but I
don't see why running stty intr ^C should cause this problem, nor
do I understand why Unix would want to switch the keyboard on some
remote dumb terminal into or out of AT mode.

-Steve
--
stephen@bokonon.UUCP      ...!{uunet,xrtll,becker.gts.org}!bokonon!stephen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen M. Dunn, CNE, Senior Systems Analyst, United System Solutions Inc.
104 Carnforth Road, Toronto, ON, Canada M4A 2K7             (416) 750-7946
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general,comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.sysv386,comp.unix.wizards
From: syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein)
Subject: Re: Moving Data off a Plexus P6
Keywords: plexus sco data tape drive cpio kermit
Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM
Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc.  Huntingdon Valley, PA
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 12:47:06 GMT

terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes:
>>| I have a customer with a Plexus P6.  They are moving their Unify database 
Read Plexus P/60, I am sure.
>>I came back to my SCO system, and I am able to recognise
>>| the tape, but I get "I/O error on read()." when I try to access the data.
>Many machines support *one* tape format (QIC-11 or QIC 24 only).  150Meg
>drives generally support reading but not writing lower densities.
Nope, its a different problem....

Plexus P/60 and P/35's, as well as P/75 and P/55's that use the IMSP
tape controller have a strange problem with their tapes.... They
write the bits inverted.  First off the tape (I presume
here we are talking about a cartridge tape, as P/60's used 1/2" 9tk
mostly with cartridge as an option.)
is either the older 4 track 20MB (if its an older P/60) or the
newer 9 track 60 MB tape drive.  (the older requires DC300/DC300XL
tapes, the newer can use those for 45MB or DC600 for 60MB).

Either way, you need to write a c program to read the data in and
then invert the bits.  Depending on machine type byte swapping
may also be needed.  The P/60 series used Motorola 68k processors
and those are a different byte order than Intel boxes.

The P/90 and P/95, as well as the P/15/ and P/20 used a different
tape controller and did not invert the bits.  Later Plexus software
could recognize which way the tape was written and adapt automatically.

-- 
========================================================================
Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP          Elm Coordinator - Current 2.3PL11
Datacomp Systems, Inc.                 Projected 2.4 Release: Oct 1,1992
syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd      Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann)
Subject: MMDF Problems Solved
Organization: Zeos International, Ltd
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 14:51:50 GMT
Keywords: After MMDF


The problems that I was having with MMDF / Sendmail have been resolved.
The problem was there were two copies of rmail on the system. The 
smail version was the one that the system was using. I deleted the
smail rmail and everything is back to SCO "normal" for mail.


-- 
Ken Germann              ZZZZ EEEE  OO   SSS    ZEOS International, Ltd.  
support@zeos.com   INET     Z E    O  O S       Technical Support Dept.
uunet!zeos!support UUCP    Z  EE   O  O  SS     530 5th Ave N.W.
800-228-5390      VOICE   Z   E    O  O    S    St. Paul, MN 55112
612-633-7337             ZZZZ EEEE  OO  SSS     FAX         612-633-4607
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: clayh+@MUDLHEAD.NETWORK.COM (Clayton Haapala)
Subject: Re: C-News for SCO.
Organization: Network Systems Corporation
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 15:46:52 GMT

In article <BuC4M9.53n@wimsey.bc.ca>, sl@wimsey.bc.ca (Stuart Lynne) writes:
|> After I hear from the Beta sites I'm thinking of making it the first posting
|> in biz.sco.binaries. Followed by elm 2.3 p11.
|> 
I'd wait for Elm 2.4.  Should be out by late fall, I imagine, though I am NOT
speaking for the Elm group.

|> Anyway check ftp.wimsey.bc.ca:~ftp/pub/wimseypd for the all the stuff I'm
|> getting ready for b.s.b.
|> 
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't submit everything in one day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That turns the biz.sco group, normally < 10K traffic/day into 100+K for a few
days.

-- 
Clayton Haapala	(clayh@network.com)	
Not speaking for or about
Network Systems Corp.			"...and the alligators are on FIRE."
7625 Boone Ave N MS10				-- S.E.K.
Minneapolis, MN 55428-1099
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: gerg@netcom.com (Greg Andrews)
Subject: Re: What causes modem to hang system?
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 23:56:24 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

In article <9209091012.aa11742@openage.COM> paul@openage.COM (Paul A. Fischer, Sr UNIX Sys Consultant) writes:
>
>>I've never done it, and it's never confused any getty.
>>Why do so many folks advocate make a mute out of the modem???
>
>If you setup UUCP properly you will find that the dialer program will issue a
>AT e0q1  when it sets the modem for dial-in.  Check the Source code.
>

That's true, but only for particular dialer binaries and chat scripts,
not for everything.  For example, the dialTBIT dialer binary sets Q4
once and never adjusts it again.  (Doesn't have to - Q4 makes the modem
do the Right Thing without further fiddling)

Atdial might do that, but I don't consider it an authoritative source for
modem info.  (The original version used 9600 bps for a Telebit T2500!) 


Jean-Pierre might be fine with Q0 on his SCO machines, but that doesn't
mean all Unix and Xenix systems will tolerate Q0.  The large majority
of systems will have trouble if the modem issues "RING" and "CONNECT xxxx"
messages.  One of the more common problems is where uugetty -r sees the
modem's "RING" code (with carriage returns) and sends out a login prompt.
The modem abandons the call because the computer spit characters out
before it finished connecting.  Often the modem has E1, so the resulting
"NO CARRIER" starts an echo war with getty.

For the most part, it's a very good idea to turn off modem result codes
on dial-in.  Some modems may require you to turn them completely off,
but many these days have a setting for dialing with them on and answering
with them off.


-- 
 .------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Greg Andrews   |       UUCP: {amdahl,claris}!netcom!gerg        |
 |                 |   Internet: gerg@netcom.COM                    |
 `------------------------------------------------------------------'
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann)
Subject: C-News for SCO.
Organization: Zeos International, Ltd
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1992 19:03:58 GMT

I am going to drop the C-news for SCO out to UUNET and submit a request
to have it added to their archives. Hopefully, they accept the request.
-- 
Ken Germann              ZZZZ EEEE  OO   SSS    ZEOS International, Ltd.  
support@zeos.com   INET     Z E    O  O S       Technical Support Dept.
uunet!zeos!support UUCP    Z  EE   O  O  SS     530 5th Ave N.W.
800-228-5390      VOICE   Z   E    O  O    S    St. Paul, MN 55112
612-633-7337             ZZZZ EEEE  OO  SSS     FAX         612-633-4607
From: brian@ilinx.wimsey.bc.ca (Brian J. Murrell)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: digifax/modem
Date: 5 Sep 92 21:19:23 GMT
Organization: [resent by] The SCOGEN gateway and Propagation Society
Resent-From: mmdf@xenitec.on.ca
Submit-To: scogen@xenitec.on.ca
Cc: scogen@imcon.wimsey.bc.ca
Precedence: bulk

As enscripted by Corey Sweeney:
> 
> hello.  I've got a problem that I don't know how to solve.
> 
> I hooked up a digifax and a modem on my sco machine.  They bolth share the same
> phone line and i see colisions comming in the future.  Does anyone know how I
> could rig it up so that the modem won't activate untill the fax machine is done
> faxing and the fax machine wont start if the modem is in use?

Can you not set a "uucp lock file" for the port which the fax modem is on??

For instance, the fax package I use, Faximum, there is a set up option wich
you give it the name of a file to create and remove as the modem is used/not
used.

This then will cause a [uu]getty or other uucp type program from tring to
access the port while the fax software is either sending or receiving.

brian


-- 
Brian J. Murrell                                        brian@ilinx.wimsey.bc.ca
InterLinx Support Services, Inc.                        uunet!van-bc!ilinx!brian
North Vancouver, B.C.
        Platform and Brand Independent UNIX Support - R3.2 - R4 - BSD
From: dsmythe@netcom.com (Dave Smythe)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: New CodeView in SCO UNIX V3.2.4 - is this a joke?
Date: 8 Sep 92 07:10:54 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <1992Sep7.192306.13797@tom.rz.uni-passau.de> gengenba@forwiss.uni-passau.de (Michael Gengenbach) writes:
>I just did an upgrade to SCO UNIX V3.2.4 including the development system
>and I tried the new CodeView debugger V3.00.079. But what I discovered
>seemed to be a joke, but no improvement. I have the following complaints:
>
>   - you can't switch between screens on a multiscreen terminal while
>     debugging with cv.

Heh.  Switching multiscreens killed cvtcoff when a program was loading.
Can't have that, eh?  Let's disallow switching multiscreens...

>   - cv seems to have less functions than the older version. I didn't find
>     anything about watch points or trace points.

>   - I think, even the documentation got worse.
>
>Is there a newer and better version available somewhere? Our support for
>SCO in germany is very bad. We only have a vendor who doesn't know much
>about details and the SCO company which does only sales in germany and if
>you call them they tell you to ask your vendor :-(

Here's what I've heard from SCO: Codeview support is waning, and will
eventually be nil.  The port from DOS to UNIX never was satisfactory
and has been a continuous headache.  I heard this when I called to
ask why the option to use CV in monochrome seemed to have no effect.
The answer?  "Yeah, it doesn't do anything."  "So, what are you planning
to do about it?" I asked.  "Oh -- we took the option out of the manual!"
was the reply...

Just use dbx (db[xX]tra).  It's much better.  I've configured mine to
act like emacs and use it regularly.  The alt-keys make the system
crash, but other than that I can at least debug programs.  To debug
screen-oriented programs, I disabled a multiscreen tty and redirected
the output of dbxtra there.  It worked well enough for the time being.

GDB is no doubt the best bet.  Run emacs, gdb, and gcc2 on a Sparc as
a cross development environment and forget the stupid Intel machine... ;-)

D

-- 
========================================================================
Dave Smythe   N6XLP    dsmythe@netcom.com (also dsmythe@cs.stanford.edu)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
From: bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell)
Subject: Re: how many entries in a dir??
Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1992 14:48:54 GMT

In <1992Sep09.013344.1839@xenitec.on.ca> news@xenitec.on.ca (xenitec.on.ca News Administrator) writes:

:Brian J. Murrell writes:
:> what is the limit of entries (files) in a directory?  I remember that 3.2.2
:> was giving me problems with more than 1000 entries.  I now have 3.2.4.
:> 
:> what is the limit on 3.2.4??
:> 

:There has never been any such limit, so far as I know, in any version
:of *nix.

:But why would you WANT so many? It's clumsy and slow to search.

He's probably running some brain-dead accounting software that
stuffs everything in one flat directory (last time I ran
RealWorld it created all companies in one directory with file
names like: A:CHART01.INX, A:CHART02.INX, A:CNGCOA01.INX, A:CNGCOA02.INX).
This is from a Xenix system, not DOS :-)

I've found directories with > 3500 entries on DOS accounting
systems.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:  bill@Celestial.COM   Bill Campbell; Celestial Software
UUCP:   ...!thebes!camco!bill   6641 East Mercer Way
             uunet!camco!bill   Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591
SPEED COSTS MONEY -- HOW FAST DO YOU WANT TO GO?
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general,comp.unix.questions
From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst)
Subject: Re: GCC errors
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 18:37:25 GMT
Organization: The Programmer's Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI

In article <1992Sep09.133242.12069@zeos.com> kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann) writes:
>asyncxenix.c: In function `sigjoe':
>asyncxenix.c:43: `SIGHUP' undeclared (first use this function)
[and so forth]

Try adding <signal.h> to the list of files your program #include's.

Also, if you're running 3.2v4.0, make sure you have compiled GCC to
define the proper constants to get the include info it wants.

-- 
Marc Unangst                | Real men don't use Windows.  Real men use X. 
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us   | Only a real man would use a GUI where the
                            | shift keys after "Alt" are "Super" and "Hyper."
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general,comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.sysv386,comp.unix.wizards
From: paul@openage.openage.com (Paul Fischer)
Subject: Moving Data off a Plexus P6
Organization: Open Age, Inc.
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1992 19:22:39 GMT
Keywords: plexus sco data tape drive cpio kermit 

Hi All,

I have a customer with a Plexus P6.  They are moving their Unify database 
application  to a SCO server next week, and I am hoping to use their tape
drive to cpio the data.  I made a cpio tape on their drive, and read it back
in to test the tape.  I came back to my SCO system, and I am able to recognise
the tape, but I get "I/O error on read()." when I try to access the data.

I have tried all the cpio options about old types of cpio and word swapping,
but no luck.  Is this drive using a special format?  Am I SOL?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Please email all responses to 
paul@openage.com.

I also think I can use kermit or UUCP to get the data to SCO, but this seems
like moving lake michigan through a straw.  There is only 120 MB of disk on
the Plexus, so it's not so bad if I have the data through a serial line.

Still in all there may even be UUCP incomaptibilities between the Plexus
UUCP and SCO HDB UUCP.

Thanks in Advance.

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independent SCO support and service provider in the D.C. metro area.
What I don't know I will learn. What I can't learn I'll hire someone to.
Paul A. Fischer           | Open Age Inc.  | paul@openage.com
From: geoff@zswamp.UUCP (Geoffrey Welsh)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: Turning on cache causes random kernel panics, core dumps
Date: 10 Sep 92 01:28:33 GMT
Organization: Izot's Swamp

root@candle.uucp (Bruce Momjian) writes:

> With the motherboard cache is turned off, it runs fine.  When the cache
> is turned on, the system dumps core of executables at random, and
> finally kernel panics.

   This is just a shot in the dark;  I'm not qualified to examine the traces 
you've posted, but I thought that I should comment: memory blocks used for 
anything other than RAM or ROM (i.e. I/O, such as smart serial board interface 
memory and, less pressingly, video memory) should be marked in the chipset as 
non-cacheable. 

   Though I can't think of any reason why video memory (A0000H-AFFFFH and 
$B8000H-BFFFFH) can't be cached on a normal VGA card (since nothing but the 
CPU should affect that memory), it *might* cause interesting problems should 
shared memory (such as smart serial board buffer memory) be affected by 
anything other than the CPU or the motherboard's DMA controller (which should 
be thoroughly snooped).  I suppose that bus master boards might also be 
snooped, since they write to conventional RAM, but dual-port (or arbitrated) 
memory on the I/O bus might not be. 

   I have also observed on my own machine that disallowing cache on video 
memory actually *decreases* the delay incurred when writing to and reading 
from that block.

   If you have any cards that use RAM blocks for I/O (I've mentioned smart 
serial boards, but ARCnet cards, token ring cards, etc. also qualify), you 
might want to see if you can configure your cache controller *not* to cache 
the blocks used by those devices.

   It might not help... but it just might.

Geoffrey Welsh, 7 Strath Humber Court, Islington, Ontario, M9A 4C8 Canada
geoff@zswamp.uucp, [xenitec.on.ca|m2xenix.psg.com]!zswamp!geoff (416)258-8467
         Coincidentally, most people who fight for "fairness" would be
         significantly better off under the system they call "fair"...
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general