HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: edik@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA (Ed Sternin)
Subject: Re: Frustrated with SGI support
Organization: Brock University, St. Catharines Ontario
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 15:30:44 GMT

I don't know, they never call me...

I dutifully fill out their questionnaires, in exchange for which they
promise to send me a full(er) set of tech docs, and it never arrives
(never: 7+ months in this case).

Their sales people keep quoting me software prices and try to scare me into
buying my own copies of everything even though a site license agreement is
in place with my university.

Their support people are quick and good, in my limited experience (2 phone
calls replied to by e-mail, as requested).

Just my $0.02

I'd love to get Hot Mix II.  I was very impressed with PV-Wave demo available
on Hot Mix I (so much faster than other implementations I worked with, Sun and
VAX), and keep it around to show to visitors even though I myself use other
software.  

-- 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed Sternin, Dept. of Physics, Brock University, St.Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1
  voice: (416)688-5550 ext.3414   FAX: (416)682-9020   email: edik@brocku.ca
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sgi.admin:146 comp.sys.sgi:18601
From: trant@shire.corp.sgi.com (Ken Trant)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: security concerns revisted
Date: 8 Jan 93 17:30:44 GMT
Reply-To: trant@sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc. Server Technologies

>As has been discussed here every time this has come up (and as Vernon
>mentioned in this same thread), the best thing would be to have a script
>that runs after install, similarly to the autoconfig and confmsg scripts,
>that asks the user if they want to setup a secure system, and walks them
>through it in a script.  That may still happen for a future release.

 Running COPS would give you a very good jump start to securing a system,
it is in the public domain, and runs on SGI systems.

-- 
 -----
 Ken Trant <trant@sgi.com>     / I think that I shall never see
 Senior Systems Administrator / A billboard lovely as a tree
 Information Services,       / Indeed, unless the billboards fall
 Silicon Graphics, Inc      / I'll never see a tree at all
From: ramsey@sundance.llnl.gov (Susanne B. Ramsey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: mail and syslog - new admin question
Date: 12 Jan 93 22:44:27 GMT
Organization: Magnetic Fusion Energy - LLNL

I am configuring mail on the SGIs we just got and I have a question about
the entries in SYSLOG

On my SUN systems when a mail message is sent or received the system log
file syslog has a entry for "to=" and "from=" ...  On the SGI when I send
or receive a message the SYSLOG file just has a "from=" message on it..  


QUESTION - what on the SGIs do I change so that SYSLOG will show a "to=" and
"from="

Many thanks

Susanne Ramsey
sbr@llnl.gov


--
 Susanne B. Ramsey	     Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
 7000 East Avenue L-630	  |  (510) 423-9530
 Livermore Ca 94550	  |  sbr@llnl.gov
_____________________________________________________________________
Fertility is hereditary.  If your parents didn't have any children, neither 
will you.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sgi.admin:134 comp.sys.sgi:18560
From: lahtinen@gideon.fmi.fi (Kimmo Lahtinen)
Subject: Re: Printing with lpr on an IRIS
Organization: Finnish Academic and Research Network Project - FUNET
Date: 12 Jan 93 07:49:39 GMT

I have been using lpr to print directly to paralell port. The only problem
I met was with QMS 410, for some reason it seems to be incompatible
with SGI. It halts the whole spooling, and the only remedy is to
boot SGI...
--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kimmo Lahtinen                      E-Mail : lahtinen@gideon.fmi.fi       
Finnish Meteorological Institute    Phone  : +358 0 758 1322
Possessed by a Spirit               G3 Fax : +358 0 758 1396
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
From: deraadt@newt.cuc.ab.ca (Theo de Raadt)
Subject: -lsun Needed?
Organization: little lizard city
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 04:44:50 GMT

In the past, to access YP you needed to specify -lsun when linking a program.
Is this still needed? What's the exact details concerning this nowadays?
I'd appreciate mail.. thanks bunches.
 <tdr.
--

This space not left unintentionally unblank.		deraadt@newt.cuc.ab.ca
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sgi.admin:120 comp.sys.sun.admin:10024
From: miguel@boytoy.csd.sgi.com (Michael/Miguel Sanchez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: Help- Need PCNFSD for SGI systems
Date: 7 Jan 93 02:53:57 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <1ifdpcINNl4s@fnnews.fnal.gov>, dh@fncrd6.fnal.gov (don husby) writes:
|> 
|>    Can someone point me to an FTP site for PCNFSD.  I hope
|> to be able to get a compiled, tested version, but a ready-to-compile
|> version would be fine.


see the anonymous sgi site....sgi.sgi.com  192.48.153.1 and look in
the support directory


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miguel (Michael) J. Sanchez
miguel@csd.sgi.com			
Member Technical Staff, Silicon Graphics, Inc.
From: rck@fangio.asd.sgi.com (Robert Keller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: Re: detecting crash dumps on boot?
Date: 12 Jan 93 18:40:08 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: fangio.asd.sgi.com

clk@ernie.Princeton.EDU (Christopher Kranz) writes:
>What I'd like to do is determine if a crash dump exists on the swap device
>before /etc/savecore runs and then make room for the vmcore file that
>/etc/savecore creates by deleteing other files in the same file system.

Take a look at the savecore(1M) man page, especially the description section.
You'll likely want to put a hook in /etc/rc2.d/S48savecore, or if you 
have another filesystem with enough space, simply use /etc/config/savecore.options.

...robert
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sgi.bugs
From: ori@marvin.technion.ac.il (Ori Degani)
Subject: RPC.LOCKD can't find statd
Organization: Heart of Gold Institute
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 11:10:00 GMT
Summary: lotsa errors in SYSLOG where lockd complains
Keywords: bug

Hi,
  I got this error message in my SYSLOG on the day I booted the machine.
--
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/rpc.rwalld: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/rpc.rusersd: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/rpc.rquotad: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/rpc.sprayd: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/rpc.ypupdated: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/rpc.snoopd: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/cvpcsd: No such file or directory
Jan  4 10:48:37 marvin inetd[117]: /usr/etc/podd: No such file or directory
--
No lockd, or statd here

6 hours later:
--
Jan  4 16:50:30 marvin rpc.lockd[120]: cannot contact local statd
Jan  4 16:50:30 marvin rpc.lockd[120]: req discard due to status monitor problem
--
And this goes on and on... (every 2 seconds lockd looks for statd)
at 17:52 I tried to log in (I never noticed this I think)
--
[...]
Jan  4 17:52:47 marvin unix: Killing the input queue owner
Jan  4 17:52:47 marvin Xsession: ori: fatal IO error 32 (Broken pipe)
--
So I tried to log in again, and it worked...

Three days later:
--
Jan  7 12:43:40 marvin unix: WARNING: Process [Xsgi] pid 3058 killed due to insufficient memory/swap.
Jan  7 12:43:40 marvin unix: 
Jan  7 12:43:39 marvin rpc.lockd[120]: req discard due to status monitor problemJan  7 12:43:42 marvin Xsession: ori: fatal IO error 32 (Broken pipe)
Jan  7 12:43:43 marvin rpc.lockd[120]: cannot contact local statd
Jan  7 12:43:43 marvin rpc.lockd[120]: req discard due to status monitor problemJan  7 12:43:44 marvin xdm[425]: Server for display :0 terminated unexpectedly: 2304
--
Those rpc.lockd[120] are always happening and I don't know if they have 
anything to do with the problem...

Because I was kicked out of my session I investigated the SYSLOG, and 
saw the rpc.lockd thing.  So my questions are:

1)  What is that rpc.lockd error, and why is it happening?  I'm rebooting
    the machine now, and hoping it will disappear, but still...
2)  Why did I get logged out of the machine?  (It _might_ be because
    I'm using the new Lucid Emacs (19.3)).
3)  Any connection between 2, and 3?  Notice that I was logged out before
    (January 4th), and didn't notice it.

Thanks, 
Ori

--
   |  ----      Ori Degani
   |  |___      ori@eddie.technion.ac.il   (Ship Computer on the HOG)
   |  |         ori@marvin.technion.ac.il  (Who else) 
   |  ----      s2973229@techst02.technion.ac.il (Ech..)   
-- 
   |  ----      Ori Degani
   |  |___      ori@eddie.technion.ac.il   (Ship Computer on the HOG)
   |  |         ori@marvin.technion.ac.il  (Who else) 
   |  ----      s2973229@techst02.technion.ac.il (Ech..)   
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
From: matt@wardsgi.med.yale.edu (Matt Healy)
Subject: Xman crashes xdm
Followup-To: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Organization: Yale U. - Genetics
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 01:07:42 GMT

Under IRIX 4.0.1, the manual browser Xman version 3.1.4-X11R4
frequently crashes xdm.  In the SYSLOG I find error messages from
UNIX about a FIFO buffer getting too full, then the pipe getting broken.

Obviously, for some reason the browser is stuffing bytes into the
buffer faster than X-windows can keep up.

What can I do to stop this annoying problem?  Right now I am just
using man in a terminal window, but that is a pain in the keister...

Matt Healy
"I pretend to be a network administrator;
 the lab net pretends to work"

matt@wardsgi.med.yale.edu
From: dave@mando.mit.edu (David Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: anonymous ftp attempt
Date: 4 Jan 93 19:11:55 GMT

Hi, in my syslog there's an entry indicating a refused anonymous
FTP login attempt. The address in numerical form is also there.
Is there any way to backtrack the number to an actual address so
I can see who tried to access the machine? I've tried contacting
the machine via telnet and ftp but no luck. thanks for any help in
advance. dave smith dave@mando.mit.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
From: wshimizu@water.corp.sgi.com (Warren Shimizu)
Subject: Daytimer/Scheduler for IRIS wanted
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 20:33:31 GMT

Does anyone know of a Daytimer/Scheduler program for the IRIS.  I've heard
there is a program called vcal.  Does anyone know anything about this?  If
so, how could I get a copy?

Thanks,

  Warren

-- 
Warren K. Shimizu
Silicon Graphics Inc.
IMSD I/S
(Office)415/390-5308
(Display Pager)415/807-4963 wshimizu_p@corp.sgi.com
(E-Mail)wshimizu@water.corp.sgi.com
From: long@vax.ox.ac.uk (Neil J. Long)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: timed
Date: 12 Jan 93 09:43:55 GMT
Organization: Materials Department, University of Oxford

Hi
I have been trying to get a group of 5 Indigos to keep time and I have this 
slight problem with timed since there are a few other machines running timed 
but with the wrong time on the same network.
I have been using xntpd to keep one machine set right relative to 3 others 
sync'd to 3 other radio controlled beasts and that one machine is running 
timed -M -F localhost
So it should be master and not permit its clock to be changed other than by 
the xntpd daemon.
The problem is that for the other sgi's I cannot seem to start timed so that 
they listen only to the master and ignore the other ones on the net which 
are wrong.
The problem is that the other machines are in other departments, etc and 
their SuperUsers never seem to read their email form me suggesting they set 
their clocks (which would be pointless unless everyone can be reached and 
set all their clocks before re-starting timed).
Has anyone ever found a simple solution to this or do I need re-read the man 
pages!
Maybe if I define a 'network' such that the other machines aren't part of it?
thanks
Neil
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: Re: -lsun Needed?
Date: 11 Jan 93 18:34:51 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <DERAADT.93Jan10214450@newt.newt.cuc.ab.ca> deraadt@newt.cuc.ab.ca (Theo de Raadt) writes:

| In the past, to access YP you needed to specify -lsun when linking a program.
| Is this still needed? What's the exact details concerning this nowadays?
| I'd appreciate mail.. thanks bunches.

Yes.  In IRIX 5.0, we will finall fold it into libc, with a new hack for
preventing use of the NIS functions when so desired, but for now, you 
need it if you use NIS/YP.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: Re: questions II: the wrath of Jon
Date: 12 Jan 93 05:56:17 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <1993Jan11.221650.564@ulysses.att.com> jdt@ulysses.att.com (Jonathan D. Trudel[ftd]) writes:

| What is the maximum partition size that's allowed on an SGI?

8 GB for now.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sgi
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Subject: Re: is wide-open tftpd ever needed for install from remote?
Organization:  Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 21:19:38 GMT

In <C0G7I2.JM3@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> sysmark@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt) writes:

| Last month Dave Dittrich posted an article taking SGI to task for the
| fact that IRIX's initial /etc/passwd includes several accounts which
| have null passwords, a potential worry if the system is attached to a
| network.  (He's not the first to grouse about this, nor is he likely
| to be the last.)  Anyway, that discussion reminded me of yet another
| security-related issue ...
| 
| Section 3.2 of the IRIS Software Installation Guide ("Enabling Network
| Access to Remote Workstations") suggests modifying inetd.conf so that
| tftpd runs in unrestricted mode.  I wonder how many people have done
| this, and have forgotten to put tftpd back into restricted mode.

That *exact* same section explictly reminds you to put it back.
It *also* tells you how you can modify the entry to leave security
on, but only allow a couple of directories.

| But my question is, why should this ever be necessary at all?  Right
| after suggesting that the tftpd "-s ..." stuff be removed, the guide
| tells us that we might want to consider appending "<CDdir>/dist" (or
| whatever) to the "-s /usr/local/boot" at the end of the tftpd entry
| in inetd.conf instead, which certainly seems preferable.

Because we did *just* that first, and an amazing number of people didn't
seem to be able to handle the typing involved ;)

| Given the security worries related to a unrestricted-mode tftpd, why
| does the documentation even suggest running it that way in the first
| place?

See above.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
From: rduff@arrirs04.uta.edu (Robert Duff)
Subject: Problem with Pseudo-Terminals on SGI Indigo...
Organization: Automation and Robotics Research Institute, U Texas @ Arlington
Distribution: comp
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 21:43:50 GMT


We have an Indigo XS24 running IRIX 4.0.5F.

Several programmers are writting applications that use /dev/ttyq*
devices for pseudo terminals.  The problem is that whenever a ttyq* is
opened, the ownership of the device is changed to that user.
Afterward, no one else has permission to use that ttyq*.  Is there
anyway I can make these pseudo terminals usable by users yet not
allowing the change in ownership?

Thanks,
--
===============================================================================
Robert Duff              | "Let him who boasts boast of this, that he under-
Automation and Robotics  | stands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exer-
Research Institute - UTA | cises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth,
rduff@arri.uta.edu       | for I delight in these things." Jeremiah 9:24
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sgi
From: atems@igor.physics.wayne.edu (Dale Atems)
Subject: Re: security concerns revisted
Organization: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 15:57:21 GMT

In article <uij5h2g@zuni.esd.sgi.com> olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:
>
>I maintain (and a number of people disagree with me), that you *have*
>to ship an open root, and given that, anybody who can't scan a 
>*15 line* password file to notice the other accounts that have no
>passwords is unlikely to do anything about root either.  If they
>don't secure root, nothing else matters.  We can start all of these
>arguments all over again, but I maintain (both as a system admin in
>a number of environments, and as a tech support resource in 4 compainies)
>that we would be *crazy* as a company to do anything else.

With all due respect, Dave, I have to disagree here. Most people are
sensible enough to protect root, but either aren't aware of the other
open accounts or put off learning how to protect them without giving up
the ability to share resources over the network (like remote printers,
etc.). People buy systems to solve problems, and many sites (like ours)
don't have full-time system administrators. The people who set up the
systems aren't idiots, they're expected to set the systems up and then
go back to writing proposals. Learning about security issues gets put
on the back burner along with getting system software upgraded, getting
clocks synched to a reliable source, diagnosing network slowdowns...

>As has been discussed here every time this has come up (and as Vernon
>mentioned in this same thread), the best thing would be to have a script
>that runs after install, similarly to the autoconfig and confmsg scripts,
>that asks the user if they want to setup a secure system, and walks them
>through it in a script.  That may still happen for a future release.

Excellent idea. How far in the future are we talking about?

------
Dale Atems
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Department of Physics and Astronomy
atems@igor.physics.wayne.edu
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: Re: Recipe for bringing a Personal Iris to its knees ...
Keywords: NextMail, Full Disk, OverLoaded
Date: 7 Jan 93 19:20:30 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <1993Jan7.151345.1819@julian.uwo.ca> kinch@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Dave Kinchlea) writes:


| SUFFICIENT (but probably not necessary) Ingredients
| ---------------------------------------------------
| 	- Personal Iris 4.0.1 - fileserver
| 	- NeXTStation 2.1     
| 	- Ethernet LAN running TCP/IP 
| 	- NeXTMail 2.0 (v63)  
| 	- mbox residing on Iris and has 250 deleted but not compacted
| messages (NeXTMail keeps deleted mail messages around until the
| Compact command is given -- well I didn't know this ;-()

Unfortunately, you don't provide much info about what is going
on.  If you are NFS exporting (r/w) the mail spool directory, that
is generally agreed on to be a poor idea, partly because of
locking issues.  Ask on comp.sys.mail if you really
want to know why people constantly have problems doing it
in heterogenous environments.

You may be running afoul of some of the NFS locking issues.
405 IRIX has a whole new lockd (and 405C has one with a
couple of minor ;) bugs fixed; in fact, the new lockd is one
of two files in the 405C patch).
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin
Subject: Re: New Sysadmin - hardware questions
Date: 12 Jan 93 05:53:53 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <1993Jan11.184619.18179@ulysses.att.com> jdt@ulysses.att.com (Jonathan D. Trudel[ftd]) writes:
| First of all, is it necessary to use hardware links in /dev for newly
| attached disk drives?  Coming from a Sun environment, I'm more used to 
| mounting the actual devices as file systems instead of things like
| /dev/disk1.  I like to see what hardware is being used where, and since 
| you're really using the same major and minor device numbers of, say
| /dev/dsk/jag0d1s7, what's the harm?

You can use the full device name.  You must have added the disk with
the Add_disk script.  Also see the disk tool in system manager (top
item on the toolchest at top left).

| Secondly, I've been told that the system really doesn't care what SCSI
| device numbers you use on the SCSI chaains, so long as the id isn't 0.
| True?  Does the system just recognize what a device is by probing the
| bus or something?

Yes.  Of course, it is helpful if /etc/fstab matches ;)

| Can I get a machine to run its administrative tools with the 
| display on another (part of the faq, perhaps?)?  On my SGI server,
| it complains that it "can't access a needed shared library".
| How do I set it up right?

You have to install the server version of libgl_s; it *should* have
been installed automatically as part of eoe1.sw.unix.  Perhaps somebody
removed it because they thought they didn't need it?  Other than gettig
that installed, setting the DISPLAY environment variable to point to
some other SGI system should do the job.

| Lastly, how do I create tape drives on a SCSI bus?  I would like to
| set up an exabyte 8500C on the system, but how do I go about using the 
| compressed and non-compressed modes?  I know you use different minor
| numbers on the device to get the different modes, but how do I space
| the numbers to get it right?  On a Sun, for example, the base number is
| the tape drive with rewind, and the base number+4 is no rewind, and so on.
| Any suggestions would be appreciated.

You'll also have to edit /usr/sysgen/master.d/tpsc (assuming this is on
integral SCSI; jagtape otherwise), in a manner similar to st_tape.c on
Sun.  Several people corresponded with me on this recently and got it
to work, perhaps one of them will post their actual entry.  You may
have to post with 8500C in the subject for them to notice.

Also see /dev/MAKEDEV for existing minor number use.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.admin