HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: arthur@sgi.com (Arthur Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: PVM and XDR routines
Date: 6 Jan 93 20:03:34 GMT
Reply-To: arthur@chiba (Arthur Evans)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <34881@adm.brl.mil> englund@gdstech.grumman.com (Dave Englund) writes:
>I'm running on a Crimson under 4.0.4. (I usually forget to say that)
>
>Has anyone had any success using the PVM library on SGI machines.
>Getting the pvmd demon running was no problem, but the example
>applications included with the distribution use the XDR library
>routines from Sun. Are these libraries public domain? If so, how can I
>get them? If not, what do I do now? Thanks for any help you can give me!

The XDR library isn't public domain, but it should be 
on your system, since we support NFS, which uses RPC,
which uses XDR (whew!).  Anyway, if you want to use xdr
you should include the <rpc/rpc.h> header file, and link
with libsun.a (-lsun).

There's some more info on using XDR in the IRIX Network Programming
Guide: Chapter 1, "Network Programming Overview," and Chapter 8, "XDR
Programming Notes."

Good luck!

-arthur
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: caleb@sidefx.uucp (Caleb Howard)
Subject: Support's ok by me
Organization: Side Effects Software Inc.
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 20:47:31 GMT

   Hi there.  With all of the discussion concerning the problems that people
are having with SGI product support, I thought that it would only be fair to
report the wonderful support I have been getting.  I managed to trash one of
the SCSI drive, or the Ethernet hardware on our new R4000 system.  Upon calling
the 1-800 hotline listed on the service info card, I was dealt with cheerfully
by an operator who told me that a technician would call.  The technician, 
Randy, did call the same day, and was extremely good natured and helpful in
the diagnosis of the problem.  This was yesterday.  Today, I have contacted
him and, while the system is still broken, I am happy to say that SGI have
shown exemplary responsiveness, and the parts will shortly arrive to let me
fix the system with all due haste.

   I'm not saying that the problems people are having with SGI support are
fictitious - just that I haven't experienced them myself.

-caleb


Xref: sparky comp.sys.sgi:18488 comp.sys.sgi.hardware:60
From: sam@oxford.cs.berkeley.edu (Sam Leffler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi,comp.sys.sgi.hardware
Subject: Re: FAX software for SGI
Date: 5 Jan 1993 17:37:25 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: sam@oxford.cs.berkeley.edu (Sam Leffler)
NNTP-Posting-Host: oxford.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <1993Jan5.072309.17577@comp.bioz.unibas.ch>, Reinhard Doelz writes:
> In article <ufjceq8@twilight.wpd.sgi.com>, story@sgi.com (David (Duis) Story) 
writes:
>
> |> Take a look on sgi.sgi.com for the 'flexfax' software.  Requires 4.0.X
> |> and Display PostScript.
> 
> Thaks for the pointer - I found that it also requires dwb for the man pages. 
> I tried to install it and it seemed to do the job. However, the faxd starting
> dies immediately afterwards and tells me that it couldn't find the uid 9999
> - adding this number didn't help either. Any suggestions to this one? 
> 
> As I currently run a CLASS I fax modem per default, is there anyone out there 
> who has modified flexfax or can point to another package which supports 
> class I ? 
>
I'll try to fix the inst images in the future to install pre-nroff'd man pages.
The problem with uid 9999 is something that I just discovered--it is an inst
limitation that I did not understand when I put together the inst images.
To fix the problem, remove the installed softwre (use "versions remove" or
do it through inst) and then re-install the software.  The first time the fax
server software is installed it tries to add a "fax" user to the passwd file and
then use that user id when installing all the spooling directories.  Unfortunately
inst does not re-read the passwd file and so it can't find the user "fax" and
substitutes the uid 9999 in place of it.

As to CLASS 1 support, I just so happen to be debugging a Class 1 driver right
now and will make it available as soon as it's working to my satisfaction.  Look
for it in a week or so (hopefully).

	Sam
---
Sam Leffler				Voice: (415) 390-1269
Silicon Graphics, Inc.			Email: sam@sgi.com
Research & Development, 7U-005		FAX:   (415) 965-7824
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd			
Mountain View, CA 94039-7311

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: hoesel@igc.ethz.ch (Frans van Hoesel)
Subject: Re: SCSI floppy disk on INDIGO: Why is it so slooow?
Keywords: INDIGO, floppy, SCSI
Organization: University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 12:16:57 GMT

If you are not interested in msdosd, but only in speed, go for mtools
(ftp-able from lots of places). It works much, much faster. 
So it may be hardware (becuase of the small buffer), but the difference
between msdosd and mtools is purely software. (try writing a 1MB file
with both programs, and you'll never use msdosd again)

don't misunderstand me, msdosd would be a much better product than mtools,
because one can use the standard unix cp commands (and all the others).
Mtools comes with a separate mcopy command. For me mtools is a clear
winner, only because of the speed difference. 

still it doesn't write at the speed it could do on any normal pc (maybe
that's what Dave Olson wanted to explain?). Having mtools, there seems no
need to go for the future 2MB disks, just for reasons of speed.

--frans

-- 
--    ==============================================================    --
----  ===  frans van hoesel             hoesel@igc.ethz.ch       ===  ----
--    ==============================================================    --
From: stanj@ferrari.corp.sgi.com (Stan Jensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Frustrated with SGI support..
Date: 4 Jan 93 19:13:55 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <ubalqqg@zuni.esd.sgi.com>, olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:
|> In <1993Jan1.173056.23814@arbi.Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE> Thomas.Weihrich@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Thomas Weihrich) writes:
|> 
|> | BTW: I did not get a quote for a 1.2 GR chip or an upgrade to a 4D25 or
|> | 4D30 or just a couple of additional bitplanes. If SGI USA is remarketing
|> | used items or upgrades, I'd appreciate it if someone from SGI US could
|> | give me a quote on these items.
|> 
|> I don't think upgrades to the 25 are available anymore, since they haven't
|> been built for quite a while (almost a year now?) but there are still be
|> boards in inventory for system repair, and they may be available for
|> upgrades as well.
|> 
We still sell upgrades from 4D/20s to 4D/25s or 4D/35s and 4D/25s to 4D/35s,
but no upgrades to 4D/30s.

|> The cost of the 1.2 GR chip in the US is about $100 US (or was last year).
|> I don't know what it is now, or what it is in Europe.  It does help a lot
|> for some kinds of X operations.
|> 
|> Most SGI hardware and software can be telephone ordered through SGI
|> Express through an 800 number (which I know is a problem for Europe),
|> but I don't know if they handle upgrade kits (I suspect not).  The
|> number is 1-800-800-7441.  I don't even know if they will handle 
|> international orders, perhaps Stan or one of the other folks more familiar
|> with the policies can correct me on this.

SGI Express does handle upgrades (hardware and software), but we don't
handle "international" orders (we make an exception for Canada :-). There
are "SGI Express" offices starting in Europe and Germany will have one soon.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stan Jensen, Systems Engineer                          stanj@corp.sgi.com
Silicon Graphics Inc., M/S 14L-120                    Phone:(415)390-5822
P.O. Box 7311, 1350 Charleston Road                   FAX:  (415)962-1589
Mt. View, CA  94039-7311                                "I (heart) Tonks"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ram@ramsgi.erenj.com (ram rajagopalan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Inventor Question.
Date: 7 Jan 93 20:49:49 GMT
Organization: Exxon Research & Engineering Co.

hi,

  I would like to position a camera other than the default location, and 
  I haven't beeen quite successful at it.  Following is the piece of code
  I am using ...

   root = SoSepCreate();

   camera = SoPerspCamCreate();
   SoSV3fSetX_Y_Z(&camera->position,x_pos,y_pos,z_pos);

   material = SoMtlCreate();
   SoSepRef( root );
   SoSepAddChild( root, (SoNode *) camera );
   SoSepAddChild( root, (SoNode *) SoDirLtCreate() );

   ...


   If any one could point out the mistake in this code I would appreciate
   it.  Thanks in advance.


-- 
regards,

Ram.

==============================================================================

Ram  Rajagopalan                                        Phone: (908) 730-2556
Exxon Research & Engineering Co.                        Fax:   (908) 730-3042 
RT 22 East Annandale, NJ - 08801                        Email: ram@erenj.com

==============================================================================
From: mike@sys6626.bison.mb.ca (mike pfaiffer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi,man.general
Subject: Re: Winnipeg SGI Users Group (proposed)
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 15:25:25 CST
Organization: System 6626 BBS, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada

roberson@hamer.ibd.nrc.ca (Walter Roberson) writes:

>   I suggest that it may be time to start organizing an
> SGI Users Group in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). Interested
> persons, please email me: I will undertake to arrange
> the details.
> 

        Forgive my ignorance, but what is SGI?

                                Later
                                Mike




Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: hoesel@igc.ethz.ch (Frans van Hoesel)
Subject: Re: Starting applications as icons
Organization: University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 23:20:03 GMT

If I remember correctly Notepad has an undocumented option -i 

--frans

-- 
--    ==============================================================    --
----  ===  frans van hoesel             hoesel@igc.ethz.ch       ===  ----
--    ==============================================================    --
From: rla@canctr.mc.duke.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Indigo R4k/IBM 6k comparison
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:54:30 GMT
Reply-To: rla@canctr.mc.duke.edu
Organization: Duke U. Med. Ctr., Durham, NC

Greetings.  We are considering a purchase of a set of 4 workstations to be
linked together.  Objectives are mainly processing (number-crunching) power
plus the ability to run the GCG DNA sequence analysis suite of programs.
The two remaining candidates are SGI (R4000-based) vs. IBM RS6000s.

Anyone with experience on both platforms, including service and reliability
and UNIX performance, please let me know your thoughts.  Overall system
speed is a major consideration.  The IBM is not yet GCG-ready, but a
beta-version will supposedly be ready soon.
Thanks.
Responses either directly to me or to this news group.

Rick Alston                                Post: Duke University Medical Center
rla@canctr.mc.duke.edu                           Comprehensive Cancer Center
Phone: 919.684.6944                              Box 3424, DUMC
FAX: 919.684.2311                                Durham, NC 27710
From: blbates@aero36.larc.nasa.gov (Brent L. Bates ViGYAN AAD/TAB)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re:  Printing with lpr on an IRIS
Date: 8 Jan 93 14:53:34 GMT


     We aren't using any filters.  PostScript or printer native files are sent
using lpr.  Our SysOp has written a script that will preprocess files, under
user controlled text menues, and use lpr to send the resulting file to the
apropriate printer.
     It seems that SGI's definition of not supported, means that since there
is no GUI for lpr then it's not `supported'.

  Brent L. Bates				Phone:(804) 864-2854
  M.S. 361			  		  FAX:(804) 864-8469
  NASA Langley Research Center
  Hampton, Virginia  23681-0001
  E-mail: blbates@aero36.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero00.larc.nasa.gov

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: adler@bnlku2.phy.bnl.gov (Steve Adler)
Subject: 3.10 compiler set, and r4000 code.
Keywords: compiler, R4000
Organization: Brookheaven National Laboratories
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 20:52:48 GMT

I just installed the 3.10 compiler set on my Indigo R4k. I also have the fortran
compiler installed on my Indigo. Will the compilers automatically know to generate the r4k instruction set, or do I have to use some bizar qualifier on the f77 command line. I noticed in the man pages for f77 that there is the -mips1 and -mips2 qualifiers where the -mips1 is the default. Does this mean that the -mips1 qualifier generates r3000 code and the -mips2 generates the r4000 code? Any one out there in Interland know?

Steve Adler.


Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: hoesel@igc.ethz.ch (Frans van Hoesel)
Subject: Re: SCSI floppy disk on INDIGO: Why is it so slooow?
Organization: University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 11:27:16 GMT

>Dave Olson (olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com) wrote:
>: 
>: No!  There *are* s/w buffers on the host.  That doesn't help.  You
>: have an embedded drive controller that reads/writes a sector from the
>: drive to/from the controller ram, then the controller turns around
>: and gives the data to the host (for a write), or is ready to accept
>: another command (for a read).  All of that takes time, and by the time
>: the next sector is passed to the drive, the drive has already passed
>: the next sector, so you lose a rev.  This is the case whether you
>: ask for one sector at a time or 1000.  Basicly the embedded controller
>: was designed to be very cheap (as were the 2-3 others available at
>: the time, including NCR's), which translates to slow.
>:

If that is the only reason, then msdosd can be expected to be as fst as
mtools, which it is defenitly not!!

Because mssing the next sector would be a very important time factor,
maybe it would be nice to have a special format on the floppy that
does not have sequential sector numbers. This would only help for 
newly formatted floppies, not for existing ones.

On the other hand... knowing the effect of missing a sector *and* having
softwarebuffers on the host a simple software trick could speed it up.
Imagen a write of a shortfile on sector numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
These could all be present in the software buffer, but we (in fact
your engineer working on it) could decide to write in the order
1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6 which would give a speed up by 350% (for this very
short write, longer writes will speed up even more)
This tricj would work for existing floppies too.

--frans



-- 
--    ==============================================================    --
----  ===  frans van hoesel             hoesel@igc.ethz.ch       ===  ----
--    ==============================================================    --
From: gml4410@ggr.co.uk (Lack Mr G M)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Does an Indigo make read-only text segments?
Date: 12 Jan 93 02:41:39 GMT


     Perhaps  someone  can answer this for me.  If I write the following
(note that I *wouldn't* write it except to highlight a problem!)  in  cc
on an Indigo it will actually *execute* without raising an error! 

>   strcpy("read-only", "zz01");

The assembler output from the compiler shows that the "read-only" string
is placed in the .rdata section (ie. it should be read-only data). 
However, I am allowed to gaily write over it.  

     Why is the read-only attribute ignored????

     This is on an Indigo at Irix 4.0.1.


-------------------------- Gordon Lack ----------------------------------
The contents of this message *may* reflect my personal opinion.  They are
*not* intended to reflect those of my employer, or anyone else.
From: steve@pitacat.math.cwru.edu (Steven H. Izen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Starting applications as icons
Date: 5 Jan 1993 18:31:28 GMT
Organization: Math Dept., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: pitacat.math.cwru.edu
Originator: steve@pitacat

I would like to have several X applications start up as icons.  Xwsh has
an -iconic option built in, but other applications do not.  I vaguely
remember reading in some manual that it is possible to specify some
resource to do this, but I have been unable to locate the reference.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

		Steve

P.S. Yes, I'm using 4Dwm.


-- 
Steve Izen, Associate Prof. of Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University
Best Address:              MaBell: Voice: (216)368-2891  Fax: (216)368-5163
shi@po.cwru.edu		Next best address: steve@pitacat.math.cwru.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: edik@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA (Ed Sternin)
Subject: Re: Help: problems with remote mailbox
Organization: Brock University, St. Catharines Ontario
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 17:19:31 GMT

Running mailbox on the remote machine and sending output to a local 
display is much less satisfactory than running mailbox locally and
only accessing the remote mail file.  

One solution to my problem is to NFS mount the remote file(system)
and make it look like a local file(system).  Since I am only interested
in one file, it seems excessive.  Also, SGI charges extra for NFS, and
not all my machines have it at the moment.

Still, there is a problem:  there is no place to specify env GLRES="..."
in the following :

  /usr/bsd/rsh B.B '/usr/sbin/mailbox -S B.B -m "/usr/sbin/xwsh -display A.A:0 \
     -e /usr/local/bin/pine"'

I tried several combinations (placement and quotes), to no avail.  Everything
works, except I have to place the mailbox icon on A.A:0 screen manually.

I even created .Xdefaults file(s) on both machines, containing
  *mailbox*geometry: 99x90-0+350
(identical on both), no effect.

Anybody has any ideas?   Thanks.

-- 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: cmumford@iat.holonet.net (Chris Mumford)
Subject: Running Graphics program at startup time
Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access BBS: 510-704-1058/modem
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 20:03:43 GMT

I posted a message about a week ago about running a program at machine
startup time and got several responses.  Thanks a lot.

I found out that for some reason using the rc2 approach works fine for
non-graphics programs, but for programs that do graphics it does not work.
In fact the first line of the program is not even run.

Any solutions.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi,comp.unix.programmer
From: karish@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Chuck Karish)
Subject: Re: developing under sys 5 unix
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 21:45:58 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.202845.12276@lincroftnj.ncr.com>
rjf@lincroftnj.ncr.com (51351[efw]-Robert Feddeler(MT4799)T343) writes:
|In article <1993Jan11.190843.6808@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
vahe@sparcy.Stanford.EDU (Vahe Avedissian) writes:

Hi, Vahe!

||The real annoying thing is once you run a program
||with a bug, the system tends to completely stop responding
||to interrupts or anything else, the windowing
||system and manager are rendered unresponsive too.
||You just sit there and wait for the system to eventually
||(i.e. anywhere from 3 - 10 minutes or so) core dump.
|
|I've experienced this a few of times.  The bug always turns out
|to be an out-of-control recursive function.  The process eventually
|runs out of swap space or exceeds the limits on process virtual memory
|as the stack grows.  It takes a while to page all that stack out, and
|then read it back and write the 'core' file.
|
|Try a smaller, faster disk...  {8^)

Or use csh for your shell, and use 'limit stacksize' and
'limit coredumpsize' to keep the process from being such
a resource hog.
--

    Chuck Karish          karish@mindcraft.com
    (415) 323-9000 x117   karish@pangea.stanford.edu
From: karron@karron.med.nyu.edu (Dan Karron (karron@nyu.edu))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re:  Problems with blink()  (Help!)
Date: 8 Jan 93 03:58:16 GMT

Well, that is High Tech for you... Blink and you loose~!

| karron@nyu.edu (e-mail alias )         Dan Karron, Ph.D.,Research Associate|
| Phone: 212 263 5210 Fax: 212 263 7190  New York University Medical Center  |
| 560 First Avenue                       Digital Pager  <1>  212 397 9330    |
| New York, New York 10016               <2> 10896   <3> <your-number-here>  |
``ALMOST Done writing, back to doing it again!.''
From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: xcdplayer-2.2 - X11 CD player for Sun and SGI
Date: 11 Jan 93 22:37:14 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In article <1993Jan11.204230.3699@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>, drich@sandman.lerc.nasa.gov (Daniel Rich) writes:
> ...
> As for reading the CD over the network, it doesn't do it.  It might be
> an interesting feature, but there would probably be performance
> problems (you would probably get pauses in the sound trying to put
> 44.1K/s across the network), and it would only work on machines with
> audio hardware (ie. 4D/35 or Indigo).


44kByte/sec is trivial, less than 0.5% of ethernet bandwidth on modern
machines.  As long as your ethernet is not dead, and as long as you
provide a few milliseconds of buffering and delay on the receiving end,
why would you get pauses in the sound?  For unidirectional sound,
you don't care about latency, and could put horrendous amounts of
buffering and delay, say several tens of milliseconds worth.


Vernon Schryver,  vjs@sgi.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: srfergu@rufus.erenj.com (Scott Ferguson)
Subject: Re: Frustrated with SGI support..
Organization: Exxon Research & Engineering Co.
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 20:51:25 GMT

In article <ufc2aps@zuni.esd.sgi.com>, olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:
|> In <1993Jan4.135133.29053@erenj.com> srfergu@rufus.erenj.com (Scott Ferguson) writes:
|> | Shhhhh, you folks! If we don't keep quiet about this unauthorized help, SGI
|> | management will catch on sooner or later, and assign their hotline people 
|> | to answer questions on the net too, so you can get the high quality help 
|> | you're accustomed to on the phone line!!! :-)
|> 
|> SGI management (at all levels, as far as I can tell), is *quite* aware
|> of how much our customers use comp.sys.sgi, etc. for help, and how much
|> the appreciate it (as are most of the folks in customer support).
|> 

Sorry, gang. I was joking, but the real gist is that I have been VERY 
appreciative of the direct SGI help I've gotten over the net. As you say,
other companies discourage the engineers from doing it because of risky
info, or from reduced productivity or some other reason. 

My past experience was with something called HP SupportLine, where HP/Apollo
took free advice and turned it into an expensive and useless system much
like their 800-line support. 

Disclaimer: This is no comment on the present state of HP/Apollo's customer
service. Since I stopped owning Apollo's at the DN4000 level, I haven't
called their help lines in two or three years.

Thanks, SGI Engineers, for making netnews such a productive forum for 
clearing up system problems.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Ferguson                        Exxon Research & Engineering Co.
Project Engineer                      New Jersey
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Always bark at a dog."