HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jbp@ddsdx2.jhuapl.edu (John Phelps)
Subject: Trouble booting a NeXTcube after power cycle.
Summary: What does errno 83 mean ?
Keywords: scsi, errno 83,boot
Organization: Johns Hopkins University
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 20:54:33 GMT

Ok, I've had enough and I'm NOT going to take it anymmore !

A few days ago we experienced a temporary power outage due to
a T-storm rolling through the area. Well lo and behold, when
it came back, our NeXTcube tried to boot, and got the following:

    [stuff left out]
    Waiting for device to come ready
    . . . . . . . . . .
    Load of /etc/mach_init, errno 83, trying /etc/init
    Load of /etc/init failed, errno 83

"Luckily", we have a NeXTstation that I used as a NetBoot server
(after much help from UMD :), to get the cube back up !!! newfs
and fsck on the local drive, restored the disk, fskd again, rebooted,
and guess what ???

    [stuff left out]
    Waiting for device to come ready
    . . . . . . . . . .
    Load of /etc/mach_init, errno 83, trying /etc/init
    Load of /etc/init failed, errno 83

Arrrrggggggg. Would someone please enlighten me what or why or who
could be causing this error on this Big Black Boat Anchor ????

Thanks !

--
John Phelps, jbp@ddsdx2.jhuapl.edu OR jbp@raven.jhuapl.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: danno@css.itd.umich.edu (Daniel T. Pritts)
Subject: Re: #@%& whois
Organization: University of Michigan
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 21:14:51 GMT

In article <BtLnt6.F28.1@cs.cmu.edu> beatty+@COSMOS.VLSI.CS.CMU.EDU  
(Derek Beatty) writes:
> I stuck a fixed whois on sonata in submissions/whois.tar.Z.  This  
is
> just the binary plus the BNR2 source, which copyright notice claims
> it may be distributed.  (Did NeXT fix whois in 3.0?)

yep, they did.  (I was kind of surprised ;)
--
dan pritts                     computer systems consultant
university of michigan itd consulting and support services
dan.pritts@umich.edu   (nextmail accepted)    313/998-6265
From: mbutler@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (M. COOPER / B. McQUAID)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: rdump almost figured out... but not quite
Keywords: rdump
Date: 27 Aug 92 19:45:28 GMT

I've almost got backing up from my NeXT to my D.G. Aviion working.
Here's what I do:

# /etc/rdump 0uf host1:/dev/rmt/1 /dev/sd0a
  DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Tue Aug 18 15:28:00 1992
  DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
  DUMP: Dumping /dev/rsd0a (/) to /dev/rmt/1 on host host1
  DUMP: mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
  DUMP: mapping (Pass II) [directories]
  DUMP: estimated 265985 tape blocks on 6.84 tape(s).
^C  DUMP: Interrupt received.
  DUMP: NEEDS ATTENTION: Do you want to abort dump?: ("yes" or "no")
yes
  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.

My only problem is telling dump that the 1/4 tape on the Aviion is a
525 MB device. Apparently dump needs to know this in order to know
when to rewind etc. What parameters do I give to dump in order to
tell it 525MB? (it wants actual length of the tape as well as other
data I don't know). Hopefully someone familiar with dump can help me
out.

thanks in advance!

-Brad   

-- 
/-----------------This message brought to you by: ------------------\
| BRAD McQUAID: Programmer.     |  MILO D. COOPER: Graphics artist. |
|  Flynn Rainbow Nurseries      |       Park Place Productions      |
\-------------------------------------------------------------------/
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: steve@writer.yorku.ca (Steve Azmier)
Subject: Re: NeXT Remote Power Up/Down?
Organization: York University, Toronto, Canada
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 19:41:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.175739.26913@sunova.ssc.gov> faught@redfox.ssc.gov writes:
>In article <1992Aug25.144408.18538@udcf.glasgow.ac.uk> chris@uk.ac.gla.music  
>(Chris Scudds) writes:
>>Subject says it all...is it possible to remotely power the machines
>>on and off? Is there perhaps some .app already around that will
>>do this?
>>
>>Also, is there a utility to broadcast messages to the workspace,
>>eg. "LOG OFF NOW!"? I can do this thru UNIX, but output only goes
>>to the console, which most users don't even know about. Broadcast.app
>>anyone?
>
>shutdown -p should work. You'll need to be root over the network, of course.
>--
>Ed Faught  WA9WDM  faught@psychosis.ssc.gov
> Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory

shutdown -p will only show up in the Console or Terminal (if it's
running).  Since there is no guarantee users will be running Terminal
or Console a "Broadcast.app" (or something similar) would be nice.
"ShellPanel" can pop open a window with an Alert message in it but if
you want to run it as root (so everyone will see it) I believe the
Public Window Server will have to be open on each station.  This is a
no-no for security reasons.  Anyone have a workaround?  Can root open
the Public Window Server on a station just long enough to broadcast a
message then close it (or leave it in the state it was in)?

Thanks,
Steve

+---------------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| E-mail to:                                  | Regular Mail to:              |
| UUCP: ...!uunet!mnetor!yunexus!writer!steve | Steve Azmier                  |
| NETNORTH/BITNET: steve@writer.yorku.ca      | York University               |
+-------------------------------------------+-+ 4700 Keele Street             |
| "Do something right the first time and    | Computer-Assisted Writing Centre|
|  nobody appreciates how difficult it was" | Scott 530, North York, Ontario, |
+-------------------------------------------+ Canada. M3J 1P3                 |
                                            +---------------------------------+




Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin,comp.unix.admin
From: draphsor@deathstar.Stanford.EDU (Matt Rollefson)
Subject: Print Accounting
Summary: Looking for a simple way to store accounting information
Keywords: printing, accounting, help wanted
Reply-To: draphsor@deathstar.stanford.edu
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 23:52:30 GMT

I work at Stanford University in Residential Computing, and we've
purchased 28 NeXTstations and printers to serve as print routers for
28 different computer clusters, located in a number of different
subnets. Users will be able to print to the NeXT laserprinter from
Macintosh computers. We have set up an authentication system where the
user must have an account on the NeXT in order to print, and I am
keeping track of printing using BSD's built-in accounting software.

What I'm looking for is a simple way to store the information, either
a small database or small custom app or something like that. Ideally
this database would be centralizable (ie there would be a server that
maintained the database and responded to queries and updates from the
clients), but this isn't necessary immediately. My current plan is to
write a simple app which will grab the BSD accounting information,
bill the various accounts the correct amounts, and keep track of user
balances. I also need a way to prevent users who are overdrawn on
their accounts from printing - my current plan is to replace lpr with
a program which checks the database and exits if the account is
overdrawn with a meaningful error, passes its arguments to lpr if not.

Now, my question: has anyone done this before, and if so how did you
go about it? Or has anyone set up a similar accounting system? Did you
use an existing simple database application? Write your own little
program? Or what? Any and all input would be appreciated. I *will*
summarize to the net once we get this system set up, so feel free to
use e-mail or post.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Rollie
--
Draphsor vo'drun-Aelf                   draphsor@deathstar.stanford.edu
Residential Computing, Stanford University	NeXTmail accepted
From: lwall@netlabs.com (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Perl use over NFS
Date: 27 Aug 92 07:02:50 GMT
Organization: NetLabs, Inc.

In article <1992Aug26.154829.18822@rtsg.mot.com> mmuegel@mot.com writes:
: When I try to run a Perl script that is set up correctly via the #! syntax
: I get a "permission denied" error. Perl is mounted via NFS. Here is some 
: information:
: 
:    % head -1 format-prob
:    #!/usr/local/ustart/contrib/bin/perl
: 
:    % ls -las format-prob
:    1 -rwxr-xr-x  1 mmuegel      204 Aug 26 10:07 format-prob
: 
:    % which perl
:    /usr/local/ustart/contrib/bin/perl
: 
:    % perl -v | head -5
: 
:    This is perl, version 4.0
: 
:    $RCSfile: perl.c,v $$Revision: 4.0.1.7 $$Date: 92/06/08 14:50:39 $
:    Patch level: 35
: 
:    % ./format-prob
:    ./format-prob: Permission denied.
: 
: I have gotten this error when the Perl area is mounted from a Sparc and
: a NeXT. When Perl is on a local drive it works fine.
: 
: Any hints? I am pretty new to the NeXT world but not UNIX.

Many Unixen have an arbitrary (ugh) limit of 32 chars on a #! line.

Alternatives are to install a symlink from someplace with a shorter
name to where it really is (installperl attempts to put one into /usr/bin),
or if that's administratively unlikely, put some other program on the
#! line that will start up perl for you:

    #!/bin/env perl

or some variant of

    #!/bin/sh --  # really perl

    eval 'exec perl -S $0 ${$1+"$@"}'
	if $running_under_some_shell;

But those both entail an extra process, which is a pity when #! is already
implemented.  Make the world a saner place and push for /usr/bin/perl.

Larry Wall
lwall@netlabs.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: robin@pencom.com (Robin D. Wilson)
Subject: Re: rs6000 & nexts
Reply-To: robin@pencom.com
Organization: Pencom Systems Incorporated
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 18:58:47 GMT

William Leeke writes 
> 
> 	I recently read a post (I think) in c.s.n.a. about  
> using Next's as a front end for rs6000 (rs is for rat  
> s---). Due to the row in that newsgroup posting there is a  
> problem. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. 

I don't know why anybody would call it "rat s___".  Ours screams.  We have a 
550 and a 350 here at this site, and we have several boxes at another site  
(ranging from 320s to 540s).  All of our boxes work in varied levels of  
integration with the NeXTs.  The ones up here (in our NY facility) are used
as fileserver (350) and database server (550) running sybase.  We brought up  
3.0 and connected dbkit to the sybase on the 6000 without a hitch.  The 6000  
works great as a fileserver (prior to getting it hooked up, it took on the  
order of 40 seconds to cache the Local* and Next* directories that are  
normally cahced at login - from a NeXT stations turbo acting as fileserver -  
once we hooked up the 6000, login time dropped from 45 seconds to about 15).   
We did have a few quirks to work out, 'automounter' was broken on the 3.2.0.0  
update for AIX, and there were several serial port problems prior to 3.2, but  
now; everything is running quite well for us.

--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|These are MY views, nobody where I work even knows I have views  ;-)       |
|Internet: robin@pencom.com                                                 |
|US Mail:  8-6 Brooke Club Dr.                Home Phone: (914) 923-4093    |
|          Ossining, NY  10562                Work Phone: (212) 513-7777    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.COM>
Subject: Re: Vendors Considered Evil (Re: Perl use over NFS)
Originator: tchrist@pixel.convex.com
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 19:26:54 GMT
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

From the keyboard of dave@nakiska.ucs.ualberta.ca (David Ross):
:No no no no no.  Don't put ANYTHING in /usr/{bin,etc,lib,man} - put all  
:locally installed modifications in /usr/local!  Don't even put symbolic  
:links in /usr/bin!  It's more work for you, it's confusing for the users  
:when you do an upgrade and you forget to recreate a link, and it's  
:completely unnecessary if you are consistent!  

It's Evil of the vendor to touch things that they didn't lay down.
Why don't more people complain bitterly about this?

:Perl is not a standard UNIX distribution - don't assume it is.  

It's hard to say what a standard UNIX distribution, is, don't you think?

:All perl  
:scripts should start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl!  

Aha!  You are attempting to enforce an arbitrary a standard
as the next guy.  It's not like this all over.  For example, at the
University of Wisconsin, we have /usr/uw and /usr/misc, but no
/usr/local, except on a very few machines, and these would have 
/usr/local/program, not /usr/local/bin/program.

--tom

-- 
    Tom Christiansen      tchrist@convex.com      convex!tchrist

    "The road to hell is paved with melting snowballs."
		--Larry Wall in  <1992Jul2.222039.26476@netlabs.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: uli@aida.intellektik.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Ulrich Grepel)
Subject: Re: how to restore Guided-tour? (second post)
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 11:28:43 GMT
Organization: TH Darmstadt

you may delete the Guided-tour user and start GT again, it will create 
the missing user from scratch. That might solve your problem.

Uli
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: lux@sol.UVic.CA (Michael O'Henly)
Subject: Connecting NeXT to mixed network
Organization: University of Victoria
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:03:40 GMT

	I'm in the process of installing a NeXTstation and one of the
first things I need to do is connect it to the university's Ethernet.

	An Ethernet line has been installed at the location of the
machine but I suspect it's not properly wired. (I'm in the process of
finding a laptop with an Ethernet adapter to check it.)

	Part of the reason I think the line is NFG is that - according
to the Network and System Administration manual (pg. 134), I should...

	1. Press the Power key to start up the computer you want to
	add. If it's already physically connected to the network, a
	window appears with the message: "No response from network
	configuration server. Type 'c' to start up computer without a
	network connection."

	I haven't seen this message. 

	From the above, I gather that the NeXT "senses" whether it is
physically connected to the net and, if it is but is not locally
configured, it produces this message.

	Is this sufficient information to conclude that the line is
not active?

	Thanks for your help.

	Michael.
--
Michael O'Henly                 
McPherson Library                Internet:  lux@sol.uvic.ca
University of Victoria                      lux@uvvm.uvic.ca
Victoria, B.C., Canada             BITNET:  lux@uvvm



Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford)
Subject: Re: next disks and swapfiles
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 20:00:31 GMT


Yes BuildDisk makes a contigious swap file.  Next even goes  
to the effort to put the swapfile near the shared libraries  
to minimize head movement.

However, when the swap file grows beyond the lowwater mark,  
it will be allocated as needed from wherever there is space  
on the disk.  This can be a real pain.
Thus ideally you would create a swap file of the max size  
you ever intend to use right at the beginning when you  
built the disk.

If you make the mistake of deleting the swap file, then  
when it's recreated, it may not be in the same place.  This  
can make a significant difference to the performance.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: louie@sayshell.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos)
Subject: Re: Easing clock to correct time via ntp
Organization: University of Maryland College Park
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 23:35:48 GMT

In article <BtyqJ7.9vo@news.cso.uiuc.edu> jeffo@uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens) writes:
>I've heard that using a simple "ntp -s" or "ntp -f" isn't good for the  
>system because the clock might jump to the correct time from whatever it  
>was set at before and cause a crontab entry to be skipped.

Yes, this is true.  Its generally pretty rude to just reset the clock
while stuff is running.

>If there is a way to ease the clock forward or backward (accelerate or  
>decelerate the ticking of seconds, I suppose) so that the clock was  
>correct relatively all the time and not pass up any minutes or seconds  
>(thus solving any problem with crontab entries being skipped), how is that  
>done?

You could just run ntpd all the time.  It will constantly correct the
clock while and even estimate the intrinsic drift of the clock
hardware and continue to apply corrections to compenstate even when
the network is unavailable.  

NeXT even thoughtfully provides a hacked version of the NTP software
written by Mike Petry and myself at the University of Maryland.  If
you are serious about time synchronization, you should dump that
version and bring up xntp3 which is the latest and greatest.  It
compiles and runs on a NeXT with no problems, though it doesn't do
anything with netinfo, so you'll have to build an /etc/ntp.conf file
instead.  This is a feature, not a bug.

louie

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: muegel@rtsg.mot.com (Michael S. Muegel)
Subject: Re: NetInfo from tty login
Organization: Corporate Computer Services & Support, Motorola, Inc.
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 21:00:35 GMT

Previously, jbradsha@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jonathan Bradshaw) wrote:
>This is undoubtably obvious (I hope) but neither I nor the syadmin of the
>NeXT machine know how the NetInfo stuff can be changed from a root login
>via telnet. It's no problem when logged into the console with the GUI
>editor but is there anyway to put new entries in the mount list etc. from
>remote?  I checked the FAQ and didn't see anything about this and manuals
>seem to only geared from console logins.

Could you use some hacked up nidump/niload scheme? I.e. use nidump to get
the info, edit it, and them pop it back into NetInfo land via niload.

-Mike

-- 
-Michael S. Muegel <mmuegel@mot.com>
UNIX Applications Startup Group
Corporate Computer Services and Support
Motorola, Inc.
From: seidl@next1.lbl.gov (Peter Seidl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: mail 'From:' field has @@
Date: 31 Aug 1992 19:21:45 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley CA
Distribution: world
Reply-To: seidl@next1.lbl.gov
NNTP-Posting-Host: next1.lbl.gov
Keywords: mail

Hi,

I have received some complaints/comments from some outside NeXT users who say  
that when they try to reply to my mail messages using the 'reply' function they  
can't do it because my 'From:' field has  @@ in the address name instead of a  
single @.  Do any of you Next/unix gurus have an idea how to debug the problem?   
I am also using a next computer.  Enclosed below are excerpts from two messages  
bringing my attention to the problem.

Thanks,

Peter Seidl
===============================================================

Date: Wed, 27 May 92 18:26:13 PDT
From: pfkeb@kaon.slac.stanford.edu (Paul Kunz)
Subject: I'm starting to use Hippo.
To: seidl@next1.lbl.gov
X-Envelope-To: seidl@next1.lbl.gov
 
 
 
   Your From: field looks like this...
 
From: seidl@@ (Peter Seidl)

   You need to work on your mail setup. 

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

and another example:
 
 
 

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 17:04:05 EDT
From: silbar@whistler.lanl.gov (Dick Silbar)
To: seidl@next1.lbl.gov
Subject: Returned mail: Host unknown

Peter -- your return path is botched.

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 16:59:46 EDT
From: Mailer-Agent (NeXT Mail Agent)
Subject: Returned mail: Host unknown
To: silbar

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
421 Host @ not found for mailer ether.
550 seidl@@ (Peter Seidl)... Host unknown

   ----- Unsent message follows -----
Return-Path: <silbar>
Received: by  whistler.lanl.gov.lanl.gov  (NeXT-1.0 (From Sendmail  
5.52)/NeXT-2.0)
	id AA07962; Fri, 28 Aug 92 16:59:46 EDT
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 16:59:46 EDT
From: silbar (Dick Silbar)
Message-Id: <9208282059.AA07962@ whistler.lanl.gov.lanl.gov >
Errors-To: "| sndplay /Users/silbar/Sounds/whistler.snd", \silbar
Received: by NeXT Mailer (1.63)
To: seidl@@ (Peter Seidl)
Subject: Re: Interface builder
 
 
 
===========================================================



--
Peter Seidl
Heavy Ion Fusion Accelerator Research 
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Berkeley, CA 94720

seidl@next1.lbl.gov
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin,comp.unix.admin
From: jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz)
Subject: Re: Vendors Considered Evil (Re: Perl use over NFS)
Organization: Mount Holyoke College
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 22:55:52 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.180137.22861@ra.msstate.edu> fwp@CC.MsState.Edu (Frank Peters) writes:
>In article <1992Aug28.155801.14501@sei.cmu.edu> kochmar@sei.cmu.edu (John Kochmar) says:
>: In article <1992Aug28.145234.17625@news.eng.convex.com>, Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.COM> writes:
>: |> In the particular case of perl, it really does make things *much*
>: |> easier if there is an agreed-upon, standard location.  The 
>: OK, I'll bite: why is it that it is much easier if perl is in an agreed
>: upon place like /usr/bin?
>Because perl is a scripting language.  That means it wants to have a #!
>line at the beginning with the path name to an executable.  Distributing
>code in this situation can be an annoyance unless you can arrange to
>have the path to perl be the same on different systems.
>
>I'm not sure, though, that I would characterize this as "*much*
>easer".  It isn't that hard to edit a file or sed a collection of
>files.

Especially since the Camel book (the standard Perl reference) contains
a nice little Perl program to fix all the #! lines of scripts for your
system.

I don't put _anything_ in /usr anymore, not even symbolic links.  I don't
even mount "local" on "/usr"... it goes on "/local".  And my "/local" is
beginning to look more and more like a "/usr" partition all of it's own.
Someday not too long in the future I'll dump the vendors's /usr completely
and _then_ I'll mount my local partition on /usr.  *grin*.
--
Jurgen Botz                  |   Internet: JBotz@mtholyoke.edu
Academic Systems Consultant  |     Bitnet: JBotz@mhc.bitnet
Mount Holyoke College        |      Voice: (US) 413-538-2375 (daytime)
South Hadley, MA, USA        | Snail Mail: J. Botz, 01075-0629
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: muegel@rtsg.mot.com (Michael S. Muegel)
Subject: Perl use over NFS
Reply-To: mmuegel@mot.com
Organization: Corporate Computer Services & Support, Motorola, Inc.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 15:48:29 GMT

When I try to run a Perl script that is set up correctly via the #! syntax
I get a "permission denied" error. Perl is mounted via NFS. Here is some 
information:

   % head -1 format-prob
   #!/usr/local/ustart/contrib/bin/perl

   % ls -las format-prob
   1 -rwxr-xr-x  1 mmuegel      204 Aug 26 10:07 format-prob

   % which perl
   /usr/local/ustart/contrib/bin/perl

   % perl -v | head -5

   This is perl, version 4.0

   $RCSfile: perl.c,v $$Revision: 4.0.1.7 $$Date: 92/06/08 14:50:39 $
   Patch level: 35

   % ./format-prob
   ./format-prob: Permission denied.

I have gotten this error when the Perl area is mounted from a Sparc and
a NeXT. When Perl is on a local drive it works fine.

Any hints? I am pretty new to the NeXT world but not UNIX.
-Mike

-- 
-Michael S. Muegel <mmuegel@mot.com>
UNIX Applications Startup Group
Corporate Computer Services and Support
Motorola, Inc.