HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: adam@epas.utoronto.ca (Adam Iles)
Subject: vi under Irix 4.0.4 - Attack of the living dead
Organization: University of Toronto - EPAS
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 19:25:26 GMT
Summary: vi leaves zombies
Keywords: zombie vi Irix

I upgraded our 4D/25 and 4D/320 to Irix 4.0.4 a few weeks ago (after
having very bad experiences with 4.0.1) and now I find that I'm
constantly running out of processes when I'm editing text with vi.
It looks like after I filter a line (by entering "!!fmt" or some
such command) from vi a zombie process is left around.  Since we are
supporting many users running on ASCII terminals I have configured the
per user process limit to 20.

It's getting to be annoying having to exit and restart vi to get rid of
the zombie processes!

Is this a known bug, and does anyone know whether it's fixed in Irix 4.0.5?
-- 
Adam Iles					Fractals:
EPAS Computing, University of Toronto		    The tie-dye of the 90's
adam@epas.utoronto.ca
From: gsprow@lordvader.nswc.navy.mil (Gregg Sprow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: RE: display color problems
Date: 27 Jul 92 13:37:28 GMT
Organization: Naval Surface Warfare Center

David Poole writes,
We are currently having a display problem with one 
of the SGIs on our local net.  The colors are 
completely screwed up (white on white menus, etc), 
and xsetroot has no effect (xsetroot -solid blue 
sets the background white).  The menu bars are 
white, as is the cursor.  Further, the login screen
is white on white also, except for the message.

The other problem that cropped up at the same time
is that pandora is no longer working.  After typing
in the username and password, the screen blanks (white), 
then pandora comes up again.

Where should I be looking to fix this problem?  I've 
been poking through /usr/lib/X11/xdm, but to no avail.

Thanks in advance.


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


I had a similar problem once.  The file /etc/config/system.glGammaVal
has gotten erased.  The hotline says that it could come from powering
off the system before the machine is completely shutdown.  You need to
edit the file and put in   1.70 and a blank line.  Hope it works - it
should fix both problems.


Gregg Sprow
NSWCDD
Dahlgren, VA 22448
(703)663-8715

gsprow@relay.nswc.navy.mil
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: davea@quasar.wpd.sgi.com (David B.Anderson)
Subject: Re: What's wrong with ldopen()???
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 19:49:11 GMT

In article <45863@shamash.cdc.com> pbd@runyon.cim.cdc.com (Paul Dokas) writes:
>We just upgraded to 4.0.5 and it broke our dynamic loader :-(
>
>I've traced the problem down to ldopen().  Well actually with the
>structure that ldopen() returns.  The code fragment that is
>suspicious is:
>
>   #include <ldfcn.h>
>
>   void load(char *fname)
>   {
>     LDFILE *ld;
>     int     fd;
>
>     ld = ldopen(fname, (LDFILE *) 0);
>     fd = fileno(IOPTR(ld));
>
>     printf("fd = %d\n", fd)
>
>     ldclose(ld);
>   }
>
>It always prints:
>
>     fd = -1
>
>:-(
>
>This worked on 4.0.1, but not under 4.0.5.
>
>BTW, I've omitted all of the calls to other ld* functions (ldread, etc)
>that work.  It seems that the LDFILE structure is just not getting
>filled in correctly.

There is no fd there.  LDFILE* should be considered an opaque pointer.
This is because of the changes which allow ldfile to support ELF and XCOFF
files interchangably.  Not that you can use or create ELF object files
yet...

The changes *also* mean something like
	LDFILE saveld;
	...
	saveld = *ld;
	.....do libmld calls.....
	*ld = saveldfile; /* restore state? */
is not going to work as LDFILE is NOT a complete picture of the data
structure.

You can use those macros which are still supported. See
/usr/include/ldfcn.h

Sorry we broke your code. The fd won't come back though (IMO).
Various implementation details of libmld do change as we move
toward ELF & SVR4.....
[ David B. Anderson             (415)390-1548             davea@sgi.com ]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Showcase program for MACIIci
From: jerry@bioiris.tamu.edu (Jerry Anchin)
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:53:25 GMT
Distribution: USA
Organization: Center for Macromolecular Design, Texas A&M University.

I am looking for a graphics program for a MACIIci that is simalar in function
to the X-Windows program Showcase. I have tried many graphics programs
for the MAC  and none are as versatile as the Showcase program. If you know of
one please E-Mail the info to jerry@bbioiris.tamu.edu
Thanks Alot
Jerry Anchin.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: Neil A Haldar <nhaldar@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: IBM to Indigo?
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 19:49:40 GMT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]

An off the wall question...

Is it possible to network an IBM to an Indigo via Ethernet?  Of course, the PC 
would have to be outfitted with proper networking hard/soft-ware, but... is it 
possible?

-Neil
+===============================+==========================================+
|  Neil Alexander Haldar        | INet: nhaldar@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu  |
|  266 1/2  Buttles Avenue      | America Online: NeilH [@aol.com]         |
|  Columbus, Ohio  43215        | the WELL: neilh@well.sf.ca.us            |
|  Voice/Fax: 614.299.8529      |                                          |
+===============================+==========================================+
| "VR opens up a new continent of ideas and possibilities.  At Texpo '89 we| 
|  set foot on the shore of this continent for the first time."            |
|    -VPL Research, Inc.,   Virtual Reality at Texpo '89, 1989             |
| "And 3 years later, the ideas of old come to form the foundations of     |
|  the future... and YES! I'm excited!! ;-D"  -Me                          |
+==========================================================================+
From: jrh@de.deere.com (John R. Howell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Suggestion on User Interface on the IRIs
Date: 28 Jul 92 15:04:38 GMT
Distribution: comp.sys.sgi
Organization: Deere & Company

In article <HARI.92Jul20221542@robios3.me.wisc.edu>, hari@robios.me.wisc.edu (Kambainathan Hari) writes:
> 	I am writing an animation software on the IRIS. I have
> previously seeN and written programs which use pop-up windows etc. and
> I though the UI sucked. However now that the new OS uses X11, would it
> be possible to use the wiget set or some other better UI library. I
> would like something that is reasonably simple to use. Suggestions are
> welcome. Just keep in mind that I haven't done a great deal of UI
> programming in the past.

Since SGI (and many others) are now using Motif, I would suggest you
write your application using a Motif Style Interface.  This can be
accomplished using the Motif Widget set, but it would make since to
look at the Motif User Interface Guidelines to see how your application
should behave as a good Motif citizen.

John

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Subject: Re: Is there a 'dump' program for IRIX?
Organization:  Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 23:03:05 GMT

In <1992Jul29.171432.8977@unixg.ubc.ca> laplante@ocgy.ubc.ca (Denis Laplante) writes:

| olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:
| >All 4.0 IRIX systems come with dump/restore, and there is an 
| >(unsupported) version floating around somewhere for 3.3.
| 
| Changing the subject slightly, I would like to draw attention on two
| differences between dump under IRIX and the BSD and Sun versions.
| 
| 1- It counts blocks of 1024 bytes, not 512 !  For du and df, the IRIX versions
|    count blocks of 512 bytes.  It seems like a lot of trouble just to to be
|    different from SunOs :-)

Don't know about SunOS, but I'm pretty sure we started from the standard
BSD 4.3 sources.  I don't think we changed the block size calculations.

| 2- Under IRIX dump is not suid:
|    Under SunOs 4.1.2
| -rwsr-sr-x  1 root     tty         57344 Oct 23  1991 /usr/etc/dump*

Why in gods' name would you want dump to be setuid (and would you trust
it to do the right thing ;) )?

| This causes the following problem when not running as root (but with
| appropriate group read permission on the raw disk device file):
| 
|  dump 0f red:/dev/null /
|    rcmd: socket: Permission denied
|    DUMP: Couldn't execute /etc/rmt on red

/dev/null isn't a tape device, so the remote tape library won't work
with it.  What kind of a machine is red?  None of tar, bru, cpio, or
mt are setuid root, and they all work just fine with remote tape
to most of the systems I've tried (including Suns).  You might want
to try guest@red:/dev/null and see if that works better, although I
would still expect it to fail because it isn't a tape drive.

| Is there a reason not to make dump suid root?  It would then allow the
| dump program to run as a less priviledged user than root, and reduce
| the need for /.rhosts remote root login permission.  For example I
| could have the host with the tape (red) call up host blue using 
| something like:
| 	rsh blue /etc/dump 1uf red:/dev/nrtapens /usr

Well, if you want to allow just anybody access to every file on
your whole system, I have no problem with it, but it does seem
just a teensy bit insecure ;)

How about:
	rsh root@blue /etc/dump 1uf guest@red:/dev/nrtapens /usr

or sys, or some other id that you want to trust via the rhosts
mechanism.  Any user that is group sys should do the job, if you
change your /dev/*dsk permissions to have group sys read access.
--
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: ian@falcon.Centric.Com (Ian Macky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: 4D/440 with 256M of memory?
Date: 30 Jul 92 00:14:10 GMT
Organization: Centric Engineering Systems

Has anyone out there with a 4D/440 had problems getting their machine to run
with the full 256M of memory? Ours works fine with 128M but panics with 256M.
Sometimes in an hour, sometimes it takes a day, but it never stays up.

Field service has replaced: backplane, memory board, power supply, I/O
board.  Only thing left is the CPU boards themselves which aren't suspect.
Actually, they just put in a different I/O board to see, and when it didn't
make any difference they put the old one back in.

FS claims that 4D series machine like this are often NOT QA'd at 256M at
all, just tried out at 128M and then shipped.  The 3rd party memory makers
claimed it was a backplane problem which is being kept quiet.  We gave up
on the 3rd party stuff and purchased the grossly overpriced SGI-blessed
memory which was no better.

We have been thrashing on this problems for months now with no end in sight.
Arrrgh!!!  My users are pissed off about this since it's our main machine.

Insights, anyone?

--ian
ian@centric.com
From: spencer@hailwood.asd.sgi.com (HRkvOi8PG.j3wPaul Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Need help for VideoLab
Date: 29 Jul 92 19:24:17 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA

guest@twncu865.ncu.edu.tw says:
>       Our lab is planning to order a VideoLab for a 320/VGX but we recently
>       heard that product can't support the function of capturing single frame
>       from input video.

VideoLab certainly does support single frame input; there are even demos
shipped with the system that demonstrate this capability. Some VideoLab
customers are using this feature constantly in their work.

>       Compared to
>       VideoFrame and VideoCreator,  what's the improved function of VideoLab ?

 - live video in a window
 - live output, switchable between 1:1 and pixel averaged
 - greatly increased speed for single frame operations
 - blending operations (fades, wipes, keys, etc).
 - programmable formats, color space conversions, gamma, filters, etc.

>       The last question is why the VideoLab don't provide the video format of
>       NTSC or PAL? Is there any method to convert NTSC or PAL to the format
>       provided by VideoLab when we must use it?

If we had put a professional-quality $10,000 composite<->component converter
into VideoLab, the people who don't need it would have been unhappy. If we
had put in an industrial-quality $1,000 converter, the people doing live
broadcast work with VideoLab would have been unhappy. Instead, we let the
customer purchase an external box (and supply a list of sources; these boxes
range from about $1,000 to $20,000) that suits his needs.

....paul

-- 
Paul Spencer                  Silicon Graphics Advanced Systems Division
spencer@sgi.com                                Mountain View, California
From: walker@owl.asd.sgi.com (Christopher Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: noborder GLX
Date: 24 Jul 92 16:45:08 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <1031@alsys1.aecom.yu.edu>, reiner@medusa.bioc.aecom.yu.edu (Peter D. Reiner) writes:
|> I would like my GLX program to commandeer the entire screen 'a la
|> "flight"; I need the replacement for noborder().  Also, are there
|> any public domain MOTIF dial widgets which api along the lines of
|> 'scale' widgets?
|> 
|> -Peter Reiner

The easiest way is probably to just use a 4Dwm resource definition like: 

4DWm*yourApp*clientDecoration: none

If you want to do it from your program you need to set the _MOTIF_WM_HINTS 
property with code something like (see the OSF/Motif Programmer's Guide for
more info):

	Atom mwmHintsAtom = XInternAtom(dpy, _XA_MWM_HINTS, False);              		PropMwmHints mwmHints;
   
	mwmHints.flags = MWM_HINTS_DECORATIONS;
	mwmHints.decorations = 0;
	XChangeProperty(dpy, win, mwmHintsAtom, mwmHintsAtom, 
			32, PropModeReplace, (unsigned char*)&mwmHints, 
			PROP_MWM_HINTS_ELEMENTS);

---
Chris Walker (walker@sgi.com)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: hal@mopar.asd.sgi.com (John Hallesy)
Subject: Re: Need help for VideoLab
Organization:  Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 18:27:31 GMT

In <29JUL92.22324396@twncu865.ncu.edu.tw> guest@twncu865.ncu.edu.tw writes:

>Hi, everyone:
>      Our lab is planning to order a VideoLab for a 320/VGX but we recently
>      heard that product can't support the function of capturing single frame
>      from input video. It is different from data sheet that we got from
>      local distributor and the NEWS RELEASE released by SGI company in which
>      "Video can digitized to the screen at real-time video rates or stored on
>      disk or in memory as SINGLE IMAGES or SETS OF IMAGES" was reported.
>      Could anyone tell me what is the difference or the truth?  Compared to
>      VideoFrame and VideoCreator,  what's the improved function of VideoLab ?
>      The last	question is why the VideoLab don't provide the video format of
>      NTSC or PAL? Is there any method to convert NTSC or PAL to the format
>      provided by VideoLab when we must use it?


>      Any help will be much appreciated.

>      J. R. Liao   engineer@amy.cc.nctu.edu.tw

I don't know where you heard that VideoLab can't capture single frames from
video input, but it most certainly does; we capture an incoming RGB, YUV
(e.g. Betacam, MII, Smpte), or D1 video signal and place it in a dedicated
frame buffer.  From there it can be transferred to the graphics buffer or to
host memory.  You can transfer frames into the graphics buffer at live video 
rates, and can transfer frames into host memory at less than live video rates.

Compared to VideoFramer, you get realtime video output from a scanned portion
of the workstation's graphics buffer, in either 'pass-through' mode or in a
VideoCreator style 'scan conversion' mode.  The scan conversion on VideoLab
is done digitally, so the video output has much higher quality than the 
VideoCreator.  Unlike the VideoFramer, VideoLab allows you to read RGB data 
directly from a YUV or D1 input source with no software conversion overhead 
(so it's much faster), and the performance of the graphics bus to the MP bus 
is much better than the VME bus limited VideoFramer.  (So, video input to host 
memory is much faster than VideoFramer).

Lastly, NTSC & PAL video outputs were not provided becuase we couldn't fit a
broadcast quality implementation onto the board; we felt that users who needed
to go to these formats would keep their video processing in component from 
up until the last edit cycle to tape, at which point you can use an external
encoder to convert from RGB/YUV to NTSC/PAL.  Similarly, you can purchase an
external decoder to convert from NTSC/PAL to RGB/YUV, at which point it can
be fed into the VideoLab's video input.

						--hal@sgi.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: root@sanger.chem.nd.edu (Doctor Math)
Subject: Re: Video Recordings from SGI
Keywords: Video
Organization: University of Notre Dame
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 18:31:29 GMT

In article <nkq5qj0@fido.asd.sgi.com> grege@chopin.asd.sgi.com (Greg Estes) writes:
>You also have the option of using the setmon command to set the
>system for 30Hz output. This may be encoded using a third-party
>encoder to get to NTSC/PAL. See the man pages for more details.

...and if you're handy with a soldering iron, a Motorola MC1377 or MC13077
(the 13077 isn't available yet) will do the encoding from RGB to PAL, NTSC
or Y/C (S-Video).  As soon as my samples get here, I'm going to make a
little black box to do just this.  The spec sheet gives a schematic, and
the circuit is fairly trivial.  Motorola University Support: +1 800 521 6274;
or call your local sales rep if you're in PrivateSectorLand.
From: jwt@duke.cs.duke.edu (Jeffrey W. Tannehill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: printing on an SGI IRIS 4D
Date: 27 Jul 92 19:33:29 GMT
Organization: Duke University Computer Science Dept.; Durham, N.C.


	We have a new IRIS which does not have a printer directly attached.
We would like to use a number of printers that are attached to other hosts
on the local network.  There are man pages for the BSD lpr and lpd software,
but I cannot find these binaries anywhere on the machine.  Has our machine
had these removed, or does SGI only supply the doumentation?  I tried
using the Print Manager from the console window System Menu to add a remote
printer. Unfortunately, it requires that the lp login id actually be able 
to login to the remote host, or it won't add the printer!  The remote
host with the printer will not allow login access to anyone from the IRIS
though it will allow remote printing via the BSD lpd software.
	Has anyone else encountered this problem?  Is the solution to 
get the BSD lpd software and turn off the SGI printer software (to not use
the print manager)?  Is it possible to use both the Print Manager software
and the BSD lpd software?

-- 
/*______________________________Jeff Tannehill_______________________________*
 * MAIL:  Duke Dept. of Computer Science        Internet: jwt@cs.duke.edu    *
 *        Durham, NC 27708 USA                  PHONE: +1 919 660 6500       */
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
From: thomas@bitrot.in-berlin.de (Thomas Driemeyer)
Subject: Indigo disk with heat problems
Organization: Thomas Driemeyer, Berlin
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 14:50:22 GMT

My Indigo started having system disk problems two weeks ago. I get errors like

  Media error: Unrecovered data block read error,. Block #570354 (687156)
  Media error: No addr mark found in ID field,. Block #612519 (729321)

Always in the second half of the disk, and apparently not on a particular
platter. The disk is a Seagate ST1480 bought from SGI, but I am out of
warranty. (A 90-day warranty is awfully easy to get out of, but I knew
the risk and am certainly not regretting buying.) Removing the front panel
and having a big fan blow air onto the disk fixes the problem, but it's
not the sort of solution I like. I reformatted twice, but that did not help.
I am running 4.0.4.

It is probably unrelated, but my external 80-MB ST1096N news spool disk
is hard to access,    "fsck /dev/dsk/dks0d5s7" fails but
"cat /dev/dsk/dks0d5s7 >/dev/null & sleep 180; fsck /dev/dsk/dks0d5s7"
works, reluctantly. Some typical messages from SYSLOG:

  sc0,5,0: cmd=0x12 timeout after 30 sec.  Resetting SCSI bus
  dks0d1s0 (/): retrying request
  sc0,5,0: cmd=0x28 timeout after 30 sec.  Resetting SCSI bus
  dks0d5s10: retrying request
  dks0d1s0 (/): retrying request

Note the dks0d1s0 problems here. But, when I remove all SCSI hardware except
the system disk, my main problem still exists. The ST1096 disk is from Fry's,
and came with no documentation whatsoever :-(   I don't really care about it.

If my system disk is in fact dying, I'd like to replace it with a larger
one, at least 1 GB. Are the HP disks (eg, 558) working on Indigos? Are there
better ones? (I'll never touch Seagate again though. Two times is enough.)
Can I expect a drop in price when the 2.4 GB disks come out? When?

Here's the relevant part of hinv:
  1 33 MHZ IP12 Processor
  Main memory size: 32 Mbytes
  Disk drive: unit 5 on SCSI controller 0
  CDROM: unit 4 on SCSI controller 0
  Disk drive / removable media: unit 3 on SCSI controller 0: 720K/1.44M floppy
  Tape drive: unit 2 on SCSI controller 0: DAT
  Disk drive: unit 1 on SCSI controller 0
  Integral SCSI controller 0: Version WD33C93A, revision 9
  Graphics board: GR2-XS24 with Z-buffer

Thanks a lot for any help. It is rumored that life is possible without a
computer, but I am not convinced...

Thomas
-- 

--
Thomas Driemeyer      thomas@bitrot.in-berlin.de      voice/fax: +49 30 8924936
From: chc@orion.ksc.nasa.gov (Charles Curley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Does renice work?
Date: 27 Jul 92 17:28:35 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Operations, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

I have a 4D/35 running 4.0.1 and renice doesn't seem to work.  Here is what
happens on my machine:

hydra $ uname -a
IRIX hydra 4.0.1 11150233 IP12
hydra $ id
uid=1002(chc) gid=1000(boeing) groups=500(vicorp),501(cosmic),502(ist),2000(hums)
hydra $ ps -uchc
     UID   PID  PPID  C    STIME TTY       TIME COMMAND
     chc  9559  9558  0                    0:00 <defunct>
     chc  9384     1  0 10:23:36 ?         0:02 xwsh -geometry 120x60+200+110
     chc  9646  9404  3 12:59:48 ttyq2     0:00 ps -f -uchc
     chc  9402     1  0 10:23:37 ?         0:00 xwsh -name winterm -name winterm -title Console -name startconsole -icontitle C
     chc  9379     1  0 10:23:36 ?         0:38 xlock -besaver -mode random +nolock
     chc  9558  9404 78 12:28:06 ttyq2    31:04 rayshade
     chc  9380     1  0 10:23:36 ?         0:00 xclock -geometry 130x130+1137+10
     chc  9355  9323  0 10:23:31 ?         0:09 mwm
     chc  9408  9402  0 10:23:38 ttyq3     0:01 -bash
     chc  9404  9384  1 10:23:37 ttyq2     0:02 -bash
hydra $ renice +20 9558
renice: 9558: setpriority: Invalid argument
hydra $ renice +20 -p 9558
renice: 9558: setpriority: Invalid argument
hydra $ renice 20 -p 9558
renice: 9558: setpriority: Invalid argument
hydra $ renice -20 -p 9558
renice: 9558: setpriority: Permission denied

Of course, the last one is correct because I don't have permission to
"mean" the process.  Hopefully I haven't missed this question flying about.

--
Charles Curley, Research Analyst        Internet:  chc@orion.ksc.nasa.gov
Boeing Aerospace Operations, Inc.       Voice:     (407) 867-9619
MS FA-56, Bldg M7-409, Rm 170A          Facsimile: (407) 867-4079
Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi