From: rhess@consilium.COM (Richard L. Hess)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Can't get photorealistic rendering working
Date: 8 Oct 92 00:25:33 GMT
Organization: Consilium Inc., Mountain View, California.
In-reply-to: shanega@athena.mit.edu's message of 6 Oct 92 22:52:32 GMT
X-UserAgent: GNUS 3.13  [ NNTP-based News Reader for GNU Emacs ]

>>>>> "Shane" == Shane G. Artis <shanega@athena.mit.edu> writes:

Shane> I installed most of 3.0 from floppies, lacking a CD-ROM, so I'm sure
Shane> the problem crept in somewhere in that process.  I tried to patch up
Shane> the netinfo database to include /locations/renderes, giving localhost
Shane> as the value (I have a standalone machine), but to no avail.  There
Shane> don't seem to be any messages printed in the console or
Shane> /private/adm/messages files either.  When I run RenderManager or
Shane> Perspective I get little pop-up panels telling me that they can't find
Shane> a renderer.

Shane> Anyone who has some advice would be very much appreciated.

  I had the same problem and couldn't seem to figure it out until I looked
in the /UpgradeLog file and notice the following error;

	Updating NetInfo database local.nidb:
	    Updating user accounts...13 accounts
	    Creating /locations/renderers...
**	niutil: can't open localhost/local:/locations/renderers/localhost
	    Updating /rpcs...
	    Removing decode alias...
	    Creating /localconfig...
	NetInfo changes complete.

  I then went and looked into the bowels of the "upgrade" app on the NeXTSTEP
3.0 CD and eventually found a PostProcess script which contained the following
RenderMan specific stuff;
+---------------------------------------------------------------------[ top ]
    echo "    Creating /locations/renderers..."
    niutil -t -list localhost/${usetag} /locations/renderers >& /dev/null
    if ($status != 0) then
        niutil -t -create localhost/${usetag} /locations/renderers >& /dev/null
        niutil -t -createprop localhost/${usetag} /locations/renderers _writers 
'*' >& /dev/null
        niutil -t -create localhost/${usetag} /locations/renderers/localhost >& 
/dev/null
        niutil -t -createprop localhost/${usetag} /locations/renderers/localhost
 _writers '*' >& /dev/null
        niutil -t -createprop localhost/${usetag} /locations/renderers/localhost
 note "Local  >& /dev/null Renderer"
    endif
+------------------------------------------------------------------[ bottom ]

  Looking at this you can see that you need to create the following 
subdirectories in NetInfo using NetInfoManager.app;

	/locations
	/locations/renderers
	/locations/renderers/localhost

  And then you need to create "_writer" properties for both of these
subdirectories;

	/locations/renderers
	/locations/renderers/localhost

  Once you've created the new properties, add a new value and set it to "*".
After saving all your changes, reboot the machine just for good measure and
try running AppSoft Perspective or RenderManager.  There should be an entry
for localhost in the panels.  Don't forget to add a "localhost" alias for your
machine (see my other posting to comp.sys.next.sysadmin for help on this one).
It all works fine for me now.  This NeXTSTEP 3.0 stuff is just way cool.

Dick...

ps.	my guess is that everyone who has a standalone machine is running into
	this same problem, the "upgrade" app seems to work for NetInfo networks
	but not for standalone systems...
  
+----------------------------------------------------------
WHO:	Richard Hess	[ Staff Engineer ]
CORP:	Consilium Inc,	640 Clyde Court, Mtn View, CA 94043
VOICE:	[415] 691-6342
EMAIL:	rhess@consilium.COM  <-----------------[ NeXTmail ]
+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin