HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: phanes@hal.COM (Pamela D. Hanes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware,comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: SparcStation IIs & IPCs vs. Exabyte Drives
Summary: Exabyte hangs system
Keywords: exabyte, ss2
Date: 9 Sep 92 15:58:04 GMT
Followup-To: phanes@hal.com
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.


  I have a SparcStation II and an IPC which have an Exabyte 8200 and an
  Exabyte 8500 daisy-chained off of them.  The SS2 is running 4.1.1 and
  the IPC is running 4.1.2.
  Several times now, I have had this and a few other Exabyte tape drives
  go "bad" on me.  The drives are operational for a month or two, then
  they start receiving I/O errors and write errors after a few feet into
  tapes (both the green and the orange status lights on the drive are on
  when the errors occur).  These errors cause the system to hang until 
  the tape in the drive is ejected, allowing the system to continue its 
  activities. 
  I have tried switching tapes, cleaning the heads, swapping SCSI cables,
  swapping systems, etc... nothing works.  These drives are used for dumps
  and backups using Legato; their functioning properly is very important
  to me.  I have sent one drive back for repair, but I can't believe all
  of these drives are "broken".
  It would be most appreciated if someone could shed some light on what 
  might be causing these errors and system hangs.  I have included condensed
  versions of the errors below.  Any help or leads you might be able to
  provide are most appreciated.

  Thanks,
  ~Pamela Hanes
  System Administrator
  HAL Comouter Systems

  Errors on console:

st0:    Error for command 'write', Error Level: 'Fatal'
        Block: 3188     File Number: 3
        Sense Key: Media Error

  Errors in dump log:

  DUMP: 45.74% done, finished in 1:40
  DUMP: 48.55% done, finished in 1:35
  DUMP: write: I/O error

  DUMP: write: I/O error

  DUMP: Tape write error 403 feet into tape 1
  DUMP: fopen on /dev/tty fails
  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (Bill Mayhew)
Subject: Re: Sun 3/60 problems
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1992 02:58:40 GMT

Occasionally bizarre behavior is heat related.  Check to be sure
that the fan is operating normally and that the system air passages
aren't choked with dust.  I've had several machines brought to me
for fixing that have been virturally packed solid with dust.
Cleaning fixed them up; on a couple I've had to replace fans with
siezed bearings.

Also, check for lose connections from the power supply to the
backplane; occasionally, the screws loosen over time.  Check the
power supply for correct voltage.  If the voltage is just below
4.75 volts or so, wacky things will happen, but the system will
seem to work normally most of the time.  Use care when attempting
to adjust power supply voltage - a slip-up can fry the boards in
your system; if you have doubts, see somebody that can attach the
supply to a load box and adjust it outside your system.  Be wary of
the mains (120 / 220) volt conenctions to the supply input when
probing with a meter.

Pull and reseat the cards in the system.  There are plenty of pins
to become dirty, etc on a VME card connector.  A couple of remove -
insert cycles works wonders at cleaning up connections.
Exceptionally brave users as a last ditch effort might want to try
prying up and reseating socketed ICs.  I've encountered quite a few
bad sockets over the years, though not many on Sun gear.

Check the wall socket to make sure that the voltage is nominal +/-
10%.  Eg: 108-132 volts in the US.  In the summer, heavy loads
imposed by airconditioning in your building may make the line
voltage to your office go way down or way up.  The exact symptom
depends on mains power transformer configuration in your building.
Use care testing wall voltage.  Refer questions to an electrician if
necessary.  Observing incandescent lights in the room for unusually
dim or bright output may provide a clue without needing to use a
meter yourself.

Cracked circuit boards, cold solder joints, bad ICs, etc can cause
trouble too, but that is too diffiuclt to telediagnose in a short
article.


-- 
Bill Mayhew      NEOUCOM Computer Services Department
Rootstown, OH  44272-9995  USA    phone: 216-325-2511
wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu   (140.220.1.1)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: epc1@quads.uchicago.edu (Merlin)
Subject: How do I hook up two monitors to an IPX?
Reply-To: epc1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 18:35:03 GMT

Hi,

Can anyone help me set up two monitors to an IPX?  I think I know what software
modifications need to be done so that olwm and mwm uses both monitors; however,
where do I plug in the second monitor on my IPX?

Any thing tricky I need to know to get olwm to recoginize both monitors?

In addition, I have another question.  
I know that the IPX uses a 40MHz SPARC.  However, how many mips is the IPX?
Is it similar in performance to the SPARC2?  I hear that they use the same
processor.  How many mips are the IPC and the ELC? 

Thanks for help on any of these questions.

-- 
En Pum Cho					
University of Chicago Class of 1994
math & economics major
epc1@midway.uchicago.edu
From: asun@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (andrew.sun)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: SUN3/160 CDC 9720-500 EMD disks, how do I setup
Keywords: xylogic cdc smd hard
Date: 5 Sep 92 02:22:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T


After recently acquiring a handful of surplus, old SUN 3
series equipment, I'm trying to set the system up
but with a lack of documentation (these always seem to get lost
when systems are transfered from place to place).

We have pieces from two 3/160 systems with, I believe:
     xylogic 450/451 disk controllers (2 of them)
     CDC 9720-500 EMD disks (4 of them).

The problem: I don't know how to hook them up, HELP!
     The controller board as many jumpers on them.
     Also, each disk has 18 DIP switches on the back, and
          a jack panel.

Does anyone know what the jumper are for and how they should be set?
Does anyone know what the DIP switches are for and how they should be set?
What cable goes where?
Where can I find the information for such an old system?


Thanks
   Andrew
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware,comp.sys.sun.admin
From: bhays@teal.csn.org (Boyd Hays)
Subject: Disk Drives for IPC?
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 14:48:08 GMT

Hello,

    I've been received conflicting information about compatible disk drives
    for a SUN IPC, perhaps someone can help. I'd like to replace the original
    207MB Maxtor disk that came with my IPC with a larger disk. I've been
    told, by a SUN technical support person, that I can't put SUN's 424MB
    drive in the IPC as the IPC doesn't have the capacity to cool a larger
    disk. This seemed rather bogus to me and I contacted a couple of resellers
    for their opinion (of course they wanted to sell me the larger disk).
    The resellers said that I could swap disks because the parts list said that
    the chasis, power supply, and fan were the same as the IPX (which can
    handle the larger drive). Who is correct?

    Is there any reason to use a SUN disk drive?  Do SUN supplied drives
    have modified PROMS that are in some way superior, or could I just install
    something like a Fujitsu 520MB?
    
    As a related question, Any opinions on good compatible disk drives
    and where to purchase them?

Thanks in advance,
Boyd Hays
bhays@csn.org
From: tarsa@elijah.mv.com (Greg Tarsa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: HELP: Blank 16" Trinitron Screen
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:18:39 GMT
Reply-To: tarsa@elijah.mv.com (Greg Tarsa)
Distribution: na
Organization: Contract Software Services, Inc.


We have a broken Sun 16" Trinitron monitor.  It "sounds" fine when turned on,
but there is no picture, no flicker, nothing on the screen.

Is this a common problem with a well-defined fix?  I am handy with a soldering
iron and have implemented net-published fixes on monochrome monitors before.

Any help, either for do-it-yourself fixes, or for pointers to cheap repair
depots, would be appreciated.

Greg

--
Contract Software Services, Inc.
--------------------------------
            34 Wright Acres Road
               Bedford, NH 03102        tarsa@elijah.mv.com
                   (603)472-7399	{decuac,decvax}!elijah!tarsa
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware,comp.sys.sun.admin
From: mikebo@i88.isc.com (Michael Borowiec)
Subject: Re: Disk Drives for IPC?
Organization: INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, Naperville, IL
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 21:04:26 GMT

In article <BuMJs8.8p7@csn.org> bhays@teal.csn.org (Boyd Hays) writes:
> ...misc stuff deleted...
>
>    Is there any reason to use a SUN disk drive?  Do SUN supplied drives
>    have modified PROMS that are in some way superior, or could I just install
>    something like a Fujitsu 520MB?
>    
>    As a related question, Any opinions on good compatible disk drives
>    and where to purchase them?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Boyd Hays
>bhays@csn.org

*Usually* there is no good reason to buy a Sun drive as opposed to its
OEM equivalent. For example, Sun sells a 1.6GB SCSI-2 drive (1.3GB
formatted) that is actually a Seagate Elite-1 (ST41600N). My Sun Express
price book has this drive listed for $3975, but you can buy the bare
Elite-1 for around $2000 and put it into a $150 case.

Yes, the Sun version does have a custom PROM which contains some Sun
specified changes to the drive firmware. I've been told by Sun engineers
that these changes are minor and may actually be incorporated into the
OEMs firmware sooner or later (or never, at their discretion).

I've been buying Seagate Wren-VII (ST41200N) drives. They perform well
(15ms avg/seek, 4.8MB/sec sync xfer) and draw something like 24 watts.
We get them for around $1500 and have been buying them from Tom Malone
at Consan, 7676 Executive Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344 (612)949-0053.
Tell Tom I sent you... (I have no connection whatever with Consan. I'm
just a satisfied customer.)
- Mike

PS> My thoughts are my own and may not reflect those of my employer...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Borowiec  (N9EUZ)  -  mikebo@isc.com  -  mikebo@timesink.chi.il.us
INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. - 1901 N. Naper Blvd. - Naperville, IL 60563 USA
System Administration Office: 708-505-9100 ext 229   -   FAX: 708-505-9133
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: tom@dtint.uucp (Thomas R. Kimpton)
Subject: Re: Booting sparc from serial port
Organization: Digital Technology, International
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 17:25:17 GMT

In article <8428@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au> dclunie@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (David Clunie) writes:
>
>Can one boot a sparcstation without a frame buffer from a serial port ?
>This is a pretty obvious question, and one could ask why, but I
>presume it is possible ... I would want to boot the mini-root off
>the CDROM and then set up the sparcstation from there ...
>
>-- 
>David Clunie (dclunie@itd.adelaide.edu.au)

Check out the "eeprom" command.  It allows you to set the console
to "b&w or ttya or ttyb or color".  I'm not sure if this works on
SLC's or ELC's.  You can also set the serial port parameters using
eeprom.

-- 
---
Tom Kimpton                            tom@dtint.dtint.com
Digital Technology Int.                (801)226-2984	
500 W. 1200 South, Orem UT, 84057      FAX (801) 226-8438
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: beauchem@DMI.USherb.CA (Denis Beauchemin)
Subject: Seeking experiences with SCSI terminal servers
Organization: Sisca Informatique, Inc.
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 13:09:45 GMT

Hi,
 
I would like to add serial ports to an ELC but this machine has no S-Bus
slots.  I know Central Data (and maybe other companies as well) are selling
what they call: SCSI terminal servers to do just that.
 
Has anyone have any experiences with such devices?  Is the performance
acceptable?  We're thinking about using a 8 serial 1 parallel config.  Are
there any problems related to installation or else?
 
Thanks a lot!
-- 
=== Denis Beauchemin,  === beauchem@DMI.USherb.CA ===
=== Dir. R&D           =================================
=== Sisca Informatique === Sun, AT&T and networks  ===
=== (819) 564-4003.    ==============================
From: ddev@src.umd.edu (Don DeVoe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: Mono monitor flyback source?
Date: 13 Sep 92 23:50:50 GMT
Organization: Systems Research Center


	The flyback transformer in my 3/60's 19" mono monitor seems to have 
gone bad, judging by the high-pitched whine it puts out.  Does anyone know a 
source for this part?

-- 
Don DeVoe
ddev@src.umd.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware,comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.sys.sun.admin
From: rickf@theweav.cts.com (Rick Flower)
Subject: Re: Help: Can't boot from Seagate ST41200N 1G disk.
Summary: Seagate
Organization: Coast Software Systems, Lomita, Ca.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 05:57:15 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.074820.4602@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> raymond@vast.unsw.edu.au (Raymond Leung) writes:
>Have anyone be able to boot from a Seagate ST41200N 1G disk on a SUN ELC?

No, but I've got one sitting here on my 'ol 3/60 (SunOS 4.0.3)

>I got the following message from the monitor:
>
>    >b
>    Boot device:/sbus/esp@0,800000/sd@3,0     File and args: vmunix
>    Can't read disk labe.
>    Can't open Sun disk label package
>    boot-block startup failed.
>    Illegal Instruction.
>
>Disk type in format.dat is as followed:
>
>    disk-type= "Seagate Wren 7 ST41200N" \
>		: ctlr = MD21 : fmt_time = 4 \
>		: cache = 0x11 : trks_zone = 15 : asect = 5 : atrks =  30 \
>		: ncyl = 1928 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 1930 : nhead = 15 : nsect = 70 \
>		: rpm = 3600 : bpt = 41301
>
>
>I have no problem mounting the disk and using it, just can't boot from it.
>I have run installboot on the new disk. I have also tried installing from
>SUNOS CD-ROM and all completed successful but the boot still failed.
>

I had a heck of a time getting my 41200 formatted the first time... Once I 
finally got that done, all was well!

>Any idea?
>

Nope.. I did notice that when this drive's got the wrong option settings
for the termination resistor power (I accidentally read the picture 
incorrectly) which cause the drive to behave oddly..

>Raymond Leung

-- Rick

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Stimpy : Ren.. Will you Read Me a Bedtime Story??               |
| Ren    : A Bedtime Stoory.. Go read it yourself!!               |
+------------------------------------------------------+----------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: bellavig@cs.aston.ac.uk (G bellavia,MB304a,5289)
Subject: Format Problems on Maxtor 712S 3.5 inch disk
Keywords: Format, Maxtor, suninstall
Reply-To: bellavig@cs.aston.ac.uk
Organization: Aston University (Comp Sci)
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 12:49:38 GMT

We have 16  Maxtor 712S's (130MB 3.5 inch hard disks) that we use for root and swap
on 16 sparc1's.

Recently we used suninstall to install 4.1.2 on all of them
as dataless machines BUT on one disk suninstall failed to find the
disk on its disk form. However probe-scsi finds it AND you can
format and anaylse the disk to your hearts content. I did 5 purge
passes and no errors. 

Can someone throw any light on the problem. I am having to send it back to
the supplier but it will cost money.

Gino Bellavia
Senior Computer Officer
Computer Science & Applied Mathematics
Aston University

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: stevens@madvlsi.columbia.edu (Andy Stevens)
Subject: garbled screen problem
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 21:07:09 GMT
X-Posted-From: greece.madvlsi.columbia.edu
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

I am having a weird problem with the monitor on my 4/380 file server.
It's a generic Sun b&w monitor.  Every so often (about once a month),
the lettering on the screen gets really garbled, though it is still
barely legible.  Everything else seems to still work ok, i.e. you can
still log in.  You just can't really read very well what you are
typing.

Only a power reset of the CPU clears the problem, i.e. it does not
seem to be a bad monitor.  It seems maybe like a video ram problem.

Anyway, has andybody seen anything like this before?  Is it an omen
that my server is going to die soon?

--andy
From: jim@davidge.com (James Bopp-Carty)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: Sun MCP Board
Date: 14 Sep 92 15:41:06 GMT
Organization: Davidge Data Systems Corp.



Does anyone out there have experience with the Sun MCP Board
for synchronous comm.  We have purchased several with the 
impression it is a FOUR synchronous port board.  Two RS-232
and two RS-449 with total bandwidth being the aggregate of
the four ports.  It seems that we are now being told that
the most ports we can use at once is TWO (any combination of
RS232 or RS-449 but only two sychronous comm links at the 
same time).

Can someone familiar with this communication board from Sun
shed some light on how we can use all four ports on the
board?  Any info will be greatly appreciated.

jim@davidge.com 

-- 

Jim Carty
From: mosnn@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (michael.h.schneider)
Subject: unix box for sas/data processing
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 21:27:44 GMT
Keywords: datasets, sas, unix

I'm looking for advice on the apropriate system to add to our
existing sun network.  We are a `sun shop' (sparcs) with perhaps
30 workstations and a couple of servers (690's ?).  The work
that I do is *heavily* data intensive.  I routinely process,
say, 600 meg raw datafiles extracting 50 megs and then working
with the resulting dataset using sas.   Then, for example,
I take that 50 meg dataset and search another 600 meg file
to find entries that `match'. 

Currently, I'm using a 1.6 G drive attached via the SCSI to my
SPARC.  This works  well, and now other people in my group are starting
to use similar data processing/analytical techniques on our
sun network.  So, here is the question.   We need a better
way to handle the data processing/statistical stuff, and I would
greatly appreciate any experience/advice that others can offer.

Should we buy a dedicated `box' to handle the massive data intensive
parts of our work?  And if so, should be buy a SPARC 10, or is there
a sun-type `box' that is better for this work?

Are there other solutions we should consider?

Please send replies to:

michael h schneider
mschneider@att.com (I think this should work outside of att) or
mos@hocus.att.com

 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: dishongh@joule.engr.utk.edu ( Dishongh, Terrance J.)
Subject: CDC WREN DRIVES
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords: CDC WREN IV
Organization: University of Tennessee Computing Center
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 18:15:00 GMT

HELLO...


I am looking for a used CDC WREN IV (155 Meg) Drive for my 386i-SUN
shoebox.  Several peolple have posted these for sale, and my replies
via e-mail have been, for the most part, unsuccessful.  I would appreciate
any leads..  Please reply via e-mail to:

dishongh@joule.engr.utk.edu

Thanks..

Terry Dishongh
___________________________________________________________________________

"The computer solution is always wrong.  How wrong is your problem."
                                  First Law of Computational Mechanics
                                  A.J. Baker
____________________________________________________________________________


Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: frank@hact.hact.de (Frank Hoerper)
Subject: Wangtek 5525ES Streamer
Organization: Halstenbach ACT GmbH
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 11:32:59 GMT

Hi,

I want to connect a Wangtek 5525ES SCSI Streamer to a SPARC-Station 2
with SUN OS 4.1.2.
Does anyone know the definition for the "st-conf.c" -file ?

Please answer directly to marcus@hact.hact.de if you can - thanks. 

 Frank

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: david@dseg.ti.com (david bourgoyne)
Subject: Re: SLOW IPC!
Organization: /home/david/.organization
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 20:28:40 GMT

In article <1992Aug22.160243.16375@unixland.natick.ma.us> bill@unixland.natick.ma.us (Bill Heiser) writes:

>>   Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
>>   Path: fstop.csc.ti.com!tilde.csc.ti.com!csc.ti.com!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!think.com!unixland!bill
>>   From: bill@unixland.natick.ma.us (Bill Heiser)
>>   Organization: Unixland Public Access Unix  (508) 655-3848
>>   Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:02:43 GMT
>>   Lines: 16
>>
>>   We just set up an IPC in an office that used to have a 3/60.  The 3/60
>>   had 16mb of memory and was used for OW 2.0 and Sunview.  The IPC actually
>>   feels much slower than the 3/60!!!!  The IPC only has 8mb of memory and
>>   is a color display instead of mono like the 3/60.  The IPC is used for
>>   sunview and OW 3.0, and runs sunos 4.1.2 instead of 4.1.1_U1.
>>
>>   Is the problem with the IPC just lack of memory?  If we beef it upt o
>>   16 or 32mb, will it pick up the pace a bit?  Perfmeter doesn't show an
>>   excessive amount of swapping, although it does show some swapping activity
>>   most of the time. (so it seems like it must be at least partly due to 
>>   lack of memory).
>>
>>   -- 
>>   bill@unixland.natick.ma.us                      ESIX Mailing List Moderator
>>   Public Access UNIX/USENET/E-MAIL!  UUCP Accounts Available!  (508) 655-3848
>>   5 lines  -  Located in Natick, MA   USA    Supporting V.32/PEP/V.42bis, etc.


If you increase your memory to 24mb, you will see a world of
improvement. In addition, if you run X11R5 from mit instead of that
bloated openwin3.0 you will get even more speed.  My IPC with a color
frame buffer running X11R5 gets 260 rpms out of xengine while my IPX
with a GX running openwin3.0 gets 268.  Hey, I know xengine is not a
respectable benchmark, but it's something.  I am presently benchmarking
several varieties of Sun workstations with the x11perf benchmark in the
X11R5 release. I will post the results to the net.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
David W. Bourgoyne                                david@bacchus.dseg.ti.com
Texas Instruments, Dallas
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: ppan@nobeltech.se (Per Andersson)
Subject: Sun-2 CPUs and os 4.0.3
Organization: NobelTech AB
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 22:42:52 GMT


Hi. 

I was playing around with an old SUN-2, and tried to boot it diskless from a
3/280 running 4.1.1_U1. It boots ok until after doing the root on server:,
swap on server:,dump on server: part , then it crashes with some PROT VIOL
or if it was access violation. I know some versions of PROM doesn't run
version 4 of SunOS correctly. Does anybody know which PROMs I should have,
and if there are any other things that make this impossible ( not just
unsupported, which this configuration of course is) ?

/Per
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Per Andersson - ppan@nobeltech.se (perand@stacken.kth.se on free time)
Managing networks at, but not speaking for Nobeltech AB, J{rf{lla, Sweden
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
From: montjoy@thor.ece.uc.edu (Robert Montjoy)
Subject: XY-450 and 7053 controllers in a 3/280
Organization: Unversity of Cincinnati, ECE Dept
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 23:49:12 GMT


HI..

Is anyone running both a XY-450 SMD and a Zylogics 7053 in
together in the same 3/280.

SUN's manual says a 451 will work with a 7053 but a 450 will not.
I would like to put a couple of Eagle Drives to good use.

If I need an upgrade to a 451 does anyone have one avaliable? 

Thanks.
-- 
Rob Montjoy                   		- Rob.Montjoy@UC.Edu
Computer Engineer    	      		- montjoy@ucbeh.BITNET
University of Cincinnati      		- montjoy@babbage.ece.uc.edu
Electrical and Computer Engineering	- uunet!uceng!rmontjoy

-- Standards are illusions of many faces.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware