HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: esr@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: FAQ maintainer needs some leverage on Dell
Date: 30 Jul 92 15:15:57 GMT

I'm trying to jawbone Dell's marketing department into sending me a box
for the Bake-Off.  There have been a couple of postings here lately to
the effect that people decided to but Dell after reading my FAQ.  If you
are one of those people, send me a short note describing the circumstances
and your general opinion of the FAQ.  I plan to digest these (unedited) 
and send them to Dell's marketroids.  Sort of the proverbial two-by-four...
-- 
					Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Subject: Re: opinions on unix systems
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 11:51:10 GMT

fr@compu.com (Fred Rump from home) writes:

>On CD-ROM you're looking at $450

Who's CD are they supporting?  Does it have to be configured as LUN 0?

-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
4950 Estero Blvd, Ft. Myers Beach, FL            uucp: uunet!rde!nstar!larry
From: cjackso@nv6 (Clay Jackson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: SCO Unix & Serial Boards
Summary: More than 2 dual port boards on a box
Keywords: Serial MCA ODT
Date: 22 Jul 92 19:02:18 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

I have a Tadny 5000MC (IBM PS/2 Model 80 clone) running ODT 1.0.1 (NOT
ODT 2.0, yet) and need more than 5 serial ports.  I currently have 2
IBM Dual Async boards in the machine, plus the one serial port on
the motherboard.  I "inherited" another dual port serial board, but have been
unable to get it to work.

Has anyone been successful at this?


--
Clay Jackson - N7QNM
US WEST NewVector Group Inc
Bellevue, WA
uunet!uswnvg!cjackso
From: aw1@stade.co.uk (Adrian Wontroba)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Getting a tape drive to stream...
Date: 25 Jul 92 22:37:56 GMT
Organization: Stade Computers Limited, UK

In article <2065@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (only in JAPAN, post otherwise) writes:
>I have ISC, could you/somebody tell me what CTBUFSIZE does in SCO?
>Maybe there is something similar for ISC....

It allocates a fixed size buffer at init time, rather than dynamicly
attempting to allocate a buffer at run time. Prior to my 3.2v2 upgrade I
could only use the tape drive in single user mode.
-- 
Adrian Wontroba, Stade Computers Limited.	phone:	(+44) 21 373 9546
uucp:	...!uknet!stade!aw1		other: aw1%stade.co.uk@uknet.ac.uk
snail:	14 Fourlands Avenue, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B72 1YY, UK
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: dold@unislc.uucp (Clarence Dold)
Subject: Re: DELL CORPORATE CONTRIBUTION
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 05:44:30 GMT

From article <1992Jul27.200309.24242@crd.ge.com>, by davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen):

>   I was afraid it would come to this.

I work in Tech Support for Unisys.  I generally do not post with regards to
specific customer problems, because there are people that pay for the support
that they get from me on the phone.

> | Donn has stated that he was expressing his personal opinion, as is normal

Unless his job is in support via the net, then the net must accept him as
any other individual.  A couple of us in Tech Support have even considered
subscribing to one of the private news feeds, just so our .sig wouldn't look
official.
If his job is official, the his .sig should say so.

> | We believe, from discussions with him, that he will be less active on the 
> | net in the future.  

Please reconsider that.  
The net is generally unmoderated.  It is up to the reader to do the sorting.

> | 	UNIX is an open system.  Without the input, interaction, and work 
> | of the people who populate USENETr; UNIX would soon stagnate.  UNIX owes 

I certainly have drawn a lot of good information and source code from the
net.  I have even posted a couple of trivial items.
Don't drive a good poster away, just because he can't spell.
Perhaps he needs a "delay and repost" program to save him from his own
flying fingers.  I know I often need one. ;-)

> | 	Internal discussion at Dell is resulting in a decision that we
> | must be less active on the 'net, though we will continue to monitor 
please don't.  If unofficial postings are the problem, how is stopping the
official ones going to help anything?

> | Eventually, 'net pressure will decide; should Dell participate on the 'net 
> | as individual contributors, or as corporate automatons whose every word is 
> | intended as official corporate policy?
Full speed ahead.  Mark official responses as such.  Smiley the rest.

.
.
I apologize if I crossed some of Bill's comments with those from Dell.
Bill is one of those on the net whose postings I value.  Another is Toby
Nixon from Hayes, in the modem groups.  

The net would be decidely less reliable as a source of in-depth technical
expertise, if people who really know have to be silent in their areas of
expertise, in order to avoid casting an uncleared official post.

-- 
---
Clarence A Dold - dold@unislc.slc.Unisys.COM
               ...pyramid!ctnews!tsmiti!dold
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: dominic@scooter.genie.uottawa.ca (Dominic Richens)
Subject: Re: Maximizing drive performace
Originator: dominic@
Reply-To: dominic@shamin.genie.uottawa.ca
Organization: MCRLab - University of Ottawa
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 17:20:13 GMT


In article <13698@mindlink.bc.ca>,Frank@mindlink.bc.ca(Frank I. Reiter)writes:
! Given this, is there still any benefit to the two controller approach?
! 
! The machine in question is an ISA bus 486-33.  I'd really like to hear from
! people that have made the ISA-->EISA move: How much difference does it make in
! real world situations?

I'm using two Adaptec 1740 in a 486-33 EISA, each drving a 1.3Gbyte Elite
HD, using Chantal disk striping drivers and, accoring to iozone, I am
getting 2.1Mbytes/second writes and 2.9Mbytes/second read.  This is roughly
three times the throughput of one Adaptec 1540 (ISA) with one drive.

Someone also told me that things would be even faster if I didn't have any
ISA cards in my machine.  Any comments?

-- 
!@$^&*)($#$@!@#$^&*()_+_)(*&^$#@!$^&*()_+)(*&^$#@$^&*+_(*&^$#@#^&*()&*$#@(*&+_$!
 Dominic Richens  :  dominic@shamin.genie.uottawa.ca  :  Tel. (613) 564 9911 
      MCRLab, Dept of Elec Eng, University of Ottawa, K1N 6N5, CANADA   
"You construct intricate rituals which allow you to touch the skin of other men"
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us (Dave Ihnat)
Subject: Re: Dell SVR$ (and Dell hardware) total lack of success on Postscript
Summary: Uh...have *you* talked to Dell lately?
Keywords: Dell Unix SVR4
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 17:34:58 GMT

In article <gram.712228048@aim1> gram@aim1.aztec.co.za (Graham Wheeler) writes:
>...
>And this is their mistake. Probably because of Eric's FAQ, Dell UNIX has got
>a lot of free publicity on the net, and judging by the increase in postings
>over the last six months, a large increase in sales.

Yep; it came at a time when ISC had just been sold, and I was in a quandry
concerning who to buy.  The FAQ caused me to pop for Dell...

>While originally Dell
>UNIX may have been a UNIX port available as a `perk' in the Dell hardware
>marketing strategy, it is clear that Dell UNIX is rapidly becoming a product
>in its own right.

Yep.  Especially attractive to those who deplore the "unbundling mentality"
that's being evinced by AT&T/USL/NCR or whatever they are these days.

>Dell could make the most of this success by dropping their
>attitude of `if your hardware isn't ours, we're not interested', and instead
>marketing Dell UNIX as a competitive product to SCO, ESIX, etc, and providing
>better support to those of us who already had the hardware and just wanted the
>software.

That was one of my concerns when I bought the package, but I decided to gamble.
Since then, I've contacted them several times concerning legitimate glitches
and problems.  In all cases, I've clearly identified myself as a purchaser
of their Unix SVR4 without a support contract, and that I didn't expect them to
solve problems on foreign hardware; but that I am a knowledgable Unix developer
familiar with the system down to and inside the kernel, and that I've
identified a potential problem.  Could you please look at this and either tell
me if it's a known bug, or if not, if you're going to fix it either now
with a patch, or later in the next release?

This has resulted in a very friendly and productive relationship so far.
(Granted, it's only a couple of months old, but after fighting XXX (name
omitted to avoid flames, but it's not SCO) support for the last couple of
years, it's refreshing.)  What's the difference?  I try to go in with the
attitude that I've found a problem and would like to help them identify and
resolve it.  They are alerted to trouble items, I've gotten fixes.  It seems
amiable all around to me.

I'm not trying to be a rah-rah type; my experience is as anecdotal as those
from people who are unhappy.  But if someone gives me a square deal and
treats with me on a fair and professional basis, I'll talk about it.  (I'll
talk about *other* treatment, as well, but may be a bit more reluctant.)

Cheers,
		Dave Ihnat
		ignatz@homebru.chi.il.us (preferred return address)
		ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: HSTAMS@CIPVAX.BIOLAN.UNI-KOELN.DE (Henning Stams)
Subject: Weird problem with r-commands (rsh etc.) under SCO Unix
Organization: BIOLAN - COLOGNE UNIVERSITY (FRG)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 09:54:41 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.22

Hello out there,

I got a strange problem concerning the r-services even between two SCO
machines.
All worked well when I used static local host tables in my net.
Now I established a Domain Name Server with all the SCO machines as
clients. The name resolution works just fine; all ping, telnet etc. working.

Weird thing is: ANY user having a password set under SCO now has to 
                validate himself by giving his pw when he does rlogin
                etc.
/etc/hosts.equiv and /usr/xyz/.rhosts are both set on the particular machines.

This only applies to the SCO machines; there are other Unix-based clients in
the net having the same configuration and r-services working correctly.

Any idea???

Henning Stams (hstams@biolan.Uni-Koeln.DE)
From: darcy@druid.uucp (D'Arcy J.M. Cain)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: uugetty -> too many respawns???
Date: 23 Jul 92 22:59:02 GMT
Organization: D'Arcy Cain Consulting

bmyers@mcopn3.dseg.ti.com writes:
>01:23:respawn:/sbin/uugetty -r -t 60 19200NP
>
>and issue a 'init q' command, I get a msg back from the system telling me that
>there is something wrong; that the process is respawning too fast for the

That means that the command failed for some reason.  When a command fails it
exits of course so init restarts it.  It is able to recognize that this is
happening much too fast and so it tells you.

When you see this error you should try to run the command (everything in
the last colon-delimited field) manually to see what the error message
is.  In this case (assuming that your system is like my Esix SVR4) you
should get a "not found" error since uugetty is in /usr/bin.  However
even after fixing that you will still get an error that it can't open
"19200NP" suggesting the other problem here - you haven't named a port.

>any ideas?  if i change the uugetty to getty, and drop the '-r -t 60', I
>have a working input line.  

Are you sure you didn't have another line and simply swapped "respawn"
and "off" between them?

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain (darcy@druid.com)  |
D'Arcy Cain Consulting              |   There's no government
Toronto, Ontario, Canada            |   like no government!
+1 416 424 2871          DoD#0082   |
From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Wyse 60 & curses
Date: 25 Jul 92 01:13:44 GMT
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL

In article <1992Jul20.113320.3167@lugb.latrobe.edu.au> lhscmc@luxor.latrobe.edu.au (Craig Macbride) writes:
>In article <1992Jul17.232342.1300@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> gmatrang@nyx.cs.du.edu (Geoff Matrangola) writes:

>Wyse60's are a pain: (Where I work uses them all the time! Groan.)

You noticed that too?

>We do the following:
>- Re-program <back> and <down> arrows and <end> so they can be recognised.
>- Make dim the default, so that bold turns normal on.


>Conclusion:
>Most designers of terminals are idiots who got sacked from designing things
>that matter, so now they get to screw up terminal design instead. :-)

I spent some time with the guy who designed the Link-6.  Neat terminal.
I need to try to scrounge one up and put it through it's paces.  It
even has hardware cut and paste between the two serial port connectors.

But the Wyse arrow keys do show some simple-midness about the design :-)

>(Wyse have the colour 325 out now: it emulates 98% of a Wyse 60, just to
>make sure that a few things will fail miserably if you try to run them in
>straight Wyse 60 mode!)

What I have found very well, is a Wyse 160.  Turn it loose at high
speed and tell it that it is a VT220-7.   

On the plain 60's I've done the same as you and reprogammed the arrow
keys to look like Vt100s'
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill.vermillion@oau.org
                - bill@bilver.uucp 
                - ..!{peora|ge-dab|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Archive Viper 525 and Dell
From: karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 06:51:04 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Think Tank Software, Norwalk, CA

In <Bs5DnI.BIJ@gator.rn.com> larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:

>bruno@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Bruno Hall) writes:

>>then refuse to write another after the first.  Also, the light on the
>>drive stays on after the initial access -- until the tape is removed.

>I've noticed with Dell the tape light stay on after the tape is accessed
>after booting and remains on until the machine is rebooted or turned off

Try doing:

mt rewoffl

That will "rewind and bring the tape off-line".

Good Luck,
Karl
-- 
% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Karl Bunch                        ||| UUCP: ..!uunet!cerritos.edu!ttank!karl
% Think Tank Software               ||| INTERNET: karl@ttank.com
% 42.5% of all quoted statistics are made up, of those 23.185% are right. :-)
From: stan@dixie.com (Stan Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Dell SVR4 and GCC sources (or lack therof)
Date: 21 Jul 92 21:49:29 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

sblair@upurbmw.dell.com (Steven C. Blair "Unix Network Services") writes:

>All PD sources are available by the following:
>-------------------------------------------------
>(regardless of SVR4 Vendor, I might add)

>ftp to dell2.dell.com login anonymous. Your /usr/lib/uucp/Systems
>file also *ALREADY HAS* an entry for anonymous UUCP to a system
>called uudell.dell.com, where the stuff is also. The next release
>will have it on tape Real Soon Now. dell1.dell.com has OS fixes.

>Is that enough, or do you need more HELP. This was explained in the
>documentaion for the last(2.1) release.

   Let's not get touchy here.  It was just a curiosty question.  It
   obvioulsy is easier and better to get the latest stuff from the GNU
   archives.

   Thanks
   Stan

>-- 
>Steven C. Blair    DELL UNIX NETWORK OPERATIONS        sblair@dell.com
>==========================================================================
>	"Beware, your brain may no longer be the boss"
-- 
Stan Brown					    Electric Systems Inc.
Home (404) 299-2225				Atalanta Ga. (USA)
Home (615) 894-5781				Chattoonaga TN (USA)
Work (615) 899-1714				stan@dixie.com
dixie.com = Public Access UNIX in Georgia
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: rsj@wa4mei (Randy Jarrett)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: ISC 3.2 2.21
Date: 27 Jul 92 01:16:42 GMT
Organization: Amateur Radio Gateway WA4MEI, Chamblee, GA

In <Bs04nq.BDM@trauma.rn.com> larry@trauma.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:

>I have a copy of ISC 3.2 2.21 and can't find smtp --

>which disk does smtp reside?  It's not on the TCP disks
>which is where I would expect to find it...

>larry

>-- 
>Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
>4950 Estero Blvd, Ft. Myers Beach, FL            uucp: uunet!rde!nstar!larry

I don't believe that ISC included smtp before 3.0.

Randy

-- 
Randy Jarrett  WA4MEI 
UUCP  ...!{emory,gatech}!wa4mei!rsj   | MAIL: 54 Patterson Rd.
PHONE +1 404 822 4073		      | Lawrenceville, GA 30244
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst)
Subject: Re: >>An example of Dell's product support (Esix here I come...)
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 05:30:03 GMT
Organization: The Programmer's Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI

In article <1992Jul20.214033.4037@digibd.com> rhealey@dellr4.digibd.com (Rob Healey) writes:
>	The vast majority of Tech support calls at ANY company are lazy
>	jokers to high and mighty to bother opening and reading the
>	booklet labeled installation procedures and problem determination.

That doesn't matter.  If you're a tech support "engineer" (and I use
that word *very* loosely...), your job is to make the customer happy
and solve his or her problem.  Even if they didn't RTFM.  Even if
their problem could have been solved by reaching for the manual before
the telephone.

The customer is paying for technical support, whether it be by
spending more money on the system, paying your company an hourly fee,
or buying an explicit support contract.  If they want to use the tech
support line as an AI interface to the manual, then that's their
prerogative.  Eventually they'll learn that it's usually faster to
look in the manual, but even if they don't, so what?

If you want to, you could even point out that "the manual has more
about this on page such-and-such; if you need further clarification
you might want to take a look there," to subtly indicate to the
customer that the answer to their question could have been found in
the manual.  I've found that in a lot of tech support calls for which
the answer is "RTFM," it wasn't that the user didn't want to use the
manual or didn't think to use it, but rather the manual was
poorly-designed.  That is, the user looked for the information in the
manual, but was unable to find it.

>	It's REALLY sad to see so many people without the basic skills to
>	read and follow instructions...

People have trouble programming their VCRs -- even with explicit
cookbook-style instructions on how to do it in the manual -- and you
expect them to be able to find the correct tidbit of information in a
300-page manual without an index or table of contents?  I agree with
you that it's sad that many people claiming to be consultants or
systems integrators don't have the skill to properly use a manual.
But that doesn't give tech support people a license to be rude,
demeaning, or insulting to people who call them with a simple
question.  Sure, it may be something that's obvious to *you*, but it's
probably not obvious to the person who called -- otherwise they
wouldn't have called in the first place.  So just explain it to the
person, using words they can understand, and who knows, maybe the
customer will actually learn something and not have to call next
time...

-- 
Marc Unangst                | Real men don't make backups.  Real men never
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us   | accidentally delete files that they're going
<backbone>!sharkey!mudos!mju| to need later.
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann)
Subject: Re: Real time in UNIX ???
Organization: Zeos International, Ltd. 
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 03:35:54 GMT

In article <10200005@glas.apc.org> Eugene Dworechensky <jno@glas.apc.org> writes:
>
>Hi again!
>
>Many thanks for your assistance!
>But sound is bad to me :-(
>UNIX seems to be not able to handle millisecond intervals...
>Thanks again
>
>regards
>jno
>

A customer of mine (ZEOS') uses LYNX-OS and says that is the best
realtime Unix for the PC that he has found. 
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386,comp.os.linux
From: afriend@dew.Princeton.EDU (A. Friend)
Subject: Re: How to get rid of your Diamond Speedstar 24
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:37:27 GMT

From article <1992Jul23.141415.19826@crd.ge.com>, by davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen):
> In article <1992Jul22.232501.27215@sinkhole.unf.edu>, shite@sinkhole.unf.edu (Stephen Hite) writes:
> 
>   Let me see if I understand this... the dealer tried to give you a
> better card for the same money, you have to wait, it's going to cost you
> a few bucks, and you aren't going to tell the net that the vendor should
> be put out of business for not writing a 24 bit X driver?
> 

My experience is stranger. I ordered the Diamond Speedstar Plus and I
emphasized I wanted the non-hi-color version since it is $15 cheaper.
They sent me DS24 for the cheaper price anyway. Now I really have to
think if it is worthwhile to trade for a ProIIs ......

... Aren't we going to add 24 bit support to X386 someday?


Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: steveh@zentronics.ca (Steve Haller)
Subject: Re: ODT and startx problem
Organization: Zentronics Head Office, Mississauga, Ontario, CANADA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 01:59:47 GMT

>
>This is the result of executing "startx."
>
>==========
>$ startx
>Open event driver failed:: No such file or directory
>                                                    giving up.
>xinit:  Invalid argument (errno 22):  unable to connect to X server
>Open event driver failed:: No such file or directory

This is a mouse related problem.  Run mkdev mouse to reconfigure your mouse.
You can use the usemouse command to test your reconfigured mouse.

>--
>gec%admiral.uucp@yale.edu (George E. Cabanas) <yale!admiral!gec>
>The Admiral's Public UNIX - Greenwich, CT - System Administrator: Doug Fields
>(HST/V32) (203)661-2873 -- (PEP/V32) -1279 -- (V32) -0450 -- (V29/MNP6) -2967

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Haller           steveh@zentronics.ca / uunet.ca!zentron!steveh
Systems Engineer,      Zentronics Toronto,  "Authorized SCO APC"
Tel: (416) 564-9600
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: gram@aim1.aztec.co.za (Graham Wheeler)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Dell SVR$ (and Dell hardware) total lack of success on Postscript
Date: 21 Jul 92 09:23:16 GMT
Organization: Aztec Information Management

donn@dellunix.dell.com (Donn Baumgartner) writes:

>Bull.  Dell neither makes nor sells the HP LJII (with Postscript+ cartridge),
>nor did we make the cable your using... so your complaint is unjustified.

[More customer bashing deleted]

This guy must be a plant working for SCO or someone. I can't believe Dell
are paying him to alienate the net. Perhaps its time to sell your Dell stock,
folks ;-) - with Donn effectively running Dell's net.PR, I don't see a very
bright future for them...

-- 
Graham Wheeler                     | "That which is weak conquers the strong,
Software Systems Engineer/Student  | that which is soft conquers the hard."
Aztec Information Management/UCT   | 		Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching Ch. 78
gram@aim1.aztec.co.za / gram@cs.uct.ac.za 
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Subject: Re: esix 4.0.4 experiences
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 11:05:04 GMT

shite@sinkhole.unf.edu (Stephen Hite) writes:

>  I've got 4.0.3a and am also waiting for more net feedback before mushing 
>ahead.

what does 4.0.3a fix over 4.0.3 ?

-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
4950 Estero Blvd, Ft. Myers Beach, FL            uucp: uunet!rde!nstar!larry
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386