From comp.sys.sun.misc Tue Dec 14 11:37:14 1993 Path: fnnews.fnal.gov!uwm.edu!rutgers!news.cs.indiana.edu!babbage.ece.uc.edu!ra.ece.uc.edu!montjoy From: montjoy@thor.ece.uc.edu (Rob Montjoy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: FAQ: Sun Computer Administration Frequently Asked Questions Summary: Answers to questions which appear in comp.sys.sun.* Keywords: Sun Computer Admin FAQ Message-ID: Date: 14 Dec 93 02:03:11 GMT Expires: 11 Jan 1994 02:03:08 GMT Sender: montjoy@thor.ece.uc.edu (Rob Montjoy) Followup-To: poster Distribution: inet Organization: University of Cincinnati Lines: 1850 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Supersedes: NNTP-Posting-Host: ra.ece.uc.edu Status: RO Originator: montjoy@ra.ece.uc.edu Xref: fnnews.fnal.gov comp.sys.sun.admin:25713 comp.sys.sun.misc:12467 comp.unix.solaris:10770 comp.answers:3054 news.answers:15916 Archive-name: comp-sys-sun-faq Last-modified: 1993/08/23 Version: 1.6 Frequently Asked Questions for Comp.sys.sun.admin Last update August 23 1993 This is a collection of common questions posted to the comp.sys.sun.* hierarchy. Please send corrections or submissions to "Rob.Montjoy@UC.EDU". Mark the Subject as Sun FAQ. This FAQ is available from thor.ece.uc.edu(129.137.8.118) in the /pub/sun-faq. Get the file sun-faq.general. The sun-faq directory is also available from gopher.ece.uc.edu(129.137.8.118). Notes: As of this writing almost all of these questions apply to SunOS versions up to 4.1.3. SunOS 5.x questions will start appearing gradually as more people start installing SunOS 5.x(Solaris 2.x). I am looking for suggestions on how to split this FAQ into sections. These sections should follow the comp.sys.sun.* newsgroups(app, hardware, admin, misc, and wanted) and section on bettering Sun Security. Basically, what will end up with is a FAQ on each subject. Each FAQ will have a Solaris1.x Section, a Solaris2x section, and a section common to both. I will probably need some volunteers to help coordinate this undertakeing.. Send suggestion to the usual address. This article includes answers to the following questions, which are loosely grouped into categories. Questions marked with a '+' indicate questions new to this issue; those with significant changes of content since the last issue are marked by '!'. Questions 1) How to get DNS working when not running NIS ? 2) How to get DNS to be used when running NIS ? 3) How to properly setup NFS mounting of /var/spool/mail ? 4) Can I use AnswerBook under X11R5? 5) What does "NFS write error X" mean? 6) How do I find the amount of memory installed or other system configuration information? 7) Where can I get a version of ftp that does logging? 8)! Where can one get SunOS patches? Where can I get patch 100xxx-xx? 9) How to setup Openwindows Calendar Manager in a distributed environment? 10) Why does the talk command fail between SunOS and any other manufacturer's equipment(like DEC)? 11) How do I setup "anonymous" ftp? 12) How come yppasswdd does not automatically update the yp maps? 13) What does NFS getattr failed/RPC: Authentication error mean? 14) Why did my Quantum 105 megabyte hard disk stop working? 15) Can I replace the 105 megabyte internal drive with a higher capacity model? 16) How can I turn my Sun3 into an X-Terminal? 17) Why is my console login prompt garbled or in some strange alphabet after upgrading to 4.1.3? 18) Why are the "random" missing services at boot time(even though the services are in the /etc/services file or NIS map)? 19) Where can I get Data Certified tapes for 8-mm tape drives(at a reasonable price)? 20) What is "archie"? 21) How do I synchronize time between several Suns? 22) What is the phone number for Sun Express and other numbers of importance to Sun Users? 23) How do I join sun related mailing lists? 24) How do I use Mac floppies in a SUN drive? 25) How can I transfer floppies back and forth between MS-DOS and Sparc? 26) Why is my biff not "biffing" when using biff in a networked environment? 27) How do I disable L1-A(STOP-A) or re-map it? 28) Why are all the local users "unknown" when using sendmail under 4.1.2? 29) What are the dump parameters for an exabyte 8200 or 8500? 30) What are the guidelines for setting up swap space ? 31) What are the general guidelines for maxusers to be set to on machine X? 32) What does "zsN: silo overflow" mean? 33) What does the "N" in "zsN: silo overflow", and other "zsN" messages, signify? 34) How do I set up a Sun serial port both for dial-in and dial-out? 35) I can't get my Sun, running SunOS 4.1[.x], to establish a UUCP connection to some non-Sun machine; it won't log in. What's wrong? 36) Do the Sun serial ports support RTS/CTS flow control? 37) How do I specify that a serial port should, or should not, ignore the state of the Carrier Detect line? 38) I put in a new "termcap" entry, or updated an existing "termcap" entry, for a terminal, but "vi" doesn't seem to know about my change. Why? 39) I have a Type 5 keyboard, and find its placement of the Caps Lock, Control, and Esc keys inconvenient. How do I remedy this? 40) How can I move keys around on a Sun keyboard, for example exchanging the Caps Lock and Control keys on a Type 5 keyboard? 41) My Sun doesn't have an ANSI C compiler. How can I get one? 42) How do I change the time zone setting on my machine? 43) I'm getting messages that say one of the following: proc: table is full and/or file: table is full and/or dquot: table is full and/or inode: table is full What do these errors mean, and how do I fix the problem? 44) Blank at present. 45) How do I run X11R5 applications under Openwindows or Openwindows applications under X11R5? 46) Where do I find a "restricted" shell for SunOS? 47) Will SunOS 4.1.x binaries run under SunOS 5.x? 48) When I try to compile MITs X11R4 applications under Openwindows 3.0, I get the following "undefined" symbols(_get_wmShellWidgetClass, and _get_applicationShellWidgetClass). What is the Problem? 49)! What is Solaris? 50) What does the "nres_gethostbyaddr !=" error mean? 51) How come my mouse only works in the vertical(or horizontal) direction, how do I repair it? 52) What do the following undefined symbols mean(dlopen, and dlclose)? 53) What does "No network locking on host" mean after upgrading to Solaris 2.0? 54) Does Password Aging work with NIS(YP) ? 55) What does "rpc.lockd: Cannot contact status monitor!" mean? 56) How do I join the Sun User Group(SUG)? 57)! How do I increase the number of "pseudo" terminals(ptys) ? 58) Where are dump and restore under Solaris 2.x? 59) How do I make the numeric keypad on a type 5 keyboard work with xterm? 60) How do I swap the CAPS LOCK and CONTROL keys on a type 5 keyboard under Openwindows 3.0? 61)! Which Sun models run which versions of SunOS? 62) My rdump is failing with a "Protocol botched" message. What do I do? 63) Table of Solaris2.x commands and their Solaris1.x equivalents? 64) How do I setup DNS on Solaris2.x? 65) Can a SPARCclassic or LX run SunOS 4.1.3? 66) I just restored my root partation and now I can not boot. What is wrong? 67) How do I disable/enable packet forwarding? 68) How do I disable the printing of banners pages? 69) How do I change my hostname? Answers 1) How to get DNS working when not running NIS ? Note: Solaris2.x users should see question 64.. The "normal" behavior of a hostname lookup under NIS is to consult the NIS hosts map and then DNS (if configured). If you are not running NIS the system will only look in the /etc/hosts file. You have two options to correct this situation: A) Re-build shared libraries by installing the shlib custom option and one of the many "bind" resolver library packages available for SunOS. You can only do this if you are running SunOS version 4.1 or greater. If you want to do it under 4.0.3 you need to get the patches available from ftp.uu.net in /systems/sun/sun-fixes. The files you will need are as follows: 1) lib.msg 2) libc_pic.a.sun3 or libc_pic.a.sun4 3) libc_resolv.so.sun3 or libc_resolv.so.sun4 There should be a README in the same directory explaining what these files are. B) Run NIS with the "hosts" maps only. Option A is the "hardest" to implement. It requires that you change all the shared libcs on the all machines that you want name resolving on. Also, it "breaks" several statically linked commands such as mount and rcp. You can get these via anonymous ftp to thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/rcp-mount.dynamic.tar.Z Note: this file only contains sun4 binaries. Complete directions for installing DNS without NIS can be found in the bindon4.1.shar file or the resolv+ tar file. Here is a list of the software one can use to modify your shared libraries to use DNS without NIS. bind 4.8.3 is on gatekeeper.dec.com in the file /pub/UCB/bind.4.8.3.tar.Z bind 4.9 is on gatekeeper.dec.com in the directory /pub/BSD/bind/4.9 resolv+ is on ftp.uu.net in the file /networking/ip/dns/resolv+2.1.tar.Z Note: that you can still use NIS for other things in environment, such as passwd, and group maps. Option B is the "easiest" of the two to implement. It just requires you to run NIS and change the "all" line /var/yp/Makefile to "all: hosts". Also, it does not require any change to the shared libraries. It does not "break" anything. You can install operating system patches that require updating the shared libraries without having to remake the shared libraries. 2) How to get DNS to be used when running NIS ? First setup the appropriate /etc/resolv.conf file. Something like this should do the "trick". ; ; Data file for a client. ; domain local domain nameserver address of primary domain nameserver nameserver address of secondary domain nameserver where: "local domain" is the domain part of the hostnames. For example, if your hostname is "thor.ece.uc.edu" your "local domain" is "ece.uc.edu". You will need to put a copy of this resolv.conf on all NIS(YP) servers including slaves. Under SunOS 4.1 and greater, change the "B=" at the top of the /var/yp/Makefile to "B=-b" and setup NIS in the usual fashion. You will need reboot or restart ypserv for these changes to take affect. Under 4.0.x, edit the Makefile or apply the following "diff": *** Makefile.orig Wed Jan 10 13:22:11 1990 --- Makefile Wed Jan 10 13:22:01 1990 *************** *** 63 **** ! | $(MAKEDBM) - $(YPDBDIR)/$(DOM)/hosts.byname; \ --- 63 ---- ! | $(MAKEDBM) -b - $(YPDBDIR)/$(DOM)/hosts.byname; \ *************** *** 66 **** ! | $(MAKEDBM) - $(YPDBDIR)/$(DOM)/hosts.byaddr; \ --- 66 ---- ! | $(MAKEDBM) -b - $(YPDBDIR)/$(DOM)/hosts.byaddr; \ 3) How to properly setup NFS mounting of /var/spool/mail ? On the Client machines: A) mount /var/spool/mail with the no attribute caching option. An example, fstab line would be the following: mailhost:/var/spool/mail /var/spool/mail nfs rw,noac 0 0 B) Use a sendmail.cf that forces all mail to be delivered by the mailhost. One such file is available via anonymous ftp to thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/sendmail.client.cf Do not use the OR option that Sun provides. It is broken in many ways. On the server machine: A) Setup MX records pointing to the mailhost for all client machines. B) Edit the /etc/exports file to export /var/spool/mail to the mail client machines. You may want to use a netgroup for this purpose. C) Setup the /etc/sendmail.cf on the server recognize that mail to/from a client is "local". One such file is available via anonymous ftp to thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/sendmail.server.cf Note: You may want to install IDA sendmail instead of Suns stock sendmail. 4) Can I use AnswerBook under X11R5? AnswerBook in its current form requires the Openwindows server. It uses the NeWS extensions(Postscript) extensions to this server to display the Answerbook files. To use AnswerBook under X11R5 you will need to replace the docviewer program with xdocviewer. Xdocviewer does not support all the options that the "real" docviewer supports such as "hypertext" links. To install "xdocviewer" you will need the following programs. Perl-4 patchlevel 35 Ghostscript 2.4 or above GSpreview 2.1 or above or Ghostview 1.3 or above All of these are available from prep.ai.mit.edu. They are located in the /pub/gnu directory. Finally, you need xdocviewer. It is available from the /contrib directory on host export.lcs.mit.edu. 5) What does "NFS write error X" mean? You can lookup the error codes in /usr/include/sys/errno.h. Two common NFS error codes are 13 - "permission denied" and 70 - "stale file handle". Error code 13 can occur from incorrect /etc/exports entry. Also, it can occur because someone has changed the /etc/exports entry to disallow the client after the client has already been granted permission to perform this operation. Error code 70 occurs when a fileserver gets rebooted and the server NFS "file handle" for a particular filesystem changes. The "file handle" can be changed under the following circumstances: A) Installing a new drive in place of an old. B) Moving a filesystem from one devices to another. C) Performing a format, newfs, dump, and restore cycle. Even if to the same device. You can usually get rid of the error by unmounting and remounting the filesystem in question. Also, error code 70 can occur when someone removes a file that a process is actively writing from a NFS client machine. Under SunOS 4.1, you can run "showfh" to translate the NFS "file handle" given in the error message into a Unix pathname. Beware that showfhd does a "find" on your server to get the filename. "man 2 intro" will give you some more general information on what error codes could mean. You will need a patch to get "showfh" to work correctly. The patch id is 100371 and this patch is required for 4.1, 4.1.1, and 4.1.2. Sun claims that it's been integrated into 4.1.3. 6) How do I find the amount of memory installed or other system configuration information? You can use the "devinfo" command to find out general information about the hardware attached to your Sun. The "devinfo" command is only available on desktop SPARCsystems, SPARCengine 1E(although not in the version used in Auspex systems), or 600MP series server only. Also, some non-Sun machines may also support "devinfo"; all clones probably do, and many compatibles. (Any machine that has an SBus will probably support "devinfo"; any machine that doesn't have an SBus probably won't support "devinfo".) The "best" command for the job is "sysinfo". Sysinfo is public domain utility available via "anonymous" ftp on usc.edu in directory /pub/sysinfo. Sysinfo works on all Sun architectures(inculding Sun-3s) as well as many other UNIX boxes such as Ultrix, and Next. Sysinfo does not run on SunOS 5.0. For SunOS 5.0 you can use sysdef. Note: "wc -l /dev/mem" and "dd if=/dev/mem of=/dev/null" and the like will *not* give the correct answer on machines where physical memory is not contiguous, such as many Suns. 7) Where can I get a version of ftp that does logging? There are at least 2 versions that have enhanced logging or can be modified to enable logging: wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) /packages/ftpd.wuarchive.shar pprg.unm.edu (129.24.24.10) /pub/misc/unm-ftpd.tar.Z The most widely used is the "wuarchive" version. The stock Sun ftpd will log some information if you add the "-l" flag in /etc/inetd.conf: ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/etc/in.ftpd in.ftpd -l Also enable syslogd by adding: daemon.info /var/adm/syslog to "/etc/syslog.conf". 8) Where can one get SunOS patches? Where can I get patch 100xxx-xx? Many anonymous ftp sites have partial collections of patches. These sites include the following: ftp.uu.net:/systems/sun/sun-dist/ sasun1.epfl.ch:/pub/sun-patches/ ftp.ucs.ubc.ca:/pub/ubc/sun-patches/ thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/SunOS4.1.x.Patches thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/Solaris2.1-patches thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/Solaris2.2-patches sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/sun-info/sun-fixes Note: You should always attempt to find a local site before using the above. ftp.uu.net is the "official" distribution point for SunOS security patches. Also, you should use "archie" to look for specific patches. Finally, the Sun User Group (SUG) CD ROM has a collection of Sun patches. 9) How to setup Openwindows Calendar Manager in a distributed environment? Sun's original assumption that each user has a permanent machine allocated to them is not applicable in most environments. Just as users send mail to 'user' rather than 'user@machine', users want to browse others user's calendars and do not care or want to know where the calendar is actually stored. Here is procedure to accomplish our goal. All calendars will be stored on a central server. The initial setup must be done on the server. A) Have the user login to the calendar host(calhost) machine. B) Change everyone's .cm.rc file so that Calendar.DefaultCal points to user@calhost calhost can be an hostname alias or an actual hostname. You may want to use the alias just in case you change the "calhost" later. C) Change their Access List and Permissions (under Edit/Properties) to show user@client with BID (browse, insert, delete) permissions for any client machine the user wanted to access their calendar from. Notes: If you use the scheme you should not NFS mount /var/spool/calendar on the client machines. or You can install the "Proxy OpenWindows Calendar Manager", which is available via anonymous FTP from thor.ece.uc.edu in /pub/sun-faq/proxy-cmsd.tar.Z. 10) Why does the talk command fail between SunOS and any other manufacturer's equipment(like DEC)? SunOS has the old BSD 4.2 version of talk. The old talk uses "machine dependent" byte ordering. Since DEC has different byte order the two talks can not communicate(even if you use "otalk" on the DEC machines). Also, most vendors have the newer version of talk from BSD-4.3 and this version is not compatible with the Sun Version(which is BSD-4.2). The solution is to get and install the new version of talk because it uses "network" byte ordering and it is compatible with most Vendors current talk implementations. "New Talk" is available via anonymous ftp from several sites including thor.ece.uc.edu(Get the file /pub/sun-faq/ntalk.tar.Z). 11) How do I setup "anonymous" ftp? Read the man page ftpd(8) in the SunOS 4.x documentation, as the procedure differs from vanilla BSD and most examples in system administration books. The "ls" binary is dynamically linked, requiring you to duplicate ld.so, libc.so.* and /dev/zero in the ftp area. The permissions and ownership of the files within the ftp area are critical to having a secure configuration. Note: For SunOS versions 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 you will need to copy /usr/lib/libdl.so.* to the ftp area as well. You can use a "statically" linked binary from the GNU fileutils instead of the "dynamically" linked SunOS version. You can get the GNU fileutils from prep.ai.mit.edu in the directory /pub/gnu There is also a statically linked version of ls for Suns running SunOS 4.1.x, available via anonymous ftp from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/ls.statically-linked A complete procedure to setup anonymous under SunOS is available via anonymous ftp to thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/anon-ftp.how-to. There is an _excellent_ script written by Peter N. Lewis (peter.lewis@info.curtin.edu.au) for setting up anonymous ftp located on thor.ece.uc.edu, in the file /pub/sun-faq/anon-ftp.scrpt 12) How come yppasswdd does not automatically update the yp maps? There is a bug in 4.1 rpc.yppasswdd that causes it misinterpret the command line arguments. A work-around is to add the "-nosingle" flag (which is the default), this shifts the arguments over one, so "passwd" is read instead of "-m". Also, you should use the complete path to rpc.yppasswdd For example: /usr/etc/rpc.yppasswdd /var/yp/passwd -nosingle -m passwd DIR=/var/yp If you are running the C2 security package, you should apply the C2 Jumbo patch, as it fixes several problems with rpc.yppasswdd and rpc.pwdauthd. The patch number is 100201-04 for SunOS 4.1 and 4.1.1 100564-05 for SunOS 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 13) What does NFS getattr failed/RPC: Authentication error mean? You are probably running a pre-4.0 version of NFS and your username is in more than 8 groups. There is a limit on the number of groups that could be represented in the rpc service (called NGRPS). On pre-4.0 systems this was 8, now it is 16. Since many vendors other than Sun are still running old versions of NFS, you might see this error even if your SunOS is recent. Authentication errors are also caused by having secure RPC enabled on the client but not on the server, or by having a misconfigured secure RPC configuration for the user name generating the errors. Beware of this problem when you are using the automounter, as programs (such as Sendmail) may silently fail when when they try to mount a directory and get this error. 14) Why did my Quantum 105 megabyte hard disk stop working? This the now infamous Quantum drive "stickation" problem. If the drive is allowed to cool down(even for a short period of time) the drive lubricant will congeal and prevent the disks platters from rotating. Before you get a replacement, try lightly tapping the drive to loosen the lubricant. If this does not work try shaking and twisting the drive at the same time. One last thing to try is to lift the system up a couple of inches and drop it. 15) Can I replace the 105 megabyte internal drive with a higher capacity model? The higher capacity drives create more heat and draw more power than the 105S. The case cooling ability and power supply in the SS-1 and SS-1+ are not adequate for the 210 megabyte or higher capacity drives possible in the SS-2. 16) How can I turn my Sun3 into an X-Terminal? You can use Seth Robertson's Xkernel package. It is available via anonymous ftp from sol.ctr.columbia.edu (128.59.64.40) in /Xkernel. The package describes how to configure a minimal kernel that runs the X server and offloads all the clients onto another, hopefully more powerful host on the network. If you are in hurry get the 4LAZY.sun3.tar.Z file. It contains all the necessary software to get Xkernel up and running. Xkernel is attractive to some sites that have a large investment in sun3 platforms, as moving most of the processing off the sun3 cpu makes it tolerable to use. Finally, a used 3/50 is competitive with low-end X Terminal and you get a 19" monitor with an optical mouse. Some disadvantages are that 4.1.1 is supposed to be the last SunOS release on the sun3 and maintenance costs might be higher for sun3 hardware. 17) Why is my console login prompt garbled or in some strange alphabet after upgrading to 4.1.3? The problem is /etc/ttytab, with 4.1.3, the console is now able to display 8 bits characters and getty must take this into account. The solution is easy, replace your console entry in /etc/ttytab by the following, the important part is 'cons8': console "/usr/etc/getty cons8" sun on local secure Also, if you did an upgrade(instead of a full install) you may need to add the following to your /etc/gettytab. # This is a new entry to internationalize the console. It needs to be # 8 bit clean so that ISO 8859 characters can be displayed without # the window system. # cons8:\ :p8:lm=\r\n%h login\72 :sp#9600: 18) Why are there "random" missing services at boot time(even though the services are in the /etc/services file or NIS map)? The three primary causes for "random" missing services are as follows: A) "Blank" lines in /etc/services. This is the primary cause. B) NIS/YP server not responding quickly enough to the "getservbyname" call. The only fix is to replace the systems version of inetd with a version that re-tries a "unknown" service. I have "hacked" a version of munetd(public domain replacement for inetd) to do this. It is available from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/munetd.tar.Z C) Sun's implementation of the services map is incorrect. To correct this problem you will need to replace some library routines in libc. These routines and directions on installing them are available from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /puv/sun-faq/getservent.tar.Z. Another fix(if you do not want to modify your libc's) is to just remove the services map from NIS. However, you will need to update the services file by hand. 19) Where can I get Data Certified tapes for 8-mm tape drives(at reasonable price)? Here is an incomplete list of vendors how have "data certified" tapes for the exabyte. Misco 800-876-1726 $12 - 15 each. TecBridge 800-972-7405 $12 - 15 each. R-Squared 800-777-3478 Sony 112m 120@8.00 Each K and K Systems 612-475-1527 $10 Each SCR 314-739-0808 $10.95 for Memorex 20) What is "archie"? Archie is a database of what is on several thousand anonymous ftp sites. To use archie get one of the three archie clients which are as follows: xarchie - For use under X11 c-archie - Curses version of Archie archie - Perl Version of Archie Theses are available from archie.ans.net in the directory /pub/archie. List of other publicly available archie servers: archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (Rutgers University) archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (University of Nebraska in Lincoln) archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (SURAnet archie server) archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (ANS archie server) archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australian server) archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland) archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.11.3 (UK/England server) archie.cs.huji.ac.il 132.65.6.15 (Israel server) archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 (Japanese server) archie.th-darmstadt.de 130.83.128.111 (German server) 21) How do I synchronize time on my Sun Network? You should use xntp version 3 to synchronize your time. Xntp synchronizes to "atomic" and/or Radio Frequency clocks. Using xntp time should always be within a few "milliseconds" of the actual time. xntp is available from udel.edu. Get the file /pub/ntp/xntp3.tar.Z 22) What is the phone number for Sun Express and other numbers of importance to Sun Users? Sun Express: 1-800-USE-SUNX (1-800-873-7869) Main Sun Helpline: 1-800-USA-4SUN (1-800-872-4786) Auspex Systems Inc. : 2952 Bunker Hill Lane Santa Clara, CA 95054 (800) 735-3177 or (408) 492-0900 Fax: (408) 492-0909 23) How do I join sun related mailing lists? Mailing Lists: Sun Managers: Used for "emergency" information only. The users of this list are "very" knowledgable. sun-managers-request@eecs.nwu.edu add requests sun-managers@eecs.nwu.edu submissions Sun-386i: discussion about the Sun 386i product sun-386i-request@ssg.com add requests sun-386i@ssg.com submissions Suns-at-home: discussion about maintaining Sun2/3/4/4c systems at home suns-at-home-request@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu add requests suns-at-home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu submissions Auspex: managers of Auspex NFS file servers auspex-request@princeton.edu add requests auspex@princeton.edu submissions Epoch: managers of Epoch NFS file servers EPoch Users Forum (EPUF) epuf-request@mcs.anl.gov add requests epuf@mcs.anl.gov submissions sun-flash: Provides articles about Sun products and services. Subscription request should be sent to sunflash-request@sunvice.East.Sun.COM NOTE!!! if you wish to be added to one of the above mailing lists, send mail to the REQUEST address! Do not send add requests to the main address! 24) How do I use Mac floppies in a SUN drive? The easiest way is to use suntar on the Macintosh to copy files to a "high density" floppy. Then you can use "tar" on the Sun to get the files off the floppy. It is available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Get the file /info-mac/util/suntar-131.hqx Also, you could use the Apple File Exchanger to translate the files to MS-DOS format. Then use one of the methods for transferring MS-DOS disks to Sun. Note: There are several commercial packages available for this purpose. Also, low density Mac floppies are not comparable with low density Sun floppies. 25) How can I transfer floppies back and forth between MS-DOS and Sparc? There are two packages which allow you to do this(mtools and mntdsk) Mtools writes directly to the floppy device and it does not require special privileges. It is faster than mntdsk but it requires the user to learn a new set of commands. mntdisk "mounts" the floppy using the "pcfs" filesystem type. Once mounted you can use regular UNIX commands(cp,mv,and rm) to access it. A copy of mtools can be found on thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/mtools-2.0.7.tar.Z Mntdisk is available in your local comp.sources.misc, Volume 22, Issue 31. Mntdsk can be used to mount CD-ROMS and even UFS floppies. Note: You should not use "setuid" shell scripts for mounting floppies. 26) Why is my biff not "biffing" when using biff in a networked environment? In its current form comsat/biff are only usable on the mail server. You need to replace them network capable programs. A shar file containing network capable versions of comsat and biff is available from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file /pub/sun-faq/biff-comsat. 27) How do I disable L1-A(STOP-A) or re-map it? You need to get one of the many re-mapping programs. Two of these are available from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file disable-L1-A.tar.Z 28) Why are all the local users "unknown" when using sendmail under 4.1.2? There is a known problem with sendmail and frozen config files under 4.1.2. The fix is to remove /etc/sendmail.fc or consider replacing it with IDA sendmail. You could also try moving it to the end of /etc/rc.local. 29) What are the dump parameters for an exabyte 8200 or 8500? 8200 -- dump 0budfs 126 54000 /dev/rst0 6000 filesystem 8500 -- dump 0budfs 126 54000 /dev/rst0 13000 filesystem Note: Under 4.1.2 and above you should use rst8. Previous versions did not do anything special for the 8500. Note: These parameters are not needed for 5.1.x because it computes these values from the type of Tape Drive you are using. Also, 5.1.x knows about end of tape and does the right thing when it reaches it. 30) What are the guidelines for setting up swap space ? In SunOS 4.x the amount of swap space and Virutal memory are one in the same so you need at least as much swap as real memory. In SunOS 5.x the amount of Virutal memory is equal swap space plus real memory. Under SunOS 5.x you can actually get away with having no swap space at all(note: I have not tried this). The old rule of thumb is 1.5 to 2 times real memory. This can lead to wasted disk space(by having too much swap space) or to not having enough. What you need to do is to estimate your swap space needs. Note: This question is still being worked on. 31) What are the general guidelines for maxusers to be set to on machine X? This question is being written. 32) What does "zsN: silo overflow" mean? The CPU serial ports - both ordinary serial ports A and B, and the port for the keyboard and mouse - use the Zilog Z8530 SCC chip. That chip has a 3-character on-board buffer called the "silo". If a character arrives in the silo, the chip interrupts the CPU at a high priority, and the interrupt service routine reads the character out of the silo. If the interrupt isn't serviced in time, more than 3 characters can be placed in the silo by the chip; if so, the chip notes that the silo "overflowed", and the interrupt service routine, when called, will note that a "silo overflow" occurred. If the machine is printing a message from the kernel, interrupts from the chip will be held off; if the message takes long enough to print, and characters are coming in quickly enough on the serial port, more than 3 can arrive, and a "silo overflow" will occur. It is possible that a machine that's sufficiently busy in other code that runs with interrupts held off could get a silo overflow as well. 33) What does the "N" in "zsN: silo overflow", and other "zsN" messages, signify? The name "zsN" is ambiguous. In kernel "config" files, and in the boot-time autoconfig messages, "zs0" is the first on-board Z8530 chip, the two channels of which handle "ttya" and "ttyb", respectively, and "zs1" is the second on-board Z8530 chip, the two channels of which handle the keyboard and mouse ports, respectively. In "zsN: silo overflow" messages and the like: "zs0" is the A channel on the first on-board Z8530, handling "ttya"; "zs1" is the B channel on the first on-board Z8530, handling "ttyb"; "zs2" is the A channel on the second on-board Z8530, handling the keyboard; "zs3" is the B channel on the second on-board Z8530, handling the mouse. So a "zs0: silo overflow" error is for "ttya", and a "zs1: silo overflow" error is for "ttyb", not for the keyboard or mouse. Keyboard silo overflows are "zs2: silo overflow"; mouse silo overflows are "zs3: silo overflow". 34) How do I set up a Sun serial port both for dial-in and dial-out? You need to read Chapter 11 in the "Systems and Network Administration" manual. 35) I can't get my Sun, running SunOS 4.1[.x], to establish a UUCP connection to some non-Sun machine; it won't log in. What's wrong? The 4.1[.x] UUCP normally runs in even-parity mode when logging into another machine. If the other machine is running in 8 bits, no parity, mode, the fact that the 8th bit is set on some of the characters the Sun is sending to it will confuse it. The Sun can be made to turn the 8th bit off by putting P_ZERO in the appropriate place in the appropriate UUCP configuration file [I may have been the one to put P_ZERO there, but I forget the details; it's in the send-expect sequence in the Systems file entry for the machine, and I think you have an "expect" string of "" - i.e., "expect nothing" - and a "send" string of P_ZERO - i.e., make the parity bit zero. Check the UUCP stuff in the "Systems and Network Administration" document to make sure.] 36) Do the Sun serial ports support RTS/CTS flow control? The serial port hardware can do CTS-based control of the flow of data *from* the Sun *out* the serial port automatically. The tty driver option for that is the CRTSCTS option; it can be specified in: the "printcap" "ms" capability for a printer; in the "gettytab" "ms", "m0", "m1", or "m2" capabilities for a dial-in port; the "STTY=" option for a dial-out line for UUCP or "cu" [check the UUCP documentation for details]; and can be specified with the "hf" capability in "/etc/remote" for "tip". The hardware cannot directly do RTS-based control of the flow of data *into* the Sun, and the software does not currently support controlling the flow of data into the Sun with RTS. NOTE: the EEPROM options in newer Suns do not affect the flow control performed by the OS; in fact, the OS ignores the "ttya-mode", "ttyb-mode", "ttya-rts-dtr-off", and "ttyb-rts-dtr-off" EEPROM options entirely. You don't need to set them to change the way the OS handles the tty, and even if you do set them, it won't change the way the OS handles the tty. 37) How do I specify that a serial port should, or should not, ignore the state of the Carrier Detect line? Prior to SunOS 4.1, you do so either by: changing the "flags" field for the serial port device in the kernel "config" file, re-running "config", rebuilding the kernel, and rebooting with the new kernel; or, on the Sun-4c machines: changing the setting of the "ttya-ignore-cd" or "ttyb-ignore-cd" EEPROM settings if the port is one of the CPU serial ports. In SunOS 4.1 (and, I think, some SunOS 4.0[.x] releases for the Sun386i), you do so by changing the "/etc/ttytab" line for the port in question to have the "local" attribute if CD is to be ignored, or not to have it if CD is not to be ignored, and running the "ttysoftcar" command to tell the kernel that the status of the "ignore CD" flag should be changed. In 4.1, there's no need to change the EEPROM setting to change SunOS's behavior; it may affect the PROM's behavior, but that's the only reason why it'd be necessary. 38) I put in a new "termcap" entry, or updated an existing "termcap" entry, for a terminal, but "vi" doesn't seem to know about my change. Why? The "vi" in SunOS 4.1[.x] is based on the System V Release 3.1 "vi", because that version of "vi" supports 8-bit character sets. That version of "vi" uses "terminfo", not "termcap"; you have to change the "terminfo" entry for the terminal. You may first have to convert the compiled "terminfo" entry to a text entry; "/usr/5bin/infocmp -I " will write the text of the "terminfo" entry for the terminal to its standard output. If you already have a "termcap" entry, you can convert it to a "terminfo" entry with "/usr/5bin/captoinfo". A text "terminfo" entry must be recompiled in order for programs using "terminfo" to use it; "/usr/5bin/tic" will recompile it. 39) I have a Type 5 keyboard, and find its placement of the Caps Lock, Control, and Esc keys inconvenient. How do I remedy this? Well, one remedy may be to buy the "UNIX layout" version of the Type 5; this option seems, unfortunately, to be little-known to Sun customers, and Sun may not be promoting it as they should. That keyboard has a layout much more friendly to the traditional UNIX user than do the normal PC-style layouts for the Type 5. If you don't have that option, you can use the appropriate program to reprogram the keys; see the next question. 40) How can I move keys around on a Sun keyboard, for example exchanging the Caps Lock and Control keys on a Type 5 keyboard? It depends on which window system you're running, if any. If you're not using any window system, or you're using a window system such as SunView that uses the OS's keyboard event translation mechanism, you can dump the tables used by the OS's keyboard event translation mechanism with the "dumpkeys" command, and load changes to that table with the "loadkeys" command; see LOADKEYS(1). If you're using X11 - either in its MIT incarnation, or Sun's Open Windows incarnation - or some other window system that shuts off the OS's keyboard event translation mechanism, you need to use the window system's commands, if any, for that function. In X11, the command for that is "xmodmap"; its translation tables can be printed with "xmodmap -pk", and changes to that table can be loaded with "xmodmap" as well. NOTE: in the particular case of the Control and Caps Lock keys, while MIT X appears to handle interchanging those two keys correctly, so that the new Caps Lock key is a toggle and the new Control key is not, some versions of Open Windows do not - even though the keys have had their mappings exchanged, the window system server still thinks that the *old* Caps Lock key, which is now the Control key, should be a toggle, and that the *old* Control key, which is now the Caps Lock key, should not be a toggle. [Here is a work-around for this problem, provided by Mark Plotnick (mp@allegra.att.COM)]: Copy the appropriate keytable (e.g. /usr/openwin/etc/keytables/US4.kt) to $HOME/.keytable, and change the 2nd attribute character in a key's attributes field to N or P depending on whether the key should have "pseudolock". $ diff /usr/openwin/etc/keytables/US4.kt /usr/gre/.keytable 78,79c78,79 < lock 119 # CapsLock < control 76 # Control --- > lock 76 # CapsLock > control 119 # Control 226c226 < 76 NN XK_Control_L --- > 76 NP XK_Caps_Lock 278c278 < 119 NP XK_Caps_Lock --- > 119 NN XK_Control_L 41) My Sun doesn't have an ANSI C compiler. How can I get one? SunOS releases prior to 5.x come with a C compiler. However, it was an old compiler, and it didn't support ANSI C syntax or ANSI C features. Many vendors offer ANSI C compilers for SunOS. Sun sells Sun C 1.1 for SPARC, which includes an ANSI C compiler (although not a full ANSI C environment, i.e. it doesn't necessarily include all the ANSI C include files or library routines); various other vendors (Lucid? Others?) sell ANSI C compilers as well. The Free Software Foundation's GCC also supports ANSI C syntax and ANSI C features; it can be FTP'ed in source form from many sites, and in binary form from some sites. A compiled version of GCC 2.4.5 for SunOS 5.x is avaliable from prep.ai.mit.edu. The directory containing these files is /pub/gnu/sparc-sun-solaris2 You need to get the following files: gzip-binaries-1.2.2.tar INSTALL.gcc gcc-binaries-2.4.5.tar.gz Note: You need the gzip binaries to ungzip the gcc binaries. After obtaining GCC, you will need to run fixincludes. The INSTALL.gcc file will tell you how. Note: The following sites mirror the GNU software distribution from prep.ai.mit.edu: ASIA: utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:/ftpsync/prep, cair.kaist.ac.kr:/pub/gnu AUSTRALIA: archie.oz.au:/gnu (archie.oz or archie.oz.au for ACSnet) AFRICA: ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/gnu MIDDLE-EAST: ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/gnu EUROPE: irisa.irisa.fr:/pub/gnu, grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr:pub/gnu, ftp.mcc.ac.uk, unix.hensa.ac.uk:/pub/uunet/systems/gnu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu, ftp.win.tue.nl, ugle.unit.no, ftp.denet.dk, ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/gnu, ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, ftp.eunet.ch, nic.switch.ch:/mirror/gnu, nic.funet.fi:/pub/gnu, isy.liu.se, ftp.stacken.kth.se, ftp.luth.se:/pub/unix/gnu, archive.eu.net CANADA: ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu USA: wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/gnu, labrea.stanford.edu, ftp.kpc.com:/pub/mirror/gnu, ftp.cs.widener.edu, col.hp.com:/mirrors/gnu, ftp.cs.columbia.edu:/archives/gnu/prep, gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/GNU, ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu You should check the site close to you before ftping to prep. 42) How do I change the time zone setting on my machine? In releases prior to SunOS 4.0, you will have to reconfigure your kernel, recompile it, install the new kernel, and reboot. See the documentation on kernel configuration. In SunOS 4.0 and later releases, you will need to run the "zic" command with the "-l" flag, with the appropriate time zone setting as the argument. For example, to set the time zone to US Eastern Time, do: zic -l US/Eastern to set it to the proper setting for Great Britain and Eire, do: zic -l GB-Eire and so on. You will then probably want to reboot your machine, in order to: 1) cause any daemons started before the time zone was changed to restart, and pick up the new time zone; 2) run "tzsetup" for the benefit of old pre-SunOS 4.0 binaries, old programs not converted to use the new routines to convert local time to UNIX time, and Calendar Manager. You can also manually link "/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/localtime" to the appropriate time zone file, but there's really no point in doing so when "zic -l" will do that for you. In Solaris 2.x, you do it the same way you do it on any other SVR4 system - you put a line that says TZ=