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
Followup-To: poster
Organization: University of Cincinnati
Sender: montjoy@thor.ece.uc.edu (Rob Montjoy)
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Reply-To: Rob.Montjoy@UC.EDU
Summary: Answers to questions which appear in comp.sys.sun.*
Keywords: Sun Computer Admin FAQ
Archive-name: comp-sys-sun-faq
Last-modified: 1995/4/27
Version: 1.9.13
Frequently Asked Questions for Comp.sys.sun.admin
Last update April 27 1995
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. Remember lets make this a better FAQ and
that requires submissions and corrections so if you have
an answer to a nontrival question send it to me.
This FAQ is available from thor.ece.uc.edu (129.137.8.118)
in the /pub/sun-faq/FAQs. Get the file sun-faq.general. The sun-faq
directory is also available from gopher.ece.uc.edu(129.137.8.118).
Many other related FAQ's are in this directory too.
Other FAQ's that you should check are as follows:
Sun Hardware FAQ edited by James W. Birdsall
Sun Managers FAQ edited by John DiMarco
Solaris2.x FAQ edited by Casper Dik
An HTML version is available from
ftp://ftp.fwi.uva.nl/pub/comp/solaris2.html
Solaris2.x Porting FAQ by David Meyer
Celeste's Guide to Terminals & Modems under Solaris 2.x edited
by Celeste Stokely
I try to keep these up to date copies of all these files in
~ftp/pub/sun-faq/FAQs on thor.ece.uc.edu (129.137.8.118)
Notes: As of this writing almost all of these questions apply
to SunOS versions up to 4.1.4. 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 undertaking.. Send suggestion to the usual address.
Some of these questions are out of date and need updating
when I get the time(or maybe a little birdie will do it for
me) I will update them. Thanks.
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 '!'.
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?
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 the shared library version of libc with replacement
resolver routines which understand DNS. Resolv+ provides one
of the best sets of replacement routines and it is easy
to install. Resolv+ can be obtained from
thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/Source/resolv+2.1.1.tar.Z
Rebuilding the shared library will not allow statically
linked binaries to do name resolving and these binaries
will only use /etc/hosts. "Dynamically linked"
replacements for mount and rcp are available from
thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/Source/rcp-mount.dyn.tar.Z
This file only contains sun4 binaries. A Sun 3 binary
for mount can be retrieved from
thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/Source/mount.sun3.Z
To be able to rebuild shared libraries you need to
install the "shlib custom" option which is available
with 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 (192.48.96.9) in the
/systems/sun/sun-fixes directory. You will need the following
files:
lib.msg, libc_pic.a.sun3 or libc_pic.a.sun4 and
libc_resolv.so.sun3 or libc_resolv.so.sun4
Make sure to get the README that cames with these files.
It is in the same directory.
You can still use NIS for other things in environment,
such as passwd, and group maps.
B) Run NIS with the "hosts" maps only. If you
only need DNS capability than change the "all"
line /var/yp/Makefile to "all: hosts".
It does not require any changes to shared libraries.
See question 2 for complete directions on how to setup
DNS with NIS.
Last Updated: January 30, 1995.
2) How to get DNS to be used when running NIS ?
First setup your /etc/resolv.conf file.
Use this file as a template.
;
; Data file for a client.
;
domain ece.uc.edu ; local domain
nameserver 129.137.8.118 ; primary domain nameserver
nameserver 129.137.32.101 ; 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" or you could use
"uc.edu".
Verify using nslookup that you are now resolving names
via DNS. Try something like "nslookup ftp.uu.net" and
see if you get back the IP address.
You will need to put a copy of this resolv.conf on
all NIS servers including slaves.
After you have the /etc/resolv.conf setup and working do
the following:
Under SunOS 4.1 and greater, change the "B=" at the top
of the /var/yp/Makefile to "B=-b" or if using 4.0.x, edit
/var/yp/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; \
Now setup NIS in the usual fashion (ypinit -m ) or if your "brave"
and have already setup NIS just re-make the hosts map. Something
like this should work remove /var/yp/hosts.time, cd /var/yp,
and type make (i.e. cd /var/yp; /bin/rm -f hosts.time ; make).
You will need reboot the machine or restart ypserv for these changes
to take affect.
The manpage for ypserv incorrectly states that you need to
start ypserv with the -d option to get DNS to work with NIS.
The manpage is incorrect -d option is for debugging.
If you need a copy of the NIS Makefile look in /usr/lib (NIS.Makefile).
Last Updated: January 30, 1995.
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 DNS 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 Berkeley sendmail instead of Suns
stock sendmail.
4) Can I use AnswerBook under X11R5(6)?
AnswerBook in its current form requires the Openwindows
server. It uses the NeWS/Display Postscript extensions
to this server to display the Answerbook files.
To use AnswerBook under X11R5 you will need to replace the
docviewer program with program that calls Ghostscript to view
these pages. A replacement docviewer can downloaded from
thor.ece.uc.edu(129.137.8.118) as /pub/sun-faq/Source/docviewer.tar.gz
This kit contains more than one docviewer. Try using
the one in the toplevel docviewer directory.
This replacement docviewer does not support all the options that
the "real" docviewer supports such as "hypertext" links.
To install the replacement "docviewer" you will also need
Ghostscript 2.4 or above and Ghostview 1.3 or above both of
which are available from prep.ai.mit.edu in the /pub/gnu directory.
This replacement docviewer is reported to work with all versions
of AnswerBook but not as well as the original :).
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 the file handle on the
NFS server changes for a particular filesystem.
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.
D) Unmounting a file system without remounting it.
E) Unmounting a High Sierra/ISO 9660 CD-ROM and
mounting a different CD.
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.
This patch has 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 genera 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, most clones should support devinfo. 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(including Sun-3s)
as well as many other UNIX boxes such as Ultrix, and Next. Also,
it works on SunOS5.x machines.
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?
Get the wuarchive ftp daemon. It is available from
wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) in the directory
/packages/wuarchive-ftpd
A version of the wuarchive ftpd daemon that compiles right out
of the box for Solaris2.x machines can be had from
thor.ece.uc.edu(129.137.8.118) in the /pub/sun-faq directory.
Remember to specify your own paths in the src/pathnames.h file.
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 10xxxx-xx?
Many anonymous ftp sites have partial collections of patches.
These sites include the following:
Sun sanctioned sites:
sunsolve1.sun.com:/pub/patches/
via WWW http://sunsolve1.sun.com/
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/sun-info/sun-patches/
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/sun-info/sun-patches/
sunsite.sut.ac.jp:/pub/sun-info/sun-us/sun-patches/
sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk:/sun/sunsite-sun-info/sun-patches/
Note: You should always attempt to find a local site before
using the above.
sunsolve1.sun.com contains a collection of recommended and
security patches. Be sure to check out the 2.x_Recommended.tar.Z
files which contain all the Recommended patches in one file.
The "Sunsites" are essentially mirrors of sunsolve.
Support Customers:
Starting with SunSolve CD 2.1.2 ALL Sun patches are shipped
on the SunSolve CD.
Support customers can get all patches via ftp from Sunsolve
or by e-mail and query one of the online sunsolve-databases
on the internet.
Some notes:
Do install the Recommended patches.
If you find a bug report it to Sun. This is the only way
it will get fixed.
Do not "blindly" install all patches. Sun does not always
have time to test for possible interactions between patches.
Do not install patches for applications that you to do use.
Do install patches for "bugs" that are actually affecting you.
Last Updated: January 30, 1995.
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.
or
You can install the "new cm daemon" which allows you to access
several Calendar hosts at once. It implements the "original"
rpc.cmsd daemon semantics(unlike proxy-cmsd) and thus all
the features(of CM) will work as documented. The latest source
for this daemon was available via anonymous FTP from
ftp.amdahl.com (129.212.11.1) in the /pub/newcm_d directory
but alas it is no longer but you can still get a copy from
from thor.ece.uc.edu as /pub/sun-faq/newcm_d-1.3.tar.Z
As of this writing newcm is being ported to Solaris2.x.
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/Source/ntalk.tar.Z. Solaris2.x users will need
to compile this in Berkeley compatibility mode.
Finally, a program called Ytalk can be used with either
"New talk" or "Old talk" and compiles on all versions
of SunOS(Greater than 4.x including 5.x).
Ytalk can be obtained from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file
/pub/sun-faq/Source/ytalk-3.0.x.tar.gz
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
or get it from the SunOS install CD in the "tools" directory.
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
Note: Only use the DIR=/var/yp if your source files for passwd, group,
etc are in /var/yp. If they are in /etc you do not need
to and should not specify the DIR= parameter.
Also, you can modify the NIS Makefile to change to the location
of the maps (ie modify DIR= in /var/yp/Makefile). Than you
could use something like this instead of the above line:
/usr/etc/yppasswdd /var/yp/maps/passwd -noshell -m passwd
This assumes that all NIS text/source files are in
/var/yp/maps
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 or greater for SunOS 4.1 and 4.1.1
100564-06 or greater for SunOS 4.1.2 and 4.1.3
Last Updated: April 27, 1995.
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 newer disk drives can be used without worrying about heat
or power supply capacity problems.
However, older technology drives 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.
As long as you make sure that the drive draws no more power
than the 105-Meg drive you should have no problems.
Only the SPARCstation 1 and 1+ have these limitations.
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 ftp.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.
As of this writing the current version of Xkernel is 2.0 and
it should work on both SPARC and Sun3 platforms.
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.
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 the "random" missing services at boot time or any other 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 on the YP/NIS Master.
Delete the blank line and remake the services map.
B) Check the permissions on /etc/services. Non-root
processes need read permissions so /etc/services
should be mode 644.
C) NIS/YP server not responding quickly enough
to the "getservbyname" call because each getservbyname
call reads the whole map. One fix is to replace the
systems version of inetd with a version that re-tries the
"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/Source/munetd.tar.Z
Another solution to this problem is outlined in part C below.
D) Sun's implementation of the services map is incorrect. To
correct this problem you will need to replace some library
routines in libc and rebuild the shared library.
These routines and directions on installing them are
available from thor.ece.uc.edu. Get the file
/pub/sun-faq/Source/getservent.tar.Z.
E) 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 on
all clients. We are running all NIS hosts this way and
it seems to work quite well.
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 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 does not require a "atomic" clock, any
stable UNIX host clock will do.
xntp is available from louie.udel.edu.
Get the file /pub/ntp/xntp3?.tar.Z where ? is replaced by the
latest version letter.
You will need clock.txt available from the same place.
xntp works with all versions of SunOS(4.x and 5.x).
Note: There is a Mac Control version of XNTP now available.
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" knowledgeable.
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
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Last Updated: January 25, 1995.
24) How do I use Mac floppies in a SUN drive?
You can not use "real" Mac floppies without buying either
one of the emulator packages like Liken from Andataco(?) or
Mae from Apple (only runs on Solaris2.3 or above). They
is another product or two that just allows you to mount
Macintosh floppies onto your Sun but the vendors
and product names escape me now.
That said if all you want to do is exchange files
the easiest way is to use suntar on the Macintosh to
copy files to a "high density" floppy. Then you can use
"tar" or "bar" on the Sun to get the files off this floppy.
It is available from thor.ece.uc.edu(129.137.8.118)
as /pub/sun-faq/Source/suntar-203.hqx or visit
the Info Mac archives at wuarchive.wustl.edu.
or
You could use the Apple File Exchanger to translate
the files to MS-DOS format. Then use one of the many
methods for transferring MS-DOS disks to Sun. System 7.5 now
mounts dos floppies automatically no need for Apple File
Exchanger.
These methods should only be used with files like ascii files,
wordprocessor files, and spreadsheet data files. Mac
application programs should not be transfered.
Finally, low density Mac floppies are not compatable
with Sun floppy drives.
Last Updated: January 27, 1995.
25) How can I transfer floppies back and forth between MS-DOS and Sparc?
For Solaris2.2 and above you can use the Volume Manager to
control your disks and CD-ROM's. Under SunOS 4.0 there are two
packages which allow you to do mount floppies (mtools and mntdisk).
Both of these packages use the 3-1/2inch floppy drive available
on most SPARCstations. Mntdisk can be used to manage CD-ROMS
and other removable media types as well.
With the advent of the Volume manager in Solaris2.2 these programs
have been rendered somewhat obsolete. Under Solaris2.x use
volcheck -v to check in a floppy. Than you can use normal UNIX
commands on this floppy like cd, mkdir, cp, mv, and ls. It usually
gets mounted on /vol/floppy0
Mtools writes directly to the floppy device and it does not
require any special privileges. It is faster than mntdisk
but it requires the user to learn a new set of commands.
A copy of mtools can be found at
thor.ece.uc.edu:/pub/sun-faq/Source/mtools-2.0.7.tar.Z
With the proper changes to the source code mtools can even
be made to work with the Solaris2.x Volume Manager. All
you need to do is make mtools look in /vol/dev/diskette/...
for the floppy devices.
mntdisk "mounts" the floppy using the "pcfs" filesystem type. Once
mounted you can use regular UNIX commands(cp,mv,and rm)
to access it. The pcfs filesystem is quite slow compared
to using mtools above. Mntdisk is available in your local
comp.sources.misc archive, Volume 22, Issues 31-33.
Mntdsk can be used to mount CD-ROMS and even UFS floppies.
You should never use "setuid" shell scripts for mounting floppies.
Also, C programs that use the system() function call should
not be used either. Both can open up huge security holes
which hackers can be used to break into your system.
Last Updated: January 27, 1995.
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/Source/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
Always password protect your NVRAM. Set the security
to command otherwise anyone can set this password
to anything they want. Of course you can get it back
as root by doing a strings /dev/eeprom and it should
show up in plain text. This assumes you have root
access.
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. Also, You could
try moving it to the end of /etc/rc.local.
However, the best "fix" may be to install the new Berkeley
Sendmail it has a number of enhancements, performance
improvements, and security enhancements.
You can get Berkeley sendmail from ftp.cs.berkeley.edu(128.32.149.78).
Get the following files: /ucb/sendmail/*8*6*9*
/ucb/4bsd/db.tar.Z
Also, you will need bind 4.9 and it can be found on
gatekeeper.dec.com(16.1.0.2) in the /pub/BSD/bind/4.9
directory.
Finally, if you do not want to build the Berkeley sendmail for
yourself I will be willing to mail you a copy.
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. We are running a SPARCserver 1000 with no swap
and 192-Meg of real memory.
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 into the "expect / send" sequence for dialing.
Good places are /etc/uucp/Systems or /etc/uucp/Dialers.
Putting it into the Dialers file has the advantage, that
it's compatible with Taylor UUCP 1.04 and 1.05. You might
want Taylor UUCP for better UUCP throughput using Taylor
UUCP's bidirectional i-proto. Here is an example for the
/etc/uucp/Dialers file, it introduces additionally the
option of using Hardware Handshaking between modem and
computer:
zyxel =,-, "" P_ZERO "" \dA\pTM1S42.6=1\r\c OK\r
\EATDT\T\r\c CONNECT STTY=crtscts
Note: this has to be _ONE_ line !!!
Last Updated: April 27, 1995.
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.
Sun has released a new jumbo tty patch 100513-04 for SunOS 4.1.2
and 4.1.3 that incorporates changes to the tty driver to
support RTS/CTS handshaking. Anyone trying to get RTS/CTS
handshaking to work should get this patch.
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.
The SunSoft Catalyst CD #5 contains the binaries for the GNU C
compiler for Solaris 1.x and 2.x. You should get the latest
version of GCC and compile it using this compiler.
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 the latest GCC for SunOS 5.x is available 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.x.x.tar
INSTALL.gcc
gcc-binaries-2.x.x.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=