SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


From: sgi-faq@viz.tamu.edu (The SGI FAQ group)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.misc
Subject: SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Date: 6 Jul 2001 05:59:41 GMT
Message-ID: <admin_994399215@viz.tamu.edu>
Reply-To: sgi-faq@viz.tamu.edu (The SGI FAQ group)

Archive-name: sgi/faq/admin
Last-modified: Tue Jun 20  1:00:03 CDT 2000
Posting-Frequency: Twice monthly
URL: http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

    SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is one of the Silicon Graphics FAQ series, which consists of:

    SGI admin FAQ - IRIX system administration
    SGI apps FAQ - Applications and miscellaneous programming
    SGI audio FAQ - Audio applications and programming
    SGI diffs FAQ - Changes to the other FAQs since the last posting
    SGI graphics FAQ - Graphics and user environment customization
    SGI hardware FAQ - Hardware
    SGI impressario FAQ - IRIS Impressario
    SGI inventor FAQ - IRIS Inventor
    SGI misc FAQ - Introduction & miscellaneous information
    SGI movie FAQ - Movies
    SGI performer FAQ - IRIS Performer
    SGI pointer FAQ - Pointer to the other FAQs
    SGI security FAQ - IRIX security

Read the misc FAQ for information about the FAQs themselves. Each FAQ is
posted to comp.sys.sgi.misc and to the news.answers and comp.answers
newsgroups (whose purpose is to store FAQs) twice per month. If you
can't find one of the FAQs with your news program, you can get it from

    ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/faq/
    ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/

(rtfm.mit.edu is home to many other FAQs and informational documents,
and is a good place to look if you can't find an answer here.) The FAQs
are on the World Wide Web at

    http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

If you can't use FTP or WWW, send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
the word 'help' on a line by itself in the text, and it will send you a
document describing how to get files from rtfm.mit.edu by mail. Send the
command 'send usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/misc' to get the SGI misc FAQ,
and similarly for the other FAQs. Send the command 'send
usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email' to get the
"Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ".

You may distribute the SGI FAQs freely and we encourage you to do so.
However, you must keep them intact, including headers and this notice,
and you must not charge for or profit from them. Contact us for other
arrangements. We can't be responsible for copies of the SGI FAQs at
sites which we do not control, and copies published on paper or CD-ROM
are certain to be out of date. The contents are accurate as far as we
know, but the usual disclaimers apply. Send additions and changes to
sgi-faq@viz.tamu.edu.

Topics covered in this FAQ:
---------------------------
   -1- DIAGNOSTICS
   -2- How can I determine which release of IRIX I'm running and which
       patches are applied?
   -3- How can I determine my SGI's Ethernet (and/or FDDI) address?
   -4- My SGI crashed and generated a file, /usr/adm/crash/vmcore.1. How
       can I examine this file to see what crashed my system?
   -5- How can I find out just about everything about my system at once?
   -6- DISKS
   -7- How big can files and filesystems be?
   -8- My XFS filesystem is corrupt or inconsistent.  How do I fix it?
   -9- Does IRIX support sparse files?
  -10- Why is /debug or /proc full of huge files?
  -11- How do I remount the /proc filesystem after accidentally
       unmounting it?
  -12- How do I extend an existing filesystem onto a new disk?
  -13- How do I know if I need more memory and/or swap space?
  -14- How much swap space should I have per megabyte of memory?
  -15- How can I increase my swap space?
  -16- What are virtual and logical swap space? How do they work in IRIX
       3.x, 4.0.x and 5.x?
  -17- Why is there no way to set up a RAM disk under IRIX?
  -18- BOOTING
  -19- How can I boot directly into single-user mode?
  -20- How can I boot from a non-default disk?
  -21- How can I boot my machine using a server on the other side of a
       router?
  -22- How do I make a bootable tape from an IRIX CD?
  -23- Why can't I boot one of the stand-alone programs on a tape or CD?
  -24- INSTALLING
  -25- Is it possible to remotely install IRIX over a network?
  -26- Which IRIX CD is the program 'foo' on?
  -27- How can I extract a single file from an 'inst' subsystem?
  -28- Why doesn't 'inst' work?
  -29- Why doesn't 'inst' work remotely?
  -30- I just installed a new version of IRIX and file X is missing.
       What should I do?
  -31- I reinstalled an IRIX subsystem to restore a missing file or get
       rid of a corrupted file, but it didn't help. Why not?
  -32- Why do 'inst' and 'showprods' say that a subsystem is an "Unknown
       product entry"?
  -33- How can I install IRIX onto a second disk which I can then move
       to another machine?
  -34- How can I copy my system disk onto a second disk which I can then
       move to another machine?
  -35- How can I share parts of IRIX among multiple machines?
  -36- Can I install a "tardist" archive without the "tardist" software?
  -37- I'm running 6.5.x, why can't I install the compilers?
  -38- NETWORKING
  -39- Why isn't my network working?
  -40- How can I measure my network's reliability?
  -41- How do I add a static route?
  -42- How can I make the 'slip' command advertise the Ethernet address
       of the SLIP client?
  -43- I've just edited inetd.conf, and nothing changed. Why?
  -44- Why can't I 'rdist' files between Suns and SGIs?
  -45- Why are there "satwrite failure: inetd" messages in my SYSLOG in
       IRIX 5.3?
  -46- What is causing the "get interface flags" error in my syslog?
  -47- Why are network connections between SGIs and Suns much slower
       than between SGIs and SGIs or Suns and Suns?
  -48- How can I set up IP aliases?
  -49- Where is ipfilterd documented?
  -50- MAIL
  -51- How can I set up 'sendmail' to pass (or not pass) 8-bit
       characters?
  -52- Why are my mailbox files changing ownership?
  -53- Why isn't a valid user getting their mail?
  -54- How can SGIs and Suns share a mail spool?
  -55- What's an "unknown mailer error"?
  -56- What's "mailbox: Error 0"?
  -57- Why am I having problems with my NFS-mounted mail spool?
  -58- Why are incoming mail addresses case-sensitive in IRIX 5.3?
  -59- NFS
  -60- How can I tell what hostname to use in /etc/exports?
  -61- Why can't I export an NFS-mounted filesystem?
  -62- Why can't Ultrix automount SGI filesystems?
  -63- Why does 'tar' work strangely on a filesystem mounted from an
       SGI?
  -64- Why does 'df' report incorrect numbers for a filesystem mounted
       from a Sun?
  -65- Is 'pcnfsd' available for the SGI?
  -66- Can I export a CD-ROM from my SGI to a non-SGI?
  -67- How can I read an IRIX (EFS) CD-ROM on a machine which doesn't
       use EFS?
  -68- How can I get quotas to work on an NFS filesystem?
  -69- Why can't some NFS clients NFS-mount IRIX 5.2 filesystems?
  -70- What's NFS3?
  -71- Why can't Solaris 2.5 clients read directories on NFS3-mounted
       IRIX 6.2 filesystems?
  -72- Why does my NFS server print "fhtovp_end VFS_GET failed" or
       "fhtovp_end vp NULL" to the console/SYSLOG?
  -73- PRINTING
  -74- Why can't lp(1) read my file?
  -75- How can I tell 'lp' to turn banner printing or page reversal off
       or on?
  -76- How can I use 'lpr' instead of or as well as 'lp'?
  -77- How can I print to a printer with a JetDirect card?
  -78- Why won't lpr(1) print very large files?
  -79- SGI DAEMONS
  -80- Why isn't the objectserver working?
  -81- What is sending packets to the sgi-dog.mcast.net multicast
       address?
  -82- Why are the objectserver and directoryserver taking up so much
       memory in IRIX 5.3?
  -83- Why don't the desktop admin tools recognize root as a privileged
       user?
  -84- Why doesn't my desktop deal properly with the CD or tape icons?
  -85- Why doesn't my mediad start up under IRIX 5.3?
  -86- Why do cdman, cdplayer and capture say "permission denied"?
  -87- Why can't 'cformat' format floptical disks, and/or why can't
       'datman' play audio DATs?
  -88- Why is famd hammering my NFS server?
  -89- What is causing "/dev/imon: event queue overflow" in my syslog?
  -90- BUGS
  -91- Why do 'who', 'rusers', etc. show users who aren't really logged
       in?
  -92- What's wrong with ftpd in IRIX 5.2?
  -93- Why isn't /usr/adm/SYSLOG being updated?
  -94- I just edited /etc/inittab, and now I can't start up or shut down
       my SGI! What's wrong?
  -95- Why does timed say "bind: Cannot assign requested address"?
  -96- Why does "ALERT: i2cWaitForXferDone: Xfer Done timeout ERROR"
       appear in my SYSLOG?
  -97- Why has NIS (YP) stopped working under IRIX 6.x?
  -98- MISCELLANEOUS
  -99- How do I set the number of processes allowed on my machine?
 -100- Where can I get a termcap file for 'iris-ansi-net' to install on
       my non-SGI system?
 -101- How can I make my SGI understand strange terminal types from
       other Unix systems?
 -102- Can I change my login shell or other password-file info without
       being superuser?
 -103- How can I administer my Iris without a graphics terminal?
 -104- How can I use the visual admin tools on a system with graphics to
       administer a system without graphics?
 -105- What's /etc/ioctl.syscon?
 -106- Can I log out users automatically?
 -107- How can I change kernel variables and/or rebuild my kernel?


Subject: -1- DIAGNOSTICS Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss how to find out things about your system.
Subject: -2- How can I determine which release of IRIX I'm running and which patches are applied? Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT On pre-6.5 systems, a 'uname -a' will give you the Irix version of the currently running kernel. The 6.5.x release added the '-R' flag which reports the current revision number (e.g. 6.5.6m). See the uname(1) manpage for other options. Of more general use, since the running kernel does not always reflect installed software, is the versions(1M) command. 'versions' with no arguments provides a full listing all the installed software components. 'versions -b | grep patch ' provides a brief listing of installed patches. Note that the use of patches is depricated in the 6.5 release stream. Software subsystems are now "updated" so in with a few exceptions (e.g. systems running legato networker), there should be no patches installed. IRIX 5.2's System Manager ('chost') has the IRIX version number under "IRIX Version" and a listing of installed software under "Software" (the "Show Installed" button).
Subject: -3- How can I determine my SGI's Ethernet (and/or FDDI) address? Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST Many thanks to Miguel Sanchez <miguel@oasis.csd.sgi.com> for providing the original version of the following discussion, and to Dave Olson <olson@sgi.com> for comments. Andrew Cherenson <arc@sgi.com> reminded us that all these methods except the first apply to FDDI as well, but we'll just say "Ethernet" below. Every system on an Ethernet network must have a unique Ethernet address for the network to operate properly. The physical Ethernet address of your system is the unique number assigned to the Ethernet hardware on your system. This unique number is assigned to the manufacturer of your Ethernet hardware by the IEEE (formerly by Xerox, one of the original developers of Ethernet). This is not to be confused with the IP address, which can be set arbitrarily. You may need to determine your system's Ethernet address if your network manager requires it before connecting your system to a network. How to do so depends on whether IRIX is running and what operating system version is loaded. Method 1 only provides the Ethernet address of the primary interface. If you have multiple Ethernet interfaces (boards) in a system, use method 2, 3, 4 or 5 to determine the address(es) of any other interface(s). METHOD 1: eaddr If IRIX is not running, and the system is a Personal IRIS (4D20, 25, 30, or 35), Indigo, Crimson, Onyx, Challenge, Indy, O2, or Indigo2, you can obtain the Ethernet address by typing 'eaddr' (older machines) or 'printenv eaddr' (newer) at the PROM monitor . prompt. On some machines (4D30 or later) you can say 'nvram eaddr' while IRIX is running to get the same result. METHOD 2: netstat Under IRIX 4.0.1 or later, you can use the netstat command. For example, % /usr/etc/netstat -ia Name Mtu Network Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Coll ec0 1500 siligrph luey7 7765678 21648 384477 0 30338 192.48.200.251 192.0.0.1 08:00:69:06:17:c2 lo0 32880 loopback localhost 41438 0 41438 0 0 192.0.0.1 As seen on the fourth address line, the address of the system luey7's primary Ethernet interface, "ec0", is 08:00:69:06:17:c2. METHOD 3: arp You can obtain the Ethernet address of a Silicon Graphics system by using another system on your network. 'ping' the system whose Ethernet address you want, then use 'arp'. For example, % /usr/etc/ping -c 1 luey6 PING luey6.sgi.com (192.48.200.250): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.48.200.250: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0 ms ----luey6.sgi.com PING Statistics---- 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 0/0/0 % /usr/etc/arp luey6 luey6 (192.48.200.250) at 8:0:69:6:c:40 % METHOD 4: NetVizualyzer/FDDIVizualyzer and the like SGI's NetVizualyzer/FDDIVizualyzer network monitoring software and at least one public domain equivalent ('netman', at ftp://ftp.cs.curtin.edu.au/pub/netman/) allow you to find the Ethernet address corresponding to any IP address. Read the manual. METHOD 5: System Manager The Network Setup part ('cnet') of the Indigo Magic System Manager tool ('chost') shows the Ethernet address of each interface. 4DDN: A Special Case DECnet uses a one-to-one relationship between the DECnet node ID and the Ethernet address. If the DECnet address is changed the Ethernet address is changed. DECnet Ethernet addresses always start with aa:, so you can identify systems running DECnet with 'arp -a'. 4DDN is Silicon Graphics' DECnet interconnection product. The Ethernet address of an IRIS running 4DDN will change when 4DDN is started. Method 1 will return the original Ethernet address for the system. Methods 2-5 will show the Ethernet address currently in use. sysinfo /etc/sysinfo is intended to return a unique identifier, which on some machines includes part or all of the Ethernet address. This is best regarded as an amusing coincidence, like HAL's name in "2001". Don't rely on it. You can find an Ethernet address from a program most efficiently by using the SIOCGIFADDR ioctl on a raw socket (SOCK_RAW) using the RAWPROTO_SNOOP protocol (thanks to David Peter <davep@isltd.insignia.com>) but the program must run as root. If you can't run as root, call one of the above programs with system().
Subject: -4- My SGI crashed and generated a file, /usr/adm/crash/vmcore.1. How can I examine this file to see what crashed my system? Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT Under Irix 5.3 and above a system crash will generate a number of files in the /var/adm/crash directory. These files appear in numbered sets, with each number (n) corresponding to an event. These files include: unix.n (a copy of the kernel), vmcore.n.comp (a compressed dump of the memory), and analysis.n (an analysis file generated by the system using the icrash kernel debugger). Note that these files are created only is savecore is chkconfig'd on. Simply viewing the analysis file can often lead to clues regarding the reason behind a system crash. 'icrash' can also be run manually. See the icrash(1) manpage for details. SGI's 'icrash' utility can generate helpful reports and allow experienced administrators and support people to sift through the core file. Get patch 813 for IRIX 5.3 or patch 769 for IRIX 6.1. icrash is part of eoe.sw.unix (and therefore installed by default) on IRIX 6.2 and above. For machines which lack the icrash utility: dbx -k /var/adm/crash/{unix,vmcore}.# t &putbuf/1000s Some machines have a special 'dbx' for crash dumps, /usr/adm/crash/dbx. If it exists, use it instead of /usr/bin/dbx. The IRIX 5.x Electronic Services package includes a script, 'crpt', which does this and more automagically. A copy of the IRIX 5.2 version lives at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/crpt.
Subject: -5- How can I find out just about everything about my system at once? Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST IRIX comes with hinv(1M) and gfxinfo(1G). If that's not enough, get Michael Cooper <mcooper@acamar.usc.edu>'s 'sysinfo', recently ported to IRIX, from ftp://usc.edu/pub/sysinfo/. Change "PROG" in the Makefile from "sysinfo" to "Sysinfo" so it doesn't get in the way of /sbin/sysinfo, which isn't nearly as entertaining but which other software may require. This is probably also a good place to mention Dave Olson's 'scsicontrol', at http://reality.sgi.com/employees/olson/Olson/.
Subject: -6- DISKS Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions deal with disks and swap space.
Subject: -7- How big can files and filesystems be? Date: 15 Jun 1996 00:00:01 EST A file on an EFS filesystem can be only 2G in size. The filesystem can be no more than 8G in size, whether or not it is on a logical volume. A physical or logical volume can be larger than 8G, but not usefully so: mkfs still can't make a filesystem larger than 8G on it. (Each block (512 bytes) has a unique number which must fit into 24 bits; 512 * 2^24 = 8G. See also inode(4).) Note that 'fx' had a bug in versions of IRIX before 4.0.5H which prevented it from *exercising* disks larger than 2G, but other 'fx' functions and other parts of IRIX have no trouble with disks (filesystems) up to 8G. Files and filesystems on SGI's new XFS filesystem can be 1 terabyte (1K gigabytes) in size. On 64-bit machines running IRIX 6.2, a file will be able to be 9 exabytes (9 gigagigabytes) in size and a filesystem will be able to be 18 exabytes in size. See the misc FAQ under "WWW pages" for a pointer to a demonstration.
Subject: -8- My XFS filesystem is corrupt or inconsistent. How do I fix it? Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT Under IRIX 6.2, get the latest XFS rollup patch and install it. (At the time of this writing, the latest XFS rollup patch was patch 1768.) This patch comes with xfs_repair, a tool that can often fix corrupted XFS filesystems. (If the partition you wish to repair is your boot partition, you will have to boot from the miniroot that comes with the patch and run xfs_repair from it.) Actual installation of the patch requires the installation of one of the recent kernel rollup patches; read the XFS rollup patch release notes before doing anything else with it. Under the 6.5.x release stream, 'xfs_repair' and 'xfs_check' are installed by default as part of eoe.sw.base. Please note that xfs check and repair operations are performed on unmounted filesystems. See the xfs_repair(1) manpage for details. Also, it is best to do an initial scan on a damaged filesystem using 'xfs_repair -n', (no modify mode) as extremely corrupted filesystems can occasionally cause an xfs_repair to fail with a core dump.
Subject: -9- Does IRIX support sparse files? Date: 09 Dec 1995 00:00:01 EST EFS does not; XFS does.
Subject: -10- Why is /debug or /proc full of huge files? Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST Those aren't disk files, they're interfaces to running processes. Read the debug(4) (IRIX 4.0.x) and/or proc(4) (IRIX 5.x) manpages.
Subject: -11- How do I remount the /proc filesystem after accidentally unmounting it? Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST Run /etc/mntproc as root.
Subject: -12- How do I extend an existing filesystem onto a new disk? Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT Back up the existing filesystem (just in case) then run 'mklv' and 'growfs'. 'mklv' and 'growfs' are nondestructive, so you don't need to restore the backup unless you screw up. Don't use 'mkfs', which does destroy existing data. Under modern IRIX versions (w/ the XFS filesystem) lv (the original logical volume manager) has been replaced with xlv. The requisite subsystems are _not_ installed by default. If you wish to use logical volumes, you must install eoe.sw.xlv, and if you wish to use mirroring (RAID 1), you must also install eoe.sw.xlvplex. This option requires a license be purchased from sgi. To simply grow the filesystem to another disk, you must first create a concatenated logical volume. This will change the volume headers of the target disks and let the system know that they should be treated as one volume. You can then use an 'xfs_growfs' to expand the filesystem on to the new disk. see the manpages for xlv_make(1), xlv_mgr(1), and xfs_growfs(1) for more details. Please not that it is NOT POSSIBLE to have a successfully striped or concatenated root filesystem. The only available logical volume configuration for the root filesystem is a mirror (RAID1). Any attempt to use another logical volume configuration will most likely work until the next system reboot. Since the Logal volume management software funtions on the OS level, it is unavailable during the inital phases of the boot process. Syncing of the mirrored filesystem will occur after the system comes up.
Subject: -13- How do I know if I need more memory and/or swap space? Date: 20 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST If processes are killed due to lack of memory/swap, you need more memory and/or swap space. If your CPU is always waiting for swapping (run 'osview' and look at the "%Swap" entry under "Wait Ratio") you need more memory.
Subject: -14- How much swap space should I have per megabyte of memory? Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST An oft-recommended ratio is X memory:2.5 X swap, but this may be too low. Decide how much of your favorite program (plus IRIX) needs to be resident for good performance and how much doesn't, and make sure you have enough memory for the former and enough memory plus swap for the latter. Put "rmem" and "swp" in your ~/.grosview file, run 'gr_osview' and run your favorite program to see what it needs.
Subject: -15- How can I increase my swap space? Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT The Jan/Feb 1993 and May/Jun 94 Pipelines have detailed writeups on how to do this in IRIX 4.0.x and 5.x respectively. The Jul/Aug Pipeline has a correction to the latter article. If you like you can call the TAC and have them fax you the very latest version. It is also possible to add swapfiles within the filesystem structure. You can allocate space for swap in the filesystem by doing a 'mkfile' and adding this file to the system as swap space. See mkfile(1) for more information. The created file can be added by using a 'swap -a <file>'. If you intend this to be a permanent resource, make sure that you add an appropriate line to the /etc/fstab file. See the fstab(4) manpage for details.
Subject: -16- What are virtual and logical swap space? How do they work in IRIX 3.x, 4.0.x and 5.x? Date: 05 Jul 1994 00:00:01 EST Two terms whose meanings should already be clear: Physical swap space is an area on disk, either a partition or (in IRIX 5.x) a swap file. Virtual memory is the sum of physical memory and swap space. IRIX 3.x accepts a memory request only if enough virtual memory is free. Even if a process isn't using most of the memory it requested (which happens often, e.g. when a large process forks and execs a small process, or with Fortran 77 programs which allocate all storage statically), its memory is unavailable to other processes until it exits. IRIX 3.x has no virtual or logical swap space. In IRIX 4.0.x, IRIX accepts every memory request, and does not allocate virtual memory until a process actually tries to use it. This allows programs which request more memory than they use to run with much less memory than would otherwise be required. If too many processes actually use their memory requests so that virtual memory is in danger of filling up, IRIX kills one or more processes. IRIX usually kills the process which is using the most virtual memory, which may well not be the process which most recently requested virtual memory. IRIX 5.x works like IRIX 4.0.x, but one can set the amount of virtual memory which IRIX is allowed to overallocate. This amount is called "virtual swap space". "Logical swap space" is the sum of physical and virtual swap. There is no virtual swap space by default, so IRIX 5.x behaves like IRIX 3.x. One can set virtual swap to any amount of memory; if it is set sufficiently high, memory requests will always be granted, just like IRIX 4.0.x. Using jargon retroactively, IRIX 4.0.x has an infinite amount of virtual swap space. Large or infinite amounts of virtual swap space work well for many people, because most programs don't use all the virtual memory they request, at least not at once. If your programs do use all their virtual memory, they'll be killed and you'll see "Process killed due to insufficient memory/swap" messages in your SYSLOG. Under IRIX 4.0.x, you can only turn virtual swap off completely by setting the kernel variable availsmem_accounting to 1. Doing so makes IRIX 4.0.x behave like IRIX 3.x, allocating memory only if it is actually available. Under IRIX 5.x, you can turn virtual swap on or off by doing 'chkconfig vswap off' or 'chkconfig vswap on', or change the size of virtual swap by editing /etc/config/vswap.options, and rebooting. You can also use 'swap -v' to do any of these things directly and without rebooting. Remember that IRIX 5.x comes with virtual swap turned off and set to zero. If you were happy with IRIX 4.0.x, you should turn virtual swap on and set its size to a very large number. If programs are killed, decrease the size of virtual swap or turn it off. See the swap(1M) and swapctl(2) manpages for details.
Subject: -17- Why is there no way to set up a RAM disk under IRIX? Date: 29 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST IRIX has no way to set up a RAM disk (a personal computerish term for a part of memory which can be used like a very fast disk) because it already has a sophisticated disk caching mechanism, which will probably do a better job of minimizing disk reads than you would if you were deciding what to put on a RAM disk.
Subject: -18- BOOTING Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST As the song says, "There must be fifty ways to boot your Iris."
Subject: -19- How can I boot directly into single-user mode? Date: 8 Mar 1996 00:00:01 CST Use the PROM monitor's 'single' command. For machines earlier than 4D35s, whose PROMs don't have that command, first boot into sash from the PROM monitor with "boot", then type "boot initstate=s".
Subject: -20- How can I boot from a non-default disk? Date: 31 May 1995 00:00:01 CST Says Justin Mason <jmason@iona.ie>: If your disk is SCSI ID 4, do boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sash dksc(0,4,0)unix root=dks0d4s0 or setenv bootfile dksc(0,4,8)sash setenv path dksc(0,4,8) setenv root dks0d4s0 # This is the tricky part auto from the PROM. The first method works once, so that subsequent reboots use SCSI ID 1, and the second method sets the PROM to boot from ID 4 every time (until you reset the PROM variables). Dave Olson <olson@sgi.com> adds: "If you have a separate / and /usr, you'll probably want to add 'initstate=s' at least the first time, or the usr partition on your normal root will be mounted. Boot in single user, then do 'cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV disklinks; multi'. After this, you won't need 'initstate=s' since the link will now be to the usr partition on the alternate boot disk.
Subject: -21- How can I boot my machine using a server on the other side of a router? Date: 24 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST Tell the router to forward BOOTP packets. If it can't, NFS-mount the remote volumes on another machine on the same subnet and use the nearby machine for your boot server.
Subject: -22- How do I make a bootable tape from an IRIX CD? Date: 03 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST See the Sep/Oct 1993 Pipeline and/or ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/making-bootable-tape for a detailed description, or just follow Dave Olson <olson@sgi.com>'s summary: Take a look at the distcp(1M) manpage, and do something like tapehost# mount -o ro cdhost:/CDROM /mnt tapehost# distcp /mnt/dist /dev/nrtape Note that 'fx', 'ide', and 'sash' for all machines are in the dist/sa file. 'sa' is an image of the first part of the tape; use 'mkbootape -f sa -l' to see the contents.
Subject: -23- Why can't I boot one of the stand-alone programs on a tape or CD? Date: 03 Apr 1994 00:00:01 EST One reason is that some CPU names are preceded by periods and some aren't. Another is that the Indigo R4000 and later CPUs use the suffix 'ARCS', not 'IP20' or whatever as one might expect from 'hinv'. For example, the correct command to boot fx directly from the PROM monitor on an Indigo R4000 is 'boot -f dksc(ctlr,unit,8)sashARCS dksc(ctlr,unit,7)stand/fx.ARCS'. Note the use of 'ARCS' instead of 'IP20' and the missing period in 'sashARCS'.
Subject: -24- INSTALLING Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss software installation.
Subject: -25- Is it possible to remotely install IRIX over a network? Date: 20 May 1993 00:00:01 CST Yes. You can install IRIX from a remote machine which has a CD-ROM, a tape drive, or an IRIX distribution directory. All of these scenarios (and several others) are described in detail in the "IRIS Software Installation Guide". Examples are provided.
Subject: -26- Which IRIX CD is the program 'foo' on? Date: 25 May 1994 00:00:01 EST Mount the CD and try 'grep foo /CDROM/dist/*.idb'. If you don't get any output, 'foo' isn't on that CD. If you do, it is, and one of the fields is the subsystem in which 'foo' lives. Entries in *.idb files don't have a leading slash so you must leave it out if you grep for a full path, e.g. 'grep usr/bin/lp /CDROM/dist/*.idb', not 'grep /usr/bin/lp /CDROM/dist/*.idb'.
Subject: -27- How can I extract a single file from an 'inst' subsystem? Date: 05 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST Under IRIX 5.2 and earlier, you need to be clever. 'inst' guru Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com> reveals all: - Find the subsystem in which the file lives, as described in the previous question. For this example we'll extract /sbin/ed, which lives in eoe1.sw.unix. - Follow the bouncing prompt: > su > cd /usr/tmp > mkdir -p tmproot/var/inst > inst -f /CDROM/dist/eoe1 -r /usr/tmp/tmproot > Inst> keep * > Inst> install eoe1.sw.unix > Inst> go > Inst> q > ls -l /usr/tmp/tmproot/sbin/ed -rwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 75480 May 24 13:57 /usr/tmp/tmproot/sbin/ed - Move your file somwhere else and 'rm -r /usr/tmp/tmproot'. - That was under IRIX 5.x. Under IRIX 4.0.x or earlier, use '/usr/tmp/tmproot/usr/lib/inst' for a temporary inst directory instead of '/usr/tmp/tmproot/var/inst'. In IRIX 5.3, inst's '-Y' flag allows you to install a single file. See inst(1M) for more.
Subject: -28- Why doesn't 'inst' work? Date: 16 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST One possibility is that you're using an old 'inst' with new software. Always use an 'inst' at least as new as what you're installing.
Subject: -29- Why doesn't 'inst' work remotely? Date: 05 May 1994 00:00:01 EST Usually because it can't log in to the machine with the distribution media. 'inst' uses the guest account to do so, so make sure that guest on the machine on which you want to install software can rlogin to guest on the machine with the distribution media without a password.
Subject: -30- I just installed a new version of IRIX and file X is missing. What should I do? Date: 14 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST 'inst' doesn't deal well with some cases where a file moves from one subsystem to another between IRIX versions. Upgrading may cause such a file to disappear entirely. To bring it back, reinstall the subsystem to which the file belongs in the newer IRIX with "set neweroverride on" in 'inst' (or, equivalently, remove and reinstall the subsystem). You might want to install only the missing file; see the entry on installing a single file above. Popular examples of this include several headers in /usr/include/sys in IRIX 4.0.5/IDO 4.1.1, which are in eoe1.sw.unix, the mount(1M) manpage in IRIX 5.3, which is in eoe1.man.unix, and /usr/lib/X11/dyDDX/glx.so, also in 5.3, which is in x_eoe.sw.Server. One way to detect files which have disappeared in this manner in IRIX 5.3 is 'showfiles -B'.
Subject: -31- I reinstalled an IRIX subsystem to restore a missing file or get rid of a corrupted file, but it didn't help. Why not? Date: 13 Apr 1994 00:00:01 EST 'inst' doesn't bother to install a subsystem if the same or a newer version is already installed. Tell it to install anyway by saying 'set neweroverride' before you say 'go'. Removing the subsystem and reinstalling it will do more or less the same thing.
Subject: -32- Why do 'inst' and 'showprods' say that a subsystem is an "Unknown product entry"? Date: 12 May 1996 00:00:01 EST Paul "Mr. inst" Jackson of SGI <pj@sgi.com> explains two reasons: - The "orphan" subsystem is a special subsystem for directories in which more than one product keeps files. inst will remove these directories as they become empty. Do NOT remove the subsystem yourself. In fact, you can only see it due to a cosmetic bug in some versions of inst. - The product spec file in /var/inst which describes that subsystem is damaged, due either to the usual sort of file-damaging problems or to a bug in IRIX 5.3's inst. This also makes inst think that that product is version 0, and thus incompatible with every other subsystem. There is no patch for the bug. The workaround is to reinstall the affected subsystems with all files restricted, so that no files are actually installed but the product spec file is updated, like so: inst -f whatever -X/ Inst> set exclusions # Should be set to "Value /" Inst> keep * Inst> install upgrade Inst> list i # Should see the unknown entries Inst> go Inst> quit
Subject: -33- How can I install IRIX onto a second disk which I can then move to another machine? Date: 20 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST With difficulty. Many parts of the installation process assume that you're installing IRIX onto your system disk (SCSI ID 1). Just fiddle with SCSI ID switches and/or move disks around to make the disk onto which you want to install IRIX the system disk for the duration of the installation. Furthermore, IRIX has many hardware dependencies, so you should only move system disks between absolutely identical machines. If you want to make a system disk for a machine without a network connection, CD-ROM or tape drive, the easiest and safest way is to borrow another CD-ROM or tape drive. If you want to try anyway, Justin Mason <jmason@iona.ie> reports that the following works under IRIX 5.1.1: Set up the disk, e.g. with SCSI id 4, fx a generic "[bo]otable" partition setup onto it, and mkfs the partitions. Copy sash, etc. from your system disk to the new disk with dvhtool. Boot up the miniroot as usual, go into inst, choose "admin" from the menu and do the following, replacing SCSI IDs and partition numbers as appropriate: umount /root umount /root/usr mount /dev/dsk/dks0d4s0 /root mount /dev/dsk/dks0d4s6 /root/usr mount # Just to check return # Go back to main inst menu Then install as you like.
Subject: -34- How can I copy my system disk onto a second disk which I can then move to another machine? Date: 03 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST See the article in the Jul/Aug 1992 Pipeline and the addendum in the Nov/Dec 1992 Pipeline, and note that the warning about hardware dependencies in the previous question applies here too. Steve Kotsopoulos <steve@ecf.toronto.edu> has written a script which does this automatically; you can FTP it from ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/clonedisk. Be sure to read the comments before running it! If your machine has FlashPROMs, which are normally updated by 'inst', you'll need to update them yourself; see flashio(1M) and heed its warnings.
Subject: -35- How can I share parts of IRIX among multiple machines? Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST Diskless machines, for one. Share trees, for another. Look in the misc FAQ under "WWW pages" for the "IRIX share trees" WWW page.
Subject: -36- Can I install a "tardist" archive without the "tardist" software? Date: 23 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST Certainly. A tardist archive is just a tar archive of an 'inst' distribution. Retrieve the tardist file directly to disk (in Mosaic or Netscape one does this by shift-clicking the link to the tardist file), name it something.tar, untar it as you would any tar file, and install it as you would any inst distribution.
Subject: -37- I'm running 6.5.x, why can't I install the compilers? Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT This is a common problem, having to do with the way that inst deals with version numbering. Essentially, the distributions on the Development Foundation and Development Libraries are looking for the stock 6.5 version of eoe.sw.base. In order to install successfully from these distributions, you must have the following distributions open (inst under 6.5 supports having multiple open distributions): irix-6.5-foundation-1, and overlay disks for your current os level (e.g irix-6.5.6-installation-tools-and-overlays-1-of-2-11-99, and irix-6.5.6-overlays-2-of-2-11-99) Once these distributions are open, you should issue a keep *, so that nothing will be installed from these distributions. You should now be able to install the development system with minimal difficulty.
Subject: -38- NETWORKING Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss general networking.
Subject: -39- Why isn't my network working? Date: 03 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST A list of good things to try is at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/network-checklist.
Subject: -40- How can I measure my network's reliability? Date: 22 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST Don't worry about collisions. They are part of normal operation on a crowded Ethernet. You *should* worry about late collisions (which are logged to the console) and lost packets (which you can easily measure with the command 'ping -fs 3000 -c 1000 someotherhost'), which usually mean network hardware problems or a misconfigured bridge or router. See the Ethernet FAQ (posted to comp.dcom.lans.ethernet and FTPable from ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.dcom.lans.ethernet/ and other news.answers archives), Chapter 18 of the "IRIX Advanced Site and Server Administration Guide" and the Sep/Oct 1993 Pipeline for more.
Subject: -41- How do I add a static route? Date: 07 Sep 1996 00:00:01 EST Some sites handle IP routing by designating a routing machine and having all other hosts define a static route to that machine. The way to do this on SGIs is in the /etc/init.d/network.local script. 1) Read the paragraph just before the copyright at the top of /etc/init.d/network and make the links it specifies. 2) Put something like the following in /etc/init.d/network.local, replacing ROUTER'S.IP.ADDRESS.HERE with the address of your router. Under IRIX 6.x, omit the "1" at the end of the same line. #! /bin/sh IS_ON=/sbin/chkconfig case "$1" in 'start') if $IS_ON network; then # network must be chkconfig'ed on /usr/etc/route add default ROUTER'S.IP.ADDRESS.HERE 1 fi ;; 'stop') /usr/etc/route delete default ROUTER'S.IP.ADDRESS.HERE ;; *) echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}" ;; esac Check the script with 'sh -v /etc/init.d/network.local'. The above setup will not allow you to NFS-mount (or unmount) disks from the other side of the static route gracefully, because the route will be added after the mount attempt during startup and deleted before the unmount attempt during shutdown. Instead of putting the routing commands in a separate script, put them in /etc/init.d/network itself. Put the 'route add' just after the "$ROUTE $RFLUSHFLAG" line and the 'route delete' after the '/sbin killall mount ...' line. There is no reason to define a static route and also to run routed. If you do so, routed will delete the static route and you'll be confused. 'chkconfig routed off'. Under IRIX 6.2 or later, remove the '1' from the end of the 'route add' line.
Subject: -42- How can I make the 'slip' command advertise the Ethernet address of the SLIP client? Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST You can't. Just add something like /usr/etc/arp -s $USER `netstat -ia | grep :` pub to the shell script in which you start the SLIP process. $USER is the SLIP client. The 'netstat | grep' part gets the host's Ethernet address, and 'arp' advertises the host as an ARP server for $USER. See also the arp(1M) manpage.
Subject: -43- I've just edited inetd.conf, and nothing changed. Why? Date: 15 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST You need to make 'inetd' reread inetd.conf. Do 'killall -HUP inetd'. If that doesn't work, comment out the entry you modified, 'killall -HUP inetd', uncomment the entry and 'killall -HUP inetd' again. If that doesn't work, 'killall -TERM inetd'. If that doesn't work, reboot.
Subject: -44- Why can't I 'rdist' files between Suns and SGIs? Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST Sun's 'rdist' expects SGI's 'rdist' to live in /usr/ucb, but it's actually in /usr/bsd. Make a symbolic link from /usr/ucb/rdist to /usr/bsd/rdist and all will be well. In IRIX 5.3 or later, you may need to use ordist(1).
Subject: -45- Why are there "satwrite failure: inetd" messages in my SYSLOG in IRIX 5.3? Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST Says Ellen Desmond <desmond@orange.engr.sgi.com>: This is due to a bug in inetd that is manifest only when eoe2.sw.audit has been installed. Inetd calls satwrite() to generate an audit record every time it spawns a server. The bug is that the call to satwrite() is made after the process has done a setuid() to the user specified for that server in inetd.conf. Because satwrite() is a superuser-only call, it fails for servers that don't run as root, such as fingerd. The bug is fixed by patch 1268. If you don't use auditing, you can just ignore the messages or remove the eoe2.sw.audit subsystem and rebuild your kernel.
Subject: -46- What is causing the "get interface flags" error in my syslog? Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST Walter Roberson <roberson@hamer.ibd.nrc.ca> says: As part of its licensing verification, Framemaker 4.0 attempts to get interface flags on a fixed ethernet interface instead of using the hardware inventory functions to figure out what the name of the ethernet is. This results in an error like broadcast: ioctl (get interface flags): No such device or address Speak with Frame Technologies. Patch 1092 includes fixes for "frame license daemon" and might fix the above problem; we don't know yet.
Subject: -47- Why are network connections between SGIs and Suns much slower than between SGIs and SGIs or Suns and Suns? Date: 13 Aug 1995 00:00:01 EST Dave Olson <olson@sgi.com> explains: Some older Sun systems (I don't remember which, but not current systems) have ethernet *chips* (this isn't an OS issue) that can't handle the recommended 9.6 usec interpacket gap. This is not a problem when sending packets, but when receiving packets from faster systems (like SGI Indigos and later) it results in lost packets, retransmission and major slowdown.
Subject: -48- How can I set up IP aliases? Date: Wed Sep 22 16:50:53 CDT 1999 An IP alias is an extra IP address which may be in a completely different subnet and domain than a host's primary IP address. This is often desired by WWW presence providers. An IP aliasing is a step beyond a DNS alias, which is an extra hostname for the same IP address. HTTP requests do not include the host name, so a server has no way of knowing the host name to which a particular request was sent. A server *can* determine the IP address to which a particular request was sent and respond accordingly, so IP aliasing allows one to have multiple independent servers on a single machine. Patch 1356 to IRIX 5.3 allows IP aliasing. IRIX 6.2 and later does IP aliasing without patches. The interim solution once available from Silicon Surf is no longer available. See also http://www.amazing.com/internet/virtual-homer.html http://www.apache.org/docs/virtual-host.html http://www.thesphere.com/~dlp/TwoServers/ for general information and descriptions of other implementations.
Subject: -49- Where is ipfilterd documented? Date: 15 Jun 1996 00:00:01 EST In IRIX 6.1 and earlier, ipfilterd itself is part of eoe.sw.ipgate but the ipfilterd(1M) manpage is part of eoe2.sw.netman and the netsnoop(1M) manpage (ipfilterd uses netsnoop syntax) is part of the extra-cost NetVisualyzer package. A copy of netsnoop(1M) is at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/netsnoop.1, and both manpages are in the uman database (see the misc FAQ under "WWW pages"). In IRIX 6.2 and later, ipfilterd(1M), netsnoop and netsnoop(1M) are all part of the base OS. Note that patch 1249 fixes a number of ipfilterd problems.
Subject: -50- MAIL Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss mail configuration and problems.
Subject: -51- How can I set up 'sendmail' to pass (or not pass) 8-bit characters? Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST Many experts say "don't try". RFC822 requires mail transport agents to *clear* the eighth bit, and many hosts do. Some which don't may crash when they get mail with the eighth bit set. Instead, use a MIME-compatible mail program. MIME, described in RFC1521, is a standard for enclosing non-RFC822 material in your mail. The apps FAQ discusses several mail programs which support it. In IRIXes up to 5.2, one can flout this doctrine by running sendmail with the '-o8' flag to allow 8-bit characters in message bodies (*not* headers). Read the description of that option in sendmail(1) for more reasons not to use it. In IRIX 5.3, sendmail runs in 8-bit mode by default, but one can use the '-o7' flag to get the old behavior.
Subject: -52- Why are my mailbox files changing ownership? Date: 15 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST If your mail directory is mounted from another machine, your machine does not have root access to that directory, and the other machine has BSD-style "restricted chown" (the restricted_chown kernel variable is turned on or it's not an SGI) /bin/mail will change mail file ownership when delivering local mail. Without unrestricted chown *or* root access, /bin/mail is unable to give a mail file back to its owner after delivering mail. You can fix the problem by turning off re- stricted chown on the other machine (if it's an SGI) or exporting the mail directory with root access for your machine. This problem was to have been fixed in IRIX 5.2, but apparently is still present in 5.3.
Subject: -53- Why isn't a valid user getting their mail? Date: 24 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST IRIX' mail system requires "valid users" to have both valid password file entries (whether local or via NIS) and home directories. The latter often trips one up when installing POP servers and whatnot, where home directories aren't really necessary. Just make a fake one.
Subject: -54- How can SGIs and Suns share a mail spool? Date: 05 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST Paul Riddle <paulr@umbc.edu> has written up how he did it. Read ftp://ftp.umbc.edu/pub/sgi/.
Subject: -55- What's an "unknown mailer error"? Date: 20 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST See ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/mail/mail-errors.
Subject: -56- What's "mailbox: Error 0"? Date: 05 Mar 1994 00:00:01 EST It's a harmless bug; don't worry about it. It is fixed in IRIX versions 4.0.5H/4.0.5IOP and later.
Subject: -57- Why am I having problems with my NFS-mounted mail spool? Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST Perhaps for one of the following reasons: - IRIX 5.2 NFS has a bug which prevents writing to a zero-length file if the writing process has group write permission but not group read (or user write) permission. IRIX 5.2 /bin/mail likes to set the permissions of /var/mail/<user> to mode 620, exactly what is needed to exercise the NFS bug. There is no patch for these bugs, but both are fixed in IRIX 5.3. Meanwhile, you can work around the problem by chmod'ing your mail files to 660 and setting the appropriate option in your mail program to make sure that empty mail files are not removed. - lockd must be running on the NFS server to allow programs on the client to lock mail files. If it is not, Zmail/MediaMail will complain that "file cannot be locked". One could tell MediaMail to not request a lock with "unset dot_lock", but that would risk mail file corruption. - IRIX 5.3 lockd is broken. Typical symptoms include "Warning: could not lock /var/mail/user after 100 trys." (from /usr/sbin/Mail) and the presence of user.lock and user.rolock files in /var/mail. Patch 1128 fixes at least some of these problems. If the client and server are both IRIX 5.3, you can also work around the problem by changing the mount type to NFS3. (See notes on NFS3 elsewhere in this FAQ.) See also "NFS Mounting Mail with IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.0.1" in the Sep/Oct 1995 Pipeline.
Subject: -58- Why are incoming mail addresses case-sensitive in IRIX 5.3? Date: 31 May 1995 00:00:01 EST It's a configuration change. To change it back, find each line in your /etc/sendmail.cf which begins with "M"; these are mailer definitions. Each has a field beginning with "F="; these are the mailer flags. Remove the "u" from each mailer flags field.
Subject: -59- NFS Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss NFS.
Subject: -60- How can I tell what hostname to use in /etc/exports? Date: 07 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST NFS servers may need a particular form of a client's name in /etc/exports to allow the client access. This may not be obvious, for example if the server is also a router. Log in from the client to the server and say 'echo $REMOTEHOST' to see what the server thinks the client is called, and put that in /etc/exports. The System Manager ('chost') should be able to determine the correct hostname for you.
Subject: -61- Why can't I export an NFS-mounted filesystem? Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 CST This is known as multi-hop NFS. It is not allowed or supported in (Sun's) NFS because it is not in general possible to detect errors such as infinite mount loops, on either the client or the server.
Subject: -62- Why can't Ultrix automount SGI filesystems? Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 CST Ultrix's automount uses an "untrusted" port for mount requests. Add an '-n' to the mountd lines in /usr/etc/inetd.conf (/etc/inetd.conf in IRIX 5.x), like so: mountd/1 stream rpc/tcp wait root /usr/etc/rpc.mountd mountd -n mountd/1 dgram rpc/udp wait root /usr/etc/rpc.mountd mountd -n then 'killall mountd' and 'killall -HUP inetd' or reboot.
Subject: -63- Why does 'tar' work strangely on a filesystem mounted from an SGI? Date: 15 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST When user A extracts a file owned by user B from a tar archive, 'tar' makes the file owned by user A unless user A is the superuser. Some systems allow users to give files away (e.g. IRIX); some do not (e.g. SunOS). On some systems with the restricted behavior (SunOS among them), 'tar' tries to give the file to user B whether or not user A is the superuser, assuming that the chown system call will fail if user A is not. This is not true if user A is using 'tar' on (e.g.) a Sun to extract files onto a filesystem NFS-mounted from (e.g.) an SGI. 'tar' may create zero-length files or give away directories and then be unable to extract files into them. Work around the problem by doing the 'tar' on the SGI or extracting onto a Sun filesystem. It is possible that third-party versions of 'tar' (e.g. GNU tar) are smarter; if so, let us know. You could turn the restricted_chown kernel variable on on the SGI, but be aware that some programs may depend on unrestricted chown, notably /bin/mail as discussed elsewhere in this FAQ.
Subject: -64- Why does 'df' report incorrect numbers for a filesystem mounted from a Sun? Date: 29 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST Sun's filesystem reserves space, usually 10%, and Sun's 'df' reports only the unreserved space. SGI's filesystem (efs) does not reserve space, so SGI's 'df' doesn't correct for reserved space.
Subject: -65- Is 'pcnfsd' available for the SGI? Date: 20 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST For IRIX 4.0.x, look in ftp://ftp.sgi.com/support/pcnfsd.sysV/. (Note that although SGI makes this available, they do not support it.) For IRIX 5.x, look in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/pcnfsd/ or http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Connectivity/pcnfsd.html. See also the pcnfsd bug mentioned in the security FAQ.
Subject: -66- Can I export a CD-ROM from my SGI to a non-SGI? Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST Not in IRIX 4.0.x. You can in IRIX 5.x, as you would any other filesystem.
Subject: -67- How can I read an IRIX (EFS) CD-ROM on a machine which doesn't use EFS? Date: 18 Jun 1995 00:00:01 EST You want 'efslook', at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/efslook.tar.gz.
Subject: -68- How can I get quotas to work on an NFS filesystem? Date: 16 Dec 1994 00:00:01 EST Mount the filesystem with the 'quotas' option, by adding it to /etc/fstab or the automounter map as appropriate, and make sure the nfs.sw.nis subsystem, which contains the NFS quota daemon (/usr/etc/rpc.rquotad) is installed. That's nfs.sw.nis, not nfs.sw.nfs! See fstab(4), rquotad(1M) and perhaps automount(1M) for details.
Subject: -69- Why can't some NFS clients NFS-mount IRIX 5.2 filesystems? Date: 07 Sep 1996 00:00:01 EST IN IRIX 5.2, SGI's mount daemons (/usr/etc/mount_*) can fool some NFS clients (TGV's Multinet NFS for VMS, for one) into thinking that the mount daemons are NFS servers and trying to connect to them as such. If the client can mount filesystems from your machine when no mount daemons are running, but not when they are, this is your problem. Fix it by upgrading to IRIX 5.3 or, if you're daring, stealing the mount daemons from an IRIX 5.3 machine. Zsolt Bagoly <bagoly@ludens.elte.hu> reports that DEC OSF1 and Linux clients can work around this problem with the option "port=2049", e.g. 'mount -t nfs -o port=2049 server:/path /mount-point'.
Subject: -70- What's NFS3? Date: 21 Nov 1995 00:00:01 EST An improved NFS which comes with IRIX 5.3. It is described in detail in ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/standards/nfs/ and the Nov/Dev 1995 Pipeline. Its quirks are still being discovered by users; one prominent quirk is that it is not supported by the automounter. Another is that a bug causes ~/.Xauthority files on an NFS3 volume to be truncated; patch 216 fixes the bug. Another is that it interacts poorly with XFS; patch 547 fixes that and many other problems.
Subject: -71- Why can't Solaris 2.5 clients read directories on NFS3- mounted IRIX 6.2 filesystems? Date: 8 Mar 1997 00:00:01 EST Solaris 2.5, a 32-bit operating system, can't understand 64-bit data from IRIX 6.2 NFS3 servers. This will be fixed in Solaris 2.6. Meanwhile, export the IRIX 6.2 filesystems with the 32bitclients option. See also 'relnotes nfs 5'.
Subject: -72- Why does my NFS server print "fhtovp_end VFS_GET failed" or "fhtovp_end vp NULL" to the console/SYSLOG? Date: 8 Mar 1997 00:00:01 CST Walter Roberson <roberson@ibd.nrc.ca> explains: You installed an NFS patch on your server, but you missed installing the NFS client patch on your 5.3 system. You can either force the mount to use NFS2 or patch your 5.3 NFS client system.
Subject: -73- PRINTING Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss printing.
Subject: -74- Why can't lp(1) read my file? Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST lp(1) is setuid, so it can only read world-readable files. You can say 'lp < file' if you don't want to make your file world-readable.
Subject: -75- How can I tell 'lp' to turn banner printing or page reversal off or on? Date: 13 Nov 1994 00:00:01 EST 'lp' controls printers via shell scripts, called 'models', which live in /var/spool/lp/model. When you install a printer, the appropriate model script is copied to /var/spool/lp/interface/<name-of-printer>. To temporarily change a printer's behavior, look at the manpage for its interface script (or, if there is none, the script itself) to see what options it wants, and pass them to the script with 'lp's '-o' option. For example, 'lp -o"-nobanner" file' tells a "Generic Postscript" printer (described in the gpsinterface(1) manpage) to print 'file' without a banner page. To permanently change a printer's behavior, edit its interface script. The following are true for "Generic Postscript" printers, but the idea is the same for others: - To turn banner printing off or on, change the line 'BANNER=1' to 'BANNER=0' or vice versa. - To turn page reversal off or on, change the line 'send=/usr/lib/print/lptops' to 'send="/usr/lib/print/lptops -U"' (note the quotes) or vice versa. In IRIX 5.x, you can change these settings in the printpanel. You can also turn banner printing off on a per-user basis by doing 'echo nobanner >> /var/spool/lp/settings/<printername>/<yourusername>'.
Subject: -76- How can I use 'lpr' instead of or as well as 'lp'? Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST IRIX is based on System V Unix and as such uses the lp(1) printing protocol. The lp software is sufficient (and preferred) for printing to local printers, printing to network printers attached to SGIs or other machines using the lp protocol, and acting as a print server to machines using the lp protocol. In IRIX 5.3/6.1 or later, it can also print to remote printers using the lpr protocol and act as an lpr server. SGI's standard lp interface scripts handle several common file formats (text, PostScript, RGB images) automatically, and Impressario (which works through the lp software) handles much more. The lp software is installed by default. lpr(1) is the BSD Unix printing protocol. SGI provides and supports the lpr software only for printing to network printers attached to computers which use the lpr protocol, e.g. a BSD Unix machine, an HP printer with an appropriately configured JetDirect card or a Macintosh running lpDaemon. It can also be used, unofficially, for controlling a local printer and for a print server. It comes with no support for handling different file formats at all. The lpr software is not installed by default. It is in the eoe2.sw.bsdlpr subsystem in IRIX 4.0.x and print.sw.bsdlpr in IRIX 5.x. You can use lpr to print to a local printer in one of two ways: - Set the printer up as an lp printer and write a printcap(4) entry with an output filter which is just a wrapper around lp. If that isn't crystal-clear, ask SGI for their writeup on "Integrating The AT&T Spooler With The BSD LPR Print Spooler". A not-guaranteed-to- be-up-to-date copy is at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/print/lpr-to-lp. - Write a printcap entry and set up the printer as an lpr printer just as you would on a BSD system. SGI doesn't support this use of lpr, and comp.sys.sgi.* won't be much help either. Now that the printer is set up as an lpr printer, you won't be able to use lp with it directly. You can make lp(1) send files to a local lpr printer in one of two ways: - Use an lp interface script that calls lpr. You can use mkbsdpr(1M), which comes with Impressario 1.1 and later (see the Impressario FAQ), write one yourself or ask SGI for their writeup "LPTOLPR, A Model File for LP". A not-guaranteed-to-be-up-to-date copy of the last is at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/print/lp-to-lpr. - Replace lp with a script which calls lpr. One such script is ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/print/lp-wrapper-for-lpr. You can print to an lpr server in one of two ways: - Under IRIX 5.3/6.1 or later, use the lp software. Just use printers(1M) to add the remote printer. The "list printer" button will not list lpr printers; just enter the name of the remote printer manually. This may or may not work for a printer with a JetDirect card; see the next entry. - Under older IRIXes, or if you're used to it, use the lpr software. See SGI's "Advanced Site and Server Administration Guide". You can set up an lpr server in one of two ways: - Under IRIX 5.3/6.1 or later, you don't need to, because the lp server is also an lpr server. This is officially documented only in 'relnotes print 3'. There are some caveats: - Don't define printers to the lp and lpr software (i.e. in /var/spool/lp/interface and /etc/printcap) with the same name. - Clients must be in ~lp/.rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv; lpsched won't look in /etc/hosts.lpd. - lpd must not be running when lpsched starts up. If you want to switch from lpd to lpsched, do '/etc/init.d/bsdlpr stop; /etc/init.d/lp stop; /etc/init.d/lp start'. /etc/init.d/bsdlpr can't be chkconfig'ed off, so if you want to leave the lpr software installed you'll have to move /etc/init.d/bsdlpr to another name so it won't run on bootup. - The client must send the control file before the data file. Most Unixes do; some PCs do not. It might be informative to run lpsched with the -debug flag, or just try it and see if it works. lpd accepts either file order; lpsched should, and will in IRIX 6.2. - Under older IRIXes, or if you can't get the previous solution to work, or if you're a BSD head, use the lpr software. Set up your local printer as an lpr printer (see above) and edit /etc/hosts.lpd to grant access to the clients. Again, SGI won't support this.
Subject: -77- How can I print to a printer with a JetDirect card? Date: 18 May 1996 00:00:01 EST Configure the JetDirect card to act as an lpr print server (see the JetDirect documentation) and set up your SGI to use it as you would any remote lpr printer (see above). You may also want to set up a bridge to the 'lp' system; again, see above. Unless you have a very recent JetDirect card, you will not be able to use printers(1M) to set up the JetDirect as a remote lpr printer. You can either use the lpr software on the SGI (see above), or you can circumvent printers(1M) in one of the following ways: - Use printers(1M) to add a normal 'lpr' print server with the local printer name you'll want to use for the JetDirect printer. - Do '/usr/lib/lputil add /dev/null netface <local-printer-name>'. - Do '/usr/lib/lpadmin -p<local-printer-name> -mnetface -v /dev/null', and create by hand all of the directories and little files in /var/spool/lp. Each of the above will create an interface script in /var/spool/lp/interface/<local-printer-name>. Since you subverted the usual installation process, some of the settings in the script won't be right yet. Change HOSTNAME to the JetDirect's hostname, NETTYPE to "bsd" and (thanks to Ken Harris <kenh@netcom.com> for this one) SYNC to 0. If it's a Postscript printer, change TYPE to "PostScript" and CONVTYPE to "PostScriptFile". Bill Poitras <bill@ba.msi.com> adds: To print from a PC using SAMBA via your SGI, you can either modify the interface script so that specifying "-oraw" to lp (as suggested in the SAMBA documentation) will set CONVTYPE to nothing, or set up a second interface to the same printer and set its CONVTYPE to nothing permanently. If your JetDirect card is very old, it may not understand the lpr protocol at all. If it is very, very old, you may have to resort to sending the file over TCP port 9100 directly. If it is only very old, you may be able to upgrade the card to a version which does understand lpr. Upgrading the JetDirect is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
Subject: -78- Why won't lpr(1) print very large files? Date: 24 Aug 1996 00:00:01 EST lpd(1M) intentionally places an upper limit on spool file size. To remove it, add "mx#0" to your printcap(4) entry.
Subject: -79- SGI DAEMONS Date: 08 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST This section deals with the objectserver and its tricky pals, the directoryserver, famd and mediad.
Subject: -80- Why isn't the objectserver working? Date: 24 Aug 1996 00:00:01 EST Install patch 1096. If you still have problems, read on. First, consider whether you really need the objectserver. Without it, you'll lose "business cards" and the graphical admin software. They're probably not worth the headache. Anne Eagle <annee@sgi.com> posted most of the following: - Its database may be corrupt. If the objectserver appears to start OK but crashes later, this is probably the case. Rebuild it like so: /etc/init.d/cadmin stop /etc/init.d/cadmin clean /etc/init.d/cadmin start If the preceding doesn't work, try this /etc/init.d/cadmin stop mv /var/Cadmin/data /var/Cadmin/data.old /usr/Cadmin/bin/parseclasses /etc/init.d/cadmin start Note that either method destroys "Privileged User" and "Business Card" information. (This is the ONLY known drawback of rebuilding your objectserver database, and the ONLY reason why SGI documentation recommends that you consult with the TAC before doing so. For most people that means that there's no reason why you shouldn't rebuild whenever the need arises.) - One of your system configuration files (including but not limited to /etc/exports, /etc/fstab, /etc/inittab, /etc/mtab, /etc/passwd and /etc/printcap) may have minor format problems which don't bother IRIX proper but do bother the objectserver. Such problems include a last line which doesn't end with a linefeed, a backspace not preceded by a space in /etc/exports, or unprintable characters. Gary Lin <glin@csd.sgi.com> suggests that you ensure that /etc/exports has explicit -ro or -rw export options and that you remove continuation lines (\) from /etc/printcap. Ken Gant <krgant@musetech.com> points out that, as specified in gettydefs(4), the last line of /etc/gettydefs must be blank. One sign that you have such a problem is a core file in /var/Cadmin/data. If you find and fix a problem, rebuild the databases as above. If you can't find the problem, try the following: par -s -i -N open -l -SS /usr/Cadmin/bin/objectserver -d The last file objectserver opens is probably where the problem is. If you're really desperate, the TAC will give you an objectserver compiled with -g and help you run dbx on it. - You may be swamping the objectserver with NIS (YP) users. There are several ways around this: - Start a directoryserver on a machine on your local network. - Use netgroups or the "+user" form in /etc/passwd instead of just a "+" and rebuild the databases as above. - Most severely, remove the NIS object definition files so that the objectserver will not create NIS objects, rebuild the objectserver database (without the NIS objects) and restart the objectserver as follows. You will not be able to manipulate NIS users with Cadmin if you do this. killall fm mediad -k killall objectserver mv /var/Cadmin/data /var/Cadmin/data.orig cp -pr /usr/Cadmin/classes /usr/Cadmin/classes.orig rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/groupObject.op rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/nisAccountObject.op rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/peopleNISObject.op rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/peopleObject.op /usr/Cadmin/bin/parseclasses /usr/Cadmin/bin/objectserver ps -ef | grep obj Wait until you see 2 objectserver processes running, then do mediad fm -lrb & - Chris Riney <chris.riney@tandy.com> says: "We have just discovered here at our site that if you do not have a route defined for the SGI multicast subnet, then objectserver will gobble up memory. I established a route for 224.0.0.0, and objectserver has been up for over a week without consuming additional memory." This route is defined in the stock /etc/init.d/network. - Andreas Klingler <andreas.klingler@rrze.uni-erlangen.de> fixed his objectserver by removing /usr/Cadmin/classes/printerObject.op and then rebuilding /var/Cadmin/data as above. - David Carrigan <vermeer@panix.com> fixed his objectserver by editing his /etc/passwd file so userids were in ascending order. - Tovar ? <tvr@skywebs.com> suggests shutting off your objectserver, then running 'objecterver -d'. - Urpo Kotipalo <nightis@raita.oulu.fi> had trouble with shadow passwords and the objectserver, which he fixed by waiting until '/etc/init.d/cadmin clean' had finished running pwconv(1M) before doing '/etc/init.d/cadmin start'. See also "Indigo Magic Tips and Tricks" in the Sep/Oct 1994 Pipeline and the entry on the imon queue below.
Subject: -81- What is sending packets to the sgi-dog.mcast.net multicast address? Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST The objectserver. It's using that address intentionally; SGI just didn't bother to define a new one. Scott Henry <scotth@sgi.com> points out that if you don't use any directoryservers and want to get rid of the objectserver multicast packets, you can add '-t 0' to /etc/config/objectserver.options and they will go away.
Subject: -82- Why are the objectserver and directoryserver taking up so much memory in IRIX 5.3? Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST They really aren't. Doing 'ps -ef' in IRIX 5.3 and looking at the SZ column shows that these programs have extremely large address spaces, about 128M each. That's not the same thing as the physical memory they occupy, which is shown in the RSS column and which should be much smaller. See ps(1) and the IRIX 5.3 Cadmin release notes for more. However, there is a bug in the objectserver which makes it grow continuously when it can't find a directoryserver. SGI claims to have fixed this in patch 1096; however, some disagree.
Subject: -83- Why don't the desktop admin tools recognize root as a privileged user? Date: 28 Jul 1995 00:00:01 EST The objectserver isn't working. Clean the database as described above.
Subject: -84- Why doesn't my desktop deal properly with the CD or tape icons? Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST Install patch 1096. If you still have problems, read on. Thanks to Anne Eagle <annee@milamber.csd.sgi.com> for the following: This is a known bug both in 5.2 and 5.3. Essentially, the desktop icons stop responding to insertion/removal of mediad, although the media itself is mounted properly and is accessible either from the command line or by opening your home directory and then changing to /CDROM or /floppy or starting cdman by hand or whatever is appropriate for the media. Double clicking on the icon for the peripheral results in a dialog saying that the drive is unloaded, which of course it is not. Here are a number of workarounds. If the first doesn't work, try the second, and so on. Below, if the command begins with the "%" symbol, that command can be executed by any user. Commands beginning with "#" must be executed by root. * Restart the File Manager: % /usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit % fm -lrb * Restart both the File Manager and mediad: % /usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit % su - # /etc/init.d/mediad stop # /etc/init.d/mediad start # exit % fm -lrb * Restart the File Manager, mediad and the objectserver: % /usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit % su - # /etc/init.d/mediad stop # /etc/init.d/cadmin stop # /etc/init.d/cadmin start # /etc/init.d/mediad start # exit % fm -lrb * See if the icons from the Shared Resources in the upper right hand corner of the System Manager are responsive to insertion/removal of media. If so, access the icons from the System Manager. * Reboot the system: # reboot * The media will have to be accessed by hand. Open a directory view either by double-clicking on the home directory icon or choosing "Desktop/Home Directory" from the Toolchest. Then change to the appropriate directory for the device. For instance, the floppy or floptical drives are access by default from /floppy and the CDROM from /CDROM. Find the "cdman" icon via "Find/An Icon" and then double click on it to listen to music CD's over the scsi audio port. See also the Sep/Oct 1994 Pipeline. Greg Morlock <gmorlock@osmre.GOV> fixed his device icons by adding entries to the local copy of /etc/passwd for each NIS user, with no password and a '+' at the beginning of each userid. Alternatively, mediad may never have started; see the next question.
Subject: -85- Why doesn't my mediad start up under IRIX 5.3? Date: 04 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST If your mediad is dying with the message "mediad: Initialization of my address failed. Cannot contact objectserver." to the syslog, your machine may not be able to get its IP address. Try adding the line hostresorder local bind or (if you use NIS) hostresorder local nis bind to your /etc/resolv.conf file. Make sure the local machine's hostname and IP address are in the local /etc/hosts file, and then either restart the objectserver, mediad, and desktop or reboot. This problem manifests itself when the objectserver cannot grab the local machine's IP address from DNS (aka bind). When the resolver is told to look at the /etc/hosts file first, it should find the local machine's address without asking DNS about it. Thanks to Dave Olson and Alexis Cousein (both of SGI) for tracking this down.
Subject: -86- Why do cdman, cdplayer and capture say "permission denied"? Date: 02 Feb 1996 00:00:01 EST You've installed patch 708 or 1048, which come with a broken mediad. You really should have patch 1048 or later, which fixes a bad security hole in the objectserver (see the security FAQ). If you don't care about automounting CDs, turn off mediad with '/etc/init.d/mediad stop; /etc/chkconfig mediad off'. If you do, use the mediad from IRIX 5.3, (which you'll find in /var/inst/patchbase/usr/etc/mediad after installing the patch) or upgrade to patch 1096 (but see below).
Subject: -87- Why can't 'cformat' format floptical disks, and/or why can't 'datman' play audio DATs? Date: 16 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST You've installed patch 1096, which breaks cformat(1M) and datman(1). You really should have patch 1048 or later, which fixes a bad security hole in the objectserver (see the security FAQ), so you should either use mkfp(1M) instead of cformat and turn off mediad(1M) when you want to use datman, or back down to patch 1048 (but see above).
Subject: -88- Why is famd hammering my NFS server? Date: 24 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST It's partly a bug; get patch 165 for IRIX 5.2 and patch 166 for IRIX 5.3. It's partly just famd's nature; you can try to calm it down by changing its polling interval (6 seconds by default, specified by the '-t 6' flag) in /etc/inetd.conf. If you do install the patch, don't forget to add the '-l' flag to famd's line in /etc/inetd.conf.
Subject: -89- What is causing "/dev/imon: event queue overflow" in my syslog? Date: 24 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST Probably famd. Try the measures in the previous entry. If those don't work, try increasing the value of QSIZE in /var/sysgen/master.d/imon and rebuilding your kernel.
Subject: -90- BUGS Date: 03 Jun 1995 00:00:01 EST These questions discuss miscellaneous bugs in IRIX. Note also the entry on bugs and patches in the misc FAQ, and Walter Roberson's patch lists in the "WWW pages" section of the same FAQ.
Subject: -91- Why do 'who', 'rusers', etc. show users who aren't really logged in? Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST Several bugs in different versions of IRIX cause /etc/utmp to not be updated properly after a user logs out. Programs incorrectly reporting logins are correctly reporting the incorrect contents of /etc/utmp. One such bug is present in an unspecified part of IRIX 4.0.x and fixed in IRIX 5.x, and another is in ftpd in IRIX 5.2 and fixed in patch 162 and IRIX 5.3. If one can't fix the bug which causes the incorrect /etc/utmp entries, one can run a separate program to remove them from /etc/utmp after the fact. Jeremy DuBois <jer@asdc.com>, David Hinds <dhinds@allegro.stanford.edu> and Patrick M. Ryan <pat@gsfc.nasa.gov> have written such programs, which can be found in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/utmp/. SGI provides such a program, /usr/sbin/chkutent, in IRIX 5.3; the root crontab runs it daily.
Subject: -92- What's wrong with ftpd in IRIX 5.2? Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST It doesn't maintain utmp properly (see the previous entry) and it dies during 'mget's. Get patch 162 or upgrade to 5.3.
Subject: -93- Why isn't /usr/adm/SYSLOG being updated? Date: 20 Dec 1996 00:00:01 CST Popular causes include: - running out of disk space. Once syslogd is unable to write to /usr/adm/SYSLOG, it won't try again until it is `killall -HUP syslogd`ed. - installing IRIX 4.0.x and failing to heed the nagging from the system when it is rebooted to run 'versions changed' and combine new and old configuration files. In this case, the trouble is in /usr/spool/cron/crontabs/root. - Separating fields in /etc/syslog.conf with spaces instead of tabs. If you use spaces, syslogd will silently segv when it reads that file.
Subject: -94- I just edited /etc/inittab, and now I can't start up or shut down my SGI! What's wrong? Date: 03 Dec 1994 00:00:01 EST If the last line of /etc/inittab is a comment, init will screw up horribly. If your machine is still running, remove the comment and everything will be OK. If not, go to the miniroot, run the shell and remove the comment from there. The following sequence of commands is one possible way to do this: cd /root/etc cat inittab # Decide how many lines to remove (say three) wc inittab # See how many lines inittab has (say 120) head -117 inittab > inittab.new # Keep the first 120 - 3 lines mv inittab inittab.old mv inittab.new inittab cat inittab # Just making sure and reboot. Don't forget the 'cd'; from the miniroot's point of view, /etc/inittab is /root/etc/inittab. The problem should be fixed in IRIX 5.3.
Subject: -95- Why does timed say "bind: Cannot assign requested address"? Date: 29 Oct 1994 00:00:01 EST timed is incompatible with the rld which comes with patchSG0000023, which is needed for DeltaCC. There are two solutions to this problem (thanks to Alan Davis <davis@masig.fsu.edu>): - Get a new timed from SGI. - Replace the following line in /etc/init.d/network.options (line 664 in an unmodified IRIX 5.2 file) /usr/etc/timed -M `cat $CONFIG/timed.options 2> /dev/null` & with env _RLD_ARGS="-clearstack" /usr/etc/timed `cat $CONFIG/timed.options 2> /dev/null` &
Subject: -96- Why does "ALERT: i2cWaitForXferDone: Xfer Done timeout ERROR" appear in my SYSLOG? Date: 22 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST These messages appear when the Indycam is unplugged. They are harmless, but if they bother you you can banish them with patch 486.
Subject: -97- Why has NIS (YP) stopped working under IRIX 6.x? Date: 04 Jul 1996 00:00:01 EST Joshua Hart <hart@mcbi-36.med.nyu.edu> writes: Under earlier IRIXes, NIS domain names could contain uppercase letters. Under IRIX 6.x they may not; only lowercase letters are permitted.
Subject: -98- MISCELLANEOUS Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST Everything else.
Subject: -99- How do I set the number of processes allowed on my machine? Date: 13 Nov 1994 00:00:01 EST Use systune(1M) to change 'nproc' (in the 'numproc' group of parameters) and reboot.
Subject: -100- Where can I get a termcap file for 'iris-ansi-net' to install on my non-SGI system? Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 CST SGIs use terminfo, so you need to translate the terminfo description to termcap. 'infocmp -Cr iris-ansi-net' will produce an iris-ansi-net termcap file. See infocmp(1) for more. Note that 'infocmp' is in the eoe2.sw.terminf subsystem in IRIX 5.x, 6.0.x, and 6.1, and is not installed by default. (infocmp is part of eoe.sw.unix in IRIX 6.2 and above and is installed by default.)
Subject: -101- How can I make my SGI understand strange terminal types from other Unix systems? Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST If the other system uses terminfo: Brent L. Bates <blbates@vigyan.com> has been able to copy binary terminfo files directly between several different types of systems. (On IRIX 5.x and above, the terminfo files are located under /usr/share/lib/terminfo.) However, if for some reason this does not work, use 'infocmp -I whatever > file' to extract the source erminfo entry for the terminal. Transfer the file to your SGI and do 'tic file' (as root) to put the entry into the terminfo database. If the other system uses termcap: Snip the termcap entry out of /etc/termcap (or wherever) with an editor, transfer it to your SGI and (as root) do 'captoinfo file > newfile' and 'tic newfile'. See also the infocmp(1), captoinfo(1), tic(1) and terminfo(4) manpages, and make sure you've installed eoe2.sw.terminf (under IRIX 5.x, 6.0.x, and 6.1), which is not installed by default. On IRIX 6.2 and above, these utilities are part of eoe.sw.unix. Many unusual terminal devices can be taken care of in IRIX 6.2 and above by installing eoe.sw.terminfo, which includes terminfo files for many devices.
Subject: -102- Can I change my login shell or other password-file info without being superuser? Date: 27 Jan 1996 00:00:01 EST At a graphics terminal, use the User Manager. At a text terminal, if your account is on NIS (Yellow Pages) use 'ypchpass'. If it isn't you're stuck, because IRIX has no way to change a local user's password-file info from the command line. You might ask your superuser to install one of the many free implementations of 'chsh' and/or 'chfn' (one is in volume 3 of comp.sources.unix, at ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume3/) but they'll want to make sure that those programs know how to lock /etc/passwd properly. ----------------------------- Subject: -103- How can I administer my Iris without a graphics terminal? Date: 13 Apr 1994 00:00:01 EST The visual admin tools in IRIX 4.0.x ('vadmin') need GL, and do not work on X terminals or workstations without GL. You can use 'sysadm' on text terminals for some tasks, but beware of bugs and inadequacies: SGI judged 'sysadm' to be too buggy to be worth updating for IRIX 5.x. The visual admin tools in IRIX 5.2 and later should display on any X display, *except* for the backup/restore tool which is an exact port from IRIX 4.0.x and requires GL. Some images will be missing when GL is unavailable, but the tools will function properly. As for text terminals, you're out of luck: 'sysadm' does not exist in IRIX 5.x. Of course, you can always use a text editor and write scripts, or see the next question.
Subject: -104- How can I use the visual admin tools on a system with graphics to administer a system without graphics? Date: 12 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST rlogin to the graphics-less system and run 'vadmin' (IRIX 4.0.x) or 'chost' (IRIX 5.x). Make sure that the DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly and that both the vadmin/sysadmdesktop and the shared library subsystems are installed on the graphics-less system (which they are in the default installation). Under IRIX 5.x, look at the READMEs in /var/sysadmdesktop/rsysmanapps and /var/sysadmdesktop/sysmanapps to find out how to use 'chost' to run commands on remote systems. Finally, in a future release of IRIX 5.x, the sysadmdesktop tools will be able to manage remote systems *without* doing an rlogin.
Subject: -105- What's /etc/ioctl.syscon? Date: 09 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST The default 'stty' setings to use on the console in single user mode, in 'stty -g' format.
Subject: -106- Can I log out users automatically? Date: 29 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST It depends on the sense of "log out" you want. If your users use the 'tcsh' shell you can set the autologout shell variable (and possibly make it read-only) in a startup script to log out inactive shells. This won't do anything to an instantiation of tcsh which is waiting for another program to quit (e.g. a 'more' process in mid-file) or to programs other than tcsh (e.g. a 'jot' window), and it won't log one out of the graphics console. One can imagine a program similar to a screen saver which would log one out after so many minutes of keyboard/mouse inactivity, but we don't know of one. However, if you're only worried about security (rather than resource hogging) it may suffice to use 'xlock' to lock the screen rather than actually logging one out. For that matter, tcsh can also lock itself rather than logging one out; this wouldn't be helpful on a graphics console but might be on a simple terminal.
Subject: -107- How can I change kernel variables and/or rebuild my kernel? Date: 14 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST To change a kernel variable under IRIX 5.x, use systune(1M). It saves the tuned kernel in /unix.install; if this file exists, it is moved to /unix on the next reboot. systune will change the parameters in the running kernel if it can, and tell you to reboot if it can't. To actually rebuild the kernel, use 'autoconfig -f'. This leaves the rebuilt kernel in /unix.install. You must reboot to begin using the rebuilt kernel; "rebuild your kernel" elsewhere in the FAQs implies rebooting. IRIX 4.0.x does not have systune. To change a kernel variable, edit the file in /usr/sysgen/master.d which contains the variable, rebuild the kernel and reboot. ------------------------------ End of sgi/faq/admin Digest ****************************** -- The SGI FAQ group <sgi-faq@viz.tamu.edu> http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/ Finger us for info on the SGI FAQs, or look in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/.