Originally posted by: isc.net@ism780.UUCP
Message-ID: <392@ism780.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Aug-84 00:04:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780.392
Posted: Wed Aug 29 00:04:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 12:11:16 EDT
Lines: 143
#N:ism780:12800007:000:5906
ism780!isc.net Aug 27 14:53:00 1984
The following is a response from your good friends at Interactive to some
recent gripes/problems voiced on the net about PC/IX. The original notes
are prefixed with ">"; our comments are indented.
Note that the "next release of PC/IX" should be available quite soon.
> There definitely seem to be some port related problems with PC/IX. Not
> only the run-PC/IX-after-MSDOS problem Lee Merrill spoke of, but other
> somewhat mysterious conditions where tty0 or tty1 will get into a wedged
> state and refuse further commands. An attempt to shutdown at that point
> will cause shutdown to sit quietly for close to a minute, print the
> message "init: something won't die%s", and then MAYBE finish the shutdown.
This behavior is the result of two bugs, both of which have been
fixed for the next release of PC/IX. The first is a hardware bug
in many of the async cards used in PCs; I believe this has been
mentioned before on the net. We have altered the kernel to
circumvent the problem. The second is a bug in the kernel shutdown
procedure which we have fixed.
> One problem that is still plaguing me is a behavior problem with certain
> utility programs *only* when used from tty0 or tty1. They're fine from
> the local console. Seems that any extra characters entered after
> the final c/r of the password prompt and before the system types to you
> when using login, su or passwd will kill the port. You can still send
> to it and the machine will respond (you'd only know that if it were
> right next to you), but no output of any kind comes from the port. Once
> you have disconnected, the port is in its famous wedged state and nothing
> at all seems to clear it. Only solution at that point is a one minute
> shutdown (described above). IBM says its because PC/IX isn't running on
> an IBM! What help.
>
> For example: login: yourid password: yourpass
> will kill it every time. Anything entered at the point of the second c/r
> after your password, but before you receive more output from PC/IX on
> any of the three utilities I mentioned will do it.
>
> I'm using the MicroLine BabyBlue II board for both ports. It works
> flawlessly in MS-DOS.
>
> Any suggestions? (please mail me directly, and I'll summarize if necessary)
>
> --Bill Blue {sdcsvax, sdchema, ihnp4}!bang!crash!bblue
We cannot duplicate this behavior. It is quite possible that it is
also due to the bad async card. Sorry, but that's the best we can
tell you!
------------------------------------------------
> I have been "experimenting" with PC/IX since May 1, 1984. My problems
> are/were:
>
> 1. I was only able to install PC/IX after IBM replaced EVERY board
> in my PC XT. restore -x didn't like my computer!
Your hardware was a lemon. Sorry!
> 2. I could only get connect to work after spending several days
> with local "gurus". When I connect to a DEC VAX 11/780, I
> can't use vi, but with SIMTERM, etc. I can. Termcap problems?
The configuration files associated with connect (/etc/sites and
/usr/lib/INnet/connect.con) are really not that hard to figure
out, although I suspect somewhat better documentation would be
helpful.
There was a bug in the connect "talker" program which
prevented programs such as vi and e from operating properly
when connected. It is fixed for the next release of PC/IX.
> 3. I had to rm /dev/lp and ln /dev/lp1 /dev/lp to get the printer
> to work.
We distribute the system with /dev/lp linked to /dev/lp0, which
seems the most logical choice. You must have put your printer card
in the second slot instead of the first, which obviously means
reconfiguring the devices (or /etc/qconfig) accordingly.
> 4. I can't run more than one or two processed without crashing the
> system.
> mm filename > temp &
> ps -ef
> ( the above will kill my system, ungracefully)
There was a highly unfortunate bug in the shell which went out
with PC/IX. It will manifest itself in relatively random ways
whenever the shell is running on a heavily loaded system. I
suspect that if just the two processes above killed your system,
that you must be configured with a very small amount of memory
(perhaps the minimal 256K?).
The bug is fixed for the next release of PC/IX. However, you
can (and probably should) circumvent the problem, at the cost
of some efficiency, by executing the following commands:
mv /bin/sh /bin/sh.old
cp /bin/sh.old /bin/sh
chmem +60000 /bin/sh
> 5. I can't print on standard output the graphics character set while
> in connect mode ( e.g., echo "\0333" won't generate graphics )
Same bug as item 2., I believe.
> 6. usr/games/bj doesn't work!
Shocking! Actually, this is pretty surprising, as the level of
testing that went into the PC/IX release should have caught this
easily. We will look into this bug.
> 7. You cant type in the password after the login UNTILL the password
> prompt appears
This is standard UNIX System III. An ioctl with a TCSETAF command
is issued just prior to printing the password prompt, in order to
discourage people from typing in their password while echoing is
still enabled.
> 8. INed ( e editor ) is the SLOWEST editor I have ever used. It can't
> keep up with my typing speed which is 10 words/minute on a good day.
Again, you must be configured with VERY little memory. On our
640K systems, e keeps up with anything we can give it; indeed,
it performs about as well as it does on a lightly-loaded VAX.
Also, keep in mind that while some of the function keys may seem
slow, they often perform complex tasks with a single keystroke,
so the illusion of sluggishness can sometimes manifest itself.
> The bottom line is that I am going to shelve the product and try
> Santa Cruze's XENIX.
No comment. Have fun.
> David S. Green Bell Labs mhuxi!dsg phone 201-564-4468
--isc.net (ima!ism780!isc.net) INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.