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- From: bofh@mail.teleweb.pt
- Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: comp.unix.aix Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1 of 5)
- Supersedes: <aix-faq-1-973024721@mail.teleweb.pt>
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- Date: 2 Nov 2000 15:25:22 +0100
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- Summary: This posting contains AIX Frequently Asked Questions
- and their answers. AIX is IBM's version of Unix.
- Keywords: AIX RS/6000 questions answers
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.unix.aix:191688 comp.answers:42946 news.answers:195007
-
- Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 (Perl 5.005)
- Archive-name: aix-faq/part1
- Revision: 1.28 2000/10/10 21:01:28
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
-
- Frequently Asked Questions about AIX and the IBM RS/6000
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- This posting contains frequently asked questions and answers about the
- IBM RS/6000 series workstations and AIX versions 3 and 4. All input is
- very welcome, I can be reached at <mailto:bofh@mail.teleweb.pt>.
-
- The list is split into five articles to pass thru most mailers. I'll
- usually try to post them once a month to comp.unix.aix, news.answers,
- and comp.answers. Please let your input continue as I am most thankful
- for all of it.
-
- This FAQ is available from (see section 6.08 for more sites):
-
- <http://www.emerson.emory.edu/services/aix-faq/>
- <http://www.faqs.org/faqs/aix-faq/>
- <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/aix-faq/part1>
- <ftp://mirrors.aol.com:/pub/rtfm/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/unix/aix>
-
- The Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the FAQ is available at:
-
- <http://www.han.de/~jum/aix/aixfaq.pdf>
-
- Thanks to Jonathan S. Stibal for converting it to PDF.
-
- Please make a note of the fact that these sites contain more than just
- the AIX FAQ and would probably be worth consulting before you post
- questions to any of the usenet groups.
-
- If you see a From: line it means that whatever follows is either an
- unabridged or slightly edited version of the input I have received, and
- that I may not have verified its contents. If there is no From: line, I
- probably know what I am talking about, and the entry is edited from
- various sources.
-
- All entries are numbered with major and minor subject number, e.g.
- 2.11. If the subject is preceded by an asterisk, that entry has been
- changed or added since the last posting.
-
- The comp.unix.aix group is for AIX on all platforms -- RT, PS/2,
- 370, RS/6000, Bull, Apple, Motorola, etc., and mainframes
- (ESA based on OSF/1), but the traffic has
- evolved to discuss predominantly AIX 3.x, 4.x, and the RS/6000. The
- newsgroups comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt and comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware cover the
- RT, mostly hardware and AOS 4.3, and on PS/2 hardware respectively.
- Mark Whetzel posts FAQ lists about RTs in the rt and *.answers groups.
- There are few to non-existent discussions on AIX/370 and AIX/ESA.
-
- If you post questions to comp.unix.aix, please be sure to indicate:
-
- - the machine type and brief configuration, e.g. Model 540, 64 MB RAM,
- 48 MB swap space (this is actually bad), 1.2 GB XYZ hard drive, etc.
- Note: There are now five classes of RS/6000s - the original, RS or
- POWER, RSC (POWER-Single Chip), RS/2 or POWER2, PowerPC and Power3.
-
- - the exact AIX version number, i.e. AIX 3.1 is NOT sufficient, whereas
- AIX 3.1.5 or AIX 3.1 with the 3005 update is. With 3.2 you should
- mention any significant ptfs using the U4xxxxx numbers. With 4.r.m,
- please mention version (4), release (r), modification (m) and
- maintenance level, also if aplicable, any significant APAR numbers.
-
- I am doing this on my own time. PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME QUESTIONS THAT
- THAT SHOULD BE ASKED OF IBM. If you suspect you have software defect problems
- call (800) 237-5511. If you have hardware problems call (800) IBM-SERV.
- If you are outside the United States, contact your local IBM representative.
-
- PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD BE POSTED TO comp.unix.aix.
- I don't have the time to diagnose individual AIX problems, and I
- probably don't know the answer either. ;-) Many experienced and
- knowlegable people read the newsgroup. Post your question there.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Table of contents:
-
- 1.0 General concepts
- 1.000 The AIX operating system - what is it?
- 1.001 I know neither Unix nor AIX - where do I find more information?
- 1.002 What is the Object Database?
- 1.003 How do I get rid of the verbose error messages?
- 1.004 Which release of AIX do I have?
- 1.005 What hardware do I have? What is availible? WITS?
- 1.006 Is IBM "dropping" AIX? AIX 3 discontinued.
- 1.007 Is IBM "dropping" AIX? AIX 4.1/4.2 discontinued.
- 1.008 e-Server pSeries (Is IBM "dropping" RS/6000 ?)
- 1.009 Monterey / AIX 5L
-
- 1.1 SMIT, system administration
- 1.100 I am used to Unix systems programming, why should I learn SMIT?
- 1.101 How do I turn off the "running man" in smit?
- 1.102 How do I import an /etc/passwd or /etc/group file from another box?
- 1.103 Cleaning up utmp, who, and accounting problems
- 1.104 How to fsck the root filesystem
- 1.105 How can I unmount /usr to run fsck on it?
- 1.108 How do I see/change parameters like number of processes per user?
- 1.109 How do I shrink the default paging space on hd6?
- 1.110 The swapper seems to use enormous amounts of paging space, why?
- 1.111 How much paging space do I need?
- 1.112 How do I mount a floppy disk as a filesystem?
- 1.113 How do I remove a committed lpp?
- 1.114 How can I recover space after installing updates?
- 1.115 Where are the AIX log files kept?
- 1.116 How can I log information about ftp accesses to a file?
- 1.117 How do I find a file name from the inode number?
- 1.118 How do I set up postscript accounting?
- 1.119 How do I create boot diskettes?
- 1.120 Where can I find tools for performance monitoring?
- 1.121 How can I tell what virtual printer a print queue is using?
- 1.122 Two srcmstr's are less useful than one?
- 1.123 How do I set the tty name associated with a physical port?
- 1.124 How do I use mksysb to clone a system?
- 1.125 How do I retain timestamps with mksysb?
- 1.126 How can I find out the machine type?
- 1.127 Updating to 3.2.5
- 1.128 AIX fix strategy
- 1.129 Are passwords limited to 8 char?
- 1.130 How do I increase the number of ptys > 64?
- 1.131 Where can I find patches for CERT Advisories?
- 1.132 How do I remove a non-existant physical volume?
- 1.133 How do I kill a process that ignores kill -QUIT -KILL -STOP?
- 1.134 How can I see "console" messages?
- 1.135 Where can I find TOP for AIX?
- 1.136 How can I restrict root logins to specific terminals?
- 1.137 How do I merge my /etc/password and /etc/security/password for Crack
- 1.138 I lost the root password, what should I do?
- 1.139 How can I resolve DEV_WAIT status for a local print queue?
- 1.140 SMIT problems forcing/overwriting install?
- 1.141 Which distribution tape do I have?
- 1.142 How can I get PTF (fixes) via ftp? What is fixdist?
- 1.143 Is there an easy way to determine if AIX has a PTF applied or not?
- 1.144 How do I recreate a deleted /dev/null?
- 1.145 What is a checkstop error?
- 1.146 How do I recover deleted files?
- 1.147 What questions are on the AIX Certified User/SystemAminstrator/etc.,
- exam?
- 1.148 How can I run a command or commands automatically at system
- shutdown?
- 1.149 How to install LPPs on a shared disk?
- 1.150 How can I reduce the size of /var/adm/wtmp ?
- 1.151 How do I start local daemons at system startup?
- 1.152 How do I set the TZ variable to automatically change to daylight
- savings time?
- 1.153 Why does init not reap its zombie child processes?
- 1.154 I'm looking for a missing command or header file.
- Which fileset do I need to install?
- 1.155 Why doesn't the df -k output reflect the space I added
- to an LV?
-
- 1.2 Backups, tape
- 1.200 Some info about tape backups
- 1.201 How do I do remote backup?
- 1.202 How do I backup a multi-disk volume group?
- 1.203 How do I put multiple backups on a single 8mm tape?
- 1.204 How can I make an exact duplicate of a tape over the network?
- 1.205 What is tape block size of 0?
- 1.206 Resetting a hung tape drive...
- 1.207 How do I restore specific files from a mksysb tape?
- 1.208 How do I read a 5Gbyte tape on a 2Gbyte drive?
- 1.209 What can Sysback do for me?
- 1.210 How can I get my HP 4mm DAT to work?
- 1.211 How do I copy DAT tapes?
- 1.212 How do I speed up backups to DLT tapes?
-
- 1.3 Memory and process management
- 1.300 Some info about the memory management system
- 1.301 How much should I trust the ps memory reports?
- 1.302 Which simms do RS6000's use?
- 1.303 What is kproc?
- 1.304 How do I create a RAM disk in AIX?
- 1.305 How much RAM (real memory) does my machine have?
- 1.306 Why do PIDs run non-sequentially?
-
- 1.4 Shells, commands, man pages, InfoExplorer
- 1.400 How do I make an informative prompt in the shell?
- 1.401 How do I set up ksh for emacs mode command line editing?
- 1.402 Listing files with ls causes a core dump
- 1.403 How do I put my own text into InfoExplorer?
- 1.404 InfoExplorer ASCII key bindings
- 1.405 How can I add new man pages to the system?
- 1.406 Why can't I read man pages? Where is nroff?
- 1.407 Why is my environment only loaded once?
- 1.408 Where is the 'nawk' command on my AIX system?
- 1.409 How do I copy InfoExplorer (manpages and more) to my hard drive?
- 1.410 Why can't I set my default shell to one we've just installed?
- 1.411 Why do I get the "Unable to connect socket: 3" starting Info-Explorer?
- 1.412 Why can't I write a setuid shell script?
-
- 1.5 Video, Graphics, X11
- 1.500 Which release of X11 do I have?
- 1.501 How to prevent ctrl-alt-backspace from killing the X session
- 1.502 Who has a termcap/terminfo source for aixterm or the HFT console?
- 1.503 How can I look at PostScript files? Why is "dpsexec" so lousy?
- 1.504 unix:0 vs `hostname`:0
- 1.505 VT100 key bindings for aixterm
- 1.506 Is there a screen saver that does not use excessive CPU?
- 1.507 Where are the colors, availible for an X session, listed.
- 1.508 Why does my app hang the X server but not an X station?
- 1.509 How do I switch the control and caps lock key bindings?
- 1.510 Missing fonts?
- 1.511 What's the termcap entry for an IBM 3151 look like?
- 1.512 Errors starting X11 application binaries from aixpdslib.
- 1.513 .XShm*, .sm* (Shared memory) Link errors building Xwindows applications.
- 1.514 How do I set my DISPLAY when I login to another machine?
- 1.515 Why doesn't Netscape work?
-
- 1.6 Networks and communications
- 1.600 My named dies frequently, why?
- 1.601 How do I trace ethernet packets on an AIX system?
- 1.602 What is the authorized way of starting automount at boot time?
- 1.603 How do I set a tty port for both dial-in and dial-out?
- 1.604 How to move or copy whole directory trees across a network
- 1.605 How can I send mail to hosts that cannot be pinged?
- 1.606 How to configure dialup SLIP
- 1.607 Where is DCE discussed?
- 1.608 How do I make /var/spool/mail mountable?
- 1.609 getty spawning too rapidly
- 1.610 Does AIX support Compressed SLIP (CSLIP)?
- 1.611 How do I setup anonymous ftp on my AIX system?
- 1.612 Talk, getting notification.
- 1.613 Disabling software flow control; using RTS/CTS.
- 1.614 NIS security
- 1.615 Why can't non-anonymous users login using WU-FTP?
- 1.616 NIS users can't login, do I need '*' in /etc/passwd?
- 1.617 HP JetDirect cards and virtual printers? mkvirprt problems?
- 1.618 How can I hack libc.a to alter how hostnames are resolved?
- 1.619 What modem settings do I need?
- 1.620 NIS slave server config with master on different subnet?
- 1.621 Why does my 64 port concentrator loose data and drop the queue?
- 1.622 Netscape FastTrack server won't install on AIX 3.2.5 or 4.1.
- 1.623 How can I share files/printers with Windows 95?
- 1.624 Printing from AIX to WinNT/95/3.1
- 1.625 How do I get NFS mounting with Linux to work?
- 1.626 Telnet takes a 45 seconds to produce a prompt.
- 1.627 Ethernet frame type - en0 vs. et0
-
- 1.7 LVM
- 1.700 Free LVM lecture slides
- 1.701 How do I shrink /usr? (formerly 1.106)
- 1.702 How do I make a filesystem larger than 2Gb? (formerly 1.107)
- 1.703 Chlv warning, is the first 4k of a LV safe? (formerly 1.139)
- 1.704 What's the limit on Physical Partitions Per Volume Group?
- 1.705 Why am I having trouble adding another disk to my VG?
- 1.706 What are the limits on a file, filesystem?
- 1.707 Hints for Segate 9 GB and other disks larger than 4 GB? (see 1.704)
- 1.708 How do I fix Volume Group Locked?
- 1.709 How do I remove a volume group with no disks?
- 1.710 What are the theoretical limits within the LVM?
-
- 1.8 AIX 4.X
- 1.800 How do I control how hostnames are resolved?
- 1.801 dtlogin ignores /etc/profile?
- 1.802 Where's the C compiler?
- 1.803 Why doesn't Netscape work?
-
- 1.9 Miscellaneous
- 1.900 SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 "interoperability" got you confused?
- 1.901 How to get your keyboard back after unplugging it from the 6000
- 1.902 How do I set up pcsim, the DOS emulator?
- 1.903 How do I transfer files between AIX and DOS disks?
- 1.904 Where is the crypt program?
- 1.905 How do I play audio CDs?
- 1.906 How can I get the mouse back after unplugging it?
- 1.907 Where can I get source code to the operating system binary xxxxx?
- 1.908 What's the difference between the POWER and POWERPC architectures?
- 1.909 Will there be date rollover problems in the year 2000?
- 1.910 How can I build an "installp format" file?
- 1.911 Is there a generic SCSI driver for AIX?
- 1.912 Viruses or virus scanning on AIX?
- 1.913 How do I determine the clock frequency of a RS/6000 by
- software ?
- 1.914 How do I create a ramdisk ?
- 1.915 Can I run Linux on an RS/6000 ?
-
-
- 2.00 C/C++
- 2.01 I cannot make alloca work
- 2.02 How do I compile my BSD programs?
- 2.03 Isn't the linker different from what I am used to?
- 2.04 How do I statically link my program?
- 2.05 How do I make my own shared library?
- 2.06 Linking my program fails with strange errors. Why?
- 2.07 Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlc?
- 2.08 What's with malloc()?
- 2.09 Why does xlc complain about 'extern char *strcpy()'
- 2.10 Why do I get 'Parameter list cannot contain fewer ....'
- 2.11 Why does xlc complain about '(sometype *)somepointer = something'
- 2.12 Some more common errors
- 2.13 Can the compiler generate assembler code?
- 2.14 Curses
- 2.15 How do I speed up linking?
- 2.16 What is deadbeef?
- 2.17 [moved to 8.10]
- 2.19 imake, makedepend
- 2.20 How can tell what shared libraries a binary is linked with?
- 2.21 Can I get a PTF for my C/C++ compiler from the net?
- 2.22 Why does "install"ing software I got from the net fail?
- 2.23 What is Linker TOC overflow error 12?
- 2.24 What is the limit on number of shared memory segments I can attach?
- 2.25 I deleted libc.a by accident --- how do I recover?
- 2.26 Where can I find dlopen, dlclose, and dlsym for AIX?
- 2.27 Where can I find ldd for AIX?
- 2.28 How do I make my program binary executable on the POWER, POWER2,
- and POWERPC architecures?
- 2.29 How do I access more than 256 Megabytes of memory?
- 2.30 How do I use POSIX threads with gcc 2.7.x?
- 2.31 Why does pthread_create return the error code 22?
- 2.32 How do I build programs under a later AIX release that run
- under earlier releases as well?
-
-
- 3.00 Fortran and other compilers
- 3.01 I have problems mixing Fortran and C code, why?
- 3.02 How do I statically bind Fortran libraries and dynamically bind
- C libraries?
- 3.03 How do I check if a number is NaN?
- 3.04 Some info sources on IEEE floating point
- 3.05 Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlf? (see 2.07).
-
- 4.00 GNU and Public Domain software
- 4.01 How do I find PD software?
- 4.02 Are there any ftp sites?
- 4.03 General hints
- 4.04 GNU Emacs
- 4.05 gcc/gdb
- 4.06 GNU Ghostscript
- 4.07 TeX - Document processing
- 4.08 Perl - Scripting language
- 4.09 X-Windows
- 4.10 Bash - /bin/ksh alternative from FSF
- 4.11 Elm - Mail reader
- 4.12 Oberon 2.2
- 4.13 Kermit - Communications
- 4.14 Gnu dbm
- 4.15 tcsh - an alternative shell
- 4.16 Kyoto Common Lisp
- 4.17 Tcl/Tk - X-Windows scripting
- 4.18 Expect
- 4.19 Public domain software on CD
- 4.20 Andrew Toolkit
- 4.21 sudo
- 4.22 Flexfax/HylaFax and other fax software
- 4.23 lsof - LiSt Open Files
- 4.24 popper - POP3 mail daemon
- 4.26 mpeg link errors version 2.0
- 4.27 NNTP, INN - news (usenet) news transport protocol, news server software
- 4.28 Zmodem - File transfer
- 4.29 Patch - automated file updates
- 4.30 XNTP - network time protocol, synchronizes clocks
- 4.31 GNU Screen 3.6.2 and AIX 4.1.x
- 4.32 SCSI scanner software
- 4.33 Pager/Paging software
- 4.34 Java Development Kit
-
- 5.00 Third party products
- 5.01 Non-IBM AIX Hosts
- 5.02 Disk/Tape/SCSI
- 5.03 Memory
- 5.04 Others
- 5.05 C++ compilers
- 5.06 Memory leak detectors
- 5.07 PPP
- 5.08 Graphics adapters.
- 5.09 Training Courses
- 5.10 Hardware Vendors
- 5.11 Debugging aides
-
- 6.00 Miscellaneous other stuff
- 6.01 Can I get support by e-mail?
- 6.02 List of useful faxes
- 6.03 IBM's ftp, gopher and WWW presence
- 6.04 Some RS232 hints
- 6.05 What publications are available for AIX and RS/6000?
- 6.06 Some acronyms
- 6.07 How do I get this by mailserver or ftp?
- 6.08 Hypertext version of the FAQ
- 6.09 IBM documentation on the WWW.
- 6.10 comp.unix.aix archive availible on the WWW
- 6.11 How can I access the comp.unix.aix newsgroup via email (or Web)
-
- 8.00 Program listings
- 8.03 How do I set up postscript accounting?
- 8.04 How can I find out the machine type?
- 8.05 Updating to 3.2.5
- 8.06 How do I do remote backup?
- 8.06 How do I do remote backup? (cont.)
- 8.07 How to configure dialup SLIP
- 8.08 Disabling software flow control; using RTS/CTS.
- 8.09 How can I hack libc.a to alter how hostnames are resolved?
- 8.10 How do I make an export list from a library archive?
-
- 9.00 Contributors
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.000: The AIX operating system - what is it?
-
- This is best answered by reading the text files in /usr/lpp/bos. The
- README file there contains general information and the bsd file contain
- useful information if you know BSD and/or System V.
-
- The last release for the RT PC is 2.2.1. The latest release for PS/2s
- and Intel architecture machines is AIX 1.3; for PS/2s only, 1.2.1. For
- the RS/6000, there are five major levels, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and
- various intermediate levels. IBM has dropped support for 3.1, 3.2, 4.1
- and 4.2
-
- Y2K compliancy issues have been addressed by PTF's on 3.2, and 4.*.
-
- For those who don't have a copy of /usr/lpp/bos/README or bsd, I'll
- sumarize: IBM tried to follow IEEE, POSIX 1003.1, ANSI C, FIPS and
- then X/Open Issue 3. Beyond that, AIX is a combination of System V
- and BSD.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.001: I know neither Unix nor AIX
- - where do I find more information?
-
- If you are new to Unix, you should look at the other newsgroups in the
- comp.unix hierarchy, in particular comp.unix.questions. There are
- FAQs more most of these groups as well.
-
- If you need information about C programming, try comp.lang.c or
- comp.std.c, the latter for Standard ANSI C issues. comp.lang.c has a
- FAQ posting.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.002: What is the Object Database?
- From: Uwe Geuder <Uwe.Geuder@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
-
- AIX stores most of the system management information in /etc/objrepos,
- /usr/lib/objrepos, and /usr/share/lib/objrepos. Files (also referred to
- as system object classes) in these directories are adminstered by the
- Object Database Manager, ODM, which is a set of library routines and
- programs providing basic object oriented database facilities.
-
- Under most circumstances, only SMIT or the commands SMIT call (see
- 1.100) should be used to change the contents of the system object
- classes. A harmless way to look at the object database is to use odmget
- <Class> where <Class> is one of the files in /etc/objrepos.
-
- Experienced users can use the ODM editor, odme, to navigate the database
- in detail. Modifying the database should only be attempted if you know
- exactly what you are doing.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.003: How do I get rid of the verbose error messages?
- From: Bjorn P. Brox <brox@corena.n>
-
- Many of the messages from the Unix commands are available in different
- languages. This is controlled by the LANG environment variable, the
- default being En_US meaning English in the US. All the default messages
- have a message number associated with them, e.g.:
-
- $ cat no-such-file
- cat: 0652-050 Cannot open no-such-file.
-
- If you prefer the terser Unix-looking error message, set your
- environment variable LC_MESSAGES to C, and you will get:
-
- $ cat no-such-file
- cat: Cannot open no-such-file.
-
- By default LC_MESSAGES is the same as your environment LANG. Setting
- LANG does also work, but should be avoided since it changes
- app-defaults lookup etc. See locale(): LC_ALL
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.004: Which release of AIX or other products do I have?
-
- New with 3.2.5: The oslevel command shows OS and component levels.
- Run oslevel -help to see options
-
- The command 'lslpp -h bos.obj' will show all lines referring to the BOS,
- Basic Operating System. E.g.:
-
- Fix Id Release Status Action Date Time User Name
- ------- --------------- --------- ---------- ---------- -------- ---------
- Path: /usr/lib/objrepos
- bos.obj
- 03.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 12/31/69 18:00:00 root
- U401864 03.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 11/12/92 20:09:35 root
- U401968 03.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 11/12/92 23:18:21 root
- U401969 03.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 11/12/92 23:18:20 root
- ..........................
- U418349 03.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 08/28/93 15:34:13 root
- U419950 03.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 08/28/93 15:34:11 root
-
- For AIX 3.2, you may come across discussions on 3.2.0, 3.2.1, 3.2.2,
- 3.2.3 extended, 3.2.4 and 3.2.5. There is no absolute way to tell which
- of these you are running since the newer releases are simply 3.2.0 with
- some sets of PTFs added. See above example listing. These selective
- fixes could mean there are literally thousands of slightly different
- variations of 3.2 in use. Please see section 6 to request some useful
- faxes to help with this number game.
-
- AIX 3.2.4 and later attempts to resolve this confusion. The OS is
- broken down into subsystems so that updates can be applied to an entire
- subsystem. lslpp also sports a new option; use 'lslpp -m bos.obj' to
- show what level and update the system is running. You can also use the
- new oslevel command. Unless you have a pressing need (such as
- applications unsupported on > 3.2.3), it is recommended that you update
- to this level. Also see 1.128.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.005: What hardware do I have? What is availible? WITS?
- From: C.Deignan@frec.bull.fr (C.DEIGNAN)
-
- The wits script is unfortunately no longer maintained. I just don't have
- the time, and I'm not sure it is a realistic proposition anymore. There are so
- many different models that have the same model-ID that it's impossible to be
- "definitive."
-
- [Editor's note: I've deleted the source to the wits program from the
- FAQ,but it is listed as being part of the aix.tools.1.3.0.0.exe archive at
- Bull's freeware download site <http://www-frec.bull.com/>. Press the
- "Download" button once the top page loads, then look for "The Large
- AIX Freeware and Shareware Archive" link.]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.006: Is IBM "dropping" AIX? AIX 3 discontinued.
-
- No. IBM sells and supports AIX 4 (4.3). However, on January 31, 1997
- IBM will "withraw AIX 3.2.5 from marketing." That is, you won't be able
- to purchase AIX 3.2.5 anymore. On December 31, 1997, IBM will
- "discontinue Program Services" for AIX 3.2.5. Translation: they will
- no longer respond to (most) defect reports for AIX 3.2.5.
-
- The US announcement letter can be read via <http://www1.ibmlink.ibm.com/>.
- Pick the US as region, look for "Announcement Letters," then search
- for document number 996-245.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.007: Is IBM "dropping" AIX? AIX 4.1/4.2 discontinued.
-
- No. IBM sells and supports AIX 4 (4.3). However, AIX 4.1 and 4.2
- were withrawn from marketing and support.
- Translation: they will no longer respond to (most) defect reports
- for AIX 4.1 and 4.2.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.008: e-Server pSeries (Is IBM "dropping" RS/6000 ?)
-
- Will you get real ? After 10 years of success why would IBM drop it ?
- Relax ! Drink a few vodkas.
-
- The pSeries is just the new name of some RS/6000's.
- Other than that, "A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.009: Monterey / AIX 5L
-
- IBM has announced "AIX5L". It's essentialy AIX Version 5. The 'L' stands
- for "Linux Affinity". A statement that AIX is going to support some of the
- Linux API's and interfaces (for instance: the /proc filesystem)
-
- Some changes to the filesystem limits, virtual IP's, dynamic dealocation
- of swapspaces.
-
- You can read all about it in http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.100: I am used to Unix systems programming,
- why should I learn SMIT?
-
- Using SMIT is probably very different from your normal way of doing
- system administration, but could prove very useful in the long run. In
- some areas, in particular TCP/IP, NFS, etc., you can also do things the
- normal way, but it is unfortunately difficult to know exactly when the
- normal way works. Again, always using SMIT is probably your best way
- to go, even when you have to learn a new tool.
-
- What SMIT actually does is build up commands with all required options
- to perform the functions requested and execute them. The commands
- called and the output they produce are stored in the files smit.script
- and smit.log in your home directory. Looking in smit.script may teach
- you more about system administration.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.101: How do I turn off the "running man" in smit?
-
- Use smitty, the standard curses version or add this line to your .kshrc file:
- alias smit="smit -C"
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.102: How do I import an /etc/passwd or /etc/group file
- from another box?
-
- If the other box is non-AIX, copy the password and group entries for
- the non-system users into AIX's /etc/passwd and /etc/group files.
- Then run /bin/pwdck -t ALL. This will create the proper entries in
- the shadow password file (/etc/security/users). You should also run
- usrck and grpck.
-
- To duplicate the password and group entries from another AIX box,
- copy /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/security/passwd, /etc/security/group,
- /etc/security/user, /etc/security/limits, /etc/security/environ. The
- last three are optional unless you modified them. If you modified
- /etc/security/login.cfg, you should also copy that file.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.103: Cleaning up utmp, who, and accounting problems
-
- The best way to fix this problem is to fix the programs which are
- causing the behavior in the first place. The short answer is to call
- software support and ask for the "UTMPFIX" collection of PTFs.
-
- Virtually all of these problems should be fixed in the 3251 PMP and
- the only one I've been able to prove is still broken is using ALT-F4
- to close an aixterm.
-
- This applies if you are running an X11R5 xterm on 3.2.
- Add this to the top of X11R5 mit/clients/xterm/main.c:
-
- #ifdef AIXV3
- #define USE_SYSV_UTMP
- #define HAS_UTMP_UT_HOST
- #define WTMP_FILENAME "/var/adm/wtmp"
- #endif
-
- And your utmp problems should go away. If you want xterminal sessions
- to go into the wtmp file you need to define -DWTMP in the Imakefile and
- be sure the WTMP_FILENAME is set to the right place.
-
- Section 8.02 contains a small C program that you can use until the
- PTFs arrive. The program must be run as root and will periodically
- clean up old entries.
-
- Another utmp program was posted to comp.sources.unix, volume 25, issue
- 96 by David W. Sanderson (dws@cs.wisc.edu) that also works on AIX 3.1.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.104: How to fsck the root filesystem
-
- You can run fsck either in maintenance mode or on mounted filesystems.
- Try this:
-
- 1. boot from diskette (AIX 3 only --- AIX 4 boot from CD or tape)
- 2. select maintenance mode
- 3. type /etc/continue hdisk0 exit (replace hdisk0 with boot disk if
- not hdisk0)
- 4. fsck /dev/hd4
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.105: How can I unmount /usr to run fsck on it?
- From: accapadi@mathew.austin.ibm.com (Matt Accapadi)
-
- [ This is for 3.2. ]
-
- In order to fsck /usr, it has to be unmounted. But /usr cannot be
- unmounted because /bin is symbolically linked to /usr/bin. Also
- /etc/fsck is symbolically linked to /usr/sbin/fsck.
-
- To work around this, when you boot from the boot/maintenance diskettes
- and enter maintenance mode, enter "getrootfs hdisk0 sh" instead of
- "getrootfs hdisk0" where hdisk0 is the name of the boot disk. Then run
- "fsck /dev/hd2".
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.108: How do I see/change parameters like number of
- processes per user?
-
- You can use SMIT as described below or simply use lsattr/chdev.
- The former will list the current setting as in:
-
- # lsattr -E -l sys0 -a maxuproc
- maxuproc 40 Maximum # of processes allowed per user True
-
- and you can then increase the maxuproc parameter:
-
- # chdev -l sys0 -a maxuproc=200
- sys0 changed
-
- If you just type 'lsattr -E -l sys0' you will get a list of all
- parameters, some of which can be changed but not others.
-
- If you want to use smit, do as follows:
-
- smit
- System Environments and Processes
- Change / Show Operating System Parameters
- - on this screen you can change by overtyping the following fields:
- - Maximum number of PROCESSES allowed per user
- - Maximum number of pages in block I/O BUFFER CACHE
- - Maximum Kbytes of real memory allowed for MBUFS
- - toggle fields exist for:
- - Automatically REBOOT system after a crash (false/true)
- - Continuously maintain DISK I/O history (true/false)
-
- Info 1.30 erroneously suggests that in AIX 3.2.5 you can set different
- limits for different users.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.109: How do I shrink the default paging space on hd6?
- X-With-Changes-From: Ray Reynolds <reynolds@valisys.com>
-
- 1) create a paging space to use temporarily
- mkps -s 20 -a rootvg
-
- 2) change default paging space hd6 so it is not used at next reboot
- chps -a n hd6
-
- 3) For AIX 3.1, edit /etc/rc.boot4 and change swapon /dev/hd6;
- for AIX 3.2 and 4.x, edit /sbin/rc.boot and change swapon /dev/hd6
- swapon /dev/paging00
-
- 3a)Since the default system dump device is /dev/hd6 in 4.1.x, it has to
- be changed to the temporary swap device before you remove the old
- swap device.
-
- sysdumpdev -p /dev/paging00
-
- 4) Update information in boot logical volume
- bosboot -a (3.1)
- bosboot -a -d hdisk0 (3.2 & 4)
-
- 5) shutdown and reboot
-
- 6) remove current hd6 and create a new one of smaller size
- rmps hd6
- mklv -y hd6 -t paging rootvg <size of PS in 4 Meg blocks>
-
- 7) Re-edit /etc/rc.boot4 (3.1), /sbin/rc.boot (3.2/4) to swap to /dev/hd6
- swapon /dev/hd6
-
- 7a)On AIX 4, change the dump device back to hd6:
-
- sysdumpdev -p /dev/hd6
-
- 8) Update information in boot logical volume
- bosboot -a (3.1)
- bosboot -a -d hdisk0 (3.2 & 4)
-
- 9) change current paging device (paging00) so it is inactive at next boot
- chps -a n /dev/paging00
-
- 10) shutdown, reboot, remove paging00 using the command:
- rmps paging00
-
- You can check your paging space with `lsps -a`
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.110: The swapper seems to use enormous amounts
- of paging space, why?
-
- When you run ps, you may see a line like:
-
- USER PID %CPU %MEM SZ RSS TT STAT TIME CMD
- root 0 0.0% 14% 386528 8688 - S 17:06 swapper
-
- This is normal behavior, the swapper looks to ps like it has the entire
- paging space plus real memory allocated.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.111: How much paging space do I need?
-
- See answer 2 in question 1.300.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.112: How do I mount a floppy disk as a filesystem?
- From: op@holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU (Olaf Pors)
-
- You can build a filesystem on a floppy and mount it, however the
- filesystem will be read only. The reason that the filesystem will be
- read only is because AIX Version 3.1.5 cannot create a journal log on a
- diskette. The intended use is for temporary access to read only data.
- The diskette file system must be unmounted after use and during system
- backup procedures or errors could occur.
-
- To make the read only filesystem on a floppy:
-
- 1. Make a subdirectory on an existing filesystem and place all of the
- files that the diskette will contain into this subdirectory.
-
- 2. Enter the following command to create a prototype file containing
- information about the new filesystem, in the example /dir_struct
- is the pathname of the subdirectory created in step 1, and
- proto_filename is the name of the prototype file to be created.
-
- proto /dir_struct > proto_filename
-
- 3. Place a formatted floppy into the drive.
-
- 4. Edit the prototype file and replace the first line with the following:
-
- <noboot> 0 0
-
- 5. Enter the following command to make the filesystem on your floppy:
-
- mkfs -p proto_filename -V jfs /dev/fd0
-
- 6. Create the directory upon which you will mount the floppy based
- filesystem, or you can use /mnt. Mount the filesystem:
-
- mount -r -V jfs /dev/fd0 /your_mount_point
-
- 7. To unmount the filesystem:
-
- umount /dev/fd0
-
- Since the filesystem is read-only it may be of limited use but if you
- are going to use it for utility programs and other data that does not
- change much, it may still be useful. If you need to change the data,
- you can copy the directory from the floppy into another directory, make
- your modifications, and remake the filesystem using this procedure.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.113: How do I remove a committed lpp?
-
- AIX 3.2.5: you can get rid of COMMITTED lpps/ptfs by installing with the force
- option and then rejecting the package.
-
- AIX 4 users: installp has a new option, uninstall (-u) which can be
- used to remove lpps. BEWARE of pre-requisite chains.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.114: How can I recover space after installing updates?
- From: Milt Cloud <cloud@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
-
- Note: If you are a /usr server, do not use this because the files
- mentioned below are needed by /usr clients and cannot be deleted.
-
- Installp creates numerous files in /usr to clean up after
- failed/rejected installs and also for de-installing uncommitted lpps.
- Once you have COMMITted packages you can remove these files safely.
- Depending on your installation activity the numbers can be significant:
- hundreds-to-thousands of files, megabytes of data.
-
- Files eligible for removal are associated with each "product" you have
- installed; the largest collection being due to bos. After
- COMMITting bos lpps, you may safely remove all files of the form:
-
- /usr/lpp/bos/deinstl*
- /usr/lpp/bos/inst_U4*
- /usr/lpp/bosadt/deinstl*
- and /usr/lpp/bosadt/inst_U4*
-
- You may repeat this for all additional COMMITted products (e.g.,
- bostext1, bosnet, xlc) you have on your system.
-
- This problem of lingering install files is a known defect in installp.
- If you have installed PTF U411711 (or any superseder of it: U412397,
- U413366, U413425) the deadwood in /usr will not be quite as prevalent.
- No single PTF currently available completely corrects this problem.
-
- On my own 320, the following freed up 12.4M in /usr:
-
- # rm -R /usr/lpp/bos/deinstl*
- # rm -R /usr/lpp/bos/inst_U4*
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.115: Where are the AIX log files kept?
- From: dirk@kimosabi.ucsc.edu (Dirk Coldewey)
-
- AIX logs messages as specified in /etc/syslog.conf. Here's an
- example
-
- #
- *.err;kern.debug;auth.notice;user.none /dev/console
- *.err;kern.debug;daemon,auth.notice;mail.crit;user.none /var/adm/messages
- lpr.debug /var/adm/lpd-errs
-
- *.alert;kern.err;daemon.err;user.none operator
- *.alert;user.none root
- *.emerg;user.none *
-
- # for loghost machines, to have authentication messages (su, login, etc.)
- # logged to a file, un-comment out the following line and adjust the
- # file name as appropriate.
- #
- # if a non-loghost machine chooses to have such messages
- # sent to the loghost machine, un-comment out the following line.
- #
- auth.notice /var/log/authlog
- mail.debug /var/log/syslog
-
- # following line for compatibility with old sendmails. they will send
- # messages with no facility code, which will be turned into "user" messages
- # by the local syslog daemon. only the "loghost" machine needs the following
- # line, to cause these old sendmail log messages to be logged in the
- # mail syslog file.
- #
- user.alert /var/log/syslog
- #
- # non-loghost machines will use the following lines to cause "user"
- # log messages to be logged locally.
- #
- user.err /dev/console
- user.err /var/adm/messages
- user.alert `root, operator'
- user.emerg *
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.116: How can I log information about ftp accesses to a file?
- From: elr@trintex.uucp (Ed Ravin)
- From: map@hal.maths.monash.edu.au (Michael Page)
-
- 1) In /etc/syslog.conf, add the line:
- daemon.debug /tmp/daemon.log
-
- 2) # touch /tmp/daemon.log
- # refresh -s syslogd
-
- 3) Modify your inetd.conf so that ftpd is called with the "-l" flag.
- You may also want the "-d" flag. This can be done with 'smit inetdconf'.
-
- All the syslog messages from various system daemons should now appear in
- the file "/tmp/daemon.log".
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.117: How do I find a file name from the inode number?
- From: /G=Bill/S=Mansfield/O=P00S38E/OU1=notes/DD.HPNOTES=Bill_Mansfield/mcd/us#a#MCD@mhs-mcdusa.attmail.com (Bill Mansfield)
-
- ncheck -i nnnn /mntpoint
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.118: How do I set up postscript accounting?
- From: taluskie@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu (Vince Taluskie)
-
- Ephraim Vider originally wrote this program to configure postscript page
- accounting. It acts as a backend wrapper which logs accounting
- information in /etc/qconfig and can be ftp'd from utpapa.ph.utexas.edu
- in /pub/aix/psacct.tar.Z.
-
- Compile with:
-
- cc pswrap.c -o pswrap -lqb
-
- and then make this program suid root:
-
- chown root pswrap
- chmod u+s pswrap
-
- If this step is not done, the printer will hang.
-
- Then start up SMIT and go to :
-
- Spooler
- Manage Local Printer Subsystem
- Local Printer Queue Devices
- Change / Show Characteristics of a Queue Device
- <Select Queue>
- <Select Device>
-
- and change "BACKEND PROGRAM pathname" to the full pathname of pswrap
- since pswrap will now handle the backend interface with the queue.
-
- A stream of info will be written to a logfile in /tmp (prob lp0.log) but
- this file is mainly used for status info and raw pagecounts. If the
- accounting data is going to the qconfig-specified acctfile, then use the
- 'pac' command to read it. I prefer to have readable ascii data files
- instead, so I just comment out the '#define WANT_PAC' line and it will
- only go to the ACCTFILE specfied in pswrap.c.
-
- [pswrap.c source has been moved to section 8.03]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.119: How do I create boot diskettes?
-
- In AIX 4.x you cannot, the kernel and ram drive don't fit on a diskette.
- You should get "0301-174 bosboot: Invalid device /dev/fd0 specified!"
- if you try.
-
- For AIX 3.2.x you will need to have four formatted diskettes.
-
- boot disk: bosboot -d /dev/fd0 -a
- display disk: mkdispdskt
- display extension disk: mkextdskt
- Install/Maintenance disk: mkinstdskt
-
- AIX 3.2.5 may require a fifth boot diskette if you have a FDDI adapter
- in the machine. It is the "communications extension" diskette.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.120: Where can I find tools for performance monitoring?
-
- Free X based performance watcher: xsysstats - <ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/>
-
- For 3.2 a few tools are available in /usr/lpp/bosperf. There are tools
- to monitor traces, I/O events, CPU, virtual memory, disk block usage,
- kernel extensions, etc. It even has a simulator, rmss, that allows one
- to try out different memory size configurations to see how it impacts
- performance. See 6.05 for the AIX Performance and Tuning Guide.
-
- The Monitor program is an AIX/6000 System performance monitor program.
- Monitor can be used to display system statistics of various short time
- performance values. Monitor program is available for anonymous ftp from
- <ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/unix/AIX/rs6000/monitor-2.1.1.tar.Z> -file.
-
- New to version 2 (released as version 2.1.1)
- * Allow logging of information on interval basis in ascii format.
- The logfile can be specified as a strftime string and can be
- compressed.
- * Synchronize sample/interval time on wall clock (from 00:00).
- * Sample/interval time is now accurate to around 10 milliseconds
- (depending on system load).
- * User counts for remote and inactive users, and average inactive time.
- * System uptime is printed.
- * Highlighted headers
- * In logmode, filesystem usage is logged
- * support for Symmetric multiprocessing cpuinfo (-smp option
- or 's' character command).
- * help page in interactive mode 'h' or '?' character commands
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.121: How can I tell what virtual printer a print queue is using?
- From: yoder@austin.ibm.com (Stuart R. Yoder)
-
- Use the command 'lsvirprt'. Don't use any parameters and it will
- run in an interactive mode that will give you a menu of all virtual
- printers on the system with the queue and device for each one.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.122: Two srcmstr's are less useful than one?
- From: hubert@rs530.ncs.mainz.ibm.com (Bernhard Zeller)
-
- This can happen on systems that have no console, or systems with an
- async terminal as the console but not attached or turned off. One of the
- symptoms is a second srcmstr got run. But the second srcmstr is worthless
- as we can't use the stop/startsrc commands, refresh inetd, qdaemon won't
- start, etc.
-
- To resolve this, type:
-
- smit chgtty
-
- and add the keyword 'clocal' in following lines:
-
- STTY attributes for RUN TIME
- STTY attributes for LOGIN
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.123: How do I set the tty name associated with a physical port?
- From: accapadi@mathew.austin.ibm.com (Matt Accapadi)
-
- Let's say you wanted to make a tty on the s1 port and call it rs0000
- and a tty on the s2 port and call it rs0001.
-
- You could run:
-
- mkdev -c tty -s rs232 -t tty -l rs0000 -p sa0 -w s1 # creates rs0000
- and
- mkdev -c tty -s rs232 -t tty -l rs0001 -p sa1 -w s2 # creates rs0001
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.124: How do I use mksysb to clone a system?
- From: joann@ariadne.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Jo Ann Malina)
-
- I use the following steps on the master machine to clone an AIX system:
- 1) Remove the password from root.
- 2) Remove the NIS line from the end of the /etc/group file (the last
- line with the +: )
- 3) Change most of the level '2' designations in /etc/inittab to level
- '3' to prevent them from being started up when the new system is
- booted (the minimum ones to change are rc.nfs and rc.tcpip)
- 4) Boot in service mode and change the name and ip address to a "spare"
- set to avoid address collision.
- 5) Clear /tmp, /usr/tmp and /usr/spool/lpd/stat.
- 6) Run mkszfile and edit it to be sure /usr is as small as possible;
- then mksysb from the command line.
-
- The above changes allow me to boot in normal mode the first time, get in
- as root, change the above files back and do the other things necessary
- to configure the new system.
-
- Then, of course, I go back and clean up and reboot my master machine.
-
- Note: 1 and 2 lets you log in even if you can't get on the network.
- It prevents the login process from trying to reach an NIS server.
- Step 2 needed only if you use NIS.
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.125: How do I retain timestamps with mksysb?
- Originally From: graeme@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz ( Graeme Moffat)
-
- As of AIX 3.2.5 bosrest preserves timestamps and permissions as does pax.
-
- In AIX 3.2.2 /usr/lpp/bosinst/bosnet (for net installs), and bosrest
- (tape), the 'pax' commands all have '-pmop' options. m = "DON'T
- retain modification times". So, simply change all the '-pmop' to
- '-pop' and remake inst/maint diskettes or mksysb tapes.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.126: How can I find out the machine type?
-
- [Due to it's length this script was moved to section 8.04]
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.127: Updating to 3.2.5
- From: kraemerf@franvm3.VNET.IBM.COM (Frank Kraemer)
-
- (Ed. The following is useful if you have to update a large number of
- systems, large being > 3.)
-
- *** WARNING : Modify the scripts if you need dataless, diskless ***
- *** or remote /usr support. ***
-
- 1) Receive the PMP3250 tape from your AIX support center the PTF number
- is U493250.
-
- 2) Create a filesystem with 240 MB of space (60 PP's) and mount it as
-
- /dev/pmp3250 - /pub/pmp3250
-
- 3) Insert the tape (blocksize is 512) and install PTF U422467
-
- # installp -BXacgq -d /dev/rmt0 bos.obj 3.2.0.0.U422467
-
- 4) Use the following script to load the tape in the new filesystem
-
- # cd /pub/pmp3250
- # mktape2disk.sh 0 447 <<-- read 447 files from rmt0
-
- [ The mktape2disk.sh script has been moved to section 8.05 ]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.128: AIX fix strategy
- From: leedp@austin.ibm.com (Dennis Lee, PMP Release Manager)
-
- First, a little history...
-
- The maintenance strategy for AIX 3.1 was cumulative updates. Every few
- months, we'd put all available fixes in one large package and ship it.
- There was no real strategy for providing a single fix. Although we'd
- occasionally produce an emergency patch, there was no method for
- tracking them; if you got a second one, it might overwrite the first.
- So, after a few of these patches, it's hard to track.
-
- In AIX 3.2 we introduced a "selective fix" strategy to support
- individual fixes. The package contained information about other fixes
- that were required for that fix to work correctly. For example, a Korn
- shell fix might require a change in libc.a, which might in turn require
- a fix in the kernel. This strategy allowed us to keep track of which
- fixes were installed to make sure we didn't overwrite one with another,
- and make sure they all worked together. But the initial selective fix
- design still had a few problems.
-
- o None of the fixes were cumulative. If you got a fix for Korn shell,
- you may not receive all of the fixes for Korn shell. This left the
- possibility of rediscovering other problems that were already fixed.
-
- o Since we chose to fix everything possible that was reported as a
- problem, instead of deferring them to the next release, the number
- of available fixes became quite large.
-
- o The number of additional fixes required by any given fix could also
- be quite large. Since the installation program ran once for each
- fix, the size and complexity of the fix packages grew, and
- installation time lengthens greatly.
-
- While developing the AIX 3.2.4 upgrade, we undertook a large effort to
- resolve the selective fix concerns, and dramatically increase the
- quality of AIX 3.2. The base operating system and most of the optional
- program products were split into subsystems. A subsystem is a group of
- logically related files. The division was made such that changes to a
- given subsystem were less likely to affect other subsystems. In total
- there are approximately 500 subsystems, but in practice, files have been
- modified in only about half of them. The advantages of the new
- packaging strategy are:
-
- o Each subsystem package is cumulative, containing all of the fixes
- and enhancements to date for that subsystem.
-
- o The cumulative subsystem package is tested as an entity.
-
- o The number of fix packages is greatly reduced because the number of
- subsystems is far fewer than the number of fixes and enhancements.
-
- o The number of other fixes required by any given fix is also greatly
- reduced because a subsystem package has requisites only on other
- subsystem packages.
-
- o The reduced number of fix packages greatly reduced installation time.
-
- Some customers also told us that they liked the maintenance level
- strategy that we used in AIX 3.1. They liked being able to install all
- of the known fixes, and they liked knowing what "level" of AIX they had.
- To meet these requirements, we produced a Preventive Maintenance Package
- (PMP). The PMP is simply a collection of the latest cumulative
- subsystem packages tied together in such a way that it can be installed
- by selecting a single fix. We also added flags to the lslpp command and
- added a new command, oslevel, to show which PMP is installed. Now we
- had both! The good attributes of selective fix along with the good
- attributes of maintenance levels.
-
- A few Q&As:
-
- Q. Why is the fix I just received 130 megabytes!@#? I already have the
- AIX 3.2.4 update installed!
- A. Your fix may be part of the AIX 3.2.5 update. AIX 3.2.5 is another
- PMP that contains all of the fixes to date, as well as enhancements
- to support the PowerPC model 250, and the new high-end RS/2 models
- 590 and 990, as well as support for new disk and tape drives, graphics
- adapters and more.
-
- Q. Why can't you just build my fix on 3.2.4?
- A. There really isn't such a thing as 3.2.1 or 3.2.2 or even 3.2.4.
- They're just collections of fixes and enhancements built on a 3.2 base.
- If the fix for your problem was built prior to 3.2.5, you can get the
- older version. But if your fix was built for the first time in a 3.2.5
- subsystem, that's the only version of the fix that exists.
-
- See also 6.02.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.129: Are passwords limited to 8 char?
-
- AIX passwords are only significant to 8 characters. You can set a
- passwd to more than 8 characters but anything over eight are ignored.
- No messages or warnings are given.
-
- Be careful if you're running NIS. You probably want to limit passwords
- to 8 char on all machines (6000 and others) to be compatible.
-
- Someone mentioned that DCE supports kerberos which supports passwords
- greater than 8 characters.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.130: How do I increase the number of ptys > 64?
- From: mick@oahu.cern.ch (Mickey Coggins)
-
- SMIT only allows 64. Try this:
-
- odmget -q"attribute=num and uniquetype=pty/pty/pty" PdAt |
- sed "s/0-64/0-512/" |
- odmchange -q"attribute=num and uniquetype=pty/pty/pty" -o PdAt
-
- chdev -l pty0 -anum=256 -P
- reboot
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.131: Where can I find patches for CERT advisories?
-
- Patches (APARs in IBMspeak) for CERT advisories (system security
- problems) can be found at <http://service.software.ibm.com/>. You
- should have a copy of Fixdist
- <ftp://service.software.ibm.com/aix/tools/fixdist/fd.tar.Z> handy to
- deal with translating APAR and PTF numbers into downloadable files.
- See question 1.142 for more information about fixdist.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.132: How do I remove a non-existant physical volume?
- Thanks to Johnny Shieh (shieh@austin.ibm.com)
-
- To delete a phantom disk from the ODM use reducevg with the pvid
- instead of the disk name. You are running some command such as lsvg
- or varyonvg and it is griping about a disk that is no longer findable
- right? In that warning message, it should give you a pvid. Try one
- of the following, (note: reducevg updates the VGDA but not the ODM).
-
- reducevg -f <vgname> <pvid>
-
- ldeletepv -g VGid -p PVid
- -g Required, specify the VGid of the volume group you are
- removing the physical volume from
- -p Required, specify the PVid of the PV to be removed
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.133 How do I kill a process that ignores
- kill -QUIT -KILL -STOP
-
- If there is i/o pending in a device driver, and the driver does not
- catch the signal, you can't kill it - a reboot is the only way to
- clear it.
-
- Furthermore, if the process stays hung for more than a few minutes,
- you can find out what device is wedged by doing this --
-
- % echo trace -k $(expr <pid> / 256) | crash | tee stack
-
- If you can't figure out what is wrong, print that trace out and call
- 1-800-237-5511 and tell them that something is broken. Tell them you
- want to fax in the nice stack trace that you have as your testcase.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.134: How can I see "console" messages?
- From: crow@tivoli.com (David L. Crow)
-
- Use the swcons command to redirect the console to a file. Or use
- chcons to do it permanently.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.135: Where can I find TOP for AIX?
-
- TOP functionality is included in an AIX package called Monitor. See
- question 1.120 for more information.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.136: How can I restrict root logins to specific terminals?
- From: jfh@austin.ibm.com (Julianne F. Haugh)
-
- Read FAX 2737 availible from the 800-IBM-4FAX number discussed in
- section 6.02. Refer to APAR IX45701 for fixes related to the rsh style
- commands.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.137: How do I merge my /etc/password and
- /etc/security/password for Crack?
-
- /usr/sbin/mrgpwd. You must have permissions to read /etc/security/password.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- 1.138: I lost the root password, what should I do?
- From: dramm@csusm.edu (Donald E. Ramm)
-
- Boot from boot diskettes, bootable tape, or bootable CD.
- At the Installation/Maint menu select item 4, "Start a limited function
- maintenance shell.
- At the subsequent "#" prompt enter the command:
- getrootfs hdiskN
- (where "N" is replaced by the number of a disk on your system
- that is in rootvg.)
- That will run for about a minute or so and you get a # prompt back. At this
- point you are logged in as root in single user mode.
- Change to /etc/security and edit the passwd file. Delete the three lines
- under root: password, update time (or whatever it's called), and
- flags. Save the file.
- Then at the prompt, give root a new password.
- Shutdown/reboot in normal mode. Log in with new password.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.139: How can I resolve DEV_WAIT status for a local print queue?
- From: chuah@sam.po.my (Chuah Teik Chye)
-
- Try "qadm -k && qadm -U"
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.140: SMIT problems forcing/overwriting install?
-
- Installp does not support overwriting and installing prerequisite
- software at the same time.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.141: Which distribution tape do I have?
- From: fuzzy@obelix.ncs.mainz.ibm.com (Thomas Braunbeck)
-
- AIX 3.2.5 (3250-04-09)
- | | | |
- | | | |
- | | | Revision level
- | | Enhancement level
- | Preventive Maintenance Package (PMP) level
- AIX Version, Release, Modification level
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.142: How can I get PTF (fixes) via ftp? What is fixdist?
-
- Get a copy of IBM's fixdist package. This X-windows (and curses) program
- can help you find and transfer PTFs from IBM to your machine. It is availible
- from <ftp://aix.boulder.ibm.com/aix/tools/fixdist/> and further instructions
- are displayed after you login. It is worth noting here that the files
- fixdist retrieves are often quite large and therefore not recommended
- for those with slow connections.
-
- Ciaran Deignan <C.Deignan@frec.bull.com> says that Bull offers AIX
- PTFs at <http://www-opensup.bull.com/>. The basic download facility
- requires that you have the right PTF number. The "Consult" facility
- allows you to search for PTFs that apply to a given fileset (bos.rte.tty, for
- example). The "search" facility allows a PTF to be selected on a wide
- range of criteria.
-
- Apple has their own fixdist site with all the fixes that has been
- approved on the Apple Network Servers. Apple users should NOT use
- the fixes available from IBM and their mirrors, but only from:
- <ftp://fixdist.support.apple.com/> (130.43.6.8).
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.143: Is there an easy way to determine if AIX
- has a PTF applied or not?
-
- lslpp -Bl Uxxxxxxx
-
- Where Uxxxxxxx is the PTF id.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.144: How do I recreate a deleted /dev/null?
- From: tvweaver@austin.ibm.com (Tom Weaver)
-
- /bin/mknod /dev/null c 2 2
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.145: What is a checkstop error?
- From: tvweaver@austin.ibm.com (Tom Weaver)
-
- While this may not be the official definition, what it means is that the
- hardware has detected a condition that it cannot resolve, and which prevents
- normal operation. So, it stops executing instructions, responding to
- interrupts, etc. Usually it means that some component of the hardware is
- broken.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.146: How do I recover deleted files?
-
- Preferably from a backup. If you don't have a backup, at least one
- company, Compunix, claims to have a product that will recover deleted
- files. More information is available at <http://www.compunix.com/>.
-
- From: Bernard.Kozyra@bull.net
-
- [Editor's note: this one appears to be for the really desperate ones,
- but it might be helpful if you really need it the most.]
-
- RECOVERING REMOVED FILES AND DIRECTORIES IN A FILESYSTEM
-
- If a file is Deleted from the system, the filesytem blocks composing
- that file still exist, but are no longer allocated. As long as no new
- files are created or existing files extended within the same filesystem,
- the blocks will remain untouched. It is possible to reallocate the
- blocks to the previous file using the "fsdb" command (filesystem debugger).
-
-
- MAKE A BACKUP OF THE ENTIRE FILESYSTEM BEFORE PERFORMING THESE STEPS!!!
- ELSE ( BANG !!!!! ).
-
- It is possible to send a mail for have some informations ...
-
- Bernard.Kozyra@bull.net
-
-
- Steps to recover a deleted file
- -------------------------------
-
- 1) "ls -id {dir}"
- (where dir is directory where file resided)
- Record INODE number for next step.
-
- 2) Unmount the filesystem.
-
- 3) "fsdb /{Mountpoint}" or "fsdb /dev/{LVname}"
- (where Mountpoint is the filesystem mount point, and LVname is
- the logical volume name of the filesystem)
-
- 4) "{INODE}i"
- (where INODE is the inode number recorded in step 1)
- This will display the inode information for the directory. The
- field a0 contains the block number of the directory.
- The following steps assume only field a0 is used. If a value
- appears in a1, etc, it may be necessary to repeat steps #5 and
- #6 for each block until the file to be recovered is found.
-
- 5) "a0b"
- (moves to block pointed to by field "a0" of this inode)
-
- 6) "p128c"
- (prints 128 bytes of directory in character format)
- Look for missing filename. If not seen, repeat this step until
- filename is found. Record address where filename begins. Also
- record address where PRIOR filename begins. If filename does
- not appear, return to step #5, and selecting a1b, a2b, etc.
-
- Note that the address of the first field is shown to the far left.
- Increment the address by one for each position to the right,
- counting in octal.
-
- 7) "a0b"
- (moves to block pointed to by field "a0" of this inode)
- If the filename was found in block 1, use a1b instead, etc.
-
- 8) "p128e"
- (prints first 128 bytes in decimal word format)
- Find the address of the file to recover (as recorded in step 6)
- in the far left column. If address is not shown, repeat until found.
-
- 9) Record the address of the file which appeared immediately PRIOR to
- the file you want to recover.
-
- 10) Find the ADDRESS of the record LENGTH field for the file in step
- #9 assuming the following format:
-
- {ADDRESS}: x x x x x x x x x x ...
- | | | | |-------- filename ------|
- inode # --+----+ | |
- | +-- filename length
- record LENGTH --+
-
- Note that the inode number may begin at any position on the line.
- Note also that each number represents two bytes, so the address
- of the LENGTH field will be `{ADDRESS} + (#hops * 2) + 1'
-
- 11) Starting with the first word of the inode number, count in OCTAL
- until you reach the inode number of the file to be restored,
- assuming each word is 2 bytes.
-
- 12) "0{ADDRESS}B={BYTES}"
- (where ADDRESS is the address of the record LENGTH field found
- in step #10, and BYTES is the number of bytes [octal] counted
- in step #11)
-
- 13) If the value found in the LENGTH field in step #10 is greater than
- 255, also type the following:
-
- "0{ADDRESS-1}B=0"
- (where ADDRESS-1 is one less than the ADDRESS recorded in step #10)
- This is necessary to clear out the first byte of the word.
-
- 14) "q"
- (quit fsdb)
-
- 15) "fsck {Mountpoint}" or "fsck /dev/{LVname}"
- This command will return errors for each recovered file asking if
- you wish to REMOVE the file. Answer "n" to all questions.
- For each file that is listed, record the associated INODE number.
-
- 16) "fsdb /{Mountpoint}" or "fsdb /dev/{LVname}"
-
- 17) {BLOCK}i.ln=1
- (where BLOCK is the block number recoded in step #15)
- This will change the link count for the inode associated with
- the recovered file. Repeat this step for each file listed in
- step #15.
-
- 18) "q"
- (quit fsdb)
-
- 19) "fsck {Mountpoint}" or "fsck /dev/{LVname}"
- The REMOVE prompts should no longer appear. Answer "y" to
- all questions pertaining to fixing the block map, inode map,
- and/or superblock.
-
- 20) If the desired directory or file returns, send money to the author
- of this document.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.147: What questions are on the AIX Certified
- User/SystemAministrator/etc., exam?
-
- If you want more information, look at
- <http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/support/aixcert/>.
-
- There's also a self assessment exam available at
- <http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/cgi-bin/TC2/tc2_reg.cgi>. The questions
- are supposedly *derived from the same sources* as the AIX
- Certification exams. I assume that this means the actual exams cover
- much of the same information.
-
- I assume that the actual questions (and especially the answers) are
- protected by copyright and possibly other laws, so disclosing them
- without IBM's permission would not be wise or legal.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.148: How can I run a command or commands at system
- shutdown?
-
- "Stock" AIX 4.1.x doesn't have any obvious place to add commands to
- the shutdown sequence. You can 1) modify /etc/shutdown (it's a shell
- script); 2) add your commands to /etc/netware.clean (shutdown invokes
- this program if it exists) or 3) install APAR IX65326 ("ADD
- /ETC/RC.SHUTDOWN TO SHUTDOWN SCRIPT IN AIX4.1.5) which adds a
- user-defined /etc/rc.shutdown script to the shutdown sequence. AIX
- 4.2 and above already has a similar feature.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.149 How to install LPPs on a shared disk?
- From: Ciaran Deignan <C.Deignan@frec.bull.fr>
-
- I have an LPP that I want to install on all my AIX machines (for
- example the "perl" freeware), but I want to minimize the disk-space
- used on the network of machines. Can I selectively mount part of /usr
- on another machine?
-
- In general it is not possible to share an LPP with several machines.
- Sometimes it is possible to use a dedicated filesystem to install
- freeware which can then be shared.
-
- However for anything packaged as an LPP it is possible to use
- a script that replaces /usr/sbin/inurest, and that redirects files
- delivered by the LPP to the shared disk.
-
- One script that does this is called Ninstallp, and it is available
- (with instructions) from
- http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/5428/ninstallp.html
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.150 How can I reduce the size of /var/adm/wtmp ?
-
- The file /var/adm/wtmp grows with each login, but is never reduced.
- The contents of wtmp is used (only?) by the command "last",
- which shows, in reverse order, all the logins and reboots that
- happened since the start of the wtmp file.
-
- The file should not be deleted, but the contents can be discarded using
- the following command:
- # > /var/adm/wtmp
-
- Alternatively the freeware utility "tidysys" can remove all the entries
- from wtmp that are older than (say) 15 days. Tidysys was written by
- Terry Murray <terry@weavel.demon.co.uk> for AIX 3.2 and is available
- from ftp://ftp.frontiernet.net/pub/aix/tsys220.tar.
-
- Tidysys was ported to AIX 4.1 by C. Deignan and is available from
- <http://www-frec.bull.com/>.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.151: How do I start local daemons at system startup?
-
- AIX does neither use the BSD style rc.local file nor the System V style
- /etc/rc*.d startup files directories. To add local daemons to the system
- startup sequence in a BSD rc.local style use the following command to
- create an /etc/inittab entry:
-
- # mkitab -i rcnfs "rclocal:2:wait:/etc/rc.local >/dev/console 2>&1"
- # touch /etc/rc.local
- # chmod 700 /etc/rc.local
-
- Then put the command lines to start the daemons in /etc/rc.local.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.152 How do I set the TZ variable to automatically change to
- daylight savings time?
-
- The TZ variable can be set in /etc/environment file so the time
- automatically switches to daylight savings time in spring and back to
- normal in autumn. The actual rules when to switch vary by country, the
- following should work in middle europe:
-
- TZ=MET-1MET DST,M3.5.0/02:00:00,M10.5.0/03:00:00
-
- The exact definition for the rules can be found with infoexplorer under
- the environment page.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.153 Why does init not reap its zombie child processes?
-
- If you have lots of zombie (defunct) processes with parent process id 1,
- the init process is probably waiting for some bad /etc/inittab
- configuration line to finish. Check the inittab file for entries that
- specify the wait keyword for processes that do not terminate. These
- lines should probably specify "once" or "respawn" instead.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.154 I'm looking for a missing command or header file.
- Which fileset do I need to install?
-
- If you are at AIX Version 4.2.1 or later you could install
- bos.content_list and then use the command "which_fileset [ File ]"
- The which_fileset command searches the /usr/lpp/bos/AIX_file_list
- file for a specified file name or command name, and prints out the
- name of the fileset that the file or command is shipped in.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.155 Why doesn't the df -k output reflect the space I added
- to an LV?
-
- You need to use the chfs command or the smit chfs menu to tell the file
- system to use the new space. By the way, in most cases it is better to
- just increase the size of the file system, it will increase the
- underlying LV automatically.
-
-