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- Subject: comp.unix.aix Frequently Asked Questions (Part 2 of 5)
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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
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-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.200: Some info about tape backups
- From: Craig Anderson
-
- The following supplements the information on rmt devices in
- InfoExplorer. It is based on my own personal experience with IBM tape
- drives running on AIX 3.1. No warranty is expressed or implied.
-
- CONFIGURING THROUGH SMIT:
- BLOCK size (0=variable length) (ALL)
- Sets the tape block size. When reading, the block size must be
- set to the block size set when the tape was written. When
- using some commands, tapes written with ANY block size can be
- read if the block size is set to 0 (variable length) (see
- "BLOCK SIZES" below).
-
- Use DEVICE BUFFERS during writes (ALL)
- Set to yes, the device will buffer data internally on writes.
- This greatly improves performance, but under certain cases may
- be undesirable since the data is not written to tape before
- returning a good indication.
-
- Use EXTENDED file marks (8mm only)
- Extended file marks take up much more space than short (or
- non-extended) file marks. But extended file marks can be
- overwritten, allowing data not at the beginning of tape to be
- overwritten (see "FILE MARKS" below).
-
- RETENSION on tape change or reset (1/4" only)
- If set to "no" then the tape will not be retentioned
- automatically when the tape is inserted. Note that this will
- take effect only after the device is used.
-
-
- FILE MARKS:
- Tape devices support multiple tape files. Tape files are the
- result of a backup/cpio/tar/dd type command, where the device is
- opened, written to, and closed. Because tapes allow large
- quantities of data to be written on a single tape, several backups
- (that is, tape files), may be combined on one physical tape.
- Between each tape file is a "tape file mark" or simply "file
- mark". These file marks are used by the device driver to indicate
- where one tape file ends and another begins.
-
- B E
- <------- O O ------->
- T T
- __ ___________________________ ______________
- physical | \ | | \ |physical
- beginning| \ | tape | \ | end
- of | \ | file | \ | of
- tape | \ | mark | \ | tape
- |_____\________|_______|__________\_________|
-
- Note that there is a distinction between the beginning of tape
- (BOT) side of a file mark and the end of tape (EOT) side of a file
- mark. If the head is on the BOT side of a file- mark, "tctl fsf
- 1" command will move only to the EOT side of the same file mark.
-
- With the 1/4" tape drive, writing can only take place
- sequentially, or after blank tape has been detected. You cannot
- write over data on the tape (except at BOT). If you wish to add
- data to a tape which has been written and then rewound you should
- space forward file mark until an error occurs. Only then can
- you start writing again.
-
- With an 8mm tape drive, writing can only take place before blank
- tape, an EXTENDED file mark, or at BOT. Thus if several backups
- have been made on one tape and you wish to overwrite one of the
- backups, position the tape to the place you wish to start writing
- and issue the following commands:
- tctl bsf 1
- tctl eof 1
- The first command skips back to the BOT side of the same file
- mark. The second command rewrites the file mark (writing is
- allowed before extended file marks). The erase head will erase
- data ahead of the write head, so that after writing the file mark
- the head will be positioned before blank tape. Only after this
- may you start writing over data in the middle of the tape. (All
- data beyond where you are currently writing will be lost). Note
- that you cannot write over short file marks. In order for this to
- work, the tape must have been written with extended file marks
- (use smit to change this).
-
- With the 9-track drive writing can take place anywhere on the
- tape although overwriting single blocks of data is not supported.
-
- On the 8mm drive extended filemarks use 2.2 megabytes of tape and
- can take up to 8.5 seconds to write. Short filemarks use 184K
- and take up to 1.5 seconds to write.
-
- BLOCK SIZES:
- When data is written to tape it is written in blocks. The blocks
- on a tape are separated by inter-record gaps. It is important to
- understand the structure of the written tape in order to
- understand the problems which can occur with changing block
- sizes.
-
- In fixed block size mode all blocks on the tape are the same
- size. They are the size of the block size set in the device
- configuration. All read()s and write()s to the tape drive must be
- a multiple of the fixed block size.
-
- In fixed block mode a read() will return as many blocks as needed
- to satisfy the read() request. If a file mark is encountered
- while reading the tape only the data up until the file mark will
- be returned.
-
- It is not possible for the tape drive to read a tape whose block
- size is not the same as the block size in the device
- configuration. (Unless the device configuration is in variable
- size blocks.)
-
- In variable block size (0) mode, the blocks written on the tape
- are the size of the read() and write() requests to the device
- driver. In this case, the actual block sizes on the tape can be
- changed using the options to the backup commands (tar -C, cpio -C,
- backup -C).
-
- In variable mode, read() requests greater than size of the block
- on the tape will return only the data from the next block on the
- tape. It is this feature that allows tapes written in any block
- size (fixed or variable) to read with the dd command (the output
- from the dd command may be piped to restore, tar, or cpio for
- example.) Note that backup, tar, and cpio cannot read all tapes
- by using a large block size because they assume there is an error
- if they get a short read().
- dd ibs=128k obs=16k if=/dev/rmt0 | ...
-
- The tape head is always positioned at an inter-record gap, file
- mark, or blank tape after reading or writing.
-
- With the 8mm tape drive, using a fixed block size which is not a
- multiple of 1K is inefficient. The 8mm tape drive always writes
- internally in 1K blocks. It simulates the effect of variable
- block sizes, but, for example, using a fixed block size of 512
- bytes (or using variable block size and write()ing 512 bytes at a
- time) wastes one half of the tape capacity and gives only one half
- the maximum transfer rate.
-
- To figure out a tape's actual block size try:
-
- 1). Set the tape to variable block size.
- 2). "dd if=<tape> of=/tmp/dummy bs=128k count=1"
- 3). "ls -l /tmp/dummy"
- 4). The number of bytes in "/tmp/dummy" is the physical block size.
-
- EXCHANGING DATA WITH NON-UNIX AND OTHER VENDORS MACHINES:
- Many tape drives support both variable and fixed block sizes.
-
- Variable block mode writes block sizes the size of the write
- command issued (tar and backup specify this with the -b option).
- In fixed mode, block sizes are fixed and all writes must be a
- multiple of the fixed block size.
-
- Unix often internally chops larger reads and writes up into
- manageable pieces (often 65535, 65534, or 65532 bytes) before
- doing the actual reads and writes. This means reads and writes of
- 64K bytes are often broken up into a 65535 byte record and a 1
- byte record (In fixed mode the write will fail). Block sizes >=
- 64K (-C128 and greater) should be avoided for this reason. AIX
- does not break up read and write requests, but be aware of the
- situation on other machines.
-
- If the tape is written in an unknown block size then set the
- device configuration in smit to use variable size blocks, use the
- "dd" command with a large input block size, and pipe it to the
- restore command. For example:
- chdev -l rmt0 -a block_size=0
- dd if=/dev/rmt0 ibs=128k obs=16k | tar -tvf-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.201: How do I do remote backup?
-
- There seems to be several ways of doing this. The first approach is a
- one-liner to allow tar to reference another machine's device. The
- second is more complete but uses a similar approach. The latest
- addition to this section claims to be able to support mksysb on a
- remote machine. Thanks to all the contibutors.
-
- tar -b1 -cf - . | rsh REMOTEHOST "dd ibs=512 obs=1024 of=/dev/TAPEDEVICE"
-
- [Ed.: The usave.sh script has been moved to section 8.06. I've verified
- this script works fine. However, it may be slow for large filesystems
- since it creates a temp file of filenames in /tmp.]
-
- There are also several commercial solutions. One is IBM's SYSBACK/6000
- product. See Question 1.209 for more information.
-
- Open Microsystems sells a product called DistribuTAPE which supports
- mksysb to a remote tape drive under AIX 3.2, 4.1 and 4.2. DistribuTAPE
- supports remote tape drives by placing a pseudo tape driver on the
- client system, and a server daemon on the server. More information at
- http://www.openmic.com/
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.202: How do I backup a multi-disk volume group?
- From: pack@acd.ucar.edu (Daniel Packman)
-
- [ Ed.: I have not verified this procedure. I would actually recommend
- NOT to have one volume group span multiple disks unless you really
- need such big logical volumes. ]
-
- 1. If you have a set of three or more disks in a volume group
- (typically 3 for 5xx machines with three internal drives;
- with only two, the procedures outlined here have to be modified
- to ignore the fact that you don't have a quorum in the volume group)
-
- 2. If one drive has failed (usually only one fails at a time :-) )
-
- It is possible to go through a service boot (the volume group is called
- rootvg and one of the 2 good disks on it is called hdisk0):
-
- importvg -y rootvg hdisk0
- varyonvg -f -n -m1 rootvg
-
- These commands will work, but give error messages. If you wish to mount
- a user filesystem, say /u on logical volume /dev/lv00, then
-
- mount -f /dev/lv00 /v
-
- will work only if jfslog, the journaled file system log device, is not
- on the damaged disk. If it is, you must (and can in any case) mount the
- filesystem read-only:
-
- mount -f -r /dev/lv00 /v
-
- This crucial and rather obvious point baffled several level 3 support
- personnel at Austin as well as myself for almost a week. Once the file
- system(s) of interest are available, they can be saved to tape for
- restoration later. Of course, one can expect only about two thirds of a
- filesystem to be recoverable if it spans all 3 physical disks. One
- other point to remember is that the standard boot procedure from floppy
- includes the restore command but does not include the backup command.
-
- *****************************************************************************
- * If you do not have other RS6000 machines at your site it is imperative *
- * that you either build a bootable tape which includes either restore or *
- * tar or cpio (a bootable floppy set will not have enough space) or at the *
- * very least copy onto a spare floppy backup, cpio, or tar. The floppy *
- * should be created with backup -ivq so that its contents can be read into *
- * the memory resident system after booting. *
- *****************************************************************************
-
- All is not lost if tar, cpio or backup are available on an undamaged
- disk that can be mounted. Since tar and cpio are in /bin, they may both
- very well be unavailable.
-
- It is a very good idea for those who have tape devices to build a
- bootable tape with their desired extra commands in it. Follow the
- instructions from IBM but add your desired commands to the following
- three files:
-
- /usr/lpp/bosinst/tape2
- /usr/lpp/bosinst/diskette/boot2
- /usr/lpp/bosinst/diskette/inslist
-
- If you have anything other than a minimum memory configuration, you
- should be able to add many commands.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.203: How do I put multiple backups on a single 8mm tape?
- From: kerm@mcnc.org (Cary E. Burnette)
-
- There are two possible solutions to this, both of which use /dev/rmt0.1
- which is non-rewinding.
-
- SOLUTION #1
- -----------
-
- To put multiple backups on a single tape, use /dev/rmt0.1, which is a
- no-rewind device, using either rdump or backup (both by name & inode
- work). Using rdump or backup "byinode" both generate the message that
- the tape is rewinding but actually do not. This is an example that
- works on my system:
-
- # rsh remote1 -l root /etc/rdump host:/dev/rmt0.1 -Level -u /u
- # rsh remote2 -l root /etc/rdump host:/dev/rmt0.1 -Level -u /u
- # tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 rewind # rewinds the tape
-
- where I am implementing the command from host.
- To restore a table of contents of the first I would use
-
- # restore -f /dev/rmt0.1 -s1 -tv
-
- where the -s1 flag tells restore to go to the first record on the tape.
- Type the exact command again to get the second record. The -s(Number)
- means go to Number record from this spot. It works pretty well.
-
-
- SOLUTION #2
- -----------
- Steve Knodle, Educational Resources Center, Clarkson University
-
- I use:
- ------------------- Dump.sh --------------------
- CONTENTSFILE=`date |dd conv=lcase |sed -e 's/19//' |awk '{print $6 $2 $3}'`
- set -x
- LEVEL=$1
- shift
-
- backup -c -b 56 -$LEVEL -uf /dev/rmt0.1 /
- backup -c -b 56 -$LEVEL -uf /dev/rmt0.1 /usr
- backup -c -b 56 -$LEVEL -uf /dev/rmt0.1 /u
- tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
-
- touch /usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- echo "Dumping /" >>/usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- restore -t -s 1 -f /dev/rmt0.1 >>/usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- echo "Dumping /usr" >>/usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- restore -t -q -s 1 -f /dev/rmt0.1 >>/usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- echo "Dumping /u" >>/usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- restore -t -q -s 1 -f /dev/rmt0.1 >>/usr/local/dumps/Contents.$CONTENTSFILE
- tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
-
- I process the table-of-contents first by a little program that does
- common prefix encoding, and then compress.
-
- This gives a table of contents file I can keep on-line until the tape
- is reused.
-
-
- Solution #3
- -----------
- mount | grep jfs | cut -c27- | cut -d" " -f1 | \
- xargs -i backup -${LEVEL} -u -f /dev/rmt1.1 {} > ${DATE}.backup 2>&1
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.204: How can I make an exact duplicate of a tape over the network?
-
- The challenge here is not to have to create a temporary file (disk space
- limitation) and work across heterogeneous networks.
-
- This script might work:
-
- LOCAL=/dev/tape_dev
- REMOTE=/dev/tape_dev
- dd if=$LOCAL ibs=64k obs=512 | rsh remote_host dd ibs=512 obs=64k of=$REMOTE
-
-
- From: pack@acd.ucar.edu (Daniel Packman)
-
- Daniel provides the following perl script to convert from the known
- world's function codes to AIX for compatibility.
-
- #!/bin/perl
- # Wrapper to convert input rmt requests to
- # AIX 3.2 ioctl numbers. We pass on all commands we don't understand
- # I0 MTWEOF -> I10 STWEOF write and end-of-file record
- # I1 MTFSF -> I11 STFSF forward space file
- # I2 MTBSF -> I12 STRSF reverse space file
- # I3 MTFSR -> I13 STFSR forward space record
- # I4 MTBSR -> I14 STRSR reverse space record
- # I5 MTREW -> I6 STREW rewind
- # I6 MTOFFL -> I5 STOFFL rewind and unload tape
- # I7 MTNOP -> I0 (no-op? should ignore following count)
- # I8 MTRETEN-> I8 STRETEN retension tape, leave at load point
- # I9 MTERASE-> I7 STERASE erase tape, leave at load point
- #I10 MTEOM (position to end of media ... no ibm equivalent?)
- #I11 MTNBSF (backward space file to BOF ... no ibm equivalent?)
- @iocs = (10,11,12,13,14,6,5,0,8,7);
- open(RMT,"|/usr/sbin/rmt") || die "Can't open pipe to rmt\n";
- select(RMT);
- $| = 1;
- while (<STDIN>) {
- s/(^I)(\d$)/I$iocs[$2]/;
- exit 0 if $_ =~ /^[Qq]/;
- print RMT $_ ; }
- exit 0;
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.205: What is tape block size of 0?
- From: benson@odi.com (Benson I. Margulies)
-
- Tape devices are generally split into two categories: fixed block and
- variable block. 1/4" tape is the fixed block, and 8mm is variable.
-
- On a fixed block size device, the kernel always sends data to the device
- in suitable block size lumps, and varying the size passed to write(2)
- (e.g., via the bs option to dd) gives the kernel more data to stream.
- On a variable block size device, the kernel writes to the device
- whatever passed to it. On an 8mm, it had better be a multiple of 1024
- to get efficient tape usage.
-
- AIX has the World's Only Variable Block Size 1/4" tape drive. If you
- use SMIT to set the block size to a nonzero value, AIX treats the device
- as fixed block size, whether it is or not. By default, 8mm drives are
- set to the same size as 1/4", 512 bytes. This is wasteful, but
- otherwise mksysb and installp would fail.
-
- If you set the block size to 0, the device is treated as variable block
- size, and the size passed to write becomes the physical block size.
- Then if you use a sensible block size to dd, all should be wonderful.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.206: Resetting a hung tape drive
- From: Craig_Anderson@kcbbs.gen.nz (Craig Anderson)
-
- A process accesses the tape drive. The process stops, exits, or whatever,
- but still hold on to the drive. When this happens, the process cannot be
- killed by any signal and the tape drive cannot be used by any other
- process until the machine is rebooted.
-
- The following should help:
-
- RESET:
-
- AIX, like most UNIX systems has no reset function for tape drives. You
- can however send a Bus Device Reset (a standard SCSI message) to the
- tape drive using the following piece of code. If the tape drive does
- not respond to the BDR, then a SCSI Bus Reset will be sent (and this
- will reset every device on the SCSI Bus). SCSI Bus resets are rather
- extreme so you should refrain from using this program unnecessarily.
- But there are times (like after you've inserted a jammed/old/bad tape in
- an 8mm drive), when there's no other way to reset the device other than
- to shutdown and reboot (obviously you can power down and up an external
- drive to reset it - and this would be the better choice).
-
- This is actually documented in info, but can be hard to find and
- there's no complete program.
-
- /* taperst: resets the tape drive by sending a BDR to the drive. */
- #include <stdio.h>
- #include <fcntl.h>
- #include <errno.h>
- #include <sys/scsi.h>
-
- int main(int argc, char **argv)
- {
- /* This can be run only by root */
-
- if (argc != 2) {
- fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s /dev/rmt#\n", argv[0]);
- return 1;
- }
-
- if (openx(argv[1], O_RDONLY, 0, SC_FORCED_OPEN) < 0) {
- perror(argv[0]);
- return 2;
- }
- return 0;
- }
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.207: How do I restore specific files from a mksysb tape?
- From: Marc Pawliger (marc@sti.com)
-
- To recover specific files from a backup made with mksysb, try
- $ tctl fsf 3
- $ tar xvf /dev/rmt0.1 ./your/file/name
-
- From: Matt Willman (Willman.matt@cnf.com)
-
- The procedure changed with AIX 4, which uses backup instead of tar to
- write the tape. For AIX 4 the procedure is as follows:
-
- $ tctl fsf 3
- $ restore -xvf /dev/rmt0.1 ./your/file/name
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.208: How do I read a 5Gbyte tape on a 2Gbyte drive?
- Posted by: bobmet@clam.com (Robert Metcalf)
-
- To read a 5Gbyte tape on a 2Gbyte drive, the
- tape needs to have been created with a density setting of 20.
-
- The following is from IBM's electronic ASKSUPPORT repository:
-
- R: The 7208 011 5 GB tape drive has various density settings which are
- as follows:
-
- +-------+--------------------------+
- | DENSIT| DESCRIPTION |
- | SETTIN| |
- +-------+--------------------------+
- | 140 | Writes in 5.0GB mode and |
- | | will enable data com- |
- | | pression; also, to do |
- | | compression you must use |
- | | "DATA COMPRESSION = yes" |
- +-------+--------------------------+
- | 21 | Writes in 5.0GB mode and |
- | | will NOT do data com- |
- | | pression |
- +-------+--------------------------+
- | 20 | Writes in 2.3GB mode and |
- | | will NOT do data com- |
- | | pression |
- +-------+--------------------------+
- | 00 | Factory power-on default |
- | | for 5.0GB data com- |
- | | pression mode |
- +-------+--------------------------+
-
- The density setting of the 7208 011 must be 20 for it to make a tape
- that is readable by the 7208 001.
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.209: What can Sysback do for me?
- From: johnsont@austin.ibm.com (Tony Johnson)
-
- Sysback provides the flexibility of restoring onto the same system in
- the exact same manner, or onto a completely different system with
- differnet disk configuration, platform type, kernel, etc, while
- reporting any inconsistencies and allowing you to adjust to fit. For
- instance, you will get warnings if a particular volume group cannot be
- created because the original disks to not exist, or that mirroring
- cannot be accomplished because there is no longer enough disk space
- because the disks are smaller. You can then select the disks for each
- volume group, reduce or add space to filesystems and LVs, exclude
- entire VGs or filesystems, etc. You can even add and delete mirrors,
- stripe or un-stripe logical volumes, etc.
-
- In addition, all of the Sysback functions can be performed across the
- network, including network boot and network install, and you can
- perform striped backups across multipel tape drives, use sequential
- tape autoloaders, and perform unattended multi-volume backups with
- cron.
-
- ON AIX 3.2, mksysb does not retain paging space config, disk LV
- placement, mirroring, etc.
-
- On AIX 4.1, it does these on an EXACT same configuration, but does not
- allow any flexibility, and still does not retain non-rootvg volume
- groups (although you can now use additional commands to backupa nd
- restore these). mksysb also does not allow you to clone onto
- different platforms (i.e. rspc -> rs6k -> rs6ksmp).
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.210: How can I get my HP 4mm DAT to work?
-
- For HP25470/80A DDS:
- MRS disabled: Set switches 3,6,7,8=0 and 1,2,4,5=1
- MRS enabled: Set switches 3,6,7=0 and 1,2,4,5,8=1
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.211: How do I copy DAT tapes?
-
- If you have two drives try tcopy(1). Otherwise the traditional UNIX
- approach is ( dd if=/dev/rmt0 bs=1024b | dd of=/dev/rmt1 bs=1024b )
- Put that in a while loop using a non-rewinding device to do multiple
- files. To use drives from two different machines either get the GNU
- dd (bundled with GNU tar) or use something like.
-
- $ dd if=/dev/rmt0 bs=1024b | rsh hostname dd of=/dev/rmt0 bs=1024b
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.212: How do I speed up backups to DLT tapes?
-
- DLT tapes need high data rates to stay in streaming mode. To achieve
- higher data rates, use a variable length block size by setting the fixed
- length block size to zero. Also use a buffer size of about 64KB for
- backup (128 blocks for tar).
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.300: Some info about the memory management system
- From: Michael Coggins (MCOG@CHVM1.VNET.IBM.COM).
-
- 1. Does AIX use more paging space than other unix systems?
-
- Under many scenarios, AIX requires more paging space than other unix
- systems. The AIX VMM implements a technique called "early allocation of
- paging space". When a page is allocated in RAM, and it is not a
- "client" (NFS) or a "persistent" (disk file) storage page, then it is
- considered a "working" storage page. Working storage pages are commonly
- an application's stack, data, and any shared memory segments. So, when
- a program's stack or data area is increased, and RAM is accessed, the
- VMM will allocate space in RAM and space on the paging device. This
- means that even before RAM is exhausted, paging space is used. This
- does not happen on many other unix systems, although they do keep track
- of total VM used.
-
- Example 1:
- Workstation with 64mb RAM is running only one small application that
- accesses a few small files. Everything fits into RAM, including all
- accessed data. On AIX, some paging space will already be used. On
- other unix systems, paging space will be 100% free. Clearly, this is an
- example that shows where we use more paging space than the other machines.
-
- Example 2:
-
- Same machine as above, except we are in an environment where many
- applications are running with inadequate RAM. Also, the system is
- running applications that are started, run, left idle, and not in
- constant use. A session of FRAME running in a window, for example.
- What happens is that eventually (theoretically) all applications will be
- paged out at least once. On the AIX system and the other systems the
- total paging requirements will be the same (assuming similar malloc
- algorithm). The major difference is that the AIX system allocated the
- paging space pages before they were actually needed, and the other
- systems did not allocate them until they were needed. However, most
- other systems have an internal variable that gets incremented as virtual
- memory pages are used. AIX does not do this. This can cause the AIX
- system to run out of paging space (virtual memory), even though malloc()
- continues to return memory. This "feature" allows sparse memory
- segments to work, but requires that all normal users of malloc()
- (sbrk()) know how much virtual memory will be available (actually
- impossible), and to handle a paging space low condition. A big problem.
- There are some pretty obvious pros and cons to both methods of doing
- Virtual Memory.
-
- 2. How much paging space do I need?
-
- Concerning the rule of thumb of having 2 times RAM for paging space:
- this is rather simplistic, as are most rules of thumb. If the machine
- is in a "persistent storage environment", meaning that they have a few
- small programs, and lots of data, they may not need even as much as 1
- times RAM for paging space. For example, a 1GB database server running
- on a 6000 with 256MB of RAM, and only running about 50MB of "working"
- storage does not need 512MB of paging space, or even 256MB. They only
- need the amount of paging space that will allow all their working
- storage to be paged out to disk. This is because the 1GB database is
- mostly "persistent storage", and will require little or no paging space.
- Excessive paging space may simply mean wasted disk space. However,
- avoid insufficient paging space. Tip: Don't have more than one paging
- space per disk. Tip: Put lots of RAM in your system - it will use it.
-
- 3. Why does vmstat show no free RAM pages?
-
- AIX uses RAM as a possibly huge disk buffer. If you read a file in the
- morning, that file is read into RAM, and left there. If no other
- programs need that RAM, that file will be left in RAM until the machine
- is halted. This means that if you need the file again, access will be
- quick. If you need that RAM, the system will simply use the pages the
- file were using. The pages were flushed back to disk earlier. This
- means that you can get a huge speedup in disk access if you have enough
- RAM. For example, a 200MB database will just ease into RAM if you have
- a 256MB system.
-
- 4. Since vmstat shows no free RAM pages, am I out of RAM?
-
- Probably not. Since disk files will be "mapped" into RAM, if vmstat
- shows lots of RAM pages FREE, then you probably have too much RAM (not
- usual on a RISC System/6000)!
-
- 5. Shouldn't the "avm" and the "fre" fields from vmstat add up to something?
-
- No. The "avm" field tells you how much "Active Virtual Memory" AIX
- thinks you are using. This will closely match the amount of paging
- space you are using. This number has *ABSOLUTELY* nothing to do with
- the amount of RAM you are using, and does *NOT* include your mapped
- files (disk files). The amount of RAM can be determined with
- /usr/sbin/bootinfo -r
-
- 6. Why does the "fre" field from vmstat sometimes show lots of free
- RAM pages?
-
- This will happen after an application that used a lot of RAM via
- "working" storage (not NFS storage, and not disk file or "persistent"
- storage) exits. When RAM pages that were used by working storage (a
- program's stack and data area) are no longer needed, there is no need to
- leave them around. AIX completely frees these RAM pages. The time to
- access these pages versus a RAM page holding a "sync'd" mapped file is
- almost identical. Therefore, there is no need to periodically "flush" RAM.
-
- 7. Is the vmstat "fre" field useful?
-
- The vmstat "fre" field represents the number of free page frames. If
- the number is consistently small (less than 500 pages), this is normal.
- If the number is consistently large (greater than 4000 pages), then you
- have more memory than you need in this machine.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.301: How much should I trust the ps memory reports?
- From: chukran@austin.VNET.IBM.COM
-
- Using "ps vg" gives a per process tally of memory usage for each running
- process. Several fields give memory usage in different units, but these
- numbers do not tell the whole story on where all the memory goes.
-
- First of all, the man page for ps does not give an accurate description
- of the memory related fields. Here is a better description:
-
- RSS - This tells how much RAM resident memory is currently being used
- for the text and data segments for a particular process in units of
- kilobytes. (this value will always be a multiple of 4 since memory is
- allocated in 4 KB pages).
-
- %MEM - This is the fraction of RSS divided by the total size of RAM for
- a particular process. Since RSS is some subset of the total resident
- memory usage for a process, the %MEM value will also be lower than actual.
-
- TRS - This tells how much RAM resident memory is currently being used
- for the text segment for a particular process in units of kilobytes.
- This will always be less than or equal to RSS.
-
- SIZE - This tells how much paging space is allocated for this process
- for the text and data segments in units of kilobytes. If the executable
- file is on a local filesystem, the page space usage for text is zero.
- If the executable is on an NFS filesystem, the page space usage will be
- nonzero. This number may be greater than RSS, or it may not, depending
- on how much of the process is paged in. The reason RSS can be larger is
- that RSS counts text whereas SIZE does not.
-
- TSIZ - This field is absolutely bogus because it is not a multiple of 4
- and does not correlate to any of the other fields.
-
- These fields only report on a process text and data segments. Segment
- size which cannot be interrogated at this time are:
-
- Text portion of shared libraries (segment 13)
-
- Files that are in use. Open files are cached in memory as
- individual segments. The traditional kernel cache buffer
- scheme is not used in AIX 3.
-
- Shared data segments created with shmat.
-
- Kernel segments such as kernel segment 0, kernel extension
- segments, and virtual memory management segments.
-
- Speaking of kernel segments, the %MEM and RSS report for process zero
- are totally bogus for AIX 3.1. The reason why RSS is so big is that the
- kernel segment zero is counted twice. For AIX 3.2, this has been
- changed, but the whole story is still not known. The RSS value for
- process 0 will report a very small number of the swapper private data
- segment. It does not report the size of the kernel segment 0, where the
- swapper code lives.
-
- In summary, ps is not a very good tool to measure system memory usage.
- It can give you some idea where some of the memory goes, but it leaves
- too many questions unanswered about the total usage.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.302: Which simms do RS6000's use?
-
- This answer is under construction... I'm trying to collect details
- about compatable simms.
-
- RS/6000 220,230 USE 2 pair 70ns PS/2 style simms
- RS/6000 250,C10 USE 4 pair 70ns PS/2 style simms
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.303: What is kproc?
-
- kproc (always PID 514 on AIX 3 and PID 516 on AIX 4) is the kernel's
- idle process.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.304: How do I create a RAM disk in AIX?
- From: Jeff Wang <hjiwa@nor.chevron.com>
-
- You can't create a RAM disk in AIX. The closest related functionality
- the operating system gives you is the RAM disk buffer. Read 1.300
- sub-section 3.
-
- [Editor's notice: as of 4.3.3 you CAN. See 1.914 ]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.305: How much RAM (real memory) does my machine have?
- From: Michael Abel/resnova
- <Michael_Abel/resnova%RESNOVAD@notesgw.compuserve.com>
-
- As root: bootinfo -r
- As any user: lsattr -E -l sys0 -a realmem
-
- lsdev -C -c memory
-
- shows all memory adapters. On MCA systems one may add up the values
- displayed for each memory card in order to sum up to the amount of
- total memory. On PCI systems only one item (mem0) is
- displayed. Additional information may be displayed with
-
- lsattr -E -lmem0
-
- These commands were tested on various IBM systems running AIX relases
- 3.2.5 and 4.1.4
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.306: Why do PIDs run non-sequentially?
- From: Julianne F. Haugh <jfh@austin.ibm.com>
-
- The answer (I was there, consider me an authority ...) is that the
- PIDs needed to be somewhat unpredictable. This is because AIX was
- originally designed with a number of C2 and B1 features, and one of those
- is the notion of covert channel analysis. Sequential PIDs are a covert
- channel (assuming the system has one PID namespace ...) since the value
- of the "next" PID is shared by all currently running processes. So if I
- want to sneak some of my classified data out to your co-operating
- non-classified program, I can do it by carefully controlling the value
- of the "next" PID.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.400: How do I make an informative prompt in the shell?
-
- In the Korn Shell (ksh), the PS1 variable is expanded each time it is
- printed, so you can use:
-
- $ export myhost=`hostname`
- $ PS1='$LOGNAME@$myhost $PWD \$ '
-
- to get, e.g.
-
- bengsig@ieibm1 /u/bengsig $
-
- In the C-shell, use:
-
- % set myhost=`hostname`
- % alias cd 'chdir \!* > /dev/null; set prompt="$LOGNAME@$myhost $cwd % "'
- % cd
-
- to get, e.g.
-
- bengsig@dkunix9 /u/bengsig/aixfaq %
-
- There is no easy solution in the Bourne Shell. Use the Korn Shell instead.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.401: How do I set up ksh for emacs mode command line editing?
-
- The ksh has an undocumented way of binding the arrowkeys to the emacs
- line editing commands. In your .kshrc, add:
-
- alias __A=`echo "\020"` # up arrow = ^p = back a command
- alias __B=`echo "\016"` # down arrow = ^n = down a command
- alias __C=`echo "\006"` # right arrow = ^f = forward a character
- alias __D=`echo "\002"` # left arrow = ^b = back a character
- alias __H=`echo "\001"` # home = ^a = start of line
-
- Type "set -o emacs" or put this line in your .profile.
-
- Also, you MUST have PTF U406855 for this to work in AIX 3.2. The APAR #
- for the problem is IX25982, which may have been superseded.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.402: Listing files with ls causes a core dump
- From: Julianne F. Haugh <jfh@austin.ibm.com>
-
- Scenario: a directory that is shared by N users (N >= 200).
- Run 'ls -l' in that directory. It goes for a while, then
- Seg fault(coredump)!
-
- It only occurs when the usernames are displayed (almost every file is
- owned by a different person). The -g and -n options work fine; only -l
- and -o (which shows owner and not group) cause it.
-
- I believe that this problem was corrected by U407548. If you have that
- many users that you are having core dump problems (it took over 200),
- you might also want to look into getting the PTF that fixes IX31403.
- That APAR deals with large numbers of accounts and performance problems
- associated with looking them up.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.403: How do I put my own text into InfoExplorer?
-
- With AIX 3.1, you cannot do it. AIX 3.2 has a product called
- InfoCrafter that allows you to do that.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.404: InfoExplorer ASCII key bindings
- From: mycroft@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Charles Hannum)
-
- If you just press 'Return' when it starts up, with 'Basic Screen
- Operations' highlighted, you'll get some help.
-
- If you look long enough, you'll find a page named 'Using Keys and Key
- Sequences in the InfoExplorer ASCII Interface'. It describes the key
- sequences and actions. Here are a few to get you started.
-
- Keys Action
-
- Ctrl-W Moves between the Navigation screen and the Reading screen.
- If the Navigation screen is displayed, you can press Ctrl-W to display
- the Reading screen. If the Reading screen is displayed, you can press
- Ctrl-W to display the Navigation screen.
-
- Ctrl-O Makes the menu bar active or inactive. If your text cursor is
- located in the text area of the screen, you can press Ctrl-O to make the
- menu bar active. If the menu bar is already active, you can press
- Ctrl-O to make it inactive, which moves the text cursor to the text area.
-
- Tab Moves to the next menu bar option in the menu bar. If a pull-down
- menu is not displayed and you press the Right Arrow key, the next menu
- bar option is displayed in reverse video.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.405: How can I add new man pages to the system?
- From: horst@faui63.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Horst Luehrsen)
-
- Put the man pages in /usr/man, e.g. /usr/man/man1/tcsh.1 for the tcsh
- man page. Under AIX 3.1.10, /usr/lib/makewhatis can be used to update
- the makewhatis-database /usr/man/whatis so apropos and whatis know about
- the added manpages. /usr/lib/makewhatis should be available on all 3.2
- versions.
-
- For AIX 4.x, you can store the man pages in the /usr/share/man hierarchy.
- /usr/lib/makewhatis is still there.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.406: Why can't I read man pages? Where is nroff?
-
- Nroff and troff aren't in the base installation. It is shipped as
- part of AIX 3.2.5 but may not be installed. Use smit to install a
- software package called txtfmt.tfs.obj from your 3.2.5 distribution
- media.
-
- In AIX 4.x, you need bos.txt.tfs.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.407: Why is my environment only loaded once?
-
- The .profile file is only loaded once (for your login shell) subsequent
- shells should be initialized by setting ENV=$HOME/.kshrc (for ksh).
-
- Bash users can use $HOME/.bash_profile for the login shell environment
- and $HOME/.bashrc.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.408: Where is the 'nawk' command on my AIX system?
- From: Jeff Wang <hjiwa@nor.chevron.com>
-
- The /bin/nawk that exists on many UNIX flavors is a superset of the
- 'awk' command, revised by the same original authors to include added
- functionality. All the extra options normally associated with 'nawk'
- on other UNIXes have been incorporated into the AIX version of 'awk';
- the AIX 'awk' InfoExplorer or man pages include nawk-specific features
- such as the "-v" command line option and atan2(), rand(), srand(),
- match(), sub(), gsub(), system(), close(), getline functions.
-
- If your AIX version is missing /bin/nawk (as are most AIX 3.x
- versions), the simplest way to get around this and maintain script
- portability between UNIX platforms is to make a /bin/nawk link to
- /bin/awk (as root, of course). If you do not have root privilege or
- do not want to create a /bin/nawk link, to make the script work on
- different UNIXes, you may have to test `uname` first and set all
- 'nawk' references on AIX runs to /bin/awk. If your script is to only
- run on AIX systems, you can just change all references of 'nawk' to
- 'awk' and everything should still work okay...but check the AIX awk
- script on test data prior to making actual runs.
-
- [Editor's note: AIX 4.x already contains a link from /usr/bin/nawk
- to /usr/bin/awk.]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- 1.409: How do I copy InfoExplorer (manpages and more) to my hard drive?
- From: David Alexander <unilink@online.rednet.co.uk>
-
- [Editor's note: While this is documented in one of the AIX manuals
- and covered in /usr/lpp/bos/bsdadm (AIX 3 only), it comes up often
- enough I thought I would include it here.]
-
- Not all the Info databases are required, so do not copy them all unless the
- customer specifically requests them, or has asked for the software they
- refer to. These instructions assume you have enough space on /usr.
-
- Install and mount the InfoExplorer CD-ROM as for use of Info
- from CD-ROM.
-
- Log in as Root
- umount /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- mkdir /mnt/$LANG
- mount -v cdrfs -r /dev/cd0 /mnt/$LANG
-
- cd /
- cd /mnt/$LANG
- cp -r aix /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- cp -r aix2 /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- cp -r compnav /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- cp -r hardware /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- cp -r nav /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- cp -r prog /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
- cp -r uiprog /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG
-
- Other sections can be copied if required:
- Section Size
- cp -r ada /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 7.2 Mb
- cp -r assemb /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 5.23 Mb
- cp -r cxx /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 6.52 Mb
- cp -r dce /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 3.8 Mb
- cp -r encina /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 2.67 Mb
- cp -r fortran /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 6.85 Mb
- cp -r graph /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 9.75 Mb
- cp -r graph2 /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 4.1 Mb
- cp -r pascal /usr/lpp/info/lib/$LANG 3.23 Mb
-
- umount /mnt/$LANG
- eject the CD-ROM
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.410: Why can't I set my default shell to one we've just installed?
-
- When adding new shells to the system, add them to the "shells=" line
- in /etc/security/login.cfg so they can be used during ftp and rlogin
- by users who use them as their default shell.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.411: Why do I get the "Unable to connect socket: 3"
- starting Info-Explorer?
-
- It's a bug in the way infod sets the initial permission on the
- /tmp/.info-help socket. Do a chmod 777 on /tmp/.info-help and the
- message will go away. (Charlie McGuire, mcguire@cs.umt.edu)
-
- This problem was fixed by APAR IX43230, PTF U432315
- (Paul Sitz, psitz@empros.com)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.412: Why can't I write a setuid shell script?
- From: mww@microfocus.com (Michael Wojcik)
-
- AIX, as of about the first release of 3.2.5* does not allow SUID scripts.
- (It ignores the SUID and SGID bits on scripts.) They're a huge security
- hole.
-
- If you really want to run a script SUID, you can create a small C program
- that does a setuid(0) and then system()'s your script. (Actually, the
- setuid() call isn't necessary on all Unixes; IIRC, it's not on AIX 3.2.5,
- but YYMV.) Make the program SUID. Be very careful.
-
- There are other similar solutions. You might also want to look into
- sudo, which handles this sort of thing in a somewhat more controlled
- manner
-
- * Julianne Frances Haugh (jfh@tab.com) writes:
-
- I raised an objection to set-ID shell scripts before AIX 3.1 was
- golden. ... it was finally done in the 3009 PTF for AIX 3.1.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.500 Which release of X11 do I have?
-
- AIX 4.x includes X11 R5 and Motif 1.2.
-
- On AIX 3, Run 'lslpp -h X11rte.obj'.
- If your output has a line similar to:
-
- 01.02.0000.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 03/04/93 02:05:11 root
-
- you have X11 R4. If your output has a line similar to:
-
- U491068 01.02.0003.0000 COMPLETE COMMIT 07/28/93 12:50:42 root
-
- you have X11 R5. Some people also call these AIXwindows 1.2.0 and
- 1.2.3. 'lslpp -h X11rte.motif1.2.obj' should tell you if you are
- running Motif 1.2.
-
- From: Jan Just Keijser <KeijserJJ@logica.com>
-
- AIX 4.1 and AIX 4.2 come with X11R5 and Motif 1.2.4
-
- AIX 4.3.1 (and perhaps 4.3.0) comes with X11R6.1 and Motif 2.1
-
- Some executables which run fine using the X11R5 libraries may not run
- when using the X11R6.1 libraries; you can specify which X11 libraries to
- use by setting
- LIBPATH=/usr/lpp/X11/lib/R5:/usr/lib:...
- for X11R5 and
- LIBPATH=/usr/lpp/X11/lib/R6:/usr/lib:...
- for X11R6.1; by default,
- /usr/lib/libX11.a -> /usr/lpp/X11/lib/R6/libX11.a
- and also for the other libraries on AIX 4.3.1.
-
- On most of the AIX 4.1.x and 4.2.1 boxes I have seen the default is
- /usr/lib/libX11.a -> /usr/lpp/X11/lib/R4/libX11.a
- ie the default libraries are the X11R4 libraries and _NOT_ the R5
- libraries; this may also be due to the setup at my site.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.501: How to prevent ctrl-alt-backspace from killing the X session
-
- Start X with 'xinit -T' to disable ctrl-alt-backspace from stopping X.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.502: Who has a termcap/terminfo source for the HFT console?
-
- The console used on the RISC System/6000, PS/2 and RT can be used as a
- terminal on another system with the termcap below. You can find this
- and other termcaps in /lib/libtermcap/termcap.src, including IBM
- specific ones. The terminfo sources are stored in /usr/lib/terminfo/*.ti.
- This termcap can also be used from an aixterm window.
-
- hf|hft|hft-c|ibm8512|ibm8513|IBM_High_Function_Terminal:\
- :co#80:li#25:am:ht:\
- :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:ti=\E[25;1H:te=\E[20h:\
- :nd=\E[C:up=\E[A:do=^J:ho=\E[H:\
- :bs:sf=\E[S:ec=\E[%dX:\
- :cl=\E[H\E[J:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:\
- :AL=\E[%dL:DL=\E[%dM:al=\E[L:dl=\E[M:\
- :im=\E[4h:ei=\E[4l:mi:\
- :dm=\E[4h:ed=\E[4l:\
- :so=\E[7m:se=\E[m:ul=\E[4m:ue=\E[m:\
- :md=\E[1m:mr=\E[7m:mb=\E[5m:me=\E[m:\
- :as=^N:ae=^O:sc=\E[s:rc=\E[u:\
- :kl=\E[D:kb=^H:kr=\E[C:ku=\E[A:kd=\E[B:kh=\E[H:\
- :kn#10:k1=\E[001q:k2=\E[002q:k3=\E[003q:k4=\E[004q:k5=\E[005q:\
- :k6=\E[006q:k7=\E[007q:k8=\E[008q:k9=\E[009q:k0=\E[010q:\
- :is=\Eb\E[m^O\E[?7h:rs=\Eb\E[m^O\E[?7h\E[H\E[J:
-
- ------------------------------
-
- 1.503: How can I look at PostScript files? Why is "dpsexec" so lousy?
- From: Marc Pawliger <marc@sti.com>
-
- showps comes with the 1.2.3 (X11R5) version of the X11rte.ext.obj LPP.
- Very nice PS file previewer from Adobe. Replaces xpsview which came
- with pre-1.2.3 Installed as /usr/lpp/DPS/showps/showps
-
- From: VRBASS@ATLVMIC1 (Vance R. Bass)
-
- You can look at PostScript files using either "xpreview" (in the
- optionally installable text formatting services) or you can get
- Ghostscript and Ghostview from a comp.sources.x server and build it
- yourself.
-
- >From the "xpreview" man page:
- The xpreview command is an AIXwindows 1.2- and Motif 1.1-based
- application that displays output from the troff command on an AIXwindows
- display. The troff command output file must be prepared for any one of
- the devX100, devX100K or devpsc devices. The xpreview command also
- displays PostScript language files that begin with %!.
-
- "dpsexec" is NOT intended to be a full-service document browser, but
- rather a simple DPS code debugger. If you insist on using it, you can
- edit your PS code to remove the "showpage" (which will reset dpsexec
- and clear the window) to view single-page files. It does not handle
- multi-page files gracefully.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.504: unix:0 vs `hostname`:0
-
- 1.) Is there any way to get the machine to check its local host table
- first without renaming resolv.conf?
-
- [AIX 3.2 only]
- PTF U412845 implements an environment variable to set the resolver
- time out in AIX 3.2. This allows you to set RES_TIMEOUT to the number
- of seconds before it times out, a failing a DNS query the machine will
- consult /etc/hosts.
-
- 2.) How do you tell X applications where you are if the console display
- is unix:0?
-
- From: David L. Crow <crow@waterloo.austin.ibm.com>
-
- I would suggest that if you have R5, use ":<display>.<screen>". I do
- not believe that R4 clients will understand :0, so I would suggest
- unix:0 for them.
-
- Without specifying unix or the hostname, you will get the fastest
- transport mechanism. While currently there are only two transport
- methods in the AIXwindows X server (Unix sockets and TCP sockets),
- many vendors are looking at using shared memory as a transport method.
- If you use :0 (or :0.0 or :1, etc.), then you should get the best
- performance regardless of the available transport methods.
-
- From: Marc Pawliger <marc@sti.com>
-
- Using "unix:0" or "hostname:0" when the X11 Shared Memory Transport
- (SMT) is installed as part of the 1.2.3 X11rte.obj (X11R5) will incur
- a penalty vs. using ":0" See /usr/lpp/X11/README.SMT
-
- 3.) Is there a significant performance penalty incurred by using
- `hostname`:0 as DISPLAY?
-
- Yes! Using unix:0, you are using Unix sockets. These are much faster
- than their TCP socket counterparts.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.505: VT100 key bindings for aixterm
- From: haedener@iac.unibe.ch <Konrad Haedener>
-
- Add this to your .Xdefaults file and start your VAX session with
- 'aixterm -v -name vt100 -e telnet MYVAXHOST'
-
- -----
- vt100.vt102: true
- vt100.fullcursor: false
- vt100.translations: <Key>F1: string(0x1b) string("OP") \n\
- <Key>F2: string(0x1b) string("OQ") \n\
- <Key>F3: string(0x1b) string("OR") \n\
- <Key>F4: string(0x1b) string("OS") \n\
- <Key>KP_0: string(0x1b) string("Op") \n\
- <Key>KP_1: string(0x1b) string("Oq") \n\
- <Key>KP_2: string(0x1b) string("Or") \n\
- <Key>KP_3: string(0x1b) string("Os") \n\
- <Key>KP_4: string(0x1b) string("Ot") \n\
- <Key>KP_5: string(0x1b) string("Ou") \n\
- <Key>KP_6: string(0x1b) string("Ov") \n\
- <Key>KP_7: string(0x1b) string("Ow") \n\
- <Key>KP_8: string(0x1b) string("Ox") \n\
- <Key>KP_9: string(0x1b) string("Oy") \n\
- <Key>KP_Divide: string(0x1b) string("OQ") \n\
- <Key>KP_Multiply: string(0x1b) string("OR") \n\
- <Key>KP_Subtract: string(0x1b) string("OS") \n\
- <Key>KP_Add: string(0x1b) string("Om") \n\
- <Key>KP_Enter: string(0x1b) string("OM") \n\
- <Key>KP_Decimal: string(0x1b) string("On") \n\
- <Key>Next: string(0x1b) string("Ol") \n\
- <Key>Left: string(0x1b) string("OD") \n\
- <Key>Up: string(0x1b) string("OA") \n\
- <Key>Right: string(0x1b) string("OC") \n\
- <Key>BackSpace : string(0x7f) \n\
- <Key>Down: string(0x1b) string("OB")
-
- You should also add
-
- XENVIRONMENT=$HOME/.Xdefaults
- export XENVIRONMENT
-
- to your .profile.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.506: Is there a screen saver that does not use excessive CPU?
- From: Don Buchholz <buchholz@ese.ogi.edu>
-
- Try using xlock with these options:
-
- xlock -mode life -count 1500 -nice 20 -root
-
-
- From: pranav@evolving.com (Pranav Vakil)
-
- Use mlock -hide to hide the background. You can also modify the mlock
- (/usr/local/tools/mlock) code to allow the standard X screen saver to
- take effect. The timeout value is originally set to 0 which means the
- screen saver is off. Modify this to be 120 (2 minutes) and set the
- interval time to be 60 (1 minute). Using these intervals, I have found
- that over a 24 hour period, it uses only .3 cpu minutes.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.507: Where are the colors, available for an X session, listed.
-
- /usr/lpp/x_st_mgr/bin/rgb.txt and on AIX 4.2, the file is
- /usr/lpp/X11/lib/X11/rgb.txt
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.508: Why does my app hang the X server but not an X station?
- From: Bjorn P. Brox <brox@corena.no>
-
- /usr/lpp/X11/README.SMT X client/server communication uses a 64k
- buffer by default. The size of this buffer is controled by the
- X_SHM_SIZE environment variable increasing the size of the buffer has
- been used to prevent some applications from hanging the X server :)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.509: How do I switch the control and caps lock key bindings?
-
- If you are running the X window system, you can put the following into
- .xmodmaprc
-
- remove Lock = Caps_Lock
- remove Control = Control_L
- keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
- keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
- add Lock = Caps_Lock
- add Control = Control_L
-
- Hidden Hint: Use (xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1") to make the mouse
- lefty friendly.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.510: Missing fonts?
-
- If your Xserver supports X11R5 try running a font server (edit
- /usr/lib/X11/fs/config and run fsconf && startsrc -s fs) Consult your
- Xserver instructions on how to include a font server in your font
- path.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.511: What's the termcap entry for an IBM 3151 look like?
-
- #
- # Written by Aleksandar Milivojevic, alex@srce.hr
- # 24.09.1994
- #
- I2|ibm3151|3151|IBM 3151 terminal:\
- :am:mi:cr=^M:sf=^J:co#80:li#24:cd=\EJ:ce=\EI:cm=\EY%+\040%+\040:\
- :cl=\EH\EJ:dc=\EQ:dl=\EO:do=\EB:le=\ED:mb=\E4$a:md=\E4(a:\
- :me=\E4@\E>B:mr=\E4!a:nd=\EC:se=\E4>b:so=\E4!a:ue=\E4=b:up=\EA:\
- :us=\E4"a:kb=^H:kd=\EB:kh=\EH:kl=\ED:kr=\EC:ku=\EA:\
- :k1=\Ea\r:k2=\Eb\r:k3=\Ec\r:k4=\Ed\r:k5=\Ee\r:\
- :k6=\Ef\r:k7=\Eg\r:k8=\Eh\r:k9=\Ei\r:k0=\Ej\r:\
- :ti=\E>B:te=\E>B:ms:ho=\EH:bl=^G:al=\EN:ta=^I:
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.512: Errors starting X11 application binaries from aixpdslib.
- From: <URL:ftp://aixpdslib.seas.ucla.edu/pub/README_X11R5_Stuff>
-
- We have been aware of the problem people have with dynamic links
- when running the prebuilt of X-stuffs from this library.
-
- The typical error messages will be:
-
- Could not load program [program_name]
- Member shr4.o not found or file not an archive
- Member shr4.o not found or file not an archive
- Could not load library libXt.a[shr4.o]
- Error was: No such file or directory
-
- It's because that we built the programs using X11 libraries of MIT
- which are not compatible with those of IBM. If this is the case,
- then please get the compressed tarred file of the source code instead,
- and recompile them on your system using your libraries.
-
- ------------------------------
- Subject: 1.513: .XShm*, .sm* (Shared memory) Link errors building
- Xwindows applications.
-
- Link errors that refer to .XShm* often times are a result of compiling
- applications to take advantage of the Shared Memory extension of the X
- server. You may either compile without shared memory or load the
- shared memory extensions. (see /usr/lpp/X11/README and README.SMT) A
- script for rebuilding your X server with the shared memory can be found
- in /usr/lpp/X11/Xamples/server.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.514: How do I set my DISPLAY when I login to another machine?
-
- Though this is not a question specific to AIX, it appears often enough
- to warrant an answer here. There are lots of approaches, some of which
- are described in the X Windows FAQ. Most involve a little login shell
- programing to parse the output of `who` or `who am i`.
- <URL:ftp://boogle.uchicago.edu/pub/aix/src/hostwhence.tar.Z> by
- e-siebert@uchicago.edu will help if you are willing/able to install it
- suid. See the X Windows FAQ and newsgroup for more information.
-
- Hostwhence is also availabile in the "lsof" smit-installable package on
- www-frec.bull.com. The installation scripts use ACLs to allow hostwhence to
- read /dev/kmem without being set-uid-root.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.515: Why doesn't Netscape work?
- From: "Gary R. Hook" <hook@austin.ibm.com>
-
- The problem is that Netscape has statically linked libc into
- Mozilla. When the AIX 3 libc code (setlocale()) tries to
- load an AIX 4 locale, the two are incompatible and a core
- dump ensues. AIX 4 locales have to be loaded by AIX 4 libc.
- Using LANG=C causes a lot of locale code to be bypassed, allowing
- the application to avoid loading a non-C locale, and to continue
- execution.
-
- >From: Colin <apollo@randomc.com>
- Here is a shell script that works around Netscape's problems by
- setting the LANG and CLASSPATH environment variables.
-
- #!/bin/sh
- LANG=C
- CLASSPATH=/path/to/java_30
- export LANG CLASSPATH
- if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
- /path/to/netscape http://your.home.page &
- else
- /path/to/netscape $* &
- fi
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.600: My named dies frequently, why?
- From: jpe@ee.egr.duke.edu (John P. Eisenmenger)
-
- Running on 3.2, named dies frequently on network's primary name server.
-
-
- Try the following:
-
- stopsrc -s named # stop running named
- setenv MALLOCTYPE 3.1 # use 3.1 memory allocation algorithm
- /etc/named ... # don't use smit to start named
-
- You might be able to use startsrc/smit after setting MALLOCTYPE and get
- the same effect, but I'm not sure.
-
- [According to John, the problem is malloc() in the named code. He
- also suggests using Berkeley's bind, which he has ported and can be
- ftp'ed from ftp://ftp.egr.duke.edu/archives/bind-4.8.3.tar.gz. -ed]
-
- Two ptfs should fix this problem. Get U412332 and U414752.
-
- Christophe Wolfhugel <Christophe.Wolfhugel@grasp.insa-lyon.fr> reports
- that bind 4.9 works fine on AIX 3.2 and without MALLOCTYPE=3.1.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.601: How do I trace ethernet packets on an AIX system?
- From: afx@muc.ibm.de (Andreas Siegert)
-
- Do the following:
-
- iptrace -i en0 /tmp/ipt
-
- The iptrace backgrounds. Find its process id and kill it when you are
- ready. Then run
-
- ipreport -rns /tmp/ipt >/tmp/ipr
-
- and look at the output. The current version of Info does not document
- the r, n and s options but they are quite useful for layering the output.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.602 What is the authorized way of starting automount at boot time?
- From: curt@ekhadafi.austin.ibm.com (Curt Finch)
-
- I put this in my /etc/inittab:
-
- automount:2:once:/usr/etc/automount -T -T -T -v >/tmp/au.se 2>&1
-
- I hereby dub it authorized.
-
- Jim Salter <jsalter@netscape.com> writes: You can also use the command:
- 'mkitab "automount:2:once:/usr/etc/..."' to avoid editing the file by hand.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.603: How do I set a tty port for both dial-in and dial-out?
-
- Set the mode of the tty to be either 'shared' or 'delayed'.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.604: How to move or copy whole directory trees across a network
-
- The following command will move an entire directory tree across a network
- while preserving permissions, uids and gids.
-
- $rsh RemoteHost "cd TargetDir; tar -cBf - ." | tar -xvBf -
-
- Explanation:
-
- The tar-create is rsh'd to the remote system and is written to
- stdout (the pipe).
-
- The local system is extracting the tar that is being read from
- stdin (the pipe).
-
- From: abeloni <abeloni@hstern.com.br>
-
- Another method is:
-
- rcp -rp host1:/dir host2:/dir
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1.605: How can I send mail to hosts that cannot be pinged?
- From: jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca!dedourek (John DeDourek)
-
- AIX 3.2 as shipped is configured to only send mail to mail addresses
- which include a host name. Many organizations use a mail address whose
- "host name" part is not a host name (technically an MX name). To change
- the configuration of the AIX mailer, login as root. Then edit the file
- /etc/sendmail.cf to remove the comment marker ("# ") at the beginning of
- the line which reads:
- # OK MX
-
- Now rebuild the machine readable form of the configuration with
- sendmail -bz
-
- and finally restart signal sendmail to load the new configuration by one
- of the following:
- reboot
- or
- stopsrc -s sendmail
- startsrc -s sendmail
- or
- kill -1 `cat /etc/sendmail.pid`
-
-