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Subject: SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Archive-name: sgi/faq/admin
Last-modified: Tue Jun 20  1:00:03 CDT 2000
Posting-Frequency: Twice monthly
URL: http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

    SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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are certain to be out of date.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

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject:    -1- DIAGNOSTICS
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss how to find out things about your system.

------------------------------

Subject:    -2- How can I determine which release of IRIX I'm running
                and which patches are applied?
Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT

  On pre-6.5 systems, a 'uname -a' will give you the Irix version of
  the currently running kernel. The 6.5.x release added the '-R' flag
  which reports the current revision number (e.g. 6.5.6m). See the
  uname(1) manpage for other options.

  Of more general use, since the running kernel does not always
  reflect installed software, is the versions(1M) command.  'versions'
  with no arguments provides a full listing all the installed software
  components.  'versions -b | grep patch ' provides a brief listing of
  installed patches.  Note that the use of patches is depricated in the
  6.5 release stream.  Software subsystems are now "updated" so in with
  a few exceptions (e.g. systems running legato networker), there should
  be no patches installed.

  IRIX 5.2's System Manager ('chost') has the IRIX version number under
  "IRIX Version" and a listing of installed software under "Software"
  (the "Show Installed" button).

------------------------------

Subject:    -3- How can I determine my SGI's Ethernet (and/or FDDI)
                address?
Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST

  Many thanks to Miguel Sanchez <[e-mail]> for
  providing the original version of the following discussion, and to
  Dave Olson <[e-mail]> for comments. Andrew Cherenson
  <[e-mail]> reminded us that all these methods except the first
  apply to FDDI as well, but we'll just say "Ethernet" below.

  Every system on an Ethernet network must have a unique Ethernet
  address for the network to operate properly. The physical Ethernet
  address of your system is the unique number assigned to the Ethernet
  hardware on your system. This unique number is assigned to the
  manufacturer of your Ethernet hardware by the IEEE (formerly by
  Xerox, one of the original developers of Ethernet). This is not to be
  confused with the IP address, which can be set arbitrarily.

  You may need to determine your system's Ethernet address if your
  network manager requires it before connecting your system to a
  network.  How to do so depends on whether IRIX is running and what
  operating system version is loaded.  Method 1 only provides the
  Ethernet address of the primary interface.  If you have multiple
  Ethernet interfaces (boards) in a system, use method 2, 3, 4 or 5 to
  determine the address(es) of any other interface(s).

  METHOD 1: eaddr

      If IRIX is not running, and the system is a Personal IRIS (4D20,
      25, 30, or 35), Indigo, Crimson, Onyx, Challenge, Indy, O2,
      or Indigo2, you can obtain the Ethernet address by typing 'eaddr'
      (older machines) or 'printenv eaddr' (newer) at the PROM monitor .
      prompt.  On some machines (4D30 or later) you can say 'nvram eaddr'
      while IRIX is running to get the same result.

  METHOD 2: netstat

      Under IRIX 4.0.1 or later, you can use the netstat command. For
      example,

      % /usr/etc/netstat -ia
      Name  Mtu    Network   Address            Ipkts   Ierrs   Opkts  Oerrs  Coll
      ec0   1500   siligrph  luey7              7765678 21648  384477     0  30338
                  192.48.200.251
                  192.0.0.1
                  08:00:69:06:17:c2
      lo0   32880  loopback localhost           41438       0   41438     0      0
                  192.0.0.1

      As seen on the fourth address line, the address of the system
      luey7's primary Ethernet interface, "ec0", is 08:00:69:06:17:c2.

  METHOD 3: arp

      You can obtain the Ethernet address of a Silicon Graphics system
      by using another system on your network. 'ping' the system whose
      Ethernet address you want, then use 'arp'. For example,

      % /usr/etc/ping -c 1 luey6
      PING luey6.sgi.com (192.48.200.250): 56 data bytes
      64 bytes from 192.48.200.250: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0 ms
      ----luey6.sgi.com PING Statistics----
      3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
      round-trip (ms)  min/avg/max = 0/0/0
      % /usr/etc/arp luey6
      luey6 (192.48.200.250) at 8:0:69:6:c:40
      %

  METHOD 4: NetVizualyzer/FDDIVizualyzer and the like

      SGI's NetVizualyzer/FDDIVizualyzer network monitoring software
      and at least one public domain equivalent ('netman', at
      ftp://ftp.cs.curtin.edu.au/pub/netman/) allow you to find the
      Ethernet address corresponding to any IP address. Read the
      manual.

  METHOD 5: System Manager

      The Network Setup part ('cnet') of the Indigo Magic System Manager
      tool ('chost') shows the Ethernet address of each interface.

  4DDN: A Special Case

      DECnet uses a one-to-one relationship between the DECnet node ID
      and the Ethernet address. If the DECnet address is changed the
      Ethernet address is changed. DECnet Ethernet addresses always
      start with aa:, so you can identify systems running DECnet with
      'arp -a'.

      4DDN is Silicon Graphics' DECnet interconnection product. The
      Ethernet address of an IRIS running 4DDN will change when 4DDN is
      started.  Method 1 will return the original Ethernet address for
      the system.  Methods 2-5 will show the Ethernet address currently
      in use.

  sysinfo

      /etc/sysinfo is intended to return a unique identifier, which on
      some machines includes part or all of the Ethernet address. This
      is best regarded as an amusing coincidence, like HAL's name in
      "2001".  Don't rely on it.

  You can find an Ethernet address from a program most efficiently by
  using the SIOCGIFADDR ioctl on a raw socket (SOCK_RAW) using the
  RAWPROTO_SNOOP protocol (thanks to David Peter
  <[e-mail]>) but the program must run as root. If you
  can't run as root, call one of the above programs with system().

------------------------------

Subject:    -4- My SGI crashed and generated a file,
                /usr/adm/crash/vmcore.1. How can I examine this file to
                see what crashed my system?
Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT

  Under Irix 5.3 and above a system crash will generate a number of
  files in the /var/adm/crash directory. These files appear in numbered
  sets, with each number (n) corresponding to an event. These files
  include: unix.n (a copy of the kernel), vmcore.n.comp (a compressed
  dump of the memory), and analysis.n (an analysis file generated by the
  system using the icrash kernel debugger). Note that these files are
  created only is savecore is chkconfig'd on.

  Simply viewing the analysis file can often lead to clues regarding the
  reason behind a system crash. 'icrash' can also be run manually. See the
  icrash(1) manpage for details.

  SGI's 'icrash' utility can generate helpful reports and allow
  experienced administrators and support people to sift through the core
  file.  Get patch 813 for IRIX 5.3 or patch 769 for IRIX 6.1.  icrash
  is part of eoe.sw.unix (and therefore installed by default) on IRIX
  6.2 and above.

  For machines which lack the icrash utility:

    dbx -k /var/adm/crash/{unix,vmcore}.#
    t
    &putbuf/1000s

  Some machines have a special 'dbx' for crash dumps,
  /usr/adm/crash/dbx.  If it exists, use it instead of /usr/bin/dbx.

  The IRIX 5.x Electronic Services package includes a script, 'crpt',
  which does this and more automagically. A copy of the IRIX 5.2
  version lives at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/crpt.

------------------------------

Subject:    -5- How can I find out just about everything about my system
                at once?
Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST

  IRIX comes with hinv(1M) and gfxinfo(1G). If that's not enough, get
  Michael Cooper <[e-mail]>'s 'sysinfo', recently ported
  to IRIX, from ftp://usc.edu/pub/sysinfo/. Change "PROG" in the
  Makefile from "sysinfo" to "Sysinfo" so it doesn't get in the way of
  /sbin/sysinfo, which isn't nearly as entertaining but which other
  software may require. This is probably also a good place to mention
  Dave Olson's 'scsicontrol', at
  http://reality.sgi.com/employees/olson/Olson/.

------------------------------

Subject:    -6- DISKS
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions deal with disks and swap space.

------------------------------

Subject:    -7- How big can files and filesystems be?
Date: 15 Jun 1996 00:00:01 EST

  A file on an EFS filesystem can be only 2G in size. The filesystem can
  be no more than 8G in size, whether or not it is on a logical volume.
  A physical or logical volume can be larger than 8G, but not usefully
  so: mkfs still can't make a filesystem larger than 8G on it. (Each
  block (512 bytes) has a unique number which must fit into 24 bits; 512
  * 2^24 = 8G. See also inode(4).)

  Note that 'fx' had a bug in versions of IRIX before 4.0.5H which
  prevented it from *exercising* disks larger than 2G, but other 'fx'
  functions and other parts of IRIX have no trouble with disks
  (filesystems) up to 8G.

  Files and filesystems on SGI's new XFS filesystem can be 1 terabyte
  (1K gigabytes) in size. On 64-bit machines running IRIX 6.2, a file
  will be able to be 9 exabytes (9 gigagigabytes) in size and a
  filesystem will be able to be 18 exabytes in size.  See the misc FAQ
  under "WWW pages" for a pointer to a demonstration.

------------------------------

Subject:    -8- My XFS filesystem is corrupt or inconsistent.  How do I
                fix it?
Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT

  Under IRIX 6.2, get the latest XFS rollup patch and install it.
  (At the time of this writing, the latest XFS rollup patch was patch
  1768.)  This patch comes with xfs_repair, a tool that can often fix
  corrupted XFS filesystems.  (If the partition you wish to repair is
  your boot partition, you will have to boot from the miniroot that
  comes with the patch and run xfs_repair from it.)  Actual installation
  of the patch requires the installation of one of the recent kernel
  rollup patches; read the XFS rollup patch release notes before doing
  anything else with it.

  Under the 6.5.x release stream, 'xfs_repair' and 'xfs_check' are
  installed by default as part of eoe.sw.base. Please note that xfs
  check and repair operations are performed on unmounted filesystems.
  See the xfs_repair(1) manpage for details. Also, it is best to
  do an initial scan on a damaged filesystem using 'xfs_repair -n',
  (no modify mode) as extremely corrupted filesystems can occasionally
  cause an xfs_repair to fail with a core dump.

------------------------------

Subject:    -9- Does IRIX support sparse files?
Date: 09 Dec 1995 00:00:01 EST

  EFS does not; XFS does.

------------------------------

Subject:   -10- Why is /debug or /proc full of huge files?
Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST

  Those aren't disk files, they're interfaces to running processes.
  Read the debug(4) (IRIX 4.0.x) and/or proc(4) (IRIX 5.x) manpages.

------------------------------

Subject:   -11- How do I remount the /proc filesystem after accidentally
                unmounting it?
Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST

  Run /etc/mntproc as root.

------------------------------

Subject:   -12- How do I extend an existing filesystem onto a new disk?
Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT

  Back up the existing filesystem (just in case) then run 'mklv' and
  'growfs'. 'mklv' and 'growfs' are nondestructive, so you don't need
  to restore the backup unless you screw up. Don't use 'mkfs', which
  does destroy existing data.

  Under modern IRIX versions (w/ the XFS filesystem) lv (the original
  logical volume manager) has been replaced with xlv. The requisite
  subsystems are _not_ installed by default. If you wish to use logical
  volumes, you must install eoe.sw.xlv, and if you wish to use mirroring
  (RAID 1), you must also install eoe.sw.xlvplex. This option requires a
  license be purchased from sgi.

  To simply grow the filesystem to another disk, you must first create a
  concatenated logical volume. This will change the volume headers of the
  target disks and let the system know that they should be treated as one
  volume. You can then use an 'xfs_growfs' to expand the filesystem on to
  the new disk. see the manpages for xlv_make(1), xlv_mgr(1), and
  xfs_growfs(1) for more details.

  Please not that it is NOT POSSIBLE to have a successfully striped or
  concatenated root filesystem. The only available logical volume
  configuration for the root filesystem is a mirror (RAID1). Any
  attempt to use another logical volume configuration will most
  likely work until the next system reboot. Since the Logal volume
  management software funtions on the OS level, it is unavailable
  during the inital phases of the boot process. Syncing of the
  mirrored filesystem will occur after the system comes up.

------------------------------

Subject:   -13- How do I know if I need more memory and/or swap space?
Date: 20 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST

  If processes are killed due to lack of memory/swap, you need more
  memory and/or swap space. If your CPU is always waiting for swapping
  (run 'osview' and look at the "%Swap" entry under "Wait Ratio") you
  need more memory.

------------------------------

Subject:   -14- How much swap space should I have per megabyte of
                memory?
Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST

  An oft-recommended ratio is X memory:2.5 X swap, but this may be too
  low. Decide how much of your favorite program (plus IRIX) needs to
  be resident for good performance and how much doesn't, and make sure
  you have enough memory for the former and enough memory plus swap for
  the latter. Put "rmem" and "swp" in your ~/.grosview file, run
  'gr_osview' and run your favorite program to see what it needs.

------------------------------

Subject:   -15- How can I increase my swap space?
Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT

  The Jan/Feb 1993 and May/Jun 94 Pipelines have detailed writeups on how
  to do this in IRIX 4.0.x and 5.x respectively. The Jul/Aug Pipeline
  has a correction to the latter article. If you like you can call the
  TAC and have them fax you the very latest version.

  It is also possible to add swapfiles within the filesystem structure.
  You can allocate space for swap in the filesystem by doing a 'mkfile'
  and adding this file to the system as swap space. See mkfile(1) for more
  information. The created file can be added by using a 'swap -a <file>'.
  If you intend this to be a permanent resource, make sure that you add
  an appropriate line to the /etc/fstab file. See the fstab(4) manpage
  for details.

------------------------------

Subject:   -16- What are virtual and logical swap space? How do they
                work in IRIX 3.x, 4.0.x and 5.x?
Date: 05 Jul 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Two terms whose meanings should already be clear: Physical swap space
  is an area on disk, either a partition or (in IRIX 5.x) a swap file.
  Virtual memory is the sum of physical memory and swap space.

  IRIX 3.x accepts a memory request only if enough virtual memory is
  free. Even if a process isn't using most of the memory it requested
  (which happens often, e.g. when a large process forks and execs a
  small process, or with Fortran 77 programs which allocate all storage
  statically), its memory is unavailable to other processes until it
  exits. IRIX 3.x has no virtual or logical swap space.

  In IRIX 4.0.x, IRIX accepts every memory request, and does not
  allocate virtual memory until a process actually tries to use it.
  This allows programs which request more memory than they use to run
  with much less memory than would otherwise be required. If too many
  processes actually use their memory requests so that virtual memory
  is in danger of filling up, IRIX kills one or more processes. IRIX
  usually kills the process which is using the most virtual memory,
  which may well not be the process which most recently requested
  virtual memory.

  IRIX 5.x works like IRIX 4.0.x, but one can set the amount of virtual
  memory which IRIX is allowed to overallocate. This amount is called
  "virtual swap space". "Logical swap space" is the sum of physical and
  virtual swap. There is no virtual swap space by default, so IRIX 5.x
  behaves like IRIX 3.x. One can set virtual swap to any amount of
  memory; if it is set sufficiently high, memory requests will always
  be granted, just like IRIX 4.0.x. Using jargon retroactively, IRIX
  4.0.x has an infinite amount of virtual swap space.

  Large or infinite amounts of virtual swap space work well for many
  people, because most programs don't use all the virtual memory they
  request, at least not at once. If your programs do use all their
  virtual memory, they'll be killed and you'll see "Process killed due
  to insufficient memory/swap" messages in your SYSLOG.

  Under IRIX 4.0.x, you can only turn virtual swap off completely by
  setting the kernel variable availsmem_accounting to 1. Doing so makes
  IRIX 4.0.x behave like IRIX 3.x, allocating memory only if it is
  actually available.

  Under IRIX 5.x, you can turn virtual swap on or off by doing
  'chkconfig vswap off' or 'chkconfig vswap on', or change the size of
  virtual swap by editing /etc/config/vswap.options, and rebooting. You
  can also use 'swap -v' to do any of these things directly and without
  rebooting.

  Remember that IRIX 5.x comes with virtual swap turned off and set to
  zero.  If you were happy with IRIX 4.0.x, you should turn virtual
  swap on and set its size to a very large number. If programs are
  killed, decrease the size of virtual swap or turn it off.

  See the swap(1M) and swapctl(2) manpages for details.

------------------------------

Subject:   -17- Why is there no way to set up a RAM disk under IRIX?
Date: 29 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST

  IRIX has no way to set up a RAM disk (a personal computerish term for
  a part of memory which can be used like a very fast disk) because it
  already has a sophisticated disk caching mechanism, which will
  probably do a better job of minimizing disk reads than you would if
  you were deciding what to put on a RAM disk.

------------------------------

Subject:   -18- BOOTING
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  As the song says, "There must be fifty ways to boot your Iris."

------------------------------

Subject:   -19- How can I boot directly into single-user mode?
Date: 8 Mar 1996 00:00:01 CST

  Use the PROM monitor's 'single' command.

  For machines earlier than 4D35s, whose PROMs don't have that command,
  first boot into sash from the PROM monitor with "boot", then type
  "boot initstate=s".

------------------------------

Subject:   -20- How can I boot from a non-default disk?
Date: 31 May 1995 00:00:01 CST

  Says Justin Mason <[e-mail]>: If your disk is SCSI ID 4, do

    boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sash dksc(0,4,0)unix root=dks0d4s0

  or

    setenv bootfile dksc(0,4,8)sash
    setenv path dksc(0,4,8)
    setenv root dks0d4s0        # This is the tricky part
    auto

  from the PROM. The first method works once, so that subsequent
  reboots use SCSI ID 1, and the second method sets the PROM to boot
  from ID 4 every time (until you reset the PROM variables).

  Dave Olson <[e-mail]> adds: "If you have a separate / and /usr,
  you'll probably want to add 'initstate=s' at least the first time, or
  the usr partition on your normal root will be mounted.  Boot in single
  user, then do 'cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV disklinks; multi'.  After this, you
  won't need 'initstate=s' since the link will now be to the usr
  partition on the alternate boot disk.

------------------------------

Subject:   -21- How can I boot my machine using a server on the other
                side of a router?
Date: 24 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Tell the router to forward BOOTP packets. If it can't, NFS-mount the
  remote volumes on another machine on the same subnet and use the
  nearby machine for your boot server.

------------------------------

Subject:   -22- How do I make a bootable tape from an IRIX CD?
Date: 03 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST

  See the Sep/Oct 1993 Pipeline and/or
  ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/making-bootable-tape for a
  detailed description, or just follow Dave Olson <[e-mail]>'s
  summary: Take a look at the distcp(1M) manpage, and do something like

      tapehost# mount -o ro cdhost:/CDROM /mnt
      tapehost# distcp /mnt/dist /dev/nrtape

  Note that 'fx', 'ide', and 'sash' for all machines are in the dist/sa
  file.  'sa' is an image of the first part of the tape; use 'mkbootape
  -f sa -l' to see the contents.

------------------------------

Subject:   -23- Why can't I boot one of the stand-alone programs on a
                tape or CD?
Date: 03 Apr 1994 00:00:01 EST

  One reason is that some CPU names are preceded by periods and some
  aren't. Another is that the Indigo R4000 and later CPUs use the
  suffix 'ARCS', not 'IP20' or whatever as one might expect from
  'hinv'. For example, the correct command to boot fx directly from the
  PROM monitor on an Indigo R4000 is 'boot -f dksc(ctlr,unit,8)sashARCS
  dksc(ctlr,unit,7)stand/fx.ARCS'. Note the use of 'ARCS' instead of
  'IP20' and the missing period in 'sashARCS'.

------------------------------

Subject:   -24- INSTALLING
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss software installation.

------------------------------

Subject:   -25- Is it possible to remotely install IRIX over a network?
Date: 20 May 1993 00:00:01 CST

  Yes. You can install IRIX from a remote machine which has a CD-ROM, a
  tape drive, or an IRIX distribution directory.  All of these
  scenarios (and several others) are described in detail in the "IRIS
  Software Installation Guide".  Examples are provided.

------------------------------

Subject:   -26- Which IRIX CD is the program 'foo' on?
Date: 25 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Mount the CD and try 'grep foo /CDROM/dist/*.idb'. If you don't get
  any output, 'foo' isn't on that CD. If you do, it is, and one of the
  fields is the subsystem in which 'foo' lives. Entries in *.idb files
  don't have a leading slash so you must leave it out if you grep for a
  full path, e.g. 'grep usr/bin/lp /CDROM/dist/*.idb', not 'grep
  /usr/bin/lp /CDROM/dist/*.idb'.

------------------------------

Subject:   -27- How can I extract a single file from an 'inst'
                subsystem?
Date: 05 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Under IRIX 5.2 and earlier, you need to be clever. 'inst' guru Paul
  Jackson <[e-mail]> reveals all:

  - Find the subsystem in which the file lives, as described in the
    previous question. For this example we'll extract /sbin/ed, which
    lives in eoe1.sw.unix.

  - Follow the bouncing prompt:

    > su
    > cd /usr/tmp
    > mkdir -p tmproot/var/inst
    > inst -f /CDROM/dist/eoe1 -r /usr/tmp/tmproot
    > Inst> keep *
    > Inst> install eoe1.sw.unix
    > Inst> go
    > Inst> q
    > ls -l /usr/tmp/tmproot/sbin/ed
    -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     sys        75480 May 24 13:57 /usr/tmp/tmproot/sbin/ed

  - Move your file somwhere else and 'rm -r /usr/tmp/tmproot'.

  - That was under IRIX 5.x. Under IRIX 4.0.x or earlier, use
    '/usr/tmp/tmproot/usr/lib/inst' for a temporary inst directory
    instead of '/usr/tmp/tmproot/var/inst'.

  In IRIX 5.3, inst's '-Y' flag allows you to install a single file. See
  inst(1M) for more.

------------------------------

Subject:   -28- Why doesn't 'inst' work?
Date: 16 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST

  One possibility is that you're using an old 'inst' with new
  software.  Always use an 'inst' at least as new as what you're
  installing.

------------------------------

Subject:   -29- Why doesn't 'inst' work remotely?
Date: 05 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Usually because it can't log in to the machine with the distribution
  media.  'inst' uses the guest account to do so, so make sure that
  guest on the machine on which you want to install software can rlogin
  to guest on the machine with the distribution media without a
  password.

------------------------------

Subject:   -30- I just installed a new version of IRIX and file X is
                missing. What should I do?
Date: 14 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  'inst' doesn't deal well with some cases where a file moves from one
  subsystem to another between IRIX versions. Upgrading may cause such a
  file to disappear entirely. To bring it back, reinstall the subsystem
  to which the file belongs in the newer IRIX with "set neweroverride
  on" in 'inst' (or, equivalently, remove and reinstall the subsystem).
  You might want to install only the missing file; see the entry on
  installing a single file above.

  Popular examples of this include several headers in /usr/include/sys
  in IRIX 4.0.5/IDO 4.1.1, which are in eoe1.sw.unix, the mount(1M)
  manpage in IRIX 5.3, which is in eoe1.man.unix, and
  /usr/lib/X11/dyDDX/glx.so, also in 5.3, which is in x_eoe.sw.Server.

  One way to detect files which have disappeared in this manner in IRIX
  5.3 is 'showfiles -B'.

------------------------------

Subject:   -31- I reinstalled an IRIX subsystem to restore a missing
                file or get rid of a corrupted file, but it didn't help.
                Why not?
Date: 13 Apr 1994 00:00:01 EST

  'inst' doesn't bother to install a subsystem if the same or a newer
  version is already installed. Tell it to install anyway by saying
  'set neweroverride' before you say 'go'. Removing the subsystem and
  reinstalling it will do more or less the same thing.

------------------------------

Subject:   -32- Why do 'inst' and 'showprods' say that a subsystem is an
                "Unknown product entry"?
Date: 12 May 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Paul "Mr. inst" Jackson of SGI <[e-mail]> explains two reasons:

  - The "orphan" subsystem is a special subsystem for directories in
    which more than one product keeps files. inst will remove these
    directories as they become empty. Do NOT remove the subsystem
    yourself. In fact, you can only see it due to a cosmetic bug in some
    versions of inst.

  - The product spec file in /var/inst which describes that subsystem is
    damaged, due either to the usual sort of file-damaging problems or
    to a bug in IRIX 5.3's inst. This also makes inst think that that
    product is version 0, and thus incompatible with every other
    subsystem. There is no patch for the bug. The workaround is to
    reinstall the affected subsystems with all files restricted, so that
    no files are actually installed but the product spec file is
    updated, like so:

    inst -f whatever -X/
    Inst> set exclusions        # Should be set to "Value /"
    Inst> keep *
    Inst> install upgrade
    Inst> list i            # Should see the unknown entries
    Inst> go
    Inst> quit

------------------------------

Subject:   -33- How can I install IRIX onto a second disk which I can
                then move to another machine?
Date: 20 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST

  With difficulty. Many parts of the installation process assume that
  you're installing IRIX onto your system disk (SCSI ID 1). Just fiddle
  with SCSI ID switches and/or move disks around to make the disk onto
  which you want to install IRIX the system disk for the duration of
  the installation.

  Furthermore, IRIX has many hardware dependencies, so you should only
  move system disks between absolutely identical machines. If you want
  to make a system disk for a machine without a network connection,
  CD-ROM or tape drive, the easiest and safest way is to borrow another
  CD-ROM or tape drive.

  If you want to try anyway, Justin Mason <[e-mail]> reports that
  the following works under IRIX 5.1.1:

  Set up the disk, e.g. with SCSI id 4, fx a generic "[bo]otable"
  partition setup onto it, and mkfs the partitions. Copy sash, etc.
  from your system disk to the new disk with dvhtool. Boot up the
  miniroot as usual, go into inst, choose "admin" from the menu and do
  the following, replacing SCSI IDs and partition numbers as
  appropriate:

    umount /root
    umount /root/usr
    mount /dev/dsk/dks0d4s0 /root
    mount /dev/dsk/dks0d4s6 /root/usr
    mount                # Just to check
    return                # Go back to main inst menu

  Then install as you like.

------------------------------

Subject:   -34- How can I copy my system disk onto a second disk which I
                can then move to another machine?
Date: 03 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST

  See the article in the Jul/Aug 1992 Pipeline and the addendum in the
  Nov/Dec 1992 Pipeline, and note that the warning about hardware
  dependencies in the previous question applies here too.  Steve
  Kotsopoulos <[e-mail]> has written a script which does
  this automatically; you can FTP it from
  ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/clonedisk. Be sure to read
  the comments before running it!

  If your machine has FlashPROMs, which are normally updated by 'inst',
  you'll need to update them yourself; see flashio(1M) and heed its
  warnings.

------------------------------

Subject:   -35- How can I share parts of IRIX among multiple machines?
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Diskless machines, for one. Share trees, for another. Look in the
  misc FAQ under "WWW pages" for the "IRIX share trees" WWW page.

------------------------------

Subject:   -36- Can I install a "tardist" archive without the "tardist"
                software?
Date: 23 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Certainly. A tardist archive is just a tar archive of an 'inst'
  distribution.  Retrieve the tardist file directly to disk (in Mosaic
  or Netscape one does this by shift-clicking the link to the tardist
  file), name it something.tar, untar it as you would any tar file, and
  install it as you would any inst distribution.

------------------------------

Subject:   -37- I'm running 6.5.x, why can't I install the compilers?
Date: 28 Apr 2000 11:58:53 PDT

  This is a common problem, having to do with the way that inst deals
  with version numbering. Essentially, the distributions on the
  Development Foundation and Development Libraries are looking for the
  stock 6.5 version of eoe.sw.base. In order to install successfully
  from these distributions, you must have the following distributions
  open (inst under 6.5 supports having multiple open distributions):
  irix-6.5-foundation-1, and overlay disks for your current os level
  (e.g irix-6.5.6-installation-tools-and-overlays-1-of-2-11-99, and
  irix-6.5.6-overlays-2-of-2-11-99)

  Once these distributions are open, you should issue a keep *, so
  that nothing will be installed from these distributions. You should
  now be able to install the development system with minimal difficulty.

------------------------------

Subject:   -38- NETWORKING
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss general networking.

------------------------------

Subject:   -39- Why isn't my network working?
Date: 03 Sep 1995 00:00:01 EST

  A list of good things to try is at
  ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/network-checklist.

------------------------------

Subject:   -40- How can I measure my network's reliability?
Date: 22 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Don't worry about collisions. They are part of normal operation on a
  crowded Ethernet. You *should* worry about late collisions (which are
  logged to the console) and lost packets (which you can easily measure
  with the command 'ping -fs 3000 -c 1000 someotherhost'), which usually
  mean network hardware problems or a misconfigured bridge or router.

  See the Ethernet FAQ (posted to comp.dcom.lans.ethernet and FTPable
  from ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.dcom.lans.ethernet/ and other
  news.answers archives), Chapter 18 of the "IRIX Advanced Site and
  Server Administration Guide" and the Sep/Oct 1993 Pipeline for more.

------------------------------

Subject:   -41- How do I add a static route?
Date: 07 Sep 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Some sites handle IP routing by designating a routing machine and
  having all other hosts define a static route to that machine. The way
  to do this on SGIs is in the /etc/init.d/network.local script.

  1) Read the paragraph just before the copyright at the top of
     /etc/init.d/network and make the links it specifies.

  2) Put something like the following in /etc/init.d/network.local,
     replacing ROUTER'S.IP.ADDRESS.HERE with the address of your router.
     Under IRIX 6.x, omit the "1" at the end of the same line.

     #! /bin/sh
     IS_ON=/sbin/chkconfig
     case "$1" in
     'start')
         if $IS_ON network; then    # network must be chkconfig'ed on
             /usr/etc/route add default ROUTER'S.IP.ADDRESS.HERE 1
         fi
         ;;
     'stop')
         /usr/etc/route delete default ROUTER'S.IP.ADDRESS.HERE ;;
     *)
         echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}" ;;
     esac

  Check the script with 'sh -v /etc/init.d/network.local'.

  The above setup will not allow you to NFS-mount (or unmount) disks
  from the other side of the static route gracefully, because the route
  will be added after the mount attempt during startup and deleted
  before the unmount attempt during shutdown. Instead of putting the
  routing commands in a separate script, put them in /etc/init.d/network
  itself. Put the 'route add' just after the "$ROUTE $RFLUSHFLAG" line
  and the 'route delete' after the '/sbin killall mount ...' line.

  There is no reason to define a static route and also to run routed. If
  you do so, routed will delete the static route and you'll be confused.
  'chkconfig routed off'.

  Under IRIX 6.2 or later, remove the '1' from the end of the 'route
  add' line.

------------------------------

Subject:   -42- How can I make the 'slip' command advertise the Ethernet
                address of the SLIP client?
Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST

  You can't. Just add something like

    /usr/etc/arp -s $USER `netstat -ia | grep :` pub

  to the shell script in which you start the SLIP process. $USER is the
  SLIP client. The 'netstat | grep' part gets the host's Ethernet
  address, and 'arp' advertises the host as an ARP server for $USER.
  See also the arp(1M) manpage.

------------------------------

Subject:   -43- I've just edited inetd.conf, and nothing changed. Why?
Date: 15 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST

  You need to make 'inetd' reread inetd.conf. Do 'killall -HUP inetd'.
  If that doesn't work, comment out the entry you modified, 'killall
  -HUP inetd', uncomment the entry and 'killall -HUP inetd' again.  If
  that doesn't work, 'killall -TERM inetd'. If that doesn't work,
  reboot.

------------------------------

Subject:   -44- Why can't I 'rdist' files between Suns and SGIs?
Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Sun's 'rdist' expects SGI's 'rdist' to live in /usr/ucb, but it's
  actually in /usr/bsd. Make a symbolic link from /usr/ucb/rdist to
  /usr/bsd/rdist and all will be well.

  In IRIX 5.3 or later, you may need to use ordist(1).

------------------------------

Subject:   -45- Why are there "satwrite failure: inetd" messages in my
                SYSLOG in IRIX 5.3?
Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST

  Says Ellen Desmond <[e-mail]>:
  This is due to a bug in inetd that is manifest only when eoe2.sw.audit
  has been installed.  Inetd calls satwrite() to generate an audit
  record every time it spawns a server.  The bug is that the call to
  satwrite() is made after the process has done a setuid() to the user
  specified for that server in inetd.conf.  Because satwrite() is a
  superuser-only call, it fails for servers that don't run as root, such
  as fingerd.

  The bug is fixed by patch 1268. If you don't use auditing, you can just
  ignore the messages or remove the eoe2.sw.audit subsystem and rebuild
  your kernel.

------------------------------

Subject:   -46- What is causing the "get interface flags" error in my
                syslog?
Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Walter Roberson <[e-mail]> says: As part of its
  licensing verification, Framemaker 4.0 attempts to get interface flags
  on a fixed ethernet interface instead of using the hardware inventory
  functions to figure out what the name of the ethernet is. This results
  in an error like

  broadcast: ioctl (get interface flags): No such device or address

  Speak with Frame Technologies.

  Patch 1092 includes fixes for "frame license daemon" and might fix the
  above problem; we don't know yet.

------------------------------

Subject:   -47- Why are network connections between SGIs and Suns much
                slower than between SGIs and SGIs or Suns and Suns?
Date: 13 Aug 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Dave Olson <[e-mail]> explains: Some older Sun systems (I don't
  remember which, but not current systems) have ethernet *chips* (this
  isn't an OS issue) that can't handle the recommended 9.6 usec
  interpacket gap. This is not a problem when sending packets, but when
  receiving packets from faster systems (like SGI Indigos and later) it
  results in lost packets, retransmission and major slowdown.

------------------------------

Subject:   -48- How can I set up IP aliases?
Date: Wed Sep 22 16:50:53 CDT 1999

  An IP alias is an extra IP address which may be in a completely
  different subnet and domain than a host's primary IP address. This is
  often desired by WWW presence providers. An IP aliasing is a step
  beyond a DNS alias, which is an extra hostname for the same IP
  address. HTTP requests do not include the host name, so a server has
  no way of knowing the host name to which a particular request was
  sent. A server *can* determine the IP address to which a particular
  request was sent and respond accordingly, so IP aliasing allows one to
  have multiple independent servers on a single machine.

  Patch 1356 to IRIX 5.3 allows IP aliasing. IRIX 6.2 and later does IP
  aliasing without patches. The interim solution once available from
  Silicon Surf is no longer available.

  See also

      http://www.amazing.com/internet/virtual-homer.html
      http://www.apache.org/docs/virtual-host.html
      http://www.thesphere.com/~dlp/TwoServers/

  for general information and descriptions of other implementations.

------------------------------

Subject:   -49- Where is ipfilterd documented?
Date: 15 Jun 1996 00:00:01 EST

  In IRIX 6.1 and earlier, ipfilterd itself is part of eoe.sw.ipgate but
  the ipfilterd(1M) manpage is part of eoe2.sw.netman and the
  netsnoop(1M) manpage (ipfilterd uses netsnoop syntax) is part of the
  extra-cost NetVisualyzer package. A copy of netsnoop(1M) is at
  ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/admin/netsnoop.1, and both
  manpages are in the uman database (see the misc FAQ under "WWW
  pages"). In IRIX 6.2 and later, ipfilterd(1M), netsnoop and
  netsnoop(1M) are all part of the base OS.

  Note that patch 1249 fixes a number of ipfilterd problems.

------------------------------

Subject:   -50- MAIL
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss mail configuration and problems.

------------------------------

Subject:   -51- How can I set up 'sendmail' to pass (or not pass) 8-bit
                characters?
Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Many experts say "don't try". RFC822 requires mail transport agents to
  *clear* the eighth bit, and many hosts do.  Some which don't may crash
  when they get mail with the eighth bit set. Instead, use a
  MIME-compatible mail program. MIME, described in RFC1521, is a
  standard for enclosing non-RFC822 material in your mail. The apps FAQ
  discusses several mail programs which support it.

  In IRIXes up to 5.2, one can flout this doctrine by running sendmail
  with the '-o8' flag to allow 8-bit characters in message bodies (*not*
  headers). Read the description of that option in sendmail(1) for more
  reasons not to use it. In IRIX 5.3, sendmail runs in 8-bit mode by
  default, but one can use the '-o7' flag to get the old behavior.

------------------------------

Subject:   -52- Why are my mailbox files changing ownership?
Date: 15 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  If your mail directory is mounted from another machine, your machine
  does not have root access to that directory, and the other machine has
  BSD-style "restricted chown" (the restricted_chown kernel variable is
  turned on or it's not an SGI) /bin/mail will change mail file
  ownership when delivering local mail. Without unrestricted chown *or*
  root access, /bin/mail is unable to give a mail file back to its owner
  after delivering mail. You can fix the problem by turning off re-
  stricted chown on the other machine (if it's an SGI) or exporting the
  mail directory with root access for your machine. This problem was to
  have been fixed in IRIX 5.2, but apparently is still present in 5.3.

------------------------------

Subject:   -53- Why isn't a valid user getting their mail?
Date: 24 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST

  IRIX' mail system requires "valid users" to have both valid password
  file entries (whether local or via NIS) and home directories. The
  latter often trips one up when installing POP servers and whatnot,
  where home directories aren't really necessary. Just make a fake
  one.

------------------------------

Subject:   -54- How can SGIs and Suns share a mail spool?
Date: 05 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Paul Riddle <[e-mail]> has written up how he did it. Read
  ftp://ftp.umbc.edu/pub/sgi/shared-spool.text.

------------------------------

Subject:   -55- What's an "unknown mailer error"?
Date: 20 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST

  See ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/mail/mail-errors.

------------------------------

Subject:   -56- What's "mailbox: Error 0"?
Date: 05 Mar 1994 00:00:01 EST

  It's a harmless bug; don't worry about it. It is fixed in IRIX
  versions 4.0.5H/4.0.5IOP and later.

------------------------------

Subject:   -57- Why am I having problems with my NFS-mounted mail spool?
Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Perhaps for one of the following reasons:

  - IRIX 5.2 NFS has a bug which prevents writing to a zero-length file
    if the writing process has group write permission but not group read
    (or user write) permission. IRIX 5.2 /bin/mail likes to set the
    permissions of /var/mail/<user> to mode 620, exactly what is needed
    to exercise the NFS bug. There is no patch for these bugs, but both
    are fixed in IRIX 5.3. Meanwhile, you can work around the problem by
    chmod'ing your mail files to 660 and setting the appropriate option
    in your mail program to make sure that empty mail files are not
    removed.

  - lockd must be running on the NFS server to allow programs on the
    client to lock mail files. If it is not, Zmail/MediaMail will
    complain that "file cannot be locked". One could tell MediaMail to
    not request a lock with "unset dot_lock", but that would risk mail
    file corruption.

  - IRIX 5.3 lockd is broken. Typical symptoms include "Warning: could
    not lock /var/mail/user after 100 trys." (from /usr/sbin/Mail) and
    the presence of user.lock and user.rolock files in /var/mail. Patch
    1128 fixes at least some of these problems.  If the client and
    server are both IRIX 5.3, you can also work around the problem by
    changing the mount type to NFS3. (See notes on NFS3 elsewhere in
    this FAQ.)

  See also "NFS Mounting Mail with IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.0.1" in the
  Sep/Oct 1995 Pipeline.

------------------------------

Subject:   -58- Why are incoming mail addresses case-sensitive in IRIX
                5.3?
Date: 31 May 1995 00:00:01 EST

  It's a configuration change. To change it back, find each line in your
  /etc/sendmail.cf which begins with "M"; these are mailer definitions.
  Each has a field beginning with "F="; these are the mailer flags.
  Remove the "u" from each mailer flags field.

------------------------------

Subject:   -59- NFS
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss NFS.

------------------------------

Subject:   -60- How can I tell what hostname to use in /etc/exports?
Date: 07 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST

  NFS servers may need a particular form of a client's name in
  /etc/exports to allow the client access. This may not be obvious, for
  example if the server is also a router. Log in from the client to the
  server and say 'echo $REMOTEHOST' to see what the server thinks the
  client is called, and put that in /etc/exports.

  The System Manager ('chost') should be able to determine the correct
  hostname for you.

------------------------------

Subject:   -61- Why can't I export an NFS-mounted filesystem?
Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 CST

  This is known as multi-hop NFS. It is not allowed or supported in
  (Sun's) NFS because it is not in general possible to detect errors
  such as infinite mount loops, on either the client or the server.

------------------------------

Subject:   -62- Why can't Ultrix automount SGI filesystems?
Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 CST

  Ultrix's automount uses an "untrusted" port for mount requests. Add
  an '-n' to the mountd lines in /usr/etc/inetd.conf (/etc/inetd.conf
  in IRIX 5.x), like so:

  mountd/1    stream  rpc/tcp wait    root    /usr/etc/rpc.mountd     mountd -n
  mountd/1    dgram   rpc/udp wait    root    /usr/etc/rpc.mountd     mountd -n

  then 'killall mountd' and 'killall -HUP inetd' or reboot.

------------------------------

Subject:   -63- Why does 'tar' work strangely on a filesystem mounted
                from an SGI?
Date: 15 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  When user A extracts a file owned by user B from a tar archive, 'tar'
  makes the file owned by user A unless user A is the superuser.  Some
  systems allow users to give files away (e.g. IRIX); some do not
  (e.g. SunOS).  On some systems with the restricted behavior (SunOS
  among them), 'tar' tries to give the file to user B whether or not
  user A is the superuser, assuming that the chown system call will fail
  if user A is not.  This is not true if user A is using 'tar' on (e.g.)
  a Sun to extract files onto a filesystem NFS-mounted from (e.g.) an
  SGI.  'tar' may create zero-length files or give away directories and
  then be unable to extract files into them.

  Work around the problem by doing the 'tar' on the SGI or extracting
  onto a Sun filesystem. It is possible that third-party versions of
  'tar' (e.g. GNU tar) are smarter; if so, let us know. You could turn
  the restricted_chown kernel variable on on the SGI, but be aware that
  some programs may depend on unrestricted chown, notably /bin/mail as
  discussed elsewhere in this FAQ.

------------------------------

Subject:   -64- Why does 'df' report incorrect numbers for a filesystem
                mounted from a Sun?
Date: 29 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Sun's filesystem reserves space, usually 10%, and Sun's 'df' reports
  only the unreserved space. SGI's filesystem (efs) does not reserve
  space, so SGI's 'df' doesn't correct for reserved space.

------------------------------

Subject:   -65- Is 'pcnfsd' available for the SGI?
Date: 20 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST

  For IRIX 4.0.x, look in ftp://ftp.sgi.com/support/pcnfsd.sysV/. (Note
  that although SGI makes this available, they do not support it.) For
  IRIX 5.x, look in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/pcnfsd/ or
  http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Connectivity/pcnfsd.html. See also the
  pcnfsd bug mentioned in the security FAQ.

------------------------------

Subject:   -66- Can I export a CD-ROM from my SGI to a non-SGI?
Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST

  Not in IRIX 4.0.x. You can in IRIX 5.x, as you would any other
  filesystem.

------------------------------

Subject:   -67- How can I read an IRIX (EFS) CD-ROM on a machine which
                doesn't use EFS?
Date: 18 Jun 1995 00:00:01 EST

  You want 'efslook', at
  ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/efslook.tar.gz.

------------------------------

Subject:   -68- How can I get quotas to work on an NFS filesystem?
Date: 16 Dec 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Mount the filesystem with the 'quotas' option, by adding it to
  /etc/fstab or the automounter map as appropriate, and make sure the
  nfs.sw.nis subsystem, which contains the NFS quota daemon
  (/usr/etc/rpc.rquotad) is installed. That's nfs.sw.nis, not
  nfs.sw.nfs! See fstab(4), rquotad(1M) and perhaps automount(1M) for
  details.

------------------------------

Subject:   -69- Why can't some NFS clients NFS-mount IRIX 5.2
                filesystems?
Date: 07 Sep 1996 00:00:01 EST

  IN IRIX 5.2, SGI's mount daemons (/usr/etc/mount_*) can fool some NFS
  clients (TGV's Multinet NFS for VMS, for one) into thinking that the
  mount daemons are NFS servers and trying to connect to them as
  such. If the client can mount filesystems from your machine when no
  mount daemons are running, but not when they are, this is your
  problem. Fix it by upgrading to IRIX 5.3 or, if you're daring,
  stealing the mount daemons from an IRIX 5.3 machine.

  Zsolt Bagoly <[e-mail]> reports that DEC OSF1 and Linux
  clients can work around this problem with the option "port=2049",
  e.g. 'mount -t nfs -o port=2049 server:/path /mount-point'.

------------------------------

Subject:   -70- What's NFS3?
Date: 21 Nov 1995 00:00:01 EST

  An improved NFS which comes with IRIX 5.3. It is described in detail
  in ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/standards/nfs/NFS3.spec.ps.Z and the
  Nov/Dev 1995 Pipeline. Its quirks are still being discovered by users;
  one prominent quirk is that it is not supported by the automounter.
  Another is that a bug causes ~/.Xauthority files on an NFS3 volume to
  be truncated; patch 216 fixes the bug. Another is that it interacts
  poorly with XFS; patch 547 fixes that and many other problems.

------------------------------

Subject:   -71- Why can't Solaris 2.5 clients read directories on NFS3-
                mounted IRIX 6.2 filesystems?
Date: 8 Mar 1997 00:00:01 EST

  Solaris 2.5, a 32-bit operating system, can't understand 64-bit data
  from IRIX 6.2 NFS3 servers. This will be fixed in Solaris 2.6.
  Meanwhile, export the IRIX 6.2 filesystems with the 32bitclients
  option. See also 'relnotes nfs 5'.

------------------------------

Subject:   -72- Why does my NFS server print "fhtovp_end VFS_GET failed"
                or "fhtovp_end vp NULL" to the console/SYSLOG?
Date: 8 Mar 1997 00:00:01 CST

  Walter Roberson <[e-mail]> explains:  You installed an
  NFS patch on your server, but you missed installing the NFS client
  patch on your 5.3 system.  You can either force the mount to use NFS2
  or patch your 5.3 NFS client system.

------------------------------

Subject:   -73- PRINTING
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss printing.

------------------------------

Subject:   -74- Why can't lp(1) read my file?
Date: 10 Dec 1993 00:00:01 EST

  lp(1) is setuid, so it can only read world-readable files. You can say
  'lp < file' if you don't want to make your file world-readable.

------------------------------

Subject:   -75- How can I tell 'lp' to turn banner printing or page
                reversal off or on?
Date: 13 Nov 1994 00:00:01 EST

  'lp' controls printers via shell scripts, called 'models', which live
  in /var/spool/lp/model. When you install a printer, the appropriate
  model script is copied to /var/spool/lp/interface/<name-of-printer>.

  To temporarily change a printer's behavior, look at the manpage for
  its interface script (or, if there is none, the script itself) to see
  what options it wants, and pass them to the script with 'lp's '-o'
  option.  For example, 'lp -o"-nobanner" file' tells a "Generic
  Postscript" printer (described in the gpsinterface(1) manpage) to
  print 'file' without a banner page.

  To permanently change a printer's behavior, edit its interface
  script.  The following are true for "Generic Postscript" printers,
  but the idea is the same for others:

  - To turn banner printing off or on, change the line 'BANNER=1' to
    'BANNER=0' or vice versa.

  - To turn page reversal off or on, change the line
    'send=/usr/lib/print/lptops' to 'send="/usr/lib/print/lptops -U"'
    (note the quotes) or vice versa.

  In IRIX 5.x, you can change these settings in the printpanel. You can
  also turn banner printing off on a per-user basis by doing 'echo
  nobanner >> /var/spool/lp/settings/<printername>/<yourusername>'.

------------------------------

Subject:   -76- How can I use 'lpr' instead of or as well as 'lp'?
Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST

  IRIX is based on System V Unix and as such uses the lp(1) printing
  protocol. The lp software is sufficient (and preferred) for printing
  to local printers, printing to network printers attached to SGIs or
  other machines using the lp protocol, and acting as a print server to
  machines using the lp protocol. In IRIX 5.3/6.1 or later, it can also
  print to remote printers using the lpr protocol and act as an lpr
  server. SGI's standard lp interface scripts handle several common
  file formats (text, PostScript, RGB images) automatically, and
  Impressario (which works through the lp software) handles much more.
  The lp software is installed by default.

  lpr(1) is the BSD Unix printing protocol. SGI provides and supports
  the lpr software only for printing to network printers attached to
  computers which use the lpr protocol, e.g. a BSD Unix machine, an HP
  printer with an appropriately configured JetDirect card or a
  Macintosh running lpDaemon. It can also be used, unofficially, for
  controlling a local printer and for a print server. It comes with no
  support for handling different file formats at all. The lpr software
  is not installed by default. It is in the eoe2.sw.bsdlpr subsystem in
  IRIX 4.0.x and print.sw.bsdlpr in IRIX 5.x.

  You can use lpr to print to a local printer in one of two ways:

  - Set the printer up as an lp printer and write a printcap(4) entry
    with an output filter which is just a wrapper around lp. If that
    isn't crystal-clear, ask SGI for their writeup on "Integrating The
    AT&T Spooler With The BSD LPR Print Spooler". A not-guaranteed-to-
    be-up-to-date copy is at
    ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/print/lpr-to-lp.

  - Write a printcap entry and set up the printer as an lpr printer
    just as you would on a BSD system. SGI doesn't support this use of
    lpr, and comp.sys.sgi.* won't be much help either.

    Now that the printer is set up as an lpr printer, you won't be able
    to use lp with it directly. You can make lp(1) send files to a
    local lpr printer in one of two ways:

    - Use an lp interface script that calls lpr. You can use
      mkbsdpr(1M), which comes with Impressario 1.1 and later (see the
      Impressario FAQ), write one yourself or ask SGI for their writeup
      "LPTOLPR, A Model File for LP". A not-guaranteed-to-be-up-to-date
      copy of the last is at
      ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/print/lp-to-lpr.

    - Replace lp with a script which calls lpr. One such script is
      ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/print/lp-wrapper-for-lpr.

  You can print to an lpr server in one of two ways:

  - Under IRIX 5.3/6.1 or later, use the lp software. Just use
    printers(1M) to add the remote printer. The "list printer" button
    will not list lpr printers; just enter the name of the remote
    printer manually. This may or may not work for a printer with a
    JetDirect card; see the next entry.

  - Under older IRIXes, or if you're used to it, use the lpr software.
    See SGI's "Advanced Site and Server Administration Guide".

  You can set up an lpr server in one of two ways:

  - Under IRIX 5.3/6.1 or later, you don't need to, because the lp
    server is also an lpr server. This is officially documented only in
    'relnotes print 3'. There are some caveats:

    - Don't define printers to the lp and lpr software (i.e. in
      /var/spool/lp/interface and /etc/printcap) with the same name.
    - Clients must be in ~lp/.rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv; lpsched
      won't look in /etc/hosts.lpd.
    - lpd must not be running when lpsched starts up. If you want to
      switch from lpd to lpsched, do '/etc/init.d/bsdlpr stop;
      /etc/init.d/lp stop; /etc/init.d/lp start'. /etc/init.d/bsdlpr
      can't be chkconfig'ed off, so if you want to leave the lpr
      software installed you'll have to move /etc/init.d/bsdlpr to
      another name so it won't run on bootup.
    - The client must send the control file before the data file. Most
      Unixes do; some PCs do not. It might be informative to run lpsched
      with the -debug flag, or just try it and see if it works. lpd
      accepts either file order; lpsched should, and will in IRIX 6.2.

  - Under older IRIXes, or if you can't get the previous solution to
    work, or if you're a BSD head, use the lpr software. Set up your
    local printer as an lpr printer (see above) and edit /etc/hosts.lpd
    to grant access to the clients. Again, SGI won't support this.

------------------------------

Subject:   -77- How can I print to a printer with a JetDirect card?
Date: 18 May 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Configure the JetDirect card to act as an lpr print server (see the
  JetDirect documentation) and set up your SGI to use it as you would
  any remote lpr printer (see above). You may also want to set up a
  bridge to the 'lp' system; again, see above.

  Unless you have a very recent JetDirect card, you will not be able
  to use printers(1M) to set up the JetDirect as a remote lpr printer.
  You can either use the lpr software on the SGI (see above), or you
  can circumvent printers(1M) in one of the following ways:

  - Use printers(1M) to add a normal 'lpr' print server with the local
    printer name you'll want to use for the JetDirect printer.
  - Do '/usr/lib/lputil add /dev/null netface <local-printer-name>'.
  - Do '/usr/lib/lpadmin -p<local-printer-name> -mnetface -v /dev/null',
    and create by hand all of the directories and little files in
    /var/spool/lp.

  Each of the above will create an interface script in
  /var/spool/lp/interface/<local-printer-name>. Since you subverted the
  usual installation process, some of the settings in the script won't
  be right yet. Change HOSTNAME to the JetDirect's hostname, NETTYPE to
  "bsd" and (thanks to Ken Harris <[e-mail]> for this one) SYNC
  to 0. If it's a Postscript printer, change TYPE to "PostScript" and
  CONVTYPE to "PostScriptFile".

  Bill Poitras <[e-mail]> adds: To print from a PC using SAMBA
  via your SGI, you can either modify the interface script so that
  specifying "-oraw" to lp (as suggested in the SAMBA documentation)
  will set CONVTYPE to nothing, or set up a second interface to the same
  printer and set its CONVTYPE to nothing permanently.

  If your JetDirect card is very old, it may not understand the lpr
  protocol at all. If it is very, very old, you may have to resort to
  sending the file over TCP port 9100 directly. If it is only very old,
  you may be able to upgrade the card to a version which does understand
  lpr. Upgrading the JetDirect is beyond the scope of this FAQ.

------------------------------

Subject:   -78- Why won't lpr(1) print very large files?
Date: 24 Aug 1996 00:00:01 EST

  lpd(1M) intentionally places an upper limit on spool file size. To
  remove it, add "mx#0" to your printcap(4) entry.

------------------------------

Subject:   -79- SGI DAEMONS
Date: 08 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  This section deals with the objectserver and its tricky pals, the
  directoryserver, famd and mediad.

------------------------------

Subject:   -80- Why isn't the objectserver working?
Date: 24 Aug 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Install patch 1096. If you still have problems, read on.

  First, consider whether you really need the objectserver. Without it,
  you'll lose "business cards" and the graphical admin software. They're
  probably not worth the headache.

  Anne Eagle <[e-mail]> posted most of the following:

  - Its database may be corrupt. If the objectserver appears to start
    OK but crashes later, this is probably the case. Rebuild it like
    so:

      /etc/init.d/cadmin stop
      /etc/init.d/cadmin clean
      /etc/init.d/cadmin start

    If the preceding doesn't work, try this

      /etc/init.d/cadmin stop
      mv /var/Cadmin/data /var/Cadmin/data.old
      /usr/Cadmin/bin/parseclasses
      /etc/init.d/cadmin start

    Note that either method destroys "Privileged User" and "Business
    Card" information. (This is the ONLY known drawback of rebuilding
    your objectserver database, and the ONLY reason why SGI
    documentation recommends that you consult with the TAC before doing
    so. For most people that means that there's no reason why you
    shouldn't rebuild whenever the need arises.)

  - One of your system configuration files (including but not limited to
    /etc/exports, /etc/fstab, /etc/inittab, /etc/mtab, /etc/passwd and
    /etc/printcap) may have minor format problems which don't bother
    IRIX proper but do bother the objectserver. Such problems include a
    last line which doesn't end with a linefeed, a backspace not
    preceded by a space in /etc/exports, or unprintable characters. Gary
    Lin <[e-mail]> suggests that you ensure that /etc/exports
    has explicit -ro or -rw export options and that you remove
    continuation lines (\) from /etc/printcap. Ken Gant
    <[e-mail]> points out that, as specified in gettydefs(4),
    the last line of /etc/gettydefs must be blank. One sign that you
    have such a problem is a core file in /var/Cadmin/data. If you find
    and fix a problem, rebuild the databases as above.

    If you can't find the problem, try the following:

      par -s -i -N open -l -SS /usr/Cadmin/bin/objectserver -d

    The last file objectserver opens is probably where the problem is.
    If you're really desperate, the TAC will give you an objectserver
    compiled with -g and help you run dbx on it.

  - You may be swamping the objectserver with NIS (YP) users. There are
    several ways around this:

    - Start a directoryserver on a machine on your local network.

    - Use netgroups or the "+user" form in /etc/passwd instead of just
      a "+" and rebuild the databases as above.

    - Most severely, remove the NIS object definition files so that the
      objectserver will not create NIS objects, rebuild the
      objectserver database (without the NIS objects) and restart the
      objectserver as follows. You will not be able to manipulate NIS
      users with Cadmin if you do this.

      killall fm
      mediad -k
      killall objectserver
      mv /var/Cadmin/data /var/Cadmin/data.orig
      cp -pr /usr/Cadmin/classes /usr/Cadmin/classes.orig
      rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/groupObject.op
      rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/nisAccountObject.op
      rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/peopleNISObject.op
      rm /usr/Cadmin/classes/peopleObject.op
      /usr/Cadmin/bin/parseclasses
      /usr/Cadmin/bin/objectserver
      ps -ef | grep obj

      Wait until you see 2 objectserver processes running, then do

      mediad
      fm -lrb &

  - Chris Riney <[e-mail]> says: "We have just discovered
    here at our site that if you do not have a route defined for the
    SGI multicast subnet, then objectserver will gobble up memory.  I
    established a route for 224.0.0.0, and objectserver has been up for
    over a week without consuming additional memory." This route is
    defined in the stock /etc/init.d/network.

  - Andreas Klingler <[e-mail]> fixed his
    objectserver by removing /usr/Cadmin/classes/printerObject.op and
    then rebuilding /var/Cadmin/data as above.

  - David Carrigan <[e-mail]> fixed his objectserver by editing
    his /etc/passwd file so userids were in ascending order.

  - Tovar ? <[e-mail]> suggests shutting off your objectserver,
    then running 'objecterver -d'.

  - Urpo Kotipalo <[e-mail]> had trouble with shadow
    passwords and the objectserver, which he fixed by waiting until
    '/etc/init.d/cadmin clean' had finished running pwconv(1M) before
    doing '/etc/init.d/cadmin start'.


  See also "Indigo Magic Tips and Tricks" in the Sep/Oct 1994 Pipeline
  and the entry on the imon queue below.

------------------------------

Subject:   -81- What is sending packets to the sgi-dog.mcast.net
                multicast address?
Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST

  The objectserver. It's using that address intentionally; SGI just
  didn't bother to define a new one. Scott Henry <[e-mail]> points
  out that if you don't use any directoryservers and want to get rid of
  the objectserver multicast packets, you can add '-t 0' to
  /etc/config/objectserver.options and they will go away.

------------------------------

Subject:   -82- Why are the objectserver and directoryserver taking up
                so much memory in IRIX 5.3?
Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST

  They really aren't. Doing 'ps -ef' in IRIX 5.3 and looking at the SZ
  column shows that these programs have extremely large address spaces,
  about 128M each. That's not the same thing as the physical memory they
  occupy, which is shown in the RSS column and which should be much
  smaller. See ps(1) and the IRIX 5.3 Cadmin release notes for more.

  However, there is a bug in the objectserver which makes it grow
  continuously when it can't find a directoryserver.  SGI claims to have
  fixed this in patch 1096; however, some disagree.

------------------------------

Subject:   -83- Why don't the desktop admin tools recognize root as a
                privileged user?
Date: 28 Jul 1995 00:00:01 EST

  The objectserver isn't working. Clean the database as described above.

------------------------------

Subject:   -84- Why doesn't my desktop deal properly with the CD or tape
                icons?
Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Install patch 1096. If you still have problems, read on.  Thanks to
  Anne Eagle <[e-mail]> for the following:

  This is a known bug both in 5.2 and 5.3.  Essentially, the desktop
  icons stop responding to insertion/removal of mediad, although the
  media itself is mounted properly and is accessible either from the
  command line or by opening your home directory and then changing to
  /CDROM or /floppy or starting cdman by hand or whatever is
  appropriate for the media.  Double clicking on the icon for the
  peripheral results in a dialog saying that the drive is unloaded,
  which of course it is not.

  Here are a number of workarounds. If the first doesn't work, try the
  second, and so on.  Below, if the command begins with the "%" symbol,
  that command can be executed by any user.  Commands beginning with
  "#" must be executed by root.

  * Restart the File Manager:

    % /usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit
    % fm -lrb

  * Restart both the File Manager and mediad:

    % /usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit
        % su -
        # /etc/init.d/mediad stop
        # /etc/init.d/mediad start
        # exit
        % fm -lrb

  * Restart the File Manager, mediad and the objectserver:

    % /usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit
        % su -
        # /etc/init.d/mediad stop
        # /etc/init.d/cadmin stop
        # /etc/init.d/cadmin start
        # /etc/init.d/mediad start
        # exit
        % fm -lrb

  * See if the icons from the Shared Resources in the upper right hand
    corner of the System Manager are responsive to insertion/removal of
    media.  If so, access the icons from the System Manager.

  * Reboot the system:

    # reboot

  * The media will have to be accessed by hand.  Open a directory
    view either by double-clicking on the home directory icon or
    choosing "Desktop/Home Directory" from the Toolchest.  Then change
    to the appropriate directory for the device.  For instance, the
    floppy or floptical drives are access by default from /floppy and
    the CDROM from /CDROM.

    Find the "cdman" icon via "Find/An Icon" and then double click on
    it to listen to music CD's over the scsi audio port.

  See also the Sep/Oct 1994 Pipeline.

  Greg Morlock <[e-mail]> fixed his device icons by adding
  entries to the local copy of /etc/passwd for each NIS user, with no
  password and a '+' at the beginning of each userid.

  Alternatively, mediad may never have started; see the next question.

------------------------------

Subject:   -85- Why doesn't my mediad start up under IRIX 5.3?
Date: 04 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST

  If your mediad is dying with the message "mediad: Initialization of my
  address failed.  Cannot contact objectserver." to the syslog, your
  machine may not be able to get its IP address.  Try adding the line

      hostresorder local bind

  or (if you use NIS)

      hostresorder local nis bind

  to your /etc/resolv.conf file.  Make sure the local machine's hostname
  and IP address are in the local /etc/hosts file, and then either
  restart the objectserver, mediad, and desktop or reboot.

  This problem manifests itself when the objectserver cannot grab the
  local machine's IP address from DNS (aka bind).  When the resolver is
  told to look at the /etc/hosts file first, it should find the local
  machine's address without asking DNS about it.

  Thanks to Dave Olson and Alexis Cousein (both of SGI) for tracking
  this down.

------------------------------

Subject:   -86- Why do cdman, cdplayer and capture say "permission
                denied"?
Date: 02 Feb 1996 00:00:01 EST

  You've installed patch 708 or 1048, which come with a broken mediad.
  You really should have patch 1048 or later, which fixes a bad security
  hole in the objectserver (see the security FAQ).  If you don't care
  about automounting CDs, turn off mediad with '/etc/init.d/mediad stop;
  /etc/chkconfig mediad off'. If you do, use the mediad from IRIX 5.3,
  (which you'll find in /var/inst/patchbase/usr/etc/mediad after
  installing the patch) or upgrade to patch 1096 (but see below).

------------------------------

Subject:   -87- Why can't 'cformat' format floptical disks, and/or why
                can't 'datman' play audio DATs?
Date: 16 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST

  You've installed patch 1096, which breaks cformat(1M) and datman(1).
  You really should have patch 1048 or later, which fixes a bad security
  hole in the objectserver (see the security FAQ), so you should either
  use mkfp(1M) instead of cformat and turn off mediad(1M) when you want
  to use datman, or back down to patch 1048 (but see above).

------------------------------

Subject:   -88- Why is famd hammering my NFS server?
Date: 24 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  It's partly a bug; get patch 165 for IRIX 5.2 and patch 166 for IRIX
  5.3. It's partly just famd's nature; you can try to calm it down by
  changing its polling interval (6 seconds by default, specified by the
  '-t 6' flag) in /etc/inetd.conf.  If you do install the patch, don't
  forget to add the '-l' flag to famd's line in /etc/inetd.conf.

------------------------------

Subject:   -89- What is causing "/dev/imon: event queue overflow" in my
                syslog?
Date: 24 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Probably famd. Try the measures in the previous entry. If those don't
  work, try increasing the value of QSIZE in /var/sysgen/master.d/imon
  and rebuilding your kernel.

------------------------------

Subject:   -90- BUGS
Date: 03 Jun 1995 00:00:01 EST

  These questions discuss miscellaneous bugs in IRIX. Note also the
  entry on bugs and patches in the misc FAQ, and Walter Roberson's patch
  lists in the "WWW pages" section of the same FAQ.

------------------------------

Subject:   -91- Why do 'who', 'rusers', etc. show users who aren't
                really logged in?
Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST

  Several bugs in different versions of IRIX cause /etc/utmp to not be
  updated properly after a user logs out. Programs incorrectly reporting
  logins are correctly reporting the incorrect contents of /etc/utmp.
  One such bug is present in an unspecified part of IRIX 4.0.x and fixed
  in IRIX 5.x, and another is in ftpd in IRIX 5.2 and fixed in patch 162
  and IRIX 5.3.

  If one can't fix the bug which causes the incorrect /etc/utmp
  entries, one can run a separate program to remove them from /etc/utmp
  after the fact. Jeremy DuBois <[e-mail]>, David Hinds
  <[e-mail]> and Patrick M. Ryan <[e-mail]>
  have written such programs, which can be found in
  ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/software/utmp/. SGI provides such a
  program, /usr/sbin/chkutent, in IRIX 5.3; the root crontab runs it
  daily.

------------------------------

Subject:   -92- What's wrong with ftpd in IRIX 5.2?
Date: 30 Jan 1995 00:00:01 EST

  It doesn't maintain utmp properly (see the previous entry) and it dies
  during 'mget's. Get patch 162 or upgrade to 5.3.

------------------------------

Subject:   -93- Why isn't /usr/adm/SYSLOG being updated?
Date: 20 Dec 1996 00:00:01 CST

  Popular causes include:

  - running out of disk space. Once syslogd is unable to write to
    /usr/adm/SYSLOG, it won't try again until it is `killall -HUP
    syslogd`ed.

  - installing IRIX 4.0.x and failing to heed the nagging from
    the system when it is rebooted to run 'versions changed' and
    combine new and old configuration files.  In this case, the trouble
    is in /usr/spool/cron/crontabs/root.

  - Separating fields in /etc/syslog.conf with spaces instead of tabs.
    If you use spaces, syslogd will silently segv when it reads that
    file.

------------------------------

Subject:   -94- I just edited /etc/inittab, and now I can't start up or
                shut down my SGI! What's wrong?
Date: 03 Dec 1994 00:00:01 EST

  If the last line of /etc/inittab is a comment, init will screw up
  horribly.  If your machine is still running, remove the comment and
  everything will be OK. If not, go to the miniroot, run the shell and
  remove the comment from there. The following sequence of commands is
  one possible way to do this:

    cd /root/etc
    cat inittab        # Decide how many lines to remove (say three)
    wc inittab        # See how many lines inittab has (say 120)
    head -117 inittab > inittab.new   # Keep the first 120 - 3 lines
    mv inittab inittab.old
    mv inittab.new inittab
    cat inittab        # Just making sure

  and reboot. Don't forget the 'cd'; from the miniroot's point of view,
  /etc/inittab is /root/etc/inittab.

  The problem should be fixed in IRIX 5.3.

------------------------------

Subject:   -95- Why does timed say "bind: Cannot assign requested
                address"?
Date: 29 Oct 1994 00:00:01 EST

  timed is incompatible with the rld which comes with patchSG0000023,
  which is needed for DeltaCC. There are two solutions to this problem
  (thanks to Alan Davis <[e-mail]>):

  - Get a new timed from SGI.

  - Replace the following line in /etc/init.d/network.options (line 664
    in an unmodified IRIX 5.2 file)

    /usr/etc/timed -M `cat $CONFIG/timed.options 2> /dev/null` &

    with

    env _RLD_ARGS="-clearstack" /usr/etc/timed `cat $CONFIG/timed.options 2> /dev/null` &

------------------------------

Subject:   -96- Why does "ALERT: i2cWaitForXferDone: Xfer Done timeout
                ERROR" appear in my SYSLOG?
Date: 22 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  These messages appear when the Indycam is unplugged. They are
  harmless, but if they bother you you can banish them with patch 486.

------------------------------

Subject:   -97- Why has NIS (YP) stopped working under IRIX 6.x?
Date: 04 Jul 1996 00:00:01 EST

  Joshua Hart <[e-mail]> writes: Under earlier IRIXes,
  NIS domain names could contain uppercase letters. Under IRIX 6.x they
  may not; only lowercase letters are permitted.

------------------------------

Subject:   -98- MISCELLANEOUS
Date: 15 May 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Everything else.

------------------------------

Subject:   -99- How do I set the number of processes allowed on my
                machine?
Date: 13 Nov 1994 00:00:01 EST

  Use systune(1M) to change 'nproc' (in the 'numproc' group of
  parameters) and reboot.

------------------------------

Subject:  -100- Where can I get a termcap file for 'iris-ansi-net' to
                install on my non-SGI system?
Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 CST

  SGIs use terminfo, so you need to translate the terminfo description
  to termcap. 'infocmp -Cr iris-ansi-net' will produce an iris-ansi-net
  termcap file. See infocmp(1) for more. Note that 'infocmp' is in the
  eoe2.sw.terminf subsystem in IRIX 5.x, 6.0.x, and 6.1, and is not
  installed by default.  (infocmp is part of eoe.sw.unix in IRIX 6.2
  and above and is installed by default.)

------------------------------

Subject:  -101- How can I make my SGI understand strange terminal types
                from other Unix systems?
Date: 4 Jun 1997 00:00:01 EST

  If the other system uses terminfo:
  Brent L. Bates <[e-mail]> has been able to copy binary
  terminfo files directly between several different types of systems.
  (On IRIX 5.x and above, the terminfo files are located under
  /usr/share/lib/terminfo.)  However, if for some reason this does not
  work, use 'infocmp -I whatever > file' to extract the source
  erminfo entry for the terminal. Transfer the file to your SGI and
  do 'tic file' (as root) to put the entry into the terminfo database.

  If the other system uses termcap:
  Snip the termcap entry out of /etc/termcap (or wherever) with an
  editor, transfer it to your SGI and (as root) do 'captoinfo file
  > newfile' and 'tic newfile'.

  See also the infocmp(1), captoinfo(1), tic(1) and terminfo(4)
  manpages, and make sure you've installed eoe2.sw.terminf (under
  IRIX 5.x, 6.0.x, and 6.1), which is not installed by default.
  On IRIX 6.2 and above, these utilities are part of eoe.sw.unix.

  Many unusual terminal devices can be taken care of in IRIX 6.2 and
  above by installing eoe.sw.terminfo, which includes terminfo files
  for many devices.

------------------------------

Subject:  -102- Can I change my login shell or other password-file info
                without being superuser?
Date: 27 Jan 1996 00:00:01 EST

  At a graphics terminal, use the User Manager. At a text terminal, if
  your account is on NIS (Yellow Pages) use 'ypchpass'.  If it isn't
  you're stuck, because IRIX has no way to change a local user's
  password-file info from the command line.  You might ask your
  superuser to install one of the many free implementations of 'chsh'
  and/or 'chfn' (one is in volume 3 of comp.sources.unix, at
  ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume3/) but they'll want
  to make sure that those programs know how to lock /etc/passwd
  properly.

-----------------------------

Subject:  -103- How can I administer my Iris without a graphics
                terminal?
Date: 13 Apr 1994 00:00:01 EST

  The visual admin tools in IRIX 4.0.x ('vadmin') need GL, and do not
  work on X terminals or workstations without GL. You can use 'sysadm'
  on text terminals for some tasks, but beware of bugs and
  inadequacies: SGI judged 'sysadm' to be too buggy to be worth
  updating for IRIX 5.x.

  The visual admin tools in IRIX 5.2 and later should display on any X
  display, *except* for the backup/restore tool which is an exact port
  from IRIX 4.0.x and requires GL. Some images will be missing when GL
  is unavailable, but the tools will function properly. As for text
  terminals, you're out of luck: 'sysadm' does not exist in IRIX 5.x.

  Of course, you can always use a text editor and write scripts, or see
  the next question.

------------------------------

Subject:  -104- How can I use the visual admin tools on a system with
                graphics to administer a system without graphics?
Date: 12 Feb 1994 00:00:01 EST

  rlogin to the graphics-less system and run 'vadmin' (IRIX 4.0.x) or
  'chost' (IRIX 5.x).  Make sure that the DISPLAY environment variable
  is set correctly and that both the vadmin/sysadmdesktop and the
  shared library subsystems are installed on the graphics-less system
  (which they are in the default installation).

  Under IRIX 5.x, look at the READMEs in /var/sysadmdesktop/rsysmanapps
  and /var/sysadmdesktop/sysmanapps to find out how to use 'chost' to
  run commands on remote systems. Finally, in a future release of IRIX
  5.x, the sysadmdesktop tools will be able to manage remote systems
  *without* doing an rlogin.

------------------------------

Subject:  -105- What's /etc/ioctl.syscon?
Date: 09 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST

  The default 'stty' setings to use on the console in single user mode,
  in 'stty -g' format.

------------------------------

Subject:  -106- Can I log out users automatically?
Date: 29 Apr 1995 00:00:01 EST

  It depends on the sense of "log out" you want. If your users use the
  'tcsh' shell you can set the autologout shell variable (and possibly
  make it read-only) in a startup script to log out inactive shells.
  This won't do anything to an instantiation of tcsh which is waiting
  for another program to quit (e.g. a 'more' process in mid-file) or to
  programs other than tcsh (e.g. a 'jot' window), and it won't log one
  out of the graphics console. One can imagine a program similar to a
  screen saver which would log one out after so many minutes of
  keyboard/mouse inactivity, but we don't know of one. However, if
  you're only worried about security (rather than resource hogging) it
  may suffice to use 'xlock' to lock the screen rather than actually
  logging one out. For that matter, tcsh can also lock itself rather
  than logging one out; this wouldn't be helpful on a graphics console
  but might be on a simple terminal.

------------------------------

Subject:  -107- How can I change kernel variables and/or rebuild my
                kernel?
Date: 14 Oct 1995 00:00:01 EST

  To change a kernel variable under IRIX 5.x, use systune(1M). It saves
  the tuned kernel in /unix.install; if this file exists, it is moved to
  /unix on the next reboot. systune will change the parameters in the
  running kernel if it can, and tell you to reboot if it can't.

  To actually rebuild the kernel, use 'autoconfig -f'. This leaves the
  rebuilt kernel in /unix.install. You must reboot to begin using the
  rebuilt kernel; "rebuild your kernel" elsewhere in the FAQs implies
  rebooting.

  IRIX 4.0.x does not have systune. To change a kernel variable, edit
  the file in /usr/sysgen/master.d which contains the variable, rebuild
  the kernel and reboot.

------------------------------

End of sgi/faq/admin Digest
******************************
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