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- Pcomm v2.0
- Additional Notes for users of
- AT&T Unix PC 7300/3b1
-
- 1) This version of Pcomm *REQUIRES* the pseudo-tty and socket
- emulation library called "uipc" found on osu-cis.
-
- 2) You must run the Setup.sh shell script (as root) before
- attempting to compile Pcomm. The shell script will create a
- new link directive file, extract a few missing objects from
- the C library, and create a new sys/time.h header.
-
- 3) The shared libraries on your system contain Terminal Access
- Method (TAM) routines in lieu of curses(3) routines. However,
- many of the routines have the same names! This means that
- curses library is not compatible with the shared library. So,
- to circumvent the problem, an alternate shared library "link
- directive file" is needed. The Setup.sh script creates this
- file.
-
- 4) Before Pcomm can be compiled, the curses library routines
- must be installed on your system. The diskette labeled
- "Curses/Terminfo Programmer's Package" is a part of the "Unix
- Development Set". Likewise, before Pcomm can be used, the
- terminfo database must be installed. The diskettes labeled
- "Curses/Terminfo End User Package" and "Terminfo Database" are
- a part of the "Unix Foundation Set"
-
- 5) Did you know that your system can use DEC vt100 style line
- drawing character? Curses automatically uses the "alternate"
- character set (if found) to draw the boxes and lines rather than
- using the "-" and "|" characters. To allow your system to use
- this feature, there are two things you must do:
-
- 1) Load the line drawing font in slot 1 prior to running
- a program requiring them. This can be done by typing:
-
- setf /usr/lib/wfont/BLD.ft 1
-
- ...or permanently install this font in slot 1 by adding
- the following two lines to the end of the /etc/rc file:
-
- sfont /usr/lib/wfont/BLD.ft 1
- setf /usr/lib/wfont/BLD.ft 1
-
- 2) Tell curses(3) about the alternate character set by
- editing the terminfo database.
-
- To get a copy of the terminfo entry to play with,
- you type:
-
- infocmp -I s4 > s4.ti
-
- now add the following line (with a leading tab) to the
- "s4.ti" file:
-
- acsc=+h\,g.e-fjjkkllmmnnqqttuuvvwwxx,
-
- recompile the new entry:
-
- tic s4.ti
-
- There is one disadvantage... Sometimes line noise will switch
- you to the line drawing character set while you're communicating
- with a remote!
-
- 6) The "tset" command is broken on every version of Unix this
- box has ever seen (it is commented out of /etc/profile for a
- good reason). One of tset's functions was to send a string to
- initialize the settings of the terminal and to set the tab
- stops. The fact that this program isn't used is often
- overlooked because the console (as well as a lot of other
- terminals) doesn't require any initialization. However, if you
- call into your system from a remote terminal that *does* require
- initialization, you've got trouble.
-
- For example, curses(3) looks at the terminfo database to see if
- your terminal has "hardware tabs", if so, it expects the tab
- stops to be set. Ignoring tabs by using "stty -tabs" (to
- convert tabs to spaces) won't work, in fact, curses(3) RESETS
- things as if you had typed "stty tabs"!
-
- Likewise, my terminfo entry for PCPLUS v1.1's emulation of a
- vt102 has "^[)0" in the initialization string to load the line
- drawing character set. It needs to be sent to the terminal
- before running Pcomm.
-
- Some versions of Unix have a "init" option to the "tput" command
- to perform all the initialization. If so, you should edit the
- /etc/profile to add the following commands at the bottom:
-
- tput init
- tabs
-
- If your version of tput doesn't recognize the "init" option, a
- somewhat longer solution is to edit /etc/profile and add the
- following commands at the bottom:
-
- eval `tput iprog`
- tput is1
- tput is2
- if [ -n "`tput hts`" ] ;then
- stty tabs
- else
- stty -tabs
- fi
- tabs
- cat -s "`tput if`"
- tput is3
- echo "\r\c"
-
- 7) Pcomm makes (an arrogant) assumption that the phone line for
- the OBM is already configured in the DATA mode. Users with only
- one phone line attached to ph0 will have to manually switch the
- line to the DATA mode before using Pcomm and then switch it back
- to VOICE afterwards. To aid in this task, the following shell
- script could be used:
-
- phtoggle
- sleep 1
- /usr/local/bin/pcomm $*
- phtoggle
-
- Users with one phone line attached to ph0 will have to change
- the TTY setup since the default Pcomm.modem file assumes that
- ph1 is being used.
-
- If you only have one phone line but *always* use it in the DATA
- mode, there is another solution. Did you know that you can fool
- your machine into having a one-line system in the DATA mode?
- All you have to do is re-configure the Telephone Setup and tell
- the machine that you've got two lines (one line to be shared
- between VOICE and DATA on ph0, and one line to be DATA only on
- ph1). Then you just never plug the phone line into ph0, you use
- ph1 instead. The Telephone Setup menu is reached through the
- Office of install, Administration, Hardware Setup menues.
-
- 8. The SETUID_BROKE pre-processor variable was designed to take
- care of systems that aren't able to switch back and forth
- between the real and effective user id. On the Unix PC, this
- problem only exists if the program is set-group-id. So, if
- you're running HDB UUCP and have Pcomm set-user-id to uucp, you
- don't need to have SETUID_BROKE defined.
-
- 9. The default tunable parameters for the size of INPUT_BUF and
- OUTPUT_BUF for the Unix PC are rather small in order to prevent a
- "choppy" appearance on the screen. However, if you have
- installed the serial patch (called "serial_pat.Z" on osu-cis),
- then the nominal sizes of 64 and 32 for INPUT_BUF and OUTPUT_BUF
- will provide much better performance.
-