Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/faqs/faq/dec-faq/osf1

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Subject: DEC OSF/1 AXP Frequently Asked Questions
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix,comp.unix.osf.osf1,comp.sys.dec,news.answers,comp.answers
From: [e-mail] (Steve Lionel)
Date: 10 Nov 1994 21:58:07 GMT


Archive-name: dec-faq/osf1
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: November 10, 1994

This is part 3 of the Frequently Asked Questions posting for
comp.unix.ultrix, with answers about the DEC OSF/1 AXP operating system
[referred to in short hereafter as OSF/1] from Digital.  It is also posted on
comp.sys.dec, comp.unix.osf.osf1 and vmsnet.alpha, but it is not a full FAQ
for those groups.  Companion postings have answers that apply to both ULTRIX
and OSF/1 and answers that apply to ULTRIX alone.

A separate FAQ describes how to get information about Digital products
and interacting with Digital.

This FAQ is archived in the following locations:
    comp.answers and news.answers newsgroups
    ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/dec-faq
    ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers
    http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/

The archive name for this FAQ is dec-faq/osf

To make suggestions for changes or additions to this Frequently Asked
Questions list, send mail to [e-mail].  Answers are
especially appreciated.

An archive of recent postings to comp.unix.ultrix can be found
at ftp://ftp.cc.rochester.edu/pub/usenet/comp.unix.ultrix
Thanks to folks at the University of Rochester for providing this
service.

Some general notes:

When used alone, the word "DECstation" is used to mean any of the
DECstations or DECsystems that use MIPS RISC processors.  Similarly,
"Alpha" refers to any DEC systems that use the Alpha AXP processor.

Unless otherwise specified, these answers refer to DEC OSF/1 AXP 3.0, which is
the current release.

World-Wide Web Universal Resource Locator (URL) notation is used for FTP
addresses.

Many people have contributed to this list, directly or indirectly.  In
some cases, an answer has been adapted from one or more postings on the
comp.unix.ultrix or comp.unix.osf.osf1 newsgroups.  Our thanks to all of
those who post answers. The name (or names) at the end of an entry indicate that
the information was taken from postings by those individuals; the text may have
been edited for this FAQ.  These citations are only given to acknowledge the
contribution.

Although the editor of this FAQ is an employee of Digital Equipment
Corporation, this posting is not an official statement from Digital
Equipment Corporation.

Alpha AXP, AXP, DEC, DECstation, DECsystem, OpenVMS, ULTRIX, VAX and VMS
are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.  Other names are properties
of their respective owners.

Changes since last edition
==========================
E-mail address for info about OSF/1 Freeware CD added.

Alpha
======================================================
A1. Where can I find software that has been ported to Alpha?
A2. What does the "AXP" in "DEC 3000 Model 400 AXP Workstation" mean?
A3. Where can I get Emacs and Epoch for Alpha OSF/1?
A4. Where can I get technical information about Alpha?
A5. How can I test drive an Alpha system?

Software
======================================================
S1. What (free) tools are there for looking at system behavior?
S2. How can I figure out what files translated binaries are
    looking for?
S3. Where can I get an alternative PostScript previewer?

Programming
======================================================
P1. What tools will help me port software to the 64-bit Alpha system?
P2. Why can't I run dbx?
P3. Why do my applications not work after I upgrade to a new version of DEC OSF/1?
P4. Where can I get a debugging malloc that works on Alpha OSF/1?
P5. What's with 'ld: unresolved symbols: dnet_conn'?

Graphics
======================================================
G1. How can I make the graphics go faster?
G2. Where can I get an xv that works on Alpha OSF/1?

Network
======================================================
N1. Why doesn't FTP work to an XYZ system?
N2. How do you use a NFS-mounted /usr filesystem on OSF/1?
N3. Where can I get rstatd for DEC OSF/1?
N4. How do I switch between the AUI and 10 Base-T Ethernet ports?
N5. Where can I get multicast software for OSF/1?
N6. What's wrong with xdr_long in the OSF/1 XDR routines?

Hardware
======================================================
H1. Where can I get information about Alpha chips?

Miscellaneous
======================================================
M1. Where else is DEC OSF/1 discussed?
M2. How do I add a new terminal definition?
M3. How do I boot to single-user mode?

==============================================
A1.  Where can I find software that has been ported to Alpha?

A list of software known to be ported to Alpha OSF/1 is available
on the World-Wide Web:

    http://www.digital.com/info/software.html

The "Alpha AXP Freeware CD," which is shipped with the DEC OSF/1
software distribution, has many popular programs in both source and
binary form. The current Alpha Freeware CD-ROM can also be ordered
from DECdirect, order number QA-0PSAA-H8.  The price is $12 US.
For more information on the Freeware CD-ROM, send mail to
[e-mail].

The Freeware CD is mounted on some Internet machines, including
gatekeeper.dec.com and ftp.Uni-Koeln.de, for anonymous FTP.

The alpha-osf-managers archive (see below) also has some programs.

                [Pete Kaiser, kaiser@.vbo.dec.com]
                [Win Treese, [e-mail]]

==============================================
A2. What does the "AXP" in "DEC 3000 Model 400 AXP Workstation" mean?

Nothing. It is part of the trademark.

==============================================
A3. Where can I get Emacs and Epoch for Alpha OSF/1?

Both a binary and sources for GNU Emacs are included on the base
system CD-ROM. Epoch is available on the Alpha OSF/1 Freeware CD-ROM
(see answer A1 for more information).
Patches to make Emacs version 19 run on Alpha OSF/1 can be found at
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/GNU .  The files are

    emacs-19.22-alpha-patch.README
    emacs-19.22-alpha-patch.gz


                [Pete Kaiser, [e-mail]]
                [Rob McCool, [e-mail]]

==============================================
A4. Where can I get technical information about Alpha?

Sites, R.L., Ed., Alpha Architecture Reference Manual (600 page book,
1992) from Digital Press (EY-L520E-DP) or Prentice-Hall 9ISBN
0-13-033663-7). Also at most technical bookstores, including
Quantum(Cambridge) and Stacey's (Palo Alto)

Communications of the ACM, February 1993 issue (4 Alpha articles)

Digital Technical Journal, Vol 4., No. 4 (200 pages of Alpha articles,
including 4 above with fewer typos). Order info: [e-mail]
(Available from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/DTJ and
http://www.digital.com/info/DTJ/dtj.html)

Jim Montanaro "The Design of the Alpha 21064 CPU Chip" (42 minutes)
Dick Sites and Dirk Meyer, "Alpha Architecture" (73 minutes)
University Video Communications P.O. BOx 5129 Stanford CA 94309 USA
[phone]
                    [Dick Sites, [e-mail]]

==============================================
A5.  How can I test drive an Alpha system?

In no particular order:

OSF:
1. telnet axposf.pa.dec.com, login as guest.
2. telnet axposf.stanford.edu, login as guest.

VMS:
1. telnet axpvms.cc.utexas.edu, login as AXPGUEST
2. telnet axpvms.pa.dec.com, login as AXPGUEST

==============================================
S1.  What (free) tools are there for looking at system behavior?

syd, a utility like top, is on the Alpha OSF/1 Freeware disk.  It is also
available for anonymous FTP from many sites.  One is
ftp://ftp.Uni-Koeln.DE/decosf.

top has been ported to DEC OSF/1, and works under 1.2, 1.3, and field
test releases of version 2.0.  It is available from
ftp://ftp.eng.umd.edu/pub/alpha.

lsof, a utility for listing open files, is available from
ftp://vic.cc.purdue.edu:/pub.

                    [Dave Sill, [e-mail]]
                    [Anthony Baxter, [e-mail]]

==============================================
S2.  How can I figure out what files translated binaries are
    looking for?

Try
    setenv MXR_TRACE_SYSCALLS open,stat,fstat,access

Running mxr -help will describe this environment variable along with
some other useful ones.
                [Richard Gorton, [e-mail]]

==============================================
S3.  Where can I get an alternative PostScript previewer?

The previewer psview is available from
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/PRL

The interface is similar to that of xdvi.  It can use Display PostScript
or ghostscript for rendering.
                    [Castor Fu, [e-mail]]

==============================================
P1. What tools will help me port software to the 64-bit Alpha system?

The version of lint shipped with Alpha OSF/1 has many checks to help
port software to Alpha.  In particular, the -Q option is very useful.
See the manual page for more details.

A document entitled "SunOS to DEC OSF/1 Porting Guide" is available
from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/document/EC-N0736-43.ps.Z

==============================================
P2. Why can't I run dbx?

With DEC OSF/1 V1.2 the development environment is a separate layered
product beyond the base OS.  Although it is included on the DEC OSF/1
consolidated CD-ROM, the license must be purchased separately to use
any portion of the Developer's kit.  Within the DEC OSF/1 Developer's
Kit the license just happens to be enforced by a check in dbx.

For more information, look in
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/DECnews-UNIX for:

      0104.txt      DEC OSF/1 Developer's Extensions V1.2 article, 11/17/92
      0603.txt      DEC OSF/1 Developer's Toolkit V1.2 article, 03/23/93
      0806.txt    C Compiler for DEC OSF/1 Operating System article, 05/13/93
                    [Russ Jones, [e-mail]]

==============================================
P3. Why do my applications not work after I upgrade to a new version of DEC OSF/1?

Sometimes the details of the shared libraries change between releases.
In general, applications compiled on an earlier version of DEC OSF/1
should still run on a later version.  The converse may not be true.

In particular, there were some incompatibilies between the field test and
final versions of DEC OSF/1 V1.2.

The usual solution is to recompile from scratch.
                        [John Kohl, [e-mail]]

==============================================
P4. Where can I get a debugging malloc that works on Alpha OSF/1?

ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/misc/malloc_dbg.

If you get the package, be sure to read the stuff in the file
contrib/dec_notes which explains how to replace malloc on the fly in
an existing program.

                    [Dave Hill, [e-mail]]

==============================================
P5. What's with 'ld: unresolved symbols: dnet_conn'?

Some libraries on OSF/1 (notably the X11 library) are compiled so that
they can use DECnet as well as TCP/IP.  To link with such libraries,
include -ldnet_stub at the end of link command.  If you have DECnet
software installed, use -ldnet.


==============================================
G1. How can I make the graphics go faster?

If your application is sending lots of data (using, say, PutImage
requests), try setting DISPLAY to local:0, which uses a shared memory
transport between the client and the X server.
                    [Gail Grant]

==============================================
G2. Where can I get an xv that works on Alpha OSF/1?

Try ftp://pfc.mit.edu/  Make sure that LONG and U_LONG in
xvtiffwr.c are defined to be int and unsigned int.
                [Mike Iglesias, [e-mail]]

==============================================
N1. Why doesn't FTP work to an XYZ system?

DEC OSF/1 uses the IP type-of-service option (TOS) by default.  This
confuses some systems (reportedly Macintoshes).  To turn off the
option for ftp, create a file /etc/iptos with the following entries:

    ftp-control    tcp    0x0
    ftp-data    tcp    0x0

Reboot the Alpha system.

==============================================
N2. How do you use a NFS-mounted /usr filesystem on OSF/1?

Jon Forrest ([e-mail]) has written a document that
describes how to do this. Look in
ftp://toe.CS.Berkeley.edu/pub/personal/forrest/remote.mounting

Note that as of OSF 1.3 DEC does not support this but it is quite
easy to do.
                [Jon Forrest, [e-mail]]

==============================================
N3. Where can I get rstatd for DEC OSF/1?

rstatd is reportedly in DEC OSF/1 version 2.0.

==============================================
N4. How do I switch between the AUI and 10 Base-T Ethernet ports?

- Shutdown the system.
- At the ">>>" prompt, type:

    set ethernet thick
      or
          set ethernet tenbt

- Reboot the system.
                               [Steve Imber, [e-mail]]

==============================================
N5.  Where can I get multicast software for OSF/1?

Information about software for multicast applications on OSF/1 is
available from:

    http://s2k-ftp.cs.berkeley.edu:8000/sequoia/conferencing
or    ftp://2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU/pub/sequoia/conferencing
                [Fred Templin, [e-mail]]

==============================================
N6. What's wrong with xdr_long in the OSF/1 XDR routines?

xdr_long is used for sending signed 32-bit values and cannot send
0xFFFFFFFF. xdr_ulong should be used instead.  For 64-bit integer
values, use xdr_hyper.  See the manual pages for more details.
                    [Curtis Keller, [e-mail]]

This is slightly misleading.  xdr_long() can send -1, which in 32 bits
is 0xffffffff.  xdr_long() does range checking, insuring that the top 33
bits of its 64-bit argument are all ones or all zeroes.  If this is not
the case, then the signed long integer is beyond the range of
representation within a signed 32-bit value, and xdr_long() rightly
fails.

xdr_u_long() [note typo above!] insures that the top 32 bits of its
64-bit argument are all zero.   If this is not the case, then the
unsigned long integer is beyond ... blah blah.

So, the upshot is:  If you're using signed values, use xdr_long(), and
DON'T use unsigned constants like 0xffffffff to set variables.  If
you're using unsigned values, use xdr_u_long().  In both cases, make
sure you're within range for 32-bits, if you want to interoperate with
32-bit machines using native data types.
                    [John Kohl,[e-mail]]

==============================================
H1. Where can I get information about Alpha chips?

Call the DECchip Hotline
   1-800-332-2717 (voice)
   1-800-332-2515 (TTY)
   8:30am - 5:30pm ET

                        [Jim Gettys, [e-mail]]

==============================================
M1. Where else is DEC OSF/1 discussed?

You can join the mailing list [e-mail].  Send a message
with
    subscribe alpha-osf-managers
in the body to [e-mail].  Archives of the list are available
from ftp://ftp.kpc.com/pub/list/alpha-osf-managers  Some useful
Alpha software is also kept there.
                    [Dave Sill, [e-mail]]

==============================================
M2. How do I add a new terminal definition?

Some applications on OSF/1 use termcap; others use terminfo.  tic(1)
compiles a termcap definition for terminfo.   It is best to add a
new terminal definition both ways.
                    [Jeffrey Heller, [e-mail]]

==============================================
M3. How do I boot to single-user mode?

>>> boot -fl s

-fl specifies the flags to the booted image.
                    [Boris Yost, [e-mail]]
[End of FAQ]