Sun-Spots Digest, v6n251
William LeFebvre
Sun-Spots-Request at Rice.edu
Mon Oct 10 12:44:56 AEST 1988
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Thursday, 6 October 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 251
Today's Topics:
Re: Rasterfile to rasterfile conversion filter (2)
Re: Has anyone installed a CDC Wren V (620MB)
Re: 386i compiler bug
Re: Drawing system for Sun
Re: Mathematica for Sun
GNUPLOT sources
386i repaired & explained
bug in scanf under 4.0
sun!sunbugs vs sun!hotline
Popping up an independent window in SunView
DNI Protocol Error question
bad user stack message
Problems with 3.5 and NFS?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 10:07:16 PDT
From: david at sun.com (David DiGiacomo)
Subject: Re: Rasterfile to rasterfile conversion filter (1)
Reference: v6n244
>Since my disk space was disappearing at an alarming rate, I decided to
>convert all my rasterfile bitmaps to the compressed format. I whipped up
>the following filter to convert Sun rasterfiles from one format to
>another....
/usr/lib/rasfilters/convert.2 will do about the same thing. Source is
included.
--
David DiGiacomo, Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, CA sun!david david at sun.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 13:09:14 PDT
From: gandalf at csli.stanford.edu (Juergen Wagner)
Subject: Re: Rasterfile to rasterfile conversion filter (2)
Using compress(1) results in a much better compression of Sun rasterfiles.
To read compressed images you can open a pipe to uncompress(1) which
writes the uncompressed file to its stdout (basically, that's zcat(1)).
There are two utilities in /usr/lib/rasfilters, called convert.0 and
convert.2, which read RT_OLD, RT_STANDARD, RT_BYTE_ENCODED bitmaps, and
convert them to RT_STANDARD or RT_BYTE_ENCODED bitmaps.
Example (bitmap `fullmoon', 1152x900x1, the full moon on a black background with
some stars):
Rasterfile Rasterfile.Z
RT_STANDARD 130kB 67kB
RT_BYTE_ENCODED 54kB 57kB
I think, that this ratio is fairly typical.
Juergen "Gandalf" Wagner, gandalf at csli.stanford.edu
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford CA
PS: The Sun RT_BYTE_ENCODED format is different from MacPaint file encoding.
MacPaint uses a run-length encoding scheme which collects runs longer than
3 into <count-1><byte>, and unencoded sequences into <count-1><data[count]>.
Sun uses a scheme where runs longer than 3 are encoded as 80<count-1><byte>,
and where unencoded sequences are just written as such (with the exception
of the byte 80 which is written as 8000).
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 18:07:54 +0100
From: unido!focus!bigmac!jum at uunet.uu.net (Jens-Uwe Mager)
Subject: Re: Has anyone installed a CDC Wren V (620MB)
My CDC Wren V Manual states that this disk has 383.3 Mb unformatted
capacity, may be Control Data uses a different numbering scheme in the US?
Anyways, they have three models with slightly different cylinder/head
layout. On model 94186-442 1412 cylinders and 15 heads, on model
94186-383 1412 cylinders and 13 heads and on model 94186-383H 1224
cylinders and 15 heads. Leaving the usual 6 cylinders for bad block
handling I got this space on model -383H :
bigmac# dkinfo sd2a
Emulex MD21 controller at addr 140000, unit # 8
1218 cylinders 15 heads 34 sectors/track
621180 sectors (1218 cyls)
starting cylinder 0
bigmac#
The only problem I encountered is that on the new MD21 Controllers shipped
by Emulex the firmware is not compatible to the sun drivers, although
after copying the eprom from an original sun shoe box everything works
fine.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 17:35:01 EDT
From: shenkin at cubsun.bio.columbia.edu (Peter Shenkin)
Subject: Re: 386i compiler bug
I tried to reply directly to the poster, but email couldn't get through;
so here's more information; sorry it's not a solution!
I compiled the following code on a Sun 3 running SunOS 3.4. It compiled
without complaint. I also tried it on another Sun 3 running SunOS 4.0.
Also no complaints.
Since a foo.h file wasn't given, I supplied one that also includes the
function definition. I'd like to see identical code tried on the 386i.
If it works fine, the problem must lie elsewhere than in the fragment that
was supplied.
In either case, I'd like to hear what happens, since I have a 386i on order....
-P.
Peter S. Shenkin, Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, Columbia University
New York, NY 10027 Tel: (212) 280-5517 (work); (212) 829-5363 (home)
shenkin at cubsun.bio.columbia.edu shenkin%cubsun.bio.columbia.edu at cuvmb.BITNET
/************** start foo.h *** code supplied by shenkin at cubsun ***********/
typedef struct foo_tag {
double d; float f; long l; int i; short s; char c;
} *foo_type;
foo_type f()
{
static foo_type joe;
return joe;
}
/************** end foo.h ***************************************/
/************** start try.c **** code given by original poster **********/
#include "foo.h"
main ()
{
extern foo_type f(); /* foo_type is a pointer to a struct */
foo_type a, b, c, d;
a = f ();
b = f ();
{
c = f();
}
d = f ();
}
/************** end try.c ***************************************/
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 19:59:02 EDT
From: scott%bu-ma.BU.EDU at bu-it.bu.edu (Scott Sutherland)
Subject: Re: Drawing system for Sun
Reference: v6n246
Some very nice drawing and painting programs come as part of the Publisher
from ArborTeX -- you can use them standalone if you want. Send mail to
help%arbortext at umix.cc.umich.edu
for more information. The drawing and painting programs were originally
done by Island Graphics Corp and called SolarDraw and SolarPaint.
Scott Sutherland
scott at bu-ma.bu.edu
Boston University Math Department
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 13:23:11 CDT
From: stevec at ncsa.uiuc.edu (Steve Christensen)
Subject: Re: Mathematica for Sun
Information on Mathematica for Sun Workstation should be obtainable from
your local Sun sales rep. However, if the rep does not have the
information, you can email Andy McRae at Sun at acm at sun.com. Wolfram
Research's address is
Wolfram Research, Inc.
P.O. Box 6059
Champaign, IL 61821-9902
USA
There are versions for the Sun-3, Sun-4 and Sun-386i. These are sold
directly by Sun and not by Wolfram Research. The price for one copy
retail is $1,800 and $1,200 for educational institutions. There are also
versions for the Apple Macintosh, NeXT Machine, Ardent, Stellar, IBM RT,
Silicon Graphics and others.
Steve Christensen
NCSA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 30 09:33:40 1988
From: sir-alan!mikes at vax.cs.pittsburgh.edu
Subject: GNUPLOT sources
The sources are in my comp.sources.{unix,misc} archive, accessible via
anonymous uucp at 814 333 6728 (login pdsrc, no password, 1200/2400) or at
814 337 0894 (login pdsrc, no password, Telebit TB+ cycling
2400-BREAK-9600-BREAK-1200).
I currently have on-line all of mod.sources/comp.sources.unix/comp.sources
misc and much of net.sources.
Michael L. Squires uucp: {necntc,cwjcc,hoptoad}!ncoast!peng!sir-alan!mikes
Department of Political Science .!{pitt,uunet!convex}!sir-alan!mikes
Allegheny College BITNET: mikes%sir-alan at pitt.UUCP (VAX)
Meadville, PA 16335 MIKES AT SIR-ALAN!PITT.UUCP (IBM)
Office: 814 724 3360 Internet: sir-alan!mikes at vax.cs.pittsburgh.edu
Home: 814 337 5528 Data: 814 {333-6728,337-3159} login of "ubbs" for BBS
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 12:08:09 MDT
From: dbd%benden at lanl.gov (Dan Davison)
Subject: 386i repaired & explained
The 386i problem that I noted here recently has been fixed. When the disk
and CPU board was replaced the machine worked almost fine. The "almost"
is because after two minutes of inactivity the keyboard and mouse would
lock up and the only way to get it back was to power cycle the machine. A
TSE from Albuquerue was around and stopped by, looked at it, said he
thought that was screenblank, and sure enough it was. Removal of
"screenblank -l" fixed the lockup.
I also got a call from a local HW guy who pointed out that unless told
otherwise, *repairs under 90-day warrantees are done at the factory*.
That was news to me and others around here, and that may be part of the
delay in getting the machine fixed. We put all our machines on service
contract anyway, but not until *after* the 90-day period is up.
My thanks to the people, both inside Sun and out, who contacted me about
this problem.
Now that the machine is back, boy it is wonderful! If I save my pennies
from now to the end of time, maybe I can afford to have one at home...
dan davison / theoretical biology / t-10 ms k710 / los alamos national lab.
dd at lanl.gov / ...cmcl2!lanl!dd / dd at lanl.UUCP / los alamos, nm 87545 USA
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 10:39:07 MDT
From: Matt Rosing <rosing at boulder.colorado.edu>
Subject: bug in scanf under 4.0
The following program, when run under sun OS4.0, returns an incorrect
value at EOF:
main ()
{
int stat;
char x;
/* loop until EOF? */
while ((stat = scanf ("%c", &x)) > 0)
printf ("got: %c (%d)\n", x, stat);
printf("terminated with: %d at EOF\n", stat);
}
At EOF the function scanf returns 0. The man page states "The constant EOF
is returned upon end of input. Note: this is different from 0, which means
that no conversion was done ..."
Matt Rosing
(rosing at boulder.colorado.edu
...hao!boulder!rosing )
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 15:27:26 CDT
From: reeder at emx.utexas.edu (William P. Reeder)
Subject: sun!sunbugs vs sun!hotline
I have seen others talking about sending bug reports to <sun!hotline>, but
the docs I have from Sun say to send to <sun!sunbugs>. What's the
difference?
[[ I think that they recently (well, semi-recently) switched the customer
service address from "sunbugs" to "hotline". I think that "sunbugs" is
currently a black hole. --wnl ]]
-- William "Wills" Reeder
reeder at emx.utexas.edu, ..!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!reeder
------------------------------
Date: 3 Oct 88 18:04:28 GMT
From: enea!front.se!per at uunet.uu.net (Per Lindberg)
Subject: Popping up an independent window in SunView
I want to write a function that pops up a window in SunView.
a. The window should be "live", i.e. buttons and other notifier-based
gadgets should work.
b. The window should be non-blocking, i.e. the rest of the window system
should not be "frozen" while this window is up and alive.
c. The function should return when the window is destroyed.
d. The function should work. Always. Regardless of any previous calls to
SunView. Regardless if the program has a window up on the screen or not.
Even if the program is inside a notifier event handler. (A possible
exception might be window_loop(), which I understand locks the entire
window system).
Such a function would be useful for many things, e.g. at a bug halt.
Some speculations. I may be wrong, I might have missed something in the
manual; I really hope so. At this point, however, I have given up.
1. It is always possible to pop up a *blocking* window with window_loop(),
but that freezes the rest of the window system, and I don't want that.
2. I can't just call window_main_loop(), because if the program already
has called window_main_loop() the notifier will barf with "Invalid
argument" (whatever that means).
3. Is there a method to get a pointer to the program's top frame (or NULL
if there isn't any)? I could use that to incorporate my frame in the
program's tree of frames. However, if the program already is executing
inside a notify event handler (very likely), noting will happen until that
event handler returns. (not likely).
Any ideas? Proving this impossible is also a big help, of course.
-- Per Lindberg (certified mad programmer)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 14:53:48 EDT
From: khai%amara.uucp at umix.cc.umich.edu (S. Khai Mong)
Subject: DNI Protocol Error question
We have installed Sunlink DNI software on our SUN machine. Very
frequently, we get "protocol errors" when the dnalogin program is used to
open a terminal session on VMS. A specific place where it happens is in
the following situation:
o I login to the SUN through a TTY port/modem from my computer
at home.
o I open a dnalogin session to a VMS host.
o I run kermit, and request a file from VMS to my home computer.
dnalogin crashes at the end of the file transfer with a message about
protocol error. Does anybody have idea of what's happening and how it can
be fixed?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 15:22:03 EDT
From: Alexander Dupuy <dupuy at columbia.edu>
Subject: bad user stack message
[Roy Smith asks what might cause a sendsig kernel message]
The most common cause of this message is an infinite recursive loop in a
program running out of stack space. The stack pointer is decremented, and
the first attempt to reference the top of the stack generates a SIGSEGV,
since the page is not accessible. Of course, since the stack can't be
grown any more, the kernel's attempt to invoke the SEGV signal handler for
the process fails with the message you saw. If the process had no SEGV
handler, you would just get a core dump.
Of course, it could also occur if the stack pointer had a random value.
@alex
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 88 10:01:21 MDT
From: liz at cgdra.ucar.edu (Liz Coolbaugh)
Subject: Problems with 3.5 and NFS?
I recently upgraded my Sun 3/280 to 3.5 and immediately started getting
the following problems on my clients:
syslog: cannot open /etc/syslog.conf (errno 13)
cannot open /etc/syslog.conf (errno 13)
NFS write error 13 on host cgdra
NFS write error 13 on host cgdra
NFS write error 13 on host cgdra
NFS write error 13 on host cgdra
I sent a message to hotline at sun and two days later got the following
response:
>errno 13 is EACCES (permission denied). It looks like what is happening is
>that cgdra is defined as loghost (the machine where all syslog information
>is sent), and the permissions on /etc/syslog.conf are not correct. Try
>changing the permissions on syslog.conf to 666 and see if the problems
>still persist.
Changing the permissions on /etc/syslog.conf changed the message to:
syslog: cannot open /usr/spool/log/syslog (errno 13)
.
.
.
So ... I changed the permissions on all the applicable files,
/etc/syslog.conf, /use/spool/log/syslog and, for good measure,
/usr/spool/log. Now I receive no mention of a specific file, but the "NFS
write error 13" messages continue to appear. I sent this information back
to the hotline but have not received any response. In any case, I'm not
happy about "fixing" a problem by making those directories write
accessible to the world! Has anyone seen this problem under 3.5? Have
any clues to what could be causing the problem? Any information or help
will be appreciated.
p.s. The response time from Sun is currently horrible. I was ready to
accept a day to day and a half slowdown which they mentioned last week
because my problems were not critical. They told me that software
services is "swamped". But my response time from hotline at sun has been at
least a two day turnaround, while it has been four working days since I
logged a call via 1-800-USA-4SUN and I still have not received a call from
Sun! Does anyone have an idea why Software Services is so bogged down?
Too few people for an expanding company? Too many people putting up a
very buggy 4.0? Some combination? Whatever the reason, I hope it clears
up soon or Sun's reputation for reasonable support will be totally lost.
Liz Coolbaugh
National Center for Atmospheric Research
(303) 497 1327
liz at cgdra.ucar.edu
..ncar!cgdra!liz
------------------------------
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