A/UX concerns

[Alan Mimms]

In article <1991Feb21.202509.11608 at ni.umd.edu>, steveg at ni.umd.edu (Steve Green) writes:
|> Alan Mimms (alan at apple.com) writes:
|> >Excuse me, Steve, but I want to find out if there is something strange
|> >about your NFS usage.  We here (as you might expect) have several HUNDRED
|> >A/UX machines, all happily using NFS to mount things from a Cray, several
|> >VAXen, a Solbourne, several Suns, DECstations, R6000s, Motorola Unix boxes,
|> >and a host of others (including, of course, lots of A/UX machines).
|> >I haven't heard anyone complain that NFS is unreliable in A/UX 2.0 or
|> >2.0.1.  Is it possible there's something unusual about your site or how
|> >you're using NFS that causes problems?
|> 
|> Not one bit possible.  Could it be that the problem is fixed in-house but
|> not made available to customers??
|> 
|> >I'm NOT trying to debug your problem, although I will happily attempt it
|> >if you contact me.  I AM trying to say that A/UX NFS is NOT FLAKEY.
|> 
|> YES IT IS!!!!  A/UX NFS is very flakey.  I cannot reliably compile
|> ANYTHING on an NFS disk.

Steve, I was NOT trying to contest that YOU are having trouble with
NFS on A/UX.  I was trying to say that NOT EVERYONE DOES.  I don't.
I routinely compile and link every part of the X Window System, which
is VERY LARGE, via NFS on my A/UX machine and I never see any problems
at all.

|> >[deleted]
|> 
|> I am totaly insulted by your response.  I have sent countless messeges
|> to reports at renew with problem descriptions and scripts that demonstrate
|> the problem.  I have mail from someone on the A/UX development team that
|> confirms the problem I complained about and said "we are looking into a
|> fix for this".  As well, 

I'm sorry you feel insulted.  That was NOT my intention.  I wanted to
try to make sure both sides of the story got told -- you can't possibly
know that A/UX NFS works for some people, and people who just read
your story won't know either.

I was not aware of the conversations you have had with our technical
support folks or with the internal developer person.

|> Some time ago, John L. Coolidge  coolidge at cs.uiuc.edu  writes:
|> >I've got this one... most of the time. When compiling to disks from
|> >the Encore server, I get bad links (the link finishes cleanly, but
|> >the resulting image is damaged, often in strange and interesting
|> >ways). On the other hand, when the remote server is a Sun or an A/UX
|> >machine, I've never seen this problem.
|> >
|> >The problem doesn't happen with small programs: hello world works
|> >10 out of 10. Big programs (nn, gcc, g++, etc) always fail.
|> 
|> What else do you want to know?
|> 
|> -- 
|> Silica gel -- No not eat.				steveg at ni.umd.edu

Let's try to solve your problem -- apparently several sites are
having it.  I'm not an NFS guru, but I sit next to one.  Maybe I
can help.  I WANT TO.

First, what type of Ethernet card are you using?  What board revision
level is it?  What kind of CPU and what version of A/UX?  What,
exactly, are the circumstances (i.e., server machine type, etc.) under
which you see a failure?  How much memory do you have?  What other
useful information can you supply about the problem?  What kinds of
operations fail to work properly?

PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP ON APPLE AND A/UX.

Just because you sent in a bug report and DIDN'T get satisfaction
DOESN'T mean you CAN'T get satisfaction.  This is (unfortunately) a
big company and we DO make mistakes (boy, do we ever) sometimes.

Gimme some details and I promise I'll do my damnedest.  To reiterate,
though, under at least all of the circumstances under which I have
EVER used A/UX NFS, it works just FINE for me doing just the kinds of
things you described.  If you have troubles, let's find out why and fix 'em.

Again, I'm sorry you were insulted, Steve -- that is never my intent.  I
want to HELP, not piss you off.  I'm also sorry you didn't get any
help from whomever you talked to at Apple.  Sometimes people get a
little BUSY around here, and things get lost...

I also want to make sure the story is COMPLETELY told, and you
have only one set of circumstances and only one viewpoint.

Folks with an A/UX NFS problem should send me email.  Posting
all your grievances might be temporarily spleen-venting, but it
wastes bandwidth.  I will summarize after about a week or so, and
hopefully come back with some solutions.  Don't bother to complain
if you can't include details like the ones requested above, though.
"It failed miserably on Christmas Eve, 1942" is not a bug report anyone
can do anything with...

>>>>>> steps onto soapbox
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE people.  Don't assume that Apple is
JUST a big money-grubbing don't-care kinda company.  MOST of us
care a lot about getting your problems solved and making our stuff
work for you.  I personally feel strongly that Apple can make the
world a better place for people to do creative work -- that's nearly
my sole reason for working here.  If our hardware and software don't
work for you, and we can't find a way to fix it, then I have to quit.
Like any big company, though, there are lots of ways for your complaint
to get lost or fall on deaf ears.  KEEP TRYING.  You wouldn't
give up easily in dealing with the Phone Company (the ultimate
evil in the universe), would you?
>>>>>> steps off soapbox with a heavy sigh and wipes brow

-- 

Alan Mimms (alan at apple.com, ...!apple!alan)   | My opinions are generally
A/UX X group                                  | pretty worthless, but
Apple Computer                                | they *are* my own...
"Laugha whila you can, monkey boy..." -- John Whorfin in Buckaroo Banzai
"Never rub another man's rhubarb" -- The Joker in BatMan