Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:3404 comp.unix.wizards:17402 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!haven!adm!cmcl2!rna!amms4!hjg From: hjg@amms4.UUCP (Harry Gross) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Peculiar uucp problem (long summery of responses) Message-ID: <607@amms4.UUCP> Date: 28 Jul 89 15:45:09 GMT References: <454@amms4.UUCP> Reply-To: hjg@amms4.UUCP (Harry Gross) Organization: Eagle Clothes, Inc., New York, NY Lines: 129 Recently, I posted two calls for help regarding a problem with uucp. Uucico would start up, initiate a file transfer and then appear to clobber itself. Also, upon installing a 2400 baud modem, suddenly uucico was unable to open the tty port to access the modem, unless it was started as root. I received several helpful replies summerized below: +------------ |The bulk of the replies suggested that there might be a problem with the |permissions and/or ownership of various uucp-related files: | |cmcl2!rochester!biar!jhood (John Hood) |uunet!ppgbms!moe!jeremy (Jeremy Levine) |sun!Central!texbell!moray!siswat!buck (A. Lester Buck) |sun!daver!cheers!greg (Greg Onufer) |rutgers!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!novavax!ki4pv!tanner (Dr. T. Andrews) |rutgers!nexus.yorku.ca!xrtll!rsnider (Richard Snider) |uunet!visdc!jiii (John E Van Deusen III) |rutgers!wolves!ggw (Gregory G. Woodbury) | | Jeremy Levine also suggested using uucheck as someone other than root |or uucp, but unfortunately, I don't have uucheck on my system. | | A. Lester Buck also suggested restoring the 1200 baud modem to see if |things would start working again, but I was able to resolve the problems before |resorting to this test. | | Greg Onufer suggested obtaining Plexus TCP/IP, but we can't run that |unless (and until) we get S5 R2 V1.7 (which I am working on :-) | | Greg Woodbury also described a problem he had on his machine which |was somewhat similar, and offered his shell scripts that solved his problem. |However, based on his discription, they would not have helped me. (Thanks |for the offer, anyway :-) +------------ +------------ |A couple of suggestions were received concerning modem line settings (i.e. DCD) |etc.: | |ncc!adec23!mark (Mark Salyzyn) |uunet!pd1.ccd.harris.com!bill (Bill Davis) | | Bill Davis also suggested that since root starting uucico worked, there |was something going on involving privliges - but what it was remained unclear. +------------ +------------ |A suggestion was received which turned out to be the proper work-around! : | |rutgers!xait.xerox.com!lakart!dg (David Goodenough) suggested: | |>This won't solve the problem, but it will allow your system to work |>without manual intervention. Add lines of the following form to |>your crontab: |> |>25 1,4 * * * root /usr/lib/uucp/uucico -r1 -ssystem1 |>25 2,5 * * * root /usr/lib/uucp/uucico -r1 -ssystem2 |>25 3,6 * * * root /usr/lib/uucp/uucico -r1 -ssystem3 |> |>These are BSD style, but the same thing is possible under SYSV. Basically |>get crontab to do the grunt work, but by selecting root as the executor, |>your uucico's will run with root privileges. This is what I call a |>"Band-Aid" fix: it solves the symptoms enough to get you going, allowing |>a total fix to be done with less sense of pressure. +------------ +------------ |One person offered me a desperation solution, sources to a HDB clone that |would require porting. I didn't take him up on it, but I may in the future, |just to have it :-) | |utzoo!lethe!dybbuk!yonatan (Jonathan Hanna) +------------ +------------ |One very well known netter told me that these bugs had been fixed in |S5 R2 V1.7 and recommended obtaining that release. As stated above, I'm |working on it :-) | |allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (Thanks!) +------------ +------------ |I struck gold, however with this note: | |rutgers!dsinc.dsi.com!syd (Syd Weinstein) | |>Maybe I can help you, I did a lot of the uucp stuff for Plexus |>as well as a lot of other comm stuff and controller stuff for them. |>I want you to try cu to that line, there used to be a bug with the |>status tables. Give me a call voice some day. | |After a lengthy telephone conversation with Syd (thanks again for your time!), |I discovered a couple of crucial things: | | 1. There is a bug in S5 R2 V1.5 uucico which sometimes fails to |reset status bits on the I/O port, thus causing the line to drop as soon |as a connection is made. uucico tries to regain the line, and fails. The |logfiles LOOK like uucico is clobbering itself, but it really had already |failed. The fix for this is to run cu on the line just prior to calling |out with uucico (or get a patch from Motorola - who has taken over support |of the Plexus hardware). First problem solved. | | 2. There is an un-related flaw in S5 R2 V1.5 uucico pertaining to |baud rates. It seems that the good folks at AT&T created a baud rate table |inside of uucico that understands baud rates of 110, 300, 1200 and 9600 baud. |9600 was provided for hard-wire connections, and the others were provided for |modems. Since AT&T didn't have a 2400 baud modem at the time, they didn't |put 2400 baud support into uucico. When I invoke uucico, the table is |consulted, 2400 baud support is not found, and uucico terminates. When uucico |is invoked by root, however, this table is not consulted, and uucico will work. |Second problem solved. +------------ I want to thank everyone who responded. Tracking this down was no fun, but your assistance made it bearable. And at least I was able to create work arounds (since I don't have source to make _real_ fixes :-) Cheers, -- Harry Gross | reserved for | something really Internet: hjg@amms4.UUCP (we're working on registering)| clever - any UUCP: {jyacc, rna, bklyncis}!amms4!hjg | suggestions?