Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf.edu!jst
From: jst@cca.ucsf.edu (Joe Stong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: More NeXT Bugs
Message-ID: <2412@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu>
Date: 23 Sep 89 00:00:14 GMT
Organization: Computer Center, UCSF
Lines: 80

This time I'm posting the message here the same time I mail it to
the next folks.

This one is probably even testier than the last, sorry folks.

Again, I'm being asked to maintain a system through a rlogin connection.
I can only see "strings'ed" version of the .wn documents.
Is all the documentation really online?
Is there a sensible way for me to get at the .wn documents on an ascii
terminal?

All help appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

# From jst Fri Sep 22 16:37:14 1989
# To: bug_next@next.com
# Subject: optical disk bugs
# 
# 
# We are trying to back up files on our optical disk.
# 
# Karpinsi's attempts to use "dump" resulted in various hung copies of dump.
# 
# There is no online documentation (unix man page) for the od device driver.
# 
# It would be nice if you're accessing the od from a standard unix terminal
# (via rlogin) that it wouldn't put a dialogue box up on the main screen
# asking to insert a new disk.
# 
# We have a disk that allows itself to be inserted and written upon.
# It dumps tar with an I/O error about 41 megabytes into the 250MB 
# surface.  
# 
# We want to re-cycle the 0.8 distribution disk.  The system won't let us
# put it in, it says something like "wrong volume".  How do we re-label
# the disk if it won't even let us insert it.
# Sep 21 14:28:43 ccnext vmunix: Please insert new disk for volume 0
# Sep 21 14:28:43 ccnext vmunix: (press 'n' key if volume is not available)
# 
# The "su" command doesn't seem to run ANY .cshrc or .login, neither the
# one in my home directory nor root's home.  Where should I put the .cshrc?
# I'm su'ing to a secondary root account:
# jstr:xxx:0:1:jdkjfkjdkf:/home/jst:/bin/csh
# 
# There is various documentation in WriteNow format (.wn) files that I
# cannot read, because I'm using a standard ascii terminal.  Is there a
# way to convert this stuff so I can read it?
# 
# I discovered the "disk" command, only through the NetNews group,
# comp.sys.next .  It has an interestingly misleading help message, from
# which I might conclude that typing "disk -i /dev/rod0a" is a way to
# bring it up in interactive mode.  Pretty frightening, -i is INITIALIZE,
# and not interactive.
# 
# Getting into the "disk" command, we discover that ALL the bad blocks
# are taken on this floptical cartridge.   It continues to read and
# write on bad areas of the cartridge, but it takes a huge amount of time
# 10-40 seconds instead of 1/3second to write 8 sectors, and generates
# lots of errors.
# 
# The documentation about assigning badblocks indicates we should use
# block numbers out of /usr/adm/messages.  We get block numbers there
# that are sometimes larger than 250MB.
# Sep 22 14:43:29 ccnext vmunix: od0a: write failed (ECC)
# 	block 250448 phys block 250459 (19802:0:11)
# 
# The disk program is confusing about writing patterns.  Why does it
# ask, "random pattern" in the write command, when you actually use
# the "set" command to set the pattern to be written?
# 
# Why is there no major/minor number device assigned to the font and
# back porches of the od?   How about doing programs like disk with
# a script front end and some hardware interface programs, so a smart
# user could begin to decipher things without the OS source?
# 
# How do you increase the size of the badblock space on a floptical
# cartridge?  Should we throw this one away?  Back to-how do we
# recycle an old distribution cartridge?
# 
# Help!  We want to do a backup before we install 1.0!
#