Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!gatech!prism!tynor
From: tynor@prism.gatech.EDU (Steve Tynor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Apollo goes bouncy bouncy
Keywords: boom, sizzle, bounce
Message-ID: <18470@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 11 Dec 90 17:26:28 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 27

I've been having bad luck lately in that I seem to keep making my Apollo crash.
I always happens shortly after I start a 'make' in an xterm. I suspect that the
machine is running out of process table, but that's just a guess. This is
happening a couple times a day!

None of my colleagues have ever had this problem, so I suspect that it has
something to do with the software I run: DN3500, 8M, OS 10.2, twm 1.2, 2 or
three xterms running berkely sh and bash 1.05, gnuemacs 18.55 (with Leonard
Zubkoff's Apollo patches - using the X version, not the pad version), xclock,
xbiff, xload. I'm the only person in the group using bash, emacs, and an X
window manager.

When I called 1-800-4APOLLO, they suggested reloading the OS. That seemed to
fix it - I've gone a couple of months without a single problem. Now I'm using a
different machine (a DN4500, 16M), and am seeing the same sort of behavior.

Has anyone else had this sort of problem? Is it indeed related to the software
I'm using? How is it possible that user-mode programs can corrupt the OS???
Is there some way that I could configure the machines to resist the crash and
burn instinct?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Language is a virus from outer space" - William S. Burroughs
                     
    Steve Tynor
    Georgia Tech Research Institute
    tynor@prism.gatech.edu