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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!van-bc!sl
From: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: The WHOLE scoop on UNIX 5.3 for the 80386
Message-ID: <1395@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-Sep-87 03:10:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: van-bc.1395
Posted: Sat Sep 26 03:10:54 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Sep-87 09:42:25 EDT
References: <411@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <845@vsedev.VSE.COM> <7375@ism780c.UUCP>
Reply-To: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne)
Organization: Public Access Network, Vancouver, BC.
Lines: 79
Keywords: UNIX,5.3,INTERACTIVE,386/ix,80386,386,VP/ix

In article <7375@ism780c.UUCP> kens@ism780c.UUCP (Ken Sarno) writes:
>>I beg to differ with you here.  Actually Bell's version is 386/ix from
>>Interactive with Bell's device drivers for streaming tape, intelligent
>>serial card, non-intelligent serial card, etc.  The only thing
>>unbundled in the Bell release is the Documenter's WorkBench 2.0, and
>>of course vpix (the Interactive Systems DOS executive...).
>
>    This is not quite true.  386/ix is INTERACTIVE's Unix V.3
>    packaged product, which has quite a few enhancements and
>    additional features.  The BTI release, which is the generic
>    386 V.3 system as written by ISC and certified by AT&T, is
>    an *ancestor* of the 386/ix kernel.  All 386 Unix V.3 systems
>    that we know of are based on some release of the code developed by
>    INTERACTIVE.
>
>    While the Bell Technologies product is not 386/ix,
>    as far as we know BTI ships only the certified release of
>    Unix to its customers, not Beta releases.

All *I* want to know is who is responsible for the async and parallel port
drivers in Bell Tech's release. I wouldn't want to flame the wrong party.

I've had the 386 box for a couple of weeks. Basically after much frustration
I have given up on the parallel port driver. I must admit it *does*
function. However printing one line every 5 to 10 seconds does not impress
me *to* much.

And as bad as the lp driver is, it's at least consistent. The serial drivers
on the other hand.... Can you say *schizophrenic*...  (let alone spell it).

The serial driver supports the two standard AT serial ports. In my case one
on the Intel motherboard, and one on an IBM Serial/Parallel Adaptor Card
(true Blue, not clone). An attempt has been made to get around the normal
Unix serial driver problems or how to handle modem control by having two
minor devices for each port. One with and one without modem control. The
problem is neither works!

I have yet to find a method to tie even a simple ASCII terminal (Qume
QVT102) to the 386 reliably. The closest I've come is to simply tie DTR from
the terminal high (through a null modem to simulate DCD). This works fairly
well. At least until I had to turn the terminal on and off to clear a glitch
(QVT's sometimes lock up when you send random garbage at them, simplest way
to fix is to just turn off and on); that hung the system!

At other times I've seen the following types of problems:

	- characters sent to the second serial port appear at the rate of about
	one every 1.5 seconds
	- /etc/getty tty00 allows login, but if you didn't login the login
	after about a half a minute, the login message would appear about six
	times in quick succession after which a message would appear on the
	system console the /etc/getty was respawning to quickly
	- running cu -ltty00 displays, Connected, Lost Carrier, DisConnected in 
	quick succession
	- running cu -ltty00, exiting with ~.<cr> hangs
	- running cu -ltty00, state change on DCD (low to high), Lost Carrier,
	disconnect

The really annoying part is that it is simply not consistent from day to day
(minute to minute sometimes). If the bloody thing would at least fail
consistently, I could probably figure out a work around. 

Of course I'm probably the only person in the world having these problems
right. I mean this is AT&T certified code, *right*. 

And I would *LOVE* to be proved wrong. If anyone can describe how to use a
simple parallel printer with the lp driver, or hook a modem up to the
asynchronous port for reliable dial in operation I'd just love to be made a 
fool of. 

Anyhow even though its a bit slower than we had hoped, the 386 box is quite
nice. There's two of us on it right now doing light development work. This
should extend to three in the next week or so, and we'll be getting down to
brass tacks. I'll let everyone know how usable the box is for this type of
use. (PS. I'm using the Bell Tech ICC card for extra users, not the
standard serial ports.)

-- 
{ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision,uunet}!van-bc!Stuart.Lynne Vancouver,BC,604-937-7532