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From: dbfunk@ICAEN.UIOWA.EDU (David B. Funk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: Hanging machines
Message-ID: <8901140745.AA00466@icaen.uiowa.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 89 07:45:47 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Iowa Computer Aided Engineering Network, University of Iowa
Lines: 29

Martin Wendel,
  In posting <82@prodix.liu.se> to "apollo@umix.cc.umich.edu" you asked
about a problem with a DN4000 hanging due to devices connected to the
serial ports. You didn't specify what revision of the OS that you were
running. I think that the following information may be helpful though.

At sr9.6 & sr9.7 there was a bug in the serial I/O handler such that if
the node received characters into the SIO port while it was booting, the
serial input could hang. As this also caused serial input on port #0
(the keyboard port) to hang, the node wouldn't respond to the keyboard.
The node was actually running and could be accessed over the network but
it ignored its keyboard. Shutting it down, htting the reset switch, &
rebooting it didn't cure the problem. A power off & on, or running a
pass of CPU.DEX would cure it. If you unplug the devices connected to
the serial port during the boot-up process and then reconnect them
after it was up, you could use them with out problem.

Sr9.7.0.1 was a patch release intended to fix this and some other small
bugs. On DN3000 or DN4000 series machines, it introduced a new bug that
could break SIO output. It would cause the SIO output to lock up after
outputing a few thousand characters. 

If these are the problems that you are having then you need an OS patch kit.
Revision sr9.7.0.3 or newer will fix these problems. Use the Aegis shell
command 'bldt' to display your OS revision level.
Call your Apollo service rep for the patch kit.

Dave Funk
University of Iowa