System transition at IFH: workarounds

Topics:

1. Which machines are already on the new system and which not
2. How much disk space do I have?==> quotack
   
3. WARNING: cachefs: remove error, run fsck
4. ssh complains that identification is wrong
   
5. Mail with netscape and other tips about mail
6. Using communicator(Netscape) as mail tool
7. I do not find my Netscape Bookmarks!!
8. Communicator with no fonts no text shown
   
9. Message: /usr/share/lib/adm/cshell not found"
10. I lost my soffice data!! {8=(
11. Choosing your graphic environment (GUI)
12. Some suggestions for the new .cshrc file and aliases.
13. Opening a new terminal on CDE GUI (Graphic Environment)
    
14. FORTRAN f90 compiler Version problem
15. Why did we have troubles on Thursday, 23rd November 2000??

Machines on the new system

Tue, 18th April 2000: bigbang ;
Tue, 22nd November 2000: deneb ; regor ; avior ; nausikaa
Tue, 16th January 2001: alcor ; agena ; ulixes
Wed, 18. April 2001: regulus ; black-hole ; sarin ; sadal ; quasar
alkes ; aspid ; vega ; akrab ; toliman ; yed ; altair ; syrma SORRY, this list will not be updated anymore as nearly ALL machines have been migrated to the new system.

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I lost my soffice data!! {8=(

Migrating from vers. 4.0 to 5.2

Here's a couple of examples:

"~/office40/explorer/work" -> "~/office52/user/work"
"~/office40/wordbook" -> "~/office52/user/wordbook"
"~/office40/autotext" -> "~/office52/user/autotext"

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I do not find my Netscape Bookmarks!!

Your previous bookmarks are not lost, don't worry, be happy that they are stored in the file $HOME/.netscape-bookmarks.html. This file has been generated by netscape when you started the new version for the first time.

Do the following:
Move or even delete the currente bookmarks file and substitute it with the old one:

mv ~/.netscape/bookmarks.html ~/.netscape/bookmarks-bogus

mv ~/.netscape-bookmarks.html ~/.netscape/bookmarks.html

Please exit completely the current Netscape session and start it again.

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/usr/share/lib/adm/cshell not found

If you log in into a "new" machine, i.e. one which is now running as "auto_client; of bigbang, and you account has not have been transferred to the new system, then you are using the old cshrc and login files which refer to system files in the /usr/share/lib/adm directory. This directory does not exists anymore in the new system. You will get new ~/.cshrc and ~/.login files when I will switch your account to the new system.

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WARNING: cachefs: remove error, run fsck

If it happens that you see one of the following messages:

WARNING: cachefs: remove error, run fsck

   or

WARNING: cachefs_ffrele: frontfs cache error 17, run fsck

DO NOT panic: it is not that bad. Just by the next opportunity you could reboot your machine with the command boot -f on the prompt (monitor) level. You reach this level when the system is down but power is on. To reach this state you can proceed as follows:


1. Shutdown your machine (power will also be switched OFF):
   • execute the command requiem
   • or better (recommended)
   • logout and login as user requiem with password ifh_off
2. Restart your machine but immediately interrupt the booting process after the memory check using Stop-a
   • Once you see the "OK" prompt type boot -f
This will clean up the disk.

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How much disk space do I have?

Simply enter the command: quotack and you will see the answer.
Example:

ballisti@deneb:-> quotack

QUOTA STATUS              Space          Files                    Status
                      ----------     ---------   -----------------------
  * Current Usage      897249 kB         24369                        OK
  * Soft Quota        1200000 kB        120000
  * Hard Quota        1400000 kB        140000

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Mail with netscape and other tips about mail

A new configuration file should have been copied into your ~/.netscape directory, the old one should still be there with the name ~/.netscape/preferences.js-sirius

The first time you starts communicator (netscape) with the command
communicator &

You should see the message:
Installing new Preferences for Netscape

The new (default) file preferences.js has been copied into ~/.netscape setting the right parameters to use bigbang as imap server (while your system mailbox is still on sirius).
Check from preferences.js-sirius if you need some old setting or edit the preferences direct from communicator.

Incoming AND outgoing mail server is then bigbang.ee.ethz.ch
Under Edit -> Preferences -> Mail&Newsgroups -> Mail Servers -> Add bigbang.ee.ethz.ch then click on it and on the button Edit. Set the Server Type to IMAP (no more POP) and enter your User Name. Under IMAP enable the secure connection. Under "Advanced " enter /home/your_user_name/mail_folders as IMAP directory. Then click OK. For Local mail directory enter "/home/your_user_name/mail_folders" .

Place outgoing mail into "Sent" on the "mail.ifh.ee.ethz.ch" directory!!

The outgoing mail server (SMTP) is also bigbang.ee.ethz.ch

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Security KEY (with SSH) changed for new auto_client machines

After a machine as been converted to become an auto_client of the server bigbang, it receives a new public key which is used by the secure shell (ssh) for the connection. Thus the first time you log in into this machine you will get a warning message.
In this case just edit your ~/.ssh/known_hosts and delete the line with the name of the machine just converted. Then login with ssh into this machine: ssh will now copy the new security key and you will never see the message again.

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Choosing your graphic environment (GUI)

Edit your ~/.login file and uncomment ONE of the following lines:

        # a list of suported environments
        launchx eefvwm97
        # launchx KDE
        # launchx cde
        # list of unsupported environments
        # launchx gnome+E
        # launchx icewm
        # launchx wmaker
        # launchx xfce
        # to start  whatever is in the users ~/.xinitrc file:
        # launchx MYXINITRC

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Opening a new terminal on CDE GUI (Graphic Environment)

Press the 3rd mouse button when the cursor is on the background: the "Worspace menu " will then appear. Go to "Tools" and drag the side-menu: at the bottom of it choose "terminal".

I would suggest to use the following command instaed:

xterm -name $HOST -title $HOST -bg azure &

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Some suggestions for the new .cshrc file

This is for user which have been moved from sirius to bigbang and thus have a new ~/.cshrc and ~/.login file.
• New is now that the path variable is defined in the global cshrc file, thus will be redefined each time you call the shell (for instance in opening a new window). You HAVE to put your personal path in your ~/.cshrc file.
  Example:

  set path=($HOME/bin $path)

  Please, for security reasons do NOT put "." in the path.

• If you do NOT want that the windows title and the icon name change with your working directory then set to nothing the variables xt_wind and xt_ico:

  # set xt_wind="%{\e]2;%n@%m:%.06\a%}"
  set xt_wind=""
  # set xt_ico="%{\e]1;xt:%c\a%}"
  set xt_ico=""

• Your old ~/.alias file has been renamed ~/.alias-sirius
  Please, create a new file ~/.alias and copy and paste what is still good from the old into the new one. Thank you!

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Communicator (Netscape) without fonts

If it happens that your communicator (netscape) will not shows any text, then run the following commands before starting it:

/usr/openwin/bin/xset +fp /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi
/usr/openwin/bin/xset fp rehash

and then start communicator. You can write these two lines into a small procedure that you can call "communicator" and put in your ~/bin directory:

cat >~/bin/communicator
#!/bin/sh
/usr/openwin/bin/xset +fp /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi
/usr/openwin/bin/xset fp rehash
exec /usr/sepp/bin/communicator
^D

Set the execute permission on it: chmod 755 ~/bin/communicator
Check with rehash and which communicator. The output should be /home/user_name/bin/communicator


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FORTRAN f90 compiler

The old compiler was in /usr/local3/SUNWspro/bin/f90.
With the new path we will use the one in /usr/sepp/bin/f90.

Temporary turnaround
Execute in the window you are working on:

source /usr/local/bin/workshop-4.2

this will change your PATH and rehash for the old compiler.

PLEASE try to convert your program (probabily only your makefile)
in order to be able to use the new compiler version:
the old one will not be on line for long!!

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Why did we have troubles on Thursday, 23rd November 2000??

Description of the problem:

Suddently the permission for mounting directories from different SEPP servers was not granted anymore. Thus all the commands which are defined in a SEPP package were not available.

Why this happened

The reasons was that the name of our machines was changed in the central DNS database: I had asked for it. At the same time I correspondently changed the names in the permission table of our department which is centralised on the server tardis. BUT the different SEPP servers they do NOT upgrade the "export permission tables" every second: they have cron jobs which run perhaps every hour or so.
But this is not all!! On those servers the command "shareall" should also be run. So I had troubles in finding the people who had the permission for doing this.

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