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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.001


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Subject: AT&T 3B2 (and related) Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
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Archive-name: 3b2-faq

              AT&T 3B2 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This article contains the answers to many Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) often posed to the net. It is posted because the same questions
pop up time after time. This will hopefully help out by not having
these questions posted over and over, and help new users know what
questions there are to ask in the first place! 8^)

This article includes answers to the following questions.  Much of the
information included in this article is compatible with the 3B2 series
of WE32000 series based computers.

First, the questions:

Subject:  0 SPECIAL NOTE
Subject:  1 How do I install a second ST-506 drive on my 3B2?
Subject:  2 How do I create a second swap partition?
Subject:  3 How can I get X11 for the 3B2?
Subject:  4 How do I install a non AT&T SCSI drive on my 3B2?
Subject:  5 How do I prevent data overrun errors when using a high
            speed modem on an EPORTS card at 19.2K baud or higher?
Subject:  6 What does the 'NOTICE: File Table Overflow' error mean?
Subject:  7 How do I set up anonymous ftp?
Subject:  8 Is there a reposity of ftp-able 3B2 programs?
Subject:  9 How do I run Unix from floppy (for example, to repair a damage
            hard drive file system)?
Subject: 10 What is/was the 3B Journal?
Subject: 11 What are the various models of 3B2s and their differences?
Subject: 12 How do I build GCC on the 3B2?
Subject: 13 What is the NVRAM SANITY FAILURE?
Subject: 14 Is there an implementation of SLIP for the 3B2?
Subject: 15 What are the known bugs in the Wollongong WIN TCP software?
Subject: 16 Is there an implementation of NFS for the 3B2?
Subject: 17 What are the pinouts of those phone-like serial connectors?
Subject: 18 What is the u3b. newsgroup heirarchy?

Now, the answers:


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:  0 SPECIAL NOTE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are going to be at all serious about the 3B2, and especially if
you are relying on yourself for maintenance, the first thing you want
to do is obtain the AT&T 3B2 Computer Maintenance Manual.

It contains diagrams of all 3B2 computers up to the 3B2/600, parts
lists, breakdown procedures, troubleshooting information, and sources
of additional documentation.

In addition, it contains the "3B2 Computer Maintenance Utilities"
diskette called "idtools" (formerly known as "devtools").  This floppy
is bootable, and once running, the following options are available:

        > format floppy diskettes
        > format hard disk drives
        > verifies hard disk format
        > disk-to-disk high speed copies
        > disk-to-disk copy by sectors
        > disk-to-memory copies
        > defect table builder
        > writes sanity track
        > change default boot information

While some of these options are also available from UNIX, all the
utilities here can be run on a machine with a damaged (or missing) hard
disk, often allowing the drive to be repaired that is otherwise
unbootable.

This manual and disk can be ordered from the AT&T Customer Information
Center in Indianapolis, IN.  It has select code 305-395, and at press
time it sold for about $125.  The AT&T CuIC can be reached at:

    [phone]    Continental US
    [phone]    elsewhere

The CuIC takes phone orders with a credit card, and with a purchase
order for qualifying companies.  They have many other UNIX-related
books as well, so be sure to ask for their free "AT&T Documentation
Guide", select code 000-011.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:  1 How do I install a second ST-506 drive on my 3B2?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 1989 by Owens-Laing Publications.

Title:  Disk Expansion on the 3B2
Author: Stephen Friedl ([e-mail])
Issue:  3B Journal, 4Q 1989
[Edited by Gregory Gulik]

[ conventions are:  *bold* and _italics_ ]

 Introduction
 ------------

The 3B2/400 family (/300, /310 and /400) computers use standard MFM
disk drives, and it is possible to add or replace these drives yourself
-- in this article we show you how to do this.

The 3B2/500 and larger machines all have SCSI (Small Computer Systems
Interface) disk drives, so these instructions do not apply to them.
For the duration of this article, "3B2" means the 3B2/400 and below,
and in the case where there are differences among these included models
we will mention them.

Before doing any drive replacement, you must obtain the _3B2 Computer
Maintenance Reference Manual_ from AT&T.  This document contains quite
a bit of useful information about your 3B2 hardware, and it is helpful
in its own right.  What makes it so special is the "idtools" diskette
that comes with it.  This floppy disk contains numerous utilities that
will help you diagnose and troubleshoot your computer, as well as the
disk formatting tools we need for our expansion project.

 What we don't tell you
 ----------------------

This is a fairly technical topic, and it relies on substantial
knowledge of UNIX system administration.  Those steps directly related
to the formatting operation are covered here, but others such as backup
and restore from tape, disk space allocation, and rebooting the machine
are prerequisite knowledge.  AT&T's sysadm documentation covers a great
deal of it, but if these things are new to you, perhaps you're not
ready to give this a go just yet.

Please keep in mind that if this is not done correctly (especially the
backups), you could lost most or all of your computer's data in a very
short time.  You must have at least one full, verified backup of all
filesystems, with _two_ backups being safer.  In addition, it is a good
idea to try this during an off time when you can afford to be down for
while if things don't go so well.

Finally, we have tried to present this information as accurately and
clearly as we can, but we cannot guarantee that there are no bugs.
Check everything, verify steps with the manual, and ask a local wizard
if you get stuck.  Of course, you undertake this procedure at your own
risk.

 Selecting a drive
 -----------------

There are many drives on the market that are satisfactory, and we
present some guidelines here for selecting one.  We have our favorites,
but most available ST-506 drives can be used in the 3B2.  Note that
these are suggestions only, not endorsements or guarantees of
compatibility.

The first restriction is that the idtools software will not format more
than 1024 cylinders in a single drive, and a drive with more will
simply have the excess cylinders ignored.  This is an unfortunate but
unavoidable waste of disk space, giving us a practical limit of about
135Mbyte.  (15 heads x 1024 cyls x 18 blks/track x 512 bytes/block).

Most of the drives found in the original 3B2 are made by Control Data
(or their subsidiary, Imprimis), and these Wren II drives are of
excellent quality, and they represent a very safe route.  These drives
are available with formatted capacities of 30 and 72 megabytes, and
they have an average access time of about 28 msec.  Other brands known
to work include Maxtor, Miniscribe, Priam, Micropolis and others.  Some
of these drives have more than 1024 cylinders which allows them to be
used, but at less than their advertised capacity.

 Disk types and the Equipped Device Table
 ----------------------------------------

Each drive in the 3B2 is formatted with a _disk type_, which is a small
number that identifies the drive to the machine.  The disk type indexes
into a table of drive information, and this table is part of the
/dgn/edt_data file.  This file is used to fill the Equipped Device
Table, a list of currently-available hardware devices maintained by the
firmware.  Part of this list, the _subdevice table_, describes the
possible hard disk drives.

 Getting started
 ---------------

Now that the formatting tools have arrived and a drive has been
obtained, we are ready to do the installation.  It is at this point
that a full backup of the entire system is in order and to review the
relevent portions of the Maintenance Manual.

After backing up the current drives, shut down the machine, turn off
the power, and remove the power plug.  Open the case, note the current
configuration of the drive cables, and remove them along with the power
connectors.

Select "drive 0" on the drive select jumpers, insert/enable the
terminating resistor, and place the drive back in the cage.  Connect
drive zero's data cable (the thin ribbon cable), the last connector on
the wide control cable, and the power cable to the rear of the drive.
Pay particular attention to pin one orientation, and insure that all
connections are snug.

At this point you are ready to turn on the machine.  Plug in the 3B2
power cable and turn the switch to "ON".  The console should show a
SELF CHECK, followed shortly by

    FW ERROR 1-02: DISK SANITY FAILURE
               EXECUTION HALTED

    SYSTEM FAILURE: CONSULT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION UTILITIES GUIDE

This ominous message is actually expected, and it just means that the
disk drive is not formatted yet.  At this point, type your current
firmware password (usually "mcp") followed by RETURN, and you will be
presented with the normal firmware menu.

At this point you should boot "/idtools" from the floppy drive (load
device 0, FD5).  Once booted, idtools displays an informational message
and asks that RETURN be hit.

Note that this entire process is covered in Appendix B of the
Maintenance Reference Manual, and we strongly recommend that you review
sections

    Hard Disk Formatter (B-8),
    Defect Table Builder (B-33), and
    Writing Sanity Track (B-47)

plus the introduction before continuing.

 Running Idtools
 ---------------

At the first menu, "formhard" should be entered.  It will ask which disk
should be formatted, and the proper response is zero in most cases.  If
you are doing this procedure on a machine with two drives installed, be
_very_ careful when answering this question.

Next, you are asked for drive configuration information.  You must
enter the drive type (from a previous section) plus the drive
dimensions, and the following table summarizes several models we know
about.  If your drive is not shown, consult your vendor documentation
for this information.

Drive type    drv id    cyls trk/cyl sec/trk byte/cyl     abbrev
--------------- ------    ---- ------- ------- --------      ------
Wren II 30MB       3     697     5    18    512       HD30
Wren II 72MB       5     925     9    18    512       HD72
Fujitsu M2243AS       8     754    11      18      512       HD72C
Micropolis 1325    5    1024     8      18      512       HD72
Maxtor 1140       4*     918=    15    18    512       HD120
Maxtor 1190      11    1224+   15    18    512       HD135
Miniscribe XXXX    4*
Priam XXXX

* selected by user
+ can only use 1024 cylinders on this drive
= can usually be formatted out to 1024 cylinders, even though it is
  actually capable of 1224 cylinders, like the 1190.

Note that "tracks/cylinder" means "heads", and the sectors/track and
bytes/cylinder values the same for all drives.  The drive ID is shown
as 4 for high-capacity drives, and it assumes that this number was
inserted into the Equipped Device Table subdevice listing.

In the following examples, user responses are in *bold*, and the drive
shown is a Maxtor 1140.  Note that the default entries shown may vary
from machine to machine.

    Format which disk [ 0 or 1 ] (0)?  *0*

    Drive id: 3- ? *4*
    Number of cylinders: 687 - ?  *918*
    Numbers tracks/cyl: 5 - ?  *15*
    Number sectors/track: 18 - ? *18*
    Number bytes/sector: 512 - ? *512*

Once these values have been entered, idtools shows where it will place
various housekeeping areas on the disk, almost all stored on the first
two cylinders.  You need not concern yourself with the specific values
printed.

 Defect Mapping
 --------------

The bad block listing (with various alternate names, such as "Flag
Track Log") is usually found on a sticker on top of the drive.  To
simplify data entry, it is a good idea to photocopy this sticker while
it is on the drive, because later the drive might not be in such a
comfortable reading position (especially if it is in a drive cage).

The first prompt in this section asks if the backup defect table should
be modified.  A formatted drive normally has two copies of the defect
table on disk in case one is lost, but a blank drive has no such
table.  Answering "yes" to this question means that the data you enter
here is stored in both places.

To enter the defects, enter "new" when asked, then "bc" for the type of
defect byte count.  Then, for each bad sector, enter the cylinder
number, the head number, and the byte count, all separated by spaces.
This "byte count" field is often shown on the disk label as "BFIND"
(bytes from index) or "BCAI" (byte count after index), and it is
distinct from the sector number.  Most entries have a block length of
one, but if the label shows more than this then it must be the fourth
field on the line.

An entry of "q" terminates the input, and displays the entire list of
blocks entered.  It is vital that this list be checked completely, and
edits made if necessary.  An entry of just a RETURN accepts the current
list and moves onto the next prompt.

               Format entire disk - type 1
              Format single track - type 2
    Format from selected track to end - type 3

    Select type of format [1, 2, or 3] (1) ?

Entering "1" followed by RETURN starts the formatting process, and when
it completes it starts a verify pass where all blocks on the disk are
examined for errors.  This operation can take some time on a large
drive, and idtools shows its progress with a message displayed every
five cylinders formatted.

After the format and verify, idtools writes the "sanity track" with the
"fixdisk" program.  The sanity track contains a special data pattern
that validates the drive to the 3B2, and it takes just a moment and
requires no input from you.

With the conclusion of the fixdisk operation the drive is formatted.
You can remove the idtools floppy and power the machine down.

 Closing up the machine
 ----------------------

The machine should now be put back together and the original drives
reinstalled.  It is important that all drive selects and terminating
resistors be installed properly, following the rules mentioned
previously.

The first drive in the machine has the lowest drive select jumper
(usually position zero) and connected to the zero data cable (usually
the bottom drive).  The second drive in the machine has the next drive
select (usually position one) and the other data cable, and the control
cable connects them both.  The drive that is at the physical end of the
control cable must have the terminating resistor.

Disk drives installed into an XM expansion module have special rules on
termination, and these are documented and diagramed on pages 6-23 and
6-24 of the Maintenance Reference Manual.

 Partitioning the drive
 ----------------------

The easiest case is adding a second drive to a machine that previously
had only one.  After installing the new unit, boot /unix from the hard
drive and enter single-user mode (this is much easier if you have
edited /etc/inittab).

With the /usr partition mounted, run the "sysadm" command, and at each
successive menu, enter "diskmgmt", "harddisk", and "partitioning" in
turn.  This enters the partitioning operation and it should prompt you
for the relevant information.  We do not discuss strategies for
allocating filesystem resources, as this is covered in the AT&T system
administrative documentation.

Once the drive is partitioned, the added filesystems (say, /usr2 and
/usr3) may be used immediately.

All other cases involve replacing existing drives, and it most
expedient to use the full restore procedure for this.  A full backup is
absolutely required here for this operation, and it should be verified
once it is made.

Boot the "Essential Utilities - Disk 1" floppy and select the "Full
Restore" operation.  This procedure includes a partitioning step that
allows you to allocate your new disk resources.  Follow the
instructions shown on the screen.

After the core set of floppies -- five or six disks -- you can
interrupt this process, boot /unix from the hard disk, and restore all
of your backups.  You may have to install the Cartridge Tape Utilities
if your backups are stored on that medium.

WARNING: This "full restore" operation destroys all data on all hard
disks during the partitioning, and you _must_ have a full set of
reliable, verified backups before considering this step, and two full
sets of backups would not be a bad idea.  If these backups are not done
properly, all data on the disks will be LOST.  Please be very careful
when doing this, as mistakes can be costly.

 Compatibility note
 ------------------

Some early models of the 3B2/300 do not permit a 72MB hard drive to be
added to the system board.  The recognizing signs for this restriction
are documented in the Maintenance Reference Manual on page 7-21, and
3B2/300 owners should consult this information before starting this
project.

While the documentation does not mention the reason for this
restriction, we speculate that any drive with more than eight heads
cannot be used in these older machines.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:  2 How do I create a second swap partition?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These are the steps I used to add a second swap partition to my
3B2/400.  Why add a second  swap area?   By default, the SVR3.1
system disks (the version I use) make one swap area of 10196 blocks
on the first hard disk (/dev/rdsk/c1d0s1).  While this 5Mb area
seems plenty for most uses, I managed to exhaust it.  It was time to
RTFM.  While the manual gives you the confidence to say that you *can*
increase the number of swap partitions, it doesn't clearly tell you
exactly how to go about doing that.  What follows are the steps you
can follow to add another swap partition to your system.

Are you adding this swap space "just to balance the load"?  If so,
forget it.  The effect is negligible and clearly not worth the effort.
I have been unsuccessful in conclusively proving whether or not SVR3.1
does perform balanced allocation of the swap space.  It seems to knock
a huge chunk off the first partition before it even touches the second
one.  I would not think of doing this unless you have SVR3.1 or
SVR3.2.  Earlier versions do not have the advanced swap handling
functions, and may not even allow you to do this.  Upgrade time.
The only reason to add another swap partition is if you have a valid
reason to do so (i.e. you have exhausted your present swap space).
Remember that swap cannot be used for anything else, you take space
away from your mountable filesystems when you add swap space.

Please keep in mind that this is *your* system, and these steps can
easily wipe out all your data files.  Take adequate care to back
up your data.  Make sure your backups work before you start any of this.

IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU HAVE A PAPER COPY OF THESE
DIRECTIONS IN FRONT OF YOU AS YOU PERFORM THIS TASK.

Step 0: BACK UP THE SYSTEM!  I cannot stress this enough.
        If you have a tape drive, use that in preference over the
    floppy drive.  Back up the /, /usr, and /usr2 partitions.
    While it is not mandatory, it's also a good idea to back up
    everything else just in case catastrophe strikes.  Expect the
    worst and hope for the best.

Step 1: Reload the Foundation floppies and select a custom partition
        setup.  Pick the sizes you want for the new swap partitions.
    Since you are adding a second swap partition, it is up to you
    if you wish to add to (or keep) the original 5Mb swap
    partition.  It is mandatory that you keep *some* swap space on
    the first disk.  There is no rule that says the 2 partitions must
    be equal in size.  Finish the full restore.

    For Your Information: the sizes of the partitions are
    dependent on the number of blocks per cylinder group.  That
    means, you can specify size in units of (18 * number of
    heads).  If you specify a number that is not a round figure,
    the machine will round it for you.  RECORD THIS NUMBER!!!
    This new partition will be named /usrX (where X is a positive
    integer) and there will be a filesystem made upon it.  Do not worry.

Step 2: Bring up unix, log in as root, and bring the machine to runlevel 1.
        When the machine is in single-user mode, make sure that all
    disk partitions are unmounted (except for the root partition!)

Step 3: Make a temporary file with the existing partition data:

        # prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c1d1s6 > /tmp/disk.data

Step 4: Edit the disk.data file.  Make the following changes:
        change the tag field from 0 to 3 (from 'user' to 'swap')
        change the flags from 00 to 01 (unmountable partition)
        delete all the initial comments (lines with initial *'s)
    Double check this file to make sure you got it right

Step 5: Save this data back to the hard disk.  If you choose to chicken
        out, do it BEFORE THIS STEP:

        # fmthard -s /tmp/disk.data /dev/rdsk/c1d1s6

Step 6: Edit /etc/fstab to remove the reference to the now defunct
        filesystem.  You don't have to do anything else to the actual
    partition to remove the filesystem - the system will page over
    the superblock and inode lists by itself.

Step 7: Use /etc/swap to tell the system that the partition is ready
        for paging/swapping.  The best way to do this is to make the
    system add this partition each time it boots.  Create a file
    called /etc/rc2.d/S00SETSWAP.  Link it to the file
    /etc/init.d/S00SETSWAP.  In this file, add the following line:

    /etc/swap -a /dev/dsk/c1d1sYY 0 XXXXX

    In this case, the Y's in the disk name should be set to the
    disk partition that the new swap space is to be located on.
    Usually, this is partition 8 (if you specified the swap space
    as the first partition on the disk before /usr).  The 0 (zero)
    signifies that swap activity is to start at the 0th block of
    the partition - the start.  Replace the XXXXX with the number
    of blocks available in the partition.  This is the number you
    recorded in Step 1 above.

Step 8: Reboot and pray.  If it all went well, the machine will come
        up in multi-user mode.  Once again, log in as root and bring
    the machine down to single-user state.  Make sure that the
    system is actually using the new partition with the

    # /etc/swap -l

    command.  You should see the original swap partition
    (/dev/dsk/c1d0s1) as well as your new partition listed.

    If your machine did not boot for some bizarre reason, reload
    the system again (go to step 1), making sure that you do
    everything correctly.

Step 9: Restore your data.  If you backed up on floppy, just restore
        them in order and reboot.  If you backed up on a CTC tape drive,
        you must install the Cartridge Tape Utilities disk, reboot,
        recover your data, and reboot one last time.  IF you didn't back
        up your data, then you're SOL.

        A note to those with XDC and SCSI drives - the maneuvers you
        have just completed only messed up the data on the 2 internal
        disk drives.  Any data on your 3rd (and higher) drives should
        remain untouched.

There is another way to do this whole thing without reloading the
entire OS.  It involves having a boot floppy with prtvtoc, fmthard,
swap, and a few other files on it.  You would have to make this before
hand (explained in a different question).  In this instance, you would
only alter the partitions on the disk you added the new partition to.
This, however, would force you to re-create and restore filesystems on the
partition(s) you borrowed space from.  For my time and money, it was
easier (and less error-prone) to add the swap partition by reloading
the Foundation disks.  True Blue Gurus (TM) can experiment with the
second method.

Comments and criticisms welcome.

Jeffrey L. Bromberger ------- System Manager ------- Tramway Unix Systems
[e-mail]      Anywhere!{van-bc,limbic,icus}!tram!jeffrey

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:  3 How can I get X11 for the 3B2?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]  Robertson John MAJ at US Military Academy, West
Point, N

[Read the P.S. at the end of this message before attempting to
 ftp these files.]

The X11 R4 distribution tape contains sources to run clients on a 3b1.
Several of us have hacked those sources to enable clients to run on a
3b2.

I wish I could offer the source patches directly but for various
reasons, I can't.  However, 3b2 users are more than welcome to have the
clients, the libraries, the include files, and the pre-processor.  This
will get X-windows up on your 3b2 without the xdaemon stuff (as long as
you have the Wollongong networking stuff.)  With this stuff, you'll
have a pile of ready-to-run clients as well as the tools needed to
compile your own X11 applications.

In addition to the default X11 R4 clients, bin.tar.Z also has a running
copy of tgif, xdvi, xmahjongg [you'll need to do the fonts for your
server.  UTSL!], and lots of other neat stuff.

The lib.tar.Z contains libX11.a, libXt.a, etc.  In addition, the
app-defaults for all the clients in bin.tar.Z are also here.

include.tar.Z has all the include files.  You'll need these if you want
to compile your own stuff.

cpp.tar.Z is a compiled version of the X11 distribution preprocessor.
In this version, you'll need to define the symbol 3b2 before
invocation.  It will not gag on the big header files that many X
applications use.

The files can be obtained via anonymous ftp from euler.math.usma.edu.
They are in pub/3b2.  Other than unpaccking and installing the clients
and lib stuff in the usual places, no other special work should be
needed.

I cannot offer any support for this stuff.  Take it, hack it, and have
fun.  Even more, give the clients away to other suffering 3b2 users.
It has made our 3b2's substantially easier to use.

Jack

P.S.  The X11R4 clients for the 3B2 have been moved to Bradley University
      on erratic.bradley.edu in pub/3B2_X.  If that system is down, you
      may want to also try ds3.bradley.edu, also in pub/3B2_X.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:  4 How do I install a non AT&T SCSI drive on my 3B2?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Geoff Coleman)

Installation of Third Party SCSI drive on AT&T 3B2

1.  Hardware Addition
The hardware installation is relatively simple. The SCSI address of the
disk must be set via jumpers. If the disk being added is the first
outside disk for the 3B2 then the you must use an "AT&T SCSI Connect
Kit".

2.  Telling the system about the disk
After the disk has been physically attached the machine should be
restarted.  If the disk is one that is unknown to the 3B2 a message
will appear on the console that there is an unknown scsi device "make"
"model". The make and model information is important.

Once the 3b2 is rebooted login as root and cd to /etc/scsi.  At this
point you should run ./edittbl -l to list all of the SCSI devices known
to the system. Then run device table. The first entry is the make and
must be padded with spaces to 8 characters.  The second entry is the
model and must be padded to 16 characters with spaces.  The number of
lu's is one unless it is a bridge controller.