Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.mathworks.com!portc01.blue.aol.com!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!nntp-out.teleweb.pt!news.teleweb.pt!not-for-mail From: bofh@mail.teleweb.pt Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: comp.unix.aix Frequently Asked Questions (Part 4 of 5) Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.unix.aix Date: 2 Nov 2000 15:53:10 +0100 Organization: What ? Lines: 1858 Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Distribution: world Expires: 07 Dec 2000 15:25:21 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: bofh@mail.teleweb.pt (Jose Pina Coelho) NNTP-Posting-Host: p140a55.teleweb.pt X-Trace: srvlis16.teleweb.pt 973177342 1432 212.16.140.55 (2 Nov 2000 15:02:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@teleweb.pt NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Nov 2000 15:02:22 GMT Summary: This posting contains AIX Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. AIX is IBM's version of Unix. Keywords: AIX RS/6000 questions answers Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.unix.aix:191693 comp.answers:42949 news.answers:195011 Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 (Perl 5.005) Archive-name: aix-faq/part4 Revision: 1.14 2000/01/04 02:34:26 Posting-Frequency: monthly ------------------------------ Subject: 2.05: How do I make my own shared library? To make your own shared object or library of shared objects, you should know that a shared object cannot have undefined symbols. Thus, if your code uses any externals from /lib/libc.a, the latter MUST be linked with your code to make a shared object. Mike Heath (mike@pencom.com) said it is possible to split code into more than one shared object when externals in one object refer to another one. You must be very good at import/export files. Perhaps he or someone can provide an example. Assume you have one file, sub1.c, containing a routine with no external references, and another one, sub2.c, calling stuff in /lib/libc.a. You will also need two export files, sub1.exp, sub2.exp. Read the example below together with the examples on the ld man page. ---- sub1.c ---- int addint(int a, int b) { return a + b; } ---- sub2.c ---- #include void printint(int a) { printf("The integer is: %d\n", a); } ---- sub1.exp ---- #! addint ---- sub2.exp ---- #! printint ---- usesub.c ---- main() { printint( addint(5,8) ); } The following commands will build your libshr.a, and compile/link the program usesub to use it. $ cc -c sub1.c $ cc -bM:SRE -bnoentry -bE:sub1.exp -o sub1shr.o sub1.o $ cc -c sub2.c $ cc -bM:SRE -bnoentry -bE:sub2.exp -o sub2shr.o sub2.o $ ar r libshr.a sub1shr.o sub2shr.o $ cc -o usesub usesub.c -L: libshr.a $ usesub The integer is: 13 $ A similar example can be found in the AIX manual online on the web at: ------------------------------ Subject: 2.06: Linking my program fails with strange errors. Why? Very simple, the linker (actually called the binder), cannot get the memory it needs, either because your ulimits are too low or because you don't have sufficient paging space. Since the linker is quite different >from normal Unix linkers and actually does much more than these, it also uses a lot of virtual memory. It is not unusual to need 10000 pages (of 4k) or more to execute a fairly complex linking. If you get 'BUMP error', either ulimits or paging is too low, if you get 'Binder killed by signal 9' your paging is too low. First, check your memory and data ulimits; in korn shell 'ulimit -a' will show all limits and 'ulimit -m 99999' and 'ulimit -d 99999' will increase the maximum memory and data respectively to some high values. If this was not your problem, you don't have enough paging space. If you will or can not increase your paging space, you could try this: - Do you duplicate libraries on the ld command line? That is never necessary. - Do more users link simultaneously? Try having only one linking going on at any time. - Do a partwise linking, i.e. you link some objects/libraries with the -r option to allow the temporary output to have unresolved references, then link with the rest of your objects/libraries. This can be split up as much as you want, and will make each step use less virtual memory. If you follow this scheme, only adding one object or archive at a time, you will actually emulate the behavior of other Unix linkers. If you decide to add more paging space, you should consider adding a new paging space on a second hard disk, as opposed to just increasing the existing one. Doing the latter could make you run out of free space on your first harddisk. It is more involved to shrink a paging space but easier to delete one. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.07: Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlc? Some systems have experienced delays of more than 60 seconds in compiling "#include int main () {printf ("Hello world");}" The problem is with the license manager contact IBM to make sure you've got the latest PTF. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.08: What's with malloc()? malloc() uses a late allocation algorithm based on 4.3 BSD's malloc() for speed. This lets you allocate very large sparse memory spaces, since the pages are not actually allocated until they are touched for the first time. Unfortunately, it doesn't die gracefully in the face of loss of available memory. See the "Paging Space Overview" under InfoExplorer, and see the notes on the linker in this document for an example of an ungraceful death. If you want your program to get notified when running out of memory, you should handle the SIGDANGER signal. The default is to ignore it. SIGDANGER is sent to all processes when paging space gets low, and if paging space gets even lower, processes with the highest paging space usage are sent the SIGKILL signal. malloc() is substantially different in 3.2, allocating memory more tightly. If you have problems running re-compiled programs on 3.2, try running them with MALLOCTYPE=3.1. Early Page Space Allocation (EPSA) added to AIX 3.2: see /usr/lpp/bos/README.PSALLOC - IX38211 / U422496 Allows setting of early allocation (vs. default late allocation) on a per-process basis. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.09: Why does xlc complain about 'extern char *strcpy()' The header has a strcpy macro that expands strcpy(x,y) to __strcpy(x,y), and the latter is then used by the compiler to generate inline code for strcpy. Because of the macro, your extern declaration contains an invalid macro expansion. The real cure is to remove your extern declaration but adding -U__STR__ to your xlc will also do the trick, although your program might run a bit more slowly as the compiler cannot inline the string functions any more. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.10: Why do I get 'Parameter list cannot contain fewer ....' This is the same as above (2.9). ------------------------------ Subject: 2.11: Why does xlc complain about '(sometype *)somepointer = something' Software that is developed using gcc may have this construct. However, standard C does not permit casts to be lvalues, so you will need to change the cast and move it to the right side of the assignment. If you compile with 'cc', removing the cast completely will give you a warning, 'xlc' will give you an error (provided somepointer and something are of different types - but else, why would the cast be there in the first place?) ------------------------------ Subject: 2.12: Some more common errors Here are a few other common errors with xlc: 305 | switch((((np)->navigation_type) ? (*((np)->navigation_type)) : ((void *)0))) .a........... a - 1506-226: (S) The second and third operands of the conditional operator must be of the same type. The reason for this is that xlc defines NULL as (void *)0, and it does not allow two different types as the second and third operand of ?:. The second argument above is not a pointer and the code used NULL incorrectly as a scalar. NULL is a nil pointer constant in ANSI C and in some traditional compilers. You should change NULL in the third argument above to an integer 0. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.13: Can the compiler generate assembler code? Starting with version 1.3 of xlc and xlf the -S option will generate a .s assembly code file prior to optimization. The option -qlist will generate a human readable one in a .lst file. There is also a disassembler in /usr/lpp/xlc/bin/dis include with the 1.3 version of xlc (and in /usr/lpp/xlC/bin/dis with the 2.1 version of xlC) that will disassemble existing object or executable files. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.14: Curses Curses based applications should be linked with -lcurses and _not_ with -ltermlib. It has also been reported that some problems with curses are avoided if your application is compiled with -DNLS. Peter Jeffe also notes: >the escape sequences for cursor and function keys are *sometimes* >treated as several characters: eg. the getch() - call does not return >KEY_UP but 'ESC [ C.' You're correct in your analysis: this has to do with the timing of the escape sequence as it arrives from the net. There is an environment variable called ESCDELAY that can change the fudge factor used to decide when an escape is just an escape. The default value is 500; boosting this a bit should solve your problems. Christopher Carlyle O'Callaghan has more comments concerning extended curses: 1) The sample program in User Interface Programming Concepts, page 7-13 is WRONG. Here is the correct use of panes and panels. #include #include main() { PANE *A, *B, *C, *D, *E, *F, *G, *H; PANEL *P; initscr(); A = ecbpns (24, 79, NULL, NULL, 0, 2500, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); D = ecbpns (24, 79, NULL, NULL, 0, 0, Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); E = ecbpns (24, 79, D, NULL, 0, 0, Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); B = ecbpns (24, 79, A, D, Pdivtyh, 3000, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); F = ecbpns (24, 79, NULL, NULL, 0, 0, Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); G = ecbpns (24, 79, F, NULL, 0, 5000, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); H = ecbpns (24, 79, G, NULL, 0, 3000, Pdivszp, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); C = ecbpns (24, 79, B, F, Pdivtyh, 0, Pdivszf, Pbordry, NULL, NULL); P = ecbpls (24, 79, 0, 0, "MAIN PANEL", Pdivtyv, Pbordry, A); ecdvpl (P); ecdfpl (P, FALSE); ecshpl (P); ecrfpl (P); endwin(); } 2) DO NOT include and any other file together. You will get a bunch of redefined statements. 3) There is CURSES and EXTENDED CURSES. Use only one or the other. If the manual says that they're backwards compatible or some other indication that you can use CURSES routines with EXTENDED, don't believe it. To use CURSES you need to include and you can't (see above). 4) If you use -lcur and -lcurses in the same link command, you will get Memory fault (core dump) error. You CANNOT use both of them at the same time. -lcur is for extended curses, -lcurses is for regular curses. 5) When creating PANEs, when you supply a value (other than 0) for the 'ds' parameter and use Pdivszf value for the 'du' parameter, the 'ds' will be ignored (the sample program on page 7-13 in User Interface Programming Concepts is wrong.) For reasons as yet undetermined, Pdivszc doesn't seem to work (or at least I can't figure out how to use it.) 6) If you're running into bugs and can't figure out what is happening, try the following: include -qextchk -g in your compile line -qextchk will check to make sure you're passing the right number of parameters to the functions -g enables debug 7) Do not use 80 as the number of columns if you want to use the whole screen. The lower right corner will get erased. Use 79 instead. 8) If you create a panel, you must create at least 1 pane, otherwise you will get a Memory fault (core dump). 9) When creating a panel, if you don't have a border around it, any title you want will not show up. 10) to make the screen scroll down: wmove (win, 0, 0); winsertln (win) 11) delwin(win) doesn't work in EXTENDED WINDOWS To make it appear as if a window is deleted, you need to do the following: for every window that you want to appear on the screen touchwin(win) wrefresh(win) you must make sure that you do it in the exact same order as you put them on the screen (i.e., if you called newwin with A, then C, then B, then you must do the loop with A, then C, then B, otherwise you won't get the same screen back). The best thing to do is to put them into an array and keep track of the last window index. 12) mvwin(win, line, col) implies that it is only used for viewports and subwindows. It can also be used for the actual windows themselves. 13) If you specify the attribute of a window using wcolorout(win), any subsequent calls to chgat(numchars, mode) or any of its relatives will not work. (or at least they get very picky.) ------------------------------ Subject: 2.15: How do I speed up linking Please refer to sections 2.03 and 2.06 above. From: losecco@undpdk.hep.nd.edu (John LoSecco) and hook@chaco.aix.dfw.ibm.com (Gary R. Hook) From oahu.cern.ch in /pub/aix3 you can get a wrapper for the existing linker called tld which can reduce link times with large libraries by factors of 3 to 4. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.16: What is deadbeef? When running the debugger (dbx), you may have wondered what the 'deadbeef' is you occasionally see in registers. Do note, that 0xdeadbeef is a hexadecimal number that also happens to be some kind of word (the RS/6000 was built in Texas!), and this hexadecimal number is simply put into unused registers at some time, probably during program startup. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.17: How do I make an export list from a library archive? From: d.dennerline@bull.com (Dave Dennerline) [ This script has been moved to section 8.10 ] ------------------------------ Subject: 2.19: Building imake, makedepend From: crow@austin.ibm.com (David L. Crow) [Editor's note: if you have AIX 4.x, you need the X11.adt.imake LPP and probably most if not all of the X11.adt.* LPPs. Imake, xmkmf and other utilities are delivered precompiled.] You need X11dev.src release 1.2.3.0 (ie the R5 release) [on AIX 3.2]. Unless you have an R5 release of AIXwindows, there is no xmkmf. These are the steps that I use to make imake, makedepend and all of it's config files, and then install them in the working tree (ie not the Xamples) for daily use: cd /usr/lpp/X11/Xamples make Makefile make SUBDIRS="config util" Makefiles make SUBDIRS="config util" linklibs make SUBDIRS="config util" depend make SUBDIRS="config util" make SUBDIRS="config util" install Then redo the steps everytime you apply an X11 update. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.20: How can tell what shared libraries a binary is linked with? Use "dump -H " and see if anything other than /unix is listed in the loader section (at the bottom). The first example is /bin/sh (statically linked) and the second example is /usr/local/bin/bash (shared). INDEX PATH BASE MEMBER 0 /usr/lib:/lib 1 / unix INDEX PATH BASE MEMBER 0 ./lib/readline/:./lib/glob/:/usr/lib:/lib 1 libc.a shr.o 2 libcurses.a shr.o The freeware tool "ldd" lists all the shared libraries needed by an executable, including those recursively included by other shared libraries. See question 2.27 "Where can I find ldd for AIX?". ------------------------------ Subject: 2.21: Can I get a PTF for my C/C++ compiler from the net? contains pointers to most PTFs, including compilers. You'll need the fixdist program (see 1.142) to retrieve them. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.22: Why does "install"ing software I got from the net fail? Note that the RS/6000 has two install programs, one with System V flavor in the default PATH (/etc/install with links from /usr/bin and /usr/usg), and one with BSD behavior in /usr/ucb/install. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.23: What is Linker TOC overflow error 12? There is a hard coded limit in the AIX 3.2.5 linker that is fixed in AIX 4.1. A kind soul donated the following information to help people get the 3.2.5 fix The LPS (paperwork) AIX TOC Data Binder/6000 #P91128 Version 1.1 Program Number 5799-QDY Reference No. GC23-2604-00, FC 5615 Pre Reqs listed were AIX 3.2.5 IBM C Set++ V2 (5765-186) The above is not available any longer, see section 1.006. You could also put some of the application code into shared libraries or, in the case of gcc, use -mminimal-toc. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.24: What is the limit on number of shared memory segments I can attach? Each process has 16 segments. One is used for private code, one for stack, one for heap; those, if memory serves, are segments 0, 1, and 2. (If you look in sys/shm.h, you'll see that SHMLOSEG is 3 -- the lowest segment, in number and in the process' virtual address space, available to shmat.) SHMHISEG, the highest segment you can attach to (also defined in sys/shm.h), is 12. Segments 3 through 12 are available to shmat, giving the 10 segments your program used successfully. (NSHMSEGS in sys/shm.h will give you this value, though it's of limited use, since most platforms that I've seen don't define it.) Segment 13 is used by shared code your program has attached to; I think one of the others might be for kernel-mode data. See also mmap. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.25: I deleted libc.a by accident --- how do I recover? From: Ed Ravin You can recover from this without rebooting or reinstalling, if you have another copy of libc.a available that is also named "libc.a". If you moved libc.a to a different directory, you're in luck -- do the following: export LIBPATH=/other/directory And your future commands will work. But if you renamed libc.a, this won't do it. If you have an NFS mounted directory somewhere, you can put libc.a on the that host, and point LIBPATH to that directory as shown above. Failing that, turn off your machine, reboot off floppies or other media, and get a root shell. I don't think you should do "getrootfs" as you usually do when accessing the root vg this way -- AIX may start looking for libc.a on the disk, and you'll just run into the same problem. So do an importvg, varyonvg, and then mount /usr somewhere, then manually move libc.a back or copy in a new one from floppy. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.26: Where can I find dlopen, dlclose, and dlsym for AIX? An implementation of these dynamic code loading functions was written by Jens-Uwe Mager and can be found at From: Gary R. Hook Starting with AIX 4.2 a dlopen et. al. are included in the base OS in the libdl.a library. Under AIX 4.1 this is available as SLHS (Shared Library Hookable Symbols) as APAR IX IX71849 for the runtime package and APAR IX IX72973 for the development tools. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.27: Where can I find ldd for AIX? From: Jens-Uwe Mager Try . Also the "aix.tools" package from ------------------------------ Subject: 2.28: How do I make my program binary executable on the POWER, POWER2, and POWERPC architecures? AIX will emulate those instructions not available in POWERPC processors, but you can avoid this emulation and consequent performance degradtation by using only the common to all. If you are using IBM's xlc (cc) compiler, the default is to use the common instruction set. If you want to be explicit, use the -qarch=com option. The option -mcpu=common makes GCC use the common instruction set. Please note that (unlike xlc) this is *not* the default with GCC on AIX. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.29: How do I access more than 256 Megabytes of memory? By default each program gets one segment register (see 2.24) for its data segment. As each segment register covers 256 MB, any calls to malloc more will fail. Also programs that declare large global or static arrays may fail to load. To allocate more segment registers to your program, use the linker option -bmaxdata to specify the number of bytes you need in the data segment as follows: cc -o myprog -bmaxdata:0x20000000 myprog.c The example above would allocate an additional segment register to allow for 512MB of data. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.30: How do I use POSIX threads with gcc 2.7.x? From: David Edelsohn The code generated by GCC is compatible with threads, but gcc-2.7 was released so long ago that it did not provide an option to perform the extra link steps necessary to support threads: 1) Compile all source files with "-D_THREAD_SAFE" macro defined. 2) Link with "-L/usr/lib/threads -lpthreads -lc_r /usr/lib/libc.a" to obtain the pthreads support and add "-nostartfiles /usr/lib/crt0_r.o" to the beginning of the link command line (using gcc to link!) to initialize threads. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.31: Why does pthread_create return the error code 22? Using Posix threads under AIX requires a special C runtime startup initialization as well as special versions of some libraries. The IBM C compiler includes these special libraries if called by the name xlc_r (or xlC_r for C++). There also other maing variations to support various defaults, consult the file /etc/xlC.cf for details. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.32: How do I build programs under a later AIX release that run under earlier releases as well? IBM develops AIX only for binary compatibility with older AIX releases, not the other way around. You will thus need to build programs on the oldest AIX release the program is supposed to run on. You will also need to link programs dynamically, if you link in the system libraries statically the program will probably only run on the machine you performed the link on. With some preparation it is appearently possible to get around that limitation. Bob Halblutzel has put together a web page describing the detailed steps how to set up such a build environment at the following web page: Please not that this is not a supported way to build your programs, you will probably receive not any support by IBM if you have problems with that environment. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.00: Fortran and other compilers This section covers all compilers other than C/C++. On Fortran, there seem to have been some problems with floating point handling, in particular floating exceptions. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.01: I have problems mixing Fortran and C code, why? A few routines (such as getenv, signal, and system) exist in both the Fortran and C libraries but with different parameters. In the recent past, if you have a mixed program that calls getenv from both C and Fortran code, you have to link them carefully by specifying the correct library first on your command line. This is no longer needed starting with version 1.5 of the compilers. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.02: How do I statically bind Fortran libraries and dynamically bind C libraries? From: amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Paul Amaranth) [ Editor's note: Part of this is also discussed above under the C compiler section, but I felt it was so valuable that I have left it all in. I've done some minor editing, mostly typographical. ] The linker and binder are rather versatile programs, but it is not always clear how to make them do what you want them to. In particular, there are times when you do not want to use shared libraries, but rather, staticly bind the required routines into your object. Or, you may need to use two versions of the same routine (eg, Fortran & C). Here are the results of my recent experiments. I would like to thank Daniel Premer and Brad Hollowbush, my SE, for hints. Any mistakes or omissions are my own and I have tended to interchange the terms "linker" and "binder". These experiments were performed on AIX 3.1.2. Most of this should be applicable to later upgrades of 3.1. 1) I have some C programs, I want to bind in the runtime routines. How do I do this? [Mentioned in section 2.04 of this article as well, ed.] You can put the -bnso binder command on the link line. You should also include the -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp control argument: $ cc *.o -bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp -o foo This will magically do everything you need. Note that this will bind _all_ required routines in. The -bI argument tells the linker that these entry points will be resolved dynamically at runtime (these are system calls). If you omit this you will get lots of unresolved reference messages. 2) I want to statically bind in the Fortran runtime so a) my customers do not need to buy it and b) I don't have to worry about the runtime changing on a new release. Can I use the two binder arguments in 1) to do this? You should be able to do so, but, at least under 3002, if you do you will get a linker error referencing getenv. In addition, there are a number of potential conflicts between Fortran and C routines. The easy way just does not work. See the section on 2 stage linking for C and Fortran on how to do this. The getenv problem is a mess, see the section on Comments & Caveats for more. From: Gary R. Hook The xlf runtime is a no-charge feature, you can download and install it without having to buy it. This change was made >2 years ago. 3) I have a mixture of C and Fortran routines, how can I make sure that the C routines reference the C getenv, while the Fortran routines reference the Fortran getenv (which has different parameters and, if called mistakenly by a C routine results in a segmentation fault)? From Mike Heath (mike@pencom.com): Use -brename:symbol1,symbol2 when pre-linking the modules from one of the languages. It does not matter which one you choose. 4) I have C and Fortran routines. I want to bind in the xlf library, while letting the rest of the libraries be shared. How do I do this? You need to do a 2 stage link. In the first stage, you bind in the xlf library routines, creating an intermediate object file. The second stage resolves the remaining references to the shared libraries. This is a general technique that allows you to bind in specific system routines, while still referencing the standard shared libraries. Specifically, use this command to bind the xlf libraries to the Fortran objects: $ ld -bh:4 -T512 -H512 -o intermediat.o \ -bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp -berok -lxlf -bexport:/usr/lib/libg.exp \ -lg -bexport: The argument -bexport: specifies a file with the name of all entry points that are to be visible outside the intermediate module. Put one entrypoint name on a line. The -bI:/lib/libg.exp line is required for proper functioning of the program. The -berok argument tells the binder that it is ok to have unresolved references, at least at this time (you would think -r would work here, but it doesn't seem to). The -bnso argument causes the required modules to be imported into the object. The -lxlf, of course, is the xlf library. Then, bind the intermediate object with the other shared libraries in the normal fashion: $ ld -bh:4 -T512 -H512 intermediate.o \ /lib/crt0.o -lm -lc Note the absence of -berok. After this link, all references should be resolved (unless you're doing a multistage link and making another intermediate). NOTE THE ORDER OF MODULES. This is extremely important if, for example, you had a subroutine named "load" in your Fortran stuff. Putting the C libraries before the intermediate module would make the C "load" the operable definition, rather than the Fortran version EVEN THOUGH THE FORTRAN MODULE HAS ALREADY BEEN THROUGH A LINK AND ALL REFERENCES TO THE SYMBOL ARE CONTAINED IN THE FORTRAN MODULE. This can be extremely difficult to find (trust me on this one :-) Is this a bug, a feature, or what? [As mentioned in section 2.03 of this article, it is a feature that you can replace individual objects in linked files, ed.] The result will be a slightly larger object than normal. (I say slightly because mine went up 5%, but then it's a 2 MB object :-) Comments & Caveats: From the documentation the -r argument to the linker should do what -berok does. It does not. Very strange results come from using the -r argument. I have not been able to make -r work in a sensible manner (even for intermediate links which is what it is supposed to be for). Note from Mike Heath (mike@pencom.com): 'ld -r' is essentially shorthand for 'ld -berok -bnogc -bnoglink'. Certainly, using -berok with an export file (so garbage collection can be done) is preferable to ld -r, but the latter is easier. When binding an intermediate module, use an export file to define the entry points you want visible in the later link. If you don't do this, you'll get the dreaded "unresolved reference" error. Import files name entry points that will be dynamically resolved (and possibly where). If you are in doubt about what parameters or libraries to link, use the -v arg when linking and modify the exec call that shows up into an ld command. Some thought about the libraries will usually yield an idea of when to use what. If you don't know what an argument is for, leave it in. It's there for a purpose (even if you don't understand it). Watch the order of external definitions (ie, libraries) when more than one version of a routine may show up, eg "load". The first one defined on the ld command line is the winner. The getenv (and system and signal) problem is a problem that started out minor, got somewhat worse in 3003 and, eventually will be correctly fixed. Basically, you should extract the 3002 version of these three routines from xlf.a before doing the update and save them away, then link these routines in if you use these Fortran system services. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.03: How do I check if a number is NaN? From: sdl@glasnost.austin.ibm.com (Stephen Linam) NaN is "Not a Number". It arises because the RISC System/6000 uses IEEE floating point arithmetic. To determine if a variable is a NaN you can make use of the property that a NaN does not compare equal to anything, including itself. Thus, for real variable X, use IF (X .NE. X) THEN ! this will be true if X is NaN Floating point operations which cause exceptions (such as an overflow) cause status bits to be set in the Floating Point Status and Control Register (FPSCR). There is a Fortran interface to query the FPSCR, and it is described in the XLF Fortran manuals -- I don't have the manuals right here, but look for FPGETS and FPSETS. The IBM manual "Risc System/6000 Hardware Technical Reference - General Information" (SA23-2643) describes what floating point exceptions can occur and which bits are set in the FPSCR as a result of those exceptions. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.04: Some info sources on IEEE floating point. 1. ANSI/IEEE STD 754-1985 (IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic) and ANSI/IEEE STD 854-1987 (IEEE Standard for Radix-Independent Floating-Point Arithmetic), both available from IEEE. 2. David Goldberg, "What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic", ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 23, No. 1, March 1991, pp. 5-48. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.05: Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlf? [read 2.07] ------------------------------ Subject: 4.00: GNU and Public Domain software GNU software comes from the Free Software Foundation and various other sources. A number of ftp sites archive them. Read the GNU license for rules on distributing their software. Lots of useful public domain software have been and continue to be ported to the RS/6000. See below for ftp or download information. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.01: How do I find sources? From: jik@GZA.COM (Jonathan Kamens) There is a newsgroup devoted to posting about how to get a certain source, comp.sources.wanted. An archive of information about sources, including FTP sites is available from ------------------------------ Subject: 4.02: Are there any ftp or WWW sites? SMIT-installable precompiled packages of popular freeware for AIX 4.x at . Download the ".exe" files with your WWW browser. These are auto-uncompressing files, just like on PCs (it uses similar technology to PKZIP). Mark the file as executable (chmod +x), then execute it to generate a .bff file. The .bff file can then be installed using "smit install_latest". For more information read the INSTALL.txt file on the server. There are mirrors of this site at http://www.bull.de/ and http://ftp.univie.ac.at/aix/. The package explicitly referenced below are ones Ciaran consideres "solid." That is, the binary has been "tested by lots of people." Bull provides many other freeware packages as well. If you use the service, be sure and thank Ciaran and Bull. Below are some ftp sites that are supposed to have RS/6000 specific software. I haven't verified all the entries. US sites: European sites: The first one is dedicated to software running on AIX. It might not always be the latest versions of the software, but it has been ported to AIX (normally AIX version 3 only). Please use the European sites very sparingly. They are primarily to serve people in Europe and most of the software can be found in the US sites originally. The remaining sites are simply ones that archie indicated contained AIX related materials. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.03: Why does "install"ing software I got from the net fail? This answer was moved to section 2.22 ------------------------------ Subject: 4.04: GNU Emacs A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from . If you get a segmentation fault in GNU EMACS 19.* during hilit19 use, you can set locale to C (export LC_ALL=C) to get around the AIX bug. Version 18.57 of GNU Emacs started to have RS/6000 support. Use s-aix3-2.h for AIX 3.2. Emacs is going through rapid changes recently. Current release is 19.x. Emacs will core-dump if it is stripped, so don't strip when you install it. You can edit a copy of the Makefile in src replacing all 'install -s' with /usr/ucb/install. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.05: gcc/gdb GNU C version 2.0 and later supports the RS/6000, and compiles straight out of the box on AIX 3 and AIX 4.1 and 4.2. You may, however, experience that compiling it requires large amounts of paging space. On AIX 4.3, compiling gcc appears to be much more difficult due to changes for the 64 bit environment. A precompiled gcc is available in the form of egcs in the Bull archive at . From: Ciaran Deignan Note: - there is a link problem on AIX 4.3. Until I find a way of building a distribution on AIX 4.3, you'll have to use 'ld'. - The package gnu.egcs-1.1.0.0.exe does not contain the C++ compiler (G++). However since you can't link a G++ object file with 'ld', this is just part of the same problem. [Editor's note: from the latest postings it appears that the latest (post 1.1b) egcs snapshots fixes the problem with collect2. The problem here is that there are no binary distributions yet, one has to bootstrap this version using IBM's C compiler.] From: Brent Burkholder In order to compile and link using egcs on AIX you first need to download and apply fix APAR IX87327 from Looking up the APAR # should allow you to download bos.rte.bind_cmds.4.3.2.2 which fixes all problems. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.06: GNU Ghostscript A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from . The PostScript interpreter GNU Ghostscript Version 2.3 and later supports the RS/6000 and can be found on various ftp sites. Current version is 2.6.1. Compile time problems: Compile idict.c and zstack.c _without_ optimization, add the following to the Makefile: idict.o: idict.c $(CC) -c idict.c zstack.o: zstack.c $(CC) -c zstack.c Run time problems: Running ghostview-1.5 with ghostscript-2.6.1, I get gs: Malformed ghostview color property. Solution: replace buggy version of ghostscript-2.6.1 X11 driver with at least 2.6.1pl4 ------------------------------ Subject: 4.07 TeX - Document processing From: "Patrick TJ McPhee" TeX can be retrieved via ftp from the comprehensive TeX archive network (CTAN). The principle sites are ftp.tex.ac.uk (UK) ftp.dante.de (Deutschland) ftp.tug.org (USA) but there are many mirrors. finger ctan@ftp.tex.ac.uk for a list. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.08 Perl - Scripting language A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from . If you want the source code, is good place to start. As of AIX 4.3.3, perl is packaged with AIX but not supported. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.09: X-Windows AIX 4.x ships with X11R5 and Motif 1.2. On AIX 3.2 the base version has X11R4 and Motif 1.1 and the extended version has X11R5 as AIXwindows 1.2.3. See question 1.500 for more information about determining your revision. AIXwindows version 1.2.0 (X11rte 1.2.0) is X11R4 with Motif 1.1 AIXwindows version 1.2.3 (X11rte 1.2.3) is X11R5 with Motif 1.1 'lslpp -h X11rte.motif1.2.obj' should tell you if you are running Motif 1.2. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.10 Bash - /bin/ksh alternative from FSF Bash is an alternative to ksh and is availible from prep.ai.mit.edu and places that mirror the GNU software. /etc/security/login.cfg needs to be modified if this will be used as a default shell. A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from . [Editor's note: bash's command line expansion and new meta-expressions make it an absolute "must" for system administrators] ------------------------------ Subject: 4.11: Elm A very nice replacement for mail. Elm should be pretty straightforward, the only thing to remember is to link with -lcurses as the only curses/termlib library. You may also run into the problem listed under point 2.13 above. A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from . ------------------------------ Subject: 4.12: Oberon 2.2 From: afx@muc.ibm.de (Andreas Siegert) Oberon is Wirth's follow on to Modula-2, but is not compatible. A free version of Modula-3 is available from DEC/Olivetti at gatekeeper.dec.com. This is not a Modula-2 replacement but a new language. There are currently two M2 compilers for the 6000 that I know of. One from Edinburgh Portable Compilers, +44 31 225 6262 (UK) and the other from Gardens Point is availible through A+L in Switzerland (+41 65 520311) or Real Time Associates in the UK (info@rtal.demon.co.uk). Oberon can be obtained via anonymous ftp from neptune.inf.ethz.ch (129.132.101.33) under the directory Oberon/RS6000 or gatekeeper.dec.com (16.1.0.2). ------------------------------ Subject: 4.13: Kermit - Communications From: Frank da Cruz Available for all versions of AIX on RS/6000, PowerPC, PS/2, RT PC, and 370-Series mainframes. For complete information on Kermit software for AIX and hundreds of other platforms, visit the Kermit Web site: C-Kermit 6.0 was announced November 30, 1996: The nonprofit Kermit Project is funded primarily by manual sales. For C-Kermit 6.0 the manual is the new second edition of "Using C-Kermit": For RS/6000 and PowerPC with AIX 3.x or 4.x: (or .gz) Uncompress, untar (tar xvf cku192.tar) then: make rs6aix32c <-- For AIX 3.x make rs6aix41c <-- For AIX 4.x This produces an exutable called "wermit". Before installing, read the instructions in ckuins.doc from the tar file. If you don't have a C compiler, you can get binaries at: Send questions to kermit-support@columbia.edu. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.14: Gnu dbm From: doug@cc.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell) Here's the fixes for RS/6000's: apply this to testgdbm.c: 158c158 < char opt; --- > int opt; 166c166 < while ((opt = getopt (argc, argv, "rn")) != -1) --- > while ((opt = getopt (argc, argv, "rn")) != EOF) Apply this to systems.h: 111a112,114 > #ifdef RS6000 > #pragma alloca > #else 112a116 > #endif To compile, edit the Makefile. Set CC to bsdcc (see /usr/lpp/bos/bsdport if you don't have 'bsdcc' on your system) and set CFLAGS to -DRS6000 and whatever options (-g, -O) you prefer. Don't define SYSV. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.15 tcsh - an alternative shell From: cordes@athos.cs.ua.edu (David Cordes) tcsh is available from Compiles with no problems. You must edit /etc/security/login.cfg to permit users to change to this shell (chsh), adding the path where the shell is installed (in my case, /usr/local/bin/tcsh). >From: "A. Bryan Curnutt" Under AIX 3.2.5, you need to modify the "config.h" file, changing #define BSDSIGS to #undef BSDSIGS ------------------------------ Subject: 4.16: Kyoto Common Lisp The sources are available from cli.com. The kcl package is the needed base; also retrieve the latest akcl distribution. akcl provides a front-end that "ports" the original kcl to a number of different platforms. The port to the 6000 worked with no problems. However, you must be root for make to work properly with some memory protection routines. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.17 Tcl/Tk - X-Windows scripting Current versions: Tcl 8.0b2 and Tk 8.0b2. They are available from . The Tcl/Tk web page is at . Prebuilt installp (smit) installable packages for several versions of Tcl and Tk are available from . ------------------------------ Subject: 4.18: Expect From: Doug Sewell To build the command-interpreter version, you must have the tcl library built successfully. The expect library doesn't require tcl. Note: Expect and its library are built with bsdcc, so applications using the library probably also need to be developed with bsdcc. I ftp'd expect from ftp.cme.nist.gov. You need to change several lines in the makefile. First you need to customize source and target directories and files: # TCLHDIR = /usr/include TCLLIB = -ltcl MANDIR = /usr/man/manl (local man-pages) MANEXT = l BINDIR = /u/local/bin LIBDIR = /usr/lib HDIR = /usr/include ... Next set the compiler, switches, and configuration options: # CC = bsdcc CFLAGS = -O ... PTY_TYPE = bsd ... INTERACT_TYPE = select ... Then you need to make these changes about line 90 or so: comment out CFLAGS = $(CLFLAGS) un-comment these lines: CFLAGS = $(CLFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) LFLAGS = ($CLFLAGS) Then run 'make'. You can't run some of the examples without modification (host name, etc). I don't remember if I ran all of them or not, but I ran enough that I was satisfied it worked. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.19: Public domain software on CD From: mbeckman@mbeckman.mbeckman.com (Mel Beckman) The Prime Time Freeware CD collection is a package of two CD's and docs containing over THREE GIGABYTES of compressed Unix software. It costs $69 >from Prime Time Freeware, 415-112 N. Mary Ave., Suite 50, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. Phone 408-738-4832 voice, 408-738-2050 fax. No internet orders as far as I can tell. I've extracted and compiled a number of the packages, and all have worked flawlessly so far on my 220. Everything from programming languages to 3D solid modeling is in this bonanza! [Ed: The O'Reilly book, Unix Power Tools, also contains a CD-ROM with lots of useful programs compiled for the RS/6000, among other platforms.] ------------------------------ Subject: 4.20: Andrew Toolkit From: Gary Keim The Andrew Toolkit Consortium of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science has released new versions of the Andrew User Environment, Andrew Toolkit, and Andrew Message System. The Andrew User Environment (AUE) is an integrated set of applications beginning with a 'generic object' editor, ez, a help system, a system monitoring tool (console), an editor-based shell interface (typescript), and support for printing multi-media documents. The Andrew Toolkit (ATK) is a portable user-interface toolkit that runs under X11. It provides a dynamically-loadable object-oriented environment wherein objects can be embedded in one another. Thus, one could edit text that, in addition to containing multiple fonts, contains embedded raster images, spreadsheets, drawing editors, equations, simple animations, etc. These embedded objects can also be nested. The Andrew Message System (AMS) provides a multi-media interface to mail and bulletin-boards. AMS supports several mail management strategies and implements many advanced features including authentication, return receipts, automatic sorting of mail, vote collection and tabulation, enclosures, audit trails of related messages, and subscription management. It has interfaces that support ttys, personal computers, and workstations. Release 5.1 of Andrew contains many bug fixes and updates. There is now support for the new Internet MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) standards for multipart, and multimedia mail. For more information on MIME, please see the CHANGES files in the ftp directory on emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu. This release can be obtained as follows. The sources are available via anonymous ftp from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.30.0.238) in the ./contrib/andrew tree. For details, see ./contrib/andrew/README. PATCH for AIX3.2: A patch to the AUIS 5.1 sources can be ftp'ed from emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.45.40) in ./aixpatch. For those without internet access, a 3.5" diskette can be ordered for a nominal fee of $10 by sending, or faxing, a purchase order to the Consortium address below. Andrew, as well as a variety of other CMU software, can also be ftp'ed >from emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.30.62). Those with AFS access look at /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/itc/sm/releases/X.V11R5/ftp. Remote Andrew Demo Service This network service allows you to run Andrew Toolkit applications without obtaining or compiling the Andrew software. You need a host machine running X11 on the Internet. A simple "finger" command will let you experience ATK applications firsthand. You'll be able to compose multimedia documents, navigate through the interactive Andrew Tour, and use the Andrew Message System to browse through CMU's three thousand bulletin boards and newsgroups. To use the Remote Andrew Demo service, run the following command: finger help@atk.itc.cmu.edu The service will give you further instructions. Information Sources Your bug reports are welcome; kindly send them to info-andrew-bugs@andrew.cmu.edu and we will periodically post a status report to the mailing list info-andrew@andrew.cmu.edu. To be added to the mailing list or make other requests, send mail to info-andrew-request@andrew.cmu.edu. We also distribute the following related materials: ATK and AMS sources and binaries on CDROM. Binaries are available for the following system types: IBM RiscSystem/6000 Sun SparcStation HP 700 Series DECstation ATK and AMS sources on QIC and Iotamat tapes Hardcopies of the documentation for ATK and AMS. Introductory video tape: Welcome to Andrew: An Overview of the Andrew System. Technical video tape: The Andrew Project: A Session at the Winter 1988 Usenix Conference. More information about these materials is available from: Information Requests Andrew Toolkit Consortium Carnegie Mellon University 4910 Forbes Avenue, UCC 214 Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 USA phone: +1-412-268-6710 fax: +1-412-621-8081 info-andrew-request@andrew.cmu.edu There is also a netnews distribution list, comp.soft-sys.andrew, which is identical to the info-andrew list except that it does not support the multi-media capabilities of info-andrew. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.21: sudo Sudo (superuser do) allows a system administrator to give certain users (or groups of users) the ability to run some (or all) commands as root while logging all commands and arguments. Sudo operates on a per-command basis, it is not a replacement for the shell. The latest version of sudo is cu-sudo v1.5. There is a web page for sudo at . The program itself can be obtained from . Sudo's author, Todd Miller < Todd.Miller@courtesan.com> reports that sudo works on both AIX 3.2.X and 4.1.X. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.22: Flexfax/HylaFax and other fax software From: Christian Zahl Sam Leffler has released a new version of FlexFax called HylaFax. It is availible from . There is a HlyaFax web page at . Version V3.0pl1 supported many types of Class 1/2 fax modems and several UNIX systems including AIX 3.2.3 or greater. There is also a fax modem review document at the same site as . The FlexFax related files on sgi.com are replicated on ftp.bsc.no as well. >From: michael@hal6000.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE (Michael Staats) We're using mgetty+sendfax for the basic modem I/O, I wrote a printer backend for the modem so that users can send faxes as easy as they print postscript. I also wrote a little X interface composer to generate a fax form that makes sending faxes very easy. You can find these programs at hal6000.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE under /pub/source. program comment mgetty+sendfax-0.14.tar.gz basic modem I/O, needs hacking for AIX X11/xform-1.1.tar.gz small and simple X interface composer with an example fax form. Needs libxview.a incl. headers. faxiobe.tar.gz fax backend, needs configuring for your local site If you need a binary version of libxview.a and the headers you'll find them under /pub/binaries/AIX-3-2/lxview.tar.gz. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.23: lsof - LiSt Open Files From: abe@purdue.edu (Vic Abell) Q. How can I determine the files that a process has opened? Q. How can I locate the process that is using a specific network address? Q. How can I locate the processes that have files open on a file system? A. Use lsof (LiSt Open Files). From: "Juan G. Ruiz Pinto" Lsof is available via anonymous ftp from (for the most current version). There are binary distributions in the "binary" directory. A prebuilt installp (smit) installable package is available from . The installation scripts in this package automatically creates a group "kmem" during the install and uses "acledit" to allow the kmem group to read /dev/mem and /dev/kmem. This configuration is recommended by Vic Abell , the author of lsof. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.24: popper - POP3 mail daemon The POP server is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.qualcomm.com:/quest/unix/servers/popper The makefile supports AIX ftp.CC.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.136.9, 128.32.206.12). There are two versions in the pub directory: a compressed tar file popper-version.tar.Z and a Macintosh StuffIt archive in BinHex format called MacPOP.sit.hqx. Problems building some versions of popper can sometimes be resolved by compiling with bsdcc or -D_BSD. The pine 3.95 package on contains "plug and play" support for both POP3 and IMAP mail reading protocols. You can also get a compiled version of qpopper 2.2 there also. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.26: mpeg link errors version 2.0 From: Nathan Lane .XShmCreateImage .XShmDetach .XShmAttach .XShmGetEventBase .XShmPutImage .XShmQueryExtension ... are for the Shared Memory extension of the X server. You can either choose to build it with shared memory or without. I always do it without the performance increase is not really incredible, except on something like a 2x0 machine with the local bus graphics adapter. Just take out "DSH_MEM" in the CFLAGS in the makefile for mpeg_play. There is more information about shared memory link errors in section 1.513. Also, in the module "video.c" for mpeg_play it will complain about not having enough memory to fully optimize one of the loops. You can get around that by specificying "qmaxmem=8000" in your cflags line, BUT, the extra optimization does little good in my tests. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.27: NNTP, INN Link errors compiling nntp may occur because your machine lacks the "patch" command. Patch can be obtained from GNU repositories. See question 4.29 for more information on patch. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.28: Zmodem - File transfer RZSZ is Chuck Forsberg's script for Z-modem. It is available by ftp at or directly from Forsberg at Omen Technology BBS at 503-621-3746. Hints: 0. Build with "make posix" 1. Use an 8-bit clean version of rlogin or telnet (Note: below) 2. Set the system to be transparent, I use "terminal download" 3. Ensure hardware flow-control Note, carlson@xylogics.com (James Carlson) suggests: Rlogin is "slightly" unclean -- if an FF FF 73 73 appears in the datastream, it can be ripped out by rlogind as a 'window size change' request. [Ed note: The important part is using an 8-bit clean application, since there are several implemenations of rlogin and telnet availible you may need to try both and hunt down manuals to find the right flags for your system] ------------------------------ Subject: 4.29: Patch - automated file updates AIX 3.2.5 does not ship with patch, a utility to apply the differences between two files to make them identical. This tool is often used to update source code. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.30: XNTP - network time protocol, synchronizes clocks From: Joerg Schumacher AIX 4: xntpd in bos.net.tcp.client source: ftp://ftp.udel.edu/pub/ntp/ WWW: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/ ------------------------------ Subject: 4.31: GNU Screen and AIX 4.1.x Once again, binaries can be had from . ------------------------------ Subject: 4.32: SCSI scanner software There is the SANE project that strives to deliver an open source scanner solution for Unix: ------------------------------ Subject: 4.33: Pager/Paging software There is information on Paging, Paging programs and listing of the Archive sites to download at the web site: . HylaFAX (see 4.22) supports sending messages to alphanumeric pagers. Commercially there is: AlphaPage(r) MD2001 from Information Radio Technology, Inc. in Cleveland, OH. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.34: JAVA Development Kit From: Curt Finch ------------------------------ Subject: 4.35: Sendmail If you want to use SRC to start and stop BSD sendmail, do the following after installing it: chssys -s sendmail -S -n 15 -f 9 -a -d99.100 This tells SRC that sendmail may be stopped with signals 15 and 9. It also arranges for sendmail not to daemonize itself, since it will run under SRC. ------------------------------ Subject: 5.00: Third party products [ Ed.: Entries in this section are edited to prevent them from looking like advertising. Prices given may be obsolete. Companies mentioned are for reference only and are not endorsed in any fashion. ] ------------------------------ Subject: 5.01: Non-IBM AIX hosts. Bull manufactures and sells AIX systems. To find a distributor in your country, check the web page at and/or . Other vendors and manufactures include Motorola, Harris, General Automation and Apple. Kenetics Technology Inc. 35 Campus Drive Edison NJ 08837 Contact : Brian Walsh Phone - 908-805-0998 Fax - 908-346-1288 Manufactures a Power PC based RS-6000 clone that runs AIX versions 3.2.5 and 4.1.4. A typical configuration with a 100 MHz Power PC 601 and 32 MB RAM, and 2 GB Hard drive, monitor, keyboard and networking is about $4995.00 ------------------------------ Subject: 5.02: Disk/Tape/SCSI From: anonymous - Most SCSI disk drives work (IBM resells Maxtor, tested Wren 6&7 myself); use osdisk when configuring (other SCSI disk). - Exabyte: Unfortunately only the ones IBM sells are working. A few other tape drives will work; use ostape when configuring (other SCSI tape). - STK 3480 "Summit": Works with Microcode Version 5.2b >From: bell@hops.larc.nasa.gov (John Bell) In summary, third party tape drives work fine with the RS/6000 unless you want to boot from them. This is because IBM drives have 'extended tape marks', which IBM claims are needed because the standard marks between files stored on the 8mm tape are unreliable. These extended marks are used when building boot tapes, so when the RS/6000 boots, it searches for an IBM tape drive and refuses to boot without it. >From: jrogers@wang.com (John Rogers) On booting with non-IBM SCSI tape drives: I haven't tried it myself but someone offered: Turn machine on with key in secure position. Wait until LED shows 200 and 8mm tape has stopped loading. Turn key to service position. >From: amelcuk@gibbs.clarku.edu (Andrew Mel'cuk) The IBM DAT is cheap and works. If you get all the patches beforehand (U407435, U410140) and remember to buy special "Media Recognition System" tapes (Maxell, available from APS 800.443.4461 or IBM #21F8758) the drive can even be a pleasure to use. You can also flip a DIP switch on the drive to enable using any computer grade DAT tapes (read the hardware service manual). Other DAT drives also work. I have tried the Archive Python (works) and experimented extensively with the Archive TurboDAT. The TurboDAT is a very fast compression unit, is not finicky with tapes and doesn't require the many patches that the IBM 7206 does. Works fine with the base AIX 3.2 'ost' driver. >From: pack@acd.ucar.edu (Daniel Packman) >>You can boot off of several different brands of non-IBM Exabytes. >>At least TTI and Contemporary Cybernetics have done rather complete >>jobs of emulating genuine IBM products. A model that has worked for us from early AIX 3.1 through 3.2 is a TTI CTS 8210. This is the old low density drive. The newer 8510 is dual density (2.2gig and 5gig). Twelve dip switches on the back control the SCSI address and set up the emulation mode. These drives have a very useful set of lights for read-outs (eg, soft error rate, tape remaining, tape motion, etc.). ------------------------------ Subject: 5.03: Memory Nordisk Computer Services (Portland 503-598-0111, Seattle 206-242-7777) is reputed to have memory for use on AIX platforms. 5xx & 9xx machines have 8 memory slots, 3x0s have 2, and 3x5s have only one. You need to add memory in pairs for the 5xx & 9xx machines excepting the 520. Some highend 5xx's & 9xx's get memory as 2, 4, 4+4 cards. RS/6000 Models M20, 220, 230 and 250 can use "PS/2" style SIMM memory. All have 8 SIMM sockets. 60ns or better is needed for the 250, 70ns should be OK in the M20, 220 and 230. The M20, 220 and 230 are limited to 64MB of memory, the 250 is limited to 256MB. 40P, C10, C20, 41T and 42T also user SIMM memory. G30 & G40 have two memory slots. J30, J40, J50, R30, R40, R50 have four memory slots. These eight models have cards populated with DIMM-like memory. 7248 (Old 43P's) and 7043 (New 43P's) use DIMM-like memory. F40, F50 & H50 use have two memory slots. S70, S7A & S80 get memory "books". Still unidentified: E20, E30, F30, B50, H70 Caveat: Do not mix manufacturers or batches in the same memory card/bank. PS: [Ed's notice] I say DIMM-like memory because it won't even fit on my PC's DIMM slots. ------------------------------ Subject: 5.04: Others From: anonymous IBM RISC System/6000 Interface Products National Instruments Corporation markets a family of instrumentation interface products for the IBM RISC System/6000 workstation family. The interface family consists of three products that give the RISC System/6000 connectivity to the standards of VMEbus, VXIbus and GPIB. For more information, contact National Instruments Corporation, 512-794-0100 or 1-800-433-3488. ------------------------------ Subject: 5.05: C++ compilers Several C++ compilers are available. You can choose from Glockenspiel, Greenhills, IBM's xlC (sold seperately :), and GNU's g++. Glockenspiel may now be part of Computer Associates. Comeau Computing (718-945-0009) offers Comeau C++ 3.0 with Templates. For a full development environment there's ObjectCenter's C++ (formerly Saber C++). ------------------------------ Subject: 5.06: Memory leak detectors IBM's xlC comes with a product called the HeapView debugger that can trace memory problems in C and C++ code. SENTINEL has full memory access debugging capabilities including detection of memory leaks. Contact info@vti.com (800) 296-3000 or (703) 430-9247. Insight from ParaSoft (818) 792-9941. There is also a debug_malloc posted in one of the comp.sources groups. A shareware dmalloc is available. Details at . TestCenter is now available for the RS/6000. It supports AIX 3.2.5 and AIX 4.1 on POWER, POWER2 and PowerPC machines. More information is available from . Purify (408) 720-1600 is not availible for the RS/6000. ZeroFault detects memory violations and leaks without recompiling or relinking. Works on all RS/6000 systems running AIX 3.2.5 or later, DCE and pthreads. Contact The Kernel Group, Inc. +1 512 433 3333, email , . ------------------------------ Subject: 5.07: PPP PPP does not come with AIX 3.2.x (only SLIP). PPP support was announced for AIX 4.1.4, see: David Crow caught the announcement of a non-IBM ppp package that claims to support AIX 4.x. More information is availible from or A comercial PPP for AIX is availible from Morningstar (sales@morningstar.com or marketing@morningstar.com) (800) 558 7827. ------------------------------ Subject: 5.08: Graphics adapters Abstract Technologies Inc. (Austin TX, 512-441-4040, info@abstract.com) has several high performance graphics adapters for the RS/6000. 1600x1200, 24-bit true-color, and low cost 1024x768 adapters are available. Retail prices are between US$1000-2000. ------------------------------ Subject: 5.09: Training Courses Email training@skilldyn.com with "help" in the body of the message for information about how to receive a list course descriptions for AIX* and/or UNIX* courses offered by Skill Dynamics. ------------------------------ Subject: 5.10: Hardware Vendors New & Used RS6000s, peripherals Core Systems Inc 1605 12th Ave Seattle WA 98122 Phone (800) 329-2449 Fax (206) 329-3799 Optimus Solutions 5825-A Peachtree Corners East Norcross GA 30092 Phone 770-447-1951 Fax 678-291-9201 email mark@optimussolutions.com ------------------------------ Subject: 5.11: Debugging aides From: Curt Finch SCTrace reports system calls (and more) made by an AIX process. SCTrace from SevOne Software . It is $199 and a demo is available from . ------------------------------ Subject: 6.00: Miscellaneous other stuff Information that defies catagories. ;-) ------------------------------ Subject: 6.01: Can I get support by e-mail? In general, no, and are no longer supported. IBM does maintain a fee based system, the AIX Support Family Services at 1-800-CALL-AIX (1-800-225-5249) option 8. In Canada: Gary Tomic mentioned that Canadian customers can get support from their BBS, cac.toronto.ibm.com at 142.77.253.16. In Germany: Thomas Braunbeck reported that German customers with ESS (extended software service) contracts can get support by e-mail too. They can obtain information by sending mail with Subject: help to aixcall@aixserv.mainz.ibm.de. Various flavors of service offerings are available. Contact your IBM rep for details. ------------------------------ Subject: 6.02: List of useful faxes You can get some informative faxes by dialing IBM's Faxserver at 1-800-IBM-4FAX. 1-415-855-4329 from outside the US. If you're calling for the first time, push 3 then 2 to request a list of RS/6000 related faxes. IBM's AIX Support WWW site, , contains many of the same documents. Select a country or region from the menu, then look for "Technical Tips from IBM" on the returned page. ------------------------------ Subject: 6.03: IBM's gopher, WWW, aftp presence. There is now a new section dedicated to AIX on IBM's main web server: The following are various other resources: (verified Aug 9 1996 by Frank Wortner) Thanks to Ronald S. Woan (FixDist ptfs) (rlogin fixes & more) (anonouncements & press releases) (software, hardware, service & support) General IBM information like product announcements and press releases are available through World Wide Web at . Specific information on the RISC System/6000 product line and AIX (highlights include marketing information, technology White Papers and the POWER 2 technology book online before it hits the presses, searchable APAR database and AIX support FAX tips online so you don't have to type in all those scripts) is available at ------------------------------ Subject: 6.04: Some RS232 hints From: graeme@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz, sactoh0.SAC.CA.US!jak Q: How do you connect a terminal to the RS232 tty ports when not using the standard IBM cable & terminal transposer? A: 1- Connect pins 2->3, 3->2, 7->7 on the DB25's 2- On the computer side, most of the time cross 6->20 (DSR, DTR). Some equipment may require connecting 6, 8, and 20 (DSR, DCD, DTR). Also, pin 1 (FG) should be a bare metal wire and the cable should be shielded with a connection all the way through. Most people don't run pin 1 because pins 1 & 7 (SG) are jumpered on many equipment. When booting from diskettes, the port speed is always 9600 baud. If you use SMIT to set a higher speed (38400 is nice) for normal use, remember to reset your terminal before booting. Q: How do you connect a printer to the RS232 tty ports A: 1- Connect pins 2->3, 3->2, 7->7 on the DB25's 2- On the computer side, loop pins 4->5 (CTS & RTS)