Summary ::: Re: Crashing............

From: Amitesh Mukherjee (mukher@airmics.gatech.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 03 1994 - 08:40:10 CST


The folloing is the posting and the as-usual-prompt response from the sun-managers........The overwhelming majority of the response was that I have a problem
with either Mouse or Keyboard or the Cables associated with them...And that was
really the source of the problem.....A couple of them suggested to install
recommended patches........
Thanks to all of you....
I am still receiving messages about this posting...........So, I apologize if
I have missed somebody...........

I posted on Nov.2, 1994:

Hi:

        On one of my Sparc-10/41 ( Sun 4.1.3.), every few minutes, the machine
seems to be halting with the following:

        Type 'go' to resume
        ok
At this point I lose all control to the windowing environment..When I type 'go', it starts again....It happens usually when there is keyboard or mouse activity....If the machine is left to itself, it works fine..

Any clue to the source of this problem will be helpful...
Thanx..

Amitesh Mukherjee
ARL-STB

*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************

Following are the summary of the responses :

>From ayee@Barra.COM Wed Nov 2 14:46:45 1994

This sounds like a problem with your keyboard. More specifically,
the connection between your keyboard cable and the keyboard itself.

Try changing the keyboard and/or the cable.

--Arnold

*******************************************************************************
>From kevin@uniq.com.au Wed Nov 2 16:02:56 1994

More clues as to your setup would be helpful. Is this 4.1.3, 4.1.3u1A,
or 4.1.3u1B?? What patches have been installed?

At any rate, I think you need to upgrade the OS to at least 4.1.3U1revB,
or consider going to 2.3...

                l & h,
                kev

*******************************************************************************
>From jaa@syseng.anu.edu.au Wed Nov 2 16:35:53 1994

A couple of times we've had bad (type 4) keyboards which would
apparently generate the <STOP>-A sequence by themselves. This would
happen when someone was logging in or out under X11R5 since at that
time the keyboard gets reset (all the lights flash on and off). It
could be that your keyboard has even worse problems and is frequently
generating <STOP>-A by itself while in use. Even simpler, are all the
keyboard leads firmly in place? If you have another machine, just try
swapping the keyboard and see if the problem goes away or follows the
keyboard.

--
James Ashton						  System Administrator
VK1XJA					     Department of Systems Engineering
Voice +61 6 249 0681   Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering
FAX   +61 6 249 2698				Australian National University
Email James.Ashton@anu.edu.au			   Canberra ACT 0200 Australia

*******************************************************************************

>From dean@rave.com Wed Nov 2 16:52:10 1994 To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu Subject: Re: Crashing............ Content-Length: 1019 X-Lines: 22

> On one of my Sparc-10/41 ( Sun 4.1.3.), every few minutes, the machine >seems to be halting with the following: > > Type 'go' to resume > ok >At this point I lose all control to the windowing environment..When I type >'go', it starts again....It happens usually when there is keyboard or mouse >activity....If the machine is left to itself, it works fine..

Check to make sure you don't have a loose keyboard or mouse cable.

############################################################################### # # # RAVE COMPUTER ASSOCIATION, INC. # # 36960 METRO COURT # # STERLING HEIGHTS, MI 48312 # # 800-966-7283 # # SUN AUTHORIZED REMANUFACTURED RESELLER # # USED SUN SYSTEMS # # SR. SUPPORT ENGINEER: DEAN MOORE dean@rave.com # ###############################################################################

********************************************************************************

>From lturetsk@aida.econ.yale.edu Wed Nov 2 16:53:06 1994 To: Amitesh Mukherjee <mukher@airmics.gatech.edu> Subject: Re: Crashing............ Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Length: 1153 X-Lines: 34

Check the physical connections on both the mouse and the keyboard. I've seen this happen lots of times when the plug is somewhat loose, and jiggling it sends the system a false L1-A signal.

LT

,-----------------------------------------------------. | Yale Economics Dep't | Lenny Turetsky | | System Administrator | lturetsk@econ.yale.edu | |-------------------------+---------------------------| | My employers paid for some of my time and energy. | | My opinions were never for sale. | `-----------------------------------------------------'

*******************************************************************************

>From glenn@uniq.com.au Wed Nov 2 16:59:22 1994 To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu Subject: Re: Crashing............ X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Content-Length: 1418 X-Lines: 38

Check for a bad or loose keyboard connection. Generally if you remove and then re-connect the keyboard this will generate a break signal (equivalent to L1-A). The newer type 5 keyboards are particularly prone to this I think because they don't have a cable anchor like the older type 4's.

regards, -- Glenn Satchell glenn@uniq.com.au | It doesn't matter what Uniq Professional Services Pty Ltd ACN 056 279 335 | temperature the room PO Box 70, Paddington, NSW 2021, (Sydney) Australia | is, it's always room Phone 02 380 6360 Pager 016 287 000 Fax 02 380 6416 | temperature. Steve Wright

********************************************************************************

>From mcirit@eng.adaptec.com Wed Nov 2 17:11:20 1994 To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu Subject: Re: Crashing............ Content-Length: 27 X-Lines: 2

Try a different keyboard.

******************************************************************************* >From vc@glass.geol.lsu.edu Wed Nov 2 17:48:14 1994 To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu (Amitesh Mukherjee) Subject: Re: Crashing............

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| _/ _/ _/ _/ Venkat Chalasani vc@glass.geol.lsu.edu _/ _/ _/ _/ Research Associate IV vc@kong.geol.lsu.edu _/ _/ _/ E233 Howe-Russell Complex (504) 388-3353 (dept) _/ _/ _/ Lousiana State University (504) 388-3138 (work) _/ _/ _/ _/ Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (504) 388-2302 (fax) _/_/ _/ _/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | There is nothing like waste of effort in this, nor is there any danger of | | retrogression by reason of short-comings in practice. Even a little of | | this dharma saves people from the great evil. -- Bhagavadgeeta. | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

>From rwing!pat@ole.cdac.com Wed Nov 2 17:51:18 1994

>From boenning@igd.fhg.de Wed Nov 2 18:20:32 1994

Hello Amitesh,

look for the plug of the keyboard. If the plug is unplugged and replugged again, a Sun machine is usually going to the "halt" state, which could be resumed with the "go" command. So check the connecting and try to fix the keyboard plug.

Hope it helps, Dirk.

--------------+---------------------------------------------------------- | | |_|_|_|_| Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics | |__|__|_|_|_|_| Department Animation & HD Image Communication | | | |_|_|_|_| | |__|__|_|_|_|_| Dirk Boenning email : boenning@igd.fhg.de | | __ | __| Wilhelminenstr. 7 phone : (+49) 6151-155-141 | | /_ |/_ /_ | D-64283 Darmstadt fax : (+49) 6151-155-199 | |/ / / /_/ | Germany | |-------------+---------------------------------------------------------| *******************************************************************************

>From ross@gcs.oz.au Wed Nov 2 20:21:23 1994

I don't know if this is the problem, but when you unplug and then plug in the keyboard, the Sparc 10 will drop to the ok prompt. Therefore, maybe your keyboard cable is not connecting properly or is loose.

Regards, Ross ******************************************************************************

>From lcollera@amgen.com Wed Nov 2 20:34:33 1994 To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu Subject: Re: Crashing............ Content-Length: 56 X-Lines: 2

Either the keyboard cable or the mouse cable is loose.

******************************************************************************

>From Armin.Weber@bk.sel.de Thu Nov 3 01:16:04 1994

Hello; at first test your keyboard or mouse itself. Exchange it with another machinne if possible. We have had the same behavior of a machine and the reason was a defect in the mouse cable. It was broken (but not completely) and so it produced wrong characters.

Greetings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ V | Armin Weber | Internet: +---------------+ | PS/ETD4 | Armin.Weber@bk.sel.de | A L C A T E L | | Motorstr. 55 | DECNet: +---------------+ | 70499 Stuttgart | 61.137::aw SEL | Germany | Phone: | | (49) 711 869 6037 | Development Computer | Fax: | Center | (49) 711 869 6049 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************************

>From yves@suntech.abcomp.be Thu Nov 3 02:07:36 1994

Hi Amitesh,

To solve your problem, you need to install all the mandatory patches for SunOS 4.1.3 or if you can, install the SunOS 4.1.3_U1 + the mandatory patches. The most important is the 101508-xx, this is a kernel jumbo patch for all the sun4m architectures

For SunOS 4.1.3, I give you below the mandatory patches :

100513-xx 100726-xx 100173-xx 100359-xx 100338-xx <-- system crashes with assertion failed panic 101071-xx 100305-xx 100557-xx 100623-xx 101408-xx <-- SS10-51 may hard hang or watchdog reset

I think your problem will be solved after the installation of these patches.

Best Regards,

Yves Hardy from AB Computers in Belgium. ******************************************************************************

>From mgaertne@igd.fhg.de Thu Nov 3 02:15:03 1994 Hello, this behaviour is most likely a hardware-problem. First suggestion: check the keyboard-cable and the mouse cable. If they're a little bit loose and you shake them, they halt the cpu in the matter you've seen. I experienced a lot of keyboards with loose connectors on suns (we have 122 of them :-) )

Hope that helps

Mathias Gaertner --

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Mathias Gaertner | Institut fuer Graphische Datenverarbeitung | | | Graphisches Rechenzentrum | | | Wilhelminenstrasse 7 Tel: 06151/155-316 | | mgaertne@igd.fhg.de | 64283 Darmstadt Fax: 06151/155-399 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ******************************************************************************

>From martin@gea.hsr.it Thu Nov 3 04:59:59 1994 To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu Subject: Re: Crashing............ Content-Length: 212 X-Lines: 5

Check the keyboard and mouse cables, if you unplug either of these while the system is running, the workstation will jump to the PROM monitor (Type 'go' to resume).

Try using another workstation's cable

Martin

******************************************************************************

>From bern@TI.Uni-Trier.DE Thu Nov 3 05:14:25 1994

Inspect Keyboard and Mouse Cabling, reseat Connectors, etc.. What you see is the usual Reaction of a SUN to getting a Keyboard plugged in (when there was none before, or it had been unplugged). The Hardware Version of pressing L1-A. Try swapping in another Keyboard if Cabling doesn't cure it.

Regards, J. Bern -- __/\___________________________________________________________________________ / \ Mail: bern@Uni-Trier.DE (7Bit); bern@TI.Uni-Trier.DE (OW Mails OK); /\ / J. \ My Homepage / \ \Bern/ Finger to this Site's broken, Lotsa other Things too, use Mail+WWW! \ / \ / P. O. Box 1203, 54202 Trier, Germany _____ Ham Call Sign: DD0KZ \/ __\/_________________________________________/ EOF \___________________________

******************************************************************************

>From sjl@compnews.co.uk Thu Nov 3 06:14:42 1994

When the keyboard is disconnected from the sparc and then reconnected, you'll see this behaviour (note, it happens when the cable is *reconnected*). As it happens when there is keyboard activity, I'd suggest either a faulty keyboard, or more likely, a faulty or improperly seated cable.

Hope this helps,

Steve.

Steve Lacey, IS Engineering Manager, PA Data Design, The Bishop's Manor, Howden, UK. Tel: +44 1430 432480 Fax: +44 1430 432450 Atk and mime welcome at sjl@compnews.co.uk `Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' ******************************************************************************

>From epl@Kodak.COM Thu Nov 3 09:20:40 1994 Reply-To: epl@Kodak.COM To: mukher@airmics.gatech.edu Subject: Re: Crashing............ X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Content-Length: 637 X-Lines: 13

If you remove...THEN REPLACE...a keyboard connection, the system will halt just like you said. My guess is that you have a keyboard (either end) cable that is loose, or some broken connection...try and different keyboard and/or cable. -- #### ###### Gene Loriot E-mail: epl@Kodak.COM ### ######## Eastman Kodak Company Voice: (716) 724-6962 ## ########## Customer Equipment Services Fax: (716) 724-9860 # ### KODAK ## 343 State Street ## ########## Mail Code: 00708 ### ######## Rochester, New York 14650-0708 #### ###### U. S. A. [On a clear DISK you can SEEK forever]

******************************************************************************



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:09:14 CDT