MEMORANDUM

TO:     J. Matsui / M. Zaitsu ICS,
        Chiyoda Yokohama

FROM:   Keith Corbett
        Customer Service Software Manager
        LISP Machine, Inc.

DATE:   April 28, 1987

SUBJ:   Response to your Lambda software questions -
        Reference FAX #SF1-LMI-F002/87

-- QUESTION #8, LISP / Unix Dired Error

Thank you for the site files I requested, through Ron Genest, to try and
resolve your problem accessing Unix files from LISP (Dired causes "no
file access path to UNIX-A available" error).  The problem as you
described it is not one that normally occurs; but I will attempt to
suggest some steps you can take, and raise some further questions that I
have.

1. Can the problem with Dired be reproduced immediately after a
cold-boot? ...Immediately after cold-booting?  ...Or only after other
file transactions have been attempted?

2. Does LISTF fail the same way? ...Differently?  For example, try

        (listf "unix-a://usr//")

3. Does the problem occur using the default site information loaded in
the band?  In other words, was the problem introduced when you
re-compiled the site files and re-loaded them? You could try
cold-booting on the on the "vanilla" (original LMI distribution) band to
see if the problem occurs.  If not, some kind of error in the process of
re-compiling / re-loading the site files caused the problem.

It might be worth trying to re-compile and re-load site files anyway.
Do the following from LAMA:

        (si:set-sys-host "lm" nil nil "release-3.customer-site;")
        (make-system :recompile
          :noload :noconfirm :no-reload-system-declaration)
        (update-site-configuration-info)

And then retry LISTF and DIRED.

4. Have you done the Chaos boot-strap installation procedure in Unix?
(Are you in fact running System 5, or Version 7?)  This is not likely to
be a source of the problem, but I have never worked on a system on which
the boot-strap was not performed, so I don't know what is possible here.

The installation procedures are documented in the Lambda Operations
Manual; for Version 7 Unix, read the 2.0 version of the manual; for
System 5, read the 3.0 version of the manual.

To do the Chaos boot-strap for System 5 you need to reboot Unix in
single-user mode (from Newboot on the Unix console execute 'boot -is'.
Then execute

  # /etc/chboot 3430 3530 unix-a

5. You can manipulate the host object for UNIX-A directly to confirm and
possibly "patch" the problem. From LISP, cold-boot and do

        (describe(si:parse-host "UNIX-A"))

You should see something like:

#<FS::UNIX-HOST "LMI-UNIX-A">, an object of flavor FS::UNIX-HOST,
 has instance variable values:
        FS::ACCESS:         NIL
        FS::APPROPRIATE-ACCESS-FLAVORS:  NIL
        FS::PATHNAME-HASH-TABLE:  NIL
        FS:SAMPLE-PATHNAME:  NIL
        SI::ALIST-ELEM:     ("LMI-UNIX-A" #<FS::UNIX-HOST "LMI-UNIX-A">
          ("UNIX-A" "LMI-UNIX-A") :UNIX :NU :CUSTOMER :CHAOS (3530))
        SI::PROTOCOLS:      NIL
        SI:PROPERTY-LIST:   NIL

#<FS::UNIX-HOST "LMI-UNIX-A">

Then try 

        (send (si:parse-host "UNIX-A") :determine-access)

...which should return something like

  #<FS::QFILE-ACCESS Chaos FILE access to UNIX-A 32742327>

Now retry the LISTF and DIRED.  If this succeeds, you can disk-save and
the host object should be fixed.  But this is only a "patch" in the
sense that whatever caused the problem (still a mystery!) could recur in
the future.


-- QUESTION #13, Problems with HP Laser Printer

I cannot read the full text describing your problem with an HP printer.
Are you getting no screen dump at all (from <Terminal>-Q), or are you
getting a partial screen with extra pages?

If you are getting no screen dump at all, or very garbled print-outs,
you could have a cabling problem.  Confirm that you have the following
pin connections on the serial printer cable from port B to the printer:

LAMBDA          HP 
PORT B          PRINTER
------          -------

  1     <----->  1
  2     <----->  2
  3     <----->  3
  4     <----->  20
  7     <----->  7

Your site files are correctly set up to use the LASER1 driver.  That
driver, as delivered, works with the limited amount of memory HP
provides with the Laser1 printer (about 57K).  The 395K that come with
the Laser1-Plus allow a full screen dump.  There are two ways to make
use of the full memory (and get a full screen dump):

1. Install the LASER1+ driver, available from LMI.  Please contact David
Lee for ordering and price information.  If you install the LASER1+
driver you would have to change the references in your site files from
LASER1 to LASER1+, then re-compile and re-load the site files.

2. Continue to use the LASER1 driver, but increase the variable that
LISP uses to determine the memory it can access, as follows:

        (setq *laser1-graphics-byte-storage-limit* 390000)

This should be disk-saved or done at cold-boot time.


Please let me know, through Ron, what happens with the above
suggestions.


KMC