Re: KGMD / C News problem

[Juergen Lock <nox@jelal.hb.north.de>]

Brad Beck writes:
> I hope this is the right place to ask this, if not please accept my apologies.
> 
> I have installed Taylor Uucp and C News with my KGMD setup. Everything runs 
> fine (I can send and receive all my mail and news no problem) until I run 
> doexpire. When I receive my next batch news and C News tries to unbatch it 
> I get a lot of errors like this:
> 
> 	pid 120 (rnews): fifo not on list???

Hmm.  2 ideas, a broken kernel (-> try latest FreeMiNT), or could also
be the result of permission problems i.e. parts of the news system running
as news and parts as root, etc.

 oh and check the usual things like enough free RAM, _stksize big enough,
diskspace...
> 
> When I get about 5 or 6 of these errors the system will lock up on me with 
> the error saying:  FATAL ERROR. You must reboot the system.

 oops, sounds like a bug.
> 
> When I look in the C News errlog file the lines read like this:
> 
> database files for `/usr/lib/news/history' incomprehensible or unavailable
> (domain error)
> 
> Does anyone know whats wrong? Is there a bug in the doexpire script? Is there 
> another program or script I should run after doexpire?

 make sure its running as news, not as root or something. (or at least
then with appropriate umask :)  other than that i don't remember
anything special...
> 
> Another minor problem I have is with the modem ports. Uucp will only work on
> the modem 2 port of my Mega STE.

 really?  i have used uucp on modem1, its just that modem1 can only do
19200 and the chips rx `buffer' is only one byte.

>  PPP will work with both ports but if I 
> download any binary files on modem 2 they aways get corrupted. They download
> fine on modem 1. I am using hsmodem6 on both ports. Anyone have any ideas on 
> this. I getting tired of switching my modem cable from port to port.
> 
 sounds like that dreaded `MSTe SCC hardware bug' i.e. SCC access
corrupting DMA'd data. :(  in that case, (you should also see rnews
complain about broken batches then?) replace your SCC chip (8530) with a
zilog 85c230, i hope its sitting in a socket...

 oh and you may also have to replace a PAL, i don't remember if _that_
problem only affected serial2 or modem2 also...

 ATB
	Juergen