7. Troubleshooting

This chapter is intended to provide solutions to frequently and infrequently encountered problems in enabling Linux on the JavaStations.

7.1. When booting, the message "The file just loaded does not appear to be executable." Why?

On systems that have the older OpenBoot version 2.3, and are not set up to use PROLL, you will get this message when attempting to boot up a kernel image that is not in AOUT format. Be sure to run elftoaout on your kernel image.

7.2. When booting, the message "no a.out magic" appears and halts the boot. Why?

On systems that are set up to use PROLL, you will see this message when attempting to boot up a kernel image that is not in AOUT format. Be sure to run elftoaout on your kernel image.

7.3. I tried booting a Krups but JavaOS comes up. I don't even have JavaOS!

This likely means you have a copy of JavaOS loaded on your flash SIMM. Remove the SIMM and the problem should go away.

7.4. Cannot Boot an "Embedded-Root" image > 10 MB on my JavaStation. Why?

There is a known limit of 8 MB when using the "Embedded-Root" boot image option.

The cause of this is the current version of the PROLL software, which map only 8 MB of low memory. Any more and banking support would need to be added to it.

This limit can be fixed if needed by someone, as the source to PROLL has been released under the General Public License GPL.

So in reality, the embedded image size limit is really 8 MB , not 10 MB. If 10 MB somehow works for you, it is by "luck"!

7.5. After Booting, Typing Anything Yields Garbage Characters. Why?

There are a few possibilities for this. Among them:

You have an incorrect device # for tty0.
A "keytable" loaded is incorrect. Make sure you use "sun" instead of "PC" if you use the keytable program. Look for the keytable configuration file if it exists.

7.6. In X Sessions to a Solaris server, the font server "xfs" crashes. Why?

If you do X sessions to a Solaris server, and you find that your sessions are no longer opening up new windows, chances are the font server on the Solaris host has crashed. This is a known bug in Solaris 2.6 and 2.7 when you have about 2 dozen X terminals sessions running.

The fix is to move the font server to a different architecture and point your JavaStations there, or to upgrade your Solaris to the 2.7 11/99 maintenance release or Solaris 8 which both have fixes to this problem.

7.7. Performing Indirect XDMCP to a Solaris Server Results in Session Login Failures. Why?

Congratulations! You must have one of patch numbers 107180-12 through 107180-19 installed on a Solaris 7 server. You need to upgrade to 107180-20 or above to fix this problem.

Here's a little rant:

I reported this problem to Sun in November 1999, at which time I was told a fix was not scheduled to be made, since I was using an "unsupported configuration.". Never mind the client was a piece of hardware made by Sun itself. Also never mind that indirect XDMCP queries is a standard itself which was broken by Sun. A call back in late January 2000, and I learn that the record of my previous call was non-existant, but a fix was now on its way. The fix finally was made available in April 2000, five months after first reporting the problem. Considering revisions to this patch during the broken XDMCP period dealt with fixing system security issues, we were forced to run the older insecure software for five months while waiting for a fix to a problem which should have been patched immediately.

The moral of the story: test your JavaStation configuration against an upgraded server that is not in production mode.

--Robert Dubinski, former Computer Systems Technician at Marquette University, (Quote: Mar. 2000) <rsd@dubinski-family.org>

7.8. TFTPd config doesn't work on SUSE. Why?

This was reported by a user after this document was first released.

In SUSE 6.3, using the tftpd from the 'a' package of the netkit rpm, you must be sure your tftpd line in /etc/inetd.conf has the -s flag. Otherwise you need to specify a full path.

Also, it is not necessary to run tftpd as root, so the suggested username and group for tftpd on SUSE 6.3 is 'nobody' and 'nogroup'