Re: Running ferret under Digital Unix 4.x

[hankin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Hankin)]

Hi Greg,

The PowerStorm 4D40T graphics hardware on your new DEC system is very likely at
the root of the problem.  We have a new version of Ferret (as yet not released)
that fixes this compatibility problem.

Please stay in touch and watch ferret_users for an announcement. The
24-bit-fixed version should be available soon.

	Happy Ferreting - steve

==========================================================================

On Aug 18,  6:56pm, Greg Williams wrote:
> Subject: Running ferret under Digital Unix 4.x
>
> Ferret users,
>
> It appears that these 'unaligned access' messages are a problem with
> running ferret under Digital Unix 4.x (and will actually affect anyone
> running a version of Digital Unix or OSF1 later than 3.2).
>
> As I understand it (from DEC), the problem is that ferret has been compiled
> under an older version of the OS (less than 3.2).  Under newer versions of
> Digital Unix, this causes problems because the code does not align itself
> properly in memory, and is (possibly in addition) not compiled for 64-bit
> operation.
>
> Running 'ferret -gui' under v4.0c produces screens of 'unaligned access'
> warnings.   You can turn these off with:
> 	uac p noprint
> before starting 'ferret -gui' and you'll get the ferret interface.
>
> However, as soon as you attempt to produce any graphics (either from within
> the GUI or from the text interface), you will get a segmentation fault and
> a core dump.  I guess those segment alignment problems catch up with you
> eventually... :->
>
> Anyhow - it seems that I'll have to wait for a version of ferret to be
> compiled for Digital Unix 4.x, or buy an older version of the OS as a
> temporary measure.  Another suggestion is to use some product called
> 'freeport', which apparently allows you to run Solaris binaries on a DEC -
> but I don't anticipate this being very fast.
>
> Can anyone from the ferret team offer a guess as to when a 4.x native
> version of ferret will be available?
>
> Thanks.
> Greg.
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 00:18:25 +1000
> >To: ferret_users@ferret.wrc.noaa.gov
> >From: Greg Williams <greg@wni.co.jp>
> >Subject: Running ferret on a DEC Alpha
> >
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >We've been running ferret under Solaris/openwin for quite a while now, but
> have recently moved to a DEC Alpha running Digital Unix 4.0b (OSF/1) and
> Open3D.
> >
> >However, after installing ferret (v4.45) on this machine, any attempts to
> perform graphical operations result in a segmentation fault and core dump,
> and running 'ferret -gui' produces a huge number of errors, like this:
> >
> >Unaligned access pid=[some pid#] <ferret> va=[some number] pc=[some
> number] ra=[some number] inst=[some number]
> >
> >...with the value of 'va' increasing, while the other numbers stay the same.
> >
> >I'm not that familiar with DEC unix, but the above seems to be a memory
> access problem (?!).  The results are the same whether I'm running under
> the standard 'xdm' or the CDE window manager, so unless it's a common X11
> library problem, I don't think it's X11 itself.   I have also applied the
> patch (20jan97) but to no avail.
> >
> >Has anyone seen this problem before (or have a fix for it)?
> >
> >Thanks.
> >Greg.
> >
> >
> ===========================================================================
> Greg Williams - WNI Weathernews - 4/25 Prospect Street, Box Hill, VIC, 3128
> EMAIL: greg@wni.co.jp       TEL: (613) 9899 3140       FAX: (613) 9899 3141
>
>-- End of excerpt from Greg Williams


On Aug 19, 10:52am, Greg Williams wrote:
> Subject: Re: Running ferret on a DEC Alpha
>
> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Our system is a DEC Alpha PowerStation 433au, and it returns the following
> from 'uname -a':
>
> 	OSF1 paranoid V4.0 564.32 alpha
>
> And yes - we have an overpowered graphics card:  PowerStorm 4D40T.
> It's new, and came standard with our package but was a real pain to
> configure, and required Open3D drivers to get it working.  Seems to be ok
> now though - we are running Open3D v4.40.
>
> Hmm... I was originally running 4.45 (I think - the latest from
> ferret.wrc.noaa.gov anyhow), then I tried patching it (20jan97), and then
> going back to v4.41 (which worked fine on an older machine).  None of these
> things seemed to work...
>
> I don't mind being on the bleeding edge, and I'll be willing to try
> anything that'll get our machine up and running. :->
>
> Greg.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Hi Greg,
> >
> >A few questions to help get to the bottom of this:
> >
> >1) We routinely run Ferret V4.45 on DEC Unix V4
> >
> >	> uname -a
> >	OSF1 rogue V4.0 386 alpha
> >
> >so we need to identify what is different about your system or Ferret
version.
> >
> >2) Might your system be equipped with 24 bit graphics hardware? (We have a
> fix
> >for this problem, but it will require a more recent Ferret version.)
> >
> >	- steve
> >
> >
> >On Aug 14, 12:18am, Greg Williams wrote:
> >> Subject: Running ferret on a DEC Alpha
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> We've been running ferret under Solaris/openwin for quite a while now, but
> >> have recently moved to a DEC Alpha running Digital Unix 4.0b (OSF/1) and
> >> Open3D.
> >>
> >> However, after installing ferret (v4.45) on this machine, any attempts to
> >> perform graphical operations result in a segmentation fault and core dump,
> >> and running 'ferret -gui' produces a huge number of errors, like this:
> >>
> >> Unaligned access pid=[some pid#] <ferret> va=[some number] pc=[some
number]
> >> ra=[some number] inst=[some number]
> >>
> >> ...with the value of 'va' increasing, while the other numbers stay the
> same.
> >>
> >> I'm not that familiar with DEC unix, but the above seems to be a memory
> >> access problem (?!).  The results are the same whether I'm running under
> >> the standard 'xdm' or the CDE window manager, so unless it's a common X11
> >> library problem, I don't think it's X11 itself.   I have also applied the
> >> patch (20jan97) but to no avail.
> >>
> >> Has anyone seen this problem before (or have a fix for it)?
> >>
> >> Thanks.
> >> Greg.
> >>
> >>
> >>
===========================================================================
> >> Greg Williams - WNI Weathernews - 4/25 Prospect Street, Box Hill, VIC,
3128
> >> EMAIL: greg@wni.co.jp       TEL: (613) 9899 3140       FAX: (613) 9899
3141
> >>
> >>-- End of excerpt from Greg Williams
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> ===========================================================================
> Greg Williams - WNI Weathernews - 4/25 Prospect Street, Box Hill, VIC, 3128
> EMAIL: greg@wni.co.jp       TEL: (613) 9899 3140       FAX: (613) 9899 3141
>
>-- End of excerpt from Greg Williams




-- 

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