Handbook:Basic Server Configuration:System-specific Guidance

Editor's note - this section is presently rather stale, and could benefit from contributions by people running more recent revisions of these operating systems. Please help us make this section more relevant!

This section contains some setup-related issues that are dependent on the operating system installed on the target machine. The information included here is by no means exhaustive; it reflects feedback from users accumulated over multiple HylaFAX versions and/or operating system releases.

IRIX
On Silicon Graphics Indigo and Indy machines you cannot use a Macintosh modem cable to connect your modem to the DIN-8 connector on the back of your host. A Macintosh cable uses a special wiring pattern to pass the RTS and CTS signals between the host and modem. This wiring is not compatible with the wiring used on SGI machines. While it may appear that the the modem and cable work, hardware flow control will not function properly and data will eventually be lost. Consult the serial(7) manual page for an explanation of how to wire up modem cables.

The tty device that is used must reflect whether hardware or software flow control is to be used. Under IRIX, modem devices (i.e. those that monitor DCD) come in two flavors: ttyf* devices support RTS/CTS flow control while ttym* devices support XON/XOFF flow control. If you want to use hardware flow control to communicate with your modem you should use a ttyf* device, otherwise use a ttym* device. If you fail to use the correct device you may still get the correct flow control (because later versions of IRIX actually permit flow control to be switched irrespective of the device used), but you are likely to collide with other modem users such as cu, uucp, ppp, and slip that still use the old-style device names (so UUCP lock files may be created for a different name than the one HylaFAX is using).

USR modems work under IRIX 5.x only when patch 475 or a successor is installed and ClocalAsRoot is set to Yes in the modem configuration file.

Versions of IRIX prior to 6.2 have a bug in the device driver for the on-board serial ports on several systems that causes RTS/CTS flow control to be turned off as a side effect of setting the CLOCAL flag on the associated tty device. Patch 475 (RTS/CTS flow control busted when CLOCAL is set) and its successors correct this problem and must be installed to use HylaFAX with RTS/CTS flow control (install the appropriate successor to patch 475). Also, when this patch is installed the ClocalAsRoot modem configuration parameter must be set to Yes for proper operation (see hylafax-config(4F) for a detailed explanation of what this parameter does). If you do not have the appropriate patch installed on your system then you will either see flow control-related problems when transmitting facsimile or possibly some other problems related to modems dropping DCD when carrier is lost.

''The DPS-based PostScript imager program distributed with HylaFAX is available only in COFF format. Because IRIX 6.2 does not support COFF executables this program cannot be used with HylaFAX. A Ghostscript-based RIP should be used under IRIX 6.2.''

The font metric files required by client applications are contained in the dps_eoe.sw.dpsfonts image that is part of the standard IRIX distribution.

SCO
The standard SCO serial I/O driver (SIO) does nothing with modem control lines if CLOCAL</tt> is set on the tty device. The usual workaround is to use the FAS driver instead.

Solaris
Versions of Solaris prior to 2.5 require a patch to correct the handling of RTS/CTS flow control with serial ports built around the Zilog ZS8530 chip.

Some versions of Solaris (2.3 is known to do this) silently truncate or discard syslog messages longer than about 120 characters. Use the /dev/cua/* devices and not the /dev/term/* devices.

When using ttymon to service inbound data calls set the GettyArgs</tt> parameter to something like the following:

GettyArgs: "-g -h -d /dev/cua/a -l 38400 -m ldterm,ttcompat"

''Be certain you are not running a ttymon with sac when using HylaFAX. Disable all ports that are to be used by HylaFAX with admintool or pmadm(1m).''

SunOS
Versions of SunOS prior to 4.1.4 require a patch to correct the handling of RTS/CTS flow control with serial ports built around the Zilog ZS8530 chip. These patches are available at:


 * ftp://sunsolve1.sun.com/pub/patches/100513-05.tar.Z for SunOS 4.1.[123], and
 * ftp://sunsolve1.sun.com/pub/patches/101621-04.tar.Z for SunOS 4.1.3_U1.

(choose the one appropriate to the system you are running).

SVR4
The following GettyArgs: configuration parameter is suitable for many SVR4-based systems:

GettyArgs:  "-g -h -t 60 -l ff_%s"

Be sure entries for different baud rates are defined in the /etc/ttydefs file.

Ultrix
Thanks to Albert DeKnuydt for the following advice:

As Ultrix has a brain-damaged shell, the command /bin/sh ./configure</tt> does not work properly. You should use instead /bin/sh5 < configure</tt>.

The archaic syslog facility should be upgraded from ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/jtkohl-syslog-complete.tar.Z.

Ultrix lacks some functions in the c library, and needs to linked to libiberty.a as well. After configuration, change the line in the defs file from MACHDEPLIBS = -lm -lmalloc to MACHDEPLIBS = -lm -lmalloc -liberty Libiberty is available with the gcc compiler.

Ultrix header files violate ANSI rules so you have to tell gcc 2.95 (and later) to allow this with the added line in the defs file :

LC++OPTS = -fpermissive

Interrupt handling is out of date, and cannot claim to be compatible with SV_INTERRUPT</tt>. Add the following line to port.h after configuration :


 * 1) undef SV_INTERRUPT

Most (all?) DEC mips machines do not completely support serial port speeds above 19200.