Ptolemy NT Bugs

DOS special filenames Files cannot be named com1, lpt1, or aux (to name a few); either as the root filename or as the extension part. If you do, you'll have trouble. Unix programs don't avoid these names which can make things interesting. Eg, the perl distribution has a file called aux.sh. The perl configuration tries to make sure that aux.sh is there, but an operation on a file with the magic letters 'aux' in it will hang.

bash-2.01$ cd /tmp
bash-2.01$ mkdir con
mkdir: cannot make directory `con': Permission denied
bash-2.01$ mkdir foo
bash-2.01$

Note: We noticed that when creating the group file, this procedure isn't always perfect. You should check to make sure that users are in the right groups.

i.e. If someone should have administrative rights and the administrator group or Domain Administrator group in the group file says the group number is "512", the user's second number after their name in the passwd file should be "512".

It is important that the account which you are currently using have administrative rights so that you can install software onto the disk. If not, you should change the group/passwd files so that you do have administrative rights or log out and then log back in using an account that does and is setup correctly in the group/passwd files.

Since this may be confusing, an example would seem necessary. As I perform the above steps on my computer, here is my /etc/group file:

Domain Admins::512:
Domain Guests::514:
Domain Users::513:
Levitan's VLSI::1036:
MailServer-group::1039:
SIGDA People::1004:
None::513:
Everyone::0:

My machine participates in a Windows NT Domain and all groups listed above are from the Domain Controller. Notice that the number after "Domain Admins" is "512". This is the number that identifies this group. If you are only using accounts from your local machine, you should look for the "Administrators" group and its identification number. Next look at my /etc/passwd file:

Administrator::500:513:::/bin/sh
eric::1002:513:Eric N. Reiss::/bin/sh
eric2::1014:513:Eric2::/bin/sh
Guest::501:514:::/bin/sh
IUSR_JAMAICA::1001:513:Internet Guest Account::/bin/sh
kathy::1007:513:Kathy Preas::/bin/sh
MailServer-user::1038:513:MailServer-user::/bin/sh
Mcdonald::1037:513:Eric McDonald::/bin/sh
mcgahey::1033:512:Bill McGahey::/bin/sh
plusquellic::1034:513:Jim Plusquellic::/bin/sh
rajon::1032:513:Rajon Gilmore::/bin/sh
sigda::1003:513:Sigda Personnel::/bin/sh
steve::1011:513:Steven Levitan::/bin/sh
web-server::1017:513:Netscape Web Server::/bin/sh
webadmin::1020:513:webadmin::/bin/sh
Administrator::500:513:::/bin/sh
Guest::501:513:::/bin/sh
Administrators::544:0:::
Backup Operators::551:0:::
Guests::546:0:::
Power Users::547:0:::
Replicator::552:0:::
Users::545:0:::

Now, even though I used both the -d and -l switches to get the accounts above, a problem has occured. All of the accounts listed at the top of the passwd file have "513" as the second number after their username except for the user with username "mcgahey", who has group id number "512". This is wrong since a number of the users above have "Domain Admins" privileges including me with the account "eric". So before I go any further, I am going to change the "513" on the line with the username "eric" so that it says "512". Since I am currently logged in as "eric", I shouldn't have any permission problems after the change.

If you are using just local accounts, then get the group id number for the group "administrator" out of the /etc/group file and make sure you have that number for the account you are using to install everything with. Note: If you are logged into your machine using a Domain account and you run mkpasswd and mkgroup with just -l, you may not get an "administrator" group. You should be logged into the machine directly to run with the -l switch.

making install in kernel
../../mk/compile.mk:95: *** missing separator.  Stop.

c:/tycho0.3.devel/mk/tycommon.mk:276: *** target pattern contains no `%'.

The problem here was that ROOT was set to c:/tycho0.3devel. The colon was being interpreted by make, so setting ROOT to /tycho0.3devel fixed the problem.

'\\carson\cxh\pt\obj.nt4\pigiRpc' is an invalid current directory
path.  UNC paths are not supported.  Defaulting to Windows directory.
The handle could not be duplicated during a pipe operation.

The fix is to run make --unix, or do

MAKE_MODE=unix
export MAKE_MODE

cd $PTOLEMY/src/tcltk
make CC="/cygnus/cygwin-b20/H-i586-cygwin32/bin/gcc -v"

../../../../src/octtools/Xpackages/iv/ivGetLine.c: In function `ivTextInit':
../../../../src/octtools/Xpackages/iv/ivGetLine.c:98: storage size of `tty'
isn't known
../../../../src/octtools/Xpackages/iv/ivGetLine.c:100: warning: implicit
declaration of function `ioctl'
../../../../src/octtools/Xpackages/iv/ivGetLine.c:100: `TIOCGETC' undeclared
(first use this function)
../../../../src/octtools/Xpackages/iv/ivGetLine.c:100: (Each undeclared
identifier is reported only once
../../../../src/octtools/Xpackages/iv/ivGetLine.c:100: for each function it
appears in.)

The iv package is used to change values of variables interactively. I believe that these errors can be ignored, iv is not used in vem or pigiRpc (Reported by Sascha Schwarz <s_schwa@informatik.uni-kl.de>).

../../../src/octtools/attache/io.c:39: curses.h: No such file or directory

Eric Pauer reported that there is a precompiled version of xv at: ftp://linc.cis.upenn.edu/pub/xv/xv-3.10.NTbin.tar.gz

../../src/tysh/SigHandle.cc: In function `int setHandlers(void (*)(int))':
../../src/tysh/SigHandle.cc:109: `SIGIOT' undeclared (first use this
function)

The quick and dirty thing to do would be to just ifdef out those lines.

I think we could use SIGABRT instead of SIGIOT. Under Solaris, and egcs-1.0.2, SIGIOT and SIGABRT are both defined as the number 6.

Below is a sample code fragment that is unlikely to break other ports.

    // Under Cygwin32, SIGIOT is not defined
#ifdef SIGIOT
    if (ptSignal(SIGIOT, sigHandler) != 0) {
        return 5;
    }
#else
    if (ptSignal(SIGABRT, sigHandler) != 0) {
        return 5;
    }
#endif

(Reported by Sascha Schwarz <s_schwa@informatik.uni-kl.de>).

"set retval [::tycho::HTMLDocSys::generateHTML $verbose $debug
$generateIndex $title  [lrange $args $switchCount end]]..."
can't read "retval": no such variable
    while executing
"if {$retval != ""} {
	puts "tydoc returned $retval\n$errorInfo"
	exit 3
    }"
    (procedure "tydoc" line 43)
    invoked from within
"tydoc -d testDefs.tcl"
    ("eval" body line 1)
    invoked from within
"eval tydoc $argv"
    (file "../../util/tydoc/bin/tydoc" line 72)
make[3]: *** [itcldocs] Error 1

    set retval ""
    if [catch {set retval [::tycho::HTMLDocSys::generateHTML $verbose $debug \
	    $generateIndex $title \
	    [lrange $args $switchCount end]]} err ] {
	puts "tydoc: $err\n$errorInfo"
	
    }
    if {$retval != ""} {
	puts "tydoc returned $retval\n$errorInfo"
	exit 3
    }
}

Error: Unable to load ptk startup file: : 
  can't find package tycho.kernel.basic: can't find
  package tycho.kernel.basic
    while executing
"package require tycho.kernel.basic"
    (file "C:\tycho0.3devel/kernel/Tycho.tcl" line 255)
    invoked from within
"source $path/kernel/Tycho.tcl"

unset TYCHO
pigi

RPC Error: can not fdopen for write in application
RPC Error: cannot connect to the server

1. Be sure that another X client starts up before starting pigi. The pigi script attempts to start xclock by hand if xrdb -query return no resources. Be sure that pigi successfully starts xclock, or start it by hand before running pigi
2. Add the following line to your .Xdefaults file:

   	Vem.label.fonts: 9x15
   	

   then do xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults

A Serious X Error has occurred:
   BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
   Request X_QueryColors (minor code 0)
Type 'y' to continue, 'n' to exit, 'a' to abort:
y
A Serious X Error has occurred:
   BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
   Request X_QueryColors (minor code 0)
Type 'y' to continue, 'n' to exit, 'a' to abort:
y

The file to change is src/kernel/Display.cc. The change to make is to change:

 	    if ((strm[i] = fopen(tmpFileNames[i], "w")) == NULL) {

 	    if ((strm[i] = fopen(tmpFileNames[i], "wb")) == NULL) {

Error: no interpreter to evaluate 'expr 1024/8'

// send a string to an external interpreter for evaluation
const char*
InvokeInterp :: interpreter(const char* expression) {
    Error::error("no interpreter to evaluate '", expression, "'.");
    return NULL;
}

Wolfgang Reimer created a patch that solves this problem, see: http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/pt0.7.1/ptolemy0.7.1/html/reimer0898/pt0.7.1p1.ptclInvokeInterp.patch.gz

To replicate the bug:

1. I have a .pl file, but no .cc or .h file
2. I hit '*'
3. The Make Star window comes up.
4. I fill in the Star name and Star src dir,
5. I hit ok.
6. I get a message:

      Loader: cd //d/users/cxh/c++/pt; ptlang SDFMyRamp.pl >&
      /tmp/pt2af3001
      Can't open error file
   

#ifdef PTNT
        /* /bin/sh needs to actually be /bin/bash */
	(void) execl("/bin/bash", "bash", "-c", s, 0);
#else
	(void) execl("/bin/csh", "csh", "-f", "-c", s, 0);
#endif

I then rebuilt the octtools libutility and pigi I then copied bash.exe from the Cygwin directory to /bin

The above change is in 0.7.2devel. Note that to get it to work, you need to copy bash.exe to /bin/bash/exe

util_csystem() is also used to compile the star by hand from within pigiLoader.cc or to run make if a makefile is present.

Sascha Schwarz <s_schwa@informatik.uni-kl.de> reported the following workaround for this problem

The clue is to create the .pl file, and then copy some schematic from somewhere in the same directory, and name it in the same way. E.g., DEFoo.pl would require schematics foo, contents don't seem to matter. Then you can compile your own pigiRPC as described in the Programmer's Guide, p.1-7. Then run this pigi-version, and you will be able to make the star using the '*' command, though you might have some error messages. But the second or third try usually works.

    Error: Error in creating shared object, command failed: g++ -shared -o
    /tmp/__ptlink1032_2.so /usr/cxh/src/pt/SDFMyRamp.o

The alternative to building a shared library version is to build a static version of pigiRpc, which is what is currently built under NT. The problem with a static pigiRpc is that incremental linking is tricky. We had it working under SunOS years ago with the BSD ld -a flag, but it looks like that is not supported

The binutils2-9.1/ld/TODO file says:

Support the "traditional" BSD  -A flag (incremental loading).
(There is a -A flag in ld now, but it is used to specify the
architecture.  That should probably be changed.)

One workaround would be to avoid incrementally linking your stars and instead build a pigiRpc that had the stars built in. The way to do this is to create a makefile for your stars, build a library and then modify $PTOLEMY/mk/stars.mk so that your stars are built in. The programmer's manual has some info about this, see also $PTOLEMY/src/pigiExample

Formerly, running the SDF butterfly demo within pigi takes roughly 60 seconds, but running it from within ptcl takes roughly 2 seconds.

The problem is that early releases of Cygwin32 did not have itimers, so pigi's event loop uses a much slower technique. config-nt4.mk defined PT_NO_TIMER, which is used in src/ProfileTimer.cc and src/SimControl.cc. However, Cygwin20 has itimers so we removed the -DPT_NO_TIMER from config-nt4.mk, and the butterfly demo is much faster.

Now, if we use itimers, then the problem is that the Tk demos hang. The workaround is to either edit config-nt4.mk and add the -DPT_NO_TIMER flag and recompile, or to do the following:

cd $PTOLEMY/obj.nt4/kernel
rm SimControl.o ProfileTimer.o
make USERFLAGS=-DPT_NO_TIMER install
cd ../pigiRpc
make install