AIPS Managers Frequent Questions

The purpose of this page is to address some of the more common questions an AIPS installer is likely to have. It is not intended to be all-encompassing. However, suggestions for specific problems (especially if you've faced it more than once) are welcome (see email address at end of document).

Problems with binary installation via FTP

First off, it takes a LONG time to get the files (best case during testing was over our local ethernet and that still took the best part of an hour). Second, if ANY file is missing after the FTPGET script is done, INSTEP1 assumes you have a source-only installation and proceeds to give you instructions on starting INSTEP2. Don't! Instead, get the missing files manually via anonymous ftp, put them in the right places (make sure that binaries in $LOAD or $SYSLOCAL are executable, e.g. chmod +x AIPS.EXE) and just restart INSTEP1.

Notes on specific architectures

This section is still incomplete. It will be filled in as time permits. Some of the advice here is VERY dated; our apologies in advance.

• SunOS 4.1.x (Solaris 1.x)
• SunOS 5.x (Solaris 2.x)
• AIX 3.2.5
• OSF/1, aka Digital Unix
• Linux
• HP-UX
• SG-Irix
• No section yet for AXLINUX.

Other common questions

How do I configure a new AIPS host machine?

• move to your $AIPS_ROOT area, edit HOSTS.LIST and add the new host.
• Make sure you have already set up a template area $AIPS_VERSION/$ARCH/TEMPLATE/; if not create it and copy the contents of $DA00/ to it.
• From the Unix command line, type SYSETUP WOOHOO where you substitute the appropriate hostname for WOOHOO. You will need to have already called LOGIN.CSH or LOGIN.SH.
• If you have registered, type RUN SETPAR on the new host and set its system name (item 19).

AIPS works, tekserver works, but the TV doesn't come up

This is seen most often on Linux systems. Almost certainly your X Windows configuration is set to use a 16-bit display. The AIPS TV can only support 8 and 24 bit displays (32 and 24 should be equivalent). Type "xdpyinfo | more" and if you see this:

      
        default visual id:  0x20
        visual:
          visual id:    0x20
          class:    TrueColor
          depth:    16 planes
      

... then this is the problem. If it says 8 or 24, then the TV should work. If it says 16, then you should alter your X configuration to allow either 8 or 24 bit display. You should use the supplied tools, e.g. XConfigurator under Red Hat Linux, to do this; only edit the XF86Config file directly if you know exactly what you're doing!

How do I configure a new AIPS TV display?

If the system is a full-blown AIPS host, you don't need to if you have already set it up as outlined above. If it is going to be a system that only displays the AIPS TV (XAS) from another AIPS host, edit $AIPS_ROOT/HOSTS.LIST and make an entry for the system with an = sign in column 1.

How do I revise the configuration files for a new AIPS user disk?

Edit $NET0/DADEVS.LIST and $NET0/NETSP. If any host in your system has a host-specific DADEVS.LIST file (in $NET0/$HOST/), and you want the user disk (data area) to be accessible therefrom, edit that file too.

The AIPS distribution is HUGE! What files may I safely strip from the system (or at least gzip) after installation to conserve disk space?

Refer to the end of the AIPS Unix Installation Summary. Before doing anything, BACK UP THE SYSTEM! After that, here are some hints:

• find . -name \*\.FOR -exec rm {} \;
• find . -name \*\.C -exec rm {} \;
• rm -fr $AIPGVMS $QVMS $APLNVMS $QYPGVMS $UPDVLA $APGVMS $SYSLVAX $INCVMS $APLVMS $QPGVMS $UPDVMS $INSVMS $YPGVMS $SYSVMS
• rm -fr $DOCTXT $HIST $AIPSPUBL
• Remove $AIPS_VERSION/<other-arch>/ for architectures you don't support and won't. Also for any APL/DEV/UNIX/*/<arch> architectures you won't support.
• strip $LOAD/* (already done for binary installations)

My TV works, but the Tek and Message Servers Don't

First check that /etc/services has the right services in it (sssin, msgserv, tekserv). Then make sure you don't have a file or subdirectory in the current working directory that matches the current hostname. The AIPS routines incorrectly interpret the presence of any file (including directories) with the same hostname as the host as being a Unix domain socket. A Fix is being worked on for 15APR97. Workaround: rename the file or directory, or cd somewhere else before starting AIPS.

Shared memory id failure: Invalid Argument

If you see this when the system is trying to fire up the AIPS TV (XAS) on a Solaris system, then your X11 display does not support more than the default of 1 Megabyte maximum for shared memory segment. If your monitor displays 1280x1024 or larger, the sizes of the shared memory segments XAS wants will exceed a Megabyte. Solution: have your sysadmin edit /etc/system and put this line somewhere near the end:

set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax=8388608

While there, you may want to also add these if you have more than 64 Mbytes of real memory:

set ufs:ufs_HW=6291456
set ufs:ufs_LW=4194304
set priority_paging=1

Only add the last one if you are running Solaris 7 or later. These three settings will boost your overall AIPS performance.

How do I set up a remote tape?

The easiest way is to make the remote host an AIPS system. Then make sure that the TPMON daemons are running on it (you can start them on the host by starting an AIPS session there, or by running the START_TPSERVERS script). If and only if you cannot make it a full AIPS host, then try this:

1. Make sure the remote system has mounted the AIPS_ROOT area from your original system via NFS.
2. Make an entry in HOSTS.LIST for the remote system. BE CAREFUL! If the two systems are different endian flavours, you MUST put them in different "sites". Alpha and Intel systems are little endian; Sparc, SGI, IBM RS/6k, PowerPC and HP/Risc systems are all big endian. Little and big endian systems have different byte order and can't interchange AIPS system files.
3. Create a $AIPS_ROOT/DA00/$HOST area where $HOST expands to the uppercase host name for the machine with the tape drive. Populate it with the contents of the SOL area for big endian systems, and the ALPHA area for little endian systems. Or if you already have a TEMPLATE area set up ($AIPS_VERSION/$ARCH/TEMPLATE/) and populated, copy the files from it.
4. Create $AIPS_VERSION/$ARCH/LOAD where $ARCH is the architecture of the machine on which the tape drive sits, and put the appropriate version of TPMON.EXE there (you can get the binary from the main AIPS ftp site, gzipped). Make two hard links to it:

   cd $AIPS_VERSION/SOL/LOAD
ln TPMON.EXE TPMON1
ln TPMON.EXE TPMON2


   I *think* this is all that's needed. You then try it out by starting the daemons on the tape machine:

   	tapehost3% source /AIPS/LOGIN.CSH        (if you use csh/tcsh, or...)
   	wise3$ . /AIPS/LOGIN.SH		         (for bash, ksh, zsh, etc.)
        

   then regardless of shell:

           wise3% /AIPS/START_TPSERVERS -d
        

   You of course replace /AIPS with whatever your $AIPS_ROOT is in the above examples. The "-d" causes the script to be a lot more verbose (with debug messages) and is not required for normal use; the first time though you want to see these to make sure things are working.

Created at the suggestion of Joe Mazz at Caltech/IPAC. Thanks, Joe!