Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

3161.0. "DECwindows behaves strange" by DECWET::SIEBOLD (Is it Madonna or Maradona ?) Wed Aug 01 1990 21:15

Well, today I for the first edited a DECW$SM_GENERAL.DAT file instead of
using the session manager. The following is a 'log' of events. It took
me about 3 hours to get my station back in a condition so it was workable
again.


1) I removed an application fro the list of applications to be autostarted.
	But I did not change the numeral for the number of applications
	to be autostarted. I only changed the name of the application.
	I reduced the number from 4 to 3.
	All applications were started up fine with one exception. The
	DECTerm I am autostarting did not come up. There was a message
	'NO MESSAGE 02DBA002' appearing on the VR screen. Also the audit
	server told me that there was a login failure with status 02DB821
	and 'no logical name match'.
	The session manager also told me in a window 'Error creating
	application/ The command is not defined for this application'.

	After correcting the number of applications they came up fine.

2) BUT when editing the file above and writing a new version out, the line
	that contains the host and user list (which are quite a bunch),
	got wrapped around and a <CR> inserted (somehow?).
	When my session was up and I went to the customize menu and tried to
	work on the security customization it showed that 'DECNET 0' was in
	the database, but nothing. Trying to add/apply etc other hosts
	resulted in my session to be logged out. Here are some of the logfiles
	I got:

a)Session Error: %NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 02DB820A

X Toolkit Error: Cannot perform malloc

b)Session Error: %SYSTEM-F-ROPRAND, reserved operand fault at PC=0002FD23, PSL=03C00004

c)Session Error: %SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, reason mask=01, virtual address=22EFA001, PC=000A687E, PSL=0BC00000


	After lots of tries, I finally removed the whole line with hosts and
	added them new and it worked again.


Unfortunately I am not able to really reconstruct what I did in what order.
I hope the information above helps. If you have questions please let me know
and I'll try to help further.

I am running VMS V5.3 on uVAX2 with 13MB.

Thomas

>      <<< Note 3161.0 by DECWET::SIEBOLD "Is it Madonna or Maradona ?" >>>
>Well, today I for the first edited a DECW$SM_GENERAL.DAT file instead of
>using the session manager.
    
    Looks like the problem to me ...

I agree with .1.  To fix it, delete the file; then go back into the session mgr
and use the customizations to get what you want.

Burns

I agree with you. But the point I tried to make is that I am not sure
whether should behave as it did, juts because that file contained a
record with a <CR> in it, or because names of applications and their
number did not match!

Thomas

I see.  Yet it is a similar point.  If you use patch on SYS.EXE and when you
reboot, the system crashes, does that mean there is a bug?

I agree that the previous example is a bit overstated.  One tends
to expect text files to be editable.  The reason that we
don't support editing resource files is just what you discovered.  The code
which deals with them is not all that robust.  In addition, applications tend
to assume that the person who changes them knows what is going on; they don't
do consistency checks.  This is a design decision made mostly by the X
community.  In order to preserve sanity, we said we don't support such changes.

Make sense?

Burns