[46553] in Hotline Meeting
56-114 ultra 5
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dr. Craig Allen Counterman)
Tue Feb 9 16:46:33 1999
To: hotline@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 16:46:31 EST
From: "Dr. Craig Allen Counterman" <ccount@MIT.EDU>
We're not sure if the video settings change is related, but certainly
the machine needs attention now, after the hard shutdown.
We told them:
////////////////
If you want to configure the Ultra 5 in 56-114 to use 24-bit depth,
log in as root and run:
m64config -depth 24 -res 1152x900x66
The machine should start running in 24-bit color starting from the
next X server restart, and this change should survive a reboot. The
longer-term plan (probably to be implemented during a spring term
patch release) is to add a pre-login option to allow users to specify
8 or 24 before logging in.
////////////////
but he seems to have set it to x76
Thanks,
Craig
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To: f_l@MIT.EDU
Cc: 11.520staff@MIT.EDU
Subject: Problems with new Ultra5
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 16:22:30 EST
From: "Thomas H. Grayson" <thg@MIT.EDU>
I am encountering some problems with the new Ultra 5 in 56-114.
I tweaked the video settings so that it's now in the 1152x900x76
24-bit graphics mode. This seems to work OK at first, apart from
seeing some garbage on the screen just before the Athena login
window appears. Then if I launch ArcView, close it, and logout,
the machine appears to crash. The screen goes completely blank
and the LED on the front starts blinking. The CPU will respond
neither to pressing and holding the power button for 5-10
seconds, nor pressing Stop-A on the keyboard and typing either
'boot' or 'power-off' at the hoped for but invisible PROM prompt.
To restart the machine, I have been forced to physically remove
its plug from the outlet, which requires crawling under the
instructor's console. When the system reboots, the disk is in
such sad shape that it goes into system maintenance mode and
demands that fsck be run manually. This fsck run reveals many
errors and requires input from the user. After a lengthy reboot
process, all seems well, but then it happens again. It's gotten
into this weird state three times today.
Sometimes I am able to logout and return to the Athena login
screen, but sometimes it won't. Once I saw something like
"Starting cleanup" in the console window before the machine died.
I'm logged into the machine right now. If it locks up again when
I logout, I'm going to leave it that way for you to see for
yourselves. I hope this problem can be resolved by Thursday's 2
PM lecture.
Thanks,
Tom Grayson
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