Subject: NetaTalk volume crashes our G4 - Please help!

From: Jean-Michel Mignot <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 11:51:05 +0200

Hi,

Up to now, I have received the various suggestions in reply to my 
original post:

>>Problem
>>+When users try to mount their personal volume on our NetaTalk 
>>server, the PowerMac G4 hangs and must be rebooted. The usernames 
>>and passwords can be entered, and the usual connection dialog is 
>>displayed, allowing one of four different volumes to be selected. 
>>One specific volume (corresponding to the user's home directory in 
>>Unix) causes the problem.
>>+This problem occurs with some user accounts, but not with others 
>>(especially "virgin" ones which were not previously used with 
>>NetaTalk or CAP 60)
>>+Other volumes on the *same* server can be mounted without problem.
>>+The offending volume itself, under the same user account, *can* be 
>>mounted on an older PowerBook G3 running System 8.0 Fr.
>>+This behaviour is fully reproducible and occurs on several G4 
>>machines (running essentially the same system software)
>>+The log file looks as follows: (information removed)

 From Dan Wilga:
--------------
>It looks like progress is halting on several of the system files. 
>You might check to be sure they are all of the correct permissions:
>
>chmod 755 "Network Trash Folder" "Temporary Items" 
>TheFindByContentFolder TheVolumeSettingsFolder
>
>Then, just to be sure their contents are correct:
>
>rm -r "Network Trash Folder/*" "Temporary Items/*" 
>TheFindByContentFolder/* TheVolumeSettingsFolder/*
>
>This second part will remove the Trash Can Usage Maps that seem to 
>be hanging things (effectively emptying everyone's trashcans.) The 
>mode 755 will prevent anyone but the folder's owner from writing to 
>these files, and that really is a good idea on a heavily-shared 
>server, in my opinion.

 From Lee Blevins:
---------------
>Is this the "plain" 1.4b2 or the +asun version? If it's the original 
>(plain) I'd sugest you try the latest +asun version.
>I am successfully using this with two g4s. One original g4 and one of
>the newer ones. We have no problems.
>The only problem with have is with Apple's "keychain access."
>I'm not sure who though this was a good idea at apple but I'm having a
>hard time understanding how it's helping anything.
>If anybody knows how to completely disable the keychain access I'd like
>to know. We've deleted the CP, zapped the pram and trashed every pref.
>We've called apple and listened to their confused responses. We've clean
>installed the os only to have the problems re-occur.

Dave Ritter then commented on the latter point:
>the keychain is linked to the version of Appleshare client that came with
>the G4s....you might be able to downgrade to an earlier version by replacing
>the AppleShare chooser extension with an older one
>
>this might make auto mounting stop working

 From thomas.riewe:
-----------------
>Well not a real solution but (if you did possible do the earlier mentioned
>downgrade to get rid of the keychain-"feature") if it's suitable for your
>environment i would recommend to build the necessary folders on the
>server-side
>..Network Trash Folder
>..Temporary Files
>..The Find By Content blah
>then clean them (except the .AppleDouble in it and possible the .parent)
>then CLOSE THEM (chmod ugo-w ...)
>
>-> in out environment i found that aworking way to get rid of
>trashcan-problems
>
>Well your users have to agree to really delete if they delete files on the
>server volumes
>Again: just a hint, NOT a solution,

Before trying to apply some of these suggestions and see whether they 
fix our problem, I would like to clarify the following points:

- What is the purpose of the +asun version? Is it supposed to do any 
good to the way the TrashCan is handled by the system or is it just a 
general recommendation. Are other known problems of the file server 
(we are not using the print facilities) removed by this version?

-How does the Keychain feature interfere with NetaTalk? I found it 
convenient in general to enter only one password to access various 
file servers that users want to have mounted all the time. It does 
the job quite well for our native Apple file sharing systems. What is 
the reason why Lee Belvins wanted to get rid of it.

-I am a little afraid about "cleaning" other users' folders in the 
way suggested above, since I am not very familiar with the way 
NetaTalk handles the resource forks of Macintosh files stored on the 
unix volume, and I do not want to mess up the data. In particular, I 
do not understand what Thomas Riewe means by "building" tha above 
mentionned folders, then "cleaning" them (they should be empty just 
after being created, right?).  Concerning the last remark: "Well your 
users have to agree to really delete if they delete files on the 
server volumes", does it just mean that they will get some message 
saying that the file cannot be kept in the trash and asking them to 
allow the file to be immediately delated (I remember we got this type 
of behaviour with CAP 60 some time ago)?

Thanks again for your suggestions

Jean-Michel Mignot

---

From: Andrew McNabb <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 06:32:40 -0500 (CDT)

> (we are not using the print facilities) removed by this version?

Development of 1.4b2 completely stopped several years ago.  Adrian
Sun began to maintain his own version, which continued development.
The asun version of Netatalk should be considered the official
version.  It has tons of bug fixes and added features (in particular,
AppleShare IP is great; it gives a tremendous speed boost).  I would
definitely recommend upgrading your server.

> unix volume, and I do not want to mess up the data. In particular, I 

Resource forks are named the same as the data forks (the normal files)
and are placed in a subdirectory in the current directory called
".AppleDouble".  If a file exists without a resource fork, it will 
usually have no icon, file/creator data, etc. (unless extensions mapping
kicks in).  Programs without resource forks never run.

Generally it's okay to have a resource fork without a matching file,
although it's wasteful of space and can cause problems if you create
a new file from the UNIX side with the same name; it will inherit the
resource fork that's been sitting around for a while.  It's a good idea
to periodically scan through the .AppleDouble directories and delete
lone resource forks (I've seen perl scripts that do this).

> after being created, right?).  Concerning the last remark: "Well your 

I think he's suggesting you clean them in case they already existed when
you tried to create them.

> of behaviour with CAP 60 some time ago)?

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                Andrew McNabb
             Argus Systems Group
          [email-masked]
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