Frequently Asked Questions about AIX

• Prologue
  
• Introduction
  
• Table of Contents
  

  Prologue

  Frequently Asked Questions about AIX and the IBM RS/6000

  
  This posting contains frequently asked questions and answers about the
  IBM RS/6000 series workstations and AIX versions 3 and 4. All input is
  very welcome, I can be reached at <mailto:jum@anubis.han.de>.
  
  The list is split into five articles to pass thru most mailers. I'll
  usually try to post them once a month to comp.unix.aix, news.answers,
  and comp.answers. Please let your input continue as I am most thankful
  for all of it.
  
  This FAQ is available from (see section 6.08 for more sites):
  
  <http://www.emerson.emory.edu/services/aix-faq/>
  <http://www.faqs.org/faqs/aix-faq/>
  <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/aix-faq/part1>
  <ftp://mirrors.aol.com:/pub/rtfm/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/unix/aix>
  
  The Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the FAQ is available at:
  
  <http://www.han.de/~jum/aix/aixfaq.pdf>
  
  Thanks to Jonathan S. Stibal for converting it to PDF.
  
  Please make a note of the fact that these sites contain more than just
  the AIX FAQ and would probably be worth consulting before you post
  questions to any of the usenet groups.
  
  If you see a From: line it means that whatever follows is either an
  unabridged or slightly edited version of the input I have received, and
  that I may not have verified its contents. If there is no From: line, I
  probably know what I am talking about, and the entry is edited from
  various sources.
  
  All entries are numbered with major and minor subject number, e.g.   2.11. 
  If the subject is preceded by an asterisk, that entry has been
  changed or added since the last posting.
  
  The comp.unix.aix group is for AIX on all platforms -- RT, PS/2, 370, 
  RS/6000, Bull, Apple, Motorola, etc., and mainframes
  (ESA based on OSF/1), but the traffic has
  evolved to discuss predominantly AIX 3.x, 4.x, and the RS/6000. The
  newsgroups comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt and comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware cover the
  RT, mostly hardware and AOS 4.3, and on PS/2 hardware respectively. 
  Mark Whetzel posts FAQ lists about RTs in the rt and *.answers groups.
  There are few to non-existent discussions on AIX/370 and AIX/ESA.
  
  If you post questions to comp.unix.aix, please be sure to indicate:
  
  - the machine type and brief configuration, e.g. Model 540, 64 MB RAM,
    48 MB swap space (this is actually bad), 1.2 GB XYZ hard drive, etc.
    Note: There are now three classes of RS/6000s - the original, RS or
    POWER, RS/2 or POWER2, and PowerPC.
  
  - the exact AIX version number, i.e. AIX 3.1 is NOT sufficient, whereas
    AIX 3.1.5 or AIX 3.1 with the 3005 update is. With 3.2 you should
    mention any significant ptfs using the U4xxxxx numbers.  With 4.x,
    please mention any significant APAR numbers.
  
  I am doing this on my own time. PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME QUESTIONS THAT
  THAT SHOULD BE ASKED OF IBM. If you suspect you have software defect problems
  call (800) 237-5511. If you have hardware problems call (800) IBM-SERV.
  If you are outside the United States, contact your local IBM representative.
  
  PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD BE POSTED TO comp.unix.aix.
  I don't have the time to diagnose individual AIX problems,  and I
  probably don't know the answer either.  ;-)  Many experienced and
  knowlegable people read the newsgroup.  Post your question there.
  
  ------------------------------
  
  

  Table of contents:

  
  
  • 1.0 General concepts
    • 1.000 The AIX operating system - what is it?
      
    • 1.001 I know neither Unix nor AIX - where do I find more information?
      
    • 1.002 What is the Object Database?
      
    • 1.003 How do I get rid of the verbose error messages?
      
    • 1.004 Which release of AIX do I have?
      
    • 1.005 What hardware do I have? What is availible? WITS?
      
    • 1.006 Is IBM "dropping" AIX? AIX 3 discontinued.
      
  • 1.1 SMIT, system administration
    • 1.100 I am used to Unix systems programming, why should I learn SMIT?
      
    • 1.101 How do I turn off the "running man" in smit?
      
    • 1.102 How do I import an /etc/passwd or /etc/group file from another box?
      
    • 1.103 Cleaning up utmp, who, and accounting problems
      
    • 1.104 How to fsck the root filesystem
      
    • 1.105 How can I unmount /usr to run fsck on it?
      
    • 1.108 How do I see/change parameters like number of processes per user?
      
    • 1.109 How do I shrink the default paging space on hd6?
      
    • 1.110 The swapper seems to use enormous amounts of paging space, why?
      
    • 1.111 How much paging space do I need?
      
    • 1.112 How do I mount a floppy disk as a filesystem?
      
    • 1.113 How do I remove a committed lpp?
      
    • 1.114 How can I recover space after installing updates?
      
    • 1.115 Where are the AIX log files kept?
      
    • 1.116 How can I log information about ftp accesses to a file?
      
    • 1.117 How do I find a file name from the inode number?
      
    • 1.118 How do I set up postscript accounting?
      
    • 1.119 How do I create boot diskettes?
      
    • 1.120 Where can I find tools for performance monitoring?
      
    • 1.121 How can I tell what virtual printer a print queue is using?
      
    • 1.122 Two srcmstr's are less useful than one?
      
    • 1.123 How do I set the tty name associated with a physical port?
      
    • 1.124 How do I use mksysb to clone a system?
      
    • 1.125 How do I retain timestamps with mksysb?
      
    • 1.126 How can I find out the machine type?
      
    • 1.127 Updating to 3.2.5
      
    • 1.128 AIX fix strategy
      
    • 1.129 Are passwords limited to 8 char?
      
    • 1.130 How do I increase the number of ptys > 64?
      
    • 1.131 Where can I find patches for CERT Advisories?
      
    • 1.132 How do I remove a non-existant physical volume?
      
    • 1.133 How do I kill a process that ignores kill -QUIT -KILL -STOP?
      
    • 1.134 How can I see "console" messages?
      
    • 1.135 Where can I find TOP for AIX?
      
    • 1.136 How can I restrict root logins to specific terminals?
      
    • 1.137 How do I merge my /etc/password and /etc/security/password for Crack
      
    • 1.138 I lost the root password, what should I do?
      
    • 1.139 How can I resolve DEV_WAIT status for a local print queue?
      
    • 1.140 SMIT problems forcing/overwriting install?
      
    • 1.141 Which distribution tape do I have?
      
    • 1.142 How can I get PTF (fixes) via ftp? What is fixdist?
      
    • 1.143 Is there an easy way to determine if AIX has a PTF applied or not?
      
    • 1.144 How do I recreate a deleted /dev/null?
      
    • 1.145 What is a checkstop error?
      
    • 1.146 How do I recover deleted files?
      
    • 1.147 What questions are on the AIX Certified User/SystemAminstrator/etc., exam?
      
    • 1.148 How can I run a command or commands automatically at system shutdown?
      
    • 1.149 How to install LPPs on a shared disk?
      
    • 1.150 How can I reduce the size of /var/adm/wtmp ?
      
    • 1.151 How do I start local daemons at system startup?
      
    • 1.152 How do I set the TZ variable to automatically change to daylight savings time?
      
    • 1.153 Why does init not reap its zombie child processes?
      
  • 1.2 Backups, tape
    • 1.200 Some info about tape backups
      
    • 1.201 How do I do remote backup?
      
    • 1.202 How do I backup a multi-disk volume group?
      
    • 1.203 How do I put multiple backups on a single 8mm tape?
      
    • 1.204 How can I make an exact duplicate of a tape over the network?
      
    • 1.205 What is tape block size of 0?
      
    • 1.206 Resetting a hung tape drive...
      
    • 1.207 How do I restore specific files from a mksysb tape?
      
    • 1.208 How do I read a 5Gbyte tape on a 2Gbyte drive?
      
    • 1.209 What can Sysback do for me?
      
    • 1.210 How can I get my HP 4mm DAT to work?
      
    • 1.211 How do I copy DAT tapes?
      
    • 1.212 How do I speed up backups to DLT tapes?
      
  • 1.3 Memory and process management
    • 1.300 Some info about the memory management system
      
    • 1.301 How much should I trust the ps memory reports?
      
    • 1.302 Which simms do RS6000's use?
      
    • 1.303 What is kproc?
      
    • 1.304 How do I create a RAM disk in AIX?
      
    • 1.305 How much RAM (real memory) does my machine have?
      
    • 1.306 Why do PIDs run non-sequentially?
      
  • 1.4 Shells, commands, man pages, InfoExplorer
    • 1.400 How do I make an informative prompt in the shell?
      
    • 1.401 How do I set up ksh for emacs mode command line editing?
      
    • 1.402 Listing files with ls causes a core dump
      
    • 1.403 How do I put my own text into InfoExplorer?
      
    • 1.404 InfoExplorer ASCII key bindings
      
    • 1.405 How can I add new man pages to the system?
      
    • 1.406 Why can't I read man pages? Where is nroff?
      
    • 1.407 Why is my environment only loaded once?
      
    • 1.408 Where is the 'nawk' command on my AIX system?
      
    • 1.409 How do I copy InfoExplorer (manpages and more) to my hard drive?
      
    • 1.410 Why can't I set my default shell to one we've just installed?
      
    • 1.411 Why do I get the "Unable to connect socket: 3" starting Info-Explorer?
      
    • 1.412 Why can't I write a setuid shell script?
      
  • 1.5 Video, Graphics, X11
    • 1.500 Which release of X11 do I have?
      
    • 1.501 How to prevent ctrl-alt-backspace from killing the X session
      
    • 1.502 Who has a termcap/terminfo source for aixterm or the HFT console?
      
    • 1.503 How can I look at PostScript files? Why is "dpsexec" so lousy?
      
    • 1.504 unix:0 vs `hostname`:0
      
    • 1.505 VT100 key bindings for aixterm
      
    • 1.506 Is there a screen saver that does not use excessive CPU?
      
    • 1.507 Where are the colors, availible for an X session, listed.
      
    • 1.508 Why does my app hang the X server but not an X station?
      
    • 1.509 How do I switch the control and caps lock key bindings?
      
    • 1.510 Missing fonts?
      
    • 1.511 What's the termcap entry for an IBM 3151 look like?
      
    • 1.512 Errors starting X11 application binaries from aixpdslib.
      
    • 1.513 .XShm*, .sm* (Shared memory) Link errors building Xwindows applications.
      
    • 1.514 How do I set my DISPLAY when I login to another machine?
      
    • 1.515 Why doesn't Netscape work?
      
  • 1.6 Networks and communications
    • 1.600 My named dies frequently, why?
      
    • 1.601 How do I trace ethernet packets on an AIX system?
      
    • 1.602 What is the authorized way of starting automount at boot time?
      
    • 1.603 How do I set a tty port for both dial-in and dial-out?
      
    • 1.604 How to move or copy whole directory trees across a network
      
    • 1.605 How can I send mail to hosts that cannot be pinged?
      
    • 1.606 How to configure dialup SLIP
      
    • 1.607 Where is DCE discussed?
      
    • 1.608 How do I make /var/spool/mail mountable?
      
    • 1.609 getty spawning too rapidly
      
    • 1.610 Does AIX support Compressed SLIP (CSLIP)?
      
    • 1.611 How do I setup anonymous ftp on my AIX system?
      
    • 1.612 Talk, getting notification.
      
    • 1.613 Disabling software flow control; using RTS/CTS.
      
    • 1.614 NIS security
      
    • 1.615 Why can't non-anonymous users login using WU-FTP?
      
    • 1.616 NIS users can't login, do I need '*' in /etc/passwd?
      
    • 1.617 HP JetDirect cards and virtual printers? mkvirprt problems?
      
    • 1.618 How can I hack libc.a to alter how hostnames are resolved?
      
    • 1.619 What modem settings do I need?
      
    • 1.620 NIS slave server config with master on different subnet?
      
    • 1.621 Why does my 64 port concentrator loose data and drop the queue?
      
    • 1.622 Netscape FastTrack server won't install on AIX 3.2.5 or 4.1.
      
    • 1.623 How can I share files/printers with Windows 95?
      
    • 1.624 Printing from AIX to WinNT/95/3.1
      
    • *1.625 How do I get NFS mounting with Linux to work?
      
    • *1.626 Telnet takes a 45 seconds to produce a prompt.
      
  • 1.7 LVM
    • 1.700 Free LVM lecture slides
      
    • 1.701 How do I shrink /usr? (formerly 1.106)
      
    • 1.702 How do I make a filesystem larger than 2Gb? (formerly 1.107)
      
    • 1.703 Chlv warning, is the first 4k of a LV safe? (formerly 1.139)
      
    • 1.704 What's the limit on Physical Partitions Per Volume Group?
      
    • 1.705 Why am I having trouble adding another disk to my VG?
      
    • 1.706 What are the limits on a file, filesystem?
      
    • 1.707 Hints for Segate 9 GB and other disks larger than 4 GB? (see 1.704)
      
    • 1.708 How do I fix Volume Group Locked?
      
    • 1.709 How do I remove a volume group with no disks?
      
    • 1.710 What are the theoretical limits within the LVM?
      
  • 1.8 AIX 4.X
    • 1.800 How do I control how hostnames are resolved?
      
    • 1.801 dtlogin ignores /etc/profile?
      
    • 1.802 Where's the C compiler?
      
    • 1.803 Why doesn't Netscape work?
      
  • 1.9 Miscellaneous
    • 1.900 SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 "interoperability" got you confused?
      
    • 1.901 How to get your keyboard back after unplugging it from the 6000
      
    • 1.902 How do I set up pcsim, the DOS emulator?
      
    • 1.903 How do I transfer files between AIX and DOS disks?
      
    • 1.904 Where is the crypt program?
      
    • 1.905 How do I play audio CDs?
      
    • 1.906 How can I get the mouse back after unplugging it?
      
    • 1.907 Where can I get source code to the operating system binary xxxxx?
      
    • 1.908 What's the difference between the POWER and POWERPC architectures?
      
    • 1.909 Will there be date rollover problems in the year 2000?
      
    • 1.910 How can I build an "installp format" file?
      
    • 1.911 Is there a generic SCSI driver for AIX?
      
    • 1.912 Viruses or virus scanning on AIX?
      
      
  • 2.00 C/C++
    • 2.01 I cannot make alloca work
      
    • 2.02 How do I compile my BSD programs?
      
    • 2.03 Isn't the linker different from what I am used to?
      
    • 2.04 How do I statically link my program?
      
    • 2.05 How do I make my own shared library?
      
    • 2.06 Linking my program fails with strange errors. Why?
      
    • 2.07 Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlc?
      
    • 2.08 What's with malloc()?
      
    • 2.09 Why does xlc complain about 'extern char *strcpy()'
      
    • 2.10 Why do I get 'Parameter list cannot contain fewer ....'
      
    • 2.11 Why does xlc complain about '(sometype *)somepointer = something'
      
    • 2.12 Some more common errors
      
    • 2.13 Can the compiler generate assembler code?
      
    • 2.14 Curses
      
    • 2.15 How do I speed up linking?
      
    • 2.16 What is deadbeef?
      
    • 2.17 [moved to 8.10]
      
    • 2.19 imake, makedepend
      
    • 2.20 How can tell what shared libraries a binary is linked with?
      
    • 2.21 Can I get a PTF for my C/C++ compiler from the net?
      
    • 2.22 Why does "install"ing software I got from the net fail?
      
    • 2.23 What is Linker TOC overflow error 12?
      
    • 2.24 What is the limit on number of shared memory segments I can attach?
      
    • 2.25 I deleted libc.a by accident --- how do I recover?
      
    • 2.26 Where can I find dlopen, dlclose, and dlsym for AIX?
      
    • 2.27 Where can I find ldd for AIX?
      
    • 2.28 How do I make my program binary executable on the POWER, POWER2, and POWERPC architecures?
      
    • 2.29 How do I access more than 256 Megabytes of memory?
      
    • 2.30 How do I use POSIX threads with gcc 2.7.x?
      
    • 2.31 Why does pthread_create return the error code 22?
      
    • 2.32 How do I build programs under a later AIX release that run under earlier releases as well?
      
      
  • 3.00 Fortran and other compilers
    • 3.01 I have problems mixing Fortran and C code, why?
      
    • 3.02 How do I statically bind Fortran libraries and dynamically bind C libraries?
      
    • 3.03 How do I check if a number is NaN?
      
    • 3.04 Some info sources on IEEE floating point
      
    • 3.05 Why does it take so long to compile "hello world" with xlf? (see 2.07).
      
      
  • 4.00 GNU and Public Domain software
    • 4.01 How do I find PD software?
      
    • 4.02 Are there any ftp sites?
      
    • 4.03 General hints
      
    • 4.04 GNU Emacs
      
    • 4.05 gcc/gdb
      
    • 4.06 GNU Ghostscript
      
    • 4.07 TeX - Document processing
      
    • 4.08 Perl - Scripting language
      
    • 4.09 X-Windows
      
    • 4.10 Bash - /bin/ksh alternative from FSF
      
    • 4.11 Elm - Mail reader
      
    • 4.12 Oberon 2.2
      
    • 4.13 Kermit - Communications
      
    • 4.14 Gnu dbm
      
    • 4.15 tcsh - an alternative shell
      
    • 4.16 Kyoto Common Lisp
      
    • 4.17 Tcl/Tk - X-Windows scripting
      
    • 4.18 Expect
      
    • 4.19 Public domain software on CD
      
    • 4.20 Andrew Toolkit
      
    • 4.21 sudo
      
    • 4.22 Flexfax/HylaFax and other fax software
      
    • 4.23 lsof - LiSt Open Files
      
    • 4.24 popper - POP3 mail daemon
      
    • 4.26 mpeg link errors version 2.0
      
    • 4.27 NNTP, INN - news (usenet) news transport protocol, news server software
      
    • 4.28 Zmodem - File transfer
      
    • 4.29 Patch - automated file updates
      
    • 4.30 XNTP - network time protocol, synchronizes clocks
      
    • 4.31 GNU Screen 3.6.2 and AIX 4.1.x
      
    • 4.32 SCSI scanner software
      
    • 4.33 Pager/Paging software
      
    • 4.34 Java Development Kit
      
      
  • 5.00 Third party products
    • 5.01 Non-IBM AIX Hosts
      
    • 5.02 Disk/Tape/SCSI
      
    • 5.03 Memory
      
    • 5.04 Others
      
    • 5.05 C++ compilers
      
    • 5.06 Memory leak detectors
      
    • 5.07 PPP
      
    • 5.08 Graphics adapters.
      
    • 5.09 Training Courses
      
    • 5.10 Hardware Vendors
      
    • 5.11 Debugging aides
      
      
  • 6.00 Miscellaneous other stuff
    • 6.01 Can I get support by e-mail?
      
    • 6.02 List of useful faxes
      
    • 6.03 IBM's ftp, gopher and WWW presence
      
    • 6.04 Some RS232 hints
      
    • 6.05 What publications are available for AIX and RS/6000?
      
    • 6.06 Some acronyms
      
    • 6.07 How do I get this by mailserver or ftp?
      
    • 6.08 Hypertext version of the FAQ
      
    • 6.09 IBM documentation on the WWW.
      
    • 6.10 comp.unix.aix archive availible on the WWW
      
    • 6.11 How can I access the comp.unix.aix newsgroup via email (or Web)
      
      
    • 8.00 Program listings
      • 8.03 How do I set up postscript accounting?
        
      • 8.04 How can I find out the machine type?
        
      • 8.05 Updating to 3.2.5
        
      • 8.06 How do I do remote backup?
        
      • 8.06 How do I do remote backup? (cont.)
        
      • 8.07 How to configure dialup SLIP
        
      • 8.08 Disabling software flow control; using RTS/CTS.
        
      • 8.09 How can I hack libc.a to alter how hostnames are resolved?
        
      • 8.10 How do I make an export list from a library archive?
        
        
    • 9.00 Contributors
      ------------------------------