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Questions and Answers from the Computing Helpdesk

Collected by the IT/User Support Team

Nicole Crémel (Editor) , IT/User Support


Abstract

This is a collection of Questions & Answers that have been treated by the Computing Helpdesk managed by the User Support group.

N.B. The number in parentheses refers to its relative numbering in the User Support "Question-Answer" database, at URL:
http://cern.ch/consult/qa/NNN
where NNN is the problem identifier (number).


 


PC support  -  

(Hannes Schwarzbauer  IT/User Support)

Question (QA 230)   - RealPlayer

RealPlayer availability on NICE

Answer   -   Since January 2000, the new version of RealPlayer, "RealPlayer v7 Basic" is available on NICE. You have to reboot to enable the new configuration.

RealPlayer v7 Basic replaces the old version, RealPlayer G2, which had some installation problems.

The new version can be called from the Start Menu, More Applications, Shareware, RealPlayer. The common "look and feel" has not been changed, and transition should be transparent for the users.

Question (QA 231)   - nicecopy.log cannot be written

When I start my PC, at the very beginning (before the system is really ready to be used) I get this error message:

 "The log file 'c:\nicecopy.log' cannot be opened. 
 Is it read protected?
 Is the Windows directory writable?"
 
When I click on "OK" the startup continues and the system seems to behave normally. What is this message for?

Answer   -   This file is just an internal log, it can be deleted at any time. The reason why it puts itself into "read only" status (although it doesn't show this under "properties") is yet unknown and seems to be a bug.

Question (QA 258)   - Schedule regular execution of a task on Windows

How, on a PC/Windows, can I run a certain programme on a daily (weekly, monthly...) recurrent basis (like a 'cron' job in Unix)?

Answer   -  
  • W95: There is no supported software for this on NICE 95.
  • NT: Use the "AT" facility: From the DOS prompt, type "AT" followed by the parameters wanted. To see online help, type "AT /?" to get familiar with this powerful application.
    N.B. The scheduler must be switched on to do this, otherwise "AT" will tell you. To switch it on, go from the control panel into "services", highlight "schedule" and click "start". Its status will now reflect this.
  • Other alternatives:
    • install IE5 and use its scheduler task
    • buy or down-load (CERN unsupported) commercial software

Question (QA 270)   - Excel file read only?

Excel keeps asking me:

 
 "File name" should be opened as read only unless you need to save 
 changes to it. Open as read only? 
 
Why and how can I avoid it?

Answer   -   You might have by mistake your R/O box ticked. This is an Excel security mechanism, controllable by the user. The philosophy is that the file can be modified, but only saved under "Save as...", thus maintaining the original file and file name.

Can you please check this:

  • From "File" click "Save as"
  • Now in there, at the bottom, is a line called "Read only recommended". If this one is ticked, just simply un-tick it and the problem should disappear.

Question (QA 273)   - Access control with Exceed

I cannot run an X-Window application (like PAW) on my PC with Exceed.

Answer   -   The first thing to check is that you have enabled host access for the host where you are running your application: i.e. from the Exceed 6 option in Windows:
  • choose "Tools" (or Z:\P32\Exceed6\Nice\TOOLS)
    Click "Xconfig", and then "Security".
  • The Host Access Control list is Disabled by default for any host access: you must ENABLE host access (or you can edit the xhost.txt file to include the remote workstations).

Question (QA 279)   - Excel chart wizard

I was given a task to create some charts within an Excel file. I am used to do this via the chart wizard, which I cannot find on the toolbar for this particular file.

Answer   -   Your file is used as a shared workbook. In this mode, there are some restrictions, like the creation of charts. Therefore, Excel does not display the chart wizard in the taskbar.

To work around this, go into "tools" - "share workbook" and un-tick the option "allow changes...."

Question (QA 280)   - Print multiple sheets on one page from PC

Is it possible to print multiple sheets on one single physical page from a PC?

Answer   -   It depends on the printer type, i.e. whether the printer is capable of translating the appropriate software or not.

At the moment, there is only a few printers that can do this when addressed from a PC. Some new generation high range printers are capable of doing it, e.g. the HP laser jet 8000 series ones. As an example, one such printer would be 513-hpbis.

Recipe: once the printer is addressed from the pull-down menu, go into "properties", down into "printer features" and "pages per sheet". There you can select 2,4, etc...up to 16 logical sheets per page to be printed.

 


UNIX Support  -  

(Roger Woolnough and Nicole Crémel  IT/User Support)

Question (QA 236)   - Access to fonts with ASIS software from outside CERN

It looks that there is a problem in the HEPiX X11 login scripts, file xprofile. At external HEP institutions, it takes ages to login when trying to access the font servers. I found that the problem disappear when modifying the following lines in the file /usr/local/lib/hepix/X11/site/xprofile:

  case $RANDOM in
    *[0123])  HX_FONT_PATH="tcp/xtsoft1:7100 tcp/xtsoft2:7100";;
    *[456])   HX_FONT_PATH="tcp/xtsoft2:7100 tcp/xtsoft3:7100";;
    *[789])   HX_FONT_PATH="tcp/xtsoft3:7100 tcp/xtsoft1:7100";;
  esac
 
and include .cern.ch in the font server names (xtsoft...).

Answer   -   The file /usr/local/lib/hepix/X11/site/xprofile belongs to the ASIS package HEPiX/scripts-X11-cern which contains the CERN customisation of the HEPiX X11 scripts (package HEPiX/scripts-X11). It is meant to be used only at CERN.

If you want to use ASIS from outside CERN, you should not take this package and supply your own "site level" HEPiX configuration where you can choose to use the CERN font servers, or your own font servers (or nothing).

Question (QA 238)   - AFS problems on LINUX (reported by the Cron Daemon/usr/sue/adm/daily.log)

On my Linux machine I have been having problems with AFS which have been reported by the Cron Daemon - /usr/sue/adm/daily.log.

Specifically, I cannot use the command 'xprint' as a segmentation fault occurs. The following statement is repeated again and again in the report:

 
 /usr/local/bin/gnu/df: : command not found 
 
and later on in the report:
 
 /usr/local/bin/gnu/df: syntax error near unexpected token 
 

Answer   -   Most probably you have an AFS cache problem, which is a known problem under Linux 5.1. Please follow the steps described in the URL bellow to solve your problem.
 
    http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/pdp/ose/linux/tips/afs_cache.html 
 

Question (QA 245)   - find command on Linux

Issuing the identical command

  find . -name template -print
 
gives me dramatically different results when issued on RSPLUS and Linux. The result in Linux gives much less files than on RSPLUS, even if issued by the same AFS user.

Answer   -   Under Linux, you should use the "-follow" option, because symlinks are not deferred by default. It's not a bug, it's a feature!

Question (QA 269)   - Disk quota on AXCAD cluster

How can I check the disk quota on axca06 in the AXCAD cluster, and who can add quota ?

Answer   -   This depends whether user wants to check quota for the AFS (or NFS) file system, or for the local disks:
  • To check quota in AFS (and NFS) for a given user (e.g. in the AXCAD cluster) the user only have to type:
  •  
      check_quota 
     
  • To know the available disk space in any local file system on UNIX just type:
  •  
      cd the_directory 
      df -k . 
     
N.B. The standard AFS command on central UNIX machine to check AFS quota is "fs listquota".

User requests for more AFS quota can be handled by the Helpdesk, but request for NFS quota must be sent to AXCAD.Support@cern.ch.

 


Mail Support  -  

(Michel Franceschi and Miguel Marquina  IT/User Support)

Question (QA 249)   - Unreadable Word attachments

I have received an attachment via email, apparently a Word document, which Word itself does not understand. It says something like:

 
  im-123456 is a mail merge main document. Word cannot find its 
  data source, perso.MER 
 
Has the mail system corrupted it?

Answer   -   No, the attachment is very probably all right. The message you get is due to the way in which the document has been prepared and sent to you, using the Word mail-merge feature.

When you get the "error", you are offered two buttons. Select "Options", then "Remove all Merge Info". If you then save the document you should be able to open it again without any problem.

Question (QA 278)   - Information about e-mail addresses

Is it possible to check (or interrogate) which e-mail address will be used by the CERN "fuzzy-matching" program that translates e-mail addresses ?
Answer   -  
Yes. Send an e-mail to CERNDIR@mail.cern.ch and put the e-mail address in the subject line.

This can be very useful to know more about a service login. For instance, if you want to interrogate "Nice.Support", send a mail:

 
 To: cerndir@mail.cern.ch 
 Subject: Nice.Support 
 
And you will receive back the following answer:
 
 ****** CERN DIRectory Lookup Mail Service (Version 2.1, May 1994) ****** 
   
  The following records match exactly your  
  requested query :  Nice.Support 
  
 1. First name(s): NICE  ***** Last name(s): SUPPORT 
    Cern phone number:78888  ***** Beep number:  
    Division:IT  *****  Office:  
    Physical E-mail address: helpdesk@mail.cern.ch 
    Generic E-mail address: [NOT FOUND] 
  
 2. First name(s): SL NICE  ***** Last name(s): SUPPORT 
    Cern phone number:75275  ***** Beep number:13+208 
    Division:SL  *****  Office:864/2-B06 
    Physical E-mail address: sl-nice-support@listbox.cern.ch 
    Generic E-mail address: Sl-Nice.Support@cern.ch 
  
 Scanning for search patterns stopped at first blank line in message body. 
  
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
                     Please take the time to read this 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------  
 ... 
 
It shows that the e-mail Nice.Support@cern.ch is going to the Computing Helpdesk (helpdesk@mail.cern.ch), and that there is also a local service for SL division, at e-mail Sl-Nice.Support@cern.ch.

 


Web Publishing  -  

(Maria Dimou  IT/User Support)

Question (QA 233)   - Web site registration problems

I have problems with the permissions for the access to the Web site

http://cern.ch/foo

I setup with Frontpage browse permissions only from 137.138.*.* and from another domain but now I cannot access from any computer at CERN.

Answer   -  

When a user has access problems to his Web site (either for access rights and/or IP address restrictions) he can sort this out himself using the form available at:

http://cern.ch/webredirect/view_database.htm#Edit

and then select, at the bottom of the form result:
[Set or Recover Access Rights]
[Change or View the IP Access restrictions (Internet/Intranet)]

----- In this case, open
http://cern.ch/webredirect/ViewSiteDetailEx.asp?WebName=foo

and select
[Change or View the IP Access restrictions (Internet/Intranet)]

If that site was restricted to an empty list of IP addresses, you can adjust permissions by going to:

http://cern.ch/WebRegister/ChangeIpSecurity.asp?WebName=foo

Question (QA 261)   - JavaScript syntax

Where can I learn more about javaScript syntax?

Question (QA 242)   - Sub-search within my Web site

I want to make a search prompt that retrieves pages only from within my site (current directory downwards).

Answer   -   From the parent document "Documentation for Web Authors":
   
 http://cern.ch/Web/AuthoringDoc/Authoring.htm#AdvancedServices 
the user should click on:
 "Adding sub-searching to your Web"

Question (QA 248)   - Moving bookmarks between Unix file systems

I want to transfer my Netscape bookmarks and preferences from one UNIX machine to another, in order to keep the same environment between these 2 different machines (not AFS based). What are all the files I should transfer ?

Answer   -   Make a tar of the contents of your $HOME/.netscape directory :
 
 cd  
 tar cvf /tmp/netscape .netscape 
 
and transfer (e.g. with ftp) the tar file /tmp/netscape to the other host. Then untar it:
 
 cd 
 tar xpvf /tmp/netscape 
 
Note that if in the destination host you already have a .netscape directory, it will be overwritten by the untar. If you want to save it, make a copy using the command:
 
 mv .netscape .netscape-old 
 

Question (QA 255)   - Viewing Postscript files in Netscape

While using Netscape , when I click on a link to a PS file, ghostview does not work any more. The error message is

 
  Could not load program /usr/local.bin.X11/gv 
  Member shr.o not found or file not an archive 
  Could not load library libXmu.a[shr.o] 
  Error was: No such file or directory 
 

Answer   -   In the Netscape Navigator window:
 
          Edit|Preferences|Applications 
  choose 
          application/postscript 
  then 
          Edit 
  and set 
          "Handled by" 
  to 
  /usr/local/bin/X11/gv %s 
 

Question (QA 276)   - French characters in NICE95 Netscape

Problem with EDH and Netscape: entering the character ", Netscape crashes with the message:

 
    NETSCAPE caused an invalid page fault in 
    module MFC42.DLL at 0137:5f401ced. 
 

Answer   -   It is a known problem of Netscape on NICE/95, and the solutions are:
  1. Do not use 'US International' keyboard layout, use the native French one instead if you want to have accented characters.
  2. Use NICE/NT instead of NICE/95.

 


Miscellaneous  -  

(Nicole Crémel  IT/User Support)

Question (QA 237)   - CERNlib 2000 on Linux (undefined reference to `yp_...')

I have the following problem when trying to link a FORTRAN 77 code with CERNlib on Linux Redhat 5.1:

 
    /cern/pro/lib/libpacklib.a(ypgetacctent.o): In function `ypgetacctent': 
    ypgetacctent.o(.text+0x11e): undefined reference to 
    `yp_get_default_domain' 
    ypgetacctent.o(.text+0x17b): undefined reference to `yp_match' 
    ypgetacctent.o(.text+0x1e2): undefined reference to `yp_match' 
    ypgetacctent.o(.text+0x26b): undefined reference to `yp_all' 
 

Answer   -   This is a known "feature" (since last release of CERNLIB).

Following is a news which had been posted in cern.computing, on 30 Nov 1999, just after the CERNLIB release for Y2K. The solution is either to use the standard `cernlib` command in your link procedure, or to add the flag "-lnsl".

 
    -------------------- 
    Subject: 
                 Unsatisfied yp... on Linux ( in `ypgetacctent' ) 
            Date: 
                 30 Nov 1999 15:39:19 +0100 
           From: 
                 IT News  
     Organization: 
                 CERN - European Laboratory for Particle Physics 
     Newsgroups: 
                 cern.computing 
   
    On the Linux systems there is the following incompatibility 
    in CERNLIB 2000. The new shift 
    (rfio) software used in this release needs the nsl library. Application 
    developers using the latest cernlib command are OK but those with their 
    own link procedures should add -lnsl. The probable symptoms are 
    unsatisfied externals yp...... 
   
    Ian McLaren / Cern Program Library 
 

Question (QA 277)   - Multiply defined symbols coming from libcxxstd.a on dxplus05

It seems I get wrongly some errors (multiply defined symbols coming from libcxxstd.a) when building my C++ code on dxplus05.

Answer   -   This is explained by the following CXX 6.2 compiler release notes:
      Compaq_C++_Version_6.2________________________
      Release Notes for Compaq Tru64 UNIX
  
 [...]
  
4.3 Restrictions in Version 6.2
  
 [...]
  
o  Linker might produce multiply defined symbols from
   Standard Library
  
   The linker might produce multiply defined symbols from
   the Standard Library when linking against your own
   shared library.
  
   If you find multiply defined symbols like the following
   coming from libcxxstd.a, you might be creating a shared
   library and then using that shared library to create an
   executable.
   ld:
   /usr/lib/libcxxstd.a(typeinfo.o):
   std::__vtbl_3std9type_info: multiply defined
   /usr/lib/libcxxstd.a(vec_newdel.o):
   __vec_new_eh: multiply defined
  
   The problem is that libcxxstd.a is an archive library.
   When you create a shared object that references this
   library, the symbols are pulled into that shared
   object. When you then use the shared library, it
   finds the symbol both in your shared object and in
   the libcxxstd.a library archive.
  
   To work around this problem, use a command like the
   following when you create your shared library objects:
  
   cxx -hidden /usr/lib/cmplrs/cxx/libcxxstd.a -non_hidden -shared foo.cxx
  
   To prevent the generation of multiply defined symbols,
   a future release will include a shared object version
   of libcxxstd.a.
  
 

About the author(s): Nicole Crémel is working in the User Support group and, with Roger Woolnough, is responsible for the supervision of operations of the Computing Helpdesk. Editing and revising the "Question and Answers" database is a daily task of most members of the group.


For matters related to this article please contact the author.
Cnl.Editor@cern.ch


CERN-CNL-2000-002
Vol. XXXV, issue no 2


Last Updated on Fri Aug 18 19:49:23 GMT+04:30 2000.
Copyright © CERN 2000 -- European Organization for Nuclear Research