opensuse 11.4 64-bit screen goes black

English Hardware
1

I am trying to move my Netware 4.11 files from my server to my new opensuse 11.4 server (newly built computer). When transferring files from Netware 4.11 server via ‘ncpfs 2.2.6-168.2’ using ncpmount, the screen will go black. I still can use my mouse and the arrow changes to the ‘drag’ icon when i touch the edge of a open window with the mouse pointer (but I can’t see the window, just the mouse pointer change.) I can guess where I left the terminal window open and click it and type ‘shutdown -r now’ and the system reboots no problem and comes up just fine. Then I mount my Netware volume via ncpmount and there’s no tellin how long I can work before the screen goes black again. I’ve tried SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and the screen didn’t go black, it just switched to a crash screen and then reboot. Ubuntu 11.04 does the same thing too.

I have tried a different video card and also hard drive. I’ve moved RAM around only using one stick (2GB) instead of 2 (8GB).

I have a Windows XP Pro machine that access’s the Netware server all the time with no problems (surprisingly…lol, j/k Microsoft)

Oh, and it’s a 64bit system. All of the OS’s that I’ve mentioned above were the 64bit versions. At this time I’m installing the 32bit version of opensuse to see if that makes a difference.

Anyone have this problem?
I would appreciate any info or suggestions.

Thank You!!!
Justin

2

On 06/28/2011 12:06 AM, netwatcher s1 wrote:
>
> opensuse 11.4… (newly built computer) … I’ve tried SUSE
> Linux Enterprise Server 11 and the screen didn’t go black, it just
> switched to a crash screen and then reboot. Ubuntu 11.04 does the same
> thing too.

sorry, i can’t actually help you…instead i’m trying to give some
tools you might use while waiting on competent Calvary to ride over
the hill:

so, three different Linux distros giving you problems makes me think you
have a new machine which is allergic to Linux…

i’d begin by very closely looking at all BIOS settings as well as
checking your hardware and BIOS for known problems with current
kernels… (you may just need a BIOS update…check the board makers
web site)

to check more, i’d use google strings like this maybe:

linux [variable] problem OR issue OR fault

where the variable being one or more of these:

make/model of motherboard
BIOS maker/version

…and, if you are using some kind of RAID, LVM or super duper fancy
storage appliance, or any non-ext files system adjust your search string
variables to include, something like:

RAIDn (list the raid option you are using)
reiserfs
ntfs
LVN
make/model storage appliance (usb enclosure, whatever)

–
DD
-Caveat-Hardware-Software-

3

DenverD: Thank you for the suggestion. Upon completing installation of opensuse 32bit version, it appears that I am able to successfully transfer files from my Netware server to the opensuse server without a crash. I transferred 5GB last night with no problem. That is more than I have ever been able to transfer at one time without a crash. Usually it crashed before 2GB was transferred, sometimes it crashes when I clicked ‘paste,’ it was hit and miss.

Anyway, I’m transferring 13GB now and at this time it’s completed 1.6GB of it, so I might be in the clear finally after 1 month of troubleshooting this. :slight_smile:

For anyone that may encounter this problem as I did, below is my system spec. However, it was the 64bit OS that seemed to be the culprit affecting ncpfs’ ncpmount:
BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
G.Skill RipJaws X DDR3-1333 PC3-10666 (4096MB x 2)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition

Justin
Estes Park Information Technology

4

On 06/28/2011 09:06 PM, netwatcher s1 wrote:
>
> DenverD: Thank you for the suggestion. Upon completing installation of
> opensuse 32bit version, it appears that I am able to successfully
> transfer files from my Netware server to the opensuse server without a
> crash. I transferred 5GB last night with no problem.

wow! now let me be quick to say: i know nothing about Netware…but, i
can move 5 GB from an temporarily connected source to my machine’s hard
drive in just a few minutes (not “last night”!) heck, i can get 5GB from
the other side of earth (via the internet) in half an hour or so…

so, you must have a huge bottleneck somewhere!

> sometimes it crashes when I clicked ‘paste,’ it was hit and miss.

‘real’ servers don’t need a GUI and “clicking” paste is just not
the best way to move stuff around…

try using midnight commander in a terminal…

as far as i know there is nothing wrong with the openSUSE 64 bit code to
cause any copy problems…

> ‘Estes Park Information Technology’ (http://www.estesparkit.com)

wow, Estes Park must specialize in (what?) tending to MS systems?

–
DD
-Caveat-Hardware-Software-

5

DD,

Listen, I’m dealing with a Netware 4.11 server (1997 technology here) with a Netgear FA311 NIC card configured at 100 Full duplex and connected to a Netgear WNR1000 router. It transfers only at a rate of 2.0MB per second on the network. The Opensuse server has a Gigabit NIC in it, so it’s obviously a bottleneck in the Netware server. If you know more about something than I do, I’ll be the first to say please let me know because I don’t know everything. And any I.T. person that acts as if they know everything and has the attitude that everyone else doesn’t measure up to them, is not a real I.T. person in my book. Real I.T. people don’t talk other people down for the technology they have or use or the intelligence they share. Real I.T. people say “I don’t know how.” “I will look into it for you.” They say things that are useful and forward progressing. Not degrading.

You say:
" ‘real’ servers don’t need a GUI and “clicking” paste is just not
the best way to move stuff around…"

Yes, I realize GUI is not the best way to move stuff around. And according to you Microsoft doesn’t make ‘real’ server software. And frankly, a gui (paste) vs. a command line transfer is not going to be that big of a difference in network speed for a Home office. Unless it was configured with high end equipment, but even then, in a home office who cares or has the money to implement it just so they can transfer files at a command line a little faster?? And why would that matter? Like I’m going to be at my server all day using command line to manually transfer files away from the server to clients, when the server is the “file server.” Disabling the GUI on the server might speed up the client transfer a bit, but again, it’s a home office were dealing with here. The whole world would probably run faster on networks if half the world didn’t rely on Windows GUI. But what are you going to do? We just need to run certain applications that don’t work or work well in wine, ect. I don’t like the fact that Windows is the only choice for those specific applications, but maybe you can come up with an O/S for me that runs everything?? Until then, I’ll use a mix of Linux and Windows GUI because its just easier and if i need command line answers, there’s Google.

You also say:
“as far as i know there is nothing wrong with the openSUSE 64 bit code to
cause any copy problems…”

I agree, but if you read my post i said “For anyone that may encounter this problem as I did, below is my system spec. However, it was the 64bit OS that seemed to be the culprit affecting ncpfs’ ncpmount:” The bottom line is it was the 64bit OS that WAS affecting ncpfs, NOT the 64bit OS alone. And to be even more clear, there is nothing wrong with Opensuse and in my opinion, that along with Ubuntu and several others are superior to Windows in stability and efficiency.

And finally,
We do specialize in MS Systems yes, along with several others. Is that OK with you? Do you have a better O/S that runs everything for everyone? It just so happens that most of the world runs MS and so we provide technical support to them. If it was me, everyone would be running Linux or Mac, but that can’t happen right now do to proprietary software that certain companies must run that only works on Windows. So thanks for the “non technical help” in the “Get technical help here” forum. Your suggestions weren’t even ‘forward progressing.’

Justin
Estes Park Information Technology

6

First, let’s start by not making this personal. Not everyone in this
forum is an IT professional, but everyone who does try to help does so to
the best of their abilities. DD frequently will jump in if nobody else
has in a bit in order to try to provide some guidance, even when he
doesn’t have the expertise in the specific issue. I find that to be a
valuable contribution because sometimes all that’s needed is some logical
help rather than help on the specific issue in question.

He’s been quite successful with that approach, and while he does tend to
go overboard at times with his anti-Microsoft rhetoric, he on balance
provides a lot of people very good help in these forums, even though
his background is not IT. He’s good at troubleshooting and making good
educated guesses about where problems may lie. So cut him some slack.

You might want to read the Terms & Conditions (linked in my signature) to
make sure you’re not violating any of them - advertising, for example, or
engaging in personal attacks.

Now, as for your problem…

Using ncpfs, you’re going to be running into a couple of potential
issues. First will be that NetWare 4.x is inherently (as you know) a 32-
bit OS. ncpfs hasn’t been maintained in a while, and running on a 64-bit
platform with 64-bit binaries that were only ever intended to be used on
a 32-bit platform probably is a contributing factor to the issue here.

Also given that the IPX stack that ncpfs uses is reverse-engineered,
there are bound to be some issues with it (though from what I recall, the
reverse engineering of the NCP layer was pretty complete). I also seem
to recall, though, that some of the performance enhancements Novell put
in (large packet support and/or burst mode) aren’t part of the ncpfs
implementation, but I might be mistaken about that.

Using the 32-bit version will probably (as you have experienced so far)
help quite a bit in preventing the issues you’re seeing.

With the amount of data you’re moving around, I would guess that there
was an overrun that’s unchecked in the ncpmount or ncpfs code that on 32-
bit doesn’t cause a problem, but on 64-bit does.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

7

Jim,

Very well. Thank you for your information. And so far the 32 bit opensuse is in fact working fine with ncpfs and I can finally put this problem to rest.

Also, I’m an I.T. professional and act in such a manner. This is a wonderful forum, which I frequent for answers. However I have a hard time when others don’t respect in a professional way also (especially on my first post.) That really caught me off guard, as I was expecting a professional response, or no response at all if anyone did not have a solution, which would of been fine too.

Anyway,

I wish you the best!
Justin

8

On 06/29/2011 01:36 AM, netwatcher s1 wrote:
>
> Real I.T. people say “I don’t know how.”

i’m not a real I.T. person, just a user and i wrote: “sorry, i can’t
actually help you…instead i’m trying to give some tools you might
use while waiting on competent Calvary to ride over the hill … [and] i
know nothing about Netware”

> “I will look into it for you.” They say things that are useful
> and forward progressing. Not degrading.

if you read my attempt to help you while you awaited a netware-to-linux
guru to help, degrading, i’m sorry for that…

i’d suggest next time you put import variables (like netware) in the
subject line…otherwise the real guru may never look in–this is a
forum of users helping users…not “real I.T.” people paid the company
to serve professional responses . . .

happy you got it sorted out.

–
DD
-Caveat-Hardware-Software-

9

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:36:02 +0000, netwatcher s1 wrote:

> Jim,
>
> Very well. Thank you for your information. And so far the 32 bit
> opensuse is in fact working fine with ncpfs and I can finally put this
> problem to rest.

I’m glad you got it sorted out. :slight_smile:

> Also, I’m an I.T. professional and act in such a manner. This is a
> wonderful forum, which I frequent for answers. However I have a hard
> time when others don’t respect in a professional way also (especially on
> my first post.) That really caught me off guard, as I was expecting a
> professional response, or no response at all if anyone did not have a
> solution, which would of been fine too.

Now you know that this forum is frequented not just by IT professionals,
but by hobbyists as well - so your expectations can adjust accordingly. :slight_smile:

My own background is IT, so I understand where you’re coming from. Each
community has its own personality, and this one is an interesting one
because of the mix of backgrounds and audiences.

> Anyway,
>
> I wish you the best!

And I you. :slight_smile:

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C