[Dxspider-support] Cluster Locking up

[Dirk Koopman]

Paul Nafzger Jr. wrote:
> I have the replacement for N9EW I am working on. I did a fresh install 
> with Ubuntu 6.06 and Spider ver 1.54, build of at least 163. I could not 
> find user_asc in perl or data. I copied it from a older backup disk. Put 
> it in data and ran it and create_sysop.pl. I was having problems with 
> the box locking up.

You do one or the other, not both. Or actually, if you *do* both, you 
have to do them in the correct order. The order outlined above is the 
wrong one...

Actually (really) "perl user_asc", if you are reloading an existing user 
file, is a complete substitute for create_sysop.pl. Although it really 
is not a requirement for going from <=1.52 to 1.54, just to be sure you 
*could* run update_sysop.pl. This is completely safe to do at any time 
that the node is not running.

Which is another point: in theory both create and update_sysop.pl check 
that the node is not running. So does user_asc, but I *have* had 
circumstances where the checking does not seem to work. So always make 
sure that the node is NOT running before attempting to do any of these 
things..

Just a summary of what these things do:-

1. create_sysop.pl : creates an *empty* user file just containing 
entries for the node and the sysop callsign - *nothing* else.

2. perl user_asc : recreates an entire user file from a backup. This 
restores a corrupt user file (the normal reason why a node locks up or 
SEGVs or gets other nasty errors). You don't need to do anything else 
after one of these. Just restart the node.

3. update_sysop.pl : changes the node and sysop records in the user file 
to the things defined in the current DXVars.pm. An easy way of cloning a 
node, is to copy a complete tree onto a new machine, do 2 above, edit 
the local DXVars.pm with new details and then run update_sysop.pl. Don't 
forget to change all the login details for your connect scripts on the 
new machine to reflect the new node callsign (otherwise you will be 
wondering how your connections keep disappearing)!

Dirk