Date   : Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:17:34 +0200 (BST)
From   : johan@... (Johan Heuseveldt)
Subject: MDFS bankrupt accounts

Hi,

On Wed 11 Apr, Chris Johns wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Apr 2007, Ian Wolstenholme wrote:
> 
> > The MDFS manual is incorrect on the syntax of *CREDIT
> > and *DEBIT as I frustratingly found out a year or so ago!
> 
> It's not so much wrong as "out of date". Most people with MDFS servers are 
> now running version 2 of the 'FS' code, but have manuals for version 
> 1.something.

You are quite correct.

That's why I searched the disc heavily for additional files like
'ReadMe' etc. But couldn't find the data the data I was looking for. There
is such a file but no mention of *CREDIT/*DEBIT. Most remarks are release
differences. It gets tedious to read this file on screen over and over again,
so one of these days I'll create a proper printout! :-)

I've even *DUMPed small util progs, which can give sometime a hint.

And of course I always take into account there's a possibility that not all
files are there:

 * The previous owner could have rearranged something.
 * When I got the MDFS:
   + hard disc doesn't work at all, it was tracked down to a bad contact
      in some of the low voltage power lines in the hd unit. Took me several
      days to find, and fixed in a minute
   + played with it for some time to see basic operations are working, and
   + give it a complete overhaul; in particular the collyflower around the
      battery needed serious attention
   + after that played with it again for some short time, and gave it a rest
      (some other things need attention)
   + after 5 weeks a start up, and nothing happens; the hd spins, but the
      FS was not loaded, and the whole system was unusable, as there were no
      backups that time
      (didn't have proper floppy drives or cabling at the time)

It has taken almost a year I think, when I scraped all the courage together
and started looking@'mdfs.net'. Probably '8BS' as well. Most likely the
trigger was a message from our beloved mailing list that was the trigger to
do so. :-)

I managed to find an image file, containing the Master disc for MDFS, but it
needed unpacking. I almost discontinued the work, and I think I've tried a
few unsuccessful ways, before I tried OmniFlop. 

I got an 'oh no' feeling when it neede a key, but luckily the request was
dealt with automaticly, and the key came in within 5 minuter after sending
the request.

Don't ask me how, but somehow I got OmniFlop working, and succesfully created
a 3.5 disc with it, ready for MDFS. At that time a twin 5 1/4 floppy drive
set was checked with a Master 128 - resulting OK - a single 3.5 drive was
bought, and all the cables were searched for and found.

It was a very joyful moment to see the MDFS starting up and loading the FS
program from the 3.5 disc.

I think the original software was a bit more than 800K, and I seem to
remember words like that accompaning the Master Image File. I mean I
can't be sure every file is present which should be there. If some files
couldn't fit in 800K, most likely some text files are the victim of the
necessary cut down. Just guessing.



Well, now I'm much further than I was ever before, thanks to persons on this
list. Much appreciated and Thanks!

It just means I can continue to explore the system. 
One of the things I noticed before were the account amounts mirrored in
other accounts. That is, accounts 0, (&)100, 200 .. 700 are all set to the
same 64730k. The same is true for the printing account for the %PRINTQ
directory: 700k for all 8 accounts (&)3F, 13F, 23F .. 73F.

Now that I'm able to correctly use *CREDIT and *DEBIT I changed several
accounts for testing purposes only. Changing account F0, also changes
the other seven accounts 1F0, 2F0 etc.

Doing similar on the second partition of the hd, this is quite different:
changing account F0 /only/ changes that one, and /not/ the other seven of
1F0, 2F0 .. 7F0. I haven't found a clue yet, but more work in testing had
to be done yet, as well as searching the disc contents (again).


At last I can create a new user, give it some boot details, and no longer
an 'Inefficient access' is spoiling the fun anymore!


Greetings,
Johan



-- 
Johan Heuseveldt <johan@...              >
  aka  waarland

  The best place is a Riscy place
 
The trouble with most jobs is the job holder's resemblence to
being one of a sled dog team. No one gets a change of scenery
except the lead dog.