22 Dec
2012
22 Dec
'12
2:19 p.m.
On Dec 22, 2012, at 1:59 PM, Josh Dersch wrote:
Yep. I have the site operations manual printed out along with the installation guide for
Genera 8.3.
One thing that I haven't figured out is which "systems" are loaded in the
world. I see them all in the file
system, but I haven't been able to figure out which ones are "live". I
guess I should assume that since
I'm currently running a distribution world that almost none (other than the basic
Genera) systems have
been loaded into the world. Is that true?
Thanks.
TTFN - Guy
On Dec 22, 2012, at 1:34 PM, Guy Sotomayor <ggs at shiresoft.com> wrote:
Me too. It's mainly learning an entirely new environment with just manuals. Usually,
they (the manuals)
seem to have the assumption that you've either done this before or there's someone
who's knowledgable
of the whole thing that can help out. ;-)
I had some time last night so I spent several
hours digging through documentation and sitting at
the console to see if I couldn't make some progress.
First of all, I figured out how to obtain the ethernet MAC address:
show ethernet-address
What I had to figure out that I had to be at the FEP (Front End Processor) prompt and not
the
LISP listener since that command is an FEP command. So now my home network is
configured
for when I get the Symbolics configured enough to enable TCP/IP (or as Symbolics names
it
IP-TCP).
Cool! Glad you worked it out.
I also discovered (shouldn't be that big a surprise) that Genera doesn't really
use configuration
files. Everything is stored in the running LISP state. One thing that has to be
remembered is
that the entire LISP state needs to be saved when making configuration level changes (or
installing new software). Just because it's on disk doesn't mean it can be
used.
This is generally true, yes. Changes to the namespace are stored in the LMFS but most
overall OS configuration changes and software installation requires saving the world as
well. You are in a sense modifying a very large LISP program, as it's running :).
(If you make enough changes, you may also want to Optimize World as well, to reduce the
size of the loaded world.)
I remembered another fairly useful reference once you get everything up and running to
your liking:
"Lisp Lore: A Guide to programming the Lisp Machine"
(http://archive.org/details/lisploreguidetop00brom)
Got it. It was pricey but well worth it. I'm looking for someone who has the
companion tape (or more
accurately the contents) that go with the book. The book unfortunately says "contact
Symbolics for
a copy of the tape".
It's a pretty brisk read and it'll walk you through the day-to-day of usage,
development, debugging, etc.
Yep. I've gone through most of it (mostly as I've been flying back and forth
between Hillsboro, OR and
San Jose, CA).
I'm going to see if I can't get a bit
further today.
Best of luck!