Your system comes standard with a system disk that contains the IRIX operating system and hundreds of megabytes of unused disk space. As you add new user login accounts, the system creates new directories on this disk for each person. And as you add new application software, the Software Manager creates the appropriate files and directories to support it. The files and directories contained on the disk are referred to collectively as a filesystem. Over time, you may find that your filesystem will begin to approach the capacity of your disk.
This chapter gives you some possible ways to address this situation by showing you how to manage your local disk drives, filesystems, and removable media devices.
Click a topic for more information:
The Disk Manager provides information about all disk drives connected to your system, including the drive address number and the total size of the disk (in megabytes or gigabytes). The Disk Manager does not provide information about removable media devices such as CD-ROM, floppy, floptical, tape, and SyQuest drives; see “About the Menus.”
To open the Disk Manager, select the Hardware and Devices category in the System Manager window and then click “Disk Manager.”
To view more detailed information about a disk, you can select a disk in the Disk Manager window and click the Get Info button. The Disk Panel for that disk appears and displays the following information:
The drive's type (SCSI or VSCSI), its drive address number, its drive controller number and type, and its size (in megabytes or gigabytes); see also “About SCSI Devices, Controllers, and Addresses.”
The number of partitions on the disk, and the free space that is available on each partition with a filesystem.
Note: Many disks have only one partition (only one file folder appears below the picture of the disk). If you have more than one partition, each one is allotted a certain portion of the disk space. Whether the disk (or partition) is accessible (is mounted) or inaccessible (is unmounted).
The icon for the disk. You can drag it onto the desktop for easy access to the data on the disk. You can also drag it into drop pockets in various guides that let you act on the disk.
Several guides that you can use to manage the disk, available in the “Common Tasks” field.
The Task menu contains these choices:
“Initialize a Disk” opens the “Initialize a Disk” guide, which erases all the data on a filesystem to clean up fragmentation. See “Verifying and Initializing Filesystems on a Hard Disk” for more information.
“Verify a Disk” opens the “Verify a Disk” guide, which erases all data on the disk and isolate bad blocks so they will not be used. See “Verifying and Initializing Filesystems on a Hard Disk” for more information.
“Mount Disk's Filesystem” opens the “Mount a Local Filesystem” guide, which lets you make a hard disk available to your system. See “Setting Up a New Hard Disk” for more information.
“Unmount Disk's Filesystem” opens the “Unmount a Local Filesytem” guide, which lets you notify the system that you no longer need to access the filesystem located on a disk. See “Removing a Disk” for more information.
“Create Striped Logical Volume” opens the “Create a Striped Logical Volume” guide. See “Creating Logical Volumes” for more information.
“Create Extended Logical Volume” opens the “Create an Extended Logical Volume” guide. See “Creating Logical Volumes” for more information.
“System Manager” opens the System Manager window, which gives you access to all of the system administration interactive guides.
“Close” closes the Disk Manager window. Any changes you made using the guides are saved. This command is equivalent to the Close button.
The Arrange menu contains this choice:
“By Name” displays the disks alphabetically according to their names.
The Help menu contains a list of help topics. To view a topic, choose it from this menu.
The Filesystem Manager provides information about all available filesystems, the directory on your system where you can access a filesystem (its mount point), and the amount of space (in megabytes) available.
To open the Filesystem Manager, select the Files and Data category in the System Manager window and then click “Filesystem Manager.”
You can use the Get Info button to display detailed information about a selected filesystem. Just select the name of the filesystem in the window and click the Get Info button. A Filesystem Panel appears and displays the type of filesystem, its capacity (in megabytes), its free space (in megabytes), how full it is (percentage), whether or not it is mounted, and a couple of related guides that you may want to use.
The Task menu contains these choices:
“Mount Remote” opens the “Mount a Network Filesystem” guide, which lets you access a filesystem located on a remote workstation over the network. This command is equivalent to the Mount Remote button. See “Using the “Mount a Network Filesystem” Guide” for more information.
“Unmount” opens the “Unmount a Filesystem” guide, which lets you notify the system that you no longer want to access a local or remote filesystem. This command is equivalent to the Unmount button. See “Removing Access to (Unmounting) Remote Directories” and “Removing a Disk” for more information.
“Mount Local” opens the “Mount a Local Filesystem” guide, which lets you make a filesystem located on a local hard disk available to your system. This command is equivalent to the Mount Local button.
“Mount Macintosh or PC” opens the “Mount a Macintosh or PC Filesystem” guide, which lets you access a remote filesystem located on a Macintosh computer or PC on the network. This command is equivalent to the Mount PC button. See “Accessing a Remote Filesystem on a Macintosh or PC” for more information.
“Set Space Monitoring” opens the “Set Filesystem Space Monitoring” guide, which lets you change how the system alerts you when it is running about of filesystem space. See “Monitoring Disk Space and Setting a Warning Level” for more information.
“System Manager” opens the System Manager window, which gives you access to all of the system administration interactive guides.
“Close” closes the Filesystem Manager window. Any changes you made using the guides are saved. This command is equivalent to the Close button.
The Arrange menu contains this choice:
“By Name” lets you display the filesystems alphabetically according to their names.
“By Mount Point” lets you display the filesystems alphabetically according to their mount points (the directory located on your system where you access the contents of the filesystem).
The Help menu contains a list of help topics. To view a topic, choose it from this menu.
The Filesystem Manager displays a list of the existing filesystems on your system, the local directories where you can access them (mount points), and the current amount of space that's still available for use. When you first start the Filesystem Manager, it checks the disk space and gives you up-to-the-second information. If you keep the Filesystem Manager window open, the system updates these numbers continuously.
If the Filesystem Manager is not running, start it by choosing “Filesystem Manager” from the System toolchest. You can also access it from within the System Manager. (Open the System Manager, select the Files and Data category, and then click “Filesystem Manager.”)
By default, the system warns you when your filesystem is 98% full. The “Set Filesystem Space Monitoring” guide lets you change this threshold for a particular filesystem or for all filesystems on your system. It also allows you to customize the way in which your system notifies you when a filesystem is running low on space.
To open the guide, use one of these methods:
Choose “Set Space Monitoring” from the Task menu in the Filesystem Manager window.
Choose “System Manager” from the System toolchest, select the Files and Data category, and then click “Set Filesystem Space Monitoring.”
The “Set Filesystem Space Monitoring” guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
To increase the amount of available disk space, see “Freeing Disk Space.” If you have a second disk and you would like to free space on your system disk, see “Taking Advantage of a Second Disk.”
When you physically connect a new hard disk, you use the “Mount a Local Filesystem” guide to mount the filesystem located on the disk. By mounting the filesystem, you inform your system that a new disk is available. In addition, you determine the directory (mount point) on your system that you want to use to access that new disk.
After you connect the new disk, open the “Mount a Local Filesystem” guide using one of these methods:
If the System Manager is not running, start it by choosing “System Manager” from the System toolchest. Select the Files and Data category and then click “Mount a Local Filesystem.”
Choose “Filesystem Manager” from the System toolchest. Select the new disk in the window and then click the Mount Local button.
The “Mount a Local Filesystem” guide leads you through the steps necessary to mount the filesystem located on the new hard disk.
You may find the need at some point to verify or initialize a filesystem on a disk. The System Manager provides the following guides, available in the Hardware and Devices category. (You cannot use these guides on a system disk.)
The “Verify a Disk” guide erases all data on the disk and isolates bad blocks so they can not be used.
The “Initialize a Disk” guide erases all the data on a filesystem and cleans up fragmentation.
Both of these guides collect all usable space on a disk and puts it in a single filesystem.
| Note: If you have an extra system disk that you want to format as an option disk, change its physical drive address number to a free address other than 1, install it in a system that already has a system disk, and then use the “Initialize a Disk” guide. |
 | Caution: Both the “Initialize a Disk” and “Verify a Disk” guides destroy all data on the disk or filesystem that you select. If the data is important, back it up onto another system or onto a tape (see “Backing Up Files”) before you use one of the guides. |
If you have more than one fixed (hard) disk drive, you can create a logical volume. In effect, creating a logical volume lets you make one large disk out of several smaller ones. In doing so, you can increase your system's efficiency as it reads and writes files to disk. You can also use a logical volume to provide storage for a new filesystem or to allow an existing filesystem to grow onto a newly added disk.
You can create several different types of logical volumes; this section describes how to create a striped logical volume and an extendable logical volume. For more information about logical volumes, see IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems , which is provided online.
| Note: The following guides only supports the use of logical volumes created using “xlv.” See IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems for more information. |
To open the “Create a Striped Logical Volume” guide, open the System Manager if it is not already running. Select the Hardware and Devices category and then click “Create a Striped Logical Volume.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
| Caution: Creating a striped logical volume erases all the contents of the disks being used for the logical volume. If you want to keep any of the files and directories on the disks you're selecting, make sure you back them up first. See “Backing Up and Restoring” for instructions. |
To open the “Create an Extendable Logical Volume” guide, open the System Manager if it is not already running. Select the Hardware and Devices category and then click “Create an Extendable Logical Volume.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
| Caution: Creating an extendable logical volume erases all the contents of the disks being used for the logical volume. If you want to keep any of the files and directories on the disks you're selecting, make sure you back them up first. See “Backing Up and Restoring” for instructions. |
If you have an existing logical volume and you decide you want to use its disks for other purposes, you can use the “Remove a Logical Volume” guide to delete the logical volume.
| Caution: Removing a logical volume erases all the contents of the disks being used for the logical volume. If you want to keep any of the files and directories on the logical volume, make sure you back them up first. See “Backing Up and Restoring” for instructions. |
To open the guide, open the System Manager, if it is not already running. Select the Hardware and Devices category and then click “Remove a Logical Volume.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
The “Remove a Disk” guide outlines the steps necessary for physically removing a hard disk drive from your system. It lists the filesystems that you need to unmount, the swap space that you need to remove, and the logical volumes (which are using the disk) that need to be removed. It also provides access to the guides that you'll use to accomplish these tasks: “Unmount a Filesystem,” “Remove Swap Space,” and “Remove a Logical Volume.”
| Note: If you do not unmount the necessary filesystem(s) before removing the disk, you will not compromise any data, but your system may start up more slowly as it spends time looking for missing filesystems. |
To open the “Remove a Disk” guide, use one of these methods:
Choose System Manager from the System toolchest. Select the Hardware and Devices category and then click “Disk Manager.” Select the disk that you want to remove and choose “Remove Disk” from the Task menu.
If you ever reconnect the drive, you'll need to use the “Mount a Local Filesystem” guide to mount its filesystem again.
You can regain used disk space in several ways:
Empty your dumpster by choosing “Empty Dumpster” from the Desktop toolchest.
Remove or archive old or large files or directories.
To find old or large files, click the the words Search tool to start the Search tool, then use its online help.
It's a good idea to search for files named core; these are often very large, and are created by an application when it encounters a problem.
If you remove files from the desktop, empty your dumpster again.
To archive (back up) files, use the “Back Up Files” guide. You can access it in the Files and Data category in the System Manager.
If your system disk is almost full, check the following:
/var/tmp and /tmp: These public directories often become full; delete unwanted files or directories that you find here.
/var/adm/SYSLOG: If this file seems very large (over 200 KB), remove all but the last few lines of it; do not remove the entire file.
/var/adm/crash: When the system has a serious failure, it places information into two files: vmcore.<number> and unix.<number>. If you find files with these names, back them up so you can give the files to your local support organization, then remove the files from your system.
If you remove files from the desktop, empty your dumpster again.
mbox in all home directories: If these files are large, ask the owners to delete all but critical mail messages.
Remove optional or application software; see “Removing Installed Software.”
Over time, your disk may not be large enough to hold the operating system, the software applications, and the personal data created by all the people who use the system. In this case, it's a good idea to add a second disk drive (see “Setting Up a New Hard Disk”).
When you add a second disk, the system suggests that you name it /disk2. This creates a new, empty filesystem that has the same storage capacity as the new disk. If you added a 500 MB disk, you can store 500 MB of information in /disk2. Adding this disk, however, does not automatically increase the capacity of the system disk. Unless you explicitly store some personal data files or some applications in /disk2, you will continue to run out of disk space.
This section offers two options for effectively using a second disk:
Typical users store most data files in their home directory, so you can usually free substantial space on your system disk by moving home directories to your second disk. To do this, you must first move the home directory, then change the name of the home directory to match the new pathname of the directory.
The example below moves user joe's home directory from /usr/people/joe to the second disk, /disk2. To find out where the second disk is mounted, open the Filesystem Manager (available in the Files and Data category in the System Manager). In the Filesystem Manager window, select the disk and click the Get Info button. A Filesystem Panel appears and displays the mount point for the disk; this is the directory where you can access the files located on the disk.
| Caution: The steps below move all files and preserve permissions, but please proceed carefully. Skipping a step or mistyping a command can cause you to lose data. If you are unfamiliar with UNIX commands, you may want to contact an experienced UNIX administrator for help. |
Follow these steps to move home directories:
Make sure the user(s) whose home directory you are going to move is not logged in.
Log out, and log in to the system as root.
Use the “Back Up Files” guide to back up all home directories that you plan to move.
Open a shell window by choosing “Open Unix Shell” from the Desktop toolchest.
Move into the /usr/people directory and then create a copy of the files on /disk2 by entering:
cd /usr/people
tar cBf - joe | (cd /disk2; tar xBf -)
The copy may take several minutes depending on how much data the directory contains. The copy is complete when you see the system prompt (#). The full pathname of the new directory is /disk2/joe.
Make sure the copy worked.
Double-click the /disk2 directory icon on the desktop, and make sure the joe directory is there.
Double-click the joe directory and make sure it is not empty.
Select a file or directory in the joe directory, choose “Permissions” from the Selected toolchest, and then choose “Change Ownership” from the rollover menu. In the Step 2 of the guide, make sure that “joe” appears as the owner.
Open several more directories to verify that the directory structure is intact.
When you have determined that the copy was successful, go on to the next step.
Remove the old directory and create a link from the old directory to the new (this ensures that remote access via NFS continues to work). In the shell window, enter
cd /usr/people
rm -rf joe
ln -s ../../disk2/joe .
Be sure to include the period (.) at the end of the last command.
Open the “Modify a User Account” guide.
Choose “System Manager” from the System toolchest, select the Security and Access Control category, and then click “Modify a User Account.”
In Step 2 of the guide, choose joe from the menu of user accounts (click the button at the right of the field).
Use the Next button to go to Step 9 and type the new pathname in the Home directory field, for example, /disk2/joe, then use the Next button to go to the end of the guide.
Click the OK button in the last step of the guide to record your changes.
Note: Be sure to do this for every user whose home directory you moved.
The next time the user logs in, the user will find all of their existing files and directories available in their home directory.
Many applications have accompanying support files or data libraries that can take up many megabytes of disk space. If an application has a particularly large directory of these types of files, you may want to move that directory to the second disk.
The application knows the full pathname of its supporting directories, so you cannot simply move the directories onto the second disk. You need to first move the directory, then make a linked copy of the directory and give that linked copy the full pathname that the application recognizes.
A good example of such an application is IRIS InSight™, the online document library viewer. All of the books that IRIS Insight accesses reside in the /usr/share/Insight directory. If you have many books installed, you may have up to 100 MB of data stored in this directory. The example below shows you how to move this directory onto your second disk.
| Caution: The steps below move all files and preserve permissions, but please proceed carefully. Skipping a step or mistyping a command can cause you to lose data. If you are unfamiliar with UNIX commands, you may want to contact an experienced UNIX administrator for help. |
Only the Administrator can move the support directories onto a second disk. For example, to move the IRIS Insight support directories onto /disk2, follow these steps:
Log out, and log in to the system as root.
Open a shell window by choosing “Open Unix Shell” from the Desktop toolchest.
Move into the /usr/share directory and create a copy of the files on /disk2 by entering
cd /usr/share
tar cBf - Insight | (cd /disk2; tar xBf -)
The copy may take several minutes depending on how much data the directory contains. The copy is complete when you see the system prompt (#). The full pathname of the new directory is /disk2/Insight.
Make sure the copy worked.
Double-click the /disk2 directory, and make sure the Insight directory is there.
Double-click the Insight directory and make sure it is not empty.
Open several more directories to verify that the directory structure is intact.
When you're comfortable that the copy was successful, go on to the next step.
Remove the old directory and create a link from the old directory to the new (this ensures that remote access via NFS continues to work). In the shell window, enter
cd /usr/share
rm -rf Insight
ln -s ../../disk2/Insight .
Be sure to include the period (.) at the end of the last command.
The full pathname of the linked copy is now /usr/share/Insight, which is the original name of the directory that you moved to your second disk. The application finds the linked copy in the appropriate location, and can access all its support files.
For alternate ways to access IRIS InSight books, see “Accessing an IRIS Insight Document Server” and “Using a CD as a Read-Only IRIS Insight Document Library.”
Depending on whether your system and the system whose space you want to access have the optional NFS software installed and turned on (to check, see “Turning On NIS and NFS”), you can use another system's disk space in two ways:
With or without NFS, the Administrator on another workstation on the network can add a login account for you. This lets you access that other workstation and store files in your personal work area on that workstation.
After the login account is created on the other workstation, you can access it by choosing “Access Files” from the Desktop toolchest, and then choosing “By Remote Login” from the rollover menu. Enter the name of the remote workstation, your login name (assigned by the Administrator of the remote workstation), the type of view you want to open (desktop or toolchest), and the directory that you want to access. For more information, see “Accessing Remote Files by Logging Into a Remote System” in the Desktop User's Guide.
With NFS, a user on another system can mark an entire disk directory (filesystem) or a particular directory public (see “Making Your Disk Space Available to Other Users”); you can then access that directory from your system's desktop as if it resided on your own system's disk.
You can use “Find Remote Resources” to access the remote directory. For information, see “Accessing a Remote Filesystem Using Automount or Autofs.” You can also use the “Mount a Network Filesystem” guide. For information, see “Using the “Mount a Network Filesystem” Guide.”
For more information about NFS, see “About NFS.”
For more information about sharing directories and accessing remote directories, see Chapter 9, “Sharing and Protecting Files,” and Chapter 10, “Accessing Remote Resources,” in the Desktop User's Guide.
If you have NFS installed and turned on (to check, see “Turning On NIS and NFS”), you can access remote directories using either of these two methods:
NFS includes automount and autofs, which let a user drag a public directory onto the desktop for access. It minimizes the traffic on your network, as NFS contacts the other system only when you are actively working in the directory. See “Accessing a Remote Filesystem Using Automount or Autofs.”
With a manual mount, you can select a specific location within your own filesystem from which you want to access the remote directory. See “Using the “Mount a Network Filesystem” Guide.”
When you no longer need the mount, you can remove the mount point; see “Removing Access to (Unmounting) Remote Directories.”
See also “Accessing an IRIS Insight Document Server” for information on creating a permanent mount point that lets you access online documents that are available on a server system.
For more information, click a topic:
You can use automount (or autofs) only if you have the optional NFS software installed and turned on; to check, see “Turning On NIS and NFS.” If you are unfamiliar with NFS, see “About NFS.”
To place a public directory from another system onto your desktop, follow these steps:
Choose “Shared Resources” from the Desktop toolchest and then choose “On a Remote Workstation” from the rollover menu. The Find Remote Resources window appears. (Or, you can select the Network and Connectivity category in the System Manager and then click “Find Remote Resources.”)
In field at the top of the window, enter the name of the workstation whose resources you want to access. Lists of the public directories, media, and printers appear.
Drag the directory that you want to use from the Directory column onto your desktop. You can now use the directory just as you use other directories on your system.
Note: If you cannot drag the directory or peripheral onto your desktop, see “Troubleshooting Shared Resources Problems.” When you no longer need the directory, select it, and choose “Remove” from the Selected toolchest. This removes the directory from your desktop.
You can use the “Mount a Network Filesystem” guide to access a remote directory. The guide only works if your system and the other systems you want to access have the optional NFS software installed and turned on; to check, see “Turning On NIS and NFS.” If you are unfamiliar with NFS, see “About NFS.” If you want to access a NetWare or AppleShare filesystem, see the “Accessing a Remote Filesystem on a Macintosh or PC.”
If the System Manager is not already running, start it by choosing “System Manager” from the System toolchest. Select the Network and Connectivity category and then click “Mount a Network Filesystem.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
You can use the “Mount a Macintosh or PC Filesystem” guide to access filesystems located on a Macintosh computer or PC on the network. Before you open the guide, check to make sure the following conditions have been met. (You may need to consult your network administrator.)
Your system has the necessary AppleShare (appletalk) or NetWare (netwr_client) software installed.
The system you want to access has the necessary AppleShare and NetWare software installed and is connected to the network.
Your system is connected to a network running either the AppleTalk protocol (for AppleShare) or the ipx protocol (for NetWare).
You have a user login account and password on the system running NetWare that you want to access.
If the System Manager is not already running, start it by choosing “System Manager” from the System toolchest. Select the Network and Connectivity category and then click “Mount a Macintosh or PC Filesystem.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
You can use the “Unmount a Filesystem” guide to unmount a remote directory or filesystem, making it unavailable to all users on the system.
| Note: You cannot use the “Unmount a Filesystem” guide to unmount automounted filesystems. The system automatically unmounts them after they haven't been used for a period of time. |
If the System Manager is not already running, start it by choosing “System Manager” from the System toolchest. Select the Network and Connectivity category and then click “Unmount a Filesystem.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
To mount the filesystem or directory again, see “Using the “Mount a Network Filesystem” Guide.”
Many sites set up a server system that contains online books (and online help) so you can seamlessly access the books as if they resided on your own system. If your site has such a document server, and your system has NFS installed (to check, see “Turning On NIS and NFS”), you can free up some of your own disk space by removing some of your books and can set up your system to access the books on the server.
| Note: When accessing the IRIS Insight library over the network, the online books and help will not work as quickly as they would if they were installed on your own system. |
If you plan to use online help as well as online books, see “About Online Help” before accessing the server. Otherwise, see “Setting Up Access to the Document Server.”
Many of the standard desktop applications provide online help. The content of the help comes directly from the online book for a particular application. For example, when you choose a topic from the Help menu in a Directory View window, the help system reads information from Desktop User's Guide and displays it in a help window.
The help system finds the correct help for each application using a set of files in the /usr/share/help directory. Because of this dependency, if you plan to use online help, all books that the help system accesses must be installed in the same location: either on your system, on the server system, or on a CD (see “Using a CD as a Read-Only IRIS Insight Document Library.”) For fastest access to the online help, keep all help books installed on your system on a mounted disk (see also “Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk”).
To find the complete list of books that contain help and are currently installed on your system, follow these steps:
Choose “Open Unix Shell” from the Desktop toolchest.
Position your cursor in the shell window and enter
versions | grep books | grep Help
You see the full list of books that contain help.
To close the shell window, enter
logout
You can type this same command on the server system to find the books that contain help.
To set up your system to access the document server, the Administrator of your system should follow these steps:
Contact the Administrator of the document server system or your network administrator for this information:
A list of the books that are available on the server.
The name of the server system.
The full pathname of the directory on the server system (the exported filesystem or directory) that contains the books.
Often this directory is /usr/share/Insight/library/SGI_bookshelves.
The full pathname of the directory on the server that contains the help files.
You need this only if you plan to access books that contain online help (see “About Online Help”). Often this directory is /usr/share/help.
The full pathname of the directory on your system (the local mount point) from which you will access the directory that contains the books; and, if you're using online help, the directory from which you will access the directory on the server that contains the help files.
If the directory on the server that contains the books is /usr/share/Insight/library/SGI_bookshelves, your local mount point will be /usr/share/Insight/library/server_bookshelf. If the directory that contains the help files is /usr/share/help, your local mount point will be /usr/share/help.
Compare the list of books you have installed on your system to the list of books available from the server to make sure the server has the same or newer versions.
If you plan to use online help, find which books on your system and on the server system contain help; see “About Online Help.” All the books that contain help must be installed in the same location: either on your system or on the server.
On the server system, choose “Online Books” from the Help menu.
In the InSight viewer window, open each book (by double-clicking it) that you want to access, and check its version number and publication date by choosing “Product Info” from the Help menu.
On your own system, check the version of your books in the same way.
Remove any books that are currently installed on your system that you would rather access from the server.
Start the Software Manager by choosing Software Manager from the System toolchest, or by clicking the words Software Manager now.
Click the Manage Installed Software button. After several seconds or minutes, the list of installed software appears in the Software Inventory pane.
Choose “Find and Mark” from the Selected menu.
In the Find and Mark window, click in the Find field and enter
books
Click the Search button; once all matches are found, use the Search and Previous buttons to move through the matches, and use the Mark button to mark for removal the books you plan to access from the server.
Click the Help button in the Find and Mark window for more information.
When all appropriate books are marked for removal, click the Close button in the Find and Mark window, then click the Start button in the Software Manager window.
For more information, see “Removing Installed Software.”
When all the books have been removed, choose “Quit” from the File menu in the Software Manager window.
Open the “Mount a Network File System” guide by clicking it in the Network and Connectivity category in the System Manager.
In Step 3 of the guide, enter the name of the server system in the Remote Workstation field.
In the Remote Filesystem field, enter the name of the directory that contains the books.
In Step 4, enter the directory on your system that you want to use as your local mount point for the books.
In Step 5, give yourself “Read Only” permissions.
In Step 6, apply your settings and quit the guide by clicking the OK button.
Choose “Online Books” from the Help toolchest, and follow the instructions in the IRIS InSight Help menu to open and use the books.
If you have trouble viewing the books, try these techniques:
Make sure the remote directories are mounted correctly by opening the Filesystem Manager (accessible from the Network and Connectivity category in the System Manager) and checking for the remote directories that contain the books and help. If they are not there, try mounting them again.
Physically go to the server system and try to run IRIS Insight from there. If it does not run, there is a problem with the server. If it does run, ask the Administrator of the server system or your network administrator to check the setup on your system.
For alternate ways to access IRIS InSight books, see “Using a CD as a Read-Only IRIS Insight Document Library” and “Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk.”
If you have the optional NFS software installed and turned on (to check, see “Turning On NIS and NFS”), you can let people who are logged in to other systems on the network access specific directories on your system from their local desktops. This is called sharing a directory, and it essentially means you are sharing your disk space.
You need to perform two separate tasks to share a directory.
Use the “Make File(s) Public” guide to make the directory that you want to share accessible to other users. To open the guide, choose System Manager from the System toolchest, select the Security and Access Control category, and then click “Make File(s) Public.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
Use the “Share a Directory” guide to share the directory with other users on the network. To open the guide, choose System Manager from the System toolchest, select the Security and Access Control category, and then click “Share a Directory.” The guide appears and leads you through the necessary steps.
To stop sharing a directory, use the “Stop Sharing a Directory” guide, available in the Security and Access Control category in the System Manager.
You can also access the “Share a Directory” and “Unshare a Directory” guides from the Shared Resources Manager, available in the Security and Access Control category in the System Manager. For more information, see Chapter 9, “Sharing and Protecting Files,” in the Desktop User's Guide.
The Swap Manager lets you view information about existing swap on your system, as well as providing access to the swap guides.
| Note: You must be familiar with the terms and concepts of swap space use in order to understand the information in the Swap Manager window. If you are unfamiliar with swap space, see “Understanding Swap Space.” |
To open the Swap Manager, choose “System Manager” from the System toolchest (if it's not already running). Select the System Performance category to display the Swap Manager.
The Swap Manager window displays the following information about a particular swap space entry:
Location shows the pathname of the swap file.
Priority shows the priority; the system uses the swap space that has the highest priority (lowest number in this column) first. The default swap file, /dev/swap, always has highest priority.
Physical shows whether the swap space is logical or virtual; if it's logical swap space, the size of the swap file is shown here. If it's virtual swap space, this column contains zeros.
Virtual shows whether the swap space is logical or virtual; if it's logical swap space, this column contains zeros. If it's virtual swap space, the size that the system believes the swap file to be is shown here (even though the actual file is empty).
Free shows the amount of the total space of each swap area that's available for use.
You can use the Get Info button to display detailed information about a swap entry. Select a swap entry in the Swap Manager window and click Get Info. A Swap Panel window appears and displays information about the selected entry.
Click a topic for more information:
The Task menu contains these choices:
“Add Real Swap” opens the “Add Real Swap Space” guide, which lets you create real (logical) swap space on your system. This command is equivalent to the Add button. See “Adding Real Swap Space” for more information.
“Add Virtual Swap” opens the “Add Virtual Swap Space” guide, which lets you create virtual swap space on your system. See “Adding Virtual Swap Space” for more information.
“Remove a Swap Entry” opens the “Delete an Element of Swap Space” guide, which lets you remove either virtual or real swap space from your system. This command is equivalent to the Remove button. See “Deleting Swap Space” for more information.
“System Manager” opens the System Manager window, which gives you access to all of the system administration interactive guides.
“Close” closes the Swap Manager window. Any changes you made using the guides are saved. This command is equivalent to the Close button.
The Arrange menu contains this choice:
“By Name” lets you display the swap entries alphabetically according to their names.
The Help menu contains a list of help topics. To view a topic, choose it from this menu.
Each time you start an application, it communicates to the system that it needs a certain amount of memory in order to run. The system then reserves the amount of physical memory (RAM) that the application requires. If the application needs more memory than is available in RAM, the system then uses a portion of your disk as supplemental memory. This portion of your disk (the file) is known as swap space.
Once the system reserves the required memory (RAM plus swap space), the space is no longer available for use by other applications. If you regularly run an application that requires more memory than the system provides by default (the amount of physical RAM plus the default 40 MB /dev/swap file), or if you run several large applications at once, you may need to add more swap space.
When you are nearly out of swap space, applications run very slowly; when you are completely out of space, the system may stop an application or UNIX process from running to avoid a system crash. The system notifies you that you need more swap space in three ways:
The System Monitor warns you when you are almost out of swap space, and warns you again when you are completely out of space.
The Console window displays an “Out of logical swap space” message when you have run out of swap space.
The system adds information to the /var/adm/SYSLOG file each time you run out of swap space.
You can add one or both of the following types of swap space:
Logical swap space is actual disk space that the system uses as if it were memory (RAM). By default, your system allocates 40 MB of your disk in the /dev/swap file.
The only disadvantage to adding logical swap space is that it creates a file that consumes a portion of your disk space. To add swap space by creating a file on your system, see “Adding Real Swap Space.”
Virtual swap space is a file that the system considers to be a certain size (for example, 40MB) but actually occupies no disk space. This is useful because many programs request much more swap space than they really need in order to run, and tie up the real swap space unnecessarily. When you add virtual swap space, the system lets you start applications even when they request more swap space than is actually available. In most cases this is fine, because there is enough real swap space for them to run.
The advantage of virtual swap space is that it does not consume any disk space. The disadvantage is that the system can let you start an application when there isn't enough real swap space available for it to run.
For example, say you have 40 MB of logical swap space and 40 MB of virtual swap space. The system considers your total swap space to be 80 MB. You start app1, which requests 30 MB but uses only 15 MB; then you start app2, which requests 40 MB but uses only 20 MB. Your system runs correctly because app1 and app2 are using a total of 35 MB of logical swap space, even though they requested a total of 70 MB.
Now you perform a memory-intensive operation in app1, and it needs its maximum amount of swap space (30 MB). Your system cannot complete the operation because app1 needs 30 MB and app2 needs 20 MB of real swap space (50 MB total), and the system actually has only 40 MB of real swap space available. In this case, the system runs out of real swap space, it arbitrarily stops an application or UNIX process from running, and you may lose data.
To add virtual swap space, see “Adding Virtual Swap Space.”
When you add real (logical) swap space, you increase the amount of real swap space available to your system by the size of the swap file. For example, when you add 50 MB of swap space, a 50 MB file is created for the system to use as swap space. At the same time, the amount of disk space available for data storage is reduced by the size of the file. For more information, see “Understanding Swap Space.”
To add real swap space, open the System Manager if it isn't already open. Select the System Performance category and then click “Add Real Swap Space.” The guide takes you through the necessary steps.
When you add virtual swap space, you create a file that the system considers to be a certain size (for example, 40MB) but actually occupies a very small amount of disk space. In this way you virtually increase the amount of available swap space. This lets you run more applications at the same time, but may cause you to run out of logical swap space and potentially lose data. For more information, see “Understanding Swap Space.”
To add virtual swap space, open the System Manager if it isn't already open. Select the System Performance category and then click “Add Virtual Swap Space.” The guide takes you through the necessary steps.
You can use the “Remove Swap Space” guide to delete virtual swap space and logical swap space that you created using the Swap Manager. You cannot use it to delete the default logical swap space (the /dev/swap file) or to delete the virtual swap space created with the chkconfig command (/.swap.virtual). When you delete logical swap space (a swap file), you regain disk space; for example, when you delete 40 MB of logical swap space, you regain 40 MB of disk space.
If the System Manager is not already running, start it by choosing “System Manager” from the System toolchest. Select the System Performance category and then click “Remove Swap Space.” The guide takes you through the necessary steps.
You can also access the guide by selecting a swap entry in the Swap Manager window and clicking the Remove button.
The Removable Media Manager displays information about the removable media devices connected to your system. It also provides access to the removable media guides, which let you format floppy or floptical disks, eject disks, and share your removable media devices with other users on the network. A removable media device is a storage device, such as a tape drive or floppy disk drive, from which you can remove the medium upon which the data is actually stored.
To open the Removable Media Manager, choose System Manager from the System toolchest, select the Hardware and Devices category, and then click “Removable Media Manager.”
You can use the Get Info button to display detailed information about a selected device. Select a device in the Removable Media Manager window and click Get Info. A Removable Media Panel appears and displays the name of the device, the workstation it is attached to, the type of device, the type of media, and where you can access it (mount point).
Click a topic for more information:
The Task menu contains these choices:
“Eject” lets you eject a disk from the selected removable media device. This command is equivalent to the Eject button. See “Ejecting a Removable Media Disk” for more information.
“Format” opens the “Format Removable Media” guide, which lets you create a Macintosh, PC, or UNIX (EFS) filesystem on a floppy, floptical, Zip, or Jaz disk. This command is equivalent to the Format button. See “Formatting Floppy and Floptical Disks” for more information.
“Share” opens the “Share a Removable Media Device” guide, which lets you share a removable media device with other users on the network. This command is equivalent to the Share button. See “Sharing a Removable Media Device” for more information.
“Stop Sharing” opens the “Stop Sharing a Removable Media Device” guide, which lets you prevent other users on the network to access a removable media device. This command is equivalent to the Unshare button. See “Stop Sharing a Removable Media Device” for more information.
“Monitor” opens the “Monitor Removable Media” guide, which lets you instruct the system to monitor the selected device to see if media has been inserted into the device.
“Stop Monitoring” opens the “Stop Monitoring Removable Media” guide, which lets you instruct the system to stop monitoring the selected device to see if media has been inserted into it.
“Schedule Backup” opens the “Back Up Files” guide, which lets you perform a backup (after completing the guide) or schedule a backup for a later date. The guide lets you choose between performing a full system backup or selecting specific files or directories to back up. See “Backing Up Files” for more information.
“Restore Files” opens the “Restore Files From Backup” guide, which lets you restore files to your system from a previous backup. See “Restoring Files From a Backup” for more information.
“System Manager” opens the System Manager window, which gives you access to all of the system administration interactive guides.
“Close” closes the Removable Media Manager window. Any changes you made using the guides are saved. This command is equivalent to the Close button.
The Help menu contains a list of help topics. To view a topic, choose it from this menu.
When you physically connect a new tape, CD-ROM, floppy, floptical, SyQuest, Jaz, or Zip disk drive, the system automatically mounts the drive so it is ready to use the next time you start the system (for details on each mount point, see “Setting Up SCSI Peripherals”).
You can instruct your system to monitor a removable media device (attached to your workstation) to check whether media has been inserted.
To monitor a device, follow these steps:
Open the Removable Media Manager, if it isn't already open.
Select a device.
Choose “Monitor” from the Task menu.
The “Monitor a Removable Media Device” guide appears; follow the instructions in the guide.
To tell your system to stop monitoring a device, follow these steps:
Open the Removable Media Manager, if it isn't already open.
Select a device.
Choose “Stop Monitoring” from the Task menu.
The “Stop Monitoring a Removable Media Device” guide appears; follow the instructions in the guide.
You can share a removable media device attached to your workstation with other users on the network. You may want to do this to let other users take advantage of the extra storage provided by the device.
To open the “Share a Removable Media Device” guide, use one of these methods:
Open the Removable Media Manager, if it isn't already open, select a device, and click the Share button.
Open the System Manager, if it isn't already open. Select the “Hardware and Devices” category and click “Share a Removable Media Device.”
When you stop sharing a device, users on the network no longer have access to the drive or to the media that may be inserted in it.
To open the “Stop Sharing a Removable Media Device” guide, use one of these methods:
Open the Removable Media Manager, if it isn't already open, select a device, and click the Unshare button.
Open the System Manager, if it isn't already open. Select the Hardware and Devices category and click “Stop Sharing a Removable Media Device.”
You typically remove a floppy, floptical, SyQuest, or CD-ROM disc by selecting the drive icon and choosing “Eject” from the Selected toolchest. If the icon doesn't appear on your desk, you can choose “Eject Media” from the Desktop toolchest. You can also eject a disk from the Removable Media Manager window by selecting the disk in the window and clicking the Eject button.
| Caution: The manufacturer does not recommend ejecting removable media using the hardware eject button on the device; you may lose data if the removable media is writeable. |
When you format a new floppy or floptical disk or change its existing formatting information, you remove all data from that disk. The format window lets you create PC, Macintosh, or UNIX (EFS) disks.
| Note: Files that you plan to copy onto PC disks must follow DOS naming conventions; they can contain no more than eight characters, a period (.), and a three-character extension (for example, projects.exe uses the maximum filename length). If your file names are too long, or are in an incorrect format, you will not be able to copy files onto the floppy or floptical disk. You will see an error message that reports an “I/O Error.” |
To use a disk that you have previously formatted, insert the disk in your drive and double-click the drive's icon to access the disk. You can then freely copy files back and forth between your system and the disk. To eject the disk, select the drive's icon and choose “Eject” from the Selected toolchest.
| Note: The floppy drive cannot read or format 800 KB Macintosh diskettes. It can both read and format 720 KB diskettes. |
To format a disk, use one of these methods:
Open the Removable Media Manager, if it isn't already open, and click the Format button. A guide appears and takes you through the necessary steps.
Open the Removable Media Manager, if it isn't already open. Insert the disk into the drive, click the icon to select it, and then, when the Desktop Access icon in the Removable Media Manager changes to show that it contains the disk, click the Format button. A guide appears and takes you through the necessary steps.
You can now access the formatted disk by double-clicking the drive icon on your desktop or in the Removable Media Manager window.
If you ever experience problems with the system not recognizing floppy or floptical disks, or not allowing you to write to them, see “Troubleshooting Problems With Removable Media.”
This section describes how to use CDs and floppy (or floptical) disks in two ways:
You can view the data on CDs or floppy disks by inserting the media into a drive, then double-clicking the desktop icon that corresponds to the drive. When the media contains standard directories and files, this opens a standard Directory View window. When you double-click a CD drive icon whose CD contains a distribution directory, the Software Manager starts.
You can copy information to and from a writable floppy disk by dragging icons between Directory View windows (see also “Copying Files to and From a Floppy Disk” in the Desktop User's Guide). You can copy information from a CD onto your system by dragging files from its Directory View window to another Directory View window.
You can use the same desktop methods to view and copy files between your system and CD and floppy drives that are connected to other systems on the network. To locate and access remote CD or floppy drives, follow these steps:
Choose “Shared Resources” from the Desktop toolchest and then choose “On a Remote Workstation” from the rollover menu.
The Find Remote Resources window appears.
Enter the name of the remote workstation that has the CD and floppy drives you want to access.
Icons for all the available resources on the remote workstation appear in the window, including CD and floppy drives.
Drag the icon(s) for the drive(s) that you want to use onto your desktop.
CDs are very useful for storing large amounts of information that you want to access but do not want to change. The manufacturer of your system uses CDs to distribute software products and associated IRIS InSight libraries of online books.
You typically use the CD one time to install software; you may want to use the library of books daily. You could install all the books on your system's disk(s) for convenient access, or you could install a few, frequently-used books on your disk and set up your system so it can access the remaining books directly from the CD.
Each product CD that has associated online books stores those books in the directory named insight. Once you set up your system, you can access the books on any product CD by inserting the CD in the drive, then choosing “Online Books” from the Help toolchest. As long as the CD is in the drive, the books are accessible.
| Note: The manufacturer recommends keeping the standard end-user books installed on your system, because the online help system accesses those books to provide context-sensitive help for each tool; see also “About Online Help.” |
The example in this section assumes that you have one CD drive, and that it's mounted at /CDROM (for more information on the mount point, see “Setting Up SCSI Peripherals”). Follow these steps to set up the system to access the books on a CD:
Log out, and log in to the root account.
Insert the CD into the drive.
Double-click the root (/) folder on the desktop to see its Directory View window, then double-click the /usr folder. You should now have two open Directory View windows, one for / and one for /usr.
In the / Directory View window, edit the pathname (text entry) field so it reads
/CDROM/insight
In the /usr Directory View window, edit the pathname (text entry) field so it reads
/usr/share/Insight
Now the two Directory View window show the contents of /CDROM/insight and /usr/share/Insight.
Press and continue to hold down the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys, then drag the SGI_bookshelves folder icon from the /CDROM/insight Directory View window into the /usr/share/Insight Directory View window. After dragging the icon, release the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys.
In the /usr/share/Insight Directory View window, rename the SGI_bookshelves folder CD_bookshelf.
Drag the CD_bookshelf folder onto the library folder that is also in the /usr/share/Insight Directory View window.
Choose “Online Books” from the Help toolchest. The IRIS Insight viewer shows the same set of bookshelves that were there before you accessed the CD, but now the bookshelves contain both the books that are installed on your disk and those that are on the CD.
When you eject the CD, the books that are on the CD will not appear the next time you start IRIS Insight.
When you insert another product CD that contains a different set of books, the new books appear on the appropriate bookshelf the next time you start IRIS Insight.
For alternate ways to access IRIS InSight books, see “Accessing an IRIS Insight Document Server” and “Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk.”
If you have books installed on your system that you can now access from the CD, you may want to remove them from your system to free some disk space. Remember, however, that the books are available to you only when the appropriate CD is in your drive.
It's best to keep the books you use most frequently, along with the standard end-user books, installed on your system.
| Note: If you decide to remove the standard end-user books, you will remove the book you are now using. Please print out this section before you continue. |
To remove the standard end user books and access both the books and their associated online help from the CD, follow these steps:
Log out, and log in to the root account.
Remove all the books that contain help.
Start the Software Manager by choosing Software Manager from the System toolchest, or by clicking the words Software Manager .
Click the Manage Installed Software button. After several seconds or minutes, the list of installed software appears in the Software Inventory pane.
Choose “Find and Mark” from the Selected menu.
In the Find and Mark window, remove the checkmark from the Ignore Case check box, then click in the Find field and enter
Help
Click the Search button; once all matches are found, click the Mark Matches button to mark for removal all books that contain help.
Click the Help button in the Find and Mark window for more information.
When all appropriate books are marked for removal, click the Close button in the Find and Mark window.
In the Software Manager window, the Conflicts button is active; click this button.
In the Conflicts window, specify that you do not want to remove insight.sw.sgihelp; the window closes automatically after you resolve all conflicts.
Click the Start button in the Software Manager window.
For more information, see “Removing Installed Software.”
When all the books have been removed, choose “Quit” from the File menu in the Software Manager window.
Insert the standard system software CD into the drive.
When the CD drive icon shows the inserted CD, double-click it to see a Directory View window that shows the contents of the CD (/CDROM).
Open the / directory on your desktop to see its Directory View window, then edit the pathname (text entry) field so it reads
/usr/share
You should now have two open Directory View windows: one shows the contents of /CDROM, and the other shows /usr/share.
In the /usr/share Directory View window, select the help folder, and choose “Remove” from the Selected menu.
Press and continue to hold down the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys, then drag the help folder icon from the /CDROM Directory View window into the /usr/share Directory View window. After dragging the icon, release the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys.
The /usr/share Directory View window now contains a folder named help, which is a linked copy of the directory on the CD.
Try the online help by choosing a help topic from the Help menu in the /usr/share Directory View window.