NetWare 386 TECHNICAL BULLETIN Bulletin #1 Date: March 29, 1990 NetWare 386 Limitations and Solutions o The NetWare 386 DISKSET.NLM utility does not properly initialize new or previously uninitialized DCBs. SOLUTION: Use a NetWare v2.15 copy of DISKSET.EXE to initialize new or previously uninitialized DCBs. (This version is available on NetWire.) After the DCB has been initialized, the 386 DISKSET utility will be able to communicate with the DCB and can be used to set up drives. o The NetWare 386 DISKSET.NLM utility incorrectly displays the Micropolis 1375 drive definition as Micropolis 3175. However, the drive definition will work properly. o Some machines will hang when loading NetWare 386 and will display errors (garbage) on the screen. The machine hangs because the software is ready to continue before the machine hardware is in a proper state. SOLUTION: Download the LOADFX.ARC file from NetWire. This file adds wait loops during the boot process to allow the hardware enough time to make the switch to protected mode. o The original NetWare 386 RXNET operating system driver repeatedly allocates additional packet receive buffers until the maximum value is reached. The driver will not relinquish any of these buffers, causing connections to be lost and preventing further logins. SOLUTION: Download the new RXNET driver from NetWire. The file is called RXNET.ZIP. o When the file server is using an enhanced EGA video adapter, the server hangs and displays "Break Point Interrupt." SOLUTION: The enhanced mode does not seem to be entirely IBM compatible on most video adapters. The enhanced mode can usually be disabled with jumpers or switches on the board. Consult your documentation to determine how to disable this mode. o Any NetWare 386 command line utility that scrolls information on the screen (such as SLIST or USERLIST), will produce the following message: NETWORK ERROR ON SERVER . ABORT, RETRY? If you choose RETRY, the same error will reappear. If you choose ABORT, you will receive the following error: CURRENT DRIVE NO LONGER VALID. This error is caused by an I/O address conflict in the workstation, most often when the workstation is using the RXNET default I/O of 2EOh. SOLUTION: If you see the above error when using SLIST or other NetWare utilities, then reconfigure your network interface card to something other than 2E0h. o The NetWare 386 SYSCON utility is unable to add groups on a NetWare v2.12 file server. (The NetWare 386 version of SYSCON will function properly on NetWare v2.15 revision C.) SOLUTION: Use SYSCON.EXE v2.21 (available with NetWare v2.12) to insert groups on the NetWare v2.12 file server. We recommend executing SYSCON from the NetWare v2.12 file server rather than placing an early version of SYSCON on your NetWare 386 file server. o When executing SLIST.EXE, all NetWare 386 file servers display a node address of 1. This is normal operation for NetWare 386 file servers. The network address that is displayed is the new IPX internal address of the server, not the cable address. SOLUTION: To view the common cable or network address, use the CONFIG command at the file server console. You can also execute USERLIST.EXE at the workstation to view the network address. o If you run NBACKUP.EXE with the WANGTEK 5150 PK Tape Drive, you may receive the following error message: ERROR OXI initializing DIBI Driver. INVALID CONTROLLER ADDRESS SOLUTION: If the Wangtek controller is not set to the default settings (DMA=3, IRQ=5, ADDR=289h), configure the DIBI driver to the parameters you are using. The parameters are set in the workstation environment on the machine in which the Wangtek controller is installed. Each parameter is set with the DOS SET command, and each parameter must be entered on its own line. The commands can be entered at the DOS command line, or they can be placed in the user's AUTOEXEC.BAT file or login script. The following is an example of the commands that would be entered from the command line: SET WT_DMA=3 SET WT_IRQ=5 SET WT_ADDR=280h The following chart lists the values that the controller can be configured to: Parameters Values ---------- ------ DMA 1, 3 IRQ 3, 4, 5, or 7 ADDR 200h, 280h, 300h, or 330h o ARCMON.EXE version 2.17 by Brightworks software will cause the NetWare 386 file server to get a general protection interrupt (GPI). This utility is an ARCNET monitoring utility. The ARCMONITOR packets have data placed in the address fields. The ARCNET driver, to this point, does not check for invalid packets. SOLUTION: Do not use ARCMON.EXE with NetWare 386 until the revised RXNET.LAN driver is released. The revised driver will check for invalid packets. This new driver will not be available until the next release of NetWare 386. o Router Configuration errors may appear on the internetwork. Also, workstations may sometimes be unable to see some file servers. These problems commonly occur because the installer has bound the NIC to the wrong address. SOLUTION: Verify all addresses. Make sure the NIC has been bound to the network address (the address of the common wire that connects two file servers together), not to the IPX internal network address. o The error "Access To Server Denied" may be returned on a workstation attempting to log in to a NetWare 386 file server, even though the user has been properly defined, the password has been correctly entered, and the user is able to log in to a NetWare 286 file server on the same internetwork. NetWare 386 LOGIN.EXE encrypts the password across the wire; NetWare 286 LOGIN.EXE does not. If the user's shell attaches itself to a NetWare 286 file server using the 286 version of LOGIN.EXE, the 386 file server will return the stated error when it receives the unencrypted password. Any utility (such as ATTACH or MAP) that attaches the user to a NetWare 386 file server from a NetWare 286 file server will have this same problem. SOLUTION: Set the 386 file server to accept unencrypted passwords. Issue the following command at the file server console: SET ALLOW UNENCRYPTED PASSWORDS = ON o NetWare 386, under certain conditions, will return the error "ACCESS DENIED" to an application. In many cases, the application is simply opening a file. SOLUTION: You can resolve this issue with a NetWare 386 patch called OPENFX.ZIP. The patch is available on NetWire and is found in library 16. o Some applications use the DOS INT 21 function call 5B (CREATE NEW FILE). This function call will return the error "ACCESS DENIED" if the file already exists. Some applications are unable to deal properly with this error. The results will vary from one application to another. SOLUTION: You can resolve this issue with a patch to the NetWare 386 operating system called CRTFIX.ZIP. This patch is available on NetWire in data library 16. Some applications may need the OPENFX.ZIP patch in addition to the CRTFIX.ZIP patch. These patches should be run against the SERVER.EXE file. o Under some conditions, the DCB NLM will return the error "Hardware Initialization Failure" when it is loaded. (This error is most often seen on COMPAQ machines.) Many machines come with a mouse port that is enabled with a jumper setting on the system board. The mouse port often conflicts with IRQ 12 because IRQ 12 is used by Novell channel 2 DCBs and possibly other boards. SOLUTION: Check your machine documentation and move the jumper to disable the mouse port. You may need to set the jumper to a disable position. Do not completely remove the jumper or you will receive more errors. o Some applications use an older NetWare NCP call (Function 23 - Subfunction 2) to map a user to a connection list. This call will return incorrect information if users on the file server have similar usernames; typically, the names are identical except for the last letter, as in SAMG and SAMD. The application using this function call may get the two users confused with one another. If the application were an E-mail application, for example, user SAMG might collect mail for himself and for user SAMD. SOLUTION: You can resolve this issue with a patch called CONFIX.ZIP. It is available on NetWire and is found in data library 16. o While using MAKEUSER.EXE or USERDEF.EXE, you may repeatedly receive an error similar to the following: Error creating \sys\mail\xxxxxxxx User xxxx not created. In addition, you may be unable to create any users on this system. SOLUTION: Shorten the length of the file server name to eight characters or less. o Following an upgrade from NetWare 286 to NetWare 386, users may receive the following error: ACCESS DENIED. Since passwords are not carried over in the upgrade process from NetWare 286 to NetWare 386, the system supervisor must use SYSCON to assign each user a password. If this step is overlooked, then the above error message will occur. SOLUTION: Use SYSCON to assign each user a password. o Part of the upgrade process from NetWare 286 to NetWare 386 consists of backing up and restoring files. During the RESTORE session, the following error will occur: Can Not Find Session Files. The RESTORE software cannot use the session files because the files do not have the proper names. For example, the correct names of the files are $UPGRADE.BND, $UPGRADE.000, $UPGRADE.001, etc. However, if the working directory is C:\FRED, you will see files named FRED$UPG.BND, FRED$UPG.000, FRED$UPG.001, etc. SOLUTION: Rename the files with the correct names so that the RESTORE session will run properly.