Newbie questions - Linux Client

[JAR]

Please pardon this newbie question, but I am in need of some major help.

I have installed the linux client (on Redhat8) and am attempting to run the client,
but it keeps telling me that it has to send at least one file. How does one start up
the client after a new install? The FAQs seem to be down and Install/setup info
seems to be no where in sight.

Please help...

[shifted]

Paste the error message here so we can look at it.

[JAR]

$ sb
sb: need at least one file to send
Try `sb --help' for more information.


So on a whim.. I try the following:
$ sb ./sclient.conf
?B00000000000000

That funny looking output disapears after a period of about 15 seconds and I get the prompt back. A quick run of ps shows that sb isn't running anymore.

None of the items displayed when I use the --help option look relevant. Any ideas? Any suggestions?

[kugano]

Hehe, I don't think you're running our client. There's probably a binary somewhere on your filesystem called "sb" that's getting executed instead of our client because of the way your path is set up.

Try this instead, from the directory where the sb binary is:

$ ./sb

[JAR]

umm.. *looks ashamed* Thank you! All good to go now!

[shifted]

Just to confirm, use:

$./sb sclient.conf

[Emporor]

I have another question. I have configured Freesco succesfully, but I cant start the client. When I do it says sb: permission denied what did I do wrong?

[shifted]

Did you make the sb file not executable somehow? See if this works:

- cd to the sb directory
- type chmod u+x sb
- try running the client again (./sb sclient.conf)

Post here again if that doesn't do it.

On a side note, since you're using freesco, and you may not wish to tie up your terminal, you can background a task when you start it by adding a & to the end: i.e. ./sb sclient.conf & . Alternatively, if it's already running, type Ctrl-z . Later, when you wish to regain control of the client, type jobs, which will produce a listing of all the backgrounded processes. Then type fg #_between_[_and_], to bring the task to the foreground. If you just wish to foreground the most recently backgrounded process, type just fg.

Also, the sb client will produce output on the terminal by default. If you want to disable that, you can redirect output to nowhere; this is handy when backgrounding sb. The new command would be: ./sb sclient.conf >/dev/null &. Hopefully you'll find this useful.

[shifted]

Originally posted by kugano
Hehe, I don't think you're running our client. There's probably a binary somewhere on your filesystem called "sb" that's getting executed instead of our client because of the way your path is set up.

Yeah, on DeadRat (RedHat) systems, "sb" is often installed at /usr/bin/sb . It's a program for transfering files over a modem connection.

[Emporor]

Shifted, that changed the error I get.

now it says

FATAL: kernel too old
abort

Maybe it just dosnt run under freesco


Thanks for the help, any other suggestions?

[kugano]

I don't know much at all about Freesco, but what little I do know leads me to think that it almost certainly just won't work. At least not without some major hacking.

If you do, somehow, get it to work though, it'd make my day (really) to hear about it and how! If I knew more about Freesco I'd try to point you in the right direction, but I'm at a loss.

Good luck if you decide to try.

[shifted]

Originally posted by Emporor
Shifted, that changed the error I get.

now it says

FATAL: kernel too old
abort

Maybe it just dosnt run under freesco


Thanks for the help, any other suggestions?

I guessing that the problem is a binary incompatibility between the sb program and the linux kernel used in Freesco. Linux has had several binary formats used over time. The standard is now ELF, and has been for several years, but an older format, a.out, uses less disk space. I bet the freesco people stripped the kernel of elf support.

In short, it's probably easiest to: a) give up; or b) switch router distributions (don't know to what).

[Emporor]

Yeah, I think I will just start over with a complete linux distribution.

Thanks again for the help.

[shifted]

Originally posted by Emporor
Yeah, I think I will just start over with a complete linux distribution.

Thanks again for the help.

If you haven't yet settled on a distribution, debian is the best for servers IMHO. It can be a little trickier to install, so if you can't figure it out, just go with DeadRat (RedHat), because it is the most popular and help will be easiest to find. However, if you do get debian going, it's far far easier to keep up to date, and it's also very stable. The only time my debian machines ever go down is for hardware upgrade or kernel replacement. I've got one machine that's been up 97 days now (I think i tinker too much).

[magnav0x]

I have a problem with the linux client. When I run it under Redhat 8.0 it'll get the block from the server, but then immediatly exit the client and say "Segmentation Fault". Any ideas?

[MAD-ness]

magnavox: someone from TPR reports the same problem.

The segfault is a known problem. There are some suggested work-arounds in other threads here, but there is no complete solution that I know of.

[Lagardo]

I got that "segmentation fault" thing as well with the 1.0.2 sb client. It got better when I reverted to the 1.0.0 client, which "only" segfaults once per day or so after uploading a result. That is easy to remedy by writing a trivial little script along the lines of

while (1) (./sb sclient.conf > /dev/nul)

(or your favorite shell's equivalent) which simply starts the client, and when the client exits for any reason at all (including a crash) it starts it again. Works for me.

Someone suggested replacing the IP address in the .conf file with the numerical IP so I did that as well faor good measure. Now it seems to run just fine.

[bagleyd]

How dow you get an old 1.0 client?

[Mystwalker]

They can be downloaded here: http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~lhelm/