Re: [Sheflug] Linux searching

[Alex Hudson <nospam [at] alexhudson.com>]

On 09 Apr 2001 20:07:04 +0100, James Wallbank wrote:
> In a fit of enthusiasm we installed four Mandrake 7.2 boxes (that's 
> the plain English term for boxen)

boxen being an entirely hideous phrase that i wish would go away.. that,
and "orthogonal", "windoze" and "grok". I've never met people more
precious with language than geeks....

> However, when they're running KDE they swerve off course (i.e. don't 
> actually crash, but...) with an "Interprocess Communication Error". 
> What this means is that you can't use the GUI to open your home 
> directory (in fact, you can't open any directory!) and many Apps 
> won't run. (I suspect the ones that require access to config files in 
> the /home/username directory, which is NFS mounted, are the problem). 
> In other words, the boxes become completely useless!

Sounds like a problem with nfs then. I'm not a KDE user myself - does it
create any files within .kde that serve as fifos or something? Or,
alternatively, it could be a file locking thing. The other thing it
might be could be a lack of shared memory, or something.. does anyone
here know what method DCOP uses to natter between itself?


> story). Now the point is, the error doesn't necessarily make itself 
> evident straight away. The machines can be running for a few minutes 
> or a few hours before we get this message.

Hmm. Sounds like a file locking thing, or something of that sort...


> The error message says "dcopserver error - check dcopserver is 
> running". I've checked. It is running.

It may be running, but not actually working.


> Is this a known issue with 
> Mandrake 7.2 or KDE? Any ideas what the problem might be - or even a 
> solution? At the moment the "just use Gnome" workaround is the best 
> we have.


I wonder, is it possible to set up a test account with a home directory
that isn't nfs mounted? I think that's probably your first port of call
in diagnosis - find out exactly what conditions this occurs in. I'd bet
nfs at the moment, so it would be worth trying with a non-nfs home
directory. If it works fine after some testing (i.e., hours, from the
information you've given), that kind of points the finger at nfs. If it
fails in the same way, it's definitely something else. So, do that first
- see if it is nfs causing the problems here. There are some things you
just can't do, even with nfs.

I presume 7.2 ships with a 2.2 kernel (IIRC). I would have expected that
to come with a kernel patched with the latest NFS stuff, so if NFS *is*
the problem, I'm not sure what you're going to do about it, I'm afraid.
(Well, I can think of solutions, but none of them are nice).

Cheers,

Alex.
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