Solaris users: December 16th, 1999 Please read this file before attempting to compile or install the beta software. It contains important information that will make your efforts easier. If you find bugs, or run into problems that seem to be related to the version of Solaris that you run, please feel free to contact me by email, or through the development mailing list. I'll attempt to help with problems getting the beta running, although I can't promise a quick response. As always, remember THIS IS A BETA, and as such, MAY CONTAIN BUGS THAT CAN DAMAGE YOUR SYSTEM AND DATA FILES! You must accept all responsibility for running this software. I'd strongly suggest that you do not run this software on a production system until the final release. An unexpected power-off of a running system can be a disaster. As always, make backups of any critical information before you install this software. Remember, I told you. I'll listen sympathetically if you lose data, but there will be nothing I can do to help you. Sincerely, Carl Erhorn <cerhorn@hyperion.com> <apcupsd-devel@ro.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please read the file 'INSTALL' in the source directory before continuing on with these Solaris-specific instructions. Then come back and read this file before attempting to build the package. For building the system, I'd suggest that you run the configure and make processes as your normal UNIX user ID. The 'make install' must be run as root. But if your normal ID has an environment setup for using the c compiler, it's simpler to do that than setup root to have the correct environment. If you have the Solaris workshop compilers instead of the GCC or EGCS compilers, edit the configure script, find the PATH=... statement, and comment it out. Also comment out the following line where the new path is exported. Whichever compiler you do have, please insure that you can execute the compiler from the command line before running configure. If you do not have an environment setup to run the compiler first, configure will fail. Your normal UNIX user ID must own the source tree directories, and you must have the normal development tools in your path. This includes make, the compiler, the M4 preprocessor, the linker, and ar or ranlib. If the user you are logged in as can compile and link a c program from a source file, then you have all the required tools available. For the Solaris beta, you are required to install the executables in the /sbin directory. This will probably remain true, as during shutdown, Solaris will unmount almost everything except the root directories. Since the ability to power the UPS off requires access to the executable programs, they need to be in a directory that will never be unmounted. And since they should also be in a directory that normal users cannot get into, /sbin is the perfect choice. If you have a problem with this, and have a suggestion on another way to solve the problem, please let me know. The way to setup the /sbin directory as the executables directory is to pass configure the '--sbindir=/sbin' argument (without the quotes, of course). No other arguments should be required, and your setup and platform should be detected automatically by configure. Once you have run configure, you will need to do a 'make'. Once the make has completed with no errors, you must su to root to complete the install. After the su, you may not have a path to the make program anymore. In that case, you should do the 'make install' step as: /usr/ccs/bin/make install Once the install completes, you must edit the /sbin/rc0 script as detailed below, then exit from the su'ed shell. In order to support unattended operation and shutdown during a power failure, it's important that the UPS remove power after the shutdown completes. This allows the unattended UPS to reboot the system when power returns by repowering the system. Of course, you need autoboot enabled for your system to do this, but all Solaris systems have this by default. If you have disabled this on your system, please re-enable it. To get the UPS to remove power from the system at the correct time during shutdown, i.e., after the disks have done their final sync, we need to modify a system script. This script is /sbin/rc0. I do not have access to every version of Solaris, but I think this file will be almost identical on every version. You will need to let me know if this is not true. At the very end of the /sbin/rc0 script, you should find lines just like the following, between the dashed lines: ---- # unmount file systems. /usr, /var and /var/adm are not unmounted by umountall # because they are mounted by rcS (for single user mode) rather than # mountall. # If this is changed, mountall, umountall and rcS should also change. /sbin/umountall /sbin/umount /var/adm >/dev/null 2>&1 /sbin/umount /var >/dev/null 2>&1 /sbin/umount /usr >/dev/null 2>&1 echo 'The system is down.' ---- We need to insert the following lines just before the last 'echo': ---- #see if this is a powerfail situation if [ -f /etc/apcupsd/powerfail ]; then echo echo "APCUPSD will power off the UPS" echo /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol killpower echo echo "Please ensure that the UPS has powered off before rebooting" echo "Otherwise, the UPS may cut the power during the reboot!!!" echo exit 0 fi ---- I have included these lines in a file called rc0.solaris in the distributions/sun subdirectory of the source tree. You can cut and paste them into the /sbin/rc0 file at the correct place, or yank and put them using vi or any other editor. Note that you must be root to edit this file. You must be absolutely sure you have them in the right place. If your /sbin/rc0 file does not look like the lines shown above, do not modify the file. Instead, email a copy of the file to me, and I will attempt to figure out what you should do. If you mess up this file, the system will not shut down cleanly, and you could lose data. Don't take the chance. This feature has only been tested with APC SmartUPS models. If you do not have a SmartUPS, you will be one of the first testers to try this feature. Please send me email to let me know if it works with your UPS model, what model you have, and if possible, the event logs located in /etc/apcupsd. I'd be very interested in your results, and would be glad to work with you to get this feature working correctly with all the APC models. A detailed description of the screen output during the shutdown would be very helpful if you see problems. You will then need to make the normal changes to the /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf file. This file contains the configuration settings for the package. It is important that you set the values to match your UPS model and cable type, and the serial port that you have attached the UPS to. I have used both /dev/ttya and /dev/ttyb with no problems. You should be sure that logins are disabled on the port you are going to use, otherwise you will not be able to communicate with the UPS. If you are not sure that logins are disabled for the port, run the 'admintool' program as root, and disable the port. The 'admintool' program is a GUI administration program, and required that you are running CDE, OpenWindows, or another XWindows program such as KDE. At this point, you should have a complete installation. The daemon will load automatically at the next boot. Watch for any error messages during boot, and check the event logs in /etc/apcupsd. If everything looks OK, you can try testing the package by removing power from the UPS. As a beta tester, your input is very helpful in solving problems with the package, and providing suggestions and future directions for the development of the package. We are striving to provide a useful package that works across all platforms, and welcome your feedback. Best regards, and thanks for your interest and help, The Apcupsd Development Team.
