How to Fix RAVEL's Dial Box
RAVEL is the RS6000 used for the 3D Event Display in the DAR.
From time to time, its dial box fails to respond.
This is usually due to a poor connection at one of four points:
-
top of dial box
-
underneath back of monitor (must be how dialbox steals power)
-
inline connector bewteen dialbox cable and cable from back of monitor
-
connector to serial port of RS6000
Even after the connection has been restored, RAVEL will still not recognize
the dial box.
LJM's notes on the correct restart procedure follow.
The procedure must be performed by someone with enough privilege to run
SMIT and shutdown on ravel.
RS/6000 models GT0 and GL have special graphics hardware that includes
a dial box, i.e., a set of 8 dials that can be used as input devices
by a graphics application program. Unfortunately, the cable for these
dial boxes is quite prone to come loose. When this happens, the
RS/6000 loses track of the device and the following procedure is
needed to make them available again.
- Make sure the cable has been reseated as securely as possible.
- sudo smit and then select: Devices -> TTY -> List defined TTYs
This list should be empty; if not, backup to the TTY screen
select Remove a TTY, and remove the TTY[s].
- Backup to the Devices screen then select High Function
Terminal (HFT) -> Dials/LPFKeys -> List all defined Dials/LPFKeys
[note: this path will probably change in AIX 4.x which does not
support HFTs; if you have trouble locating the Dials/LPFKeys
panel, try exiting smit and reentering with the command
"sudo smit dials"].
The resulting list should show the Dials defined; if not, backup
to the Dials/LPFKeys panel, select Add a Dials/LPFKeys, and define
a Dials device.
- Now backup to the Dials/LPFKeys, select Configure a Defined
Dials LPFKeys, and select the Dials device in the pop-up list.
If the attempt to configure fails, try disconnecting and
reconnecting the plug at the top of the dial box and then repeat
the configuration. If it still fails, check the connectors behind
the system unit (of which there are two, not equivalent). The
small black one is particularly prone to disconnecting, but try
both if necessary, repeating the smit reconfiguration.
- Once the Dials device shows as Available, the machine must be
rebooted for the device to become usable once again.