HELIOS offers a variety of support options to help you get the most from HELIOS products. This section summarizes those options.
If you have any questions about your HELIOS product, first read the printed documentation. Also consult the README files, which have been provided with the product to describe late news which are not covered by the main manual. Last but not least, you may check our web site regularly:
Get help from Authorized HELIOS dealer
If you still cannot find the answer to your question, your first line of support is your authorized HELIOS product supplier or dealer. Please have the following information at hand:
- Did you try to get help from one of our dealers or distributors? Please let us know if you found your dealer to be little helpful and/or lacking in experience.
- Your full address, telephone/fax number, and e-mail address, if available.
- HELIOS partner contact: name, e-mail address, fax, phone.
- The version of all relevant HELIOS software modules (see "HELIOSDIR/var/run/Versions") and the name and version of any Macintosh application software (such as DTP programs) or INITs you were using at the time.
- The exact wording of any messages that appeared on your screen, and details of relevant messages in the following files:
- System message file
- What happened and what were you trying to do at the time the problem occurred?
For "dt tools" related problems:
- Let us have a description of what you wanted to achieve, and what - you think - has happened.
- Is the result reproducible or does it emerge only occasionally? Any clue on the suspected pattern will be helpful!
- In case you have additional information available, e.g. core files, trace output, please store it safely and make a note in your report - do only send it upon request!
If the dealer cannot solve the problem, they can contact the official HELIOS distributor in your country. HELIOS has appointed distributors in about 20 countries - you can find their addresses on HELIOS product brochures or on the HELIOS web site. Each distributor and HELIOS OEM customer is obliged by contract to have technical support staff who are experienced with HELIOS products.
All HELIOS products require an Activation Key (or password) to be entered during (or after) the installation. Without the Activation Key, the software works in a 3-hour demo mode. End-user Activation Keys are generated from the machine ID of the host and the EtherShare/PCShare/WebShare serial number. The installation program will let you know your machine ID automatically.
Note: If we generate a key twice for the same combination of machine ID and EtherShare serial number, the second key may be different from the first one. This is normal.
At their discretion, HELIOS distributors can provide their dealers - for a reduced fee - with so-called dealer demonstration versions of our products, which are fully working copies of our software but carry a special Activation Key which expires after a given period of time. You will be informed about the time remaining on your demonstration copy by a "afpsrv" message which pops up each time you log on to the file server, and then each 3-4 hours while being logged-on to the file server (Fig.
98):
Fig. 98:
Demonstration key warning
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If you are transferring your HELIOS software from one host to another, then we call this an "Activation Key Transfer". When you apply for a new key, you will need to state that you will no longer use the HELIOS software on the original host.
Fax our key registration department (+49-5131-70 93 25) and ask for details of the exact wording to use and the conditions that apply.
Note: If you do not enter any Activation Key the HELIOS product you have installed will run in a 3 hour demo mode only.
HELIOS releases new versions of its software products from time to time, for example to make improvements or to correct known faults. HELIOS distributors and OEM customers automatically receive the latest version in new shipments.
An automatic software update service ("Software Update Service Agreement") is available for end-users who wish to receive new major product versions and intermediate product releases automatically. This is implemented by shipping a single CD-ROM containing the latest versions of all of our products. The CD-ROM will be produced whenever a significant new product version is released.
Customers not taking part in the update service will only receive replacement software modules 30 days after the software purchase. Customers can still upgrade their software when new major releases become available, by paying the appropriate upgrade fee. HELIOS will inform all customers who do not have an update service contract about fees for upgrading existing installations as soon as new releases become available.
Another way to obtain the latest HELIOS software updates is called "Internet Update Access", which provides the customer with the latest updates via HELIOS web site.
For both update service products contact your supplier for price information and for a copy of the relevant application form, or visit the HELIOS web site.
The following section lists and describes the most important error messages for all UNIX program modules.
All error messages are constructed the same way. They start with the name of the issuing program followed by the UNIX process ID in brackets. This is then followed by a verbose error message which may include variable strings and numbers, for example:
desksrv[12345]: too many desktops
In the following, strings are abbreviated by "%s", numbers by "%d" and UNIX system error messages by "%m". Refer to your UNIX documentation for more information on UNIX system error messages.
18.3.1 "license" error messages
All HELIOS servers verify the integrity of the executable image by performing a checksum and verify the license by reading the license file "HELIOSDIR/var/conf/license".
program file corrupted, please reinstall
The program checksum did not match. A common reason is that you have transferred your EtherShare installation via FTP and you have forgotten to set FTP to image (binary) mode.
/usr/local/helios/bin/license: %m
The license file could not be opened.
no valid <product> license found
The license file contains no valid license for the respective HELIOS product.
the demo license has expired
HELIOS demo versions run for a limited time, and the license has now expired. Each user is warned at every login to the file server that they are using a demo version, and also for how many days the license will still be valid. Thus, the expiry should not take effect surprisingly. See
Demonstration keys in
18.2 "Keys and updates".
the license checksum is invalid
The "Checksum" field in the license does not match the data in the other fields. This should not happen as the installation procedure verifies that a license is valid before entering it into the license file. However, this error message may appear, e.g. if you have upgraded from an older EtherShare version to EtherShare 4.0 but still use the old key, or when you installed another version of the product to another directory and the data mixes up.
the license is not valid on this machine
The "MachID" field of the license does not match the host's machine ID. This might happen if you transfer a complete installation to a new host or if you get a new machine due to a hardware replacement. Contact our license department for a license transfer (see
Activation Key Transfers in
18.2 "Keys and updates").
missing required base license %08lx
The user expansion license did not find the proper base serial number. Verify that you have specified the proper base serial number when requesting the user expansion license from our license department.
18.3.2 "generic" error messages
Most programs issue a generic error message when anything goes wrong for a simple system call.
Various error messages from system calls are logged-in this form. "syscall" is one of the common system calls (fork, malloc-) and "%m" gives the reason why the call failed. Common reasons like "No more processes" or "Not enough core" point to resource shortages, such as "not enough swap space", or "process table too small". Refer to your UNIX documentation for more details.
The AppleTalk toolkit could not be initialized. This happens if "atalkd" is not running or not a single known interface could be activated. This situation is usually preceded by messages from "atalkd". The message can also start with "ATPLoad" or "OpenXPP" rather than "MPPOpen".
The server in question could not register its name on the network. If "%s" = "Duplicate name exists already", this indicates that the AppleTalk name of the specified HELIOS server is already in use. HELIOS servers by default use the host name, but you can stop EtherShare on the server in question and rename it using the
name preference (see "AFP Server preference keys" in the EtherShare manual).
18.3.3 "desksrv" error and status messages
Although there is a large number of possible messages from "desksrv", we will only describe a few of the more common messages here because the majority of them are non-fatal and simply result in an automatic desktop rebuild. Fatal errors result in "desksrv" stopping, in which case you will see the message "desksrv: stopped".
All messages are written to the system messages file (which can be accessed via the
Lists menu of HELIOS Admin) and are preceded by the host name, time and date, and the string "desksrv:". If the desktop server triggers a desktop rebuild, or if you call the rebuild program manually from a UNIX shell, the message will include the string "rebuild:" instead.
The desktop file is corrupted and will be rebuilt automatically.
unknown file type on open (maybe wrong byte order)
The ".Desktop" file is not a valid desktop, e.g. the desktop file is in Intel byte order and should be in Motorola byte order, or vice versa; it will be rebuilt automatically.
read failed, or write failed
These messages are usually related to volumes mounted over NFS, and point to NFS communications errors.
creation error, too many open files on volume-
"desksrv" has attempted to open more files than the maximum number allowed by your host. The limit is normally set by "desksrv" for itself automatically. Refer to "limit" and "ulimit" in your UNIX documentation for details about how to increase the limit manually for your host.
Macintosh users have attempted to mount more volumes than the presently configured maximum number for the desktop server. Please refer to the description of the
maxdesktop preference in
16.6 "Desktop server preference keys" for more details. This message is usually associated with a Macintosh Finder error message similar to the following: "the connection could not be made to file server <name> - please contact your system administrator".
no response from host <hostname>
If you access volumes on another EtherShare host through NFS, and the remote ".Desktop" file seems to be already in access, queries will be sent to the remote host's file server and desktop server to check whether they are really in use. The remote ".Desktop" file will not be accessed directly. You will get the "no response-" error message if the remote host does not respond to queries after a suitable timeout. In such cases, the local desktop server will take control of the remote ".Desktop" file and rebuild it if necessary.
A message like
desksrv [] : nested desktop
[/data/opi/OPI1] in [/data/opi/.Desktop] indicates that there are overlapping volumes. The message pops up when you try to mount a volume that has a ".Desktop" file in its parent directory.
If you create a file with a too long file name under UNIX, using the "dt tools", "opisrv", or the ImageServer "layout" program which will try to add this file to the desktop, you will receive an error message similar to those listed in the examples below:
desksrv[]: AddId - name too long
opisrv[]: Warning: /apple1/software/Wilhelm Kaiser
/Kaiser/R&R-Beilage 8 Seiten, 41 KW/Bilder 41 KW/8 S. Abb. 6 Gianna Nannini.eps.lay: Path too long. This file may not be accessed from a Macintosh workstation.
18.3.4 "rebuild" error messages
The following error messages can be issued by the "rebuild" program:
This is a warning which indicates that some resource information, e.g. icon information, cannot be uncompressed. This could happen, e.g. with fonts that have a custom icon:
rebuild[]:
/apple2/FremdeSchriften/Fre:a7Schriften/
Helvetica Neu(L63-65,185)/HelveNeuLigCon:
unable to add to desktop, compressed resources
volume %s is currently in use, no exclusive access possible
Someone is already using the volume, i.e. you cannot access exclusively with the
rebuild -x switch.
charset %s for volume %s not found (%s)
This error message leads to a fatal error; the "rebuild" program is stopped.
volume is already using the selected charset, nothing to convert
The current character set was selected anew.
You cannot apply any changes since there is no write access to the volume, e.g. a CD-ROM volume.
