kernstodo

                Kern's ToDo List

- Convert Windows emulation from Cygwin to native Win32
  The main missing piece here is an emulation layer for
  the serial port.
- Implement USB support for Windows
- Convert the manual to LaTeX
  This will be done in the next couple of months.
- Consider converting apcupsd to C++
  This will be done in the next couple months -- after
  the 3.10.17 release.

- UPS 500ES with cable 094-0127B
  BATTERYLEVEL -5
  otherwise the UPS would shut off immediately.
- The UPS sensitivity can be adjusted using the UPS front-panel. You press and 
  hold the Power Switch for more than 10 seconds and then press again 
  repeatedly until the required number of front-panel indicators are displayed.
  The UPS manual includes information on adjusting the Transfer Voltage using 
  this procedure.
- Add a call to a script on restart after a powerfailure.
  Can we have the init.d script call the apccontrol script with a some 
  kind of "restart" event if the powerfail file existed?
- If you --disable-nis, then the build of apcaccess fails.
- See if NISIP is properly documented saying that it restricts to
  the IP you set.
- Fix make file dependencies by adding libaries to dependencies
  in src/Makefile.in, but do not add $(LIBS).
- Document problem with Dmsg() going to serial port.
- Document apctest.
- Document that manually running the UPS you should send
  Y first of all.
- Fix DNS for apcupsd.com and apcupsd.org being set by Italian
  server.
- Check if new net code does the following on a slave during
  a power failure:
    Fri Sep 05 15:19:55 CEST 2003 Power failure.
    Fri Sep 05 15:19:55 CEST 2003 Running on UPS batteries.
    Fri Sep 05 15:20:02 CEST 2003 Power is back. UPS running on mains.
    Fri Sep 05 15:20:07 CEST 2003 Power failure.
    Fri Sep 05 15:20:07 CEST 2003 Running on UPS batteries.
    Fri Sep 05 15:20:10 CEST 2003 Power is back. UPS running on mains.

=== USB on windows ====
usbhidioc2.zip in apcupsd/others
    Re: Apcupsd for Win32 with USB support ?
    From: "Vladislav Staroselskiy" <inet@vladstar.pp.ru>
    To: kern@sibbald.com
    CC: "Apcupsd-users" <apcupsd-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
        
    Hi Kern !

    > > Is there any chance to see Apcupsd for Win32 with USB support at the
    near
    > > future ?
    > Very unlikely, unless someone sends me or points me to some sample code
    > that reads and writes USB via Windows. Even then, I'm not too
    > enthusiastic about programming in Windows.


    There are code examples here: http://www.alanmacek.com/usb/deviceAPI.html

    There are also few helpful links:
    USB Central: http://www.lvr.com/usb.htm
    USB drivers page on MSDN:
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wceddk40/html/cxconusbdrivers.asp
    MSDN newsgroups, where programming questions can be asked:
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/

    P.S. Please, don't drop this idea, the most of modern UPS's don't have
    serial port anymore, but Windows is still OS, that users like to have on
    their workstations... and THANKS for doing this project, apcupsd is great !

    Sincerely yours, Vladislav Staroselskiy.
======

=====
    In PowerChute Plus a daemon "_upsd" starts during the booting
    process (or it could be started manually) by reading the
    "pwrchute.ini" file such as "apcups.conf" in APCUPSD. This file
    specify the parameters to the daemon, in which several variables
    are included.  The interesting one is ups turn off and wakeup
    time in hours.

    By reading the ups turn off time the daemon execute the process
    to turn off the Computer and ups at specific time, based on the
    system clock.  This process would be summarized as follows:

    1.  At the specific time the daemon (_upsd) execute a script to
    shutdown the system.  This script contain the command to shutdown
    the system (system dependent)

    2.  An script file is written on root directory called
    "upsoff.cmd" by the daemon.  This file consist the command to
    turn off the ups.  Such as:

    !/bin/sh
    /usr/lib/powerchute/upsoff /dev/ttyd0 Normal UUS^@

    The above script produced during the power failure situation and
    similarly the following script will be produced during the
    scheduled shutdown, in which "upsoff" is a binary in PowerChute
    Plus package to turnoff the UPS. The above scenario is as power
    failing situation in APCUPSD with "killpower" option.

    !/bin/sh
    /usr/lib/powerchute/upsoff /dev/ttyd0 Normal @165^@

    The final parameter specifies the amount of time UPS has to go on
    sleep, i.e., the above script is executed by the "halt" script in
    RedHat and removed.  So that, it turn of the UPS (or make it to
    sleep for specific time in 24 hors time period) then it the UPS
    will wake up after the prescribed time.  Just as power failing
    situation in APCUPSD with "killpower" option.  Then the system
    will up as usual.  The last parameter variables specify from the
    command set of the UPS (as I hope).
===

- Possibly add a user configurable delay before declaring a
  power outage.
- If you add a battery pack, there is a special procedure to do
  that is documented in the APC Knowledge Base in order for the
  timeleft to be updated properly.
- Put the apcupsd events into Win system log.
- To whom it may concern:  May 2003
  I have found a vendor for the APC 940-0095A cables as well as all of
  the other cables that APC makes.  The discount of the cable equates to
  roughly 30%.
  I bought a 940-0095A for $30.00 US + shipping from Stonewall Cable,
  Inc.  www.stonewallcable.com
    James Widener <james at manisys.com>
- I have a quantity of new in the package 940-0127A cables you mention
  on your website for UPS. Do you know of anyone needing a large quantity
  of these?  Also manual/packets and other short electronic type cables.
  Please feel free to pass on my name if you can.  Thank you.

  Carl Lindahl                     May 2003
  Hardware Engineer
  American Systems Corporation
  7001 University Blvd
  Winter Park, Fl 32792
  carl.lindahl@2asc.com
  407-678-8500 x6033
  407-678-5178 fax

 
- Add minVolt maxVolt to apcupsd (calculate them ourselves).
- Apparently apcaccess status crashes for apcupsd without threads.
- Try adding -lm if a local copy of libgd is used (or patch the
  makefile).
- Please consider creating a graphical setup for APCUPSD which would
  walk the user through the type of UPS, how it is conneted, the type
  cable used similar to the Palm configuration in Ximian Evolution.

  After several attempts, I was unsuccessful at using APCUPSD, until I
  found (http://www.mandrake.com/en/archives/cooker/2002-04/msg01252.php)
  which provides all of the configuration needed to use APCUPSD with
  Mandrake 8.2.

- Produce a more reasonable error message in attempting EEPROM
  configuration on a USB device.
- Check that 3.10.5 will autostart on XP
- Neither 3.8.6 nor 3.10.5 has a description of the service displayed under
  admintools/services/properties/description on XP (Gorm Jensen). 
- Make NISP handle multiple devices or addresses.
- Make sure that log dir and lock dir are created if they do
  not exist in "make install".
- Add a ./configure option for setting NISIP.
- See if 3.10.4 takes longer to link up with the UPS than 3.8.5
- Make sure old copies of scripts are saved during install.
- Don't delete old apccontrol -- may be modified by user. 
- Add CONFIG_USB_HIDDEV=y possible fix to manual.
- Make sure apcnisd works (at least for forked version).
- Fix CI_VBATT that doesn't seem to work.
- Look into shutdown delay (perhaps add MASTERDELAY).
  Check document.
- Consider MASTERKILLPOWERDELAY
- Implement install_slave
- Add Master shutdown delay.
- If in power loss and slave looses connection with
  master, initiate shutdown -- after a user definable timout.
- Document LOGSTATS
- Document or remove NETACCESS
- --prefix reportedly does not work in ./configure
- Add relative links to the bottom of the multimon stats
  page -> href-"multimon.cgi" or back to the home.
- Try to find the right mail program on Solaris (i.e. mailx
  rather then mail) or document the smtp program.
- Possibly use shutdown -i5 on Solaris instead of 
  shutdown -i0 -- check with Carl
- For FreeBSD use shutdown -h according to Neil.
- Failure to connect to the UPS should generate an event
  and perhaps apcupsd should continue running and periodically
  generate events rather than exiting in error.
- Fix hot swapping of USB UPSes with a different UPS model.
  Need to update static data from USB.
- Implement kill power for USB.
- Cleanup apcreports and apcstatus code to use Status word.
  Especially the dumb UPS code.
- Become daemon sooner to avoid network hangs.
- Avoid opening, closing, then reopening the serial port.
- Close all open file descriptors before execing.
- add /sbin/halt -i -d -p to shutdown
  See above for FreeBSD and Solaris.
- Don't try to create nologin or powerfail files if doing a killpower.
- Make suggested changes to Makefiles (see emails).
- Figure out po stuff works.
- When running the --killpower, delete the
  powerfail file if we are not in a powerfail
  condition.
- look at use of snprintf and vsnprintf!
- Add SSL
- Add "File | Save" to Windows shutdown.
- Add optional delay on onbattery to eliminate messages
  for short outages (or add a new event).
- Look into making rpm relocatable or at least the cgi part.
- Add calibrate runtime option.
- Setuid of network processes to "nobody".
- Document porting issues.
- enhance manual for master/slave stuff especially
  the network problems.
- Fix power off problems for Dumb UPSes which don't know about 
  2 minute delay of modern dumb UPSes.
    Email from Richar Lovison <riovison@simons-rock.edu>
    Concerning Bacuk-UPS ES series and cables.  One more thing I should
    let you know.  For some reason the function, doshutdown, is not
    being called in apccontrol.  That explains why I was getting a
    shutdown when I saw the "Emergency shutdown" xconsole message since
    the emergency function has the shutdown command as part of the
    function.  For now I worked around this by inserting the line:

    ${SHUTDOWN} -h now "apcupsd remote shutdown"

    at the end of the failing, timeout, loadlimit and runlimit functions
    in the apccontrol file.  Maybe this is a problem with version 3.8.1?
    In any case, I now get a proper shutdown with the batteries fully
    charged after a designated TIMEOUT. After your vacation, if you wish
    any further help from me I'd be willing to give it...  my way of
    giving back I guess.  [:)]

Next release focus: improved documentation, simpler installation,
                    improved security and networking.

Key:   - => to be done; + => in beta; * => completed

A.1  * Linux USB (implemented in 3.9.4 - kill power doesn't work)
A.2  * Configure USB code on/off (implemented in 3.9.5)
A.3  - Configure Network Information Server (CGI) code on/off 
       (smaller footprint)
A.4  - Configure master/slave code on/off (smaller footprint)
A.5  - Add universal Dumb UPS configurator similar to what
       exists in powerd, but much more comprehensive. (general cleanup
       and allows support of ANY Dumb UPS with ANY cable).
A.6  * Drivers (USB, Smart, Dumb) (general cleanup of core code).
       (implemented by Riccardo). (implemented in 3.9.5)
A.7  * Configure drivers code on/off (smaller footprint) (implemented
       in 3.9.5).
A.8  * Add port to hosts.conf (implemented in 3.8.3).
A.9  * Log errors in apccontrol.
A.10 * Persistent slave connections. Currently connection
       is made and broken each communication. (implemented
       in 3.9.4). 
A.11 - CRAM-MD5 authentication for master/slave (security - requires A.10).
A.12 + Ensure that ANNOY and ANNOYDELAY work (correctly documented).
       Need possible coding changed to separate ANNOY and NOLOGON.
A.13 * Reduced STATUS output by eliminating lines with N/A
       (implemented in 3.8.3).
A.14 * Detect, log, and generate event when master/slave not 
       responding (improved error detection) (implemented in
       3.9.6)
A.15 - Eliminate of unnecessary/confusing configuration directives
       (this requires a good deal of thought and implmentation of
       A.6).
A.16 * Additional documentation including pdf version of document.
A.17 - Merge of specific 4.0 code/features (e.g. new Makefiles, 
       eeprom programming, ...)

Possibilities:
B.1 + New master/slave protocol using same network code as CGI
       (future releases would be be upward compatible -- needs A.6)
B.2 - Built-in mini-Web server (Carl's suggestion) with SSL.
B.3 - GUI via mini-Web server or CGI code.
B.4 * Support of multiple-UPSes (implemented in 3.8.3).
B.5 - General cleanup of configuration file reading code
      possibly with new configuration file syntax. (this
      is only needed if B.4 is implemented).
B.6 - Move EEPROM programming code to a separate program
      and add additional features.

User Requests:
C.1 * More documentation, including pdf format; better
      organization of documentation (work here progressing
      but it is a continuing effort).
C.2 - Develop a formalized release test plan.
C.3 * Implement an effective bug tracking system.
C.4 + Identification of people responsible for various 
      functions (platform maintenance, testing, web
      site maintenance, documentation, ...) (Job descriptions
      written -- several people formally identified).
C.5 * Reorganize code for efficiency and for easier
      maintenance (part of A.6 and A.17).

Design:
UPSTYPE = Smart/Dumb/USB/Slave 

CABLE = DUMB

GETPORT <condition> <signal-spec>

SETPORT <event> <action-spec>

Where:

<condition> = POWERFAIL | LOWBATT | LINEDOWN   (ONBATT)
<event>     = INITUPS | POWERFAIL | SHUTDOWN   (EXIT)   
action-spec = <signal-spec> | <sleep-spec> ...
signal-spec = <signal> <state> ...
signal      = CTS | DSR | RNG | ST | CSR | RTS
state       = SET | CLEAR
sleep-spec  = SLEEP N

<html>
<body>
<pre>


To do:
========
Hello,

Yes, what you did is exactly what it takes to get
apcupsd to work with cygwin installed.  There are
four major pitfalls:

1. The normal cygwin installation uses mount points
   and installs everything in a subdirectory of cygwin.
   This was not appropriate for apcupsd, and is not how
   I run my system -- I prefer my files to be visible
   in the root directory as on Unix.  If you use the
   standard apcupsd install, it removes all cygwin mount
   points. From what you wrote, you avoided this problem.

2. If you install on a cygwin system, you must ensure that
   /apcupsd/bin gets you to the apcupsd directory, so if you
   are using the standard cygwin suggestions, you must ensure
   that you place apcupsd into the cygwin directory as you did.

3. Finally, you must either delete the cygwin1.dll from the
   apcupsd bin directory or insure that you are always running
   the same cygwin distribution as apcupsd (currently 1.3.10)
   since two different cygwin1.dll programs will not co-exist.

4. If you do upgrade your cygwin system, be aware that my experience
   is that only about one out of every 3 of their releases is
   stable enough to run apcupsd. So upgrade with caution, and
   you may need to build apcupsd depending on what changes
   they made.

Thanks for pointing out that you got this cygwin configuration
to work. I'll try to get these notes + yours into the 
next manual for the next time someone wants to try 
running apcupsd with cygwin.  As Neil pointed out, it is
not evident that it will work, and though these notes should
be helpful, we probably won't officially support running apcupsd
AND cygwin unless you wish to be constrained to running on
the same version as we are (not always evident).

Best regards,

Kern


On Mon, 2002-07-01 at 18:29, James Garrison wrote:
> I didn't find details on installing apcupsd with an existing
> cygwin installation, but after looking over the install
> script I "guessed" that all I had to do was put the
> apcupsd directory under my cygwin root and run
> 
>       apcupsd /install
> 
> from the there.  Everything appears to be working correctly,
> including running apcupsd slaved to a Linux master.  Did I miss
> something or is it really that simple? Did I miss where this
> is documented?  If not, it definitely needs to be added to the doc.
> 
> Thanks for a great program.  This is what APC *should* be
> providing to its users, not the crappy stuff they currently have.
> 
======


Wish list:
- Look at using libgd-1.3 in place of gd for cgi.
  Perhaps a lib directory could be added to the build tree and a
  "-with-included-gd" configure switch could control the inclusion of the
  local libgd.  
- Fix confusion with UPSTYPE, ... 
- Add more commands (individual variables) to apcnetd
- Make apcaccess use the network code as an option.
- Eliminate rest of character command codes using new
  capabilities code in apcsetup.c (for setup stuff).
- Eliminate the rest of the printfs().
- Eliminate as many error_aborts as possible in making
  new events.
- STATUS file should be opened with open() rather
  than fopen(). Some small changes required. 
- Expand Last UPS Self Test field in cgi program
- Send events across network to slaves rather than 
  status values.
- Send configuration (ups type, ...) across network to
  slaves and ignore slave UPS configuration info.
- Create globals file and move more variables out
  of shared memory buffer.  Maybe even eliminate
  shared memory.
- Implement a new option or mode in apcupsd where when there
  is a power failure, apcupsd issues the system shutdown as
  usual, but it continues running. After a user defined time
  limit after the shutdown, apcupsd will tell the UPS to
  shut off the power.
  From: Zsolt Domokos [DomokosZ@esi.com]
             

Fixed but needs testing:
- Add Chris' schematic of the 940-0095A cable.
- add 127 and 128A cables to 3.9.8!   



Done:
- When USB is offline status indicates SLAVE
- Need to insure that the reports are done if they
  are requested more frequently than the poll period.
- Fix powerflute build problem.
- Win32 Threads
- Fix libwrap
- Change the default SERVERPORT and NETPORT 
- Add configuration for ports
- Add configuration for logfile
- Fix passing stack pointer to thread in apcnis.c !!!!!
- Master did not shutdown in TIMEOUT.
- Set appropriate permissions on files in /etc/apcupsd during
  make install.
- Finish the rpm spec file.
- Accumulate time on batteries and number of transfers
  to batteries. Perhaps save history in file so that the
  info can be recovered if apcupsd restarts.
- Remember date and time when apcupsd started.
- Allow IP addresses for masters and slaves.
- Add remaining time before TIMEOUT to STATUS output.
- Fix 4/8 byte problem reported by Tom Holroyd
- Fix zombies on BSD. Each exec() increments a counter.
- Fix the problem with DoS with the email files
  where the file can be linked to a system file.
- fix ChangeBatt problem in apcnet (line 389).
      > 1) Start master and slave apcupsd daemons
      > 2) Terminate the apcupsd daemon on the master
      > 3) Wait a little time
      > 4) Start the master apcupsd daemon
      > 5) Slave reports that UPS batteries have failed
      > 6) A zombie shell process appears on slave
  why is bad data being sent.
  Do nonblocking wait in main loop and decrement counter.
- Use links and .bat files instead of .pifs on Win32
- Add a KILLDELAY mode where after shutdown, apcupsd continues
  running, and then after a specified time issues
  the kill_power to the UPS.    
- Detect self tests
- SEGFAULT in kill_power()
- Buffer overflow in capabilities
- If UPS capabilities, only test those defined
- Fast Poll when on batteries.
- Improved Win32 shutdown -- guarantees shutdown, previous
  version could hang if dialogue not answered. Can now
  specify shutdown delay.
- Some files have large diff files because they
  have been reformatted to apcupsd 4.0 standards.
- I am in the process of integrating version 4.0
  code into this stream, so many of the changes are
  related to this activity.
- Modified code for handling 940-0095B cable. Hopefully,
  it will work now.
- Added the Caldera code that was submitted by John Pinner.
- Integrated NetBSD patches that I received from Devin Reade -- thanks.
- To correct a problem with zombies on BSD systems, I added
  a UPSINFO variable that is the count of children created
  by execute_command(). do_action() in apcaction.c was
  modified to check this variable, do a non-blocking wait,
  and decrement it if any children were found.  This should
  properly reap the zombies.
- Added additional debug information (strerror) to failed
  semaphore and shared memory system call errors in apcipc.c
- In apcnet.c, removed ChangeBatt from slave because it is
  apparently being set incorrectly on some BSD masters when
  apcupsd is restarted.
- Added an O_NDELAY to the serial port open() in apcserial.c
  to avoid infinite waits on some BSD systems. This required
  the addition of an fcntl() after the open to reset the
  blocking read(), which is needed in apcupsd.
- Removed an unwanted break in a switch in apcstatus.c that
  caused the status output for BackUPS Pros to be cut short.
- Added a HAVE_POWERFLUTE define and changed powerflute.c to
  use it. This prevents a lot of the errors seen on systems
  that don't have ncurses.
- configure.in, added HAVE_NETBSD_OS, HAVE_POWERFLUTE, and
  modified generation of makefiles to only configure the files
  in the recognized distribution.  Modified the automatic 
  make of the dependencies to use "make depend"
- Removed the call on the shell to execute a script file in
  apccontrol. This permits execution of any type of file, but
  it now requires that the file be executable.
- Reindent apclock.c apcstatus.c apclog.c apcevents.c
- Add TCP Wrappers -- fix problems pointed out by Neil,
  and implement code.
- Fix gethostbyname on Win32 (apparently this works).
- Fix apcaction.c to be a state machine,
  and to generate events.
- Make all events into event subroutines that can be
  called from anywhere -- including network code.
  Thus do_action() will be a very small loop detecting
  and sending events.


We have several electrical circuits in our computer room. So we have one master running on each circuit and the rest on a circuit are slaves. This way, we don't get messages from all PCs, just one per circuit. We can monitor each circuit individually now. Not only does APC's PowerChute Linux version not run on most of our machines (needs X) but you just can't customize it that way I have learned with apcupsd. Plus, powerchute likes to go out and find everything and I don't want that. Many of our machines are just servers and don't have X. They don't need it. 
Yes, fixing apcupsd so that it doesn't send out power loss messages
during the automatic self test is definitely on my list of things
to do, and I will make sure it is in the next release. Your vote
does count as much as everyone else's. In fact, you just gave me
an idea - it might be good to have an optional configuration directive
that delays the onbattery event for a given number of seconds, and
if the condition is cleared, the event would be dropped. This could
eliminate a lot of noise for small problems that are easily handled
by apcupsd.

This sounds perfect. I'm sure many people could use this feature.
Thanks,

Charles
- Use links and .bat files instead of .pifs on Win32
- Pass second argument to apccontrol indicating if
  we are master/slave and other info.
- Add multiple arguments to apccontrol


========================================
From: Alan W. Irwin <irwin@beluga.phys.uvic.ca>
To: apcupsd-devel@apcupsd.org
Subject: [Apcupsd-devel] Comparison of the official Debian unstable package for apcupsd-3.8.5 with my own
Date: 15 Feb 2002 12:30:05 -0800
I compared the official version with my unofficial patch to do the same thing,
and except for two files in my patch, I think the official patch is the same
or better.

The official patch completely ignores
apcupsd-3.8.5/distributions/debian/packageinfo and instead creates its own
apcupsd-3.8.5/debian directory.  The apcupsd team might consider adopting
the official debian patch (which has no impact outside the debian directory)
and dropping the packaginfo directory (which is misnamed, and which contains
white-space munged versions of a subset of the files in the official debian
directory).  I would recommend the official patch over my own because they
included some additional minor fixups to the files in the debian directory.

The only exceptions where I did a better job are the files named
packageinfo/undocumented and packageinfo/examples in my patch which should
replace debian/undocumented and debian/examples in the official Debian
patch. The file named "undocumented" documents executables which should have
a man page, but don't, and "examples" is a list of example files to install.
"examples" is seriously incomplete for the official debian patch.  For
example, it does not include safe.apccontrol so that file is not part of the
official Debian package, but it is part of mine.

To summarize, I just installed the official version for Debian unstable
apcupsd-3.8.5 and aside from some example and man page files which are
missing it works as well as can be expected for a BackUPS with 940-0023A cable
connected to the Master which in turn is connected to a slave (also on
UPS) via the LAN.  My patch should be put in the dustbin except for the
files named "undocumented" and "examples".

One thing I noticed relevant to documentation fixups is their example
apcupsd.conf specifically replaced the configuration parameter SERVERPORT
with NISPORT.  Assuming the Debian packager knows what he is doing, this means
such a transition has occurred in 3.8.5, but I cannot find it in the
documentation.  Also, if SERVERPORT is going to be replaced by NISPORT, I
suggest you also do the replacement in examples/apcupsd.slave.conf and
examples/apcupsd.master.conf for consistency.

Alan

email: irwin@beluga.phys.uvic.ca
phone: 250-727-2902     FAX: 250-721-7715
snail-mail:
Dr. Alan W. Irwin
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P6
__________________________

Linux-powered astrophysics
__________________________



                                      From: Alan W. Irwin <irwin@beluga.phys.uvic.ca>
                                      Cc: Apcupsd-devel <apcupsd-devel@apcupsd.org>
                                      Subject: Re: [Apcupsd-devel] Debian woody apcupsd-3.8.5 working so far in safe mode (was Cannot get Debian woody apcupsd-3.8.1.5 to actually shutdown the computer even though dumb UPS signalling seems to be w
                                      Date: 14 Feb 2002 20:13:44 -0800
                                      On 14 Feb 2002, Kern Sibbald wrote:

>
> 1). Yes, NETACCESS is not documented -- an oversight, but
>     it is in fact not used and we hope to remove it.
>     I've put it on my todo list -- thanks.

Note that examples/apcupsd.master.conf and examples/apcupsd.slave.conf have
this parameter (and perhaps other example configuration files as well?) so
it should be removed from these example files when you remove NETACCESS
altogether.

>
> 2.  I found this a bit surprising. So I looked into the
>     problem a bit more and found that there is a bit of
>     confusion -- perhaps in our manual as well. Basically,
>     it appears that the shutdown on both machines is done
>     immediately. What is delayed 30 seconds on the master
>     is the kill power request to the UPS.
>     In looking at the kill power code for 3.8.5, the master,
>     regardless of whether it is a Dumb or Smart UPS, waits
>     30 seconds before setting the kill power bit, then
>     after setting it, it waits an additional 10 seconds to
>     hold the bit on.  Clearly at least the documentation
>     could be improved on this. It is now on my todo list.
>
>     Modifying apccontrol is the best way to correct the situation.
>     You are right -- it does get overwritten on the next installation.
>     I'll put this on my todo list to see if we can find a solution.

Thanks.  While I am asking, I suppose I should ask for the Moon....;-)
Ideally, what I would like to see is a configurable wait (although 30
seconds is not bad) after the remote shutdown command is sent to the slaves
before the master starts its shutdown.  This is important when the slaves
(such as mine) depend on the Master to export their NFS mounted files
systems, for example.

>
>
> 3.  This is a general problem with installation. Basically the
>     installation is designed for a stand alone situation, so when
>     you installed the slave, it installed the instructions in your
>     halt script necessary to recall apcupsd at the end of the shutdown
>     to kill the power. This can be fixed either as you did or by
>     deleting the changes to the halt script. We've made improvements
>     in the installation process for 3.8.5, but it probably merits more
>     attention.

Thanks.

>
> Feature request:
> Unfortunately, it is impossible to implement what you ask for the
> 023A cable due to the physical limitations of the cable
> wiring. Here is a section from our manual on the subject:
>
>       This cable can only be used on simple signaling UPSes,
>       and apparently only provides the On Battery signal. As
>       a consequence, this cable is pretty much useless, and
>       we recommend that you find a better cable because all
>       APC UPSes support more than just On Battery.
>

Thanks for pointing me to that reference.  I will probably just grit my
teeth and live with the 23A limitations.


> If you have any Debian patches or changes for our 3.8.5 code that would
help us, please send them to us.

See attached.

Here are the instructions for building the debian woody package,
apcupsd_3.8.5-1_i386.deb.

Apply this patch to a clean 3.8.5 tree, then cd into the patched tree

cd apcupsd-3.8.5

and either

ln -s distributions/debian/packageinfo debian
or
mv distributions/debian/packageinfo debian
or
mv distributions/debian/packageinfo distributions/debian/debian

(I only tried the first of these, but I think the others would work as well.
I also could have put some variation of this as part of the patch, but that
makes for a larger patch, and I will leave it to the apcupsd team to decide
the best way to rename packageinfo to debian. The point is that the current
packageinfo/rules file *must* be accessible as debian/rules in order for the
debian build software to work.) Then build the package (stay in directory
apcupsd-3.8.5 to invoke this command, but look for the generated deb file in
directory above)

debuild -us -uc

As a first step, this command scans through the tree to find the debian/rules file
so that is why you must symlink or rename packageinfo above.

debuild worked without errors for me, (and also the installed package works
well on my two Debian Master and Slave systems). To install the package simply
cd .. ; dpkg --install apcupsd_3.8.5-1_i386.deb, and follow normal procedure
for configuring and testing apcupsd.

Despite my success in building and installing apcupsd_3.8.5-1_i386.deb, I
cannot guarantee any success for others since their situation may be
different.  However, I believe it is at least a good start to packaging
3.8.5 for Debian because I have taken the approach of making minimalist
changes to 3.8.5 guided by the current official Debian packaging. I have
added needed files to the debian (a.k.a. packageinfo) tree (and also removed
one unneeded one) and tweaked the contents of a few files (such as the
undocumented man pages and the examples).  However, the most important
change is white-space issues in the debian/rules file.  Whitespace issues
are important there since that is a makefile. Somehow the whitespace in
rules got badly munged for 3.8.5. Without my patch (which reverts to the
official Debian rules file with correct whitespace), that file is unusuable.

I will also be submitting my patch to Debian as part of a bug report.

Alan

email: irwin@beluga.phys.uvic.ca
phone: 250-727-2902     FAX: 250-721-7715
snail-mail:
Dr. Alan W. Irwin
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P6
__________________________

Linux-powered astrophysics
__________________________


gzip-compressed file attachment (patch.debian.gz), "Patch file which allows Debian packaging of 3.8.5"
     
Documentation:
 
Munagala Ramanath <Munagala.Ramanath@PostX.com>

I would add documentation improvements as A16 if you
have the bandwidth to do it. Specifically:

1. A separate section discussing master/slave setup,
   discussing for example the order in which the master
   and slaves should be activated, how often they
   communicate, who initiates the communication, what
   happens if the master goes down or some (or even _all_
   the slaves go down), etc.

2. (done)
   In the "Configure Options" section, add a note that
   many of these configuration options are equivalent
   to changing the corresponding option in the apcupsd.conf
   file. Similarly, add a note in the "Configuration Directives"
   section that some of these directives are set based on
   --with options given to the configure script.

3. (done)
   In the Solaris section, ask users to verify that they have
   either /usr/sbin (or /etc since /etc/shutdown is just a
   symbolic link to /usr/sbin/shutdown) before /usr/ucb in
   their path to avoid using the wrong shutdown program.

4. (done)
   In the Solaris section (this may be worth adding to the
   other systems as well) that discusses modifying /sbin/rc0
   add a note saying that if you want to manually reboot
   the machines you can skip this step (I prefer to manually
   reboot my machines after a powerfail because it is not
   unusual for power to fail and return a couple of times
   in rapid succession and I don't want to worry about the
   unpredictability of power shutting off during a reboot)

5. (done)
   Add a note in the "Solaris EEPROM Changes" section that
   recent versions of Solaris (7 & 8) appear to have removed
   this eeprom option and there seems to be no way to suppress
   the serial port probing during boot.

6. Add a section specifically devoted to setup and testing
   for dumb UPSes. I first tried cables 940-0024C and 940-1524C
   with a BackUPS 500 but was unable to make it work (when I
   pulled the power cord, the event was not detected by the
   demon). I couldn't tell if I was using the wrong cable or
   if something else was wrong. So I went out and bought a
   SmartUPS and this seems to work OK.

7. In the "Configuration Directives" section, it would be useful
   if for each parameter, the following is specified:
   -- what the values should be for master and slave (e.g. UPSCABLE
      should be "ether" for the slaves -- this is stated in the
      description of MASTER; it would be helpful to put it in the
      description of UPSCABLE).
   -- whether it is required or optional.
   -- what exactly "default value" means (e.g. the DEVICE option
      says the default is /dev/ttyS[0|1|2|3|4]; it is not clear
      how multiple values can be a "default" and also whether
      I can simply comment out this option to get the default or
      whether it just means the configure script will choose a default
      but this option is required.

8. (done)
   In the discussion of TIMEOUT, it says "The timeout for the master
   is always 30 seconds longer than slaves". It is not clear if this
   means slave_timeout = master_timeout - 30 or master_timeout =
   slave_timeout + 30, or something else.

From Carl:
I'm responding to Kern's recent note, in regard to Solaris issues:

>3. In the Solaris section, ask users to verify that they have
  either /usr/sbin (or /etc since /etc/shutdown is just a
  symbolic link to /usr/sbin/shutdown) before /usr/ucb in
  their path to avoid using the wrong shutdown program.

Would it make sense to directly call /usr/sbin/shutdown, and
ignore the /usr/ucb/shutdown script entirely? I have never
heard of anyone moving this script from where it is installed,
although that would be possible. In such a case, a note that
says: If you moved shutdown for some reason, be aware your
must also modify the apc scripts to reflect the new location.

Sun has stated a number of times that /usr/sbin/shutdown is
the recommended way to gracefully stop the system. Since this
file is a shell script, it can be easily modified, but again,
almost no one does this.

Directly calling the script would eliminate any confusion, but
would require extra effort if for some reason the user moved
the script somewhere else. Still, it's a simpler, more fool-
proof approach.

>4. In the Solaris section (this may be worth adding to the
  other systems as well) that discusses modifying /sbin/rc0
  add a note saying that if you want to manually reboot
  the machines you can skip this step (I prefer to manually
  reboot my machines after a powerfail because it is not
  unusual for power to fail and return a couple of times
  in rapid succession and I don't want to worry about the
  unpredictability of power shutting off during a reboot)

Yes, or give the option during the config, and run a script
of some kind to do the editing (or not, if the user chooses
to skip automated shutdown).

>5. Add a note in the "Solaris EEPROM Changes" section that
  recent versions of Solaris (7 & 8) appear to have removed
  this eeprom option and there seems to be no way to suppress
  the serial port probing during boot.

I'm not sure this is accurate. Solaris X86 still has this
option in Solaris 8 - I am running it as my primary machine
at home. Solaris Sparc never needed this option, as it did
not probe the serial ports during boot. Only the new Sun
'Sunblade' machines seem to need the option, and do not
have it. I've spoken to my friends at Sun, and am awaiting
a response. As of now, I do not know of a work-around for
the SunBlade systems.

But my Sun Ultra-80 at work runs fine, and does not have the
noprobe option. It just doesn't need it. As far as reports go,
only the Sunblade machines seem to have a problem.

Perhaps a note should be added that we cannot support the
Sunblade models at this time, and why. Sun also just added
a new line of rack servers, and they may also be sensitive
to this. But I have no reports yet, and do not have one of the
new Netra servers to test with.

I am going to write to one of our friends at APC, and see if
they are aware of the problem. They were recently certified as
a 'Solaris-Ready' hardware vendor. Perhaps they are working on
a solution with Sun already.

But there is still no problem with either X86 or the majority
of the Sparc systems out there, so there is also no cause for
panic about this.

What would be great would be a way to tell the UPS to ignore
the handshake probe for a few minutes after powerup. That
would get us past the problem, unless the user delayed turning
on the system after power returned.

Earlier email from Ram:
Thanks for your comments:

1. Yes, good point, I will create a second safe.apccontrol script
   for systems requiring printf | wall.  On my Linux system, 
   printf | wall sometimes prints nothing, which is why I changed
   it for this debug script.

   Thanks for pointing out the -a option on Solaris. I will add it
   to the Solaris file (this option does not appear to be available
   on other systems).

2. Hmm. Not too surprising given all the changes. I'll look at it.
   Thanks.

3. Thanks for the suggestion for the doc, I will add them shortly.
   Here is briefly what I will add.
   --- No, you can start the master/slaves in any order they will
       ultimately sync up. The "preferable" order is to bring the
       slave up first since it waits for the master to contact it.
       Note, I added a new output to the STATUS command some time
       ago. It is MASTERUPD which indicates the last time the
       slave was updated from the master. MASTERUPD appears only
       in slave configurations.
   --- Yes there is a default NETTIME. It is 60 seconds. NETPORT
       has no default, but if you don't modify the standard
acpupsd.conf.in
       file, it will be set. The value is system dependent, but
       generally 6666 (but it is 6544 on Debian by default, ...).
       The configured (possibly by default) NETPORT will be
displayed
       in the output of your ./configure
   --- When running as a netslave, the DEVICE is ignored. The
UPSCABLE
       should be set to "ether" (without quotes), and the UPSTYPE
should
       be set to the same type as the master.  In a future version,
I
       hope to fix this so that ALL information is pulled from the
       master. There is a new section of the 3.8.2 manual (rather
crude
       at the moment) called "Configuration Examples" which is
intended
       to help in this regard.

Thanks for your comments.

Best regards,

Kern

Munagala Ramanath wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> A couple of minor points w.r.t. the Solaris version:
> 
> 1. The safe.apccontrol script uses "wall <string>" but this usage is not
>     valid on Solaris; wall gets its input from a file or stdin. The
> apccontrol script
>     uses "printf <string> | wall" which works. Also, it may be better to use
>     "wall -a" because this will write to _all_ terminal windows rather than
> just
>     console windows (if the user does not have a console window, he doesn't
>     see the message).
> 2. The installed apcupsd script has an unused variable "sbindir=@sysbindir@"
> 
> For the master/slave mode, it will be useful to add answers to the following
> questions:
> 
> -- Does it matter if the master demon is started first or the slaves first ?
> -- Is there a default value for NETTIME and NETPORT or is it necessary
>    to specify these explicitly in the conf file ?
> -- If UPSCLASS is set to netslave, does it matter what UPSCABLE,
>    UPSTYPE and DEVICE are set to ?
> 
> Thanks for an excellent package!

Items done:
- Add 10 second delay in apccontrol before the killpower.
- Make pthreads the default.
- Check INSTALL path on Solaris.
- Save script files on install (mainsback,...) rather than overwriting
  them.
- Document need for 10 second delay to make USB killpower work.
- Make sure rpm for 3.10.6 doesn't install the manual
  in .../man8/man8/...
- Check what changes were made to the Mandrake spec file to make non-root
  rebuilds work.
- The USB chapter is out of date as supposedly refers to files
  that do not exist in the current release.
- Switch to using /dev/usb/hiddev[0-9] in place of 
  /dev/usb/hid/hiddev[0-9] in the next release.     
- Modify hid-ups.c to handle both forms.
- Extend apcupsd to handle [0-15].
- Generate events when slave makes/looses a connection.
  Already done, I think, but check it.
- Fix USB battery voltage scaling problem (factor of 
  10 to small).
- Document the -b option, and for some reason -b and --killpower
  cannot be used together.
- Figure out why make -j doesn't work.
- Look into libgd
# This is what I was talking about in my last mail.  If the makefile had
  a variable similar to apaches' "root", all those "install" lines could
  be replaced by a single "make install root=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT".  This
  also makes life a LOT easier if someone would like to write another
  spec-file later.
- Send list of USB programming problems to APC.
- Make make install so that it can work with rpm