serial line connection (tip/cu, uucp) betweed DEC 3100 and SCO Unix

[Tony Carrato]

Dear Netland,

I'm having a heck of a time getting a completely successful serial line
connection between a DECsystem (not DECstation) 3100 and an SCO Unix V.3.2
system (386-based).  The problems I've been having are:

1) The port on the SCO side talks quite nicely at 8 bits, no parity.  The
DECsystem port (the MMJ port next to the console port) is at 7 bits,
even parity.  I've tried two different gettys on that port, std.9600 and
P, aka 8bit.9600.  Both have a "pd" field in /etc/gettytab, which is
alleged to turn off parity.  I'm assuming that means no parity but
that may be incorrect.

2) Term, from Century S/W, a rather nice package, connects like a champ
from the SCO Unix box into the DECsystem.  However, when I exit from it
(I'm using the "select.cmd" file supplied to make the connection) it
leaves a lock file around.   (Don't know that it matters but the port
is on a Digiboard 16 port board.  Terminals on that port work fine.)

3) If I try a uucp connection from either side I get about to the point
of noticing a "ogin:" and sending a user name but not through password
checking.

4) After an initial failure with uucp, any retries run into the "not enough
time has gone by" issue.  This is true from either side of the link.  I've
tried modifying the time to call field in the L.sys (Ultrix) and Systems (Unix)
files from "Any" to "Any,1" to permit retries after 1 minute but it doesn't
seem to have any effect.

5) After a failed uucp attempt, tip on the DECsystem declines to connect to
the Unix system with a message "all ports busy".  If I log into the DECsystem
from the Unix system using term, things go back to normal.

6) CU on the Unix system chokes trying to talk to the DECsystem.  I get
the start of a normal login then the screen on the Unix side starts scrolling
madly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tony Carrato
Mile-High Information Services, Inc.
...!uunet!mhinfo!carrato