20030404: McIDAS error message on startup

>From: "Anderson, Alan C. " <address@hidden>
>Organization: St. Cloud State
>Keywords: 200303252255.h2PMtRB2003110 McIDAS REDIRECT SYSKEY.TAB

Hi Alan,

>I have set up McIDAS2002 on a terminal called cyclone, here.   It was a
>new install (no previous version present) and everything seemed to be
>fine.   I think I had one or two minor glitches, but you helped me get
>them straightened out a week or two back.  At any rate, it seemed to
>work fine.
>
>Now, when I start McIDAS, I get the following:
>
># the following message appeared when trying to start McIDAS as user
>student.
># McIDAS initially started, but then exited, leaving this message.
>
>cyclone% mcidas
>cyclone% Error in startup script: system key word 1 read failed (-1)
>    while executing
>"mcidas syskey get $i"
>    (procedure "syskeyLoad" line 10)
>    invoked from within
>"syskeyLoad"
>    (file "/home/mcidas/bin/mcgui.k" line 1279)
>
>#
>#

This is telling us that 'student's environment does not have access
to the file SYSKEY.TAB, or that the access (through a REDIRECTion)
is pointing at a file that is not readable or is zero length.  You
should logon as that student and do the following to determine what
is causing the problem:

<login as the 'student'>
cd mcidas/data
dmap.k SYSKEY.TAB

Does the file exist?  Is the REDIRECTion correct?  If the file exists,
is it readable?

I am betting that the REDIRECTion for SYSKEY.TAB in the 'student' account 
either does not exist, or is incorrect.  Correcting this should stop
the error messages from occurring.

>I don't think I changed anything,  except to  change the window size to
>more nearly match our monitor screen,  but did this last week and
>things seemed to work fine after the change  (at least for a while).  I
>have opened telnet on this terminal if that is needed:
>cyclone.stcloudstate.edu User mcidas is  same as on waldo.

I tried to both telnet and ssh to cyclone with no luck.  I would
guess that it is behind a firewall, and access to it has not been
allowed.  If you opened up waldo, I would most likely be able to
get to cyclone from it.  If you decide to do this, please give me
the password for the 'student' account.  Logging on as that user
is the only way to examine the problem.

>I have also installed ssh,  and it seems to be running,  but am not
>sure how to make use of it.   Will be checking with my network man to
>see how it is put to work.

OK.  ssh is _much_ better than allowing telnet.  The main reason for
this is that passwords typed in a telnet prompt go over the net
as plain text, so they can be easily seen and grabbed.  ssh, on
the other hand, encrypts everything, so passwords can't be sniffed.

One other thing.  I would strongly advise you to update passwords
for your 'ldm', 'mcidas', and 'root' users on waldo and other
machines.  The reason is that they may have been sniffed when I
used telnet.  If you decide to change these and you still want me
to logon, you should send me, not support, the passwords in a
message without identifying which passwords go with which account.
Alternatively, you could call me and tell me the passwords on the
phone.  I will be in my office all day until about 4:30.

>Let me know what you think.

I am more than willing to snoop around and correct any problems I
see if I can get access.

Tom