SRDB ID   Synopsis   Date
21962   The Green Newt Cursor appears and stays on the SunRay1 appliance   14 Mar 2000

Status Issued

Description
After logging out of the SunRay1, only a green newt appears.
dtlogin does not restart.

This guide explains the significance of the green newt cursor, which 
may appear on the Sun RayTM 1 enterprise appliance monitor.

SOLUTION SUMMARY:
The green newt cursor is the default cursor for the Sun Ray 1 appliance. 
The cursor remains as a green newt until an application, typically the 
X Window server (Xsun), changes the cursor to an "X", hourglass, or 
arrow. The green newt cursor does not necessarily mean the Sun Ray 1 
appliance is hung or in an error condition, but rather that the 
Sun Ray 1 appliance is ready and awaiting display rendering commands 
from Xsun.

The Xsun server is started by the dtlogin daemon. In the process of 
starting the Xsun server, the dtlogin daemon reads two configuration 
files:

     /etc/dt/config/Xservers 
     /etc/dt/config/Xconfig 

If the green newt cursor is displayed for an extended period, there is 
no X Window server running. The problem can usually be traced back to 
an older version of the dtlogin daemon or the configuration files for 
the dtlogin daemon.

To troubleshoot a green newt cursor, you need to consider:

     Is There Really a Problem? 
     Is the Problem Caused by Hardware? 
     Is the dtlogin Daemon Up-to-Date? 
     Is the dtlogin Session Hung? 
     Are the Configuration Files Corrupt? 


Is There Really a Problem? 

The Sun Ray administration model has six user session types:

     Default     --   normal user login 
     Register    --   user self-registration 
     Kiosk       --   anonymous user operation 
     Insert card --   user smart card required 
     Card error  --   unrecognized user smart card type 
     No entry    --   user's smart card token is blocked 

The first three session types have normal login processes. The last 
three session types do not have a login process at all, but display an 
icon on the Sun Ray 1 appliance monitor along with the green newt 
cursor. The icons indicate that the user must take other steps before 
successful login is possible. If the user were to immediately remove 
and reinsert the smart card, the icon would disappear, but the green 
newt cursor would remain.

These last three session types, their icons, and the appearance of the 
green newt cursor are not cause for alarm. The user can:

     Insert a recognized smart card in the correct orientation 
     Ask the Sun Ray administrator to grant access 

See the Sun Ray 1 Quick Reference and Sun Ray 1 Troubleshooting Guide 
for more information regarding Sun Ray 1 appliance startup and the 
icons displayed.


Is the Problem Caused by Hardware? 

Sluggish Sun Ray server performance or excessive disk swapping is an 
indication that the Sun Ray server is under-provisioned. Under these
circumstances, there is just not enough virtual memory available to 
start an X Window server instance for a user's session. If after several
retries the Xsun process does not start, the dtlogin daemon just gives 
up. With no X Window server running, the cursor remains a green newt.

The solution in this situation is to add more memory or increase the 
size of the swap partition. See the Sun Ray Enterprise Server Software 
1.0 Administrator's Guide and the Sun Ray Enterprise Server Software 
1.0 Installation Guide for information regarding Sun Ray server sizing 
requirements.


Is the dtlogin Daemon Up-to-Date? 

The dtlogin daemon is part of the SolarisTM operating environment and 
has existed long before the Sun Ray software. The Sun Ray administration
model uses the dtlogin daemon in new ways, such that certain bugs in the 
dtlogin daemon have become apparent. Patches to fix these bugs in
the dtlogin daemon are available.

At the time of this writing, the following patches were available:

     For CDE: 

         105703-19 (Solaris 2.6 CDE 1.2: dtlogin patch)

         107180-17 (Solaris 7   CDE 1.3: dtlogin patch) 

     For the X Window server: 

         105633-35 (Solaris 2.6 OpenWindows 3.6: Xsun patch) 

         108376-03 (Solaris 7   OpenWindows 3.6.1: Xsun Patch) 

For the latest information regarding Sun Ray software bugs and patches, 
check this URL:

     http://www.sun.com/products/sunray1/patches.html 

Solaris operating environment patches and other software patches are 
available at these URLs:

     http://access1.sun.com 
     http://www.sunsolve.sun.com

Note - An additional patch, 108303-xx, is available to correct a bug in 
the utdtsession command. This patch helps prevent corruption of the 
/etc/dt/config/Xservers and /etc/dtconfig/Xconfig files. 


Is the dtlogin Session Hung? 

Under certain circumstances, the dtlogin daemon may not be able to start 
the Xsun server. Without an X Window server running, the cursor remains 
a green newt. In this case, the dtlogin daemon has given up and has 
marked the user's session as bad. Consequently, this action prevents
any further X Window server start-up attempts for the user's session.

To resolve this situation, the dtlogin session must be manually 
unconfigured. After which, the system will automatically reconfigure 
the session.


Caution - If patch 108303-xx has not been applied, Step 12 of this 
procedure could corrupt the /etc/dt/config/Xservers or
/etc/dtconfig/Xconfig files. Verify the integrity of these files after 
conducting this procedure. See the next section, "Are the Configuration
Files Corrupt?" 

    
    To Identify and Unconfigure the dtlogin Session 


     1. On the keyboard of the Sun Ray 1 appliance displaying the green 
newt cursor, press all three audio keys at the same time. 

     An icon with the last six digits of the Sun Ray 1 appliance 
     Ethernet address is displayed. 

     2. Record the six hexadecimal digits. 

         For example, B05E25. 

     3. Keep the smart card inserted in the Sun Ray 1 appliance that is 
        hung. 

     4. On another Sun Ray 1 appliance or the Sun Ray server, log in as 
        superuser and open a shell window. 

     5. Create a server status file. 

         Be sure to press the Return key after typing sunraystatus.

          # telnet localhost 7010 > /tmp/sunraystatus

          status


         The file is created and Telnet is exited. 

     6. Edit the file using vi:

      # vi /tmp/sunraystatus



The following is an excerpt of a sunraystatus file. This example 
illustrates the information used from Step 7 through Step 10:
         .

         .

 begin

 terminalId=CoronaP1.080020b05e25        (Step 7)

         .

         .

 tokenName=ZeroAdmin.m1.MicroPayflex.00005bca65000100    (Step 9, 10)

         .

         .

 end     (Step 8)

         .

         .




     7. Search for the Ethernet address:

      :set ic

      :/address


         Where address is the Ethernet address from Step 1. For example, 
B05E25. 

         In the example, the cursor is moved to the line: terminalId=Coro
naP1.080020b05e25. 

     8. Scan down the listing until the word end is encountered. 

     9. Scan back up for the word tokenName. 

         In the example: tokenName=ZeroAdmin.m1.MicroPayflex.00005bca6500
0100. 

     10. Record the text following the = sign. 

         In the example: ZeroAdmin.m1.MicroPayflex.00005bca65000100. 

     11. Exit vi:

      :q




     12. Unconfigure the dtlogin session:

      # /opt/SUNWut/lib/utdtsession -t text delete


         Where text is the text recorded in Step 10. For example, 
         ZeroAdmin.m1.MicroPayflex.00005bca65000100. 

     13. Reboot the hung Sun Ray 1 appliance by pressing the Control 
         and Power keys simultaneously. Alternatively, remove and 
         reinsert the smart card. 

         The dtlogin session is automatically reconfigured and presented 
         on the Sun Ray 1 appliance. 


Are the Configuration Files Corrupt? 

These two configuration files are susceptible to corruption:

     /etc/dt/config/Xservers 
     /etc/dt/config/Xconfig 

These files are used by the dtlogin daemon. When they are corrupt, the 
dtlogin daemon cannot properly start the Xsun server. Without an 
X Window server running, the cursor remains a green newt.

    
    To Determine the Integrity of the Configuration Files 

     1. As a user of the Sun Ray server, open a shell window and compare 
the /usr/dt/config/Xservers and
     /etc/dt/config/Xservers files:

      % diff /usr/dt/config/Xservers /etc/dt/config/Xservers

         This command compares a known good file with the suspect file. 
         The output should be similar to the following example:

          106a107,130

          > # BEGIN SUNRAY CONFIGURATION

          > :8 SunRay local@none /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun :8 -nobanner

                  .

                  .

          > :9 SunRay local@none /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun :9 -nobanner

          > # END SUNRAY CONFIGURATION



     Note - This is a simplified example. Your output may have tens of 
     lines between the BEGIN SUNRAY CONFIGURATION and END SUNRAY
     CONFIGURATION comments. 


     In the first line of output, there is 106a107,130. The 106 means 
     that the two files are identical to the 106th line of the files. 
     The a107,130 means the information on lines 107 through 130 of the 
     second file would have to be added to the first file to make it 
     the same as the second. 

     If in your output the first three digits are a number less than 
     100, the /etc/dt/config/Xservers file is corrupt. 

     2. Compare the /usr/dt/config/Xconfig and 
        /etc/dt/config/Xconfig files:

      % diff /usr/dt/config/Xconfig /etc/dt/config/Xconfig

         The output should be similar to the following example:

          156a157,180

          > # BEGIN SUNRAY CONFIGURATION

          > Dtlogin.*_8.environment: CORONA_TOKEN=ZeroAdmin.m1.at88sc1608
.6d0400aa
                  .

                  .

          > Dtlogin.*_9.environment: CORONA_TOKEN=ZeroAdmin.m1.at88sc1608
.a10100aa

          > # END SUNRAY CONFIGURATION


     Note - Again, this is a simplified example. Your output may have 
     tens of lines between the BEGIN SUNRAY CONFIGURATION and END
     SUNRAY CONFIGURATION comments. 


     If in your output the first three digits are a number less than 
     154, the /etc/dt/config/Xconfig file is corrupt. 

    
    To Replace the Xservers and Xconfig Files 


Note - Replacing the Xservers file requires shutting down all Sun Ray 1 a
ppliance services. Remember to inform the users of the outage. 


     1. As superuser, open a shell window and stop the Sun Ray server:

      # /etc/init.d/utsvc stop


     2. Replace the Xservers and Xconfig files as appropriate:

      # /bin/cp -p /usr/dt/config/Xservers /etc/dt/config/Xservers


      # /bin/cp -p /usr/dt/config/Xconfig /etc/dt/config/Xconfig


     3. Re-initialize the authentication policy:

      # /opt/SUNWut/sbin/utpolicy -i clear


The utpolicy command will wait for a full minute to insure that all 
Sun Ray 1 appliance X Window servers have exited. 

The extra lines within the previous Xservers and Xconfig files are 
automatically rebuilt. 

INTERNAL SUMMARY:
http://webhome2.eng/iawpubs/5minute/newt/newt.html
SUBMITTER: Andras Cser APPLIES TO: Hardware, Operating Systems/Solaris/Solaris 2.x ATTACHMENTS:


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