whfc and fax queue problem (Was : Re: WHFC 0.3b)

[Phil Watkinson <pkw@elgro.co.uk>]

At 09:05 14/04/97 +1200, Jonathan Chen <jonc@pinnacle.co.nz> wrote:
>
>On my system, HylaFAX runs on the server with the faxq, hfaxd and
>faxgetty processes active all the time. All the versions of WHFC we've
>downloaded still freezes. It appears to be pretty random process on
>all the 5 PC's that I've installed it on..
>

Well, we seem to have whfc 0.3a running *in a fashion* now. What seems
to make the difference for us is to ensure that no faxes are in the 
servers' queue before sending another via whfc.

The user of whfc has found a routine for herself where she waits for the
email notification for each fax before trying to send the next one. (The
'notify' parameter is set to 'always').

I can't say whether it's whfc or the our server setup that is causing
this problem, but it may be worth a test.

Here is a extract from the syslog file which shows what happens when a
fax is sent from whfc when there is something already in the send queue
( I've deleted the hostname and the date to try to fit it on a line ) :-

16:05:00 FaxSend[18442]: SEND FAX: JOB 60 DEST 01736850960 COMMID 00000072
16:05:15 FaxSend[18442]: SEND FAILED: Busy signal detected
16:05:30 FaxGetty[259]: MODEM USROBOTICS SPORTSTER 28800 FAX...[blah,blah] 
16:06:20 HylaFAX[18449]: Filesystem has SysV-style file creation semantics.

So, job 60 still hasn't gone, and another fax is sent from whfc..        

16:06:21 FaxQueuer[224]: SUBMIT JOB 61

Whfc now crashes, and I see later that a zoomie hfaxd process is left on
the server. 

16:08:18 FaxGetty[259]: ANSWER: Can not lock modem device
16:08:21 FaxSend[18455]: MODEM USROBOTICS SPORTSTER 28800 FAX...
16:08:21 FaxSend[18455]: SEND FAX: JOB 60 DEST 01736850960 COMMID 00000073
16:08:37 FaxSend[18455]: SEND FAILED: Busy signal detected
16:08:52 FaxGetty[259]: MODEM USROBOTICS SPORTSTER 28800 FAX...
16:11:40 FaxGetty[259]: ANSWER: Can not lock modem device
16:11:43 FaxSend[18463]: MODEM USROBOTICS SPORTSTER 28800 FAX...
16:11:43 FaxSend[18463]: SEND FAX: JOB 60 DEST 01736850960 COMMID 00000074
16:11:59 FaxSend[18463]: SEND FAILED: Busy signal detected
16:12:14 FaxGetty[259]: MODEM USROBOTICS SPORTSTER 28800 FAX...
16:15:02 FaxGetty[259]: ANSWER: Can not lock modem device
.
.
16:19:11 FaxSend[18545]: SEND FAX: JOB 60 DEST 01736850960 COMMID 00000076
16:20:00 kernel: PPP: ppp line discipline successfully unregistered
16:20:47 FaxQueuer[224]: NOTIFY: bin/notify "doneq/q60" "done" "1:41"
16:20:57 FaxSend[18582]: MODEM USROBOTICS SPORTSTER 28800 FAX...

Job 60 is eventually sent successfully, the next fax is sent from whfc..

16:20:57 FaxSend[18582]: SEND FAX: JOB 61 DEST 01736850960 COMMID 00000077

..and is given the Job number of 61 again. Hope this helps someone,

Cheers,
Phil Watkinson,
Boston, UK.