Thanks to all who responded:
foster@bial1.ucsd.edu
thadm@oregonian.com
jim@nga.com
mike@trdlnk.com
gfranczyk@carbomedics.com
First, "mail" in the original message is /usr/ucb/mail which is a link
to /usr/bin/mailx which means that the only program which was failing
(in the info I gave) was /usr/bin/mailx.
The solution was to stop and restart /usr/lib/nfs/lockd. Actually
the true solution was to start statd and lockd.
The problem was that, somehow, statd got deleted, so when the
machine was rebooted, both statd and lockd never got started.
I guess I misinformed the list about no configuration changes, not
counting the installation of the most recent patch cluster as a
configuration change.
lockd not running created some other software problems which eventually
led me to this solution.
K
> Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 15:10:53 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Keith Willenson <keith@oz>
> Subject: mail problems
>
> I throw myself upon the collective wisdom of this list.
>
> Suddenly (i.e.) no configuration changes, mailtool has stopped working
> properly. It correctly reads, sends, updates, and deletes mail
> from /var/mail/user. However if user tries to Load a saved mail file
> or move a message to another mail file, mailtool "freezes". I.e. the
> waiting cursor appears and never goes away. The mailtool window becomes
> unresponsive.
>
> "mail" does not show waiting mail messages. It too "freezes".
> "mailx" also "freezes".
>
> The binaries appear to be the correct size, date, and sum.
>
> /usr/dt/bin/dtmail works perfectly. It reads inbox, writes and saves
> mail files, etc.
>
> elm also works just fine.
>
> This is happening for all users.
>
> Mail is delivered and sent to a box running SunOS 4.1.1
> All user workstations are Solaris 2.6. /var/spool/mail from SunOS 4.1.1
> machine is NFS mounted on user workstations. Each user's home directory
> is NFS mounted from a common Solaris 2.5.1 computer.
>
> I have snooped the network and nothing seems to be happening when I
> invoke mail or mailx or try to load a mail file from mailtool.
>
> Also, I can't control-C out of mail or mailx. If I kill or kill -9 the
> mail process, the process dies, but the xterm does not ever return a prompt.
>
> I do have users on character based logins who are used to "mail".
> Also most of my gui users are accustomed to mailtool.
>
> Any suggestions other than retraining them?
>
> K
>
Keith Willenson - Sr. Systems Analyst - Minnesota Department of Health, MCSS
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