Aloha XP Term install 1

[ironmike1000]

I was asked to help a friend out with his Aloha system because I support PixelPoint systems. This is my first time seeing Aloha, and what a mess...First off He has a NT 4.0 server with 9 liscences. 7 terms are up and running fine. He merged his bar with a new tenant in the restaurant area who had 2 Radiant XP emmbedded terminals. I was asked to add these terminals to the system. Lets deal with one terminal at a time. First I got the terminal on the network and got the server accessing files and vise versa...Then I shared the c:\ on the Term as BOOTDRV and mapped a drive named z:\Alohaboh\bootdrv (I have read numerous posts here before I started) I made sure the only protocol that is installed is TCP/IP (no NetBUI). Then I went through the Z:\Alohaboh\bootdrv drive and found the TermInst folder and installed the terminal software, it installed fine without errors, asked for a reboot, but upon reboot, it can't find the file server. This was named Term8. I can go to the server and access term8 just fine. I see the bootdvr and can open the files just fine, but still term 8 can't find the file server. So I went one step farther, I disconnected the terminal from the network, did the prep work the exact same on my xp pro laptop, installed the software, upon reboot, it found the server just fine, with some errors, but reguardless, it found the fileserver. So whats up with the actual terminal not finding it??????Please some help if you can.....Thanks .....

 

[ironmike1000]

I did change it back to term8 deleted the debout files, then I rebooted it, so thats the new debout.08 file above. thanks

 

[bigblok403]

CALL: node 3 = Term3

retcode 14 = NetBIOS Call name not found

Check that the Guest and Host are using NetBIOS over the same carrier protocol (IPX, TCP/IP or NetBEUI). Select Configuration, Communication profiles, NetBIOS, Edit, List to decide which adapter number should be used.


This terminal cannot connect to the other master terminals. Fix this and your problem should be solved.

 

[SwampGas]

How many terminals total are installed?

Make sure the workgroup name the same on all terminals and the file server. IBERTECH is typically used as the workgroup name.

Set the terminal's network name. Use TERM1, TERM2, TERM3, and so on. The terminal's name must be a common name used on all terminals as defined in the TERMSTR enivornment variable followed by a number to designate as the terminal's ID number.

Set the lana number of the network card on the terminal to be at zero.

NetBIOS must be enabled over TCP/IP. Do this from the network card settings.

On an XP terminal, you can use simple file sharing. Enable full permission and share the root of the drive as BOOTDRV. Sometimes it may be necesarry to disable the file sharing, let the hard drive set permissions across all files and then re-enable the simple file sharing again.

From the terminal, you should be able to browse the network and see all the other terminals. You should also be able to browse to each terminal and the fileserver and create and delete a file (Good test). This should also be possible from the other terminals and backoffice computer also.

 

[ironmike1000]

where do you select the communication profiles?????

 

[ironmike1000]

Man I worked on this thing for 5 hrs today, and still says master down. There is no Aloha Manager and utilities section. This is version 4.252. I tried everything, I even installed NetBeui and NetBios and IPX protocols and still nothing. I could create files both ways from term8 to master and visversa, and both ways to server..I've done over 200 Pixel Point installs and have never seen such crap software as this....I am very frustrated. The Lana number is right, permissions are right. Ive networked 98 and xp plenty of times with no problems..I don't know, I'm stumped.....

 

[SwampGas]

I am getting more confused by what you are stating now.

How many terminals are installed? Are they all numbered 1 through 8?

Are they all on the same workgroup?

Which terminal is the master? Or, is there more than one master terminal showing up as a master terminal?

When you say there is no Aloha Manager... There should be a PC/server with this application. Can you see it's BOOTDRV share from all the other terminals? If you don't have a PC running Aloha Manager, then there is nothing else we can do.

Post the contents of the IBERCFG.BAT from one terminal or all.

I've used version 4.2.xx and all this networking stuff is still the same.


Aloha is not crap software. If you're frustrated with no training on the product, I'm sure it may feel that way, but if you got to understand the product, you'd see why it's used by major players.

 

[alohatech2]

He is saying there is no aloha manager program because he is on 4.2, when it was still control and maintenance.

Just in case it's not, can you make sure you have control running at all times? I don't think the software worked as a service in that version. I have some documentation I can check later to verify that... although that would probably throw a cannot locate fileserver as opposed to cannot locate master.

I also wonder if the lmhost and host files all need to be setup. We talked about it briefly earlier in the post, but didn't get specific. There's also enabling netbios over tcpip... do you have one or two nics on the filserver? I assume it has access to the internet?

I will also check the documentation on permissions and see what else I can find.

We have a win2k server with a 98 terminal and a xp terminal in our lab. I know that I had some problems like this while setting up..

I don't think I will have time to reply again today so I will try to get back to you on Monday or so.

 

[ironmike1000]

Ok thanks to both of you, I will try to answer all these questions. I do understand that I am dealing with an outdated version, so the crap comment was implying to that version. If I offended anyone making a living with Aloha, I do apologize, I'm sure the versions past this one are very good. Again that was frustration talking. I got a good night sleep and feel better...lol...OK. It is version 4.252 running on a NT 4 server. purchased 9 license's, although he is not using 9 terminals. Right now Term2(win95) Term3(win98 and Master) Term5 (win98) Term7 (win98) all are running fine and have been for quite some time.....Term2 was the master when I started this, but I couldn't see that term from this xp term (Term8), so I edited the autoexe.bat file to make it mastercapable=FALSE, powered them all down, and started Term3 first and naturally it became Master. All the the other terms, 2,5 and 7 all recongize 3 as the master and run fine for business......Term8 has an account just like the others on the server. Password is hello, groups are just like the others, Administrators group, power users group and users group. I checked the regsitry on Term8 and the auto login is User:Term8, and Password:hello....with that said, I can create files on the server FROM term8 and create files on term8 FROM the server.....so the two are shaking hands fine.....I can do this also TO all the other terms, and FROM the other terms, with the exception of term2 (win95)....but that isn't the master, so that should have a bearing.....(I hope)....Now, the term8 c: is being shared with all permissions as bootdrv....I let the NIC grab a IP automatically. (I tried to staticlly set it but nothing changed)The box for "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" is also checked. The NetBeui properties tab is grayed out though,along with the NWLink NetBIOS properties tab...Hand shaking accross the network is fine...Data over protocols are another thing. I even Added NetBeui and NWLink IXP/SPX/NetBios and NWLink NetBIOS as protocols and that didn't work. I also made sure there were no mapped drives, and that simple file sharing was being used..(I tried it both ways). When booting term8 the IBER.bat starts fine and only takes a second and I see the logo moving around. When I touch the screen I got an error message. "Errors have occurred" term1 term2 term3 term5 term7 are down....when I touch again I get the login number pad with the name and address of the business and the special message he has typed in. The DOB and SyS Date are correct, so I know I am logged into the server fine...BUT and I say BUT...under the DOB and SysDate it says Master Down...If I enter the owners number it says " only managers can log in" and "master waiting to come up".
I also used lanacfg to make sure the lana was 0....One thing though... The owner told me that at times on the terms he has to delete all the contents of the data folder, reboot the term and it grabs the data off the server to fill that folder fine...But doing that with term8, the server never replaces that data in the data folder and Iber.bat starts, then reboots the term...the only way i can fix this is to do another term install....I hope all this helps...Again thanks....

 

[ironmike1000]

One more thing, I did modify the host file on term8 to
192.168.100.9 ALOHABOH #PRE I also created a host file on the master (term3) the same, but with its own IP addy....still didn't work.....

 

[alohatech2]

I am curious to see what megabyte will say but if it were me, I would make sure that the XP terminal is master. Make the two XP terminals master/server capable and make all the rest false. Turn them all off, and turn on one of the XP terminals first. I think that in my lab, when the 98 is master, the two don't talk, but when the XP is master, everyone is happy.

While you can assign a dynamic IP, it might be simpler to stick to static. At least for me, it will be easier for me to help you if they are static.

I was asking about netbios over tcp/ip on the server. If you have two nics, one for internet and one for Aloha, we have found that you need to enable netbios over tcp/ip on the aloha nic and disable it on the internet nic. This setting is on the WINS tab in advanced properties of tcp/ip. This may not solve your issues because it tends to lend more toward solving issues of random rebooting, but should be noted.

I have to go for now... sorry can't be more helpful at the moment.

 

[ironmike1000]

Thanks, I'm on a job now, but will stop there on way home and try what you said.....Thanks

 

[alohatech2]

That host file thing that you did on Term 8 - that's the BOH setup. Here, it goes like this:

Create a line in the file for each file server and each terminal that includes the TCP/IP address and network name of each computer (separated by a space or tab). The file contents look similar to the following:

192.168.100.1 ALOHABOH #PRE
192.168.100.2 TERM1
192.168.100.3 TERM2
192.168.100.4 TERM3
192.168.100.5 TERM4
192.168.100.6 TERM5
192.168.100.7 TERM6
192.168.100.8 TERM7
192.168.100.9 TERM8

So the Alohaboh #PRE part represents your fileserver computer name and IP. The rest are the terminals. I assumed based on your T8 IP that this was your scheme, but change it to match what yours really is.

This goes on all terminals and the fileserver.

 

[SwampGas]

IronMike, Alohatech is dead-on. The additional hassles are also partly from using NT4.

I used to use a DHCP server on my backoffice PC installations, and what does happen from time to time because of this, is that a terminal can map the drive Z to another terminal instead of the fileserver (Long story on the explanation so I won't). Everything looks good, but data doesn't sync and the bad terminals will be the ones looking like they are running fine, and the terminals set correctly are conflicting with the bad terminals, and they appear to be not working correctly.

Definitely go static IP with all devices.

After setting to static IP's, disconnect drive Z if it doesn't remove automatically, and delete the downtime.ini file in each register terminal -Then boot one terminal at a time. Deleting the downtime.ini is never recommended, but if you have this type of situation it is ok.

 

[ironmike1000]

Ok guys, I will try to get there today, I know he is tremendously busy on friday, but either today or tomorrow I will do the additional things you guys mentioned and report back, hopefully with success....Again thank both of you for all the help and quick response....

 

[ironmike1000]

Sry for no replies guys, I got sick for a week......Going there today...will let you know how it goes..

 

[ironmike1000]

I just wanted to get back to you guys. I did everything that you guys said to do and again, it wouldn't connect to the master. So I hate to say this , I gave up. I told him it was time to upgrade. I do want to thank all you guys for all the great help. This forum is an awesome place....Thanks again...

 

[SwampGas]

If you were in my area, I'd be willing to drive out and set it up for you in a few minutes. -You're not in Texas are you?

Unfortunately, the software upgrade will not resolve the problem.

 

[posrescue]

Running XP with version 4.2x of Aloha needs to have a few alteratit's default install to work correctly.

-run the install executable from the termset folder (or whatever it may be named). this needs to be the same version as termset that was used to intall the system originally. should be on all of the old terminals.

-after running the termset program move the "ibercfg.bat" from c: to c:\aloha.

-add
NTREBOOT=TRUE
START c:\aloha\bin\iber.exe
to the ibercfg.bat with the start line being the last line in the file.

-You can manually map the z drive to \\Alohaboh\bootdrv but I would recommend doing that with a batch file using the NET command.

-place a shortcut to the ibercfg.bat in startup

-remove the call ibercfg.bat line from the autoexec if it was put there.

That should get you going. Keep in mind for 9 terminals you will run into issues with NT licensing on the fileserver. Aloha and Aloha EDC can be seen as users by the license manager and along with your 9 terms will exceed your limit of 10.

Now I know who to go to for amy Pixel questions. Cool!

 

[ironmike1000]

Thanks Rescue, I will try to do that later today. And yes I will answer your Pixel questions anytime......One funny thing, being I couldn't get these 3 xp Radiant 1220 terms to get fully installed, I decided to try something....I put Win98se on one of them and did the install and the same exact thing happened....Master Down...So it must be a liscense issue...any suggestions??? Here all along I thought it was an xp issue....I did the term install from the \\alohaboh\aloha\TrmInst.....Is that the right one??? I don't know anything about the liscense manager, but I'm gonna go there today and get familiar with it...Thanks