Using Help
Chapter 1, Getting help
Troubleshooting SCOhelp

Troubleshooting SCOhelp

The following section discusses the most common and important scohelp(XC) and scohttp(ADM) problems and error messages. The error messages are listed in alphabetical order, ignoring all variable strings. Therefore, if you cannot locate your message by the first word, check it under the second. Each error message is followed by a short description of the condition or conditions that led to the error and suggestions about how to fix or avoid the error in the future.

Because help can be dependent upon your network, many of the errors you see can originate in your network system. For more information on network error messages, see ``Troubleshooting TCP/IP'' in the Networking Guide.

If the error message you are investigating is not on the list, see ``Configuring a help document server system'' in the Networking Guide, scohelp(XC), or scohttp(ADM). 

If SCOhelp fails without an error message

If scohelp requests fail without displaying error messages, a server lock may be set.

Help uses a property of the root window to prevent users from invoking the help server more than once. Although this ``lock'' is only temporarily present, if something extraordinary happens (for example, an application fails when requesting help), scohelp may not start.

If help fails silently try the following:

  1. Issue the following command from a SCOterm or Xterm command line:

    xprop -root | grep -y "lock"

  2. If the result looks like the following, you have a server lock set. 
       _SCO_HELP_SERVER_LOCK for <your_machine_name>
    Note thatyour_machine_name will be a system name like fscott.sco.com.

  3. Remove the lock by issuing the following command:

    xprop -root -remove "_SCO_HELP_SERVER_LOCK for <your_machine_name"

  4. Restart help


Help error messages

  1. "Documentation not found. Either it is not installed or you have specified the wrong document location."

    Check to make sure you have specified the right document server and that /usr/lib/scohelp exists on your document server. If it does, check /var/scohttp/conf/srm.conf on your document server to make sure that you have specified DocumentRoot correctly (by default, /usr/lib/scohelp). If both are set correctly, make sure the permissions allow at least read access for everyone.

    If you find that any of these are incorrectly configured, correct them. After you finish the corrections, stop and start scohttp.

    See also:

  2. "Fatal Error"

    There are a large number of situations which will produce a ``Fatal Error''. If the cause of the Fatal Error is not listed in this section, make sure you have correctly installed your documentation package, scohelp and scohttp. See scohelp(XC) and scohttp(ADM) for more information.

  3. "Not Found Requested URL URLname could not be accessed. The document is not installed or you do not have permission to read the document."

    Check in the directory specified by DocumentRoot to make sure that the document exists on your server (By default DocumentRoot is set to /usr/lib/scohelp). If it does, make sure that you have set the SCOhelp *docServer resource to use the correct server (by default, *docServer is specified in /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/ScoHelp, but it could be set anywhere you set X resources). If DocumentRoot and *docServer are set correctly, make sure that the permissions are set correctly for the document file (minimum 444 for document files).

    If you find that any of these are incorrectly configured, correct them. After you finish the corrections, restart scohelp

    See also:

  4. "Requested document (URL) could not be accessed. The document server (scohttp) is not running or you do not have permission to read the document."

    Check to make sure that scohttp(ADM) is running by issuing the following command:

    scohttp query

    If it is not running start it with

    scohttp start

    If it is running, make sure you have specified the right document server and that /usr/lib/scohelp exists on your document server. If it does, check /var/scohttp/conf/srm.conf on your document server to make sure that you have specified DocumentRoot correctly (by default, /usr/lib/scohelp). If both are set correctly, make sure the permissions allow at least read access for everyone.

    If you find that any of these are incorrectly configured, correct them. After you finish the corrections, stop and start scohttp

    See also:

  5. "The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request."

    Try reloading the document. If that works, the server was too busy when the request was received.

    See also: