i'm back.  :).  i corrected my /etc/hosts, which seems to have gotten me
further along. however, there's a new small problem.  as i restart venus, this
is the output i got from my console...
16:46:06 /usr/coda/LOG validated at size 0x88600
16:46:06 /usr/coda/DATA validated at size 0x220020
16:46:06 loading recoverable store
Starting deferred execution scheduler: atd16:46:07 Last init was Tue Jul 25
15:52:59 2000


16:46:07 Last shutdown was clean
16:46:07 starting VSGDB scan
16:46:07        1 vsg entries in table
16:46:07        0 vsg entries on free-list
.
16:46:07 starting VDB scan
16:46:07        2 vol entries in table (0 MLEs)
16:46:07        0 vol entries on free-list (0 MLEs)
16:46:07 starting FSDB scan (833, 20000) (25, 75, 4)
Starting periodic command scheduler: cron16:46:07 fatal error --
fsobj::Recover: bogus VnodeType (0)
16:46:07 RecovTerminate: clean shutdown
 
it's the last part that concerns me.  you know, that whole "fatal error"
thingy.  :).  thanks for your time.  jer

Thus spake Jan Harkes (jaharkes_at_cs.cmu.edu):

> On Tue, Jul 25, 2000 at 11:41:40AM -0500, Jerry Jaskierny wrote:
> > i ran venus-setup and is configured correctly.  when i tried to fire up venus,
> > this was my output...(actually, this is the output from when i rebooted
> > earlier)
> > 
> > Starting venus: done.
> > Coda Venus, version 5.3.8
> > coda_psdev_write: downcall, no SB!
> > Date: Tue 07/25/2000
> > 10:51:25 /var/lib/coda/LOG setup for size 0x47f63
> > 10:51:25 /var/lib/coda/DATA initialized at size 0x11fd8c
> > 10:51:25 brain-wiping recoverable store
> > 10:51:33 fatal error -- CommInit: no bootstrap server
> > 10:51:33 Fatal Signal (11); pid 423 becoming a zombie...
> > 10:51:33 You may use gdb to attach to 423
> > 
> > i checked my log and ran venus again to carefully look at the output.  it seems
> > that not having an "SB" is my main problem.  can somebody tell me what it is
> > and where i can get one of these magical "SB"s?  thanks.  jer
> 
> That is the superblock, i.e. /coda isn't mounted yet, but venus is
> already sending downcalls. This is harmless.
> 
> The problem is that none of the `rootservers' can be resolved to an
> ip-address using gethostbyname, which is at the moment pretty fatal
> because venus then doesn't know where to get volume location information
> from, even when the network comes back.
> 
> If you like starting venus without a network, like I do, just add the
> ip-addresses/hostnames of your `rootservers' to /etc/hosts so that those
> name lookups succeed even when disconnected.
> 
> Jan