Reading the Guide Star Catalog CDROM

While some operating systems seem to have no problem reading the Hubble Space Telescope Guide Star Catalog, others, such as the common Sun operating systems, do. Sun's argument, from a Sun System Engineer, is that all of the data files are of type RECORD, which Sun chose not to support because there is no UNIX interface to access the RECORD structure file.

Here are the patches and fixes needed to read the GSC CDROM's so they can be used with such programs as skymap and rgsc.

Solaris 2.*

Make a backup copy of /etc/system, then add the following lines and reboot:

        set hsfs:ide_prohibited=0xe6
        set hsfs:hde_prohibited=0xe6

If you make an error in /etc/system, and the system fails to boot as a result, you can do a "boot -a" at the "ok" prompt. Then take all the defaults except for the name of the /etc/system file and use your backup filename. This fix was provided by Mike Carson, a Sun Systems Engineer.

SunOS 4.1.3 and 4.1.2

Here is a kernel patch from Tom Wong at Sun that will allow your Sun machine to read the Guide Star CDROM. As a precaution, please save your old kernel before applying this patch.

prompt# adb -w vmunix
>>>> hs_parsedir+c0?X
_hs_parsedir+0xc0:              ba0de0ee
>>>> hs_parsedir+c0?Wba0de0e6
_hs_parsedir+0xc0:              0xba0de0ee      =       0xba0de0e6
>>>> hs_parsedir+1a4?X
_hs_parsedir+0x1a4:             ba0de0ee
>>>> hs_parsedir+1a4?Wba0de0e6
_hs_parsedir+0x1a4:             0xba0de0ee      =       0xba0de0e6
>>>> $q

Note: >>>> is added to illustrate what you should type. You need to reboot.

You can also edit the file in OBJ/hsfs_node.o, and rebuild the kernel.

SunOS 4.1.1

Here is a kernel patch from Tom Wong at Sun that will allow your Sun machine to read the Guide Star CDROM. As a precaution, please save your old kernel before applying this patch.

prompt# adb -w vmunix
>>>> hs_parsedir+9c?X
_hs_parsedir+0x9c:              ba0da0ee
>>>> hs_parsedir+9c?Wba0da0e6
_hs_parsedir+0x9c:              0xba0da0ee      =       0xba0da0e6
>>>> hs_parsedir+14c?X
_hs_parsedir+0x14c:             ba0da0ee
>>>> hs_parsedir+14c?Wba0da0e6
_hs_parsedir+0x14c:             0xba0da0ee      =       0xba0da0e6
>>>> $q

Note: >>>> is added to illustrate what you should type. You need to reboot.