What to do when OSFAX is not working.

This document sets out how to fix OSFAX when there is a problem.

(You can download a PDF version of this document by right-clicking and saving this link.)

Most likely, a user has reported that they submitted a fax or email to OSFAX using FAX/Assist and it has not been delivered. The first thing to do is to work out the extent of the problem. Is everything failing? Is it only faxes or only emails that are failing? Is it documents for all users or only one user?

Step 1.
To get a quick idea if there are a lot of documents from different users waiting to be sent, you can view the fax queue using the option in FAX/Assist, or you can view it from the shell using this command:
 $FAXDIR/bin/faxqueue -l | more
Note 1: it is minus letter 'el' for 'long' (not the number 'one') after the word 'faxqueue'.
Note 2: press the space bar to show the next screen of data if it shows "--More--" at the bottom of the screen, or press 'q' to quit a long display.

Step 2.
Use this command to see the overall status of the OSFAX software:
 $FAXDIR/bin/faxstatus

If the output scrolls off the screen, you can use:
 $FAXDIR/bin/faxstatus | more

You should see something like the screenprint below. This command will often indicate the nature of the OSFAX problem. The first part of the display shows information about the OSFAX licence. Look at the text on the line that starts with 'Scheduler:' and the last line that starts with 'Status:'.
As noted on the screenprint, ignore the line that starts with 'Server:' as this refers to the OSFAX component that accepts documents from the Windows PC OSFAX printer client.


If there is an error message in the output that is wider than the screen (as in the last line of the example above) you can see the full error message by running this command:
$FAXDIR/bin/osiris psl | grep Method
which will produce an output like this:

If OSFAX is not running at all, the 'Scheduler:', 'Prepare Daemon:', and 'Status:' lines will all show 'Not running' as in this example:

In this case, go to step 4 to start OSFAX.

If either the 'Scheduler:' or 'Prepare Daemon:' lines shows something other than 'Idle' or 'Idle' followed by a number, then re-run the command after a few seconds. If OSFAX is running ok, you would expect the output to change. If the output does not change then it is likely that OSFAX is stuck and OSFAX will need to be restarted. Go to step 4.

If any error is indicated on the 'Status:' line, it is likely that OSFAX is running OK but it cannot send out facsimile documents. In this case, if you send faxes using a modem (the 'Line:' line above the 'Status:' line will show the serial port device name, such as 'ttyS0' in the above example), then you should check the modem is ok. Try powering the modem off for 15 seconds and then powering it back on. Check that the cables between the serial port and the modem and the phone line have not been accidently disconnected. If the status is reported as 'No dial tone' after you have switched the modem off and on, try connecting an analogue phone to the phone socket and try making a call manually. If you use the Osiris relay service to send out faxes (the 'Line:' line will show 'relay1.osfax.net') go to step 5 below.

Step 3.

Try sending a document to yourself from the shell, rather than use FAX/Assist. OSFAX may display an error message that is not being shown when you send using FAX/Assist. To send the OSFAX test page to the fax number 9876 5432, run this command:

 $FAXDIR/bin/sendfax -Tt98765432

To send the OSFAX test page to the email address someone@somewhere.com.au, run:

$FAXDIR/bin/sendfax -Ttsomeone@somewhere.com.au

If the document is accepted, OSFAX will display the OSFAX job number. Run the OSFAX queue display again (step 1) and see if this document is showing on the queue. If the document is not showing on the queue, and OSFAX did not display an error, check whether OSFAX has sent you an email with an error message. (Note that you may need to check for an error email on the server if your email is not forwarded to your Windows email client. You can do this from within Pronto by using the F12 key to open 'promail'.)

Step 4.

Often, OSFAX simply needs to be started, or it is stuck and stopping and re-starting will fix the problem. Note that the commands in this section MUST be run as superuser. This means you must login as either 'root' or 'pronto', or use the 'su' command to change to either 'root' or 'pronto'. You may run these commands using the 'sudo' command if you do not have access to either the 'root' or 'pronto' passwords, however this is not the best method as any fault mail sent by OSFAX is likely to appear as coming from your login.

If OSFAX is not running, start it using this command as superuser:

$FAXDIR/bin/osiris fax/start

If OSFAX is already running, stop it with this command as superuser:

$FAXDIR/bin/osiris fax/stop

Then check that there are no OSFAX processes running using:

ps -ef | grep osiris | grep -v grep

This command should result in nothing being displayed. However, if there are still OSFAX processes running as shown in the example below, you will need to terminate the process as identified by the process number on the line:

In this example, you would need to terminate the process using:

kill 14694

or if this does not work, use:

kill -9 14694

Be extremely careful to ensure that the correct process number is used.
In each case, re-run the original 'ps' command to check there are no OSFAX processes still running.

If you needed to terminate any OSFAX processes, you should restart OSFAX using this command which checks and repairs OSFAX :

$FAXDIR/etc/reset

If you did not need to terminate any processes (which is the normal case), restart OSFAX using the command:

$FAXDIR/bin/osiris fax/start

Step 5.

This step only applies if you are using the Osiris relay service to send faxes via the internet.

Osiris Technology displays the current status of the relay service on the web site 'www.osfax.com' at the bottom of the page. The normal display is:


If the relay service is listed as normal operation, check that you are able to connect to the Osiris relay server by running this command:

telnet relay1.osfax.net 9875

If you are able to connect, an Osiris message will be displayed, followed by some gobbledegook, then the connection will be closed, as in this screenprint:

If you get the 'Connected' message and the 'Escape character' is shown, but you do not see the 'OSIRIS' header line, you will need to enter the escape character to close the connection. Note that '^]' indicates that you must press the 'escape' key and the ']' key at the same time. In this case, if the OSFAX web page did not indicate any problem, then you should alert them by phoning Osiris Technology on (02) 9439 4311.

If you are unable to connect to the Osiris server using the 'telnet' command, your system will probably wait for 60 seconds, then display a message such as 'Network error' or 'No path to host'. If this occurs, try connecting to any external web site using your PC. Check you are viewing a live page rather than one from cache by reloading the page or entering 'Time now' into Google and checking the result. If you can access the web but cannot connect to Osiris Technology using the 'telnet' command, then it is likely that your firewall is blocking the connection. The port 9875 needs to be open for outgoing connections to 'relay1.osfax.net'.

Step 6.

If you have reached this far and you still don't know what is wrong with OSFAX, here are a few more possibilities:

If OSFAX gives a 'Slice nearly full error', you need to allocate it more memory. Refer to the notes in this document or refer to this error in the index of the OSFAX User Manual.

If OSFAX gives a 'Disk partition full error', then you have a disk space problem. Check the disk space in the disk partition that is used by the 'Data directory:' shown by the 'faxstatus' command in step 1.

If some users can use OSFAX and others cannot and you do not have an unlimited-user licence, it maybe that you have reached your OSFAX licence limit. OSFAX is licenced for either 8, 16, 32 or unlimited users. This is not the number of simultaneous users at a point in time, but the total number of distinct users over a rolling 7 day period. The number of licenced users is shown by the 'faxstatus' command in step 1.

If one user cannot use OSFAX but others can, it may be that the username or unix-id for the user has been used previously and OSFAX is blocking the new username/unix-id combination. This sometimes happens when a user leaves a company and they are removed from the password file, then they return and are added with the same username but they get a new unix-id. OSFAX does not allow this. The solution is to remove the old user from OSFAX, but that is a bit awkward to describe here, so contact Lantana Systems directly for help. Note that when this problem happens, the user will get a error message saying 'Overlay not found' if they try to send a document using 'FAX/Assist', or an error saying 'Already exists' if they try to send directly through OSFAX. UPDATE: This document now describes how to fix this error.

Further help.

The OSFAX User Manual includes a chapter entitled 'Fault Finding' which is a valuable reference. There is also a copy of this manual in PDF format on the OSFAX installation CD.

There are other documents in the 'Support' section of the Lantana Systems' website at www.lantanasystems.com.au. The 'Contact us' section of this website also provides our current contact details, including any special holiday contact details.

Did this document help?

We welcome any feedback regarding how useful you found this document, and how it could be improved. Please send comments to: feedback@lantanasystems.com.au. Thanks.