Alarm in Debugging Output
The debugging output of many versions of UUCP will include messages like `alarm 1' or `pkcget: alarm 1'. Taylor UUCP does not use the word `alarm', but will instead log messages like `Timed out waiting for packet'.
These types of messages mean that the UUCP package has timed out while waiting for some sort of response from the remote system. If it happens consistently when trying to transfer a particular file, then the most likely problem is that one of the modems will not transmit the XON or XOFF characters. Several UUCP protocols require an eight bit clean connection, which means that the modems must treat XON or XOFF as normal data characters, not as flow control signals. This should always be checked first.
Other possible problems are that the modems have simply dropped their connection, or perhaps on one side or the other the serial buffer is overflowing and dropping characters. Another possibility is that the UUCP packages disagree about some aspect of the UUCP protocol, which is uncommon but does happen occasionally.
Using the information in the following sections, you should be able to figure out what type of data your UUCP was expecting to receive. This may give some indication as to exactly what the problem is. It is difficult to be more specific, since there are many possiblities.