MAE 2.0
Tech Note #1

Last updated on 6/14/95

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE MAE DESKTOP AND THE FINDER

Creating Aliases by Dragging Files to the MAE Desktop

When you drag an item to the MAE desktop, MAE creates a Macintosh alias to the item; the item itself remains in its original location. The name of the alias is the name of the original item plus the word "alias"; it is displayed in italics. For example, if you drag a file called "My.file" to the desktop, MAE creates an alias called "My.file alias." You can open the original item by double-clicking its alias on the desktop. If you delete the alias by dragging its icon to the Trash, the original item is not deleted. (For more information about aliases, see "Creating an Alias" in the MAE USER'S GUIDE, Appendix A.)

Aliases themselves are treated no differently from other items; dragging an alias to the desktop creates an alias to the alias to appear on the desktop. For example, if you drag an alias called "Status.report alias" to the desktop, MAE creates an alias called "Status.report alias alias."

Because this treatment of aliases differs from standard Macintosh procedure, it can confuse experienced Mac users. For example, in a Macintosh, to bring an alias of an item to the desktop, you select the item, make an alias using the MAKE ALIAS entry in the finder's FILE menu, then drag the alias to the desktop. The same sequence of events in MAE causes a second-level alias to appear on the desktop, and leaves the first-level alias in the same folder as the original item. The alias on the desktop appears to function normally, but it actually refers to the first-level alias, not to the original item. If you delete the first-level alias ("Status.report alias"), you will no longer be able to use the second level alias on the desktop ("Status.report alias alias") to refer to the original item.

Aliases and Multiple UNIX File Systems

If an item that is the target of an alias is moved to a different file system, the linkage between the alias and the original item is broken; double-clicking the alias will no longer open the original item. MAE displays an alert box, telling you that it cannot locate the original item. For example, if you create an alias to a file located in /usr, and then drag the file to your home directory, MAE won't be able to open the file when you double-click its alias. Similarly, if you select the alias, choose Get Info from the File menu, and click the Find Original button, MAE displays an alert box, telling you that the command could not be completed because the original item could not be found.

If the Message "~ not found" Appears When You Launch a UNIX Command

MAE allows you to add options and arguments to a UNIX command when you launch the command from the MAE desktop. When you hold down the Control key while you double-click a UNIX file, the command-launch dialog box appears. You can add options and arguments to the command by typing them in the command-launch dialog box. (See "Adding Command Options when Opening a UNIX Command File" in the MAE USER'S GUIDE.) However, some special symbols commonly used in UNIX commands are not treated by MAE in the same way they are in UNIX, and should not be included in the command-launch dialog box. These include the tilde (~) character and environment variables such as $HOME.

Changing the font size on the desktop

Use the Views Control panel to select the size of the desktop font used for filenames.

Find File

The Finder's Find File utility may find the same file more than once if it traverses symbolic links. Because it reports the actual path, rather than the symbolic path, you may see items repeated with the same pathname.

Remote mountpoints will be searched by the Finder's Find File utility, even though the option in that utility says "Find items on Local Disks". MAE treats all UNIX mount points as local. The "mounted servers" option refers to AppleShare servers mounted via the Chooser.

FILE SYSTEM

Macintosh File type of UNIX files

An MAE Get Info operation on a UNIX file, either a text file or a binary file, shows the type of file as "MAE Helper Document". This is normal MAE behavior, to support UNIX file launching.

How does MAE handle case-sensitive MAE file names?

MAE has two modes of treatment for file names:
  1. Case-insensitive (the default mode).
  2. Case-sensitive, selected by the -caseon option on the MAE command line.

In the default (Case-insensitive) mode, MAE behaves like a Macintosh. The file name "a" is treated the same as the file name "A". If you have a file named "a" and try to save a new file named "A", MAE will ask you to confirm that you want to replace the file, as in MacOS. If two UNIX files "a" and "A", are in the same directory, MAE will see only one of them.

When MAE is executed with the -caseon option, file name treatment is case-sensitive. The files "a" and "A" are treated differently. You can have both a file named "a" a new file named "A" in the same directory. Both files will show up in the Standard File dialogs.

Because the determination of case sensitivity is happening at the lowest level of the file system, the Finder and all applications share the file view described above.

(HP only) Installation onto AFS filesystems

On HP-UX systems, MAE installation may fail with the error message "Read-only filesystem". Also, a bug in the MAE installer is sensitive to extremely large AFS file systems.

A simple workaround to circumvent these difficulties: install MAE on a local or NFS volume, then copy the entire result - the apple directory, and the System Folder and .mac folders, if they exist - to AFS.

AppleSingle and AppleDouble File Formats

By default, MAE stores files in the UNIX file system in a format called "AppleSingle", which is unlike MacOS files, which have both resource and data forks. In AppleSingle-format files the resource fork information is prepended to the data fork, creating one file -- a larger file that you see in UNIX.

This explains why using MAE to copy files from a CD or from network-based volumes can result in source and destination files of different sizes, as viewed by the UNIX file system.

If this behavior is unacceptable, you can force MAE to default to saving files as AppleDouble by adding the -filedouble option to the MAE command line. This forces MAE to keep MacOS files as separate data and resource forks. From MAE, it will appear as one file, but within UNIX, you will see a file name 'name' (data fork) and '%name' (resource fork). The file 'name' will then be the same size in UNIX as the Finder reports.

Also, UNIX applications may fail to recognize MAE AppleSingle files, because they see them as corrupted. This "corruption" can occur in a number of different ways. For example, under FileShare, if a UNIX file is dragged from a Macintosh to MAE, the file will be written by MAE in AppleSingle format, which may make it unusable. This occurs because the Macintosh doesn't know anything about UNIX files, so when it sends one to MAE, MAE thinks it's a Macintosh file and writes it to disk accordingly.

This situation does not occur between two MAE sessions that are sharing files, since MAE recognizes UNIX files for what they are and does not store "resource" information about them. When dragging a UNIX file between two MAE sessions, MAE correctly treats the file as a UNIX file.

Using ftp utilities such as Fetch from MAE can also be problematic. When "getting" a file, Fetch will pass the file to MAE to be written to disk. This works fine for Macintosh files since they will be written as AppleSingle files. However, when "getting" a UNIX file, MAE will likewise write this file as an AppleSingle file, which can make it unusable by UNIX applications.

Text files are handled differently by MAE. Text files are always written by MAE in AppleDouble format to facilitate reading and writing by both Macintosh and UNIX applications (newline characters are automatically translated by MAE; they are stored on disk as UNIX newlines). So in the examples above, when dragging a text file from a Macintosh to MAE or when Fetch gets a file using ftp "Text" mode (i.e., ASCII mode), MAE will write the file in AppleDouble format.

As a rule of thumb, it's best to use UNIX to work with UNIX files and MAE to work with Macintosh files. If your environment requires the same (non-text) files to be regularly handled by both MAE and UNIX, then you're probably a candidate for running MAE in AppleDouble mode, by launching it with the -filedouble option.

If this behavior is unacceptable, you can force MAE to default to saving files as AppleDouble by adding the -filedouble option to the MAE command line. This forces MAE to keep MacOS files as separate data and resource forks. From MAE, it will appear as one file, but within UNIX, you will see a file name 'name' (data fork) and '%name' (resource fork). The file 'name' will then be the same size in UNIX as the Finder reports.

NOTE: There will be a UNIX tool available shortly to convert your files between AppleSingle and AppleDouble.

(HP only) Space for /users

On HP Series 700 workstations the capacity of /users may need to be increased to provide space for an MAE System Folder for each user. When this necessitates the creation of a new file system, the new file system must support long file names.

The process below copies the contents of /users to a new MAE-compatible file system:

NETWORKING

Appletalk Options

The following AppleTalk command options are missing from the man pages:

(Sun only) Unloading AppleTalk streams modules on Solaris systems

On Solaris sytems, the AppleTalk stream driver 'atalk' and three other AppleTalk stream modules, 'at_atp', 'adsp' and 'at_sig', are dynamically loaded into the system when MAE starts up. The driver and the modules will not be unloaded until the workstation is rebooted. If a 'modunload' command is issued on any one of the stream module, it will cause the system to crash.

Problems posting articles or sending mail using NewsWatcher

Users are able to browse and select news groups to read, but are unable to post. This is due to an imcompatibility between NewsWatcher and MAE 2.0.

MacTCP Ping

MacTCP ping does not work correctly on HP-UX and Solaris. As a workaround, use the UNIX 'ping' command.

FLOPPY DISKS AND CD-ROMS

(Sun only) Problems Using MS-DOS or Solaris File System Disks on MAE

If you insert a floppy disk formatted for MS-DOS or Solaris into a Sun workstation and try to mount it in MAE by clicking the Mount Floppy/CD button, MAE displays an alert box. The alert box appears because Solaris mounts the floppy disk before MAE has the opportunity to mount it. Thus, MAE is not able to access the floppy disk. (The icon for the floppy disk appears on your Solaris desktop.) As a result, you can not reformat MS-DOS disks as Macintosh disks, and can not use them on the MAE desktop. You have several options for dealing with this situation. If you want to use the files on the disk, the contents of the disk will show up as UNIX files in /floppy in your Solaris file system. If you don't want to use the files on the disk, and you want to format it as a Macintosh disk, you can eject the disk, insert it into a Macintosh computer, and reformat it as a Macintosh disk using the Macintosh computer. If you don't want to use the files on the disk, and you want to format it as a UNIX disk, you can try to reformat the disk on a UNIX workstation that is not running the Solaris File Manager.

(Sun only) If you cannot access the files on an MAE CD mounted remotely on a Sun workstation

You may have a problem accessing the files on a remotely-mounted MAE CD-ROM disc if the disc was mounted on a Sun workstation by using the Solaris Volume Manager. There are two possible solutions to the problem:

  1. You can quit the Solaris Volume Manager and explicitly mount the MAE CD-ROM disc by using a command such as mount(1). You should then be able to access the files on the CD-ROM disc in order to perform a remote installation.

  2. You can copy the MAE files from the CD-ROM disc to a directory on the Sun workstation and then access the files by remotely mounting the directory. For more information about remotely installing MAE, see Chapter 1 in the MAE USER'S GUIDE.

(Sun only) If the Message "fd0: read failed" Appears

When you try to mount a floppy disk on MAE, you may see the message "fd0: read failed" on your Sun console. This message alerts you that Solaris is unable to read certain sectors on the floppy disk. Try another floppy disk, or try the same disk on a different workstation. (If the disk does not contain data that you need, you may want to reformat the disk, and then try mounting it again with MAE.)

(Sun only) If MAE Displays an Alert Box about the Solaris Volume Manager

When you try to mount a floppy disk in MAE running on a Sun workstation, MAE may display an alert box that contains the message: "You will not be able to use Macintosh floppies with MAE because the Solaris Volume Manager is not available now." If this alert box appears, use the ps (1) command to see if the process "vold" (/usr/sbin/vold) is running on your workstation.

If "vold" IS NOT running, start the "vold" process as the root user and try mounting the floppy disk again. (You may want to edit the appropriate Solaris configuration files so that "vold" starts automatically when you start up your workstation. For instructions, see the Solaris documentation.)

If "vold" is running, and you see an error message such as "/dev/volctl: Permission denied" on your console, the problem is with Solaris. As root, check the access permissions on the file named in the error message (for example, /dev/volctl). If necessary, change the permissions for the file by using the chmod (1) command and give yourself access to the file. (If the file is a symbolic link, you will need to change the access permissions on the file to which the link points.) After changing the access permissions, try mounting the floppy disk on MAE again.

(Sun only) Unable to access the floppy drive

Be certain the permissions on the floppy device file symlinked to /dev/rdiskette are readable and writable by you.

In addition, software products that do not currently support the Solaris Volume Manager will conflict with MAE, which does use the Volume Manager. Until software products that are incompatible with the Volume Manager are upgraded to support it, you can work around this conflict by turning the Volume Manager on when using floppies or CDs in MAE and off when using other software. This work-around is only necessary when accessing a Macintosh floppy or CD since MAE doesn't use the Volume Manager until you try to access a Macintosh disk. Beware, too, that some software disables Volume Manager control at the device level by changing your /etc/vold.conf file, rather than starting or stopping the Volume Manager's vold process.

(Sun only) If Solaris Displays the "Unlabeled Floppy" Dialog Box on Your Console

When you insert and try to mount a Macintosh floppy disk on MAE, Solaris displays the "Unlabeled Floppy" dialog box if you didn't install the Solaris Volume Manager Extensions when you installed MAE. (See Chapter 1 of the MAE USER'S GUIDE for more information.) Click Cancel in the dialog box (do NOT click Cancel & Eject). The floppy disk icon should appear on your MAE desktop. To avoid this problem, you should eject disks that have been mounted on the MAE desktop by using MAE capabilities only. For example, drag the disk icon to the Trash or choose Eject Disk from the Special menu.

(Sun only) If MAE Hangs When a Mounted Floppy Disk Has Been Ejected

If a Macintosh disk is somehow ejected without MAE being notified (for example, by typing "eject floppy" in a Solaris shell window or by clicking Cancel & Eject in the dialog box described earlier), MAE may hang until it is able to use the disk again. Reinsert the disk and type "volcheck" in a Solaris shell window. This step should allow MAE to continue to use the floppy disk on the MAE desktop. To prevent this situation, run the MAE Installer as root and install the Solaris Volume Manager Extensions package (according to the instructions in "Macintosh Application Environment: Installing and Setting Up").

(Sun only) If You Have Problems Using MS-DOS (Including Windows) or Solaris File System Disks on MAE

If you insert a floppy disk formatted for MS-DOS or Solaris into a Sun workstation and try to mount it in MAE by clicking the Mount Floppy/CD button, MAE displays an alert box. To use MS-DOS files on MAE running on Solaris, use the capabilities provided by Solaris. (For example, do not use Macintosh PC Exchange or other Macintosh applications that read MS-DOS disks.)

Follow these steps:

  1. Insert the disk that contains the MS-DOS files that you want to use.
  2. In a Solaris window, type "volcheck floppy". The files on the disk will appear in the /floppy/ directory on your UNIX file system.
  3. To use the files on the MAE desktop, double click /, then double-click the folder called "floppy," and then double-click the folder called "."

Problems Using Floppy Disks Remotely

Although Some X Terminals export floppies as NFS file systems, thus providing a convenient workaround, MAE does not in general provide remote floppy support . For example, you can start MAE on a workstation and display it remotely (using the -display option) on another workstation on the network. If you display MAE remotely, you can use only floppy disks that are inserted in a floppy drive attached to the workstation where you started MAE, not where you are displaying it.

Floppy drives and performance

Floppy drives are much slower than hard disk, and leaving a floppy in an Xterminal drive can slow down MAE. Since MAE periodically scans the directory(ies) which are displayed in open Finder windows, leaving a floppy in the drive when the Finder has your home directory displayed in a window will effect performance. Solution: don't leave floppies in the Xterminal's drive.

(HP only) Floppy drives on HP "Envizex" Xterminals.

Some HP "Envizex" Xterminals come with floppy drives. MAE is not able to directly access floppies in these drives: the Xterminal software, in cooperation with the host UNIX system, controls the hardware. MAE has no way to load executable code into the Xterminal to control the device without changing the operation of the drive. Thus, only MS-DOS floppies are accessible through the Xterminal's floppy drive. They are mounted by the host system software via NFS, and are accessable as $HOME/floppy. If you are having problems using the floppy drive, contact your system administrator, or consult HP's documentation (e.g., "HP ENWARE X Station Software 5.1, Technical Reference", chapter four "Using the X Station's Hardware Accessories").

MAE produces spurious dialog boxes when MOUNT button is pressed.

Launching an application and then IMMEDIATELY clicking on the MOUNT button on the MAE Toolbar, with a valid MAE floppy in the drive, can cause various spurious dialog boxes to appear in the MAE window. If this happens, wait for the application to finish launching, then press the MOUNT button again. Dismiss the remaining dialog boxes.

(Sun only) MAE hangs when MOUNT button is pressed

If MAE seems to hang just after you click on the "mount" button in the toolbar, with a valid MAE floppy in the drive, type the following in a Solaris shell window:

volcheck floppy ; eject ; volcheck floppy

This should unstick the Solaris Volume Manager, and allow you to continue.

PRINTING

MAE's support for UNIX printers is very general; it is designed to work on a wide variety of workstations and system types. This flexibility makes it impossible for MAE to troubleshoot every possible printing configuration. Chapter 4 of the MAE USER'S GUIDE, "Printing in MAE," gives a comprehensive description of techniques related to printing. This section lists some commonly-encountered printing errors. If you encounter a printing problem that is not covered, your system administrator should be able to help you.

How to Cancel Printing

When you print a Macintosh file on MAE, a printing status dialog box appears for several seconds (depending on the size of the file). While the status dialog box is on the screen, you can cancel printing by holding down the Command key and pressing the period (.) key until the "canceling printing" dialog box appears. To cancel printing after the status dialog box has disappeared, use UNIX commands, such as lprm(1) or cancel(1). For more information, see the appropriate manual pages (man pages) that came with your workstation or consult your system administrator.

If the Printer Does Not Print Anything

Check the X window in which you started MAE. MAE will display any error or status messages in the window. The error messages can provide useful information about why printing isn't working. Also check the following:

  1. Verify that the printer is turned on and properly connected to the network. (For example, check for loose connections.)

  2. Verify that UNIX printing has been configured correctly on your workstation.

  3. Verify that you have correctly set up a print command by using the Chooser (available in the Apple menu on the MAE desktop). For example, make sure that you did not accidentally type the wrong printer name in the Setup Print Command dialog box. For information about setting up a print command, see Chapter 4 in the MAE USER'S GUIDE.

  4. Be sure you are looking for the printout at the correct printer. You may have recently changed the print command to print to a different printer, or the default UNIX printer may have changed. Some workstations use a UNIX environment variable to specify the default printer. If the environment variable has been changed, or if you are running MAE on a different workstation, you may be printing to a different printer without knowing it. (For this reason, the "MAE USER'S GUIDE" recommends that you specify a particular printer when you set up a print command.)

  5. Verify that the print queue contains your print request. Use lpstat or lpq to check status. Also make sure that the print spooling system isn't jammed.

  6. Verify that the print command that you specified in the Chooser actually works if you type it directly into a UNIX command window. This step lets you know whether your UNIX printing is working correctly.

  7. Try printing the same file to another printer. This step helps you determine whether the problem resides with the spooling system or with a particular printer.

  8. Try printing the file a second time, but this time click the Options button in the Print dialog box and choose "Print detailed report" in the PostScript Errors pop-up menu. This option prints any PostScript errors that may have occurred. You can also print a cover page before printing the file. (Select the "Before" radio button in the dialog box.) If the cover page prints, you will know that the file is making it to the printer.

The Printed Page Contains "%!PS-Adobe-3.0" and Other Miscellaneous Text

Sometimes when you print a file, the page contains "%!PS-Adobe3.0" followed by other miscellaneous text. This means that the PostScript program is being printed as text, instead of being executed as code. This situation may occur if you are trying to print your file on a non-PostScript printer. (If this is the case, try printing your file on a PostScript printer.) The situation also may occur if your UNIX printing does not recognize the PostScript identifier "%!PS-Adobe-3.0," which appears on the first line. See your system administrator for help.

Only part of your document was printed

Printing can generate large PostScript files. If you do not have enough free disk space, only a portion of your document may be printed.

KEYBOARD AND DISPLAY

Full-screen MAE displays

To arrange for full-screen MAE display without a window manager running, use the -geometry command line option specifying the screen size. Under a window manager, this may not produce the desired effect because of borders, titlebars, etc. For this case, it is best to not specify a geometry and let the window manager do its stuff by using the Maximize button or window menu option. To get the full Macintosh experience under HP VUE, set the X resource Vuewm*mae*clientDecoration to none and start MAE with the geometry set to the full screen size.

Q. If I have a small MAE window and I press the mwm Maximize/Restore button twice, why doesn't it restore the size?

A. Due to optimizations, MAE resizes only to widths of 32-pixel multiples. The maximized size is probably not the correct size, so MAE downsizes slightly. When the Maximize/Restore button is next pressed, the window manager correctly notes that the window is not full size, and Maximizes it. To get a smaller size, resize manually.

Q. If I resize my MAE window a little wider, why is there a gray strip on the right side?

A. Due to optimizations, MAE only resizes to widths of 32-pixel multiples. If the window is resized less than 32-pixels, MAE doesn't recognize the size change, doesn't inform the window manager, and doesn't change its internal size. Any resize beyond this point will correct the appearance. This will be corrected in a later version.

Improper toolbar selections while launching from an off-line disk hang MAE

When you launch from an off-line volume -- for example, when you double-click on an icon from a floppy that has been ejected, an insert-media dialog is displayed. If you Inadvertently select the wrong button on the MAE Toolbar, (that is, if you click Super Select, X import, or X export instead of the Mount Floppy/CD button), MAE hangs and must be killed. This bug in MAE 2.0 is under investigation.

OTHER

Using FETCH (an FTP Utility)

Using Fetch to "get" and "put" non-text Macintosh files from or to UNIX filesystems requires special care to insure the files are transferred in a usable state by MAE (i.e. preserving their AppleSingle format).

When doing a GET of a non-text Macintosh file, always select "binary" transfer mode. When doing a PUT of a non-text Macintosh file, always select "AppleSingle" as the file format when prompted by the dialog. Macintosh and UNIX text files should always be transferred by selecting "text" (ASCII) transfer mode.

For complete instructions about using Fetch, read the online "Fetch Help".

If you use Fetch, please honor its license by paying the shareware fee.

Using SOFTWAREFPU (Floating Point Unit Extension)

This extension simulates the FPU co-processor chip found in some Macintoshes and integrated into certain 68K CPU's. It is only useful for (the very few) Macintosh applications that require this FPU.

Complete instructions about using SoftwareFPU are included with the utility.

If you use SoftwareFPU, please honor its license by paying the shareware fee.

Using DISINFECTANT (Virus Utility)

MAE is susceptible to the same viruses that plague the Macintosh. However, there is no need to scan your entire UNIX filesystem for Macintosh viruses. When scanning with Disinfectant, hold down the Option key and press the "Scan" button, this will display a dialog that will allow you to limit the scope of the search.

For complete instructions about using Disinfectant, please read the online "Disinfectant Help".

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