Support for MacsBug, Drag and Drop
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Both MacsBug (a popular tool for debugging Macintosh applications) and
Drag and Drop (a utility to assist Macintosh application launching)
are not supported under MAE. Attempts to use either of these applications
will have unpredictable results.
Distributing Common Extensions, Control Panels, Preferences, etc.
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When MAE is started for the very first time for a particular user, it
creates a System Folder in the user's $HOME directory by copying the
files located in apple/sys directory. These system files can then be
customized by the user to suit their particular MAE environment. If
numerous users will be utilizing the same mail application, meeting
planner or other productivity application, it is likely that one or more
files will need to be added to their System Folder. By adding these files
(typically Extensions and Control Panels) to the apple/sys directory (in
their respective folders), a new System Folder can be created for each
new user that already contains the necessary files. This way, only the
application may need to be copied to the user's $HOME directory. In a
similar fashion, you can distribute preset Preferences files as well.
Note that this method of distributing common resources does not populate
existing System Folders.
For example, you might wish to place all the necessary Extensions and
Control Panels in the apple/sys directory for a network-based mail
application, and include the Preferences file for that application. This
would ensure that the user already had the proper name and location of
the mail server as well as any additional system resources required by
the application.
Using Global Fonts to Minimize Disk Usage
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By default, MAE users do not share their individual Fonts directories.
Since each user must be able to modify the directory (for both adding
and deleting fonts), management of the Fonts directory as a modifiable
shared resource would be difficult. As an alternative, have the system
administrator create a globally accessible Fonts directory which is
read-only and allow only the superuser to add or delete fonts. In this
manner, the directory can be populated with many fonts that would
otherwise be duplicated for each user, thus preserving more disk space.
Once this has been done, each user can delete their private Fonts
directory and create a symbolic link to the shared Fonts directory
(using `ln -s').
Selecting AppleTalk Zones
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Under some circumstances, a user of MAE may not be able to select a
different default AppleTalk zone even though there may be others
available. For example, if two or more copies of MAE are executing on
the same physical workstation, none of the MAE users will be able to change
zones. Another possible scenario is that AppleTalk has not shut down
properly (i.e., it was still up even after all copies of MAE were shut
down). To ensure that AppleTalk is not currently running, execute
the command `appletalk -D'. (For more information on usage of the
`appletalk' command, reference the next topic.)
Using the `appletalk' Unix Command
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As part of the MAE v2.0 distribution, Apple includes a utility to
assist in management and diagnosis of problems with the AppleTalk
services that are part of MAE. With this utility you can stop or
start AppleTalk services independent of MAE, as well as obtain
detailed information on the AppleTalk services currently executing
on that workstation. For more information, reference Chapter 5 of
the `MAE System Admin Guide', a DocViewer document included with your
CD-ROM distribution of MAE.
(Sun only) File Modes For Non-le0 Interfaces
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By default, device drivers used for LAN interfaces under Solaris are
designated as read-only for the superuser (root). As MAE allows any
non-privileged user to bring up AppleTalk (which is normally done the
first time MAE is started on each workstation), it is necessary that
the file permissions be changed to world-readable/writeable. The MAE
v2.0 installation script automatically changes the permission for the
device `le0'; all others need to be made world-readable/writeable before
MAE will be able to use those devices.
Personal File Sharing and MAE
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For some system administrators, providing MAE users with the capability
of sharing Unix directories via AppleShare File Sharing may present a
possible security risk. To prevent this from happening, remove the file
named `File Sharing Extension' from the Extensions folder located inside
the apple/sys directory. Now, when the System Folder for the new user
is created, the Extension will not be present. This will prevent the
user from sharing directories on the workstation.
(HP only) MAE and asecure
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In order to use sound with MAE under HP-UX, HP's audio server (Aserver)
must be authorized for each user. This is usually performed with the HP
utility `asecure'. If a user is not properly authorized to use the audio
server, MAE will issue an error message at startup. Although sound will
not be possible, MAE will otherwise continue to function normally. Under
some circumstances, it may be desired that MAE bypass its normal check for
the presence of Aserver. To do this, set the environment variable
`TB_SOUND_OVERRIDE_CHECK=1' to allow sound to be produced. Although the
error messages will still be produced at startup, MAE will ignore them and
produce sound. Note that this will not override the security features of
the server, but will override MAE's check to see if the asecure feature is
installed. For more information on Aserver and asecure, reference your
HP documentation.
Usage of `TZ' Environment Variable
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Several routines within MAE use the value specified by the environment
variable `TZ', which declares the time zone for a particular workstation.
Failure to define and assign a value to this variable prior to executing
MAE may result in an error.
As an example for ksh, you can set this variable with the command
export TZ=PST8PDT
if you are located in the Pacific time zone. For more information,
reference the appropriate man pages for your OS.
MAE and Globetrotter's FLEXwrap Utility
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If you wish to use MAE with the FLEXwrap utility from
Globetrotter,
you must use a feature of FLEXwrap that is not enabled by default.
Failure to enable this feature will result in the inability to execute
a Macintosh `Restart' from the Finder.
To enable the feature, perform the following steps:
- In the apple/bin directory, rename `mae' to `mae.orig'.
- Create a symlink named `mae' to FLEXwrap's fwrapper program in the
apple/bin directory.
- When the installer for FLEXwrap is run, there is an option to
specify a value for `argv[0]'. Give it the full path name to
`mae.orig' (as created in Step 1, above).
- If you had previously run the FLEXwrap installer, you can edit the
license manager file (default `license.dat') and replace the
`w_binary=' entry with `w_argv=' and point it to the full path of
`mae.orig'.
Example: MAE is installed into /opt/apple and FLEXwrap is installed into
/opt/flex/flexwrap. apple/bin/mae is renamed to apple/bin/mae.orig and
a symbolic link named mae is created that points to the location of the
fwrapper program, which is /opt/flex/flexwrap/sun4_u5/fwrapper. Since
an entry for MAE already exists in the license.dat file for FLEXwrap,
the entry specifying f_binary=/opt/apple/bin/mae is replaced with
f_argv=/opt/apple/bin/mae.orig. For more information on FLEXwrap, refer
to that product's documentation or contact
Globetrotter for assistance.
MAE users wishing to utilize FLEXwrap must contact their Apple sales
representative for licensing issues prior to implementing FLEXwrap.
Go back to MAE 2.0 Technical Information.