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Archive-name: aux-faq/part2 Last-modified: Tue Apr 12 09:25:29 EDT 1994 This is the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) list for A/UX 3.x.x \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ START OF PART 2 OF 3 ////////////////////// ============== **** Q&A: **** -------------- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: GENERAL QUESTIONS ::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: =================================== G.01) What's A/UX? Is it any good? ----------------------------------- A/UX is Apple's implementation of Unix (it's Apple's UNix) for various Macintosh computers. A/UX merges two computing environments, Unix and the Macintosh Finder OS, and provides the full functionality of both. A/UX is based on AT&T Unix System V.2.2 with numerous extensions from V.3, V.4 (such as streams) and BSD 4.2/4.3 (such as networking, the Fast File System, job control, lpr, NFS with Yellow Pages, SCCS and sendmail 5.64). It also provides full POSIX compliance. A/UX provides SYSV, BSD and POSIX compatiblity switches and libraries. A/UX is fully compiant with the System V Interface Definition (SVID). A/UX provides all three standard shells: sh, csh and ksh. X-Windows is also provided standard. A/UX 3.x.x incorporates System 7 for the Macintosh allowing for the use of the vast majority of Macintosh applications under A/UX. System7 and Unix and fully integrated under A/UX 3.x.x with the Unix file system being seen as a disk drive by the Finder. There are quite a few people who feel that A/UX is a near-perfect implemen- tation of Unix. Of course, every operating system (even AIX!) has it's share of devotees, so that's not a very valid scale of whether the system is any good. A/UX _is_ Unix... it's not some form of pseudo-Unix. It insulates the user from Unix, if required, but the System Administrator will need to become Unix-aware. Furthermore, if you want straight Unix, you can get it... it's not a chore to bypass all the "gingerbread." People may also complain that A/UX is based on an "obsolete" version of AT&T Unix (V.2.2). In many ways, Apple's extensions make A/UX very V.3-like (V.3 is in many ways an enhanced V.2... it even uses the V.2 kernel)... The list of extensions to A/UX are impressive. Compare what you get standard with other systems and you'll be shocked! On some, 'cc', 'f77', NFS, etc... are costly options. The main consideration (and opposition) to A/UX is the platform it runs on: The Macintosh. Some consider this a boon, others a bust. At present, Apple's top-level workstation is the Quadra 800, a 33MHz 68040 based system. Some consider this obsolete; others consider it overkill; others consider it, like Goldilocks, "just right." If you need super-fast state-of-the-art number crunching capability then A/UX may not be for you... the Q800 benchmarks at maybe 10-16 SPECmarks (depending on compiler used, external cache size, etc...) and you can get lots faster with other platforms. Of course, you'll have to "settle" for their operating systems, but if you need it, then that's how you'll get it. Of course, this doesn't mean that A/UX "crawls"... There are very few people who need this type of performance though. If you need (or just _want_ ) a Unix workstation with the speed and power of Unix and the user interface and application selection of the Macintosh then A/UX is the way to go. In many, many ways, A/UX is the Unix "for the rest of us"... even if we are long-time Unix junkies. If you love the Mac, you'll love A/UX; if you love Unix, you'll love A/UX... and if you want a near- perfect marriage of the two, then you'll love A/UX. Yes, A/UX is good... very, very good :) ======================================================================== G.02) What's the minimum system I need (CPU, disk and RAM) to run A/UX? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A/UX 3.0 works on the MacII (with PMMU _or_ 68030 upgrade with FDHD ROM's installed), IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, SE/30, IIsi (with 68882 chip) and the Quadra 700|900|950 computers. A/UX 3.0.1 adds support for the Q800 and Centris Machines (the Centrises _must_ have the real 68040 w/FPU - See Q&A #G.03). A/UX does not support the ClassicII, PowerBook, Duo or LC families. A/UX does _not_ work on the new 840av and 660av machines but will run on the new Quadra 610 and 650s (recall that A/UX requires the _real_ 68040 chip!) with a little bit of work: You should make a copy of the A/UX Install Boot floppy and then copy the Enabler for the Q610|650 onto this copy. You then boot up from this floppy and install A/UX as usual. Finally, you'll need to copy the Q610|650 Enabler onto the A/UX MacPartition (or whatever MacOS disk you will use when starting up your Mac and booting A/UX); do this by first booting off a boot floppy or boot CD and then copy the Enabler over. You do _not_ need to make any changes to the A/UX System Folder (i.e. the System Folder used under A/UX). Recall that A/UX _is_ UNIX and thus contains some very hardware specific drivers. It's for this reason (and not Apple not doing things correctly) that A/UX won't work on newly released platforms. To support a new platform, at least _some_ work (and possibly extensive work in some cases) must be done. If you really want to cut it close, 8MB RAM and an ENTIRE 80MB hard disk will just make it. You'll have little room for user files (unless you clear out some space by removing /games and maybe /catman) and depending on your workload, may suffer from low performance (due to swapping... you may even encounter the infamous swap messages :) A much better system would be 16MB of RAM and about 200MB of disk space. This would give you much more room to grow as well as sufficient RAM to increase your performance (assuming that you tune some kernel parameters). All in all, more RAM is prefered: 20MB (or more) is ideal. =================================== G.03) What's new about A/UX 3.x.x? ----------------------------------- A/UX 3.0.x incorporates the full functionality of System7. It supports the QuickTime multimedia extension and the new Mac Quadra computers (not the AV machines, however). A/UX 3.0.x includes X11R4 in it's distribution, as well as MacX. Installation of A/UX is much easier that it was before and can be installed on any 3rd party hard disk using the "new and improved" HD Setup application (see Q&A #A.16 though). 3.0.2 is a later version of A/UX. 3.0.1 added support for the Q800 and the Centris machines (650 and 610) as long as they have the _real_ 68040 chip (68RC040) installed (Support for the C650 is official; support for the C610, which _requires_ the 040 be replaced since none have the required one installed, is non-official but known and verified). A/UX 3.0.2 will also run on the new Quadra 610 and 650; see G.02 to see how. To get 3.0.2, you'll need to install 3.0.1 and then apply the AWS Tune-Up 1.0 to upgrade to 3.0.2. This upgrade is free. 3.1 is the latest version of A/UX. 3.1 greatly improves performance and reliability as well as fixes some bugs. It does not, however, add support for any other Macs. 3.1 is "tweaked" for the AWS95, but can be run on other non-AWS95 Macs as well (see Q&A G:09). 3.0.1, in addition to supporting newer Macs, provides performance boosts, bug fixes, better Finder emulation and other enhancements over 3.0. 3.0.2 does the same for 3.0.1. The upgrade from older versions of A/UX to 3.0.2 really _is_ worth the pretty small amount of money required. 3.0.2 is a better and more solid performer, both UNIX-wise and Finder-wise, than it's predecessors. 3.1 requires 3.0.1|3.0.2 and provides much better performance and should be seriously considered! ==================================================== G.04) What's the diff between 3.0.2 and 3.0.2(wgs)? ---------------------------------------------------- 3.0.2 is an exact binary-copy of 3.0.2(wgs) (which is the version of A/UX for the WGS 95 server) except for some minor cosmetics and the exclusion of the server-related applications. This includes RetroSpect for A/UX (see Q&A #E.03). Some of the major differences between 3.0.2 and 3.0.2(wgs) include: o Buffer cacher size (default kconfig parameters) o Packages installed during Easy Install o Swap space size on Easy Install o Autologin enabled in 3.0.2(wgs) o lpr daemon on in 3.0.2, off in 3.0.2(wgs) o Partition choices in HDSC SetUp As you can see, they are all related to how the system is setup... ============================ G.05) How can I order A/UX? ---------------------------- A/UX is available preinstalled on Mac systems or on CD-ROM. To find the nearest A/UX reseller, call 1-800-538-9696. You'll need access to a compatible CD-ROM drive to install A/UX (or a friendly dealer if you go that route). Please note that at the present, you can only order 3.0.1; you'll then need to apply the AWS Tune-Up 1.0 (available on jagubox and aux.support.apple.com) to upgrade up to 3.0.2. The part numbers (and suggested retail price) for 3.0.1 are (US and Canada): M0598LL/C A/UX 3.0.1 CD-ROM product ($795) (contains Essential Manuals) M0597LL/B A/UX 3.0.1 Essential Manuals ($329) M0430LL/B A/UX 3.0.1 Programmers Manuals ($329) M0431LL/B A/UX 3.0.1 Administrators Manuals ($329) M0599LL/C A/UX 3.0.1 Update (updates previous ($250) versions to 3.0.1) M0489LL/B A/UX 3.0.1 Programmers Manual Update ($285) M0490LL/B A/UX 3.0.1 Admin. Manual Update ($285) If you are interested in upgrading your Q950 to the Apple WGS-95 Server (which uses A/UX 3.0.1) here are the part numbers (with SRP): M6940Z/A WGS 95 PDS Upgrade Kit ($2499) M6945Z/A WGS 95 PDS + DAT Upgrade Kit ($4399) By the way, MacWarehouse is now selling the A/UX 3.0.1 CD-ROM package for $619... Their phone number is 1-800-255-6227; ask for part#SYS0009. To get 3.0.2, you need to snag the AWS Tune-Up 1.0 DiskCopy image files from aux.support.apple.com or jagubox and apply the patches. Although the Tune-Up is called AWS, it's really for _all_ A/UX users. Note that you need 3.0.1 to upgrade to 3.0.2. If you want to upgrade to 3.1, please see Q&A G.09. ============================================== G.06) What's the upgrade path for A/UX 3.0.2? ---------------------------------------------- You can upgrade to 3.0.2 (from any other version of A/UX) by purchasing the A/UX 3.0.1 CD-ROM Product Upgrade (Apple part # MO599LL/C). The suggested price is $250. You then need to snag the AWS Tune-Up 1.0 disks to upgrade 3.0.1 to 3.0.2. It's recommended that if you do upgrade, that you completely repartition your disk via the Installer for two reasons: 1. The default (suggested) partition sizes have changed 2. You install 3.0.1 on a "clean" system. If you want to upgrade to 3.1, please see Q&A G.09. ============================================================ G.07) What are Right-To-Copy and Right-To-Upgrade licenses? ------------------------------------------------------------ If you have bought at least one copy of A/UX 3.0.x and you have other Mac CPUs that you would like to install A/UX on, you don't need to reorder the entire product. You can order a Right-To-Copy license for each Mac you want to install A/UX on and then copy your A/UX to that Mac. This is cheaper than buying a whole new CD-ROM package. It's not right to copy unless you have a Right-To-Copy. If those other Macs are already running A/UX, but an older version, then you need to order a Right-To-Upgrade license for each one you want to upgrade. As above, you then copy your 3.0.x over to that Mac. Note that in both cases, you must have purchased at least 1 copy of A/UX 3.0.x. The Right-To-* licenses just "authorize" you to then copy that over to other Macs. The A/UX Essential Manual Set (that comes with A/UX 3.0.x) is not provided with either license. If you need more, you'll need to order them ========================================= G.08) How can I report bugs that I find? ----------------------------------------- The official E-mail address is reports@aux.support.apple.com. If you subscribe to the A/UX Technical AnswerLine, you can also use that method. The former isn't acknowledged although the latter is. For completeness, also post the report to comp.unix.aux. There is also a HyperCard stack called "Apple Bug Reporter" that Apple recommends using. I have a copy and can make it available via anon-ftp if there is a demand. =================================== G.09) What's the word on A/UX 3.1? ----------------------------------- The latest version of A/UX, 3.1, has signed been signed off on and is now shipping. 3.1 offers better performance than 3.0.2, fixes for various bugs, better MacOS emulation and some updated programs and applications. 3.1 requires 3.0.1|3.0.2 and costs $199 (+ $5 for shipping, $10 for FedEx). You can order it directly by calling 1-800-769-2775, x7822. Ask for the A/UX 3.1 WGS Upgrade Kit. If that doesn't work, try asking for part # M2885Z/A. 3.1 has only been _fully_ tested on the AWS95 platform and not on all the other platforms that A/UX runs on; however, nothing was done to it to prevent it from working on other machines. 3.1 is "only" for the AWS95s in the same way that 3.0.2 was "only" for them ;) Anyway, here is a short and non-official list of some 3.1 features: o sendmail 8.6.4 now included o support for new Berkeley NDBM package o Added support for "dynamic" use of removables, such as SyQuests o NEC CD-ROMs now supported !! o StyleWriter II supported o Support for UNIX file systems up to 4GB o Enhanced I/O performance (big improvement for fast machines and/or disks!) o Interupting a NFS server now works o Solaris clients no longer crash A/UX o Heavy UFS and NFS I/O no longer causes 'panic: freeing free inode' errors and deadlocks o I/O no longer causes excessive dropped kernel clock interupts o The size of .fs_cache no longer limited to 32MB o Death of 'catsearchd' now detected and responded to (used to crash the MacOS) o Desktop rebuilds no longer cause the Finder to terminate when the rebuild is done. o ThinkC runs under A/UX o Much better MacOS compatibility o 'Temporary Items' correctly handled o Various "needed" programs (like /bin/sh) recompiled w/o shared libs so that the system is still restorable after /shlib is munged o Various bug fixes and improvements, including: cpio (new option -L to follow sym-links) df (handles longer bus names) fsck (ignores 'noauto' and '-p'&'-y' now work correctly) make (uses SHELL in makefile) passwd (MAXUID now 65534) restore (can now restore named pipes) ==================================================== G.10) What's the future of A/UX with the PowerMacs? ---------------------------------------------------- +Well, that's the $64,000 question. The quick and easy answer is "Nobody +knows." There are a few known factoids: (1) A/UX in it's _present_ form +will _not_ be ported to the PowerMac. (2) Apple will have some form of UNIX +(most probably based on some form of AIX) running on it's future PowerMac +servers. Other than those two items, the rest is up in the air. +There are a few rumors going around: + o Apple will release some form of PowerOpen-A/UX. This will be based on AIX + but will have enuff changes to it that it will be much better than AIX is + (similar to how A/UX has improved on it's SysVR2 base). PowerOpen-A/UX + will be for both servers and non-servers as well (again, similar to + the present A/UX). PowerOpen-A/UX will have some form of the Macintosh + Application Environment (MAE) running on it, although it may be different + (better) than that available for Sun and HP unix-boxes. Needless to say, + this is what the vast majority if present A/UXers would like. + o Apple will release some form of PowerOpen-A/UX. This will be based on + AIX with minimal (or no) changes at all. PowerOpen-A/UX will be for + both servers and non-servers as well (again, similar to the present + A/UX). PowerOpen-A/UX will have some form of the Macintosh Application + Environment (MAE) running on it, although it may be different (better) + than that available for Sun and HP unix-boxes. Due to it's base of + "straight" AIX, this is not super attractive to present A/UXers... + o Apple will release some form of PowerOpen-A/UX but it will be only for + servers. + o Apple will release some form of PowerOpen-A/UX for servers, but it's + MacOS emulation will either be _very_ barebones or even non-existant. + o Apple will decide that UNIX on PowerMacs is a waste (thus removing the + "fact-ness" of factoid #2) and will "give" the market of UNIX on PowerPCs + to the other guys, such as IBM, Solaris, etc... Thus, Apple will not have + any form of UNIX for the PowerMacs. Sooo, if you want the MacOS on top + of UNIX, you'll need to buy a UNIX box that the MAE is available for. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: ADMINISTRATION ISSUES ::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ================================================== A.01) How come my Login screen is gray, not color? -------------------------------------------------- Because that's the way Apple wanted it :) Actually, the reason why is because the 'scrn' resource is missing from 'System' in /mac/sys/Login System Folder. If you're handy, you can copy 'scrn' from some other System and paste it in Login's using ResEdit. Make sure the "Is Color" field in 'scrn' is "1". ================================================================= A.02) How come my Login ScreenSaver doesn't see both my monitors? ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is also due to the fact (see Q&A #A.01) that the System file in /mac/sys/Login System Folder lacks a 'scrn' resource. If you copy this resource from a System to knows about your monitor setup into Login's System, then the screensaver will knows about all your monitors. ================================ A.03) Swap space error messages -------------------------------- A.03) Even though I have lot's of swap space and only a little bit is being used, I STILL get a lot of messages saying that my swap space is running low. What's the buzz? Unix is justifyably concerned about having adequate swap space. A system crash caused by this beast is a sight to behold. However, A/UX seems EXTREMELY nervous about the amount needed before it starts getting fidgety. If you do a "/etc/swap -l" and see that you're only using a small portion of your swap space and have a "lot" left, then you can safely ignore the messages (just how much is a "lot" is hard to say, but if you have 25000 blocks and are only using 1000 or 2000, then I'd say you were fine). If you DO need more swap space, then you have a few options: a. Using 'kconfig', reduce the number and size of buffers. This isn't really a good idea since it could really degrade performance as well as possibly causing more panics. b. Add more swap space. Fine, if you have it. You could either add another disk as swap (nice) or repartition your present disk to create a larger Swap partition (Ack!). c. Add more memory. If you have more memory, then this will reduce the need to augment it with swap space... RAM's cheap too! There is an old rule of thumb that the size of Swap should be about 2 to 3 times the amount of RAM, which would seem to contradict the above. The thing is that if with the _present_ workload you are swapping like crazy, then adding RAM will reduce tha swapping. If, however, you start increasing the work- load, then swapping will start again, and you better have enough of it! This was the original intent of the Rule-Of- Thumb. At the very least, Swap should always be at least as big as the amount of RAM you have. ================================================ A.04) How can I copy a complete file system... ------------------------------------------------ ...from one disk|partition to another? You have three options: dd, dump.bsd and cpio (pax MAY work but tar won't since it won't handle special-type files). If the two partitions are the same size, you can use 'dd' (to copy c0d0s0 to c5d0s3, e.g.): $ dd < /dev/rdsk/c0d0s0 > /dev/rdsk/c5d0s3 To use dump.bsd, you can use the following command (this assumes that the destination disk in mounted on /mnt and you want to copy the root file system which is on SCSI 0... of course, you must be root and it would be MUCH better to do this in single-user mode): $ dump.bsd 0f - /dev/rdsk/c0d0s0 | (cd /mnt; restore xf -) To use cpio, you must use it in a pipe with find. For example, to copy /usr (let's assume it's on it's own file system) to another disk|partition (assume it's mounted on /mnt) then you can use (you can add the "-depth" flag to 'find' if you want): $ cd /usr $ find . -print | cpio -pdmuva /mnt The problem with this is that if the mount point of the destination disk falls under the file system's directory you're trying to copy, you'll load up your destination disk. For example, the following would NOT work: $ cd / $ find . -print | cpio -pdmuva /mnt because 'find' would see the stuff in /mnt (which you just put in there) and try to copy in back to /mnt! To way to avoid this is by adding a little filter: $ cd / $ find . -print | grep -v '^./mnt*' | cpio -pdmuva /mnt If you have GNU find, then you can use it with it's '-xdev' option, which prevents find from walking through other file systems: $ cd / $ find . -xdev -print | cpio -pdmuva /mnt dump.bsd creates a "truer" copy of your file system (the access and modification dates aren't mucked with... with the find/cpio pipe, at the least the directory dates are touched) but it won't backup named pipes... These are easy to creat though using 'mknod'. The only named pipes included in the default A/UX distribution are: /usr/lib/cron/FIFO prw------- 1 root sys 0 Oct 18 16:08 /usr/spool/lpd/AppleTalk/pipe prw-rw---- 1 daemon daemon 0 Oct 19 06:11 ======================== A.05) What's with UUCP? ------------------------ UUCP under 3.x.x is very improved over it's previous "incarnation" under 2.0.1. 3.x.x uses HDB (for HoneyDanBer) UUCP instead of standard UUCP. Some nice things are bidirectional getty (also known as uugetty in other Unixs) which allows both incoming and outgoing communication over serial lines as well as better performance and reliability. I hear that setting it up is _much_ easier as well. You may seriously consider getting Alexis Rosen's "sendmail.cf" file for use under UUCP sendmail. This config file has been modified to allow UUCP and sendmail to work beautifully together. You may also want to consider simply installing smail to replace sendmail. Under 3.0., be sure that you are running the latest version: 1.16. It can be found on aux.support.apple.com in aux.patches/supported/3.0. Be sure that you get the new dial.o on ftp.apple.com (pub/earlw/dial) to avoid breaking syslog. Under 3.0.1 (and later) all is OK. ============================================== A.06) How can I log anonymous ftp entries?... ---------------------------------------------- ...in.ftpd has a -l option, but it doesn't work. Jim Jagielski (jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov) has hacked in.ftpd to enable logging via the syslogd daemon. It also pays extra close attention to anonymous ftp logins. It's available (as well as other ports|hacks) on jagubox. Also available on jagubox is a port of the latest version of wuarchive's ftpd server for A/UX. wu-ftpd is a super-nice ftp server with lots of extras and neat features! The real reason why '-l' doesn't work with in.ftpd is that there's no real way to send this option to the daemon. A/UX 'inetd' doesn't allow you to add options to '/etc/servers'. John Coolidge (coolidge@apple.com) has ported the BSD-reno version of 'inetd' to overcome this limitation. Jim Jagielski has since been updating and maintaining 'inetd'. This version of 'inetd' also has some nice features, such as rereading /etc/servers when sent SIGHUP. It's available via anon-ftp on jagubox. This version of 'inetd' has also been modified to log whenever it spawns a background daemon as well as logging which host requested the daemon. %%% For more info, contact Jim %%% ============================================ A.07) 'df' shows different results for root -------------------------------------------- A.07) How come when I do a 'df' as a regular user, it shows me a different number of free blocks compared to when I run it as 'root'? One of the details about the BSD Fast File System is that it sets aside some amount of the available disk space (if the file system was created by HD SC Setup, then %5 is set aside; if created by 'newfs' then 10% is set aside... this value can be changed by using the 'tunefs' command) and makes it unavailable to regular users. This prevents 2 things: filling up a file system and destroying performance by having a "too full" file system. 'root', however, does have access to this "extra" disk space, hence the difference in the numbers reported by df between 'root' and "regular joe". As mentioned above, if you used HD Setup to create the partitions (or your A/UX came preinstalled), then the "set aside" value for these file systems is 5%, not the "default" of 10%... This was simply to give users more space. Reducing this value beyond 5% is Not A Good Idea. ====================================== A.08) Does A/UX LocalTalk support IP? -------------------------------------- Nope... not at all. ========================================================== A.09) How do I get MPW 3.1 to work? It hangs my system... ---------------------------------------------------------- MPW 3.1 doesn't work under A/UX although 3.2 does. In the meantime, you can make 3.1 work by breaking into MacsBug when it's hung and entering: pc=pc+2;g See Q&A #M.04 for info about entering MacsBug... =============================================================== A.10) Can I refer to a file on my Mac system from within A/UX? --------------------------------------------------------------- A/UX's 'Finder' mode is the only way (currently) to access both file systems. You could write a hybrid application that could attach to the Finder world (a la, CommandShell and cmdo which can "see" both file systems), but you can't access HFS volumes from the A/UX kernel directly. In a similar vein, you can't 'mount' an HFS volume on an A/UX inode. ================================================================= A.11) How can I adjust the amount of virtual memory Finder uses? ----------------------------------------------------------------- There are three ways to do this. The first is very easy: you simply use the Memory cdev to adjust the "memory" size, logout and then log back in. You must be 'root' to do it this way. The 2nd way is to use the 'TBMEMORY' environment variable. You can set it's "value" equal to the amount of memory you wish to use. For example: set TBMEMORY=10m (in .profile for ksh or sh or /etc/profile) -or- setenv TBMEMORY 10m (in .login for csh) configures Finder for 10M. You can also edit /mac/bin/mac32|mac24 (or .mac32|.mac24 if you are using this method) to call 'startmac' with the memory size you want using the "-m" option. For example: /mac/bin/startmac -m 8m > $SMLOGFILE 2>&1 & ------- in (.)mac32|(.)mac24 will configure an 8M environment. Please note that under the 24-bit mode (mac24), you can only access a maximum of 8MB of RAM. It won't complain if you try to setup more, it just won't do it. Furthermore, if you actually have more than 8MB (say 12), the "About This Macintosh" window will show "Built-in Memory: 12,288 K; Total Memory: 8,192K". The default behavior of 3.0 (and earlier) was to allocate all the RAM to the MacOS. Thus, if you had 20MB, A/UX would, unless told otherwise, allocate 20MB for the MacOS-emulation. Under 3.0.1 (and later), this is slightly changed: A/UX will usually not allocate all RAM to the MacOS but will instead impose a 16MB maximum (this can be changed via Memory or TBMEMORY). Whatever version of A/UX you are running, it's a Good Idea not to allocate _all_ RAM for the Finder. This is because A/UX allocates itself a chunk, so if you give the Finder "all" of it, you can cause swapping and paging which can seriously degrade performance at times. If the value set in 'Memory' and TBMEMORY disagree, the value determined by TBMEMORY is used. ================================================================ A.12) Is there an archive of comp.unix.aux out there somewhere? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, it's located on aux.support.apple.com under archives/comp.unix.aux. ========================================== A.13) How come I can't use color under X? ------------------------------------------ Apple's X (R4), and Thomas Eberhardt's X11R5 all support color. However, you must start the server with the "-screen 0 -depth 8" option (similar command with other screens if you have them). You can add these options to the command line or to your server's defaults file. You can also create a ".X11" file in your home directory which includes the line: X -screen 0 -depth 8 to get the same effect. Make sure that ".X11" is executable for this to work ("chmod 755 .X11"). =========================================== A.14) Accessing MacOS filenames under A/UX ------------------------------------------- A.14) Using the command shell interface, I'm trying to access some Mac files (that have strange names) but I can't; the program returns an error and I can't access the file. What's going on? The problem is that sh and csh don't understand the Mac "special" characters that are in the filenames. They don't expect filenames with characters that are represented by 8-bits. ksh is "8-bit clean" and thus would be able to access the file. For example, to remove Moire, just type: $ ksh #this creates a Korn shell child % rm M?ire #match the weird 'o' % exit #get back in your old shell You could also use emacs' DIRED or the Gnu File utilities to do this, but ksh is right here on the system so it's a bit easier. Of course, another very easy way is to use the MacOS interface and do the deletion|rename|whatever the "Mac" way. Please note that if what you are MacOS deleting is a symbolic link to a directory, what gets Trashed is actually the contents of the directory as well as the link! This is due to the fact that to the Finder, the link looks like a folder, and the entire thing gets deleted. ============================================ A.15) Installer problems on 3rd party disks -------------------------------------------- A.15) I heard the the Installer for 3.x.x works on "any" 3rd party hard disk. Well, it doesn't on mine! Well, the Installer will work with any 3rd party disk but there are a few wrinkles... The HD Setup application in the 3.x.x Installer is unique in that not only does it create A/UX partitions but it also creates the actual file systems in those partitions (basically it runs 'newfs'). Now if you have used some other HD utility program (such as SilverLining or FWB HDT) to create the partitions and then attempt to install A/UX on that disk, the Installer sees that the partitions are there and then _assumes_ that they were created by HD Setup and therefore have the file systems already created. Of course, the file systems don't exist yet, just the partitions, so the installation fails. You have a few options: a. Run the Installer on a newly formatted disk. This means that HD Setup will do all the partitioning (etc...) and the installation will proceed. Note that this means you will be "stuck" with the Apple drivers whenever you are in the _real_ MacOS Finder. b. If you want to use the drivers on your HD utility (for stuff like, maybe, password protection of partitions) then you have two (maybe three) additional options: i. Use 'a' above to install A/UX. Then use your HD utility program to "take over" the disk, disabling (or even removing) the Apple drivers and installing it's own. Note that if there isn't enough space to install it's drivers, most will attempt to "shrink" the MacOS partition to make room. Most can do this with no problem, but why take the risk... when you partition the disk, leave about 64K available as free space. ii. Use your HD utility to create the partitions. Then, before you run the Installer, run 'newfs' "by hand" to create the file systems so that the installation can proceed. iii. Use your HD utility to format (etc...) your disk and create _only_ the MacOS partition. Now run the Installer. In most cases HD Setup will work fine with the driver installed on the disk. You can now use it to create the A/UX partitions. <<ED: I _know_ this (iii) works with FWB HDT>> Please note that HD SC Setup will only create the file systems if run under A/UX. If you run it under the MacOS, it can only partition... ========================== A.16) RetroSpect for A/UX -------------------------- A.16) Since RetroSpect will no longer be bundled with A/UX 3.0.2, how can I get it? Very early reports indicated that RetroSpect for A/UX might be bundled with A/UX 3.0.2 as it is with the AWS95 version of 3.0.2. This is no longer the case (if it ever _was_ ). However, if you are a registered owner of RetroSpect 2.0, you can order an upgrade to RetroSpect A/UX. The cost is around $200 and to order (or more info) you can call 1-800-225-4880 (have your registration number handy). International customers should call 510-849-0293. Please note that if you have the Pisces card installed (with the WGS95), then _only_ RetroSpect A/UX will work and _only_ under the A/UX environment. You will not be able to access your DAT under the real MacOS! ========================================== A.17) How can I configure CAP under A/UX? ------------------------------------------ For the answer, snag a copy of CAP.txt which is available via anon-ftp on jagubox in /pub/aux. =========================================== A.18) What are some good books about A/UX? ------------------------------------------- Except for Apple's complete manual set, there are no books specifically about A/UX. (Well, there's one but it's most probably out of print. It is most definately out of date. It's called "The A/UX Handbook" by Jan Harrington and it's written for A/UX 2.0). There are some _very_ good books about UNIX in general however. The best of the pack (IHMO) is "UNIX Administration Guide for System V" by Thomas and Farrow. Another good book is the "UNIX System Administration Handbook" by Nemeth, Snyder and Seebass. Since A/UX is a mix of SystemV and BSD both books are worthwhile ("UNIX Sys. Ad. Handbook" deals "mostly" with BSD systems). Another must-have is "UNIX Power Tools" from O'Reilly and Associates. For general information about shells and programming there's no better book than "The UNIX Programming Environment" by Kernighan and Pike. For the 'ksh' shell, the best book I've encountered is "Learning the Korn Shell" by Bill Rosenblatt. O'Reilly and Associates has a wide selection of UNIX-based books. You're bound to find what you're looking for from them. You can contact them either via Email (nuts@ora.com) or Phone (1-800-998-9938). There is also a list (with over 160 entries) of UNIX books (and mini-reviews) located on ftp.rahul.net in 'pub/mitch/YABL/yabl'. ======================================== A.19) 'panic ialloc' error when booting ---------------------------------------- A.19) When booting up, I get a "panic ialloc, dup alloc" (or other) error message and A/UX won't boot. What can I do? This is due to the fact that some file system damage exists on the Root file system. By default, A/UX Startup will only run 'fsck' on the root file system if the system is marked as "dirty." So even if damage exists, as long as the disk was cleanly 'umount'ed, 'fsck' won't check it out and fix it. I recommend always having A/UX Startup fully check out the disk before booting A/UX. It takes a while, but it's worth it. To do this, choose Booting from the Preferences menu. Now change the command under "AutoRecovery" to "fsck /dev/default" (it was "fsck -y -p /dev/default"). When you do this, you'll notice that the radio button changes from "Check root file system" to "Custom command"... that's OK. After that, A/UX will always run 'fsck' on Root. If you are doing this, you might as well have A/UX run a full 'fsck' on all file-systems too. Check out fsck(1m) and fstab(4) for how to do this... one way is to just edit /etc/bcheckrc and remove the options to the "/etc/fsck" command. If you don't want to do this but you do have some damage that prevents A/UX from booting, then you can cancel the boot-up process (either select "Exit" or hit "Command-."). Then type "fsck /dev/default" and then, when 'fsck' is done, type "boot" (or "launch"). Sometimes you must run 'fsck' a coupla times to fully fix the file system if there was extensive damage. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: MAC-EMULATION QUESTIONS ::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ====================================================== M.01) What Mac applications are compatible with A/UX? ------------------------------------------------------ It would be much easier to list the applications that aren't compatible. The list is much, much shorter... The _vast_ majority of applications that run under System 7 will run under A/UX 3.x.x. In fact, before System 7 was released, A/UX 2.0.x was actually a good litmus test whether the application was 32-bit clean and would run under System 7. The only applications that are _sure_ to fail are those that try to access hardware _directly_, such as HD utilities or backup applications. A/UX 3.x.x provides both 24 and 32-bit modes, so if the application doesn't run under 32-bit mode, try it under 24-bit. One key note: if the program uses a "complex" installation procedure (like for Canvas, Word, Stuffit, etc...) then you should not try to do a fresh install under A/UX. See the above Hints and Words Of Wisdom. =================================================== M.02) What screen-savers are compatible with A/UX? --------------------------------------------------- AfterDark (2.0u and later) works well under A/UX but some displays may not have enough memory under Login so the "low-memory" display will be used. Moire and FMbackup seem a bit incompatible. They both function fine together but the combination prevents FMbackup's "Finishing up..." window from displaying, although FMbackup does, in fact, finish up. Furthermore, Moire seems to screw-up Commando (both version 3.22 and 4.01 exhibit this problem) so all in all, Moire can't be recommended if you desire using Commando (the problem seems to be with all MacOS applications 'launch'ed from the CommandShell window). Using Moire for the Login screen works well however, since you can't access Commando or 'launch' applications from there. Darkside is also available. Unlike other screen savers, Darkside is an application, not an INIT. This means it won't work under the Login screen. The latest version of Darkside is 4.0 and will _not_ work on Pre-System7 systems, so don't attempt to use this under A/UX 2.0.1 or later. Moire is available via anon-ftp on jagubox. ========================================== M.03) Mounting MacOS partition under A/UX ------------------------------------------ M.03) My MacOS partition mounts fine under MacOS but it doesn't show up under A/UX... Why? Whether or not a Mac partition mounts under A/UX depends on a number of factors... Necessary conditions for a partition to mount are: 1. The disk MUST be partitioned using the "new" partitioning scheme detailed in Inside Macintosh V. There is still plenty of disk software out there that uses the "old" scheme and this drives will not mount under A/UX. Generic disk formatters that use the "new" scheme include SilverLining and FWB Hard Disk Toolkit. Most major disk vendors supply A/UX compatible formatting s/w. 2. The partition must mount under MacOS BEFORE A/UX is booted. A/UX only tries to mount partitions that were already when it was booted. So, if you use an application to boot A/UX and this application runs before a partition is mounted, A/UX won't mount it for you. If you have a removable drive (such as SyQuest), you must insert the disk before you boot A/UX... this means you can't swap cartridges under A/UX. Sometimes, the partition map isn't correct for the MacOS partition; In particular, the Logical size may be 0! You can use 'dp' to look at the partition map to see if this is the case. Assuming that the disk us SCSI #2, then: $ dp /dev/dsk/c2d0s31 P Will print out the partition map entries. You can then see if the "Apple_HFS" partition type has the correct logical size. ================================================= M.04|M.05) MacsBug, Interrupts and MacOS Freezes ------------------------------------------------- M.04) I have MacsBug installed. How can I trigger it? -- or -- M.05) Sometimes my MultiFinder environment (and/or CommandShell) freezes up; how can I unfreeze it? Should I hit the Interrupt switch? The "Command-Control-e" keypress will kill the current MultiFinder environment and "unfreeze" (and kill) your MultiFinder|CommandShell. Depending on whether your session-type is Console Mode or 32|24-Bit, you will either get returned to the console or get returned to the Login screen. You should _NOT_ press the Interrupt switch since this puts you into A/UX's kernel debugger. If you have MacsBug installed (which is recommended) then you can press "Command-Control-i" to enter it. This may enable you to clean some things up before the MultiFinder environment is blasted (even just using 'rs' under MacsBug helps...). If MacsBug is _not_ installed, the "C-C-i" behaves almost like a "C-C-e" except that it appears that A/UX doesn't need to "rebuild" your icon/Desktop "environment" the next time Mac-mode is entered. To make sure that MacsBug installs correctly, it's name must be 'MacsBug'. A munged Debugger Prefs file can also prevent MacsBug from installing. This happened to me when upgrading to 3.0.1... To be safe, make a solid safe copy before upgrading. ================================== M.06) Phase 1 EtherTalk and A/UX? ---------------------------------- M.06) My site is not upgraded to EtherTalk Phase 2 yet... can I use Phase 1 under A/UX? A/UX only supports EtherTalk Phase 2. Upgrading to Phase 2 is recommended for a variety of reasons, but most importantly to ensure compatibility with new products from Apple and developers (of course, the added features over Phase 1 are nice too :). ========================================= M.07) A/UX and MacOS file transfer hints ----------------------------------------- M.07) I'm having trouble transfering files between A/UX and my MacOS disk. Also, sometimes things get transfered fine, othertimes not. What's going on? If a file on the A/UX system has Type "TEXT", then when it is copied over to a MacOS disk, all 'newline' characters will be replaced by 'carriage returns'. Sometimes this is what you want (that is when the file is, in fact, a TEXT file). Othertimes it's not. Say for example you download a GIF file onto your A/UX disk. A/UX _might_ think it's a TEXT file. If you then copy it over to your MacOS disk and try to use Giffer on it, it won't work. That's because the 'nl's where changed, which is _not_ what you want. The way to stop this is to convince A/UX that the file is of non-TEXT type. There are many applications out there (including the A/UX included 'setfile' program) that lets you modify this. Do this before you copy the file over to your Mac OS disk and all will be Okay. If you aren't sure what the Type and Creator should be, you can just specify "BIN " and "A/UX" (note space in BIN) and the file won't be massaged during the copy|transfer. You'll still need to eventually change them to the correct ones for their particular application, but this way they'll be on your MacOS disk "uncorrupted." Of course, you could also use 'setfile' to set the Type|Creator fields _before_ you copy the file to the MacOS disk and avoid an additional step. Please note that if you downloaded a BINHEX file, you _do_ want to keep it as a TEXT file if you transfer it over to the MacOS. Once there, you can de-BINHEX it and unStuffIt (if it was a binhexed stuffit archive). Please note that if you transfer Unix-type files (like tar archives or compressed files) between the A/UX file system and a MacOS disk (esp. if these files were "created" on a MacOS disk by a MacOS utility), the Unix application may no longer work correctly with it. This is because the MacOS resource information was attached to the file during the transfer (the file is in Apple Single format). To "fix" this, use 'fcnvt' to change the file to Apple Double format which will detach the resource fork and place it into a "%..." file. See "Hints and Words Of Wisdom" (above) for hints in using ftp file transfers under A/UX. ============================================ M.08) Where to install CDEVs and Extensions -------------------------------------------- M.08) Do I install CDEVs and Extensions in the System Folder on MacPartition or on the "/" A/UX disk. To install these additions to A/UX, you will need to drag-copy them over to the A/UX System Folder. Usually, this is /mac/sys/System Folder on the "/" disk but it will also "appear" in your "home folder" icon. If you have a personal System Folder (i.e. $HOME/System Folder) then they should be dragged there. To add a screensaver to the Login screen, it must be dragged into the correct subfolder in /mac/sys/Login System Folder. That is, if it's an cdev, drag it into /mac/sys/Login System Folder/Control Panels. ================================== M.09) Booting A/UX under System 7 ---------------------------------- M.09) I heard that A/UX requires a special version of System 7 to boot... Is this true? A lot of people believe this but this is not true. There is no difference between the s/w on the MacPartition partition and the "real" System 7. The only _real_ need for MacPartition is that the disk where A/UX Startup lives is where A/UX Startup looks for the A/UX Root partition. When A/UX Startup launches, it looks at "it's" disk and then looks for A/UX partitions on that disk. This means that you _don't_ need to boot-up from the MacPartition disk to boot A/UX. Start your Mac from your standard Startup disk and just double-click on A/UX Startup on the MacPartition icon. You can even do without the MacPartition disk but telling A/UX Startup the exact SCSI number of the A/UX disk. You can do this a couple of ways: 1. create a ROOT variable in A/UX Startup that points to the root partition in this form: (SCSI-ID, 0, 0) 2. Under the General Preferences menu, change the Root Directory to (SCSI-ID, 0, 0). The "device" file /dev/default points to the SCSI-ID of whatever disk is the MacPartition disk, so if you don't have one, you need to tell A/UX Startup it's "real" name. This is kinda messy since you'll need to preface a lot of stuff with this value: e.g. #startup cat (6,0,0)/etc/inittab ================================================== M.10) Screwed up Desktop after crashes or MacsBug -------------------------------------------------- M.10) After the Mac environment crashes (or when I use MacsBug), the Desktop gets all screwed up... Argg!! Ron Flax of Apple (ron@afsg.apple.com) has written a very useful System Extension called FMbackup that creates backup copies of "valuable" Desktop files. When the MacOS-mode is entered, FMbackup restores these files. Thus, when your MacOS "crashes", you no longer need to rebuild the Desktop or reset all your Icons, window "types", etc... Please note that there seems to be some incompatibilty between FMbackup and Moire and QuickMail 2.5.1. FMbackup (1.0.4) is available via anon-ftp on afsg.apple.com as well as aux.support.apple.com (in "unsupported"). %%% For more information about "FMbackup", please contact Ron via E-mail %%% =============================================== M.11) MacOS partitions on desktop only as root ----------------------------------------------- M.11) My MacOS partition(s) only show up on the Desktop when I login as root. Why? Under the Preferences/General Menu of A/UX Startup, there is a radio-box called "Password checking". This is intended to provide some security for the A/UX Startup application. When enabled, two (default) things happen: 1. A/UX Startup requires a password to open. 2. MacOS partition(s) are only mounted for root login. Thus, to enable MacOS partition(s) to be available for all users, you must disable "Password checking". See auxstartuprc(4) for more info. ========================================== M.12) CommandShell ignoring 1st key press ------------------------------------------ M.12) For some reason, my CommandShell only responds to a keyboard event after it receives a second event. For example, typing "a" won't show until I type something else or click the mouse. What gives? This is caused almost 99% of the time by an Extension|CDEV conflict. The way around this is to selectively disable each one at a time and see which one causes the problem... then delete it. "Wild Magic" is prone to do this as are older versions of CEToolbox. ===================================== M.13) Can A/UX 3.x.x run System 7.1? ------------------------------------- A/UX 3.x.x's MacOS interface is based on System 7.0.1. You cannot install Sys 7.1 on A/UX (meaning you can't make A/UX run Sys 7.1) since there are a few system files that are fine-tuned and modified to work under A/UX. These would get overwritten if you tried to install 7.1 and you'd be out of luck. Please recall that this doesn't mean that you can't have 7.1 installed on your MacPartition, to be used when in MacOS-only mode. It just means that you can't have A/UX run 7.1. Just to let you all know, if you really want to, you _can_ install 7.1 on A/UX 3.x.x and the MacOS-stuff will work pretty well. However, all hybrids, such as CommandShell or Commando, will die... not too useful... =============================================== M.14) What version of AppleTalk does A/UX run? ----------------------------------------------- This one is tricky. First of all, the version of AppleTalk under A/UX was designed specifically for A/UX... Don't try installing the Network Software Installer (NSI) disk. Bad Things will happen. With that out of the way, when polled by InterPol, A/UX will respond that AppleTalk v56 is running. However, A/UX's version is really compatible with version 58. This will cause trouble with those applications that rely on version numbers rather than capability. =================================== M.15) Version of MacTCP under A/UX ----------------------------------- M.15) I've just installed MacTCP 2.0.2|4 on A/UX and nothing works! What's going on? The copy of MacTCP that ships with A/UX is specifically written for A/UX. You should _not_ replace it with any MacOS version of MacTCP! Doing so will cause mucho problems for A/UX. This is because A/UX's MacTCP simply offloads all networking functions down to A/UX itself which handles them. Although it's true that some MacOS programs, such as Mosiac, "require" MacTCP 2.0.2|2.0.4, the vast majority work just fine with A/UX's version. In extreme cases, with programs that actually _check_ the version number, a little ResEdit hacking will fix things up. Basically, all you need to do is COPY the 'vers' resource of MacTCP 2.0.2|2.0.4 and PASTE it into MacTCP in your active A/UX System Folder (you want to 'Replace' the previous 'vers' resource). This will cause MacTCP to appear (via 'Get Info' and similar ways) to be version 2.0.4. ////////////////////// END OF PART 2 OF 3 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ -- #include <std/disclaimer.h> Jim Jagielski | "Is this something you can share with jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov | the rest of us Amazing Larry!!??" NASA/GSFC, Code 734.4 | Pee Wee Greenbelt, MD 20771 |