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Archive-name: aux-faq/part3 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 3 OF 3 ////////////////////// ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: DEVICES AND PERIPHERALS ::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ======================================================= D.01) Can I use my Teac|DAT|etc tape drive under A/UX? ------------------------------------------------------- A/UX 3.x.x's 'tc' device driver (version 1.40) officially and totally supports the following tape drives: Qualstar 9 track Archive 4mm DAT Archive QIC Teac DCAS 600 Exabyte 8500 <<ED: no go with the 8200s>> DC2000 Please note that all the devices except for the Qualstar 9-tracks require 8k-blocking when used through 'tc'. This means you will need to use 'tcb' or 'tbb' as a filter ('dd' will also work during reading). You should also specify 8k blocking (or a multiple thereof) when using dump.bsd. Jim Jagielski has created a replacement for 'tc' called 'NEWtc'. It fixes a lot of Apple's 1.4 bugs as well as to provide some nice new features. It supports all the above drives in addition to: CIPHER drives Exabyte 8200, 8205 and 8505 HP DATs SONY SDT line Teac DCAS 150 and 60 WangDAT 1300 and 2600 series WankTEK series 6130 (FS/HF), 5525 and 5050ES. It also has a "Generic" entry that will attempt to drive tapes it doesn't know about. If you have a drive that isn't supported, let Jim know and he'll try to add it. NEWtc is up to version 3.32 and is available via anon-ftp on jagubox. Included in the package are replacement copies of 'mt', 'tc.7.Z' and 'mt.1.Z'. Tony Cooper has written a VERY nice double-buffering copier that greatly increases the speed of backups; it's called 'tbb.' It works quite nicely with 'tc' (assuming the correct blocking factors)... It's included with the 'NEWtc' package. Craig Ruff (cruff@ncar.ucar.edu) has written a Teac device driver also, which works with both the 150 MB and 60 MB drives. You get the complete source so you may "adjust" the driver if you want for other drives. The Teac driver is available via anonymous ftp of jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov. %%% For more information about 'tc', please contact Jim via E-mail %%% %%% For more information about 'teac', please contact Craig via E-mail %%% =============================== D.02) EtherNet cards and A/UX ------------------------------- D.02) I have an EtherNet card that works fine under the Macintosh OS but not under A/UX. Why? The reason is because to access the card (which is seen as a device by A/UX), you need an A/UX device driver for it. This is NOT the same as the stuff you had to install under the MacOS for it to work. Now A/UX includes drivers for the Apple EtherNet card (they aren't installed by default though), but they don't work with most of the 3rd party cards except for the 3Com "EtherLink NB", the Asante "MacCon" and the StarNet Networking cards. They are 100% register compatible with their Apple counterparts, so you can use Apple's 'ae' driver with them. Drivers for the EtherPort II cards are available via anon-ftp on jagubox. However, the drivers for the "old" EPII cards (full length) only support TCP/IP (they were written for A/UX 1.1 but will work under 2.0.x). As far as other cards are concerned, you will have to ask the vendor for A/UX drivers for it. Please note that there have been numerous reports about problems with the EtherPortII cards, A/UX and the IIfx and IIsi... you are warned :) ======================================= D.03) Can I use my scanner under A/UX? --------------------------------------- A/UX 3.x.x fully supports the Apple OneScanner as well as providing better support for SCSI devices. A/UX will still use its own SCSI driver, however. ===================================== D.04) Using SyQuest disks under A/UX ------------------------------------- D.04) I'm trying to use a SyQuest drive under A/UX but it refuses to work. I keep on getting a "more data than device expected" error message. What's wrong? The "problem" is with the generic SCSI disk driver under A/UX. For SCSI drives, there are certain parameters that may be adjusted by the user; these parameters are grouped in "pages." One such page concerns how the disk responds to and recovers from errors: the Error Recovery Page. A/UX expects the parameters in this page to have certain values. Now the vast majority of SCSI disks have the values set as expected, but this isn't the case with SyQuest drives. There is one parameter (PER) which is opposite than expected by A/UX. When A/UX trys to set this value to what it wants, however, the SyQuest drive reads this "request" wrong (the request is 16 bytes but the SyQuest only reads 4, so the SCSI Manager reports the error. Tony Cooper (tony@marc.cri.nz) has written a Mac application which sets the Error Page values correctly: Fix Error Page. This application must be used under the MacOS. It can be found on jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov as well as on aux.support.apple.com (aux.patches/unsupported/2.0). You can also use the FWB Hard Disk Toolkit - World Control Application to enable the PER bit in the recovery page (Page #1). This program may also be a help in getting some SCSI-2 devices, such as disks and opticals, to work under A/UX. If A/UX sees that the Error Page parameters are incorrect, it will attempt to send a Mode Select command to fix them, however it will use the SCSI-1/CCS page length instead of the SCSI-2 length, which, depending on the drive, will not work. By the by, here is the /etc/disktab entry for SyQuest: # SyQuest disk # Syquest|syquest|S45:\ :ty=winchester:ns#34:nt#2:nc#1275: ================================================== D.05) What 3-button mice work under A/UX (and X)? -------------------------------------------------- The Gravis SuperMouse was a 3-button mechanical mouse that was completely configurable and compatible with A/UX and was at the time your best bet. At present, however, the Gravis SuperMouse is no longer manufactured or supported at _all_ by Gravis :( The LogiTech MouseMan appears to be compatible with A/UX, as some people have been using it with no problems. Mouse System's A-3 mouse is "fully" compatible with A/UX, but is hard-wired configured for A/UX as: Left Button = Actual Mouse Button; Middle Button = Left Arrow; Right Button = Right Arrow. The "A-3" power cdev doesn't work under A/UX. The A-3 mouse is an optical unit with a nice feel. Please note that A/UX 2 & 3 only support a subset of the ADB Manager. Thus there are a few ADB devices that may not work under A/UX. ===================================================== D.06) Is it worth getting a cache card for the IIci? ----------------------------------------------------- Absolutely! The card makes an amazing difference in performance. However, this performance increase is reduced when an external monitor is used. For more information about extensive benchmarking with the IIci and cache cards, you can snag the benchmarking results via anon-ftp on redstar.dcs.qmw.ac.uk in archive/papers. ==================================================================== D.07) How can I figure out the /etc/disktab entry for my hard disk? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Many hard disk applications will reveal the disk drive geometry for you: FWB Hard Disk ToolKit is very good (SilverLining is a bit wrong on the number of tracks... it includes spares). What you are really looking for are the total number of cylinders ('nc'), the number of sectors per track ('ns') and the number of tracks ('nt'). Also, I'm maintaining a list of /etc/disktab entries. If you have any, send it to me and I'll add them. The file is available via anon-ftp on jagubox. <<ED: I need _LOTS_ of entries>> Just a note: the number of tracks ('nt') is equal to the number of heads. ========================================== D.08) Which serial cards work under A/UX? ------------------------------------------ There are a number of serial cards that "work" with A/UX. The Apple serial card is NOT one of them. o There is the Digiboard Nu/Xi, which comes in 4 and 8 port versions. Brand new drivers for the card have been coded and are available. This version (3.3.0) however, doesn't currently work with CSlip but otherwise works great. You can snag the drivers via anon-ftp from digibd.com (which is 192.83.159.193) in drivers/mac. Technical Support for DigiBoard is 612-943-9020. If you'd like to contact the main engineer responsible for the drivers, contact Brian Westley at the following Email addresses: merlyn@digibd.com ...uunet!digibd!merlyn AppleLink: merlin o There is also the Creative Solutions, INC (CSI) HQS/HDS v4.4/4.5 Hurdler Serial Nubus cards. These cards have both pure UNIX _and_ MacOS device drivers (i.e. a 'newconfig' code module and a MacOS INIT/DRVR module). The A/UX drivers support baud rates up to 57.6k and 115.2k using the 'B50' and 'B75' flags, true hardware handshaking while monitoring DCD for Dialup security, and full compatibility with CSlip and PPP and their associated daemons. The A/UX-MacOS drivers are fully compatible with all CommToolbox functions and serial drivers. For further info about the drivers, please contact Alan M. Friedman at Intelligent Interfaces, Inc: alan@kether.intellint.com AppleLink: D5620 You can contact CSI at csi@applelink.apple.com (AppleLink: CSI). o Another is Paul Campell's Taniwha CommCard. This card does indeed work with all versions of A/UX including 3.x.x. It has special support for UUCP. It has a few mysterious and not very important problems. It's an excellent buy. The only problem is, it's not on the market anymore. If you can get one used, though, it's worth getting. The one downside is that, like Apple's ports, it won't SIMULTANEOUSLY support modem and hardware flow control. It is immune to many of the nasty bugs which affect the built-in serial ports, including the two (at least) which can crash the kernel. o Yet another is the Applied Engineering QuadraLink serial card. According to sources, the board was super easy to setup and use. It also appears very solid as far as performance. The AE QuadraLink card, like the CommCard and the Apple ports, can't do both hardware handshaking and modem control at the same time. No hardware patch kit will be developed for the AE card... =========================================== D.09) lpr printer problems with LW IIg|IIf ------------------------------------------- D.09) I'm using a LaserWriter IIg with A/UX 3.x.x and whenever I print some- thing to it through 'lpr', the first line of the page is cut off. Why? This only shows up on versions of the IIg (and IIf) with less than 5MB RAM. The reason is because this makes the LW default to PhotoGrade-mode. You can do 2 things to fix this: 1. Using the LaserWriter Utility program, disable PhotoGrade. Since one of the main advantages of these LW's is PhotoGrade, this option is kinda unpalatable. 2. If you are _only_ using "Letter" mode under 'lpr', then you can edit /usr/lib/ps/pstext.pro to include the following line between "% RCSID:..." and "/StartPage...": %!PS-Adobe-1.0 % Z%Copyright Apple Computer 1987\tVersion 1.1 of pstext.pro on\ 87/05/04 19:02:25 %%Creator: pstext %%DocumentFonts: Courier % RCSID: $Header: pstext.pro,v 2.1 85/11/24 12:19:55 shore Rel $ ====>>>letter /StartPage{/sv save def 48 760 moveto}def This will fix the problem and make it usable again. =============================== D.10) 'tc' errors and blocking ------------------------------- D.10) I'm trying to access my tape drive using 'tc' (with something like "find . -print | cpio -o > /dev/rmt/tc1") but it doesn't work... Except for 9-track magtapes, all I/O to tape drives associated with the 'tc' device files _must_ be blocked at 8k. The 'tcb' program does just that so that should be included. For example, to write: $ find . -print | cpio -o | tcb > /dev/rmt/tc1 And to read: $ tcb < /dev/rmt/tc1 | cpio -i You can get better performance if you increase the buffer size (just make sure that it's a multiple of 8k). For example, you could use 'dd' as your blocking filter with a 'bs=10x8k'. Jim Jagielski's replacement for 'tc' allows for 'tc' to use the tape drive's own physical block size as the logical block size for I/O. Doing so results in a bit of a performance hit so it isn't recommended for normal use. You should use the "mode" only if you need to read tapes written by 'st' or by another platform. Please note you are still limited to an I/O block size of at least the physical block size, which can be anything for 512 to 1024 to 8192 bytes. %%% For more information about 'tc', please contact Jim via E-mail %%% ========================================================= D.11) What CD-ROM drives are compatible with A/UX 3.x.x? --------------------------------------------------------- The original Apple CD-ROM drive (CD SC) is 100% compatible with A/UX as is the newer CD-150. Older versions of the CD-300 (those with pre 1.8f ROMS) would cause problems with A/UX and would do little more than allow you to install A/UX, making it almost useless for day-to-day use. One of the fixes of 3.0.2 is _much_ better support for all versions of the CD-300, although Apple does suggest that you update the CD-ROM drive's ROMs with the latest version if you have problems. I've heard that you can get the latest ROMs by calling 1-800-SOS-APPL or seeing your Apple dealer. The following are also known to be 100% compatible (meaning you can use them to install A/UX as well as when running A/UX): The Toshiba XM3201, XM3301B XM3401B DEC RRD42, RRD40 (LMSI CM-212) Denon DRD 253 Sun CD-ROM (Sony CDU-8012?) CD-Technologies Porta-Drive CD-ROM Chinon CDA-431 3.1 adds support for NEC CD-ROMs; previous versions of A/UX weren't able to work with these units due to their physical block size. ================================== D.12) Audio CD support under A/UX ---------------------------------- D.12) I've tried to install the CD Remote extension to A/UX so that I can play audio CD's, but it doesn't work... At present, the default A/UX setup doesn't support audio CDs. Kelly King and Andrew Kass (at Apple), however, have written the "AUX SCSI Toolbox" extensions that emulates the Mac SCSI Manager. With this extension installed, you can run applications and drivers that talk to the Mac SCSI Manager, including the Apple CD-ROM driver! With this extension, you can listen to your audio CDs under A/UX! This is the latest version of the extension: 1.0b4. "AUX SCSI Toolbox" is available via ftp on jagubox under: /pub/aux/apple.fixes/unsupported/3.0.x/SCSItlbx.tar.gz Please read the included ReadMe before installing and using it. ================================================== D.13) What UNIX CD-ROM formats does A/UX support? -------------------------------------------------- Other than the "normal" A/UX SysV and UFS file system type, A/UX supports ISO-9660 file system format CD-ROMs. However, you can only access these CDs from the MacOS environment; you can't "mount" them in the normal UNIX-way. As distributed, A/UX doesn't include the needed Extensions that allow the MacOS Environment from recognizing these CDs. To fix this, you need to copy the following Extensions from the Apple CD-ROM Software disks (version 3.2 or later) to the System Folder of the user(s) that need access to these CDs: o Foreign File Access o High Sierra File Access o ISO 9660 File Access The docs are a little blurry on this (even though it's specifically mentioned in Chapter 5 of the "Setting Up Accounts and Peripherals for A/UX") since they say that you don't need to add any _kernel_ resources... One of A/UX's quirks is that all files on ISO-9660 CDs are "seen" as TEXT type files. This causes troubles with binary files since when you try to drag them over to the "/" disk, A/UX will perform it's \r->\n translation. To avoid this from happening, you can: 1 Drag the file(s) over to a MacOS HFS disk. Then use ResEdit (or something similar) to change the file Creator to "A/UX" and Type to "BIN " (note the space!). Now you can drag the file over to "/". 2 Use ResEdit to look at the NCOD resource in the "ISO 9660 File Access" extension. Open the "Main" resource in NCOD. Now change the string "TEXT" to "BIN " and "hscd" to "A/UX". Save, logout and login. This changes things so that _all_ files on the CD-ROM appear as non-Text, CommandShell files, so that A/UX will _not_ perform any translation. Again, please note that A/UX will not recognize _any_ of the audio capability of CD-ROMs unless you add the "AUX SCSI Toolbox" extension described in Q&A #D.12. ==================================================================== D.14) How can I add printers other than those available in Chooser? -------------------------------------------------------------------- <<ED: From a post by Antonio Ordonez (antonio@apple.com)>> If the printer is in another zone, it is necessary to define the zone in which the printer is located with a full path name. You can then "hardwire" a printer name including the zone for a particular printer queue. The best way to do this is to make a copy the /usr/spool/lpd/AppleTalk directory and give it a name related to the printer we want to use. Modify the file ifilter/ofilter/nfilter (it is the same file with 3 hard links) in this directory. Also modyfy the /etc/printcap file to create a new printer queue. I will use my system as an example so please modify to reflect your situation. The first thing to do is to create the new directory and put the correct files in it. NOTE that I am using mknod to create the pipe file. mkdir Idaho chown daemon Idaho chgrp daemon Idaho cp AppleTalk/ifilter Idaho/ifilter cd Idaho ln ifilter ofilter ln ofilter nfilter mknod pipe p chown daemon * chgrp daemon * In my case I have a printer called "Idaho Spooler" in the zone "SCV CAM2 2nd W" while my system is on the zone "SCV CAM2 2nd E", so all I do is to modify the /usr/spool/lpd/Idaho/ifilter file (you can use vi or TextEditor) and change the line that defines the value for Printer from Printer=`basename "cwd"` -to- Printer="Idaho Spooler:LaserWriter@SCV CAM2 2nd W" In the /etc/printcap file I copy the entry for AppleTalk (all six lines) and change any reference to AppleTalk to the name I used for my new directory. Again, in my case I used "Idaho" as the directory name so my /etc/printcap file looks like: # # pragma ident "@(#)lpr:printcap 5.4 90/03/27 " # # Copyright 1990 Apple Computer, Inc. # All Rights Reserved. ## # Remote AppleTalk printer (selected by Chooser) # For an AppleTalk printer which doesn't support PostScript remove last 2 names. lp|at|AppleTalk|postscript|PostScript:\ :lp=/dev/null:\ :if=/usr/spool/lpd/AppleTalk/ifilter:\ :of=/usr/spool/lpd/AppleTalk/ofilter:\ :nf=/usr/spool/lpd/AppleTalk/nfilter:\ :sd=/usr/spool/lpd/AppleTalk: lp2|Idaho:\ :lp=/dev/null:\ :if=/usr/spool/lpd/Idaho/ifilter:\ :of=/usr/spool/lpd/Idaho/ofilter:\ :nf=/usr/spool/lpd/Idaho/nfilter:\ :sd=/usr/spool/lpd/Idaho: After all these steps are completed restart the printer queue with the command lpc restart all Now you should be able to send a print job to the printer in the other zone with the command lpr -Plp2 /etc/passwd or lpr -PIdaho /etc/passwd Hope this helps ============================================================ D.15) What 3rd party accelerators are compatible with A/UX? ------------------------------------------------------------ For the most part, all DayStar Digital accelerators are compatible with A/UX 3.0 even if their controlling CDEVs don't work under A/UX (the accelerator must be enabled with the CDEV before booting A/UX). However, their 040 accelerators do NOT work under A/UX. In fact, except for Apple's own Quadra 700 Logic Board Upgrade, there are no 040 accelerators that work (i.e. don't crash) under A/UX. There has been at least 1 report of the DayStar-accelerated MacII not working under 3.0.2... it's possible that 3.0.2 is more sensitive to timing than 3.0 was... According to Daystar Digital, the DayStar QuadraCache is _not_ compatible with A/UX. DayStar is working on a fix... Nonetheless, there are a number of people (including people at Apple) who are using these cache cards with no problems. << ED: This is kinda skimpy, but I'd thought I'd start it up. EMail me your list >> ============================================================== D.16) Will the old serial HP DeskWriter work under A/UX? -------------------------------------------------------------- No, it won't... You need to use AppleTalk to use it under A/UX. ================================================ D.17) How can I use a HP DeskWriter under A/UX? ------------------------------------------------ For the answer, snag a copy of DeskWriter.txt which is available via anon- ftp on jagubox in /pub/aux. ====================================== D.18) Does A/UX support 24-bit color? -------------------------------------- Yes. There is one major caveat, that will hopefully be addressed in future versions. On startup, A/UX reinitializes all hardware drivers, including the video-drivers; as a result, most accelerated 24-bit cards (all third- party cards known to date, as well as Apple's old 8*24 GC card) will be reinitialized to run in non-accelerated mode. You'll still get 24-bit video, but depending on your hardware, it may be painfully slow. This could be solved by better driver support from the vendors of accelerated video cards. Certain vendors have been promising such support for awhile now. The best hardware to run A/UX with 24-bit video enabled are currently the Quadra 700, 900, and 950, whose internal video can be populated with enough VRAM to support 24-bit color (note that the Q800 cannot do this !). Performance is considered good under A/UX by many users. The following is a list of 24-bit cards that readers have reported work with A/UX from personal experience. It is NOT a complete list; there have been no reports of cards that work under MacOS but not A/UX (excepting the caveat detailed above): Apple 8*24, 8*24GC Quadra 700, 900, 950 internal video PrecisionColor PRO 24xp RasterOps 24STV, Paintboard li Radius 24XP, 24XK ================================================= D.19) What's the specifics on the AWS95 PDS Card? ------------------------------------------------- The AWS95 PDS Card (known as "Pisces") has two main functional additions to the Q950. The first is that it includes an external level-2 cache for the Quadra's 68040. The cache size is 128K, but this can be increased with Apple provided SRAM upgrade kits. The use of a L2 cache increases the base perfor- mance of the Q950. The second capability that Pisces includes is the addition of two additional upgraded SCSI buses. Pisces fully supports Direct Memory Access (DMA) on these SCSI buses. This can greatly increase SCSI throughput by offloading SCSI operations to the PDS card. The card supports active termination and negation on the 2 SCSI DMA buses, improving signal quality and integrity. ================================================= D.20) What are the specifics of SCSI under A/UX? ------------------------------------------------- SCSI under A/UX is SCSI-1/CCS and not SCSI-2. However, A/UX can use most SCSI-2 devices. Problems will arise on some SCSI-2 disks if their Error Correction Mode Pages are incorrect (See Q&A D.04). A/UX supports SCSI connect/disconnect which results in more efficient use of the SCSI bus. Finally, A/UX provides asynchronous I/O as well. ========================================================= D.21) I can't get my LaserJet 4M to work reliably. Help! --------------------------------------------------------- Bad news... for some reason, if the LaserJet is connected _directly_ to a Q700 running A/UX via AppleTalk then it won't work. If you have a router or something similar between the two it'll work like a hose. It looks like it's most probably a 4M ROM bug and I hear that HP is "working" on a fix. ========================================================== D.22) Does the Apple Adjustable Keyboard work under A/UX? ---------------------------------------------------------- No it doesn't... This is due to the way the Adjustable keyboard actually works and the fact that A/UX doesn't fully support the ADB Manager. :( ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: PORTING AND PROGRAMMING ::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ================================================================ P.01) How come rn|elm|less|etc... act weird concerning signals? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Well, it's not really them at all. Many people have found that more than a few ports require the addition of the 'set42sig()' call to enable BSD 4.2 signal delivery. The best place to add this is as the 1st executable statement under "main() {" Another point about porting applications: A/UX's 'cc' does provide "strict" BSD, SystemV and Posix libraries. If you are porting a BSD program, you can enable BSD "emulation" by adding the "-ZB -lbsd" options to your 'cc' command line. In fact, using just the '-lbsd' option alleviates the need for adding the 'set42sig()' call mentioned above and is, in many cases, the suggested option. Compiling with gcc also helps out a great deal. =================================== P.02) Is X11R5 available for A/UX? ----------------------------------- Yes! Thomas Eberhardt has ported X11R5 and the binaries (which includes full shared libraries) for A/UX are available via anon-ftp on wuarchive.wustl.edu under systems/aux/X11R5 (our overseas friends should get it from ftp.uni-stuttgart.de due to US Export regs). Patches for X11R5 compiled with gcc are also available. It looks like it results in a nice 10-20% increase in performance! Thomas had "taken over" X11R5 with his new port; John Coolidge used to do it... %%% For more information about X11R5 for A/UX, E-mail Thomas %%% ==================================== P.03) FSF GNU doesn't support A/UX? ------------------------------------ P.03) I've noticed that FSF GNU doesn't support A/UX. Does that mean I'll miss out on all the neat Gnu-stuff like gcc? Although it's true that FSF is "boycotting" Apple and A/UX (FSF doesn't like Apple's predisposition of suing to protect "look and feel"), ports of most Gnu applications are available. Of particular interest is gcc version 2.5.7 which has been ported by John Coolidge (coolidge@apple.com) and is available via anon-ftp on wuarchive.wustl.edu in systems/aux/gnu. The binaries, sources and diffs are all available. GCC version 2.5.7 for A/UX has been ported and is available... Highly recommended! As a nice compliment to using GCC, gdb (4.9) is also available. %%% For more info about gcc for A/UX, please contact John via E-mail %%% ======================================= P.04) Mail reader problems under A/UX --------------------------------------- P.04) I've ported Elm (or other mail reader) and it doesn't seem to work. Why? It seems most likely that the reason is because they attempt to use a different file locking scheme that /bin/mail does. Pre-3.0 versions of mail used 'flock' style file locking. 3.x.x now uses the '.lock' scheme for mail file locking. Elm 2.4.X requires that both flock and .lock be enabled. Elm 2.3.X requires _only_ .lock locking. ============================================= P.05) What languages are available for A/UX? --------------------------------------------- A/UX comes with a C compiler ('cc'), a FORTRAN-77 compiler ('f77') as well as an assembler ('as'), SNOBOL ('sno') and a kinda-basic interpreter ('bs'). 'cc' is a nice, stable, if not-too-quick compiler. 'f77' is a true FORTRAN-77 compiler and appears quite workable. I've not used 'sno' (I couldn't recall how to program in SNOBOL if my life depended on it :) or 'bs'. If you are doing any work in C, then it would be well worth it to get a copy of the GNU C compiler ('gcc') (see Q&A #P.03). gcc is K&R and ANSI compatible so if you are doing ANSI work you'll need it. Apple also has an ANSI C compiler ('c89') that you can buy. It's available on the "A/UX Developer's Toolkit CD" from APDA. There is also at least one other 3rd-party C compiler out there, but I can't recall it's name right now. gcc is free; c89 runs about $800. Both include C++ capabilities. There are also 2 very good 3rd-party FORTRAN compilers: NKR FORTRAN and Absoft MacFORTRAN II. In my opinion, MacFORTRAN II is the better product... it has finer compiler control, a wide number of compatibility options (such as VAX FORTRAN) and excellent speed. If you do order MFII, be _sure_ to get the A/UX version. They also sell an MPW version that will work under A/UX but it's run under, you guessed it, MPW. The A/UX version is a true "Unix" compiler and it's optimized for A/UX. Both MFII and NKR FORTRAN run about $500-$600. Oasys sells 3 compiler packages: C, C++ and FORTRAN. All the compilers are based on the GreenHills compilers which are known to be robust and fast. However, the Oasys packages are expensive, running about $2000 per language (although you do get assemblers and linker/loaders with the package). Unisoft used to distribute their "Optimizing Compilers" (FORTRAN and C) for A/UX, but they are no longer available... Pity, because they also were based on GreenHills and were quite nice. At present, I know of no true Pascal compilers for A/UX. Finally, if you are doing program development, then you'll need a good debugger. As described above in "List of ports...", gdb has been ported if you would prefer using something other than sdb or dbx, which are included with A/UX. If you are using FORTRAN, then Absoft also makes an excellent debugger which has been fine-tuned to work with MFII (it also does quite well with C); it's called FX. It has two interfaces, character and Motif, and is quite powerful. ======================================= P.06) Is OSF/Motif available for A/UX? --------------------------------------- The only source for OSF/Motif (1.1.4) for A/UX that I know of is: Integrated Computer Solutions 201 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 617-547-0510 However, they have stopped producing this and have since stopped support for A/UX OSF/Motif. They may still have a few copies of it available, so if you don't mind using unsupported software, give them a call. If you have, or can get, the actual source code for Motif then the following will be of some help: 1.1.4 compiles with minimal changes to the source using 'cc' and works "great." However, the source for 1.2.2 makes calls to various XIM multi-character routines, leaving many unresolved externals when linking. Now, if someone ported X11R5 and left the XIM routines intact, then maybe compiling and linking 1.2.2 would go off without a hitch... Any takers?? =========================== P.07) Looking for 'ranlib' --------------------------- P.07) While trying to port some software, the Makefile looks for a program called 'ranlib' and dies when it can't find it. What is it and where can I get it. 'ranlib' is a program that increases the efficiency of accessing and using archives (*.a files). A/UX's 'ar' already does this, so it isn't needed. To get around this, do something like: ln /bin/true /bin/ranlib You could also use '/bin/touch' but the above will (hopefully) take care of cases when ranlib is called with options. If you want to put 'ranlib' somewhere else, then that's OK. If the location is a different file system, then you'll need to use a symbolic link: ln -s /bin/true /usr2/local/bin/ranlib ::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: COMMUNICATION ::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::: ================================== C.01) 'getty' problems under A/UX ---------------------------------- C.01) I'm unable to start a getty process on a built-in serial port. When I use 'setport' to enable the port, I get a "no such device" error. Configuring /etc/inittab to respawn getty on the port has no effect. AppleTalk is probably enabled for the port. The getty process can be started temporarily by turning off AppleTalk via A/UX's Finder Chooser and THEN using the 'setport' command. You can permanently disable AppleTalk by reconfiguring the kernel with "newconfig noappletalk". If you wish to keep the drivers installed in the kernel but still want to "permanently" disable AppleTalk, you can edit /etc/startup to prevent AppleTalk from initializing and /etc/inittab can be editted to start getty. (NOTE: /etc/startup is regenerated by newconfig so you'll have to redo this if you reconfigure the kernel). If you don't have an EtherTalk card installed, then you can also modify /etc/appletalkrc to point to "ethertalk0" instead of "localtalk0". Doing this stops AppleTalk from bothering the serial port because it tries to use the non-existant card. ======================================== C.02) sendmail problems with /etc/hosts ---------------------------------------- C.02) I am using and depending on /etc/hosts to do all my hostname resolving (i.e. not using named or /etc/resolv.conf). How come I can't mail to other hosts, but I can ping|ftp|etc... them? Well, the problem is actually with sendmail (in /usr/lib). sendmail (under A/UX 2.0 and later) assumes the use of a nameserver. Pre-2.0 versions were "adjusted" to look in /etc/hosts if any nameserver call failed (which it would if it wasn't running, of course :). Jim Jagielski (jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov) has hacked sendmail 5.65 for A/UX to have it also check /etc/hosts. The source code is available via anon-ftp on jagubox. You may also want to upgrade to smail 3.1.28. smail is a very powerful yet easy to configure (and maintain) replacement for sendmail. It can both query the NameServer as well as look in /etc/hosts to "interpret" hostnames. The required A/UX-related diffs and patches, which were written by Bob Denny (denny@alisa.com) are available on jagubox. %%% For more info, contact Jim %%% ================================================= C.03) "not a typewriter" error message with mail ------------------------------------------------- C.03) When I try to mail something, I get the following error message: "Cannot read frozen config file: not a typewriter". What's wrong? This message is produced by sendmail (/usr/lib/sendmail) when it's frozen configuration file (/usr/lib/sendmail.fc) is unusable (as it is in the A/UX distribution which has it as a 0-byte file). To create a "new" frozen file of your present sendmail.cf file (assuming that it's good), type: $ /usr/lib/sendmail -bz (the sendmail daemon, if it exists, must be killed 1st). ============================ C.04) Remote logins on tty0 ---------------------------- C.04) How do I set up my Mac and A/UX to enable remote logins via a modem on tty0? First of all, you must edit /etc/inittab to start getty on tty0 using mo_2400: 00:2:respawn:/etc/getty -u -t 60 tty0 mo_2400 Make sure that your modem is set to be quiet, to not return result codes and to not echo back. It must also reset on DTR being dropped ("atq1e0&d3" will achieve this for most Hayes-compatible modems except certain (all) USR modems). Your modem must also raise DCD on connection ("at&c1") in order to have Dialup security (i.e. when the line is closed, HangUp the process. This means that MODEM flow control must be specified in gettydefs). You then save these changes using the "at&w" sequence. Finally, to make it autoanswer, be sure to add "ats0=1&w". Make sure that the modem cable is correctly configured (NOTE: This is for Dialup Security!): Mac Modem -------------------- 1 (HskO) 20 (DTR) 4 (RTS) <- yep... it gets sent to Pin 20 & 4 2 (HskI) 8 (DCD) 3 (TxD-) 2 (TxD) 4 (GDN) 7 (Sgnd) 5 (RxD-) 3 (RxD) 6 NO CONNECT 7 NO CONNECT 8 (RxD+) 7 (Sgnd) <- this is right, it gets tied to Mac pin 4 too. If you mess up pin 8 things can get so flaky that you'll never figure out what's going on. You see, by grounding pin 8, you make the modem port truly RS-232 compatible. If not grounded, the port will use the RS-422 standard, which can cause lots of problems. For more info about pinouts and cable pinouts, check out "/usr/lib/uucp/README". Please note that getty is the bidirectional version of getty, which is sometimes known as uugetty. Thus, you can have dial in and dial out at the same time on the same port. You should be using at least version 1.16 of HDB (see above: "known bugs" and Q&A #A.16) ================================== C.05) 'talk' and other UNIX boxes ---------------------------------- C.05) How come I can't use 'talk' with some of the other Unix boxes out there, and they can't talk to me? The reason why is because there are two versions of talk (and it's daemon talkd) out there. A/UX uses the BSD 4.2 version. Others use the 4.3 version. The two aren't compatible and don't even talk on the same port. If you try to talk to someone and all you get is a "Checking for invitation..." message then it's because the machine you're trying to access is using 4.3. Steve Green (xrsbg@dirac.gsfc.nasa.gov) has ported the 4.3 versions of talk and talkd (now renamed ntalk and ntalkd for A/UX) to overcome this snag. You can have both versions available and running with no problems. The port is available via anon-ftp on jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov. ===================================================== C.06) How can I convince A/UX to forward IP packets? ----------------------------------------------------- You will need to use 'adb' to adjust the A/UX kernel to enable IP forwarding. As root, and in single-user mode, follow this (A/UX responses in ""): $ adb -w -k /unix /dev/kmem "a.out file = /unix (COFF format)" "core file = /dev/kmem" "ready" ipforwarding?D "ipforwarding: 0" ipforwarding?W 1 "ipforwarding: 0x0 = 0x1" $w $q And reboot. You'll need to redo this whenever the kernel is rebuilt (like via 'newunix') ================================= C.07) Is PPP available for A/UX? --------------------------------- Unfortunately, I know of no port of PPP for A/UX :( ================================================ C.08) How can I change the MTU value for CSlip? ------------------------------------------------ You will need to use 'adb' to adjust either the kernel or the CSlip driver to change this value. As root, and in single-user mode, follow this to adjust the kernel (A/UX responses in ""): $ adb -w -k /unix /dev/kmem "a.out file = /unix (COFF format)" "core file = /dev/kmem" "ready" slip_mtu?d "slip_mtu: 296" slip_mtu?w <<hex value of number you want it to be>> "ipforwarding: 0x0 = 0x<<the value>>" $w $q And reboot. You'll need to redo this whenever the kernel is rebuilt (like via 'newunix') If you prefer to instead edit the CSlip driver, then follow this: cd /etc/install.d/boot.d $ adb -w cslip "a.out file = cslip (COFF format)" "cannot open core file" "ready" slip_mtu?d "slip_mtu: 296" slip_mtu?w <<hex value of number you want it to be>> "ipforwarding: 0x0 = 0x<<the value>>" $w $q Now run 'newconfig -v' and reboot. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::: ERRORS EXPLAINED ::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ======================================= E.01) backspace erases prompt problems --------------------------------------- E.01) How do I keep command lines that I edit with "backspace" from erasing the prompt? This behavior is due to the tty driver under A/UX. The BSD tty driver (which A/UX doesn't use) handles this, whereas the SysV driver doesn't. If you are running 'ksh' then you can "set -o viraw" to prevent this from happening. As far as I know, there are no work-arounds for 'sh' or 'csh'. ('tcsh' and 'bash' do not suffer from this problem... ) ==================================== E.02) 'xinit'|'startx' server error ------------------------------------ E.02) Whenever I try to run xinit (or startx) from the CommandShell I get a fatal server error. Why? The reason why is because both X and the CommandShell want _complete_ control over your Mac (display, keyboard and mouse). So, when you try to start one while running the other, you'll get into trouble. You need to start X either from the Console Emulator Mode or by choosing it as your "session type" from the Login screen (This session type will be available only if your installed Apple's X or have installed John Coolidge's 'sessiontypes' for X11R5). ================================================ E.03) "fcntl: local lock manager" error message ------------------------------------------------ E.03) I keep on getting the following error message on the Console: "fcntl: local lock manager not registered". What's going on? This is printed out whenever your kernel is configured for NFS and a file- lock is attempted (as when sending Email) but the NFS lock daemon (rpc.lockd) isn't running. This is most probably due to the fact that it wasn't started in /etc/inittab. The fix is simple: enable rpc.lockd (and it's companion rpc.statd) in /etc/inittab as follows: nfs5:2:wait:/etc/rpc.statd # set to "wait" for NFS status monitor nfs6:2:once:/etc/rpc.lockd # set to "once" for NFS lock manager and either Restart A/UX or simply type 'init q'. =============================================== E.04) "xterm: no available ptys" error message ----------------------------------------------- E.04) When I try to startup 'xterm', I get the following error message: "xterm: no available ptys"... What gives? There are three possible solutions: 1. Make sure that there are ptys configured into the kernel... Use 'kconfig' to check that NPTY is non-0 2. Switch to X11R5... This seems to happen to some users running Apple's X11... 3. For at least one user, copying the /usr/lib/X11/xterm*.tic files to /usr/lib/terminfo/x/xterm(s) worked... ================================== E.05) ps|pstat only work for root ---------------------------------- E.05) 'ps' and 'pstat' only seem to work for root. If anyone else tries these commands, they get a "no mem" error message. What's wrong? Both these commands require read access to /dev/kmem, which is not allowed for regular users. Thus, the programs require that they be suid or sgid to the user or group that can read /dev/kmem. See if this is true and fix if not. ////////////////////// END OF PART 3 OF 3 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ===================================== **** Author's/Editor's Signature **** ------------------------------------- -- #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 |