dks@ftp.COM (David Shute) (02/24/89)
How do you do, folks: Perhaps you all can shed some light on the MacDarkness that surrounds me. I recently got a copy of System 6.0.2 (some things take time) and went to do the upgrade. Apple manuals tell me to use the Installer; the disk I got had no such utility included. Just for the heck of it I merely dragged the icon off the floppy and onto the hard drive System file icon. Hold and below, the file was updated! While this move *appears* to have worked, the distributed wisdom (ie the manuals) indicate it should not have worked. My ?? is this: why did the copy move work? What does Installer really do? How long before my System barfs and dies (undoubtably taking some huge file of my work with it)? Thanks in advance for your kind attention. Dave Shute ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::: dks@vax.ftp.com ::: My employer disclaims any knowledge of my opinion ::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin) (02/24/89)
If you haven't customized your System file, then there shouldn't be
any problem with just copying the file. Installer exists because
people frequently customize the System file (e.g. they install fonts
and DAs). It only replaces the parts of the System file that are
included in the new one, leaving any user-installed additions there.
Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.
barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmarhgw@julia.math.ucla.edu (Harold Wong) (02/25/89)
In article <36669@think.UUCP> barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin) writes: > >If you haven't customized your System file, then there shouldn't be >any problem with just copying the file. Installer exists because >people frequently customize the System file (e.g. they install fonts >and DAs). It only replaces the parts of the System file that are >included in the new one, leaving any user-installed additions there. Except for on other thing, when you run installer, it asks you what Mac you're using. Why does it need to know? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harold Wong (213) 825-9040 UCLA-Mathnet; 3915F MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA 90024-1555 ARPA: hgw@math.ucla.edu BITNET: hgw%math.ucla.edu@INTERBIT
ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) (02/26/89)
In article <495@sunset.MATH.UCLA.EDU> hgw@math.ucla.edu (Harold Wong) writes: >Except for on other thing, when you run installer, it asks you what Mac >you're using. Why does it need to know? Actually, it's asking what Mac you're *going to use*, not what kind you *are* using. That's so it can omit things you won't need and so you can make system disks for Macs other than the one you're using at the moment. As supplied on the installation diskette, the system is ready for use on all Macs. Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214 "Arlo Guthrie, it seems, has found what he was looking for: God, and the Macintosh." (Boston Globe)
alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (02/26/89)
In article <36669@think.UUCP> barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin) writes: >If you haven't customized your System file, then there shouldn't be >any problem with just copying the file. Installer exists because >people frequently customize the System file (e.g. they install fonts >and DAs). It only replaces the parts of the System file that are >included in the new one, leaving any user-installed additions there. Well, no. It used to be that way, but with System 6.0 there was an upgrade to the boot blocks (see many discussions about this in the net archives). The bottom line is that Just copying over the system and Finder may cause some trouble. I don't remember the exact details, because in some cases the Finder will copy the boot blocks image when it copies the System stuff. You ARE safe if you do the copy onto a freshly formatted disk, though. Alexis Rosen alexis@ccnysci.uucp
sklein@cdp.UUCP (02/26/89)
>...when you run installer, it asks you what Mac >you're using. Why does it need to know? Actually, it asks you what Mac you're installing the disk for. Because different macs have different resources in ROM. For example, a system disk configured in the 'minimum system' mode for the SE won't boot on a plus, because it expects certain ROM routines from the SEs 256K ROM that aren't in the MacPlus. But if that disk is installed for a Plus, the installer adds those routines to the disk. It asks because you might be using a Mac II, but creating a disk for someone else to use with a Mac Plus. It doesn't need to ask you what Mac you are running on. It can find that out all by itself. -Shabtai Klein Minds, like | UUCP: uunet!pyramid!cdp!sklein parachutes, | Internet: cdp!sklein@arisia.xerox.com function only when | BitNet: cdp!sklein%labrea@stanford they are open | PhoneNet: (301) 270-2250