[comp.protocols.appletalk] topsTerm & Mac SE

eddie@CC.MSSTATE.EDU (Eddie Mikell) (05/13/89)

I would like to get responses from others on the net regarding their
use of topsTerm - in particular - has anyone successfully ran 
the TCP/IP part with the "configure by hand" option.

I have downloaded the software, unencoded it, unarchived it, placed the
files in the appropriate folders, and rebooted the MAC (an SE with
a Kinetics Etherport SE board - which is running NCSA TN just fine, system
6.02, finder 5.5).

Since I have no KIP gateway, I select the above option, and enter my IP 
address.  This creates the TOPS memory file which is placed in the system
folder.  Anytime I boot the system with this file in the folder, the Mac
crashes with a system error of ID=2.

I have tried this with a "barebones" folder and the results are the same.
I have downloaded the software twice, just in case I got a bad bit somewhere,
but the results are the same.

Any suggestions from other users would be appreciated.  If this is a 
common problem, I'll summarize for the net.


Sincerely,


Eddie H. Mikell
Mississippi State University

tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (05/14/89)

In article <8905121855.AA06455@Wally.CC.MsState.Edu> eddie@CC.MSSTATE.EDU
(Eddie Mikell) writes:
>I would like to get responses from others on the net regarding their
>use of topsTerm - in particular - has anyone successfully ran 
>the TCP/IP part with the "configure by hand" option.

Yes, it was extensively tested in this configuration.  In fact, for a long
time, that's all there was.  Even after I added the KIP support, though, we
kept testing this configuration.  Yours is not a known problem, and I must
admit I'm puzzled.

>I have downloaded the software, unencoded it, unarchived it, placed the
>files in the appropriate folders, and rebooted the MAC (an SE with
>a Kinetics Etherport SE board - which is running NCSA TN just fine, system
>6.02, finder 5.5).

We also extensively tested it with the Kinetics card, as well as the bad
old Apple Ethernet card.

>Since I have no KIP gateway, I select the above option, and enter my IP 
>address.  This creates the TOPS memory file which is placed in the system
>folder.  Anytime I boot the system with this file in the folder, the Mac
>crashes with a system error of ID=2.
>I have tried this with a "barebones" folder and the results are the same.

I think you mean "TOPS TCP/IP Memory".  Anyway, this is disturbing.
I'd suspect an INIT conflict, but since you got the same thing with no
INIT files (I assume this is what you mean by bare bones) that doesn't
seem to be possible.

Could you give some more information on the nature of the crash?  Does
it happen during INIT time?  Before or after the startup graphics?  If
you start up without a TOPS TCP/IP Memory file, but with TOPS TCP/IP,
do you get the startup configuration dialogs?  If you configure using
these dialogs, does the software work during that boot session?  Do you
have any strange SCSI peripherals attached?  Does a peek show the SE
sending any IP packets on the network before it crashes?  If you turn
off the Etherport card and use Localtalk instead, can you boot after
configuring by hand?  Etc.  Answers to any or all of these questions,
and anything else you can think of, will be invaluable in diagnosis.

By the way, why do people keep saying "topsterm"?  The program is
called "TOPS Terminal" by decree of TOPS marketing.  (Its real name is
"Wayfarer", but marketing people seem to hate anything that smacks of
aestheticism.)
-- 
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"Disclaimers are for running-dog lackeys of the bourgeoisie; free-thinking
members of the proletariat such as myself have their own opinions, and do
not need to express those of their oppressive capitalistic employers!
Nyah!" -- James Heath