[comp.unix.aux] A/UX 2.0 initial questions

rhodes@grebyn.com (Ned Rhodes) (07/12/90)

	To those of you who are running version 2.0, maybe you can help
and I have some comments.

	1.  I tried to use Suitcase 1.2.6 and I get a system bomb after
the login screen.  Someone said that Suitcase worked.  Which version was
it that worked and did you have to do anything other than drag the icon
to the System folder?

	2.  The SCSIProbe program bombs for me.

	3.  The Shiva NetSerial init appears to be compatible with
version 2.  I ran it with Mac240 and did xmodem transfers.  That is good
news.

	4.  I use a Microtech R45 Syquest drive on the system.  You have
to use Tony Cooper's Fix Error Page program on the MacOS formatted disks
so that they will appear on the desktop.  My question is, when I place
the disk into the trash to put in another cartridge, I cannot spin the
drive down.  I have to kill power to the drive and then I can remove the
cartridge.  Anyone have a different experience?

	5.  _Launch 3.0, Dollars and Sense and PageMaker all appear to
work.

	6.  My version of SuperClock also causes a bomb.

	7.  On the topic of MacOS formatted CDROMS, they do not appear
on the desktop.  I tried to install the init (v3.0) and it bombs.  Does
a newer version work?

	8.  The overall speed of the system appears to be slow when
starting applications and seems to take awhile when you open folders.
Has anyone discovered any tuning items that will speed things up?

	Overall, I am impressed.  I am waiting for my upgrade to my
serial card so that I can try out my serial ports and other modem
access.  Thanks for any help.

-- 
Ned W. Rhodes                   (703) 534-2297 (voice)
Software Systems Group          (703) 237-9654 (fax)
2001 North Kenilworth Street	CompuServe : 71321,424
Arlington, VA  22205            rhodes@grebyn.COM

lantz@Apple.COM (Bob Lantz) (07/12/90)

In article <20266@grebyn.com> rhodes@grebyn.com (Ned Rhodes) writes:

>	2.  The SCSIProbe program bombs for me.

A/UX 2.0 doesn't support the SCSI manager; in general, you can't
(and shouldn't) access the hardware directly from user programs.
Most programs that get away with this under Mac OS (e.g. accessing
SCSI, ADB, ASC and serial [e.g. for MIDI] chips directly) fail
under A/UX.

>	8.  The overall speed of the system appears to be slow when
>starting applications and seems to take awhile when you open folders.
>Has anyone discovered any tuning items that will speed things up?

Use a personal system folder.

There's something that's probably easy to figure out, but may not
be obvious to Mac OS users trying out A/UX (other Apple folks 
correct me if I'm wrong on this :-) ): if all your login accounts
use the global system folder, then the desktop database and file
system cache will have to be rebuilt whenever a different user
logs in.  In particular, opening folder will cause the system
to generate this information for the files in that folder.  If 
you have a personal system folder, this information is saved
from session to session. If you don't, it can be lost if another
user logs in.  There's a handy command to generate a personal
system folder.  It's called "systemfolder."

>	Overall, I am impressed.  I am waiting for my upgrade to my
>serial card so that I can try out my serial ports and other modem
>access.  Thanks for any help.

>Ned W. Rhodes                   (703) 534-2297 (voice)

Bob Lantz
A/UX Team

blob@Apple.COM (Brian Bechtel) (07/12/90)

rhodes@grebyn.com (Ned Rhodes) writes:
>	7.  On the topic of MacOS formatted CDROMS, they do not appear
>on the desktop.  I tried to install the init (v3.0) and it bombs.  Does
>a newer version work?

Install the AppleCD-ROM driver in your MacOS System Folder.  This is the
System Folder from which you first boot your machine.  Don't install it
in any of the A/UX system folders.  See chapter 5 of "Setting Up Accounts
and Peripherals for A/UX."

--Brian Bechtel		blob@apple.com		"My opinion, not Apple's"

tlunde@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Thomas Lunde) (07/14/90)

     A couple of questions from a novice AUX user:

1)  Is it possible to use AUX with removable hard drives, particularly
those with Syquest Mechanisms?

2)  What is the realistic ( not theoretical ) size in M of drive space 
needed to effectivly use AUX?

Please Email directly to me.  If there is sufficient interest, I will 
summarize to the net.

Thank You.

Thomas Lunde - Undergrad CS Major
Executive Officer, Undergraduate Collegiate Senate
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA                "Why not?"  - the fly to the Spider

davism@creatures.cs.vt.edu (Mat Davis) (07/17/90)

In article <42909@apple.Apple.COM> blob@Apple.COM (Brian Bechtel) writes:
>Install the AppleCD-ROM driver in your MacOS System Folder.  This is the
>System Folder from which you first boot your machine.  Don't install it
>in any of the A/UX system folders.  See chapter 5 of "Setting Up Accounts
>and Peripherals for A/UX."

I've been telling people that A/UX (1.1) is completely unaffected by the Mac
OS, mostly meaning that INITs and the like go away when A/UX is launched.  But
I take it from the above that A/UX 2.0 *is* affected by the Mac OS?  Is it
just in terms of what Mac volumes are recognized or are there other ways?

(I don't have a release copy of the 2.0 manuals, and my pre-release copy 
doesn't seems to have the part you're referring to.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      Mat Davis (davism@vtopus.cs.vt.edu)
                 Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

blob@Apple.COM (Brian Bechtel) (07/17/90)

davism@creatures.cs.vt.edu (Mat Davis) writes:
>I take it [...] that A/UX 2.0 *is* affected by the Mac OS?  Is it
>just in terms of what Mac volumes are recognized or are there other ways?

Hey, I just call them as I see them.  I didn't have anything to do with
writing A/UX; I'm just a (satisfied) user.

If you want to use HFS CD-ROMs, you put the Apple CD-ROM driver in your
MacOS system folder.  HFS CD-ROMs show up on the desktop, albeit with
some strangeness regarding mounting and unmounting.  (The disc has to
be in the drive when you login, and if you drag it to the trash, you
have to logout to eject it.)

If you want to use System V or 4.2 BSD CD-ROMs, nothing extra is
needed.  I've successfully mounted a System V file system CD-ROM.
These discs show up on the desktop under the / icon at their mount
point.

Audio CDs High Sierra CD-ROMs, and ISO 9660 CD-ROMs aren't currently
supported.  I don't know the real reasons, but I suspect that the
mechanism used in the MacOS, Foreign File Access, was too closely tied
to pieces of the MacOS that had to change to support A/UX.  I don't
know what plans are in that area.  I don't work in the A/UX team.

--Brian Bechtel		blob@apple.com		"My opinion, not Apple's"

tlunde@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Thomas Lunde) (07/22/90)

In article (<1859@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> tlunde@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu ) I wrote:

> 1)  Is it possible to use AUX with removable hard drives, particularly
> those with Syquest Mechanisms?
>
> 2)  What is the realistic ( not theoretical ) size in M of drive space 
> needed to effectivly use AUX?

To summarize the responses,

1)  Yes, if they are setup properly.  There was one recommendation to use
Silverlining to do this.

2)  80M seemed to be the reasonable minimum for everday use.  If disk intensive
use is to be done, >100M is necessary.

Thanks to those who responded.  The orignal (edited) responses follow.

Thomas Lunde

----------------------------------------------------------------

From blob@apple.com Mon Jul 16 09:23:52 1990
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 1990 07:25:48 PDT
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.

In article <1859@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> tlunde@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Thomas 
Lunde) writes:
> 1)  Is it possible to use AUX with removable hard drives, particularly
> those with Syquest Mechanisms?

Yes, if you set up the Syquest properly.  Tony Cooper wrote a program that 
sets the appropriate SCSI sense state or whatever magic it was.  It's on 
sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the utils directory, I believe.

> 2)  What is the realistic ( not theoretical ) size in M of drive space 
> needed to effectivly use AUX?

Insufficient information given to answer this question.  This question is 
roughly equivalent to "what car should I drive?"  Specify "use A/UX" more 
fully, and I can tell you a better answer.  With that disclaimer, I find 
80Mb fine if you're doing routine stuff, but you'll be happier with more 
if you do program development.

You can get by on less than 80Mb if you're a masochist.

--Brian Bechtel     blob@apple.com     "My opinion, not Apple's"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From grebyn!rhodes@uu.psi.com Mon Jul 16 18:12:19 1990
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 90 19:02:59 EDT
Subject: Re: A/UX 2.0 initial questions
Organization: Software Systems Group, Arlington, VA

	Yes, you can use syquest mechanisms.  It appears that the best
formatter is the LaCie Silverlining.

	The unix system software requires 40 MB and I think they use
10-20 MB for swap and then there is the mac partition.  Bottom line is
that 80 MB is usable, but you wind up with only 10 MB of space to do
stuff in.  Obviously a 100 MB would give you 30 MB of user space and so
On.  I think you need > 100 to do serious work.

-- 
Ned W. Rhodes                   (703) 534-2297 (voice)
Software Systems Group          (703) 237-9654 (fax)
2001 North Kenilworth Street	CompuServe : 71321,424
Arlington, VA  22205            rhodes@grebyn.COM