bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) (05/05/89)
I'm getting conflicting opinions on this so I'm looking to hear from someone who's actually witnessed this: We have a Mac-II (5MB) with an 80MB Jasmine drive and we're thinking of buying an Apple cartridge tape and A/UX (and the PMMU, etc.) Can this be done? Or is the drive going to be a problem? How about other third-party drives you've seen work? Also, if anyone knows of a good third-party cartridge tape which would work for this set-up I'd be interested in hearing about it. -- -Barry Shein, Software Tool & Die There's nothing more terrifying to hardware vendors than satisfied customers.
goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU (05/07/89)
>We have a Mac-II (5MB) with an 80MB Jasmine drive and we're thinking >of buying an Apple cartridge tape and A/UX (and the PMMU, etc.) Can >this be done? Or is the drive going to be a problem? How about other >third-party drives you've seen work? I managed to get A/UX 1.1 running on my Mac II with an 80 Mb CMS internal drive. It wasn't fun. The biggest problem is that CMS doesn't supply a formatter utility that can create the necessary SCSI partitions. (Apparently, they eventually intend to do so, because there is a "partition" button in their "Platinum" formatter that is always greyed out. Fortunately, CMS uses the same Quantum Q280 drive that Apple uses as its 80 Meg internal. After a little tweaking, I was able to get the Apple HD SC Utility to format the CMS drive. Actually, it was more than a little tweaking; lots of frustration and steel nerves. After ignoring all the warnings and messages and initializing the disk on startup, I found the appropriate partitions present. If Jasmine uses a different movement, you would probably have to change IDs and tables inside the Apple Utility. Without source code, this is a nightmare only a crusty old hacker would enjoy! The big question: does Jasmine have a formatter that partitions the disk as A/UX expects? I loaded AUX from the 40 MB tape (thanks for the loaned drive, Apple!) and was able to boot UNIX on the first shot. fsck came out with no errors, so I'd say the format, etc., is valid. I've had no problems since. I haven't tried to use dp to repartition anything, but I don't want to press my luck just yet! >Also, if anyone knows of a good third-party cartridge tape which would >work for this set-up I'd be interested in hearing about it. Ditto! I'd really like to see something that uses DC-600's and has a driver for A/UX (obviously). Let me know what kind of responses you get. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ben Goldfarb uucp: {decvax,peora}!ucf-cs!goldfarb University of Central Florida Internet: goldfarb@hcx9.ucf.edu Department of Computer Science BITNET: goldfarb@ucf1vm.BITNET
ron@motmpl.UUCP (Ron Widell) (05/09/89)
In article <8200001@hcx9> goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU writes:
-
->Also, if anyone knows of a good third-party cartridge tape which would
->work for this set-up I'd be interested in hearing about it.
-
-Ditto! I'd really like to see something that uses DC-600's and has a
-driver for A/UX (obviously). Let me know what kind of responses you get.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Ben Goldfarb uucp: {decvax,peora}!ucf-cs!goldfarb
-University of Central Florida Internet: goldfarb@hcx9.ucf.edu
-Department of Computer Science BITNET: goldfarb@ucf1vm.BITNET
Double ditto!! If anyone knows of such a beast (tape drive for DC-600's
on a MAC][ with a driver for A/UX) don't keep it a secret. Let the whole
world know!
--
Ron Widell, Field Applications Eng. |UUCP: {...}mcdchg!motmpl!ron
Motorola Semiconductor Products, Inc., |Voice:(612)941-6800
9600 W. 76th St., Suite G | I'm from Silicon Tundra,
Eden Prairie, Mn. 55344 -3718 | what could I know?goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU (05/16/89)
/* Written 6:21 pm May 8, 1989 by ron@motmpl.UUCP in hcx9:comp.unix.aux */ >->Also, if anyone knows of a good third-party cartridge tape which would >->work for this set-up I'd be interested in hearing about it. >- >-Ditto! I'd really like to see something that uses DC-600's and has a >-driver for A/UX (obviously). Let me know what kind of responses you get. > >Double ditto!! If anyone knows of such a beast (tape drive for DC-600's >on a MAC][ with a driver for A/UX) don't keep it a secret. Let the whole >world know! I've got some more information obliquely related to the subject. One of my Apple insider confidants told me that the Irwin Magnetics 5080 (80 Mb DC2000 product) is a good unit to buy; however, he didn't know whether or not Irwin planned to support A/UX. Reviews I have read support his conclusion about the quality of the drive. I called my local dealer and told them to do the work of calling Irwin to smoke out the information. The response was that although there is no software support for A/UX at present, it is being worked on. I guess the scale is something like this: > <being contemplated> <planned> <being worked on> <in alpha> <real-soon-now> < To that extent, I don't think an immediate purchase would be wise. However, this tape drive (retail $1695) has been getting raves, so I think the situation bears further investigation. If anyone from Irwin or who has direct knowledge of the availability of the A/UX driver and backup utilities is listening, please comment! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ben Goldfarb uucp: {decvax,peora}!ucf-cs!goldfarb University of Central Florida Internet: goldfarb@hcx9.ucf.edu Department of Computer Science BITNET: goldfarb@ucf1vm.BITNET
alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (05/16/89)
I've mentioned this a few times before, but I can do it again...
Irwin has some really nice stuff for the Mac, and one of the nicest is
their backup system for A/UX. It has a genuine A/UX driver, and the hardware
is pretty nice also. They get about 4MB/minute with their own proprietary
tape format, using DC2000 cartridges to store 120MB. This is quite competitive
with the TEAC 60MB drives in performace and price, and considerably better
in capacity.
They will have a 250MB drive in the next month or two, and a DC600 drive
sometime this summer.
I'll say it again, since it's so important. THEY ARE THE ONLY COMPANY TO
HAVE DONE AN A/UX TAPE RIGHT, INCLUDING APPLE. IF YOU NEED A REAL TAPE
SOLUTION, TALK TO THEM. It's outrageous that Apple has built such an
incredibly bad piece of junk as their 40MB tape, but neither they nor
anyone else have seen fit to do the job right, except Irwin.
---
Alexis Rosen
alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet}
alexis@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (last resort)time@oxtrap.UUCP (Tim Endres) (05/19/89)
Alexis Rosen: IF YOU NEED A REAL TAPE SOLUTION, TALK TO IRWIN. Irwin Magnetics, in Ann Arbor, Mi., is the solution. I agree. I have worked with Irwin people and equipment, and they are the only people doing the job right.
alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (05/24/89)
In article <8200004@hcx9> goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU writes: >/* Written 6:21 pm May 8, 1989 by ron@motmpl.UUCP in hcx9:comp.unix.aux */ >>->Also, if anyone knows of a good third-party cartridge tape which would >>->work for this set-up I'd be interested in hearing about it. > >I've got some more information obliquely related to the subject. One >of my Apple insider confidants told me that the Irwin Magnetics 5080 >(80 Mb DC2000 product) is a good unit to buy; however, he didn't know >whether or not Irwin planned to support A/UX. Reviews I have read >support his conclusion about the quality of the drive. I called my >local dealer and told them to do the work of calling Irwin to smoke out >the information. The response was that although there is no software >support for A/UX at present, it is being worked on. Say WHAT????? Who did you talk to? Irwin, in fact, is the only company to support A/UX completely. I have already responded to this message thread once before, but here is the summary: They now have a 120MB unit which works at about 4MB/min. I have used this device under A/UX- they wrote their own driver (the only way to do it). It is really nice software- if you invoke it interactively, it has a real Mac user interface, with powerful selection capabilities (file name, date, last backup time, etc. etc. matching), but it can also be invoked from a shell just like any unix binary. This means that you can have cron go off and do your backups at three in the morning (or whatever's a convenient time). There is a 250MB unit coming in the next month or two. They will also have a DC600 by the end of the summer. --- Alexis Rosen alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet} alexis@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (last resort)