[comp.unix.aix] Some PS/2 AIX questions

wross@caen.engin.umich.edu (Wendy Ross) (10/02/89)

I have four questions, but first ...

The Background:  I have a PS/2 on an ethernet running AIX v1.1
(hopefully this is soon to change to 2.2!).  Most of the other
machines around here run BSD4.3, so that's where the expertise
lies.

The Questions:
1.  X Windows:  I have successfully loaded and am running X.
How do I make the system login prompt run in an X Window?

2.  DOS Merge & X:  Is there any way to specify full screen
DOS mode from X?  I can start a DOS Merge window, or type
"dos" at a c-shell prompt and get DOS in that window.  Is the
only way to get full-screen DOS to exit X first?

3.  Remote Printing:  Is it possible to remote print to a machine
running Berkley printing (without manually ftping the file first)?

4.  Backups:  What is the best way to perform backups over the
network since "dump" isn't available?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Wendy Ross
wross@caen.engin.umich.edu
<insert amusing quip here>

webb@bass.tcspa.ibm.com (Bill Webb) (10/05/89)

>...
> 2.  DOS Merge & X:  Is there any way to specify full screen
> DOS mode from X?  I can start a DOS Merge window, or type
> "dos" at a c-shell prompt and get DOS in that window.  Is the
> only way to get full-screen DOS to exit X first?
>...
> Wendy Ross
> wross@caen.engin.umich.edu

What you'd like to be able to do is "open dos" but that didn't work
from an X window even when I tried to subvert stdin etc. (sigh), so I
suggest that you hot-key to the console and type "open dos" from there.
Then when you want to go back to X you can hot-key there and back again. 
If you're not starting X in a separate HFT session then you might think
about doing so or doing "open dos" before you start up X.

> 4.  Backups: what is the best way to perform backups over the
> network since "dump" isn't available?

I'd suggest using tar for the epoch dump, and touch a file at the 
start, and then use 
	tar cvf - `find ... -newer stamp ! -type d -print` | rsh ...
for the incrementals. If you run out of argument list room then its
probably time for a new epoch dump or switch to backup or cpio instead
of tar.

You can also use the "backup" command, e.g.
	find ... -print | backup -f - -i | rsh ...
but I found that you can't backup a disk or filesystem (the above command
is by name) unless you unmount it first (sigh).

You could also use cpio, but I'm not much of a cpio fan as it isn't a 
BSD 4.3 command.

The main advantage of using tar is that you can read the tarfile on
other machines, which is often an advantage if worst comes to worst
and you need to use the backup.

----------------------------------------------------------------
The above views are my own, not necessarily those of my employer.
Bill Webb (IBM AWD Palo Alto), (415) 855-4457).
UUCP: ...!uunet!ibmsupt!webb

jeff@steamer.tcspa.ibm.com (Jeff Weinstein) (10/05/89)

>...
> 2.  DOS Merge & X:  Is there any way to specify full screen
> DOS mode from X?  I can start a DOS Merge window, or type
> "dos" at a c-shell prompt and get DOS in that window.  Is the
> only way to get full-screen DOS to exit X first?

You should try 'xopen dos'.  Xopen is like open, but it works from
within an aixterm window.  It also makes an X icon that you can 
click on, which will automatically switch you to that virtual
terminal.

	Jeff Weinstein
	IBM - Advanced Workstation Division
	Palo Alto Development Center
	uunet!ibmsupt!jeff

garnett@rpp386.cactus.org (John Garnett) (10/06/89)

In article <2440@ibmpa.UUCP> webb@bass.tcspa.ibm.com (Bill Webb) writes:
>>...
>> 2.  DOS Merge & X:  Is there any way to specify full screen
>> DOS mode from X?  I can start a DOS Merge window, or type
>> "dos" at a c-shell prompt and get DOS in that window.  Is the
>> only way to get full-screen DOS to exit X first?
>>...
>> Wendy Ross
>
>What you'd like to be able to do is "open dos" but that didn't work
>from an X window even when I tried to subvert stdin etc. (sigh), so I
>suggest that you hot-key to the console and type "open dos" from there.

Have you tried using:

XMERGE=TRUE
export XMERGE
xopen dos

from inside an aixterm (xterm) window?  This should create a new virtual
session containing a full screen DOS session.  Use Alt-Action (Alt-Control
on unmodified PS/2 keyboards) to switch back to the X-Windows session.
You will find that the "xopen" command has created an Icon entitled "dos".
Clicking on this icon will switch to the full screen DOS Merge session.
Xopen will work with any executable program (even another invocation of
the X-Server if you have enough system resources).

It might be useful to you to include the three commands suggested
above into a shell script named "fsdos" for example.  You could
then type "xopen fsdos" as long as fsdos was in your PATH.
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