This is the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) list for A/UX 2.0.1
This FAQ list is intended to cut down on the number of "often asked questions"
that make the rounds here on comp.unix.aux. Also included you'll find a few
words of wisdom too. This list assumes that you are familiar with Unix (to
some extent) but are curious about A/UX's eccentricities. The list will
concentrate on A/UX 2.0.1 but may also have info about previous versions. If
you don't understand something in the FAQ List, and a "Point of Contact" isn't
specified then contact me and I'll attempt to help or else point you to someone
who can. In any case, let me know how I can make the list more clear.
The list will be posted every month or so on comp.unix.aux as well as being
available via anonymous ftp on jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov.
This version of the A/UX FAQ focuses on A/UX 2.0.1. It includes a few
"teasers" concerning A/UX 3.0. This FAQ is basically here to serve that
section of the A/UX world that can't, won't or haven't yet upgraded to 3.0.
Send your additions|modifications to Jim Jagielski (jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov).
(editor's notes are included as <<ED: ...>>)
===============================================================================
**** TABLE OF CONTENTS: ****
o List of Contributors to A/UX FAQ List
o List of anon-ftp archives for A/UX
o List of what's broken under A/UX 2.0.1
o List of ported software
o List of compatible INITs, CDEVs and DAs known to work under 2.0.1
o Hints and Words of Wisdom
o Q&A-
1) What's the minimum system I need (CPU, disk and RAM) to run A/UX 2.0.1?
2) Can I use my Teac|DC2000|DC6000|DAT|etc tape drive under A/UX 2.0.1?
3) How come rn|elm|less|etc... acts weird concerning signals? Mainly, their
support of job-control is less than perfect.
4) What screen-savers are compatible with A/UX 2.0.1?
5) Is X11R5 available for A/UX?
6) I've noticed that FSF GNU doesn't support A/UX. Does that mean I'll
miss out on all the neat Gnu-stuff like gcc?
7) HD Setup refuses to recognize my hard disk! How can I partition it for
A/UX?
8) I have an EtherNet card that works fine under the Macintosh operating
system but not under A/UX. Why?
9) How come my Login screen is gray, not color?
10) Even though I have lot's of swap space and only a little bit is
being used, I STILL get a lot of messages saying that my swap
space is running low. What the buzz?
11) How can I copy a complete file system from one disk|partition to
another?
12) What's with UUCP?
13) How can I log anonymous ftp entries? in.ftpd has a -l option,
but it doesn't work.
14) It looks like cron runs everything twice. Why? Is this a feature?
15) I'm trying to use a SyQuest drive under A/UX but it refuses to work.
I keep on getting a "more data than device expected" error message.
What's wrong?
16) I'm unable to start a getty process on a built-in serial port. When
I use "setport" to enable the port, I get a "no such device" error.
Configuring /etc/inittab to respawn getty on the port has no effect.
17) NFS under A/UX 2.0.1 doesn't like using "ld" to link objects and huge
libraries with the result residing on a NFS-mounted file system.
18) I am using and depending on /etc/hosts to do all my hostname resolving
(i.e. not using named or /etc/resolv.conf). How come I can't mail
to other hosts, but I can ping|ftp|etc... them?
19) Is A/UX 2.0.1 System 7 savvy? How about the System 7 printer drivers?
20) My MacOS partition mounts fine under MacOS but it doesn't show up
under A/UX... Why?
21) I have 2 (or more) Macintosh partitions on my hard disk, but A/UX 2.0.1
only sees one! What am I doing wrong?
22) What 3-button mice work under A/UX (and X)?
23) How come when I do a "df" as a regular user, it shows me a different
number of free blocks compared to when I run it as "root"?
24) Does A/UX LocalTalk support IP?
25) How do I get MPW 3.1 to work? It hangs my system...
26) Can I refer to a file on my Mac system from within A/UX?
27) How can I adjust the amount of virtual memory available Finder uses?
28) Is it worth getting a cache card for the IIci?
29) How do I keep command lines that I edit with "backspace" from erasing
the prompt?
30) When I try to mail something, I get the following error message:
"Cannot read frozen config file: not a typewriter". What's wrong?
31a) I have MacsBug installed. How can I trigger it?
31b) Sometimes my MultiFinder environment (and/or CommandShell) freezes
up; how can I unfreeze it? Should I hit the Interrupt switch?
32) Is there an archive of comp.unix.aux out there somewhere?
33) My site is not upgraded to EtherTalk Phase 2 yet... can I use Phase 1
under A/UX?
34) When I switch from 32 to 24-bit mode, my screen changes from Color
to Gray-Scale. If I change it to Color, then when I switch back to
32-bit mode, I'm back to Gray!
35) How can I figure out the /etc/disktab entry for my hard disk?
36) How come I can't use color under X?
37) When is Apple shipping A/UX 3.0? How much will it cost. What does it
include?
38) How do I set up my Mac and A/UX to enable remote logins via a modem
on tty0?
39) How come I can't used "talk" with some of the other Unix boxes out
there, and they can't talk to me?
40) I'm having trouble transfering files between A/UX and my MacOS disk...
Also, sometimes things get transfered fine, othertimes not. What's
going on?
41) Using the command shell interface, I'm trying to delete some Mac files
(that have strange names) but I can't; "rm" returns an error and I can't
remove the file. What's going on?
42) How can I reports bugs that I find?
43) Which serial cards work under A/UX?
44) I have a IIfx and a 800K floppy disk drive. On boot-up, A/UX 2.0.1 claims
it's a 400K drive. What gives?
45) I'm using a LaserWriter IIg with A/UX 2.0.1 and whenever I print some-
thing to it through "lpr", the first line of the page is cut off. Why?
46) Whenever I try to run xinit (or startx) from the CommandShell I get
a fatal server error. Why?
47) Can I use my scanner under A/UX?
===============================================================================
**** List of Contributors to A/UX FAQ List ****
The editor would like to thank all the various people who have contributed to
the A/UX FAQ List (both those that submitted questions as well as those who
submitted answers). Also included under the Q&A section are the relevant people
to contact if you have specific questions about specific A/UX items. If I've
left you out, PLEASE E-mail me!
Brian Bechtel (blob@apple.com)
Nick Beser (beser@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu)
John Coolidge (coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu)
Tony Cooper (sramtrc@albert.dsir.govt.nz)
Bob Denny (denny@alisa.com)
Eric Dittman (dittman@skitzo.dseg.ti.com)
Ron Flax (ron@afsg.apple.com)
Jim Jagielski (jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Chris Johnson (cjohnson@brl.mil)
Bill Johnston (johnston@me.udel.edu)
Ron Johnston (johnston@apple.com)
Bob Kirby (kirby@moe.esl.com)
Luke Mewburn (s902113@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU)
Darrell Pfeifer (spycal!denigma!darrell@cpsc.ucalgary.ca)
William Roberts (liam@dcs.qmw.ac.uk)
Alexis Rosen (alexis@panix.com)
Craig Ruff (cruff@ncar.ucar.edu)
Jim Ryan (jryan@adobe.com)
Paul Sander (paul@sander.uucp)
Kent Sandvik (ksand@apple.com)
Craig Struble (cstruble@gnu.ai.mit.edu)
Chuq Von Rospach (chuq@apple.com)
Jon W{tte (d88-jwa@nada.kth.se)
===============================================================================
**** List of anonymous ftp archives for A/UX ****
The following sites have A/UX related archives and materials available via
anonymous ftp (see below for more information):
aux.support.apple.com (130.43.6.2)
comp.unix.aux archives;
A/UX patches and some ports;
jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.44.1)
FAQ List;
ports and utilities;
rascal.ics.utexas.edu (128.83.138.20)
misc. ports;
Mac applications, CDEVs, etc...;
wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
ports; (look in systems/aux)
===============================================================================
**** List of what's broken under A/UX 2.0.1: ****
adduser:
buffer size too small to read long lines in /etc/group.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
cron:
runs commands twice.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
See Q&A #14
f77:
reported problems with "i*2"
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
finger:
would not produce correct information if /etc/passwd uses the
"&" hack (use login name as part of real name).
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
in.telnetd:
occasionally leaves a pty port allocated even when the user has
logged out.
*** 3.0 patch available via anon-ftp on wuarchive.wustl.edu...
the patch doesn't seem to work under 2.0.1 though... ***
libmac.a (and libmac_s.a):
the following toolbox routines are buggy:
Color2Index
Index2Color
Gestalt
GetCPixel
*** Gas code replacements are available from cjohnson@brl.mil ***
ksh:
doesn't handle multiple commands correctly (for example, if
you type "find / -name core -print" and then while "find" is
running type "who" followed by "ls", after "find" is done,
what "ksh" sees is "who^Jls" and will only execute "who").
to fix, "set -o viraw" in your ~/.kshrc file...
mail|rmail:
the locking protocol is broken.
in some circumstances, a user's mailbox (in /usr/mail) is
created with the owner being the sender's user-ID.
*** 2.0.x patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
(make sure that /etc/rpc.lockd and /etc/rpc.statd are started
up in /etc/inittab if you have an nfs kernel)
make:
problem with "Include" directive expansion in the makefile.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
newunix:
problems caused with Developer CD series.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
NFS:
problems loading objects and large libraries onto NFS mounts.
zeros (0) appended to files.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
See Q&A #17
routed (actually, in.routed):
"-t" option doesn't work... requires "-t -t" to function correctly.
tar:
problem with "-o" option.
limited to 28 symbolic links.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
UUCP:
problems with serial drivers and heavy-loaded system.
See Q&A #12
wall:
ordinary users could only send messages to themselves.
*** 2.0.1 patch available via anon-ftp on aux.support.apple.com ***
===============================================================================
**** List of ported software available via anon-ftp: ****
(Included is the person responsible for the port and the location of the port)
gated (2.0.1.14):
Herb Weiner (herbw@wiskit.rain.com)
onion.rain.com [pub/wiskit]
gcc (1.40 and 2.1):
John Coolidge (coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu)
wuarchive.wustl.edu [systems/aux/gnu]
(See Q&A #6)
logging in.ftpd:
Jim Jagielski (jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov)
jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov [pub]
(See Q&A #13)
sendmail 5.65:
Jim Jagielski (jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov)
jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov [pub]
(See Q&A #18)
<<ED: sendmail 5.65 & IDA 1.4.4.1 may soon be made available>>
talk and talkd (BSD 4.3 versions)
Steve Green (xrsbg@dirac.gsfc.nasa.gov)
jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov [pub]
(See Q&A #39)
tcsh (6.00.03): (if you have 6.00.02, you really _should_ upgrade)
Eric Dittman (dittman@skitzo.dseg.ti.com)
wuarchive.wustl.edu [systems/aux/packages]
X11R5 and X11R4:
John Coolidge (coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu)
wuarchive.wustl.edu [systems/aux/gnu]
(See Q&A #5)
The following have also been successfully ported to A/UX with minimal trouble.
Since the ports are pretty straightforward, only a few are actually available
in their ported form (please see Q&A #3): (those that have been personnally
verified by the editor are marked with '#')
o Cnews (Ver. ??)
# elm 2.3.11
o Ghostscript 2.3
o GNU Stuff:
binutils 1.9
bison 1.15
fileutils 3.1
# find 3.5 (for DEFS use: -DUSG -DMAJOR_IN_SYSMACROS -DFS_MNTENT \
-DHAVE_UNISTD_H -DSTRERROR_MISSING -DVOID_CLOSEDIR)
flex 2.3.7
gawk 2.13
# gdbm 1.5
# grep 1.5
sed 1.08
shellutils 1.5
Smalltalk 1.1.1
tar 1.10.12
textutils 1.1.1
o Gwm 1.7h
# less 177
# NetHack
# nn 6.4.16
# nntp 1.5.11
# perl 4.010 (requires the rewinddir() function in libposix.a)
# rn 4.3.54
# rn 4.4.1
o SB Prolog 3.1 (minor changes in the builtin directory)
o smail 3.1.24
o trn (Ver. ??)
===============================================================================
**** List of compatible INITs, CDEVs and DAs known to work under 2.0.1****
(will focus on popular ones, mostly of the shareware variety)
o After Dark (2.0u and later) - some displays don't have enough
memory to work so the default (low memory) one comes up
o ATM 2.0.3
o BlackOut (1.21) - Login screen compatible
o Desktop Manager (2.0.1)
o Disinfectant INIT (2.7)
o DiskTools (3.0)
o Facade (1.x)
o Font Porter
o FMbackup 1.4 (prevents having to totally rebuild Desktop when A/UX
crashes)
o GateKeeper (1.2.5) - For some reason, "Show Log" doesn't work although
log entries _are_ made. Chris Johnson knows about this and is
looking into it.
o MacsBug (6.2.x)
o Moire (3.22) - even works under login screen
o Suitcase (1.2.6) - the latest version, 1.2.12, doesn't
(if you have ATM, you can use Font Porter instead which automatically
installs Font suitcases)
<< ED: well, now I hear that 1.2.6 may not even work... I'll keep you
all posted >>
o Windows (2.1)
## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ##
According to Jim Ryan of Adobe (jryan@adobe.com), the following Adobe products
have been tested for 3.0 compatibility. Hopefully there will be no changes with
the final release of 3.0.
o Illustrator 3.2
o Photoshop 2.0.1 <mostly> (Gamma, which is included, does _not_ work)
o Premiere 1.0
o Streamline 2.0 <mostly... not 32-bit clean>
o ATM 2.0.3
o ATM 3.0
o Type Reunion 1.3
## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ##
===============================================================================
**** Hints and Words of Wisdom: ****
o By default, A/UX allocates only 10% of memory for disk buffers
(that is, the value of "NBUF" is 0... see kconfig(1M))
If you have a lot of RAM, you could greatly increase system
performance by increasing the allotment. However, you cannot
use kconfig to specify "20%" but you must give it an actual number
to use. The way to determine the number of buffers being used,
run "pstat -m". This will give you the number of buffers that are
currently allocated. For example, if the value is 1000, then you know
that to increase the number of buffers to 20%, you must use "kconfig"
to set "NBUF" to 2000.
Please note that if you change the amount of RAM you have, you'll
need to change the value of "NBUF." I suggest that before you
add|remove RAM, you use "kconfig" to reset "NBUF" to 0, then
do the RAM change and see how your system performance is. If needed,
you can then use the above to increase (or decrease) the number of
disk buffers.
o Note that under 2.0 and 2.0.1 (well, to be more exact, under the
BSD Fast File System) the following doesn't really hold true. If for
some reason you are using the System V file system-type (either
because you "prefer" it under 2.0.x or are using A/UX 1.x.x) then
the below would give you good performance gains (putting /tmp on
IT'S OWN DISK, as described below, is ALWAYS a good idea).
If you have the extra disk space and do a lot of compiling, you
can decrease the time spent compiling by creating a separate partition
specifically for /tmp. This will reduce the movement of the disk heads
when reading|writing /tmp (as it checks the SuperBlock for disk infor-
mation) and result in quicker compiles. Putting /tmp on it's own
disk (or, at least, a disk different than the one with the sources)
would be ideal. You may be able to get by with a 5MB partition for
/tmp (that's over 10000 blocks) but if you are doing so many compiles
that this method helps, maybe 20MB would be better :)
o The DayStar Digital 50MHz PowerCard (MacII version) requires a hardware
modification for it to correctly work under A/UX. The mod is done by
DayStar free of charge. If you can, specify that you want the board
modified by DayStar before they ship it... (versions other than the
PowerCard II may not require this mod and it's only on the 50MHz versions
of those)
o You can run A/UX on the original MacII, however the PMMU chip must be
installed. You can also use one of the many 68030 upgrades for the
MacII, such as the Marathon '030, but the MacII ROMs won't recognize
the PMMU capabilities onboard the CPU. You'll need to get the MacII
FDHD ROM Upgrade Kit. This kit replaces your ROMs with IIx ROMs, thus
enabling you (and A/UX) to use the upgrade. The kit also replaces your
SWIM chip (floppy controller) enabling you to use FDHD disks (if such
a drive is installed) too... thus the name of the kit. This kit can
be had for about $120 although some dealers also include a FDHD drive
as well, bumping the price up to about $430.
o You can configure the built-in serial ports for hardware handshaking
(RTS & DTS) _or_ dialup security (DTR & CD) but not both, due to the
lack of a sufficinet number of modem control lines.
o "dp" _can_ change or select partition slices. It's undocumented, but
it's the "s" command when in BZB-field mode.
o When using ftp, unless you are _sure_ that a file is, in fact, a true
Text file, set the ftp mode to Binary. This is especially true when
downloading GIFs and "true" Mac files. If it's a BINHEXed file or a
uuencoded file, then you can specify Ascii mode (in some cases, it's
required). If the file you wish to download has the ".tar" or ".Z"
suffix, then you _need_ Binary; if the suffix is ".uu" or ".hqx"
then use Ascii.
o To download GIF files via anon-ftp, be sure to specify Binary mode. Then
use "setfile" to create the correct Type and Creator fields (for, example,
for Giffer use 'setfile -t"GIFf" -c"Bozo"'). You can then keep this file
on your A/UX disk or transfer it over to your MacOS disk (See Q#40).
o For some reason, the latest port of 2.1 by John Coolidge doesn't seem
to like the "-fpcc-struct-return" flag. However, it also appears that
you no longer need to use it; i.e. programs compiled without the flag
compile and run fine... it's doubtful that it's a porting problem.
===============================================================================
**** Q&A: ****
1) What's the minimum system I need (CPU, disk and RAM) to run A/UX 2.0.1?
A/UX 2.0 works on the MacII (with PMMU _or_ 68030 upgrade with FDHD ROM's
installed). IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx and SE/30 machines. A/UX 2.0.1 additionally
supports the IIsi (although the IIsi requires the 68882 chip). A/UX is
available preinstalled on a hard disk, on CD-ROM and on floppies (DC2000 tape
is no longer supported).
If you really want to cut it close, 4MB RAM and an ENTIRE 80MB hard disk
will just make it. You'll have little room for user files (unless you clear
out some space by removing /games and maybe /catman) and depending on your
workload, may suffer from low performance (due to swapping... you may even
encounter the infamous swap messages :) According to William Roberts
(liam@dcs.qmw.ac.uk), if you are mounting a _lot_ of stuff over NFS, a 40MB
disk should be plenty (please contact William for more info about this).
I much better system would be 8MB of RAM and about 150MB of disk space. This
would give you much more room to grow as well as sufficient RAM to increase
your performance (assuming that you tune some kernel parameters). All in all,
more RAM is prefered: 20MB (or more) is ideal.
## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ##
A/UX 3.0 will _not_ support the PowerBooks nor the Classic II.
## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ## ## 3.0 INFO ##
===
2) Can I use my Teac|DC2000|DC6000|DAT|etc tape drive under A/UX 2.0.1?
Apple only "officially" supports the DC2000 tape drive, since this was the type
that the Apple 40SC Tape Drive was. To do this, one had to reconfigure the
kernel (using newunix-autoconfig or newconfig) to include the "tc" device
driver. Unofficially, the "tc" driver also can handle some of the DC6000
tape drives too; specifically the Viper and Archive 150MB tape drives. It
doesn't support the TDC series of DC6000's
To fill this hole, Tony Cooper (sramtrc@albert.dsir.govt.nz) has written
a streaming tape driver ("st") that supports the following tape drives
Teac MT-2ST/N50 (Micro/Tape MT-155)
Tandberg TDC 3800 (Micro/Tape MT-320)
Tandberg TDC 3660 (Micro/Tape MT-150)
WangDAT Model 1300 (Micro/Tape MT-1300)
It also will probably drive other drives of the same model as the MicroNet
drives (eg it seems to work for all TEAC MT-2ST/N50's whether MicroNet or
not) and will drive Exabyte and GigaTape helical scan drives.
Tony has also written a VERY nice double-buffering copier that greatly
increases the speed of backups; it's called "tbb." It works quite nicely
with "st"...
The device driver (as well as "tbb") is available via anonymous ftp on
jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov under pub/tape.utilities.