• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

A/UX Frequently Asked Questions

redpro

New member
I'm replying because nobody else did. I clicked on the link and read the information. The question is "What is the point of all of it'???

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
The point is people tinker with A/UX sometimes on their old Macs and having a FAQ lets them know what it will run on, and some common things they need to do to install it.

Mac OS is a bit more straight forward to setup then A/UX.

 

QuadSix50

Well-known member
Maybe this would be worthy of becoming a Sticky? That way it would always be available to those interested right off the bat. I have a copy of A/UX and I might actually give it another go in the future.

EDIT: Just noticed that it's now a sticky, but I don't know if it was already one or not before my post. I'm getting too old for this... :p

 

aftermac

Well-known member
I have a question. The following is from the A/UX FAQ:

Upgrades
Is it worth getting a cache card for the IIci?

Absolutely! The card makes an amazing difference in performance. However, this performance increase is reduced when an external monitor is used. For more information about extensive benchmarking with the IIci and cache cards, you can snag the benchmarking results via anon-ftp on redstar.dcs.qmw.ac.uk in archive/papers.
External monitor? :?:

Is this statement intending to say "add-on video card"? Any IIci monitor will, of course, be external. This just happens to the exact configuration that I have: A/UX 3.0.1, IIci, and a cache card. Could someone clarify this?

Thanks!

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
Maybe they meant the cache card speeds up the built in video (which uses RAM instead of VRAM), and that if you use a Nubus video card the cache card does not speed up video.

 

pee-air

Well-known member
What is 'catsearchd'?
Under A/UX, 'catsearchd' is a Unix process that maintains a cache of MacOS File System information. Having this cache available greatly increases the performance of catalog searches made from the MacOS and an AppleShare client.

For each file cached, 'catsearchd' requires 200 bytes of memory, so if your File Systems are large, 'catsearchd' can be a real memory hog. One way to avoid this is to use the 'nocats' option in 'fstab' for mounted file systems.

Unless you are running A/UX as an AppleShare server, there's no need to run 'catsearchd'; in fact, it's better not to run it due due to it's memory and performance hits. (How does one disable it?)
Howto Disable catsearchd:

To disable catsearchd you need to edit your /etc/inittab file. As root, type the following:

vi /etc/inittab

Then look for a line that looks like this:

csd:2:respawn:/etc/catsearchd # start catsearch daemon

And change it to look like this:

csd:2:eek:ff:/etc/catsearchd # start catsearch daemon

Then simply restart A/UX. catsearchd will no longer be running and you'll have some free memory for other more important things.

 

ChristTrekker

Well-known member
I've put parts of the ToC into multiple columns to reduce scrolling, but I'd appreciate feedback on whether this has helped usability or not. Thanks.

 

fluxsmoke

Member
Question, the FAQ says this:

"Now A/UX includes drivers for the Apple EtherNet card (they aren't installed by default though), but they don't work with most of the 3rd party cards except for the 3Com "EtherLink NB", the Asante "MacCon" and the StarNet Networking cards. They are 100% register compatible with their Apple counterparts, so you can use Apple's 'ae' driver with them"

Taking into consideration that I don't know much about Apple software (although I'm a long time Unix user), where would I find these drivers?
 

demik

Well-known member
They are included with A/UX kernel (similar to how they come with the Linux Kernel) So no need to download and install them. If a compatible card is installed, they will work, otherwise you are out of luck
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
Taking into consideration that I don't know much about Apple software (although I'm a long time Unix user), where would I find these drivers?

They're copied onto the hard disc when the OS is installed, but not in the kernel. Use "newconfig" in a terminal to enable networking and to set up networking parameters.
 
Top