Leografix
Well-known member
Well, in meantime I discovered some strange behaviour of NICs, especially the Apple 10/100MBps, Product number sa0025, stated as compatible to the ANS. When using AIX 4.1.4.0 it "notices" both speeds (10 and 100 MBps) but only "defines" the 100 MBps functionality - which leaves this unusable to the BOS while the 10MBps can be used. When using AIX 4.1.5.0 it completly drops the 10 MBps functionality and oly leaves the defined but still unusable 100 MBps. Really odd.I haven't yet tried is to get one of the early Asante or Farallon 10/100 PCI cards and see if that will map close enough to the Apple 100Base-TX PCI card to force 100 Mbs operation (the Apple driver cannot auto-sense, btw, which is why speeds run at the "safe" fallback---it was built to use Apple hardware, and at the time, Apple only had the 100Base-TX Card).
I also noticed something else. I tested an NIC from SEC which is basically a NIC from DEC providing 10 MBps on three different ethernet interfaces (RJ45, Thick, and the AAUI dunno the real name for it). Both AIX versions determine that NIC as "Apple 10 MBps card" - which leads me to the conclusion that Apple has written some sort of "universal driver" for a bunch of several non-Apple cards but I might be wrong here.
It isn´t as spectecular as it might appear. There is something not-documentated about AIX versions for the ANS. While Apple names a full 4.1.4.0 install, a 4.1.4.1 update and a 4.1.5.0 update there also exists a 4.1.5.0 FULL INSTALL - the one I´m owning and using by now. This one also contains different languages (which 4.1.4.x misses). 4.1.4.x just contains different language keyboard mappings but no additional OS languages. 4.1.5.0 contains everything. This 4.1.5.0 also contains Netscape and some other stuff like PCMCIA software and else - but no "updated" drivers for Apple hardware, at least I didn´t find any. In addition AIX 4.1.4.x includes "root SMIT" which is changed to "....Missing Message 436" in 4.1.5.0.Leo, I believe you had quite an adventure working your ANS up to 4.1.5 and getting as close as you could on patch level, didn't you? That process would be interesting.
So I din´t really have any troubles on "upgrading" the OS.
As You are already mentioning it I´m looking for a gcc compiler as I noticed that Apache packages are not distributed as full installs but have to be compiled form source code - or I was simply to dumb to find the right packages...The area where the ANS is most compatible with the RS/6000 is in AIX, of course. But even here, things become difficult pretty quickly. Getting an IBM compiler to work reliably can be challenging....
Mine is a generic, too but works like a charm. I´m already used to make bootable backups after every new configuration or change...I can use my DDS-3 DAT, too, but I have to set the blocking and options by hand, because it shows up as a generic SCSI DAT.
And I already thought about asking You for all the fixes as these already have got completly lost, too. sigh...Leo probably has spent more time forcing AIX filesets onto his machine; I am lucky enough to have all the Apple Upgrades (though I paid full $$ for them). I did have a DAT with the old fixdist, but that went missing somewhere, much to my chagrin.
Now this is funny! I´ve been talking to some pSeries and RS series Pro´s of IBM Germany. Guess what: they NEVER heard of "IBM AppleShare server" before! And at least two of them are AIX 4 Pros that have written the very useful book I´m using by now. Although I´m looking for these stacks and server versions, too, I already managed to get myself IPtech´s "uShare" and Helios´ "NetWorker" but I still can´t use these as I still don´t know how to configure my TCP/IP stuff.As I mentioned, I am able to run the IBM AppleTalk stack on my ANS, and the IBM AppleShare server (along with the SMB and NetWare servers, which I leave off).
Sure! I will tell a bit more about my plans later on. For now: if You need some FTP space, let me know ;-)Which reminds me, Leo....I have a full list of filesets for the "official" Apple AIX 4.1.4-4.1.5 Update, and I **think** I know which are controlled for export (mostly stuff like compilers and all encryption stuff). Do you want me to post it for you?
Of course! Right now I´m contacting several IBM users and other Pro´s that might help me. Primary aim is to get some 100 MBps working which results in ordering several 3Com and IBM cards. The two Farallon cards I own do NOT provide 100MBps...If you do, could you let me know if you were able to get any further Maintenance Packages to take? Thanks.
Although I do not understand my ANS as nearly as deep as You already do I simply love it, too. Now for my plans. I want to re-animate this machine as a server for the interent - nothing spectecular about this. But: talking to Helios, IPTech and IBM (Apple did not answer at all by now .... doesn´t astonish me at all) it MIGHT be possible for me to re-distribute all AIX for the ANS stuff. So maybe I´m allowed to offer anything available for free for other ANS owners who want to try with AIX. But this is future talking and will take a lot of time. For now I would be very happyPS: I love my ANS, with all its foibles and frustrations (like the RAID card with the 5-year CMOS battery that, once it dies, cannot remember the RAID config if the ANS is shutdown).
- to get the TCP/IP configuration done which means the ANS gets it´s IP adress dynamically from my D-Link router
- integrating it into my LAN as an AppleShare server (AppleShare stack included in 4.1.5.0 already)
- providing an old-school HTML Apache-served website, maybe later on also with MySQL, Perl, PHP....
- finding some more tray adapters. Although I have the opportunity to mount some more drives in the back (carrier will be made by me) I really would like to use some more drives in the trays
So there are TONS of work to do and even more TONS of problems to solve for me.
J
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