Okay, so I have some cubes, all with hard drives containing some version of NS.
Since I don't have a monitor or other required equipment to power them up, I hooked two of the hard drives up to my Rhapsody/PPC box, and managed to mount the drive just fine, and score tar backups of the entire FS.
So, without actually being able to run the system, how can I tell exactly what version of NS is on the drives?
I figured the best place to start would be to run strings on the kernel... here's the kernel version:
NeXT Mach 2.1: Thu Mar 7 19:13:47 PST 1991; /ph1_sources/projects/mk-108.14/RELEASE
Does that mean NS 2.1, or just Mach 2.1? Can anyone tell me what version I've got, or how I could figure it out?
Thanks to all for the help!!
I myself like the hostinfo command:
NeXT Mach (nsqemu) (ttyp2)
login: root
Last login: Mon Oct 8 08:44:19 from localhost
nsqemu:1# hostinfo
Mach kernel version:
NeXT Mach 3.3: Tue Jul 13 09:36:06 PDT 1999; root(rcbuilder):mk-171.14.
obj~22/RC_i386/RELEASE_I386
Kernel configured for a single processor only.
1 processor is physically available.
Processor type: I386 (Intel 486)
Processor active: 0
Primary memory available: 128.00 megabytes.
Default processor set: 53 tasks, 92 threads, 1 processors
Load average: 0.07, Mach factor: 0.92
nsqemu:2#
As you can see I have version 3.3 with they y2k patches as my kernel is dated 1999.
Since you have black hardware you are entitled to version 3.3 for y2k compatability... To do a 'clean' install you'll need a scsi floppy drive & cdrom. I have a disk in Miami with version 2.x I almost would imagine you could do an upgrade over the lan to 3.3 but I've never tried it.
Quote from: neozeedI myself like the hostinfo command:
Unfortunately, I can't do that, since I can't boot the Cube w/o a monitor.
Judging from your response, however, I'll assume that means my Cube has NS 2.1 on it.
So I'm entitled to 3.3? How do I go about obtaining what I need to upgrade, then?
Thanks for your help!
keep backups though
older versions are rare!
Quote from: "Korperlich"Quote from: "neozeed"I myself like the hostinfo command:
Unfortunately, I can't do that, since I can't boot the Cube w/o a monitor.
Judging from your response, however, I'll assume that means my Cube has NS 2.1 on it.
So I'm entitled to 3.3? How do I go about obtaining what I need to upgrade, then?
Thanks for your help!
yeah, it looks like your cube has NS2.1 on it.. I think someone here was actually looking for 2.x copies of the OS.
Can you do a DD backup of the entire hdd?
Quote from: "Korperlich"Quote from: "neozeed"I myself like the hostinfo command:
Unfortunately, I can't do that, since I can't boot the Cube w/o a monitor.
Judging from your response, however, I'll assume that means my Cube has NS 2.1 on it.
So I'm entitled to 3.3? How do I go about obtaining what I need to upgrade, then?
Thanks for your help!
It was part of next/apple's Y2k readiness.. I have *NO* idea if they are still honoring it, afterall it's 2007. You could try it, they may just ask for the SN of your next.
IF you google about you will see this was a real program... Now I'm going out on a limb by saying that unlike the OS tourists on another thread that if you were to download 3.3 you wouldn't be so much breaking the law as apple/next did give out 3.3 to all black hardware owners.
However running off to download openstep 4.2 would be 'wrong'...
I think neozeed is right. Getting 3.3 would be fine. I have copies of 3.1 and 3.2 if you need them though.
Been posted before, but I figured I would throw it in here as well.
Here is a letter from 1995 stating NeXT's policy on OS licensing and transferability. The whole y2k issue brought up other challenges, but this is how it originally worked.
http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nslicensepolicyrz9.pngChef
Well honestly, I've read that having black hardware entitles one to NS 3.3 + y2k, but, using that as an excuse to perform a download (assuming I find one) seems like a bit of a gray area to me...
I'm trying to scrounge up a legit copy on eBay, but all this is kinda off-topic.
I'm more interested on what should be done with the 3 copies of NS 2.1 that I apparently have, as I understand they might be quite rare... Would a dd backup be more valuable here, or would the tarballs I've snagged be just as good?
Would they be of use or interest to anyone, assuming they could be shared with anyone else in a legal manner?
I think a dd image of the hdd would be the best. Would allow someone to write it back to another hdd and boot it up on their machines since all the MBR and such will be kept intact.
Quote from: "helf"I think a dd image of the hdd would be the best. Would allow someone to write it back to another hdd and boot it up on their machines since all the MBR and such will be kept intact.
I'll snag one tonight.
It'll probably end up ~200mb, but that'd fit nicely on a cd.
Now, as for that media for 3.3, anyone here want to part with their copy of NS 3.3 user/dev/y2k for appropriate compensation?...
didn't think so, but never hurts to ask :)
