Hello everybody,
I'm new to this forum! First, congratulations for keeping NeXT brand alive.
I would like to revive my Nextstation turbo (monochrome) that was sleeping for so long ... and so far everything is working fine, great! To avoid any potential damage, I would like to update the hardware at its best and make sure the disk is replaced. As I'm not a Next expert and before I proceed with replacement ... I have some questions:
1. I don't want to lose installed Softwares that I don't have a copy. If my memory is good enough ... everything is self contained in ".app" so it should be easy to backup to another location, is my assumption correct? Do I need to backup other specific locations that could host Softwares libraries (Interface builder and project builder librairies, headers, etc.)
2. I read that the turbo models can have up to 128Mo (4x32Mo EDO DRAM). Is there some limitations to that statement based on the ROM version? I have the ROM "Rev 3.0 v70" on a nextstation turbo (monochrome)
3. Battery replacement: Can any brand of "BR-2/3A 3 Volt" do the trick?
4. SCSI HD to SCSI2SD drive replacement: what is the best step order? Plug first the new SCSI2SD drive to the external SCCI port so that the Nextstation will partition/format the drive accordingly? should I partition the SD to 4Go as it is the maximum the system can see? Or should I let the fresh installation do the partitioning?
I don't have a SCCI optical drive and my Installation CD is NextStep 3.1:
How can I install it over network. NFS server on linux with the cd and attach the Next to the same network for installation ... would it do the trick? Other better and simpler method?
5. Can I upgrade later the OS for free (3.2 or 3.3) without buying again the license (CD or HD image) or even OpenStep 4.2?
6. Is my ROM version (Rev 3.0 v70) incompatible with some OS version: NeXTstep 3.3 or Openstep 4.2?
Thanks in advance for your help,
Regards,
G.
Hi,
Quote from: undefinedeverything is self contained in ".app" so it should be easy to backup to another location, is my assumption correct?
This is not always the case. Some installers installed not only the .app, but also Services and stuff and even files to /usr/local or similar. After backing up your files, I'd take a full image of the HDD. So you will be able to copy missing files into your new installation without relaying onto the old HDD for too long.
Quote6. Is my ROM version (Rev 3.0 v70) incompatible with some OS version: NeXTstep 3.3 or Openstep 4.2?
no. Should be compatible
thank you!
Regarding my question 2, I found some information about the RAM on
https://www.ding.net/info/next/next3.htmlSo,no problem to upgrade any turbo model up to 128Mo ... but it is written that 70ns is the best. 60ns access could even degrade performance as some components drive 60ns at 100ns.
Quote from: lezardo on January 21, 2020, 06:15:15 AMHello everybody,
1. I don't want to lose installed Softwares that I don't have a copy. If my memory is good enough ... everything is self contained in ".app" so it should be easy to backup to another location, is my assumption correct? Do I need to backup other specific locations that could host Softwares libraries (Interface builder and project builder librairies, headers, etc.)
NeXTStep has a directory where all packages have been installed, you can copy all those files, and it is better than doing a back up the .app
the location of such folder is /NeXTLibrary/Receipts
files are in format .pkg, so is more convinient
Thanks NeXTnewbe,
I didn't remember this ... so I had a look at the installer.app to refresh my memory. So basically, the .pkg in "receipts" folder are like the .deb or .rpm in Linux. Except it doesn't contain real files, just the listing of files.
So, If I want to repackage the listed files myself, I can create a csh script with cp/gzip/tar commands to grab files together in one compressed file.
Does it sound a good approach? The script could even include the .pkg file (to be copied in /NextLibrary/receipts) ... so that it can easily be uninstalled or compressed later.