I wish there was an earlier version stored on the Internet archive. Even the version in your signature link has an Apple logo if you scroll down. :)
Some links from the Internet Archive and elsewhere need to be wrapped in a forum link or the link breaks when you post it. In the forum post editor just click on the chain link icon and paste the link there and it should be good to go.
Quote from: Nitro on April 12, 2025, 12:36:03 PMI wish there was an earlier version stored on the Internet archive. Even the version in your signature link has an Apple logo if you scroll down. :)
Some links from the Internet Archive and elsewhere need to be wrapped in a forum link or the link breaks when you post it. In the forum post editor just click on the chain link icon and paste the link there and it should be good to go.
Fair point, the reason I use the Internet archive version because the other version I used to use nextop.de some of the NeXTAnswers have the apple error message :'(. I think I did download the archive.
I'm glad you have that link in your signature; it's definitely a great version. I've been putting together the best versions of the individual pages that I can find but it's a huge undertaking to rebuild the original NeXTanswers. It would be nice to have it in PDF format too. Maybe Apple has the original version archived.
Quote from: Nitro on April 12, 2025, 04:29:34 PMI'm glad you have that link in your signature; it's definitely a great version. I've been putting together the best versions of the individual pages that I can find but it's a huge undertaking to rebuild the original NeXTanswers. It would be nice to have it in PDF format too. Maybe Apple has the original version archived.
It would be great to archive all of the NeXT usenet groups too. In nice digital librarian format. As well as modern format that is easily searchable.
I think I have a backup of my old NeXT system with pretty full NeXTanswers. I should try to access it with Previous.
Quote from: zombie on May 26, 2025, 11:32:29 PMIt would be great to archive all of the NeXT usenet groups too. In nice digital librarian format. As well as modern format that is easily searchable.
I think I have a backup of my old NeXT system with pretty full NeXTanswers. I should try to access it with Previous.
Peanuts-1 contains both of these things, with a cut-off date of October 1996. They're even already indexed as bookshelves:
ISOs are here:
https://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/Peanuts/ISO/Alas, they miss out on the huge raft of drivers that were published in January 1997.
That said, I agree that newer offline collections would very much be warranted, along with a more searchable online solution. I might be able to add this as another resource at INDeX (
https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/****************) along with the dev docs and openstep spec.
Quote from: Rhetorica on May 27, 2025, 01:43:06 PMAlas, they miss out on the huge raft of drivers that were published in January 1997.
Are you talking about the 3.3 drivers that were released on the OpenStep 4.2 patch CD with EOF 2.2?
I guess I meant more that the link in your signature shows more than half of the pages (
https://web.archive.org/web/19970412195933/http://www.next.com/NeXTanswers/HTMLFiles/2001.htmld/2001.html) in the database as of 1997-04-12 were updated in 1997 (nearly all of them on 1997-01-10), so the Peanuts snapshot from October 1996 by necessity has a lot of outdated pages. (They're not all drivers, but many of the pages touched on 1997-01-10 were.)
I stopped using OPENSTEP as a daily driver around 1998 so in 'theory' I should have all the updates up until then.
Some more notes about installing to EIDE HD by a Dylan Kohler on the 19/06/1998
https://usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=comp.sys.next.sysadmin&mid=PDM1ODFCNjAwLkM1OTJCM0I0QGFuaW0uZHJlYW13b3Jrcy5jb20%2B (
https://usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=comp.sys.next.sysadmin&mid=PDM1ODFCNjAwLkM1OTJCM0I0QGFuaW0uZHJlYW13b3Jrcy5jb20%2B)
Quote- Get a floppy disk with the 3.3 Beta drivers on it from NeXTanswers. This will include the EIDE.config required for your harddisk.
- Start up the computer with the install floppy in it. At the boot: prompt,
type -s for single user mode. - Then the installation process will begin. Load an Adaptec 154x driver for the CD-ROM driver. (Even though your CD drive is ATAPI, a bug in NEXTSTEP 3.3 only selects the SCSI drivers.)
- Load the EIDE/ATAPI controller from the 3.3 Beta floppy. No additional drivers are needed.
- Run "/usr/etc/fdisk /dev/rhd0h" and create a NEXTSTEP partition of 2045MB, followed by whatever else. (I have a DOS, 12 bit FAT after it.) I think you can devote a larger partition to NEXTSTEP with this approach, but I didn't try it.
- Run "/usr/etc/disk -i /dev/rhd0a" to intialize the disk
- Run the following to install the Base System:
HD=/private/tmp/mnta
mount -n /dev/hd0a ${HD}
mkdirs ${HD}/private/vm
mkdirs ${HD}/private/tmp
mkfile 16m ${HD}/private/vm/swapfile
mach_swapon -o nocompress ${HD}/private/vm/swapfile
/NextCD/CDIS/ditto -T -arch i386 -bom /usr/lib/NextStep/BaseSystem.bom \
-outBom ${HD}/BaseSystem.bom / ${HD}
- Run this to begin configuring the system:
echo "/dev/hd0a / 4.3 rw,noquota,noauto 0 1" > ${HD}/private/etc/fstab
echo "/dev/sd0a /NEXTSTEP_INSTALL 4.3 ro,noquota 0 2" >> \
${HD}/private/etc/fstab
chmod 1777 ${HD}
chmod 1777 ${HD}/private/tmp
echo "LANGUAGE=English" > ${HD}/private/adm/CDIS.custom
ln -s Drivers/i386 ${HD}/private/Devices
mkdirs ${HD}/usr/Devices/System.config
echo "ROOT=/" >> ${HD}/private/adm/CDIS.custom
echo "FDISK_FLAGS=" >> ${HD}/private/adm/CDIS.custom
echo "diskie=hd0a" >> ${HD}/private/adm/CDIS.custom
BOOTDRIVERS=`/NextCD/CDIS/sysconfig -c -a i386`
cp /private/Drivers/i386/System.config/Default.table \
${HD}/usr/Devices/System.config/Default.install
DEFAULT_FILE=/usr/Devices/System.config/Default.table
grep -v 'Boot Drivers' ${HD}/usr/Devices/System.config/Default.install > \
${HD}${DEFAULT_FILE}
echo "\"Boot Drivers\" = \"${BOOTDRIVERS}\";" >> ${HD}${DEFAULT_FILE}
echo "\"Language\" = \"English\";" >> ${HD}${DEFAULT_FILE}
- Now reboot with the Install floppy inserted. At the boot: prompt type
"-s fd()mach_kernel rootdev=hd0a". - At the # prompt, run:
driverLoader d=Floppy (say "yes" to everything)
driverLoader d=SerialPorts (say "yes" to everything)
mount -n /dev/fd0a /private/tmp/mntb
cd /private/tmp/mntb/private/Drivers/i386
tar cf - EIDE.config | ( cd /private/Drivers/i386 ; tar xf -)
- These 3 lines are important, or else it will try the IDE driver by default:
cd /private/Drivers/i386/EIDE.config
mv Default.table IDE.table
cp Dual_EIDE.table Default.table
mount -n /dev/sd0a /NEXTSTEP_3.3
INSTALLHINTS=/usr/Devices/System.config/InstallHints
rm -rf ${INSTALLHINTS}
mkdir ${INSTALLHINTS}
BOOTDRIVERS=`/NEXTSTEP_3.3/NextCD/CDIS/sysconfig -c -a i386`
for driver in ${BOOTDRIVERS}
do
/NEXTSTEP_3.3/NextCD/CDIS/sysconfig -d ${driver} > \
${INSTALLHINTS}/${driver}.table 2>>/dev/null
done
chmod -R 777 ${INSTALLHINTS} - Reboot with no special flags at the boot: prompt. When it boots, remove the IDE driver with Configure.app and add the Dual Primary/Secondary EIDE/ATAPI driver instead.
- Tadaa! You're now running NEXTSTEP 3.3.
Wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250801061846/https://usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=comp.sys.next.sysadmin&mid=PDM1ODFCNjAwLkM1OTJCM0I0QGFuaW0uZHJlYW13b3Jrcy5jb20%2B (
https://web.archive.org/web/20250801061846/https://usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=comp.sys.next.sysadmin&mid=PDM1ODFCNjAwLkM1OTJCM0I0QGFuaW0uZHJlYW13b3Jrcy5jb20%2B)
I just copy /etc/rc.cdrom to the HD once it's been formatted and use pico to edit it.