> To start off the install, we begin with the “System setup and README” disk. We need to partition the disk, and then do something counter-intuitive: install System 6 on a Mac partition. This is because there’s a Mac application that kicks off the A/UX boot process: SASH; the A/UX standalone shell. This ‘pre-boot environment’ allows for launching an A/UX kernel and also some disk and recovery operations.
Funny how that rhythms with having a macOS install next to Asahi Linux. The more things change:)
Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
If I remember correctly, there's an interesting historical reason for this: a lot of the original functionality that we'd today consider "part of the OS" was actually in ROM on hardware in really old Macs. Mouse functionality, basic windowing, etc. This meant that to get A/UX running you first had to bootstrap into a light version of Mac OS and then boot into A/UX.
It is sort of the same for DOS. When you start digging around in the source you realize it is only really half an operating system and a surprising amount is done in the BIOS.
Not really (I wrote the mouse/display drivers and kernel event queue driver for A/UX 1.x) - A/UX has it's own kernel ADB (and mouse/kbd on top of that) and display drivers, it will happily boot from hard drive, and throw up a non-mac terminal on a Mac display card without executing anything from the Mac ROMs.
The later MacOS running on A/UX ran in a single A/UX (system V) process
The Toolbox ROMs, right? I can see the utility of using that (I mean, beyond that you might need to use it to boot), but why couldn't A/UX call those APIs itself? I can easily see where bootstrapping through Mac OS would be easier, but I can't immediately see why it would be particularly necessary.
It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure A/UX didn't use any of the toolbox roms and had it's own drivers (we had the source). A/UX booted from a MacOS partition because the Mac bootloader only understood booting MacOS (and it wasn't writeable with new boot code), so you booted to MacOS, then started SASH, which loaded Unix.
Yeah, that was similar to Amiga and the Kickstart concept, initially on floppy, then as a separate ROM module. Going from AmigaOS 1.3 to 2.0 with the applicable Kickstart ROM gave you a whole new UI layer.
Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
We installed it from a QIC tape when it wasn't delivered on a SCSI hard drive. Not sure if that option was generally available tho; we were doing kernel development.
> Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
I still have a legit copy of Word on 10 floppies.
It was bad. And when you'd copy so many floppies, typically one would fail and you'd only notice when installing. We weren't very advanced back then (at least I wasn't): no fancy an 11th "parity" disk that'll fix any other one that'd fail. At least not for me.
The data CD-ROM was a very welcome addition to the world back then.
I remember a trick (I think it was for Windows 95) where you could copy all the files to the hard drive first and then once they were all there, you could install directly from them.
I got a Quadra 650 (if memory serves) super cheap on eBay circa 2003 and put A/UX on it successfully. I still have that machine but it hasn't been powered on in quite some time.
there will always be a special place in my heart for a/ux. i ported a lot of open source software to it. ran a bbs, cu-seeme server, gopherd, httpd, and many other early internet services on it. this really gave me an early taste for what the internet would become.
> To start off the install, we begin with the “System setup and README” disk. We need to partition the disk, and then do something counter-intuitive: install System 6 on a Mac partition. This is because there’s a Mac application that kicks off the A/UX boot process: SASH; the A/UX standalone shell. This ‘pre-boot environment’ allows for launching an A/UX kernel and also some disk and recovery operations.
Funny how that rhythms with having a macOS install next to Asahi Linux. The more things change:)
Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
> Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
Windows 95 was about that size, and Office was closer to 50?
At my very first job I remember installing stuff that way...ugh
If I remember correctly, there's an interesting historical reason for this: a lot of the original functionality that we'd today consider "part of the OS" was actually in ROM on hardware in really old Macs. Mouse functionality, basic windowing, etc. This meant that to get A/UX running you first had to bootstrap into a light version of Mac OS and then boot into A/UX.
It is sort of the same for DOS. When you start digging around in the source you realize it is only really half an operating system and a surprising amount is done in the BIOS.
Not really (I wrote the mouse/display drivers and kernel event queue driver for A/UX 1.x) - A/UX has it's own kernel ADB (and mouse/kbd on top of that) and display drivers, it will happily boot from hard drive, and throw up a non-mac terminal on a Mac display card without executing anything from the Mac ROMs.
The later MacOS running on A/UX ran in a single A/UX (system V) process
So what am I remembering that A/UX needed to boot from ROM?
The Toolbox ROMs, right? I can see the utility of using that (I mean, beyond that you might need to use it to boot), but why couldn't A/UX call those APIs itself? I can easily see where bootstrapping through Mac OS would be easier, but I can't immediately see why it would be particularly necessary.
It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure A/UX didn't use any of the toolbox roms and had it's own drivers (we had the source). A/UX booted from a MacOS partition because the Mac bootloader only understood booting MacOS (and it wasn't writeable with new boot code), so you booted to MacOS, then started SASH, which loaded Unix.
That's exactly the reason. NetBSD uses its own booter for the same purpose, for example.
Yeah, that was similar to Amiga and the Kickstart concept, initially on floppy, then as a separate ROM module. Going from AmigaOS 1.3 to 2.0 with the applicable Kickstart ROM gave you a whole new UI layer.
I miss the Amiga.
Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
We installed it from a QIC tape when it wasn't delivered on a SCSI hard drive. Not sure if that option was generally available tho; we were doing kernel development.
A/UX 1.0 came on a pre-written 80MB disk, which indeed would have been a lot easier.
Oh, that's even better:) I assumed the mentioned tape was the preferred way to get it, but a no-op install is faster/easier yet!
> Also, swapping through 26 floppies to install would have been... Something.
I still have a legit copy of Word on 10 floppies.
It was bad. And when you'd copy so many floppies, typically one would fail and you'd only notice when installing. We weren't very advanced back then (at least I wasn't): no fancy an 11th "parity" disk that'll fix any other one that'd fail. At least not for me.
The data CD-ROM was a very welcome addition to the world back then.
I remember a trick (I think it was for Windows 95) where you could copy all the files to the hard drive first and then once they were all there, you could install directly from them.
I picked up an SE/30 at the MIT flea (SwapFest) in 1999, hell bent on running A/UX on it. Never even got an installer disk image to boot.
I got a Quadra 650 (if memory serves) super cheap on eBay circa 2003 and put A/UX on it successfully. I still have that machine but it hasn't been powered on in quite some time.
there will always be a special place in my heart for a/ux. i ported a lot of open source software to it. ran a bbs, cu-seeme server, gopherd, httpd, and many other early internet services on it. this really gave me an early taste for what the internet would become.
I wonder if Nethack 3.4.3 or Slashem 0.8 could build on a recent version of A/UX...