I found the way how to copy the files

But another update: the BOS identifies the Apple Ethernet Card. It states the 10 MBps functionality as "available" but the 100 MBps functionality only as "defined" - so I suppose itīs just a question of how AIX tries to talk to the right interfaces?

J

Newbies sometimes ask the best questions - absolutly true! Regarding topics I have some knowledge of I can only testify this statement ;-)

So for now I got a bit further... sort of. I managed to acquire the pure Apple 4.1.5 install CD  But it doesnīt solve my problem in some ways. At last I now have german translations in some areas of AIX. Ok, but now to topics:

As far as I know no Apple machine has a "BIOS" but an "Open Firmware" which can be accessed right after booting the machine, so any information stored there surely will look a bit different from what I know of BIOS screens, but I can try if You want to.
Anyway the 100 MBps TX card from Apple still stays "defined" but now I know the type of device the BOS couldnīt "put" into the kernel. When installing the BOS the installer moans about a

device.pci.23100020
devices.pci.pci.1023+2000

As long as I donīt want to outsource Your knowledge too much and fast I thought to myself: "Youīve seen such lines somewhere before" - so I began to roll bookmarks and stumbled over this IBM site:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/v4/devices/

I scrolled to a line which at least looked a bit like the two lines above but there are many entries that look the same. I decided to download

devices.pci.23100020.diag.4.1.5.1.bff

At least the first three parts look exactly the same, but the "diag", the "4.1.5.1" and the "bff" are different. So I made some brainstorming:

bff = file type extension (?)
4.1.5.1 = version of AIX this driver is supposed to be used within (?)
diag = ?

As far as I understand AIX by now "diag" means some sort of diagnostic routine, so I donīt think this file is actually a driver but something AIX calls "selective fix package". Is it true? The according info file states the same (selective fix package for an IBM PCI 10/100 Mb Et card).
What really annoys me is the fact that a fresh installation of that newly acquired AIX seems (I donīt know exactly) to install a 4.1.5 but not a 4.1.5.1 - so I donīt know if I can use this driver if it is actually a driver that might work.

One supposed to be more simple problem resulting of all this: how do I transfer such a driver? As far as I understood the system by now it should be enough to fill an ISO 9660 CD with all the stuff and drivers needed, throw it into the CD ROM drive and specify that one as source. True?

Another aspect are harddisks. Iīve been exchanging several disks (right now I only can connect one at a time) and installed to see if the server accepts different HD sizes. After shutting down the server via several commands like

shutdown -F
shutdown -h

etc. AIX seems to have some troubles with some drives that worked before. As I donīt know how to format (low-level) a disk I tend to hang them to a Mac and reformat them there (one drive couldnīt get even recognized anymore... 146 GB for the dustbin ). Is there a command that can be used in the early boot state to low level format a drive which is stated "unknown to the BOS database"?

Dear, oh dear...

J

VIOS is where you have a partitioned machine, with multiple operating systems
doing their I/O through one of the partitions that has real resources allocated to it.
This leads to immense over complication, poor performance, but a chance to keep
lots of people in work

"In the air" - is that like something by Howard Hughes

Re the audience - personally I'd like more questions like this,
or anything involving shell scripting as the answer,
with less of the VIOS and stuff I cannot abide

Thanks a lot Michael for providing such valuable information. I hope You don't mind my requests, AIX is very new to me and has nothing in common with the operating systems I knew until now.

In the meantime I got a step further. I already found out that a "regular" IBM AIX 4.1.5 Install will not work on my box, it has to be that update from Apple that is lost by now - no need to mention that IBM's support in this case was much better than Apple's constant refuse to give any reply at all. So I am damned to stick to 4.1.4. This reduces my options a bit more: no 100 mbps as far as I can see. The odd thing about this: the Apple 10/100 TX card is "defined"  but not "availble".

I've been experimenting a bit more with that box. I already managed to copy all installation files of the CD to the much faster hard disk and making a DDS-2 and a DLT tape backup from all this - just in case my experiments should end up within a desaster. In addition I added two more disks to the rootvg, expanding the file system. We, might be small steps in Your eyes but to me it's some sort of "first contact".

Still in need of further support and information I hope I'm not annoying the audience too much...

J

Well, I got a bit further in my quest...

For some odd reason Apple still mentions within an online cocument, that the 4.1.5 Upgrade (which turns out to be a full install) is available from IBM - IBM in return states the 4.1.5 AIX as "not available and unsupported". So in other words: if I canīt find a copy of 4.1.5 I will have to get along with 4.1.4 - which is quite annoying as this AIX doesnīt support some hardware I really need. In addition the old Mac OS utilities are not available anymore, too, so configuration of volumes will take place within AIX only. Those utilities were installed on regular Macs in order to obtain a terminal connection and a disk management utility.

What really annoys me is that hardware compatibility thing. I got myself several PCI Ethernet cards which sometimes refuse to work. When installing a fresh BOS the server recognizes some but only when installed in the upper three PCI slots. Installing these cards after installing the BOS does not work. The strangest thing: the IBM Ethernet card from 1995 does not work in any way...

Now, as Iīm still pretty confused with that AIX my major interest is how to determine the MAC adress of a network adapter. Is there a terminal command / smitty input that could deliver such information?

Thanks in advance once again.

J

A year earlier and I would have still had the CD's for you - at least to copy from. But I cleaned out my basement.

As far as setting up network, display, etc.. there are some new features, but the basic steps have not change from AIX 3.2.5 for tcpip. Although in those days there was more 'need' for a bsd way of doing things - which is still in AIX 6.1 I believe (the switch to bsd way).

basically, use 'smitty mktcpip' and fill in the dialog.

for your display, 'smitty devices' and look for the correct family of devices (display adapters).

I'll look into getting AIX 4.3.3 documentation - I think I still have that here somewhere - but you could just refer to the AIX 5.1 documentation for the more basic info. I have a link on the home page. What also might interest you is following the hardware infocenter link.

Hello everybody.

Before asking some questions I would like to introduce myself a bit more to rootvg. First of all Iīm no native speaker, so please excuse any humble or misunderstandable expression. I will try to do my very best!
Iīm a freelance journalist and besides my profession a collector of unusual or rare computing hardware. My background on operating systems is based somewhere in the early days of the Spectrum ZX, later the Ataris and some Amigas but in deep Iīm clearly located in the old Mac OS. Mac OS X in special and UNIX in general is still somewhat "uncomfortable" to me when Terminal-related actions are asked or in other words: Iīm no UNIX freak. But as a collector Iīm now facing UNIX in a very "uncomfortable" way: AIX 4.1.4. I know that this distribution is very old but as long as there is nearly no information available anymore about AIX for older computers Iīm contacting any source in order to find some help - thatīs why Iīm here, now ;-)

Some days ago I was very lucky in getting myself an old Apple Network Server 500/132 (not to be mixed up with "Apple Workgroup Server" or "A/UX Macs"). This old box formerly was managed by two AIX versions: AIX 4.1.4 and later on a 4.1.5 update / upgrade. Other Versions besides the already mentioned ones could NOT be used on that machine, just Yellow Dog Linux 3 and 4 can be used with that strange server. As long as I would like to use that server with the original AIX OS lots of questions are rising...

I already managed to install 4.1.4 on that box facing lots of incompatibilites with original Apple hardware or compatible hardware that is usable in regular Macs. Ok, this is not a catastrophy. What really annoys me is the handling of AIX. It took me nearly 30 minutes to get my display resolution and refresh changed. Now You might have an impression how things look like ;-) While messing around with AIX a bit more I stumbled over the network settings...

Is there any documentation out there available describing the configuration of network settings within AIX in an understandable way? Doesnīt matter if written in English or German.

Iīm looking for the Update / Upgrade 4.1.5 Apple once provided for download. I donīt know if the IBM update and the Apple update are the same (in fact the Apple AIX just contained some Apple-specific drivers and some utilities for a Mac OS based computer), so I donīt know if I could use an IBM update - if only one would be available. Can anybody in here help me with these files? The Apple update is preferred...

Iīm wondering if there is any possibility to get PHP, MySQL and PHPMyAdmin installed on AIX 4.1.4, furthermore Iīm unsure what Apache version can be used with that AIX version.

As You can see Iīm pretty lost with that old OS... So any help or information is highly appreciated! Thanks in advance and kind regards from Switzerland

J