Re: Abandonware petition

[Justin Scott <djnospam@impakt.net>]

William Katz <wkatz@nyx.net> wrote:
> Justin,
> I tried to email you a response to your post since I might be moving off
> topic here, but obviously djnospam@impakt.net is not your email address :)

Actually, it is a real address.  It's just an alias that I can delete the next
time that it makes its way onto someone SPAM list. ;)

> It would be nice to have 'all'? the Apple // software available to
> download somewhere. I have quite a few floppy disks (5 1/4") of programs
> for my Apple //e, and just recently I have been using my //e more often. I
> guess I got nostalgic... I even ordered a 170mb FocusDrive for it the
> other day!

I hear ya!  Nostalgia or hard core user, it's great to have software and a 
nice fat drive to stuff it on. :)  I'm in the process of working a 500mb 
FocusDrive together for my newly acquired IIgs. :)

> Anyway, the reason I am emailing you is because of the last line of your
> post. Your //e is connected to the serial console of my unix server? I
> assume you use ProTERM or a similar comm program to communicate with the
> unix server?

Absolutely.  The #1 application that I've used on my //e and //c over the 
years has been ProTERM. 

[ 8< --- Snipped Stuff About Connecting to 486 ---- 8< ]

> While this works fine, I would like to do the same thing with my SCO UNIX
> (OpenServer 5.0.2) partition on my same 486 computer.

Sounds great.  In my application, using FreeBSD, with the serial console
configured, there is no monitor or keyboard on my dual P2-350 server.  The
apple //e is the "real and genuine" console of the machine, just like high-end
server gear. (all my Sun SPARC systems run headless w/serial consoles)

I don't recall if SCO ODT can have a serial console or not.  It certainly can
accommodate your //e as a serial terminal though.  The SCO ODT systems I
maintained 10 years ago had scores of terminals attached to them.

> I leave the connection between the two computers the same for //e<-->SCO,
> but when I hit return on the 'connect' button in ProTERM on my //e, it
> goes to the terminal screen, then immediately back to the main menu.
> I then tried a similar situation with my //e <--> SCO as I did with my
> //e<-->msdos... I loaded minicom on my SCO box and the connection was just
> fine. minicom is a comm program for unix, that is very similar to Telix
> for msdos.

It sounds like your SCO system isn't configured to run a getty on the
appropriate serial port.

> Do you think I can do this? and if so, how? :)  Have a sco unix shell
> session from my //e computer? Of course my sco box, which is a 486
> computer, does not have a console port, but maybe this can be done via the
> serial port? (com2)  Would I have to edit my /etc/inittab file?

IIRC, inittab is the right place on SCO systems.  If that doesn't work out,
FreeBSD 4.2-RELEASE is free, can be installed over the net with just two
floppies (not recommended w/ less than 128kbps connection speed), and is 
easily maintainable.  

> I appreciate any help.

No problem.

cheers,
j