Re: Was just handed a Apple//gs for free...now what?

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article !smentzer@ecom.net (Steve Mentzer) writes...

>>
>>    3) Where can I get a bootup disk
>
>       Go to:
>
>http://swupdates.info.apple.com/cgi-bin/lister.pl?Apple.Support.Area/Apple.Soft
>ware.Updates/US/
>
>       There is an apple II section there that contains system 6.0.1.
>Unfortunately, I dont think sys601 can be booted from a single floppy.
>However, nathan mates (http://www.visi.com/~nathan) has a reference for
>creating a single sys601 boot floppy somewhere. Ignore the rants on his
>web page.... he is a moron.

    One of the six standard disks, "System Disk", is bootable. It's
just a bare-bones setup with minimal components of GS/OS that loads
by default into the Finder program. You can free up a bit of space,
by deleting non-essential files and drivers, but you really need a
hardrive or other mass storage device to install all the frills and
useful parts of the operating system.

    "Installer" is another bootable disk, and will let you create a
copy of "System Disk" from scratch if you need it. All you need is
an 800K drive and at least 1.125 MB of memory to boot either disk,
but a hardrive and additional memory are _highly_ recommended.

>       Also, when the machine starts up, it is helpful to know what ROM
>       revision you have. It will say "Rom 0", "Rom 1" or "Rom 3" at the
>       bottom of the page. If you have rom 0, you will need to have it
>       upgraded. Good luck finding a source of the necesssary IC's.

    The original firmware (ROM version 00) doesn't report itself when
you cold or warm boot the machine. The bottom half of the screen will
be completely blank and that is how you can quickly tell if you have
it (only the ROM 01 and ROM 3 report the revision and copyright info
on the lower half of the screen).

    System 4.0 and higher will report a message on screen telling you
you must upgrade your ROM if you have the original firmware installed
(you can only run System 1.0 through 3.2 on the ROM 00). That is one
other way to check since any version of GS/OS will refuse to start.

>>    4) Is there any utilites out there that will allow me to download
>>files with my PC, or a SunSparc Station, and transfer them into a Apple
>>format? (until I can get the Apple//gs online and hooked to the internet)
>
>       This is the hardest part about dealing with the //gs today.
>
>       Yes, you can do it with a PC, but it is easier with a mac. A mac
>       can read and write ProDos format diskettes. A pc cannot.

    Actually a PC can read (and potentially write to) 1.44 MB ProDOS
diskettes, but considering how uncommon they are, that won't be much
help. If and when Fast Eddie for the PC is written, this is something
I hope is exploited so the emulator can work as transparently as the
Macintosh one (just pop a ProDOS disk in the drive like a real IIgs! :)

>       As far as internet access goes with a //gs, good luck. If you have
>       a shell account, you may be OK, but that still prevents you from
>       transferring files properly. I have seen ASCII and ZMODEM downloads
>       take place using a shell account, but I wouldn't recommend it.

    I transfer ASCII and binary files from a VMS and Unix shell account
all the time, there are no problems using Zmodem (I've even installed a 
Zmodem client program on my VAX account so I can avoid having to use 
Kermit, which is slow and even buggy on the Apple II side).

>       A program called "marinetti" exists for the //gs that allows you
>       to connect to a SLIP compatible internet account. If your ISP is PPP
>       only, you are screwed.

    Marinetti just gets the GS's foot in the door so to speak, with a
SLIP account all you are able to do is open multiple 'telnet' windows
to remote systems. It will become a more useful option only once more
applications are written for it (e.g. mail, ftp, news, www, irc, etc)
and the more powerful and standard PPP protocol is supported.

    None of the ISP's in my area support SLIP and I require more than
just the ability to telnet, so I've not been able to use Marinetti yet.
I'm still waiting for a major update or GS/TCP (whichever comes first)
but in the meantime, my Pentium does the job.

>       There really arent any viable internet utils
>       for the //gs today except for SIS (spectrum internet suite). And that
>       leaves alot to be desired.

    Yep, SIS is basically just an elegent front end for Lynx. It's still
a text browser and works only with a shell account, providing relatively
no new functionality that couldn't already be done. It _is_ a nice thing
to have, but way over hyped (especially when you consider what *can* be
written. The other day I was surprised to see there are graphical web
browsers that run on 8086 IBM XT's under MS-DOS. Probably not a very
pleasant experience, but the fact of the matter is people have managed
to get other old machines on the net as more than just a dumb-terminal).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca