Help request on a UnixPC 7300

[Thad P Floryan]

bscott at isis.cs.du.edu (Ben Scott) in <1991Jan13.190506.6028 at isis.cs.du.edu>
writes:

	First question: I need a good book, not quite at the introductory
	level necessarily (I do have SOME experience with Unix; I can
	manipulate files and understand a few simple commands), but I would
	like a good comprehensive Unix tutorial which is relevant to SVR2.  I
	have found many books in the bookstores but all are more recent, i.e.
	SVR3 and up.  I can special-order just about anything, but I need some
	titles to look for.

The book "The Design of the UNIX Operating System", Bach, Prentice-Hall,
ISBN 0-13-201799-7, describes all the algorithms used in the version of UNIX
which is "standard" on the 3B1/UNIXPC.  This is THE tech reference for all
the "internals."

As far as "user level" guides go, my perception of a beginning user's needs
is not good, but if you ask questions I can provide answers! :-)  I strongly
suggest you look at the comp.unix.misc and comp.unix.questions newsgroups
because they periodically (monthly?) post a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
and a UNIX bibliography.

	Second, I'm having serious problems connecting to the outside world in
	any way, or at least I did until recently.  An ordinary null-modem
	cable which has worked between two Amigas does not seem to work
	between an Amiga and a UnixPC.  Nor can I get a login: prompt on an
	ADM-3a hooked up to the serial port.  I'm as sure as I can be that
	inittab is set up properly and that there are gettys running, and that
	the baud rates and everything match.

Boy did you luck out; I'm typing this on an Amiga right now connected to one
of my 3B1 systems connected to PORTAL.  Among other things, I open and "do"
the Tech Q&A session at the First Amiga Users' Group (Palo Alto), and am also
the secretary of BADGE (Bay Area Amiga Developers' GroupE), and have been using
the systems since mid-1985.

The "traditional" null-modem cable is NOT what you want to be using; you need
to provide more signals (at least on the 3B1 side); a cable with the following
pinout will work fine between the Amiga/ADM3a and the 3B1:

		 (1)-------------------(1)
		 (7)-------------------(7)
		 (6)----+         +----(6)
	Amiga	        |         |		3B1
	 or	 (8)----+         +----(8)
	ADM3a	        |         |
		(20)----+         +----(20)
		 (2)-------------------(3)
		 (3)-------------------(2)

Note that pins (2) and (3) "cross" across the cable.  And DO NOT connect any
other pins, especially at the Amiga side, because there ARE some other signals
on the Amiga's DB-25 (e.g. audio, some (+5,+12,-12), and other things).  The
jumpering of pins (6)-(8)-(20) can be done within the RS-232 connector shell.

	[...]
	I need SOME way to transfer files over, at any speed.  I have FTP'd a
	lot of stuff from the OSU site, plus other things such as Zmodem, but
	they're no good to me on Amiga disks.  Once I get hooked up I can
	figure out the rest.

The "best" program on the Amiga for talking to the 3B1 is "Handshake" v2.12a
which is about the only VT100 emulator I've seen on ANY computer that actually
passes the Per Lindberg VT100 validation suite.  Handshake is "shareware" and
available at abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov [IP 128.155.23.64] in pub/amiga/COMM.  You
probably also want to get AZCOMM (for the Amiga) because it "does" zmodem and
easily handles bauds up to 38400.  AZCOMM is freely-redistributable.  Both
Handshake and AZCOMM can be found at abcfd20 and most BBS systems.  On the 3B1
you want the x/y/z-modem package whose component programs are rx,rb,rz and
sx,sb,sz; this package is available at any archive site normally under a name
something like rzsz.shar or rzsz.tar.Z.  You also want PCOMM for the 3B1
(which resembles the ProComm package for MS-DOS machines.  When you log into
the 3B1 using, say, Handshake, specify "dt80" as the terminal type instead of
"vt100" (you may have to also alter /etc/profile to get it to recognize "dt80";
the reason you want to say "dt80" is that a true Datamedia DT80 terminal is a
much "faster" VT100 without all the padding and null fill requirements.

	My main reasons for getting this machine were to learn about Unix at
	home, and to run a UUCP node.  I used to run a node with AmigaUUCP,
	but it died for no apparent reason shortly after I got my domain name
	registered.  Anyway, I'll obviously be needing some book or help on
	setting up a Usenet feed (I'll be feeding another site if possible) -
	I DO have "rn" and a source for news and mail.

You want the O'Reilly "nutshell" book entitled "Managing UUCP and Usenet",
and you want to get the HDB UUCP package from OSU.

Thad Floryan [ thad at cup.portal.com ]