A/UX: VT220, Intermedia, and Cartridge Drives (12/95)


1. VT220 on the Console

I've ported an accounting system to A/UX (which can be used with Apple's national character set). I'm using VT220 terminals to generate masks for this application. Neither the console nor "term" give full VT220 functionality. Is there a way to run VT220 on the console? Will "term" support VT220 in the near future, or has someone already added this feature to "term"? Is there anyone else interested in getting VT220 either as console or in "term"?


2. Intermedia and Printing

A/UX is set up as an Intermedia Server and Client with a SuperMac CommCard for printing over LocalTalk. Printing over LocalTalk works fine from a shell and from a Macintosh application. I can choose a LaserWriter in the Chooser when running Intermedia but printing fails. No job goes to the queue and the printer dialog box shows the default setting for "LaserWriter" and "3.1" for the Laser Prep version!


3. Infinity and A/UX

I'm using Infinity removable cartridge drives (40 turbo) extensively. I've tried to use them as exchangeable user filesystems under A/UX without success. "mkfs" didn't work, nor did the setup utility. When I finally tried dp, I got error messages:

- dp /dev/dsk/c4d0s31
- c4d0s31: error: more data than SCSI device requested

then four times:

generic disk c4d0s31
retry limit: logical block 0, physical block 0
/dev/rdsk/c4d0s31: no such device or address
warning: size of disk indeterminable
warning: this will hinder validity checking on input
warning: unable to read disk partition map

Is there a way to use these disks with A/UX?

1. The current A/UX 3.0 keyboard/console driver emulates a VT102 terminal. The A/UX Toolbox "term" terminal emulator program also emulates a VT100. None can fully provide full VT220 functionality at this time.

Your concern on the console and the Toolbox "term" with VT220 terminal emulation capability will be submitted to A/UX Engineering as an enhancement request.


2. We have tested the newly installed IRIS Intermedia package and had the same printing problem you described. According to the "IRIS System Administrator's Guide (page 39), "The printer should be set up as a 9600-baud serial printer, and it must be connected to the Intermedia server." If this is true, then there is a problem printing to an AppleTalk printer via the SuperMac CommCard.


3. No one here seems to have had any success using the removable cartridge disk drive from either Mass Microsystems or Infinity. According to Mass Microsystems, it seems that their driver works with Mac OS but not with A/UX. If anyone has successfully used a removable cartridge drive under A/UX, please Link TECH.COMM.


Article Change History:
01 Dec 1995 - Changed title.
08 Sep 1994 - Reviewed and reformatted.
31 Aug 1992 - Updated to include A/UX 3.0 information.

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Published Date: Feb 18, 2012