NeXTSTEP

May also be written as NeXTStep or NEXTSTEP.

Versions

• NeXTStep 3.3

Tips

Reset root password

You need to interrupt the bootloader when the machine is turned on so you see a "boot:" prompt or something similar depending on the type of computer. Type "-s" without the quotes and hit enter. If this is NeXT hardware, type "bsd -s" without the quotes. When the system drops you into a single mode root shell, type "sh /etc/rc &" to start the normal services. Now do "passwd root" and enter your new password. Reboot the system.

Basic TCP/IP Config

Create /etc/resolv.conf and add your desired nameserver, so something like "nameserver 8.8.8.8" and save the file. Go to NextAdmin directory and open HostManager.app, click Local in the menu, use local domain only and readable, set your desired IP/router/netmask info and reboot.

Troubleshooting

Make: Don't know how to make /usr/include/sys/signal.h

You'll find this file under the path name /usr/include/bsd/sys/signal.h. The problem is that Makefile contains an incorrect absolution path name to signal.h (line 36):

SIGNAL = /usr/include/sys/signal.h

Change it to read:

SIGNAL = /usr/include/bsd/sys/signal.h

and then say "make".

Boot Issues

That works, once I'm in the ROM Monitor I tell it to bsd(0,0,0)sdmach rootdev=sd0
which boots the CDROM, after I tell it to reinstall it looks for the drive and bombs because it
tries to install to the CDROM. I also used p and told it not to boot en. But when I tell it to boot
sd t boots my CDROM again. I'm beginning to think that harddisk is bad.
        Once it has rebooted it no longer tries to boot from network, but it still doesn't find a device to
boot from and gives me a "blk0 boot:" prompt. I guess I don't really know what the prompt is asking
for because sd, sd0, sd0a, and /dev/sd0 or variations of that don't work..  

Well, I have finally installed NeXTStep.. I installed it on my 100MB harddisk, sd1a. Now I cannot
get it to boot, with the boot device set to sd (from prefs) it boots the CD, or tries if I remove
it, with it set to fd it will boot a floppy.. but I don't know how to get it to boot my harddisk..
I've tried bsd(0,0,0)mach rootdev=sd1a, bsd(0,1,0)mach rootdev=sd1.. and many other combinations.
Does someone know what to set to boot it?


----

You must set the device SCSI ID order of HD to be lower than 
that of the CD.  Long ago I tried to coax installs on floppyless systems by putting the CD-ROM lower 
than the SCSI drive.  It will install but won't boot -even after you swap SCSI ID's.  I didn't dig 
much deeper and this was long ago as I thought this might be a way to install on the older floppyless 
systems.  I suspect that one would have to do some manual file tweaking..  Even so

rootdev must be device 0 AFAIK..


----

I also went down this path some years ago.  The install script that
gets run when you boot from CD-ROM is called
/NEXTSTEP_3.3/private/etc/rc.cdrom .  Under normal conditions, after
installing lots of stuff on the hard disk, it prepares for the reboot
by creating "on the fly" a special /private/etc/fstab file on the HD.
This file would normally contain two entries:
        /dev/sd0a / 4.3 rw,noquota,noauto 0 1
        /dev/sd1a /NEXTSTEP_INSTALL ro,noquota 0 2
Then when the reboot happens, the HD gets mounted as / and the
CD-ROM gets mounted as /NEXTSTEP_INSTALL and the installation 
procedure continues.

However, if the device numbers are swapped initially, the install
goes fine, but the new fstab file also has the devices swapped, i.e.,
it becomes
        /dev/sd1a / 4.3 rw,noquota,noauto 0 1
        /dev/sd0a /NEXTSTEP_INSTALL ro,noquota 0 2
Now if you try to reboot, it again boots from CD-ROM and restarts
the installation from the beginning.  If you change device numbers and
reboot, it boots from the HD but then attempts to mount the HD as
/NEXTSTEP_INSTALL and the CD-ROM as /.  This also causes the boot to
fail.

It might be possible to continue the installation at this point by
NOT changing the device numbers but using a special boot command:
    bsd(1,0,0)sdmach rootdev=sd1a
However, I think I may have tried this and found that it also doesn't
work.  I'm not sure though.

Another way to recover (short of starting all over) is to somehow get
booted into single-user mode, remount the HD in read-write mode (if
necessary), and edit /private/etc/fstab.  Then swap the device numbers
and reboot normally.  I don't remember any more how I managed to get
into single user mode with the messed-up fstab file.  I think I
unplugged the CD-ROM, booted into single-user mode, found that / was
mounted read-only, and remounted it read-write so that I could fix
fstab.

It's nice to know you can do these things in an emergency, but the
best advice is, set the CD-ROM to a higher device number than the HD
and avoid the problem altogether.

Small Computer System Interface