On Mon, 17 Jan 2000, Merideth Johnston wrote:

> [I have NetBSD 1.4.1 installed on a zip disk (slightly damaged from nuking
> it so it no longer knows it IS a zip disk if it is in the drive when I boot
> the Mac - it thinks it's a real one with eternal properties and as such
> cannot be dismounted, though it behaves as a regular zip disk if mounted
> after the mac is up - a not altogether undesirable twist.]

Perhaps the disk isn't really damaged.  It might be the difference between
mounting the Zip disk as the start-up disk or as just another available
disk (can this disk boot your machine?  I'll assume so).  Or perhaps just
the driver on the Zip disk is banged-up - if the Zip disk in in the drive
at start-up, the driver on the disk is probably used instead of the one on
the boot volume. 

> up until it says "post installation...."  There, I was completely
> buffaloed.  The first thing that threw me was the question, "terminal
> type".... huh?  I have no idea what it finally took to get past that
> question, nor any idea what my "terminal type" might be.  Plus, I was

I guess just [RETURN] should work, or else something like "vt100",
"vt102", or "vt220".  Try the last three in reverse order.

> IN(!yipee!) but I knew not in what, or where, or how to get back OUT of
> wherever I was IN.  Somehow, I chanced upon a manual (I'm not sure what I
> entered to finally get it, though) and in perusing it, I found a few items
> that made sense.  I have to tell you, it felt like I'd fallen down the
> rabbit hole with Alice.

Well, once you are past the prompt for terminal type, there are probably
some things you'll want to do to set your machine up.  However, UNIX was
designed for computer people, and administering a UNIX system - which is
what you are now attempting to do - was (and still is) intended for a more
advanced computer person.  Novices learn it all the time, but if you are
new to UNIX and setting up your own machine, it's like trying to take two
big steps at once - possible, but there's a lot of effort required.  The
skill set we are talking about covers what some people do all day, for a
decent living.  I strongly suggest a UNIX book for beginners.  I also
suggest a UNIX administration book for beginners.  Perhaps someone at a
bookstore can help you, or one of your computer friends could lend you
something.

> Could somebody tell me what to do once I AM installed?  The instructions in
> the Install doc are not at all accurate, and I don't know what it is
> talking about for the most part.  I don't think I can take another wander
> through the maze on your web site without breaking something important in
> my organic partition, so please, if you have a page there with the
> appropriate information, could you give me the exact url for it?  Thanks
> much, and bless you.

Figure out what you want to do with the system (WWWeb server?  E-mail?
Programming?  WWWeb browsing?  Database hosting?), and on the road to
doing that, you'll most definitely have to learn other things.  Then you
can ask more pointed questions.

> ps - if anybody could tell me in general terms how to make a menu that will
> come up at startup, so I can associate descriptive items with commands
> rather than memorize coded giberish like crazy (something I never have done
> well) I'd appreciate that, too.  It will be my first project with this
> beast.  8-)

Hmmm.  Well, for administering a system, you'll for the most part need to
know what the coded gibberish means, at which point you'll most likely
eschew the menu idea.  UNIX system administrators usually set things up to
make things as easy as the regular users need them to be.  However, that's
you, in this case  :-)  So start with a book, since the on-line stuff
often isn't very... cohesive.  It's a lot better than staring at a
blinking cursor in growing frustration.  "UNIX System Administration",
IIRC, is one title I remember as being helpful.

Anyway, it looks like other folks have also responded to your queries. 
It's a challenge, but I know a guy who went from having negligible UNIX
knowledge to being a trusted system administrator of a medium-sized
university facility in less than a year.  Good luck.


/*======================================================================
"Don't die wondering..."                http://www.cldc.howard.edu/~cpg
                                              email: cpg@scs.howard.edu
chris out-              Christopher P. Gill
  peace.        C.L.D.C. Senior System Operator (Ret.)
======================================================================*/