NeXT Computers

[andreas_g]

Thanks for the link. But I think the privilege thing makes PCAP a no-go for Previous.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hello NeXT Community: I found this really cool , my shared NFS folder is coming in handy as I can now drag drop NeXT 68K apps or any NeXT apps in it from Previous NS 68K or Virtual Box NS Intel.

I can remove the app completely from previous and or virtual box and it will launch and the 68K app . It seems to run faster as it is under Mac OSX Sierra this includes surfing the net with omniweb !

Would this help with faster compiles of new NeXT software?

I also set up an NFS share under Virtual box Openstep Intel so I can drop files from either into the shared NFS folder which creates a bridge under my Mac MINI hood .
Connecting:
Previous NeXTSTEP 3.3 68K , MAC OSX Hosting the shared NFS folder and Virtual Box running Openstep 4.2 Intel

Please note the need to be NeXT fat 68K/Intel apps to work on both if stored on the NFS shared folder and they won't launch in OSX , I tried it gives a message does not conatain software for this type of computer, lol yet, I wonder if copying the old NeXT libraries in would work, I heard this worked for Rhapsody?

Is it possible to have either Previous set up as the Server running any version of 68K NeXTSTEP or Openstep virtually connect on my OSX System to Openstep or 4.2 Intel on Virtual Box ..... I'm trying to figure this out currently true NeXT network and file sharing would be great!

It looks like I may be able to set up 2 Openstep Intel versions under Virtual box (I'm trying it as this works under Linux , you clone drives first then configure networking) and then network an Openstep 4.2 intel server and then Openstep 4.2 clients under virtual box.

So my question is there a way for a NEXTstep virtual image from Previous 68K to Connect to a virtual NeXTSTEP image from Virtualbox, VMware or Parallels all under MAC OSX High Sierra Server?
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Rob Blessin President computerpowwow ebay sales@blackholeinc.com http://www.blackholeinc.com
303-741-9998 Serving the NeXT Community since 2/9/93

[andreas_g]

Hello all,

I'd like to make Previous endianness safe. For now Previous is confirmed to work on hosts with little endian byte order. I think the 68k part should also work on hosts with big endian byte order. But the NeXTdimension part definitely won't. I'd like to fix that.

Is anyone in here able to test Previous on a machine running big endian byte order?

Rob, unfortunately i can't answer your question, but i hope someone else can.

[t-rexky]

Andreas, I have a fully loaded PowerMac G5 with OS X 10.5. I have not tried compiling Previous on it but I imagine there would be many challenges...

[andreas_g]

Well, I think the biggest challenge when building on Mac OS X v10.5.8 will be to make SDL2 work. Previous has not too many dependencies and I already successfully compiled and run it on a dual CPU PowerMac G5 in the early days when it was still based on SDL 1.2. It was too slow to use, but for testing it would be good enough.

Unfortunately I no longer have the PowerMac G5.

Update: Obviously some people already succeeded compiling SDL2 on a PPC Mac: http://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?p=41186

[t-rexky]

I am tremendously strapped for time Andreas, but if I find any spare, I will see what I can do on the G5...

(BTW - I almost ended-up in Vienna this week on a business trip, but I managed to delegate someone else)

[andreas_g]

Thank you for your efforts! I think it is not that important, because obviously there are not many systems around, which are running big endian. So I think it is probably not worth the troubles.

Vienna is still quite far away from my home. I'm living on the other side of Austria (far west).

[jvernet]

Hatari was building with these SDL 2 Port on my G5. But SDL2 2.0.3 was buggy ....

We need a decent 2.0.5 build...


JV
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Apple & NeXT

[t-rexky]

So SDL 2.0.3 builds cleanly on my G5 with the referenced patches. All untested, of course.

Time is still very scarce here, but I will try to do an incremental diff update to 2.0.4+ using the patched sources as the starting point.

[andreas_g]

I'm not sure you even need to update SDL to 2.0.4 or later. Sound input only works with 2.0.5 or later, but that part is not very important. I think it might compile and run after commenting out some missing sound input SDL stuff in audio.c (maybe not even that is necessary). Did you try compiling Previous on the G5?

[neozeed]

Im trapped in China at the moment, but when I get back to Hong Kong, I do have an G5 iMac I picked up for next to nothing. I'll be more than happy to take a stab at running Previous on it.

If you don't mind waiting the week plus I'll be in exile....
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# include <wittycomment.h>

[andreas_g]

Hello all,

i have some news for those interested in Previous' networking capabilities. I made some very early PCAP implementation, which should allow for things like FTP access. You can load the required files (one patch and three source files) here.

Have fun testing. Any suggestions on how to improve this are welcome! Note that you need to run Previous with super user (root) privileges to make PCAP work.

Update: Download replaced by a slightly improved patch.

[andreas_g]

I am writing this using OmniWeb 2.7 under NeXTstep 3.3 running in Previous on my good old iMac (early 2009) and I am connected to the internet via libPCAP. If you want to try the new PCAP interface, check out the latest branch_softfloat from the SVN repository. Make sure you are running Previous with super user privileges to make PCAP work.

[andreas_g]

Hello all,

a new release of Previous is ready! Previous v1.9 adds support for networking via PCAP. In addition it includes some minor improvements to CPU emulation accuracy (from WinUAE).

You can load Previous v1.9 for Mac OS X v10.6 and later here.

Please note that PCAP requires super user privileges. Of course you can still use SLiRP networking, which does not require any elevated privileges. Hope you have fun with the new option!

Best wishes,

Andreas

[eagle]

I have updated my website at http://previous.unixdude.net

Thanks, Andreas! I'm moving now, so my iMac is powered down, and my laptop does not have my NeXT emulation files on it. I'll have to grab those so that I can try out this new networking functionality.
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My NeXTs:
NeXT Computer prototype (68030-25 x2, 68040-25)
Two NeXTstations (68040-25)
All mono