WebObjects 5.x, YellowBox 5.1, and OPENSTEP Enterprise issues on Windows.

[verdraith]

Documenting these here, just in case they will be of any use to anyone between now and the heat death of the universe.

I hope this helps someone, or at least contributes to the amount of now-useless trivia that the Internet seems to hoard.


I will add more should I remember/discover anything else.

Help, my WebObjects applications won't start, or hang when starting.
This usually means that `machd` and `nmserver` aren't running, or have not been installed as Windows services.

WebObjects 5.0, when installed on seemingly any version of Windows seems to exhibit this behaviour.

The fix for 9x-based systems:

• Right-click on the 'Start' menu and select 'Explore',
• Head on over to 'Programs', then 'StartUp',
• Open up a second Explorer window and go to c:\Bapple\Library\System\ (or wherever you installed this obviously not QC'd jank),
• drag and drop using the right mouse button machd.exe and nmserver.exe, selecting 'Create Shortcut Here'

Now you can either reboot or manually launch machd and nmserver, though I would recommending a reboot... check if autoexec.bat is correct first, though!

The fix for NT-based systems:
The fix is basically two registry files that add the missing services entries for the machd.exe and nmserver.exe services.  Renaming the attachments from .txt to .reg and then merging them will make things nice and happy (as long as you installed WebObjects to c:\apple.)

If stuff's elsewhere, you can either have fun with converting strings to hex, or merge and head to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\ in Registry Editor, locate machd and nmserver and change the ImagePath value to, uh, c:\NeXT\Not\Apple\Damnit\Library\System\whatever.exe or whatever.  Obviously, using your real path.  Unless your real path is the nonsensical example I used, in which case, have a beer!

You do not need to add a service for WindowServer.exe.

Registry files:
machd.txt
nmserver.txt

Help, the Path environment variable is stupid huge and the installer yelled at me
This doesn't seem to affect anything for me on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.  You can double-check the `path` environment (see discussion re ld.exe and compiling), but I suspect this is a limitation of earler versions of Windows that the installer is concerned about.

Help, I can't compile anything with Project Builder, or
Help, ld.exe can't "read" memory or something or other
You are probably missing the lib environment variable. You can add it by doing the following:

• Windows 7:  Hit 'start', right-click on 'Computer', go to 'Properties'.  Locate 'Advanced system settings' on the left-hand side, and go to 'Environment Variables'.  Add a system variable, name it 'lib', and set its path to the location of your development libraries (e.g. c:\Next\NextDeveloper\Libraries)
• Windows NT4, 2000, and XP: Right-click on 'My Computer', go to 'Properties' then 'Advanced'. Select 'Environment Variables'.  Add a system variable, name it 'lib', and set its path to the location of your development libraries (e.g. c:\Next\NextDeveloper\Libraries)
• Windows NT 3.51: Open Program Manager, head to 'Main', then 'Control Panel'.  Select 'System', then type 'lib' in 'Variable' at the bottom, type the path (e.g.  c:\Next\NextDeveloper\Libraries) and press 'set')

Help, this program can't run on on my PC?!?
Bad news, if you have a 64-bit version of Windows, the old 16-bit 'Windows on Windows' subsystem will not be present.  Even worse news, the installers for OPENSTEP Enterprise and YellowBox for Windows appear to be 16-bit applications.  There might be a workaround for this at some point.  Workaround found!

Download `Is3Engine` from here: http://toastytech.com/files/setup.html

This seems to be a work-around for getting 16-bit InstallShield executables working on ReactOS, but it also works for our needs.

I have not tested this with OPENSTEP Enterprise, but it works for YellowBox! It works for both.  See https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=4846.0 to find out how it works.

Help, foundation.dll is saying something about IsDebuggerPresent
I suspect this might be something specific to OPENSTEP Enterprise 4.1.  I'm currently doing a little research into this to see if I can nail it down to something specific.  I do not yet know if this also affects OPENSTEP Enterprise 4.2. OPENSTEP Enterprise 4.2 works fine on Windows 95.

`IsDebuggerPresent` is an exported symbol in the Windows NT, 98, and ME kernels, not the Windows 95 kernel.  This prevents the OPENSTEP Enterprise 4.1 runtime from running on Windows 95.

The OSE 4.1 runtime runs on Windows 98, but apparently there are other issues on that system that prevent apps from starting up.

I suspect that the root cause is related to what compiler the NeXT engineers used, so I think the only solution is to contact Rob and get your hands on OPENSTEP Enterprise 4.2.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

 

Unless your real path is the nonsensical example I used, in which case, have a beer!

You do not need to add a service for WindowServer.exe.

I hope this helps someone, or at least contributes to the amount of now-useless trivia that the Internet seems to hoard.

*

#  Eventually some one will need this useless information, when lost in the labyrinth of the Microsoft Darkside battling the blue screen of death ! Kudos to you cheers!

[verdraith]

Eventually some one will need this useless information, when lost in the labyrinth of the Microsoft Darkside battling the blue screen of death ! Kudos to you cheers!

Couldn't agree more!   I solved that particular WebObjects problem years ago, but had to solve it again when rebuilding everything after a disk crash, so figured I'd document it just in case anyone else has similar issues.

I've added a solution to an issue I was having with OpenStep Enterprise on Windows 2000, too.

[verdraith]

To be fair, I think WebObjects 5.0 is aimed at a specific release of Windows -- it didn't even bother setting up autoexec.bat for me either.

Had to add this crap manually:

SET LIB=C:\Apple\Developer\Libraries;
SET HOMEDRIVE=C:
SET HOMEPATH=\WINDOWS
SET PATH=C:\Apple\Developer\Executables\Utilities;C:\Apple\Library\Documentation\Developer;C:\Apple\Developer\Executables;C:\Apple\Library\Executables;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
SET NEXT_ROOT=C:/Apple

[verdraith]

Also, it looks like WebObjects had a series of patches (5.1.1 through 5.1.4) that dealt with a lot of the stuff I mentioned above.  I have 5.1.  Now, if only I could locate patches or 5.1.4.

[brunocampos]

Do you know where I can download WebObjects for Windows?

[pTeK]

Do you know where I can download WebObjects for Windows?

@Rob Blessin Black Hole might have permission from apple to be a reseller or he may have some in stock.
Otherwise if you take a photo of your CD with your username some of the other users might take that as proof and provide you with a .iso

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Also, it looks like WebObjects had a series of patches (5.1.1 through 5.1.4) that dealt with a lot of the stuff I mentioned above.  I have 5.1.  Now, if only I could locate patches or 5.1.4.

I found these 2 download links for Web Objects 5.4.1 https://support.apple.com/kb/DL122?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US and 5.4.3 https://support.apple.com/kb/DL122?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US