Omni Apps and NeXTSTEP/Rhapsody

[andreas_g]

This is extremely off-topic for these forums but maybe someone is interested in this:

Recently I have succeeded in installing NeXTSTEP 3.3 and Apple Rhapsody DR2 under VMWare Fusion!

OmniGroup's apps were important pieces of software for these operating systems. It's quite interesting to see the differnces to today's OS X apps. Interestingly there are some very well known features in OmniWeb (including the recently reintegrated Gopher support!).

It would be great fun to surf the internet using OmniWeb 2.7 (NeXTSTEP) or 3.0 (Rhapsody), but I just don't get the network/internet working under VMWare Fusion for these OSs.

Maybe someone in here is used to these operating systems and has already succeeded to set up networking under VMWare Fusion?

Would be great if someone could give a short instruction.

sincerely

andreas


btw:
Sadly under Rhapsody it is not possible to use Omni apps, when the actual date is set, because the demo license expired sometime in 1998.
Maybe the OmniGroup got some old unsold licenses for OmniImage/PDF and OmniWeb and wants to share them with us so that Omni Apps can be used in Rhapsody with current date and time set? ;-)

[Andrew]

I didn't try to install NeXTstep 3.3; instead I installed OpenStep/Mach 4.2. It's been a while since I played with this, and I don't recall if I got networking working - I kind of thought I did, but not sure. I did manage to mess up the entire configuration while trying to get other stuff working so I can't check, sorry.

I am curious if you got video working at greater than 800x600? That stymied me with OpenStep in VMWare (and I don't find the system usable below ~1024x768).

[andreas_g]

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for your answer. Getting greater resolutions than 1024 x 768 in VMWare is no problem. There are drivers made for NeXTStep, OPENSTEP and Rhapsody to get everythin working under VMWare.
I have just sent you my self-written instructions on how to install the operating systems in VMWare with drivers installed.

Everything works fine (mouse, display, sound) except of networking.
I have sent the e-mail to the adress that i found on your homepage.

sincerely andreas

p.s. if someone else wants the instructions, just ask for them. i may post them to some forums, as soon i am sure they are complete and working for everyone.

[Andrew]

Thanks Andreas! Competing priorities mean I won't be able to play with this again right away, but I should be able to check it out before long. Looking forward to hopefully being able to play with some of my old toys again! (No space to set up my old NeXT machine...)

[andreas_g]

i just got some new information about NeXTStep, VMWare and networking. It seems there is a bug in VMWare since Version 2.0.1 that breaks networking in NeXTStep and its successors using the VMXNet driver.

As i am using version 2.0.2 i got this problem too but now i know how to solve it!

I did not try newer versions than 2.0.2, but the bug may be fixed in some future version. So if anyone wants to get NeXTSTEP to the internet, you have to use version 2.0 for the moment.

@Andrew:
I am happy i could help! I am quite sure you will easily find a buyer for your old NeXT hardware, if you want to get rid of it.
There are many intersted people out there (including me). just see www.nextcomputers.org/forums (http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums)

[thebians]

andreas,

Can you send me the instructions for getting increased resolutions in VMware?
Thanks,

Brian

[andreas_g]

@thebians:
i have sent you a private message ;-)

[Chrelion]

I wouldn't mind finding out how to get NeXTSTEP 3.3 running at a higher resolution and color depth in VMWare Fusion as well. I found a copy of some drivers for Fusion and have them installed, and even have the option to set a higher resolution and bit depth, but nothing actually changes. I'm coming at this as someone new to NeXTSTEP though, so it could just be that I'm doing something wrongly.

[andreas_g]

chrelion, if you installed the VMWareFB display driver it should work. just choose the resolution you want and do a restart (it won't change instantly as it does in more actual operating systems!)
i am not sure, if some resolutions are broken, as i never tested other resolutions than 1024x768. but i think they should all work.

i also sent you the instructions via private messaging. i hope it helps!

andreas

[nazoreos]

Hello andreas_g, everybody,
I find this very interesting! I have tried to install Nextstep 3.3 under VMware Fusion 3 and, so far, only succeeded in running a black and white, VGA version with a 'jumpy' mouse pointer which makes the system almost unusable (despite installing an 'updated' mouse driver which was supposed to fix this problem).
I would find this solution of running Nextstep (or Openstep) in a virtualization environment very useful as I can no longer keep my NeXT machine running (SERIOUS lack of space!), so any help in getting this working would be VERY much appreciated!
btw:
did you manage to work out the problem with the networking? Assuming you have, have you managed to get online using - presumably - OmniWeb (for Nextstep) and, if so, what is the setup to make it work?
Many thanks! Cheers!

[andreas_g]

Hello all!

Yes, finally i have succeeded in setting up the networking in NeXTStep 3.3 under VMWare Fusion (v2.0.6 using Mac OS X v10.6.2)

Now i can surf the internet using OmniWeb 2.7 (latest for NeXTStep 3.3).
Of course there are many bad drawing glitches, but nevertheless it is great fun!

Sharing files between NeXTStep and Mac OS X is now much easier, as i can access my virtual machine via ftp using "cyberduck" or a simmilar application under Mac OS X.
This is a great thing because with the switch to Snow Leopard some important features of disk utility, which i used to make NeXTStep-readable images, got lost/broken.

A thread describing how to set up networking can be found here: http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2285

I hope i could help!

sincerely

Andreas

[sgbotsford]

I was a sysadmin when NextStep was in it's heyday. Somewhere I've got a set of registration codes for most of the Omni Apps of the day, as well as for FrameMaker 3.2 on NeXtStep.

There are some things that are classic. The DC3. The Piper cub. NextStep.

My iPod Touch has 8 GB of ram. My NextStation had 20 MB. Asside from the size issue, the NS was as useful.

Omni folk: What is your stand on releasing NS app registration keys?