"Mac users swear by their Mac, PC users swear at their PC."
Merging two Operating Sytems into one is an amazing software engineering feat... but it comes with huge burdens. Basically, if you don't know a lot about Mac OS and Unix, you won't go much further than a very basic installation. It's called Mac-OS X, which I like to pronounce 'Oh Sex'; it should have been called Beta 3 (or more). And it's slow, oh so slow... And the funniest thing of all is to see all the Mac geeks who for a decade where making fun of other OSes primitive user interfaces ('you still have to type commands ?'), are now typing unix commands and loving it...
Obsolete Warning: those notes below applied mainly to the beta version of OS-X and version 10.0 to 10.2. I don't currently use a Mac so I haven't kept up with the latests advances of the OS. Use at your own risk.
Installing MacOS X (takes about 2 hours)
Fetch off everything user needs from Mac HD.
tar up their directory and move it off (or use ZipIt)
Install/upgrade Mac OS 9.1 from new CD
Do any firmware upgrades (asu.info.apple.com). Press the [Programmer's key] on the right of the Mac during reboot.
Reboot again pressing the 'C' key with the OS-X CD in. Install OS-X but do not wipe the disk
Configure IP, DNS, email...
Reboot with CD in and reset the admin password while in the installer.
Log in as whoever is admin.
Run [System Pref][Software Update][Manual Update] to get 1.3.1, 10.01, 10.02... Possibly rebooting between them.
Go to [system prefs] and:
[Login][login window]: turn off auto login
[Screen Saver][Activation]: 20 minutes and ask for user account password
[Sharing]: turn on file sharing, web sharing, remote access (ssh only) and disallow ftp. Change computer name to match /etc/hostconfig.
[Users]: add user...
[Internet]...
[Network]: should be set up — just turn off the internal modem in [Advanced]
Install printers in [Utilities][Print Center], either as AppleTalk (4500, 45502) or as LPR using IP (ariane, wetprint).
Install TinkerTool and allow (?) full access (at least time to finish installing X-windows).
Install Development Tools (?)
Get rid of antialiased characters (where do they get those stupid ideas at Apple ?!?): edit (or create) ~/.OpenStep/environment and add "QDTEXT_ANTIALIASING=0;QD_MINSIZE=18;"
Unix Stuff (takes about 1 hour)
In /etc/hostconfig, change hostname (full DNS name) and router (IP address).
Type as root "niload -d fstab / </Users/UserName/Nfs.txt"
Start up [Applications][Utilities][Netinfo mgr], and change user ID to reflect the UID of /etc/passwd of the main Unix machine.
As root "chown -R UserName /Users/UserName"
The mounts should be visible under the user's home (or under /Volumes/ if there's a problem). Check it out with "nidump fstab /"
Important: on the remote machine, the /etc/exports file should contain the exported dirs followed by the list of authorized machines. Restart it with "exportfs -a; killall -HUP inetd".
Install Xtools and configure it for Xdm.
(Optional) Install X-Windows
If no Xtools, download all files from XFree86 4.0.2 to a folder Download/XFree86_4.0.2
If no Xtools, download all files from XFree86 4.0.3 to a folder Download/XFree86_4.0.3
"cd /; tar zxvf /Users/UserName/Download/XAqua0.5.tgz"
Add the following 2 lines to ~/.cshrc and then type "source ~/.cshrc; rehash": setenv MANPATH "${MANPATH}:/usr/X11R6/man:/usr/local/man"
setenv PATH "${PATH}:/usr/X11R6/bin"
"cp /private/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc /Users/UserName/.xinitrc" and edit it to change the last lines to (careful if you copy/paste, the CR/linefeeds ends up wrong):
xhost +MainUnixMachine ...or... twm & ...or... exec wmaker &
xterm -e ssh -X -l gprof MainUnixMachine /usr/bin/X11/toolchest &
xterm -e ssh -X MainUnixMachine /usr/bin/X11/toolchest &
exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
"cd /usr/X11R6/bin; ./X -quartz" and make X stick to the Dock for later. Switching between X and the Mac is done with [Option][Apple][A]
When in the X-windows environment, you have a Mac Terminal, a user SSH terminal and a group user SSH terminal. The latter two also have a Toolchest where you should do [Desktop][Open Unix Shell] to get a better terminal window.
Other programs (takes about 2 hour)
MacOSX programs don't like to be moved. Need to install them.
Install Developer.pkg from the Development CD (takes about 20 frigging minutes !).
Install Fink from the official site. "tar zxvf Fink...; cd ...; ./bootstrap" and fill in the blanks. Add "source /sw/bin/init.csh" to ~/.cshrc
Use Fink to install whatever library is useful: "fink install zlib; fink install libpng; fink install libjpeg; fink install windowmaker" (if this does not work, you can try installing Xtools first), "fink install nedit; fink install fvwm"... Note that there are several issues (ie: bugs) when installing fink packages.