Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!agate!ucbvax!DSUNX1.DSRD.ORNL.GOV!wnn
From: wnn@DSUNX1.DSRD.ORNL.GOV (W. N. Naegeli)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: PhoneNet and file service
Message-ID: <8811112217.AA25540@dsunx1>
Date: 11 Nov 88 22:17:41 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29

Using Tops, you can use a system on a Tops server.  You have to boot from a
floppy that has Tops software installed and then switch to the system on
the server.  I don't know of a utility that does this automatically but you
can do it manually.  The constraints are that you must not launch the Multi
Finder before switching systems, because you can't switch once MultiFinder
is running.  Also, if you want to use INITs and certain CDEVs, these must be
on your boot diskette, since switching systems won't load INITs and CDEVs
present in the server's system folder.  To make things even more complicated,
some INIT files, such as Suitcase must remain on line because they contain
not only the INIT code itself but also resources that do not get loaded into
memory but are accessed on the disk during operation.  Thus you may need to
have a copy of those INITs in the Server's system folder as well.  If you
want to save CDEV settings after switching systems, the CDEVs also need to
be in the server's system folder.  Some settings take only effect after re-
booting. Thus, when changing such settings, you must either do it before
switching systems or you must copy the CDEV whose bootup settings you have
changed from the server to your boot diskette before rebooting your local Mac.
All of this may be quite inconvenient and it is slow if you are on a LocalTalk
or PhoneNet connection.  If you are on EtherTalk its almost as fast as a slow
hard disk.  Setting a pretty big RAM cache is paritcularly beneficial on
LocalTalk since it can drastically reduce network traffic and delays.
   I don't think this will work on AppleShare, because AppleShare keeps the
server's system in what it calls the Server folder intead of the System folder
and it hides the Server folder from clients, so you cant get at the system file
to switch launch.  Now, you could have a System and a Finder in another AppleSre
folder, but that would violate the rule that there must be only one System and
Finder on a disk.  We've had problems with AppleShare probably because someone
had inadvertently put a second System and Finder on it.  If your AppleShare
server has two hard disks, however, this might work fine.  I have not tried it.