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SunOS 4.1.4 DNS Support

swynn97

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Joined
Sep 1, 2016
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If you are one of the three people still working on SunOS systems, you have likely tried to change libc to support DNS directly, vs. the default NIS support for name resolution. The Sun document SRDB ID: 3886 doesn't work correctly for 4.1.4 systems, and likely doesn't fully work for any system due to errors. The libc Y2K patch 102544-13 answers many questions, primarily that you need to fix xccs.multibyte.o, since ar truncates its name, and also add -ldl to the makefile so the libdl is linked correctly. Otherwise you'll get these build errors for most packages:

_dlopen
_dlclose
_dlsym
__mbstowcs_xccs
__mbtowc_xccs
__wcstombs_xccs
__wctomb_xccs

I've attached a text file with modified instructions.

Simon
 

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Heh, I just gave up on it myself...since the SunOS Mosaic builds I could find just dumped core, it's not like I really needed DNS for anything. Still, thanks for the tip :)
 
I have a Mosaic binary that works better than that - get's confused with mime types it doesn't recognize, and also backspace doesn't work - if you want a link to it, let me know. I also have source that builds under Solaris 7 using 'modern' libs. I'm going to try that on SunOS soon.

Simon
 
I have a Mosaic binary that works better than that - get's confused with mime types it doesn't recognize, and also backspace doesn't work - if you want a link to it, let me know. I also have source that builds under Solaris 7 using 'modern' libs. I'm going to try that on SunOS soon.
I'd love to get a copy of both a SunOS 4.1.4 compatible Mosaic and source for Mosaic that builds on Solaris 7.
 
I did some digging and found more NCSA Mosaic source code and binaries...

Version 1.0 source: https://www.w3.org/History/1993/WWW/XMosaic/xmosaic-1.0.tar.Z
Binaries for version 1.2, 2.0, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7b4 (1.2 through 2.7b4 in old subdir), 2.6, multiple 2.7 betas for SuOS and others: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Unix/binaries/
Sources for version 1.2 (in old subdir), 2.5, 2.6, multiple 2.7 betas: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Unix/source/

And if you want a text-based web browser, apparently at least lynx version 2.8.1 still built and ran OK on SunOS 4.1: https://ftp.isc.org/lynx/lynx-2.8.1/
I see references to SSL in the source for lynx 2.8.1. Probably really, really old SSL. You're definitely out of luck with this old version if you want TLS support.

Maybe newer versions of Lynx will also build on SunOS 4.1.4. I looked for older versions of lynx but couldn't find any. While looking, I found lots of newer versions but didn't check source of anything other than 2.8.1 to see if it claims to build on SunOS 4.1.x .
 
True @classichasclass - I should probably get YP running - haven't found a concise set of instructions yet.

Simon
 
@zamp - thanks for these resources - I think I need some additional Motif files, mainly Xm.h to get Mosaic to build - still working on it.
 
Too many years ago to recall details, I set up NIS (aka yellowpages) on SunOS 4.something for a two host YP master/slave setup. If the SunOS installation instructions didn't tell me where to start, I may have read what “man -k nis” or “man -k yp” found me. Or maybe I used one of the following books...

I remember having a copy of Managing NFS and NIS, and I might have used that for YP at some point. I think it covers everything you’d need to setup or use NIS/YP, but it’s not concise. http://dbmanagement.info/Books/Others/Managing_NFS_and_NIS_2nd_Edition.pdf

UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, 4th edition has a little on NIS. The third edition (the one I started with) may have had more on NIS/YP, but my printed copy is buried somewhere and I can’t find an online copy. The 4th edition can be found at: https://doc.lagout.org/operating system /linux/UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook.pdf

By the 5th of UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, there’s nothing left about NIS/YP other than a recommendation to stop using it. http://io.yaht.net/~lisp/9780134278285.pdf

Essential System Administration, 3rd edition doesn’t say much on NIS/YP other than “see Managing NFS and NIS”. I used to have an older edition of this and maybe it said more on NIS/YP. It's a nice reference to have even if it says little on this topic. https://doc.lagout.org/operating system /linux/Essential System Administration.pdf
 
The steps I use for getting YP DNS up on Solbourne OS/MP are here, which should work for SunOS 4.1.x as well. Scroll down to "How do I get OS/MP networked?"

https://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/solace/
You will probably want to scroll down further on that page and also check out the precompiled SunOS binaries on the floodgap gopher server (gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/archive/sunos-4-solbourne-os-mp) as well as the ones at http://www.synack.net/~bbraun/sunos4/. I've not touched gopher for more than a couple of decades, but I found it well worth my time to find a gopher browser and download a copy of all the SunOS stuff at floodgap.
 
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