This information is really outdated, as everybody should have upgraded to EasyMiNT and Sparemint by now.

N.AES and KGMD

Note: I asume that you have a basic knowledge of what KGMD is. If you want to read more about KGMD Katherine Ellis has more information and a English translation.

The only downside with this setup is that on a 4Mb machine you have to use a very basic N.AES- (Small NVDI-cache, no large accessories...) and KGMD-setup (Just one virtual console, ditch lpd and GlueSTiK, use sh instead of bash or tcsh...) otherwise you run out of memory very soon. My setup is not that sophisticated, but it needs more than 4Mb just to run! If you only have 4Mb ram, I suggest you use the TAF-kit instead.

Using N.AES with KGMD is quite easy, basically it's just a matter of starting N_AES.SYS from the command-line. However, there are a couple of minor problems with this combination:

ScreenBlaster III does not work. KGMD boots normally, but ScreenBlaster freezes as soon as N.AES initializes. This happens with Geneva and MultiTOS as well, I guess SB isn't happy when the AES is started from init. Solution: Use something else... I have tested both BlowUp and Videlity, they both work without problems.
You can't use [Alt]+[F1-F10] as hotkeys, since this will switch between the consoles. You could disable the vconsoles, but what kind of person would do that?

Start N.AES from the command-line

Thanks to a tip from Harald Denker I can now tell you how to run N.AES as another user than root :-)

Copy 'n_aes.sys' (or 'n_aes030.sys') to /usr/bin/naes
chmod 4775 /usr/bin/naes

You can now start N.AES just by typing 'naes' from the actual console ([ALT]+F10)!. This also eliminates previous problems with disappearing prompt when N.AES exits.

Since the console itself is pretty useless (and slow!) for normal use, I've added these lines to the end of /etc/csh.login:

if ($term == "st52") then
	/usr/bin/naes
endif

This will autostart N.AES when you log on the console. Note: This applies to all users!

Start N.AES at login

This is what I normally do, since I prefer to have N.AES running on the console and all TOS-programs on virtual consoles. This way I can kiss Toswin goodbye, and I don't have to start a 400k shell just to launch N.AES.

This is done by adding a new user whose startup-shell is N.AES. It's easy, just add a line like this...

Nroot:*:0:0:NAES Operator:/home/root:/usr/bin/naes

...in /etc/passwd. Now you can change the password for Nroot (Or whatever you choose to name this user.), and when you log in with this username, N.AES will start up automatically. This user has the same UID/GUID and home-directory as root, that's why I've called him Nroot, with the 'N' indicating that N.AES is the shell.

NB! Do not use Taskbar/TosWin2's "Launch shell"-feature with this setup! It will launch N.AES again with disastrous results...

Start N.AES directly from init

If you do this N.AES will always start, so you can't just start a shell instead of GEM when you feel for it. It will also always start with UID 0, i.e. root.

Load /etc/ttytab in your favourite text-editor, and change the line...

   console   "/usr/etc/getty console"   st52  on  secure

to...

   console   "/c/n_aes/n_aes.sys"       st52  on  secure

(Or n_aes030.sys if you have a 030.). N.AES will now start automatically when you boot. Normally N.AES inherits $HOME from the program it was started from (login, shell...), but in this case $HOME won't be set so you have to set $HOME in N_AES.CNF. Alternatively you could use GEM-Init and get a multiuser GEM-setup. It's not trivial to get GEM-Init to work properly with KGMD, but if you need a multiuser GEM-environment it's well worth the effort.

You can quit N.AES, but since there's no login to return to the console is left useless. You can start N.AES again from one of the virtual consoles, but remember to switch to the console ([ALT]+F10) as soon as you've pressed [ENTER], otherwise N.AES attempts to start on one of the virtual consoles and really mess things up!

Updated 20012002