A2 has been installed and used on bare PCs. More commonly it is installed as a subsystem on a Unix-like system or on MS Windows.

Installing and Running UnixAOS

The original instructions^[1] for installing UnixAOS are in http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~fld/UnixAos/Readme.txt. Installation files are available from http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~fld/UnixAos/.

The display of freshly installed LinuxAos Generic 32-bit, rev.9527.

The shell script installer assumes existence of a sys group in the host. For systems lacking this group, the script is easily adapted. For example, sys can be changed to bin.

chgrp -R sys ${aosdir}

vs.

chgrp -R bin ${aosdir}

In UnixAOS the ext2 filesystem can be used on a removable flash store.

The aos start script, installed by install.UnixAos, by default to /usr/bin/aos, adjusts the operating system environment before starting aos.{solaris,linux,darwin}. As noted in Readme.txt, UnixAos can be started with these two commands.^[2]

cd <myWorkingDirectory>
aos

<myWorkingDirectory> must be replaced with a specific destination of course.

User and Machine Specific Configuration of UnixAOS

UnixAos is configured by Configuration.XML. The Oberon subsystem is configured by Oberon.Text; refer to the ETH Oberon page and the original betadocu page.

Firefox and A2 with Weston and XWayland on a Debian 10 system with twin screens.

If the working directory is on a removable store, the myaos script allows the storage device to be used in multiple machines with differing configurations. When the store is not already mounted, e2fsck is applied as a precaution.^[3] In case the filesystem has been corrupted, e2fsck will usually complete repairs. A reasonable location for the myaos script is the home directory of the user. For each host, create in the working directory files Configuration.<host>.XML. To use the Oberon subsystem, create Oberon.<host>.Text. This can be done by copying the installed files and editing the copies. For example, a host named blunder requires Configuration.blunder.XML for A2 and Oberon.blunder.Text for the Oberon subsystem. The XML file contains ASCII text and can be edited with mousepad or gedit or with PET in A2. The installed Oberon.Text contains some binary information.^[4] In S3 it would usually be edited with Edit or ET. Nevertheless plain text will also work. After storing Oberon.Text with ET.StoreChar, it can be edited with Mousepad or Gedit in Linux, with Notepad in MS Windows and with Atom in MacOS. This can resolve the difficulty of a file name, Oberon.<Host>.Text, exceeding the 32 character limit of the Oberon system. myaos copies Configuration.blunder.XML to Configuration.XML and Oberon.blunder.Text to Oberon.Text before starting UnixAos.

The A2 Repository

The contemporary source texts of A2 are maintained in Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN) along with executables for several platforms. While older methods to install A2 are available, this method, based on the SVN repository, provides the latest version and allows ongoing updates. In summary, the method is to establish a local copy of the repository and then to update when convenient. The repository is checked out from the ETHZ archive and A2 can be built for various platforms including a bare PC. As of 2020 January it contains completely working executables in subdirectories for (at least) Windows (32 and 64 bit versions) and Linux (Intel 32 and 64 bit versions). There is also an ARM subdirectory, as yet receiving minimal attention and feedback from users. The working copy of the repository will occupy approximately 1 GB.

apt-get install subversion

yum install subversion

mkdir <somewhere>/a2[5]

cd <somewhere>/a2
svn checkout \
        --username infsvn.anonymous \
        --password anonymous \
    https://svn-dept.inf.ethz.ch/svn/lecturers/a2/trunk .

cd <somewhere>/a2
svn cleanup .
svn update .

svn status <somewhere>/a2

cd <somewhere>/a2
svn update \
        --username infsvn.anonymous \
        --password anonymous .

svn -v log <somewhere>/a2

Running A2

With an A2 repository in place, according to the preceding section, A2 can be executed.

Identify supported architectures.

<prefix> cd <somewhere>/a2/
<prefix> ls -d *   (dir /ad  in MS Windows cmd)
AosVM  LanguageReport  Linux32  source  UnixAos  Win64
ARM    license.txt     Linux64  tools   Win32    WinAos

Execute the appropriate start script. This for a 32 bit machine running MS Windows.

./Win32/a2.bat

For a 64 bit machine running Linux.

./Linux64/a2.sh

User Level Applications

Various documents and applications are available via the menu at the lower left of the A2 display. Note Docu > Program Demos and Demos. A mail client using IMAP is at Apps > MailClient. The Oberon subsystem described in the following section has Mail.Panel supporting POP3 and SMTP.

The Oberon Subsystem in A2

The Oberon subsystem in UnixAos on an XO-1.5.

<Section name="Autostart"> 
	... 
	<Setting name="Start an Oberon" value="Oberon.Start Oberon 1100x704 0 74  ~"/> 
	... 
</Section>

apt-get install openbsd-inetd inetutils-telnetd

telnet stream tcp nowait <user> /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/telnetd -E bin/bash

service openbsd-inetd restart

telnet localhost

Desktops.OpenDoc telnet://localhost

cd ~

Email

The Mail.Panel in the Oberon subsystem in A2.

The Oberon subsystem in A2 supports POP and POP3 for retrieving e-mail and SMTP for sending it. In UnixA2 (=UnixAos) the subsystem can receive e-mail from a smarthost via Stunnel and send a message via Exim with TLS.^[7] TLS is now routine practice; essential to preserve security.

In Oberon.Text (Oberon.<host>.Text if using myaos) make these settings.

NetSystem = {
  SMTP = "localhost"  {* outgoing exim4 mail server *}
  POP = "localhost"  {* stunnel to incoming mail server *}
  ... 
  POPMode = "POP3"  {* POP3 or APOP *} 
  EMail = "me@my.domain.name"  {* your return address *}
  ... 
}

Ports 25 for SMTP and 110 for POP are visible in Oberon.Mail.Mod.

Install stunnel on the host and configure as in this example. The server name and port, exemplified by my.email.server:995, should be adapted to context.

# localhost:/etc/stunnel/stunnel.conf
# Example SSL client mode services 
[pop3] 
client = yes 
accept = localhost:110 
connect = my.email.server:995

Set the POP authentication using NetSystem.SetUser as in this example.

NetSystem.SetUser pop:myEmailID:myEmailPassword@my.email.server ~

If MyEmailID contains @, a SetUser command containing two @ characters will fail. This command, for example, will fail.

NetSystem.SetUser pop:me@my.domain.name:password@my.email.server ~

The difficulty is avoided by percent-encoding the @ character in the email client ID.

NetSystem.SetUser pop:me%40my.domain.name:password@my.email.server ~

For the percent-encoding to work, add Oberon.RFC3986.Mod and modify or replace Unix.Oberon.NetSystem.Mod to use the encoding. Compile the two modules with a MM click on this command in an A2 window or use the compile button in the PET editor. The compilation must be performed in A2; not in the Oberon subsystem.

Compiler.Compile Oberon.RFC3986.Mod Unix.Oberon.NetSystem.Mod ~

Import of RFC3986 by NetSystem imposes the order of compilation.

Install Exim in the host according to system specific documentation for Debian, Fedora/CentOS and etc. ^[8] Exim authenticates to a smarthost according to a password file.^[9] Details of configuration for a specific mail server can be obscure. For example, STARTTLS or TLS on connect might not be specified. Before attempting to configure Exim, ambiguities are best resolved using Swaks. Replace parameters -au, -ap, -f and -t with appropriate values for user, password and email address.^[10]

 swaks -tls \
       -ao -apt -au me@my.authentication.domain -ap r2d2\$8Ch \
       -s my.smarthost.com --port 587 \
       -f me@my.email.address -t me@my.email.address

The example password has eight characters; the \ prevents misinterpretation of the $ character. Swaks creates a trivial test message automatically. Parameters of the command can be adjusted until transmission succeeds. Transmission can be confirmed by receipt in Oberon as discussed above. Refer to the excellent manual for all details.

Sources, Tools and Configuration Texts in A2

A tiny sample of the approximately 2000 sources in A2. Access the ETHZ Repository with userid infsvn.anonymous and password anonymous.

A contemporary Firefox browser attempts to infer "Content type" from the name extension. By default Firefox infers wrongly that source file *.Mod contains "Amiga SoundTracker audio" and fails to open it. This difficulty is resolved by adjusting the "Action" Firefox associates with "Content Type". Open hamburger menu > Preferences > General > Applications. For "Amiga SoundTracker audio" choose an editor such as /usr/bin/mousepad or /usr/bin/gedit. Most sources in A2 have been converted to plain ASCII text; some remain as Oberon Text. Gedit will open all of these. Mousepad and several other editors will not open Oberon Text. Content type "plain text document" should also be set to the chosen editor. With these adjustments Firefox should open most of the files in the repository.

In some contexts the user may fail to find a configuration of a browser to open files in the repository. In any case a browser should open the Wikibook copy.

Footnotes

1. ↑ The SVN repository, described subsequently, is a more recent method of installation and release tracking.
2. ↑ The command line prefix in a Unix-like system is user configurable and can be configured to the empty string. For simplicity, the prefix is omitted in most of the commands shown here.
3. ↑ A filesystem can become corrupted if not unmounted before the system is shut down. The directory can also be damaged by natural degradation of the storage media. If the filesystem is intact, the execution time for e2fsck is negligible.
4. ↑ See Oberon Text.
5. ↑ In a Unix like system, many variations are available. cd ~ ; mkdir a2 for example.
6. ↑ The LAN can be secured by a firewall. Shorewall is recommendable.
7. ↑ The same functionality of the Mail.Panel is available in ETH Oberon when another local host provides Exim and Stunnel.
8. ↑ The primary Exim documentation is also available.
9. ↑ In Debian, /etc/exim4/passwd.client associates a password with each (host, user) pair. Multiple host:user:password specifications are acceptable. The file does not determine the destination chosen by exim for sending a message. Refer to the exim4-config_files manual.
10. ↑ me@my.authentication.domain is a userid pattern commonly used by ISPs.
11. ↑ In some cases the Wikibook copy will differ from the latest file in the ETHZ repository. For an exact comparison, use a file comparator; Diff.Do in Oberon, comm in Linux.
12. ↑ BootManager.Split BootManager.Bin is executed to divide BootManager.Bin into BootManagerMBR.Bin and BootManagerTail.Bin. For additional details, refer to the instructional document of André Fischer.