NC Server Contents and Structure

    Distribution: COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

    Project:      NC Model 1
    Issue:        0.01
    Author(s):    Steve Cormie
    Date:         20-Nov-96
    Last Issue:   None
  

Contents.

• 1. History
• 2. Outstanding Issues
• 3. Overview
• 4. Read-only Boot Mount
• 5. Read-write User Mount

1. History

        0.01 SMC 20-Nov-96 Created.

2. Outstanding Issues

There are no outstanding issues.

3. Overview

This document specifies the content and structure of the NC server, specifically the contents of the read-only and example user (read-write) NFS mounts. This does not specify the setting up of server software in order to get NCs to boot eg. bootp in the ethernet case.

4. Read-only Boot Mount

The read-only mount point is passed to the NC by the server in response to a bootp request for ethernet NCs or is provided on the smartcard for modem NCs. The NC makes the mount and runs a boot script on the server. In the case of ethernet NCs this is done before the NC starts up the user interface. In the case of modem NCs the NC user interface (WindowManager) has already started up to facilitate the user dial-up process. The boot process in each case is therefore quite different although there are commonalities. The top-level directory of the read-only mount contains the following.

4.1 !NFSBoot - The NC Boot Structure

The !NFSBoot directory contains all of the scripts (called Obey files), applications, utilities and operating system extensions (called modules) which allow the NC to boot from the server. This directory contains the following.

4.1.1 !Run,feb

The !Run,feb file is run by the NC when it boots from the read-only mount (the ,feb extension is used by NC OS to identify the file as a script). This file detects whether the NC booting from the server is an ethernet or modem NC and runs the !RunEther,feb or !RunModem,feb script respectively.

4.1.2 !RunEther,feb

The !RunEther,feb script contains operating system commands which set up paths, load system modules, inform the system of the presence of other applications and set up network connectivity eg. DNS resolvers, routes etc. This file is commented and should be examined to determine what needs to be changed to get the NC to boot successfully from the server. Typical contents are described below.

4.1.3 !RunModem,feb

The !RunModem,feb script contains operating system commands which set up paths, load system modules, inform the system of the presence of other applications and make the read-write user mount for modem NCs. This file is commented and should be examined to determine what needs to be changed to get the NC to boot successfully from the server. Typical contents are described below.

4.1.4 Apps

The Apps directory contains the application !Sennen which is used on ethernet NCs (the equivalent on modem NCs resides in the modem ROM). This is a watchdog application which performs many useful functions, including starting up the browser and cooperating in the smartcard enabled logon procedure. It will also restart the browser should it exit with a fatal error.

4.1.5 Custom

The Custom directory can contain sub-directories of the form OmSTBxxxx, where xxxx is the last four hex digits of the MAC address of an ethernet NC (this is not used for modem NCs). These sub-directories can contain a !Run,feb script which is run only for the NC with the apropriate MAC address when it boots. This is provided for system administrators to customise the boot sequence for specific NCs eg. for smartcard programming, and should be used sparingly.

4.1.6 Modules

The Modules directory contains operating system extensions or replacements (called modules). These are loaded into the NC RAM and stay resident until the NC is powered off or reset. They will be only be loaded again if they are not already resident when the NC next boots from the server.

The modules which are provided in the release are:

4.1.7 Printers

The Printers directory is currently empty but can be used to provide extra (or replacement) Printer Definition Files (or PDFs) which extend or enhance the range of printers which can be used by the NC. If these are required in a future release then they will be provided as a patch with the correct file structure.

4.1.8 Utils

The Utils directory contains utilities used during the boot process.

The logon utility is used by the modem boot script to create the user's read-write NFS mount. This resides on the server so that it can be updated easily to match changing ISPs server configurations. The command has the following syntax:

logon <path to user directories> <server IP address> <mount name>

The user name from the smartcard is appended to the user directory path to obtain a read-write mount path for the current user.

The route utility is used by the ethernet boot script to set network routes. The command has the following syntax:

route [-e] add|delete net|host <dest> <gateway> [<metric>]
route -f
route -a

dest is destination host or network
gateway is next-hop gateway
metric (add only) is number of hops to dest

Options:

-e    write error report to Inet$Error
-f    flush routing table
-a    print the routing tables

4.2 Demos

The top-level Demos directory contains demos used by the example user setup. This contains two sub-directories, Director and Java, each of which contain a single example of a MacroMedia Director movie and a Java applet respectively.

4.3 Director

The top-level Director directory contains the !MMPlayer and !Shockwave applications which play MacroMedia Director movies and Shockwave applets respectively. These are booted by the boot script so that the system knows where to find them if required.

4.4 Help

The top-level Help directory contains the HTML based help system for the NC. It contains three sub-directories, NTSC, PAL and VGA, each of which contains the help system to be used depending on the type of display the NC is connected to. Each of these directories contains a sub-directory containing the help for individual applications. At present, only the browser help is held on the server in sub-directories called NCFresco. The index.html file in these directories is the initial file loaded by the browser (which displays all application help). Other applications include NCWriter (the word processor), NCFiler (the simple HTML based filer) and NCConfig (the administration application). These may have server based help systems at a later date.

4.5 Images

The top-level Images directory contains images used by the example user setup. These are provided as an example only and can be replaced to suit any customised user environments to be set up where the NCs are installed eg. to suit a corporate image.

4.6 Java

The top-level Java directory contains the Java Virtual Machine application. This is booted by the boot script so that the system knows where to find it if required to play Java applets.

4.6 Replay

The Replay directory contains the applications which comprise the Replay audio and movie playback system. The following applications are included in the release.

5.0 Read-write User Mount