Date: Thu, 17 Sep 98 10:13:15 EST From: Dwight McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #28 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Thu, 17 Sep 98 Volume 11 : Issue 28 Today's Topics: Adding second disk to SS2 Central Data serial ports Changing IP addr of 386i Dead?? Sun 4/110GX-32 needs help old monitor +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Submissions: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com | | Requests: suns-at-home-request@net-kitchen.com | | WWW Archive access: http://www.net-kitchen.com/~sah | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 18:40:24 -0400 From: Jason Schaller Subject: To: "'Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com'" I have Reciently recieved a SparcStation 1 with 64 megs of ram. No keyboard, No mouse, No Floppy Drive, and No Viedo Card. I am new to Sun Equipment. Could someone please point me in the right direction to get these items cheep. Thank You Jason Schaller - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 18:59:58 -0400 From: Brian Neal Subject: Adding second disk to SS2 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Hello, I've got a 2GB seagate I'd like to use in my Sparc 2. I've mounted it in the box and, with some amount of creativity, I've got everything connected and in place. My problem is, however, getting it to work in Solaris 2.6. I'm new to SunOS, but not UNIX. I've formatted the disk and (I think) partitioned it, using the format parameter. I was hoping to be able to mount it by doing: mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /mnt_point Unfortunately, this doesn't do it: mount: /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 is not this fstype I've also tried specifying the filesystem type, which I believe is "ufs". Can anyone help me out here? Thanks, Brian Neal ================================================================== Brian Neal Naeser's Law: You can make it foolproof, but you can't make it damnfoolproof. ================================================================== - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 21:24:38 +0100 From: Mike Spooner Subject: Central Data serial ports To: gary@sabot.com, Suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com You wrote: I found a company called Central Data, www.cd.com, that makes all 3 serial port approaches (PCI/ethernet/SCSI) for Suns. Anyone have any experience with them? Yes indeed. Last November, we were looking for a flexible, distributed serial-port solution for our network of Solaris systems. We looked at various options (SBus cards, terminal-servers with a 'reverse' mode or 'slave' ports, SCSI, etc.) and suppliers. For flexibility and distribution, an Ethernet-based mechanism was obviously going to be the best bet. All the various TELNET-based terminal-servers and remote-port servers has the MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR disadvantage that your applications needed to know how to talk TELNET. Central Data had a better option: an Ethernet-based port-server that actually provides local Solaris /dev entries that behave just like REAL serial-ports. Wow! We can use tip, Seyon, and all the other standard serial-port apps to talk to serial devices that are located potentially miles away! Another factor against TELNET terminal-servers and port-servers: the TELNET protocol is expensive for bulk streams of data (as opposed to occasional keystrokes etc). Many TELNET terminal-servers can generate thousand of tiny Ethernet packets for even a modest data stream; unfortunately Ethernet is packet-rate limited and such usage can easily saturate a 10Mbit segment. The Central Data Etherlite port-server delighted us at it's efficient use of Ethernet packet-rate capacity: with all 8 ports running a constant stream of data at 38400 (and with the remote device's flow-control turned off), the network traffic between the Solaris box and the Etherlite was very modest. We also wanted the ports to be accessible from multiple Solaris boxes, but to be given a standard RS-232 "no carrier" if a port was in use by another system (this is so that the ports could be demand-shared between redundant Solaris servers, for a high-availability solution). Finally, we wanted full program control of XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS, call-up versus wait-for-carrier-on-open, high baud rates, parity, frame-size, synchronous versus asynchronous, detectability of dropped remote DTR, all via the standard Solaris APIs (so that the ports would work with ANY program that would normally use REAL serial-port devices directly in the system). Given the above (and the hundreds of other products considered), we felt that the CD EtherLite was the only sensible choice. Cheaper too!!!! Our usage: We are using the Central Data Etherlite port servers to attach a miscellany of serial printers to a pair of Sun E6000 servers configured as a (manual) high-availability cluster. The servers are located in moderately distant aircondition machine-rooms, but the printers are scattered around all over the place. We did not want the printers to be individually wired all the way back to the servers (and how do you wire them to BOTH servers for high-availability?). Neither did we want to scatter non-redundant print server systems all over the place (eg: close to groups of printers). And we definately did not want to scatter PAIRS of redundant print-servers all over the place! :-) Instead we have an EtherLite on each floor, with the serial printers for that floor wired into it. In a server-failure situation, the other E6000 assumes the failed system's IP address and hostname (and thus receives subsequent print-requests from the desktops). It can talk 'directly' to all the same serial printers. The desktop clients are blissfully unaware that one E6000 has failed. Just as it should be. When the failed system comes back up, and services are remigrated, the reverse happens. Any print jobs that are in progress when the printing service is migrated complete (the 'new' print server thinks that the serial-ports are in use, until the other guy completes). Having EtherLites scattered around is no problem, because all you have to do is switch them on (we configure their IP address automatically via BOOTP), unlike a real Solaris print-server that requires careful nurturing and can be quite noisy. And think of the saved electricity! We have not had a single problem with the EtherLites in the 9 months since installation. We have also used them occasionally for terminals, modems, and direct PPP links. Well, now you know why we bought EtherLites. The one possible snag for home users would be that the physical serial ports on the EtherLite use RJ-45 connectors, not DB-9 or DB-25 ones. That is not a problem for us because we have supplies of clip-together RJ45-DB25 convertors (about Ģ3.00 each in small retail quantities). PS: Yes, we also have 34 directly-networked printers too (HP LaserJets). - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 11:00:14 +0000 From: "David Cantrell" Subject: Changing IP addr of 386i To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com Does anyone know the magic formula for changing the IP address of a 386i running SunOS 4.0.1? -- David Cantrell - http://www.ThePentagon.com/NukeEmUp Your CPU has only a finite number of cycles before it becomes senile. Don't waste them running Windows 95. - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 21:08:14 -0400 From: Rich Ralph Subject: Dead?? Sun 4/110GX-32 needs help To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com I just received a Sun 4/110GX-32 (Model # 347) as a "thank you" for a donation to a charity my doctor runs. I've never worked with Sun equipment before, so this 4/110 is a first for me. I was told that "the computer works fine, but the hard drive went bad, and now the computer doesn't work" - which is true, the 4/110 doesn't boot. I've familiarized myself with the 4/110 by reading the Sun Hardware FAQ, sifting through SunHELP.com, and looking through old posts at DejaNews. I also received the entire SunOS Reference, which weighs as much as the computer does! However, I haven't been able to find instructions on (1) how to open up the machine, or (2) how to read the diagnostic LEDs? I think these are the first steps to getting the thing working again. Then I can dump the images and send them to you, no? Also, (3) where can I get a SCSI cable to connect to fit the weird SCSI port on the 4/110? I'd like to connect to a Centronics 50 Male device such as an external CD-ROM, or an external HD. In addition, (4) are there any vendors selling old accessories for this thing, like an Ethernet transceivers to change either the BNC or AUI to 10Base-T? Finally, (5) what does the "GX" stand for? Any help will be appreciated, especially on how to open the case. TIA. P.S. How can I access the Suns-at-Home-Archives? A "help" query got the following response: ----- Transcript of session follows ----- sh: inbound not available for sendmail programs 554 "|/export/home/sah/ARCHIVES/bin/inbound"... Service unavailable Reporting-MTA: dns; net-kitchen.com [You can get to our archives over the web at http://www.net-kitchen.com/~sah] [--ddm ] Best regards, Rich Ralph - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 13:28:20 +0100 From: Luis Jacinto Fernandes Subject: old monitor To: "'Suns-at-home@ecn.purdue.edu'" I ve seen one question about a MONITERm monitor, VCX-V2/115, as i have one too. I have tried to contact the question originator, Christopher Knowles, but unfortunatelly he isnīt in that address anymore. If you have sent some answer how to connect sutch monitor, pse tell me something. It is a litle bit later, but i hope there is somebody with knowledge about this. thanks regards luis fernandes ljfernandes@marconi.pt - ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************