Date: Sun, 18 Oct 98 19:03:33 EST From: Dwight McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #30 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Sun, 18 Oct 98 Volume 11 : Issue 30 Today's Topics: FS: SPARCstation IPC Info on 675Ar1 reel 2 reel tape and Clearpoint sn2xram mem borad Installing Solaris on a Sparc IPC Old monitors Operating systems for a sun 3/80 (2 msgs) SPARC IPC SUMMARY: IPX motherboard in IPC case Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #29 (2 msgs) Support for RealTek 8029 PCI NE2000 in Solaris 2.6 Intel? The backlight in my SPARCbook is failing +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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: Sun, 04 Oct 98 23:32:14 -0800 From: "Paul Khoury" Subject: FS: SPARCstation IPC To: "Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com" Sorry to post to this list, but I am required to sell my IPC (and have to minimize down to only 2 PCs (and what I can keep in a box). I have an IPC with 36MB of RAM, a 200MB Conner HD, 1.44MB floppy, CG3 FB, and I'm asking $180 for it (or will make offers). Fortunately, I'm going to keep the SPARCbook with the large investment I've already made in that. Please email me at pkhoury@loop.com for any questions. Again, sorry for posting to the list. -- Paul Khoury | | Sent from my K5-200 http://warped.cswnet.com/~pkhoury/index.html | http://pkhoury.dyn.ml.org (local machine) Proudly running OS/2 Warp 3 & 4, Mac OS 7.5.3, Sun Solaris 2.4, Linux 2.0.29, Newton OS 1.05 ICQ#14582895 - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 14:27:53 -0400 From: "Paul W Zibaila II" Subject: Info on 675Ar1 reel 2 reel tape and Clearpoint sn2xram mem borad To: Just picked up a couple Sun 4/2xx VME racks and trundled them home from Boston. Some times I even think I'm nuts. Looking for any/all info i can find on a Clearpoint 32 meg Ram board, and a really reel tape drive. When he said tape drive, I remembered the old 150 megger in a big dead front panel in the rack. Should be interesting to get the rascal running. Thanks in advance. pwz ii - ------------------------------ Date: 13 Oct 98 00:26:03 MDT From: grypos@usa.net Subject: Installing Solaris on a Sparc IPC To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com I was given a Sparc IPC along with Solaris 2.3 on CD. After installing a SCSI hard drive I next wanted to install some form of operating system. Not having a CD-Rom drive for the IPC kinda ruled out installing Solaris, but I did manage to get a distribution of S/Linux on CD. Mounting this CD in an Intel PC with Linux installed enabled a NFS install to be performed on the Sparc. But... I really want to install Solaris on the IPC, is there any way I can do a similar NFS install from an Intel PC running Linux. Please don't say : You can do a remote install from another Sun (it's not going to happen) You could buy a Sun CD-Rom drive for the Sun :-) No, it can't be done Thanks in advance Ian Barnes ____________________________________________________________________ Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1 - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 11:36:11 -0500 From: Evan Person Subject: Old monitors To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com SAHers, I have two old monitors that need attention. The first is a Sun/Hitachi 19" color monitor on my SS1+ that works okay when turned on, but starts flickering obnoxiously when left on for several hours or more (so it seems to be a heat- related problem of some kind). This monitor is a model HM-4119-S-DA-OL, p/n 365-1073-01, manufacture date Jan 1990, with standard Sun 13W3 connector. The other is a dead Moniterm b/w 19" (20"?) monitor, model VCX810A, p/n 999-0343-01, manufacture date Sept 1990. It has a DB9 connector on the back. I would like to obtain service/repair technical manuals for each of these monitors so that I can either fix them myself or get them fixed somewhere. Any info will be appreciated. If possible I could even borrow the manuals, copy them, and return them. The Hitachi monitor in particular, although large, heavy, and old is a very nice unit. Thanks, Evan Person ----------------------------------------------- Vperedi dobra, druzya... A. Solzhenitsyn - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 16:17:49 -0500 (CDT) From: Ty Sarna Subject: Operating systems for a sun 3/80 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com In article <199809271433.JAA26850@net-kitchen.com>, Thorne Lawler wrote: > > So far I have looked at SunOS and NetBSD and come to the following > conclusions: > - NetBSD isn't terribly ...um... finished. I could *probably* get In what way is NetBSD "not terribly finished"? I haven't used it on a sun3x machine (only sun3), but I do follow port-sun3 and aside from the parallel port driver, support for the 3/80 looks fairly complete. (well, I guess in one was you're right: SunOS 4.x is definately finished. That is, it's in it's final form. It's done. It'll never be improved or updated. NetBSD continues to improve, so it's not finished, and hopefully never will be.) > Gated or Routed running under it, and possibly even > Samba, but I'd almost certainly have to re-write some Routed is included in the base system. Samba and Gated both work just fine out of the box. You can install pkgsrc and do: cd /usr/pkgsrc/net/samba && make && make install cd /usr/pkgsrc/net/gated && make && make install or just pkg_add the m68k precompiled binaries from ftp.netbsd.org > things to make it all go, and stability would still What would you expect to have to rewrite? > probably be an issue. Furthermore, NetBSD doesn't support > the parallel port on the 3/80 yet, does it? The parallel port is not supported yet. If you're disappointed at not having to rewrite code though, you could put that energy into a parallel port driver :-) - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 22:20:09 -0400 (EDT) From: John Ruschmeyer Subject: Operating systems for a sun 3/80 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 19:56:06 +1000 (EST) > From: Thorne Lawler > Subject: Operating systems for a sun 3/80 > To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > > Hi. I've got this sun 3/80 here with no particular video hardware. (this > is ok: I own and use dumb terminals aplenty) I also have a job for this > machine; I need a household server that can do the following: > - TCP-IP routing including ip-masquerading, proxy arp and RouteD > or an equivalent. All are standard with NetBSD. > - PPP over a 33.6K modem (Can the serial ports on a 3/80 *do* > 56K?) I suspect not. A Sparc 2 really tops out at 38.4, so I would doubt that a Sun3/80 could do better. > - SAMBA for a print and file server. (Ideally, I'd need support > for the b&w and color modes of my Canon BJ210sp) Samba is not a problem. As for the Canon, do you need support from Windows or Unix? For Unix support, the real question is whether GhostScript supports the BJ210sp? > - can be configured by a non-guru: I have *some* *limited* > experience with doing all this under linux. This one's about a wash, no matter which way you go. > So far I have looked at SunOS and NetBSD and come to the following > conclusions: > - NetBSD isn't terribly ...um... finished. I could *probably* get > Gated or Routed running under it, and possibly even > Samba, but I'd almost certainly have to re-write some > things to make it all go, and stability would still > probably be an issue. Furthermore, NetBSD doesn't support > the parallel port on the 3/80 yet, does it? Gated/Routed- Routed is included Samba- Supported in the Package system. Just build or download a precompiled binary Stability- Haven't run it on a 3/80 (can't get mine to work... anybody got a spare motherboard? :-), but it is very stable on a Sparc 2 (and on the i386). Stay to 1.3.2, instead of -current (development) versions. Parallel port- AFAIK, that is still not supported. > - SunOS is a little insecure, and very obscure, and difficult to > procure. :) If it was recommended to me sufficiently, I > *might* use it, but I am reluctant to embark on what > amounts to an entirely new OS, especially for something as > fiddly as this. Procurement is easy, it is out there (albeit questionably legally) on the Net. However, you have the problem that this is a several year old product, so don't expect Y2K compliance or other boug fixes. > So, the point of this post is this: What do people recommend? Are > there any other operating systems out there which I should consider, and > how do I get one? NetBSD... definately... <<>> - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Sep 98 21:08:03 -0800 From: "Paul Khoury" Subject: SPARC IPC To: "Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com" Okay, I goofed, and found out that I originally had 12MB in my IPC, when I really had 24MB (sorry for the late reply, I've been busy with school). I upgraded to 36MB a while ago. I don't have the monitor, because I can't find where to get one cheap. I hooked up my 5C keyboard to it, and it beeps and the LED on the front just blinks. I know the HD works, because I found a FS on my SPARCbook (which BTW has 2.4 on it now until I get a CD-ROM of Tadpole 2.3 I ordered). Is there something wrong with my machine? I'd really like to get it working, although I heard it's quite slow. As for the SPARCbook's IP address, I've got everything set, except that I cannot telnet in as root. I can, but it closes the connection. Do I have to setup something so I can log in? Thanks. -- Paul Khoury | | Sent from my K5-200 http://warped.cswnet.com/~pkhoury/index.html | http://pkhoury.dyn.ml.org (local machine) Proudly running OS/2 Warp 3 & 4, Mac OS 7.5.3, Sun Solaris 2.4, Linux 2.0.29, Newton OS 1.05 ICQ#14582895 - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 22:53:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Donald Burr Subject: SUMMARY: IPX motherboard in IPC case To: Sun Managers list , A couple of weeks ago, I posted to sun-managers and Suns-AT-Home with a rather unusual question: Can a Sun *IPX* motherboard fit into a Sun *IPC* case? Thanks to everyone who answered, including: (in no particular order) "Bruce R. Zimmer" "Robideau, David" "Rodney C. Marable" (Brad Young) (BrandonButterworth) (Thad MacMillan) Adrian.Cole@ausgate.cvsi.com Benjamin Cline Dave Floyd Dean Moore Frank Fiamingo - Columbus Heidi Burgiel Igor Kolker Jay Hennigan John DiMarco Michael Maciolek Rachel Polanskis Raymond Wong Sean Ward Shawn Laemmrich ian@masuma.com The vote was unanimous: Yes, indeed, an IPX motherboard can be fitted into an IPC case. Quite easily, as it turns out. In fact, Sun sold an IPC-->IPX upgrade kit, that basically included a new motherboard, new memory, and a new face-plate for the unit (that says "IPX" instead of "IPC"). The IPX uses a totally different kind of memory, however. (I believe it uses standard 72-pin SIMMs, or something very close to that.) So if you were thinking of moving your IPC memory to the IPX, forget it. I'm sorry I delayed in posting this summary, but I think you'll agree with my reasoning. I wanted to actually do the "upgrade" and report my results in the summary! So, without further ado, here goes... It was successful! I had no trouble with it at all -- the old board slipped out easily, the new board went in just as easily, and the system boted up and worked fine thereafter. In total, it took me just under 1 hour(!), that's including setup and teardown time. I tend to work pretty quickly than average, so adjust this time accordingly depending on how slow or fast you are at boardwork. So, here's the procedure. First, the tools you'll need: * A proper electronics workspace, e.g. anti-static mat, wrist strap, etc. * Needle-nose pliers. * A standard set of screwdrivers (I only needed phillips blades). * A set of *small* precision screwdrivers. (Radio Shack sells, or at least they used to, a set of small silver screwdrivers in a blue box with a clear lid, and I've seen similar units at electronics stores like Fry's Electronics). * Several small bowls, medicine pill containers, ashtrays, or whatever, to hold screws and other odd bits of hardware so that they don't roll away from you. * A good strong penlight, as well as good room lighting (or a spotlight over your workspace). * SPARCstation IPC, and a IPX motherboard (of course). * The proper type of memory for the IPX. (of course) Now, the procedure. 0. BACK UP YOUR DATA!!! This includes reading and copying down your EEPROM settings (boot device, boot file and arguments, et al). 1. Lay the SPARCstation on your work surface. Unscrew the little screw thingie on the back, and remove it. Squeeze the two side tabs, then flip the top of the unit up and towards the front of the unit. 2. Disconnect the SCSI cable, floppy drive cable, and power cable from the unit. The power cable is similar to the type of cables that ATX power supplies use, and are removed by squeezing in a little tab on one side of the connector while lifting up. After doing this, the SPARCstation should now be in two pieces. Take the top part (the part that has the drives and power supply) and set it off to one side. 3. Disconnect the speaker from the motherboard, and remove it. (It's set into a pair of grooves on the side of the case, and is NOT glued in, so it will just lift right out.) Set it aside. 4. Remove any SBus cards or other expansions/customizations and set them aside. 5. Flip the bottom part of the chassis up, so that the connectors on the back are facing you. Now, take your precision screwdrivers, and CAREFULLY unscrew the set of screws that are holding the SCSI connector in. These will require a small Phillips screwdriver. On my Radio Shack screwdriver set, the proper size screwdriver is labeled a "number 0." Set these screws aside. 6. Next, unscrew the two screws adjacent to the Ethernet connector. This one is tricky, because the stupid Ethernet sliding clip gets in your way. I had to sort of bend mine in order to get the screw heads completely out. The proper size screwdriver for these screws is a flat blade, labeled "2.4 m/m" in my Radio Shack kit. Set these screws and the little slider thingie aside. 7. Now, unscrew the two thingies (what is the real name for these buggers, anyway?) adjacent to the 13W3 video connector. This is tricky, because they are almost flush with the plastic of the case. But, after some grunting and twisting with a good pair of needle-nose pliers, you will be able to get them loose. Once you have them loosened up, you can use your fingers to get them out the rest of the way (this makes it much easier). Set these aside as well. 8. Now, remove the motherboard. This is tricky, because there are several things in your way: some plastic retainers holding the motherboard in, the "light pipe" (a piece of clear plastic that refracts the light from the power LED to the power LED hole on the case). Just work at it slowly and carefully, and you'll quickly be able to free the board. Set the old board aside (if you want to keep it, you better protect it in an anti-static bag or something!). 9. Now, insert the IPX motherboard. The best way to do this is to insert the side with the ports first, and line the ports up with their appropriate holes in the case. Then, drop the other end of the motherboard in. Wiggle it around a bit until it is mounted flush against the bottom of the case. The IPX board uses a different type of "light pipe", which falls just shy of the power hole on the case, but you'll nevertheless get a usable, though dimmer, light out the front of the case. 10. Again, turn the bottom towards you so that the ports are facing you again. Using the appropriate tools, screw all pieces of hardware back where they came from. The little sliding thingie on the network port is again the tricky part; a little bit of wiggling around and possibly bending the metal thing will allow you to get it in. I, personally, never used the thing, and found it more of a nuisance than useful, so I just didn't put it back in. It's up to you. 11. Re-insert the speaker into the case, and plug it back into the motherboard. Also, re-attach any SBus cards or other customizations that you had in there before (assuming they are IPX-friendly). Lastly, re-attach the power cable, floppy cable, and SCSI cable to the motherboard. 12. Snap the two halves of the now-IPX case closed, and re-attach the screw thing on the back. 13. Turn the machine on, set the EEPROM values to what they're supposed to be, and boot 'er up. You're all done! --- Donald Burr *NEW EMAIL ADDRESS!* | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ#16997506 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 22:09:32 -0400 (EDT) From: John Ruschmeyer Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #29 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 14:29:40 +0200 > From: Jonathan Thornburg > Subject: No Subject > To: "Suns-at-Home mailing list submissions" > > In a Suns-at-Home followup, DBell@mobile.bam.com suggested > > If you are going to be running old hardware, > > especially with limited RAM, I'd seriously consider Linux or OpenBSD, > > as you'll get much better performance on the old machines. > > Another option is SunOS 4.1.[34]. > [Earlier SunOS 4.* releases are no smaller and > significantly less featureful; SunOS 3.* is a lot > smaller, but also a lot less featureful. TANSTAAFL...] > On a SPARC, I would rate 4.1.3 as excellent (and well ahead of Linux or > OpenBSD, both of which have SPARC as only a minor platform) in maturity > (freedom from major bugs), support for exotic devices, and general > software/support availability on the net. A couple of comments: First, there is another alternative yet- NetBSD (http://www.netbsd.org). The Sparc is definately not a minor platform there. (Actually, I'm hesitant to even call it a minor platform for Linux, given the official backing from Red Hat and Sun's commitment to Linux.) As for "maturity", I certainly have no problems with NetBSD on a Sparc 2. Further, I am more likely to trust the "freedom from major bugs" of an OS which has ongoing development, rather than one which is considered a "legacy" product by its vendor. Ditto for trying to get major fixes and new features if you are running legacy hardware such as the Sun4 or Sun4c architecture. I will give something of a nod to SunOS for support of exotic devices. However, if the device is *that* exotic, it is likely to be only supported under Solaris, anyway. As for "general software/support availability on the net", I think it fair to say that most of the major open source packages are already included or will easily build under any of the free Unices. AS for commercial software, all three support execution of SunOS and Solaris biaries in emulated mode. <<>> - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 16:25:49 -0700 (PDT) From: David Ras Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #29 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com I'm using a USR VoiceSurfer56k w/ my SS10 @ 38k, with no problems. The SS10 can still out-run the modem, probably because of the huge buffers for the serial ports. The modem is running as a dial-on-demand internet connection. There is one note, however. I don't remember exactly what it said, but the gist of it was: "If you are going to use serial port speeds above 9600, use the Zylogics Serial port driver (zs), due to limitations and buffer overflows with the ttyout driver". The max speed I have connected at is 42k, but I still get a steady 3.8-4.0k/sec download speed...much faster than when it is connected to my PC (3.0-3.3k/sec). Hope that helps. -dr >- ------------------------------ > >Date: 17 Sep 1998 23:52:34 -0000 >From: brendan@zen.org >Subject: old sparcs & a 56k modem >To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > >Hi! I was wondering if any of you folks found that using a 56k modem with >an older sparcstation (with the serial port confined to 38k) actually gave >you a fast enough connection? Did you notice the bottleneck between your >machine and the modem, or was it noticably faster than, say, a 28.8 line? >The machine I have is a sparc 1+. I have a vague memory of the sparc2 >being the first with a serial port that can really handle faster speeds, >but it might be wrong. (i.e., if I get a 56k modem will I be wasting >my money, ya think?) > >Thanks! >B > >- ------------------------------ - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 19:11:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Donald Burr Subject: Support for RealTek 8029 PCI NE2000 in Solaris 2.6 Intel? To: Sun Managers list , Is there any support for the RealTek RTL8029 PCI 10Mbps Ethernet chip in Solaris 2.6? This is a NE2000 clone, and works fine with the NE2000 drivers of most other OS's (e.g. FreeBSD, Linux, etc.)? Also, for the future reference, what is an appropriate place(s) to post hardware type questions like this one? My impression is that Sun-managers is only for administration/software type issues. Thanks! --- Donald Burr *NEW EMAIL ADDRESS!* | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ#16997506 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Oct 98 01:06:52 -0800 From: "Paul Khoury" Subject: The backlight in my SPARCbook is failing To: "Suns-at-Home-List@net-kitchen.com" Does anyone know where I can get a replacement backlight for a SPARCbook 3GX? Mine is VERY dim, and it definately needs to be replaced. :( But I also don't want to spend a fortune repairing it either... -- Paul Khoury | | Sent from my K5-200 http://warped.cswnet.com/~pkhoury/index.html | http://pkhoury.dyn.ml.org (local machine) Proudly running OS/2 Warp 3 & 4, Mac OS 7.5.3, Sun Solaris 2.4, Linux 2.0.29, Newton OS 1.05 ICQ#14582895 - ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************