Date: Mon, 6 Mar 00 17:34:58 EST From: Dwight McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #7 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Mon, 6 Mar 00 Volume 13 : Issue 7 Today's Topics: Free Sun 4/110 system in Portland, Oregon. My First SUN Need help using SPARC w/out monitor Question on connecting dumb terminals to a Classic Sparc: (2 msgs) Rescue options for Sun 4/690MP SCSI Problems with Sun 3/60 Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #6 (4 msgs) +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 18:59:31 -0800 From: D M P Subject: Free Sun 4/110 system in Portland, Oregon. To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com I've got this relic sitting around, unused for at least a year, now it's time I got rid of it (I ran out of storage space). - Sun 4/110 w/ GX framebuffer in a 3-slot VME upright case. - 19" Hitachi 13W3 monitor, nice picture, damned heavy. - Type 4 keyboard. - Optical mouse w/ metal pad in good condition. - One external drive enclosure with 60MB tape drive and hard drive. - Another external drive enclosure with hard drive mounted internally. - Extra Emulex MD21 SCSI-to-MFM bridge board for external drive enclosure. - SunOS 4.1.1 on two 60MB tapes. - Manual set for SunOS 4.1.1, including developer's manuals. - Photocopies of the relevant pages from the Sun Field Engineer's Handbook. - Keyboard, monitor, and SCSI cables. The CPU is non-working, the story is that the Diag switch was flipped while the machine was on and sitting at the PROM monitor. To my knowledge, everything else is in good, working condition. One of the hard drives is an MFM (using an MD21), the other is SCSI. I'm not sure of the capacity of either, but I'm almost positive they're less than 500MB each. I'm in Portland, Oregon. - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 20:09:08 -0500 From: Jason Mullins Subject: My First SUN To: Suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com Hello All on the List - I have just purchased my first sun box, it's a Ultra 1 Creator with 128 megs of RAM and a 2 gig SCSI drive. I have also purchased a CD-ROM and a 19" Color Monitor for it. I have a home network and I would love to intergrate this machine into it provided it can do a few things. Im curious about solaris's ability to work as a firewall, as well as monitor and keep up my PPP connection to the outside world (Erols internet for the time being). I also want to be able to set up ip masquerading(spelling :) I have solaris 2.6 on CD, that shiped with two maintence CD's.... So my real question is how do I begin once I have the OS installed, and the maintence cd's applied? Thanks for your time in advance Jason Mullins - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 23:24:36 -0500 From: Scott Ehrlich Subject: Need help using SPARC w/out monitor To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com Hello to all: I now have a SparcStation 5 and a Sparc Classic, Sun 5c keyboard, and Sun mechanical mouse. I have tried connecting the serial cable for my PC and plugging into each Sparc's respective serial ports, use a terminal program, power on the Sparc, and see nothing. I'd like to interact with each system to get them both up and running without the expense and space requirements of getting a Sun-capable monitor. I have a Dell VGA monitor and Sun<->VGA adapter, but have discovered the signal frequency is "Out of Range" for the monitor to deal with. Any help would be appreciated. I have SunOS 4.1.4 and Solaris 7 CDs, and I'd like to get my two systems up and running. Thanks for any help. Scott - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 18:25:42 -0800 (PST) From: David Wolfskill Subject: Question on connecting dumb terminals to a Classic Sparc: To: holysin@iquest.net, Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com >Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 11:19:36 -0500 >From: Bennett >what is the key sequence on a dumb term to send a stop-a? >Thanks! Generate a "framing error" (at least as many consecutive 0 bits as there are bits per character, plus the framing (start & stop) bits. Thus, for 8-bit characters, no parity, 1 stop bit, you need to generate at least 10 consecutive 0s for the bit rate you're using. A way to do that is to press the BREAK key. >please reply to my email address as well as the suns-at-home. A way to have that accomplished automagically is to place both addresses in the Reply-To: header. :-) Cheers, david -- David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org As a computing professional, I believe it would be unethical for me to advise, recommend, or support the use (save possibly for personal amusement) of any product that is or depends on any Microsoft product. - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 23:24:45 -0500 (EST) From: Curt Sampson Subject: Question on connecting dumb terminals to a Classic Sparc: To: Bennett > what is the key sequence on a dumb term to send a stop-a? It depends on the dumb terminal; the stop-A sequence is not an ASCII character but a `break' signal, which means holding the line to all zeros for more than a character time or two. (Normally a quiescent asynchronous RS-232 line is in an `all ones' state.) You'll probably have to look in the manual for your terminal to figure out how to send a break. cjs -- Curt Sampson 917 532 4208 De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil. The most widely ported operating system in the world: http://www.netbsd.org - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 08:38:57 -0600 From: Cory.Bajus@mts.mb.ca Subject: Rescue options for Sun 4/690MP To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com We have some SPARCserver 4/690MP's here that have been decommissioned, and will probably be heading to the scrap heap soon. Obviously, a box of this size isn't really suitable for a 'Sun-at-Home', but I am interested in options for recycling some of this hardware. Some things I am considering are: - Removing all reusable components from the 690's for use in other Suns. This includes things like SBus cards (there are some FDDI and ether/SCSI combo cards), SCSI devices, and memory (the 690s have a whole bunch of 4MB and 16MB 30 pin SIMMs - are there any machines that can make use of 16MB 30 pin SIMMs?). I am assuming that there is not much use for the IPI drives in the machines. - A more interesting possibility is pulling the CPU cards and installing them in the empty VME chassis of smaller Sun servers. A three slot chassis would be enough for a CPU w/ onboard memory. A six slot chassis would allow me to salvage the 501-1767 memory cards. Does anyone have any experience performing this type of 'brain transplant'? Are there any issues like power, cooling, etc. that have to be considered when moving to a smaller VME enclosure? Also, what Suns would be most suitable to serve as a new 'host body'? How big are the six slot machines, and what are the power requirements? I welcome any other ideas on how to save this hardware... Thanks in advance, Cory. - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 19:10:25 -0500 From: "Andrew Francis" Subject: SCSI Problems with Sun 3/60 To: When I try to connect an external SCSI drive to my machine, the SCSI turns off! I noticed this when taking the lid off of the hard drive box and watching the hard disk. Acquaintances told me that there was a problem with the way the SCSI pins are wired with some of the Sun 3/60s. However I have not been about to find a description or solution to this problem on-line. Can someone help point me in the right direction (show me the proper pin layout, etc) Cheers, Andrew - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 18:56:05 -0900 (AKST) From: "Christopher E. Brown" Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #6 To: Suns-at-Home-List@tigger.net-kitchen.com > I recently got a 3/60 going that had a broken power supply by rewiring a PC > one slightly. I used the PC PSU motherboard connectors, exchanging a wire > here and there to match the ones on the 3/60. > > It worked fine, until I left it on for more than about 15 minutes, when the > keyboard (and presumably mouse) stopped working. The kb doesn't even beep > when I turn the machine on any more. It's a Type 4 keyboard. > > Anyone got any ideas why this has happened? I'm not too keen on just replacing > it in case it goes again. I'm a bit worried about using the PC PSU. IIRC, > RS232 runs at 12v and the keyboard port uses RS232... is it possible my 12v > supply is too large / too small and has broken the keyboard somehow? Or is > a keyboard that hasn't been used for a year or two likely to just randomly > stop working like this? The Sun KB and mouse are not rs232, the are RS422, a multidrop serial rig (though the voltage levels are the same). No idea about the failure though. - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 20:34:56 -0500 (EST) From: Rick Leir EPS Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #6 To: Dwight McKay > Question on connecting dumb terminals to a Classic Sparc: > what is the key sequence on a dumb term to send a stop-a? The break key. This key breaks out of RS232 and zeros the output signal for a short period. It is equivalent to disconnecting your serial cable momentarily. cheers -- Rick Rick Leir rleir@igs.net 613-828-8289 http://www.igs.net/~rleir/ - Fight for web standards. http://www.webstandards.org/ The WaSP! "Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." - Henry Spencer - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 10:32:50 -0600 From: "Salmon,William E.,Wes" Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #6 To: "'Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com'" , www.sunsunsun.net has Sun 20" greyscale for $30. Sounds pretty cheap to me. Wes >Reading the query in SAH volume 13, issue 5 about dying grayscale >monitors reminds me of a question I've always wanted to ask: > >Suppose I want a *good* (= large, sharp) greyscale/mono monitor for >a *new* computer system. Who makes/advertises/sells these critters >(besides Sun itself)? The computer press and usenet newsgroups >(misc.forsale.computers.monitors) all seem to focus on color monitors, >but surely I'm not the only person who would rather buy other computer >components for the color-greyscale/mono price difference? -- -- Jonathan Thornburg - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2000 00:05:31 -0600 From: Garry Garrett Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #6 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com, holysin@iquest.net "Dwight McKay (The Moderator)" wrote: > what is the key sequence on a dumb term to send a stop-a? > CTRL-Break. > Bennett Thede > holysin@iquest.net > ... > From: Jonathan Thornburg ... > Reading the query in SAH volume 13, issue 5 about dying grayscale > monitors reminds me of a question I've always wanted to ask: > > Suppose I want a *good* (= large, sharp) greyscale/mono monitor for > a *new* computer system. Who makes/advertises/sells these critters > (besides Sun itself)? The computer press and usenet newsgroups > (misc.forsale.computers.monitors) all seem to focus on color monitors, > but surely I'm not the only person who would rather buy other computer > components for the color-greyscale/mono price difference? >From the pages of Sun Expert (now Server/Workstation Expert): Richardson Electronics 800-222-CRTS(2787) www.rell.com/crts dpg@rell.com Now, I pulled this from the January 1999 issue, so for all I know, they are not in business anymore. They were advertising their "Monoray MR2000 SUN" monitor, that is designed to work with the Sun MG1 frame buffer. I guess that "Monoray" is the name of the manufacturer, and this company is a reseller. Contrary to what you may think, mono monitors (new ones anyway) aren't cheaper than color. You see, it's niché market: the publishing industry (newspapers and such). The Monoray is 20" and has a 2048x1536 resolution! As someone pointed out with the ELC, being Mono, it scrolls much faster (less bits to push around) than a Color. If your newspaper is in black & white, you'd rather have the incredibly sharp resolution than color. The superior resolution and speed are pluses that you *pay* for. You can call these folks up and price it, but I'm willing to bet the Monoray costs more than a low end color monitor. If you want cheap, buy used. If you want really cheap, Sun made a 17 mono monitor (basically the same one that is mated to the SLC & ELC), and you probably can pick up a used one very cheap. I have some links to some used vendors (also from SunExpert) on my homepage. If used is not an option, you will probably find cheaper color monitors than Mono. There are 3rd party SBUS card frame buffers for VGA and SVGA if you have a source for cheap PC monitors. I can't speak to PCI (which is what a newer Sun will probably have) bus cards (though I have my doubts that very many Mono cards exist for PCI bus - maybe for this niché?). By the way, I've seen a few "I've got this old Sun, if nobody wants it, come get it or else I'll throw it away". I've been trying to dig up some old information that I had on places that took in old equipment. I did find the following (will get word wrapped, but type it in as one line): http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Computers/ Business_to_Business/Services/Disposal/Charitable_Organizations/ The ones I saw there were PC (sometimes PC and Mac) oriented, but they might take Suns. I'm still looking; I know I have an address somewhere that looks for Unix boxes. It was a missionary type organization, they put the computers into 3rd world schools and such, but also they use them for UUCP (not like you can get cable modem much in Africa) over telephone and radio modems so that the villages that these schools are in (and the missionaries) can get e-mail. I suppose, now-a-days, they probably just get PCs and slap Linux on them. Still, if you can find a home for an old computer, seems a shame to waste it (gave my first computer, a Sinclair ZX81 with a whopping 1K of RAM [though I maxed it out with a 64K expansion card] to a guy who had made a robot out of his and wanted to make another). Many of the ones listed on Yahoo's pages are actually services that link up the charitable givers with charitable groups (in your area) that want computers. -- Garry Garrett http://monarch.papillion.ne.us/~ggarrett - ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************