Date: Thu, 18 May 00 15:12:27 EST From: Dwight McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #15 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Thu, 18 May 00 Volume 13 : Issue 15 Today's Topics: Experiences with 365-1168 20" grayscale monitor? how to disconnect idle users automatically. IPC wont boot OpenBoot display problems; Can't open Sun disk label; packages device really big grayscale monitors SPARCstation ELC clarification SPARCstation ELC questions (4 msgs) Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #14 (2 msgs) Sun Sparc reference ? What Version Win95->Solaris 7 via null-modem/PPP +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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: Wed, 3 May 2000 13:05:03 -0500 From: Cory.Bajus@mts.mb.ca Subject: Experiences with 365-1168 20" grayscale monitor? To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com I am looking for a good quality grayscale monitor. Does anyone have any experiences with this particular Sun monitor? Is it considered to be a good choice? I am wondering: - What type of video connector does it have (13W3, DB9, etc.)? - What framebuffers support this monitor? - What video modes and sync rates does this model support? And the most important question - do these monitors last under normal use (i.e. turning them off when not in use (overnight))? Thanks in advance... Cory. - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 07:49:01 -0700 (PDT) From: sunthar resar Subject: how to disconnect idle users automatically. To: Suns-at-Home-Request@net-kitchen.com Hi GUrus, Please help me to figureout how to disconnect the users who are idle for more than one hour automatically. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 19:33:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Goldarg Subject: IPC wont boot To: Dwight McKay Greetings! Yesterday I got some new hardware for my IPC at a local Users Group and now that I attempted to use it my little IPC wont boot. What I got was 8 unmarked 30 pin simms, 1 AUI adapter , 1 floppy drive that was known to work. (to replace the write only floppy that came with my IPC) Since I tried to install them the system doesnt work :( When I got into work today I was able to hook a mac serial cable up to it and cable it up to my laptop to see if anything was comeing out of serial port A. Nothing happens when I try to boot the system with a monitor attached to either my double wide cgsix or the onboard bwtwo, the keyboard beeps and gets power but thats it. Following instructions I found on suns website I plugged in a type 4 keyboard and held down STOP-D when turning it on and all the lights did what they were supposed to and now that I had a serial console attached I got the below. Per another FAQ I found I swapped the fuses out of my SS1 with my IPC to see if that would do anything with the SCSI error. I also tried an external sun SCSI terminator on the system allong with trying to power on the system with both an internal disk and without yet I continue to get the same output and nothing from the frame buffers. Can anyone offer any help? I removed the floppy and ram and replaced the ram with the ram I had in it prior to the swap but still nothing :( -----Begin Log------ Using USA keyboard table using nvramrc probe-all ?SPARCstation IPC, Type-4 Keyboard ROM Rev. 1.6, 24 MB memory installed, Serial #18877. Ethernet address 8:0:20:a:9b:21, Host ID: 520049bd. SPARCstation IPC, Type-4 Keyboard ROM Rev. 1.6, 24 MB memory installed, Serial #18877. Ethernet address 8:0:20:a:9b:21, Host ID: 520049bd. The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external device is turned off. Testing Level 14 I ----End Log ---- - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 00:03:37 -0500 From: "Justin Vander Ziel" Subject: OpenBoot display problems; Can't open Sun disk label; packages device To: Hello All, After a year-long hiatus and scouring the archives, I have returned to = the good folks of the Suns-at-home list with hopes that with all of the = combined expertise out there one of you might have an answer or two to = my questions. I just recently acquired a second bare-bones SparcStation II. Unlike my = first Super Workstation SSII clone, this new machine has a sharp-looking = colorized 3d SUN logo to go with the standard banner. However, when I = first boot the machine, the first part of the banner and logo display to = the right and below the second half of the logo and the ethernet address = part of the banner. In addition, the Ethernet address part of the banner = seems to have acquired a french accent with acute accents over the 'd' = of address, the 'e' of my MAC, and the 't' of the word 'Host' After = this, the OpenBoot prompt ( the less-than sign and then the OK) displays below the first-half of the banner for a few = lines. After I fill up the screen with linefeeds the display being = written to is OK but the unrefreshed borders remain 'dirtied.' I am = using what I think is a TGX 8-bit accelerated framebuffer from the other = Sparcstation II. The framebuffer worked perfection on the other machine. = The logo on the other machine is a simple Super Workstation letter logo. It's almost as if the language setting had been changed in = the OpenBoot. In addition, when I try to boot from a hard drive on which I had = installed Linux or from the Solaris CD from a Toshiba CDROM drive (from = which I was able to boot and install both Solaris and Linux from on my old-SSII clone with a bootROM, OpenBoot version 2.4; the version = of the machine in question is a 2.2), or from a boot floppy I get a = message stating that "Can't read disk label" (or also "Bad magic number = in disk label" although it's a Sun CD) and "Can't open Sun disk label = package, Can't open boot device" I have not checked the parity setting on the drives. = Birdsall's FAQ indicated that the boot ROMs cannot boot from SCSI disks = with parity turned on or because the disk is initiating synchronous = negotiation and I will try this. However, it doesn't seem like this = would cause the other problems mentioned. The error messages are = different from those you would expect if it was just a block-size error = (according to the CDROM FAQ, the older Sun's used a 528 (?) bit block = while the newer CD drives including the Toshiba use a 2048 bit block). = It seems to be related to this Sun disk label thing - whatever may be causing that. Could anyone explain to me what is the purpose of the /packages device = listed by the OpenBoot show-devs command? - the nodes listed are = obp-tftp, deblocker and disk-label so they appear as /packages/obp-tftp /packages/deblocker /packages/disk-label Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Justin Vander Ziel mailto:zielot@thebestisp.com - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 00 17:37:05 PDT From: lakin@pgc.com (Fred Lakin) Subject: really big grayscale monitors To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com I recently heard that Sun made/makes a 20" grayscale monitor ... poss part number 365-1168 from Zenith. Any used ones out there? Or, even bigger grayscale monitors that will work with my funky ol' integrix sws20e. tnx, -f - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 09:58:38 -0500 From: Cory.Bajus@mts.mb.ca Subject: SPARCstation ELC clarification To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com I'm sorry if I was not clear about my question regarding 'turning off the screen'. What I am looking for is a physical method to power down the monitor portion of the SPARCstation. I want to do this for the following reasons: - reduced power usage - extend the life of the display While a screensaver will prevent phosphor burn on a mono monitor, I don't believe it will prevent the monitor from becoming dim with use - am I correct here?. Does anyone know of a hardware hack for accomplishing this task? I would rather not power down the entire server, as I think that shortens that life of the NVRAM. Thanks again... Cory. - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 00:07:57 -0400 (EDT) From: der Mouse Subject: SPARCstation ELC questions To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > I was thinking of getting a SPARCstation ELC to function as a cheap, > quiet monochrome X-terminal. Does this seem like a good idea? An ELC should be a decent machine for the job, assuming you don't mind booting diskless. (Disk means external enclosure, probably with fan, which kills much of the "quiet".) You also should load it up with memory - especially if it's diskless; if it has to swap/page over the net, it will *crawl*. It can go as high as 64M (4x16M). > Are the built-in monitors generally good quality? Do they last? When they work, they work okay. But I've seen dozens of SLC/ELC machines with broken video and only one or two with broken CPUs. So however reliable the video may be in absolute terms, it seems to be less reliable than the CPU board. > Is there any way to turn off the screen while leaving the rest of the > machine running? No. Like any bwtwo, you can blank the video, making it *look* as if it were turned off, but the video electronics are still powered up. Indeed, the power supply gets upset if it doesn't see the load from the video electronics. > Is the onboard video monochrome (i.e. 1 bit) or greyscale? Monochrome. It's a bwtwo. > If it is mono, is it possible to upgrade to greyscale? I doubt it. Practically everything is soldered in place - I just looked at one, and there are only three socketed chips: the NVRAM, the ROM, and the third is a Weitek chip that looks like either the CPU or the FPU to my untrained eye. Now, it may be that not all ELCs are the same. But you certainly can't count on having anything else.... > Any other impressions of this particular model? They make OK headless machines, though decapitating them is slightly nontrivial. sunhelp.org has a page up I wrote on the subject, if you're interested (http://www.sunhelp.org/~mouse/). der Mouse - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 16:40:11 +0200 (CEST) From: Maarten Deen Subject: SPARCstation ELC questions To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 11:46:24 -0500 > From: Cory.Bajus@mts.mb.ca > Subject: SPARCstation ELC questions > To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com > > I was thinking of getting a SPARCstation ELC to function as a cheap, quiet > monochrome X-terminal. Does this seem like a good idea? Are the built-in Yes, good idea. It's a wonderful machine and as quiet as possible when you can net-boot. > monitors generally good quality? Do they last? Is there any way to turn off It's a good tube, which can fail of course. Mine hasn't yet. > the screen while leaving the rest of the machine running? Is the onboard video The only option without hardware tampering is the screensaver. May only work when using X. Maybe you can tinker with the hardware and try to build a switch somewhere, but that's only for the experienced TV maintanence guys. > monochrome (i.e. 1 bit) or greyscale? If it is mono, is it possible to upgrade > to greyscale? Any other impressions of this particular model? It's mono, no way to upgrade (the board has no sbus). It's a nice machine, but the mono is it's biggest problem. Modern 24bit color people will have to swallow once or twice when seeing graphics in Netscape rendered to 1 bit colordepth. Maarten - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 11:53:10 +0200 From: "Lyndon Fletcher (UAB)" Subject: SPARCstation ELC questions To: "'Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com'" > I was thinking of getting a SPARCstation ELC to function as a > cheap, quiet > monochrome X-terminal. Does this seem like a good idea? Depends on cost. I have been given ELC's before now so as a zero cost X term it's pretty good. Don't spend any real money on these machines, --they are about as powerful as a 486 25Mhz which is hardly earth shattering and the moment you start getting up to $100 or so you start being able to find low cost PC HW that will do the same job. Are > the built-in > monitors generally good quality? Yes Do they last? Not really, this is the main weakness of this machine and the reason I've looked into running them screenless (ie just the MB). The screens seem to loose focus before they go completely. Is there any > way to turn off > the screen while leaving the rest of the machine running? Not easily. The monitor and the CPU share the same PSU. Is > the onboard video > monochrome (i.e. 1 bit) or greyscale? If it is mono, is it > possible to upgrade > to greyscale? It's monocrome and not upgradable. > Any other impressions of this particular model? I've been given a few of them. As no cost Unix machines they are pretty good. Back a couple of years ago when comparative PC power was still fairly pricey they were a good intro to unix, these days with Linux and low cost PC HW they are not so hot. As a stand alone machine you will need an external HD and a Sun CD to load the OS from. The good news is that they use standard 72pin SIMMs giving you a cheap way to get 64MB. The BAD news is that the SIMMs have to have true parity which 90% of PC SIMMs aren't. However it should be possible to find some second hand true parity SIMMs because a few PC Motherboard makers did stick with parity SIMMs after the move from 30pin to 72pin. Lyndon > > Thanks in advance... > > Cory. > > - ------------------------------ - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 10:30:34 -0700 From: "Gary W. Cook" Subject: SPARCstation ELC questions To: The ELC and is lesser brother the SLC are mono.. No way to make it greyscale. They do not last. I would be surprised to find one that you can still view an image on after all these (10?) years unless somebody refurbished it. Most were dim and out of focus after a couple of years. Gary W. Cook gary@sunny-california.com - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 08:11:50 -0500 From: "Barnett-Lewis, William" Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #14 To: "'Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com'" Go to http://www.sunhelp.org and you can find a very nice FAQ (among many others :) on how to use Roadrunner with your Sparc. Enjoy! William > -----Original Message----- > Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 19:07:53 -0500 > From: Eric Hall > Subject: Cable internet hookup > To: "Suns-at-Home-List@tigger.net-kitchen.com" > > I was wondering how to get my SS10 running Solaris 7 up on the cable > modem supplied by Time Warner Road Runner. > > I can make it work by: > > rm /etc/hostname.le0 > touch /etc/hostname.le0 > touch /etc/dhcp.le0 > shutdown -r now > > what I want to do is do it interactively without rebooting. I.E > something > like: > > ifconfig le0 dchp-auto start > > The above gets me an ip address but no routing. Anyone know how to > do this? Thanx, > > Eric > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. > http://im.yahoo.com > > - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 May 2000 01:03:41 -0500 From: Garry Garrett Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V13 #14 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 19:07:53 -0500 > From: Eric Hall > Subject: Cable internet hookup > To: "Suns-at-Home-List@tigger.net-kitchen.com" > > I was wondering how to get my SS10 running Solaris 7 up on the cable > modem supplied by Time Warner Road Runner. > > I can make it work by: > > rm /etc/hostname.le0 > touch /etc/hostname.le0 > touch /etc/dhcp.le0 > shutdown -r now > > what I want to do is do it interactively without rebooting. I.E > something > like: > > ifconfig le0 dchp-auto start > > The above gets me an ip address but no routing. Anyone know how to > do this? Thanx, > > Eric Dumb question. After you reboot, and have it working, why don't you just leave it that way? I have not played with DHCP myself (on Suns anyway), but are you disabling your Sun's internet connection when it is not in use? If the problem is that you get one IP and you want to use another computer sometimes, why not just proxy? If the problem is you want to also use it on a LAN, why not setup a /etc/hostname.le0:1 file and have it answer to 2 IP addresses? > Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 11:46:24 -0500 > From: Cory.Bajus@mts.mb.ca > Subject: SPARCstation ELC questions > To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com > > I was thinking of getting a SPARCstation ELC to function as a cheap, quiet > monochrome X-terminal. Does this seem like a good idea? Are the built-in > monitors generally good quality? Do they last? Is there any way to turn off > the screen while leaving the rest of the machine running? I'm pretty sure (had one on my desk for over a year, but that was many moons ago) that you can through the NVRAM setting have it blank when it's not in use. You really want to, because the screens do suffer from burn in quite a bit. Changing picture tubes for the monitor isn't exactly easy either, from what I hear. I was pricing some a couple of years ago and one reseller was willing to sell me the ELC and the new picture tube, but was not willing to change it for me (too much work). > Is the onboard video > monochrome (i.e. 1 bit) or greyscale? If it is mono, is it possible to upgrade > to greyscale? Any other impressions of this particular model? I used to know this, but I don't remember. I would go to http://www.sunhelp.org/ and look at some of their FAQs that they list. I'm sure you'll find the answer there. -- Garry Garrett http://monarch.papillion.ne.us/~ggarrett - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 16:59:02 -0400 From: "Gordon, John" Subject: Sun Sparc reference ? To: "'suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com'" I was looking for a good used Sun machine to use at home, but am having trouble finding any kind of reference on the net that tells me how to compare whats out there ... what the hardware progression is through the various system names that are for sale (sparc 1, 2, 5, classic, ultra, ss10, ss20, ilx?, epc?, etc), framebuffers (tx1 vs cg6, etc), whats a good idprom and should i care ?, which ones have room in the case for an add-on internal CD drive ?, and the like. There are lots of hardware guides for the PC, but none I can find for the Sun. The one I did find has a bad link (Birdsall?). Can anybody help me ? Please respond to my email as well as the list. Thanks in advance. bcingu John - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 10:47:58 +0100 From: "JOHNSTONE,IAIN (A-Scotland,ex1)" Subject: What Version To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com How can you tell which version on Solaris you are running from a shell prompt? Cheers Iain [uname -a --ddm] ______________________________________________________________ Iain Johnstone Technology Engineer, GIO, ESO NT Agilent Technologies UK Limited. South Queensferry, Scotland, EH30 9TG. Telnet 313-3367 External +44 (0)131 331 6367 Mail mailto:iain_johnstone@agilent.com mailto:iain.johnstone@computerquest.demon.co.uk Web http://www.agilent.com http://www.hp.com ______________________________________________________________ - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 16:15:25 +0100 From: mark.foster@bt.com Subject: Win95->Solaris 7 via null-modem/PPP To: suns-at-home-request@net-kitchen.com Greetings, @Homers, My setup: Headless IPX running Solaris 7 connected to an SS10 (at Solaris 8) via a "crossed" ethernet cable, this all works fine. The IPX also has a null-modem cable connected between ttya and COM1 on a Pentium PC, which is running Win95 (OSR2). I currently use the PC and HyperTerm to talk to the console on the IPX, this too works fine. My problem: I'd like to run PPP over the serial connection between the IPX and the PC (or, more likely, an identical cable between ttyb and COM2). I can setup the PPP server side of things on the IPX, but I don't have any idea about how to configure dial-out/PPP over a null-modem on the PC. So, has anybody out there already done this or know where I can get the information needed. Thanks for your help. Cheers, Mark Foster. - ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************