- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by dave.dunfield＠gmail.com

>Very interesting. By the way I've been reading your comments about your >incident in 2019. I am impressed. All the best for you and your near people. >Kind Regards >Sergio Thanks! It's been an "interesting" year! Btw, for anyone who was interested enough to download my DVM demo... I've made a lot of updates, additions, improvements, and fixed a few bugs. Might be worth grabbing it again. Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com Check out "DVM" - run custom apps. anywhere!

5 years, 9 months

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9 track tapes and block sizes

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

dear all, thanks for the useful informations! So now a question comes to mind... what is the best utility for Linux to be used to read and archive tapes? Thanks Andrea

5 years, 9 months

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Computer History

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I've recently reread *Fire In The Valley, Ed. 1,2 &3.* They are the seminal, authoritative & comprehensive sources for the history of the microcomputer. We in the classic computer community need to know the history of our hobby to keep it vital and relevant to today's society. More than ever we need to know how microcomputers came about that may be helpful in understanding the role microcomputers play in our lives now. Happy computing all. Murray ? <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

5 years, 9 months

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Notes on HP3000 WCS Microcode, Series 37 on ebay in Germany

by rdbrown0au＠gmail.com

HP 3000 Series 37 on ebay in Germany (7954A, 9144AR, 30457A, 700/92 (German keyboard)) https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-3000-Series-37-Computer-System-RETRO-SELTEN-… Thanks to David Collins at the HP Computer Museum, I now have 11 different versions of the HP 3000 Series 64 [,68,70] microcode SYSWCS64.PUB.SYS and 3 different versions respectively of each of SYSWCS37 and WCSLE1 and WCSLE2. I've put notes up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:RDBrown/HP3000-WCS-Microcode It's possible that one of the SYSWCS64 files may match the assembly listing on bitsavers, but that listing could allow guessing the architecture, assuming horizontal microcode and matching against the HP 3000 stack machine instruction set it implements. Only the Series 37 rates a mention in the HP Journal, though the common data between the SYSWCS37, WCSLE1 and WCSLE2 suggests they may share a common microcode. Guessing the architecture would be more of a puzzle, unless more documentation is found. J. David Bryan's SIMH work gives a running MPE V for anyone to try. I don't know what other minis of the era also have microcode available as files - I read that the Vax 780 had 1k of microcode patch/extension area for fixes or customer use.

5 years, 9 months

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Tektronix 4953 Graphics Tablet

by cctalk＠v6y.net

Hello everyone! I present to you a rare bird; the Tek 4953 graphics tablet, with (I think!?) everything. https://www.ebay.com/itm/203108439922 I am look forward to posting a series of _nice_ Tek terminals and complete DG rack systems. Please contact me directly if you have any questions. -Justin Keogh (520) 265-0034

5 years, 9 months

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Care and feeding of some Lisp machines (TI Explorer and Xerox Star)

by lars＠nocrew.org

Josh Dersch wrote: > Not a ton to see, lisp-wise, it's just a port of Franz Lisp to > Uniflex. I can try to benchmark fibonacci later this week if you want. Thanks! I wasn't expecting a benchmark, just a little defun. For the record, I have a Maclisp over here that will do (fib 40) in less than 9 seconds.

5 years, 9 months

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APL\3000 microcode. Was: Re: Notes on HP3000 WCS Microcode, Series 37 on ebay in Germany

by sieler＠allegro.com

Warner asks: "Why was microcode support required to make APL work? What did it enable that couldn't be done in other ways?" [On an HP 3000 Series III, for example] Back in the mid-1970s, on the HP 3000 Series III, the team implementing APL\3000 apparently decided they would need to implement some form of virtual memory (beyond the multiple 64KB spaces the HP 3000 Classic architecture provided). They chose to add 11 new instructions: LDV, STV, MWFV, MWTV, MBFV, MBTV, LDVB, STVB, MVW, and EGOTO (unnamed by HP), LDWX (unnamed by HP) The first 9 are "virtual memory" related instructions. The last two are not. These instructions were added shortly after the original Series III instruction set had previously been expanded by the addition of the new extended COBOL instructions. (So, the Series III had two sets of firmware expansions.) Subsequent HP 3000 models had the COBOL instructions from day 1. I presume that the APL instructions weren't ready when the Series 30/33 design was locked down. I *think* they might have been available later as an add-on. I know that a few years later, the instructions were ported to the Series 40/44 microcode by Leon Leong, but they were never released for it (APL\3000 was in limbo, about to be cancelled at the time.) But, to answer your question, yes...there are other ways. Gavin Scott managed to patch the unimplemented instruction handler in MPE V/R (the release the SIMH HP3000 simulator is running), and got APL\3000 running. In the meantime, I'm slowing trying to add the instructions to the SIMH code. The nice thing about Gavin's approach is that if I get an instruction implemented, his code *for that instruction* simply never gets called ... so we can coexist peacefully. In theory, implementing the APL instructions in SIMH will lead to better performance (because calling one won't cause a missing instruction interrupt, followed by hundreds or thousands of simulated HP 3000 instructions to emulate the instruction). I believe Gavin is preparing a talk about APL\3000 for an APL Users Group. Another alternative would have been for the APL\3000 people to implement references to their virtual memory via "cover functions". However, I suspect that the grasp of SPL programming, the lack of "macros" with parameters in SPL, and concerns about the performance penalty of a procedure call per memory access all would have conspired to argue against this approach. (Having been reading thousands of lines of SPL written in the 1970s, I conclude that perhaps a handful of people at HP understood how to write readable, maintainable SPL code ... and that's probably the same percentage as SPL programmers outside HP :) Stan

5 years, 9 months

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B.E.I uSounder S-100 board...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I just picked up one of these on a lark. It has an SN76477 sound effects chip on it. Not much other info besides the copyright, 1978. Anyone have schematics or a user manual? Thanks, Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

5 years, 9 months

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Fwd: [GreenKeys] Teletype Model 28 Free, La Crosse, WI area

by jfoust＠threedee.com

> >Subject: [GreenKeys] Model 28 Free >From: GARY WEBB via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> > >Model 28 with modem installed. Tape reader/reperf. Variable speed. Manuals. Last used 20+ years ago. If no one wants it, soon will be in the local land fill. Located in Onalaska, WI Phone 608-769-5633 NI9V

5 years, 9 months

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ISO Advantech Labtool-148C prgrammer wall wart specs

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I just bought one of these thinking it ran off 110, but it uses a 3 pin wall wart. Does anyone have one of these and could tell me the voltages it supplies.

5 years, 9 months

3
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Care and feeding of some Lisp machines (TI Explorer and Xerox Star)

by engel＠multicores.org

Hi, for a planned exhibition, I am thinking of restoring two of the machines to working state again that are in storage here for decades: - A TI Explorer ("Sperry" labeled) and - A Xerox Star (no idea if ours actually ran Interlisp or one of the other OSes for the Star/Dandelion) There is "sen?s dandelion restoration blog" at http://dandelion.sen.cx/ (which seems to be very helpful to test the power supply) and, of course, lots of documents and software on bitsavers. I have quite a bit of experience with TI1500 machines, so the Explorer feels rather familiar, but I have never worked with Xerox machines before. Before I start to disassemble and test the machines, I would be interested to hear about specific problems you might have experienced bringing up one of these two machines, preferably those on the unexpected side. Some things I could not find so far are the mouse and the console cable for the Explorer. It seems that the mouse is related to MouseSystems optical mice used on older Sun/SGI systems (but the interface might be different?). The fiber optics cable for the display (TI part number 2233200 according to the field service manual) might be another problem - if you know any details about this, I would be very interested... Another thing that is also missing is the mouse pad for the three button optical Xerox mouse. Is it possible that an optical mouse pad for Sun/SGI machines is compatible? Best wishes, ??? Michael

5 years, 9 months

8
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SPARCstation ELC Installation and repair guide

by rp＠servium.ch

Does anyone have the Sun SPARCstation ELC Installation and repair guide? I have a few naked ELC boards and I'd like to know what that edge connector does (presumably power and video) and if feasible build something from it (1U rackmount Sun4c server? Slim client built into the back of an LCD? SPARC Laptop? Endless possibilities....)

5 years, 9 months

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Sun SPARCstation LX boot from CDROM?

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

About 20 years ago I rescued a fully working Sun SPARCstation LX with CDROM and QIC-150 tape drive - all 3 in lunchbox format - plus monitor when we moved office and management decided they no longer wanted/needed it. Shortly after I have installed an early version of NetBSD (1.3.3) from the CDROM drive. I played with it for a few days and then stored the entire system in a museum grade glass display cabinet. This is indoors with minimal dust and benign temperatures between 18 degrees C to about 28 degrees C (typical room temperatures here in Perth in Western Australia unless you run the air conditioner). Now retired I took the stack of "lunch-boxes" and the CRT monitor out of the display cabinet and powered it up. After 20 years no smoke came out but the system didn't boot but reported trouble with the NVRAM setting. I still could start NetBSD using a "boot disk" command. I googled the problem and bought and installed a replacement TIMEKEEPER chip (M48T08-100). After defaulting the settings and setting the MAC address and machine ID it was happy and booted from disk without intervention. In NetBSD I then set the date and time and all was good. Then I decided to upgrade to the latest version of the SPARC version of NetBSD 9.0. I downloaded and burned the ISO image to CD. Dropped it into a CD caddy and inserted it into the CDROM drive (SUN Model 411 - really a Sony CDU-8012 3.1e). I did a "probe-scsi-all" and it found both the hard drive and the CDROM (target 6 unit 0). Now comes the problem - if it try to run from it via "boot cdrom" it doesn't even access the CDROM drive - the LED doesn't turn on unlike when you do the "probe-scsi-all". The "cdrom" alias is really: "/iommu/sbus/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4 ,8800000/sd at 6,0:d". The "disk" alias is really: "/iommu/sbus/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4,8800000/sd at 3,0" The "@3" versus the "@6" are the SCSI IDs of the disk drive versus the CDROM. I don't know what the trailing bits mean. I tried cdrom aliases from "sd at 6,0:0" to "sd at 6,0:f" and all report: Can't read disk label Can't open disk label package Can't open boot device The LED doesn't blink even once unless I remove and re-insert the caddy with the CDROM media or if I do a "probe-scsi" or "probe-scsi-all". I tried original Sun Solaris 2.4 installation media with the exact same result/symptoms. I also tried to access the CDROM from NetBSD using "cat /dev/cd0a" but the drive's LED didn't blink and I got an obscure error message. The Boot ROM revision is reported as 2.9. The system was bought about 1985 or 1986 and has seen very little use. I searched google without success. Maybe I used the wrong search terms or the equipment is just getting too old and FAQs have disappeared. What would cause the CDROM boot problem? There is a chance that the actual Sony drive died. I partially disassembled it hoping to find dust stuck on the LASER optics but it was nice and clean. The positioning and ejection mechanisms work just fine. The whole system was working before I put it into my relatively dust proof glass display cabinet. Thanks and best regards Tom Hunter

5 years, 9 months

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Sgi gear

by antoniob＠bell.net

Do you have any challenge L deskisde or onyx available?

5 years, 9 months

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Old tape files needing review

by cclist＠sydex.com

Folks, I've got a fair amount of what would be classified as public domain tape data from old customer jobs wandering around. I don't have the time to peruse it in detail and was wondering if someone would like to take a stab at a sample and perhaps volunteer for the rest. Much of this is from university archivists whose job it was to archive all of the unlabeled or private tapes that they found. I doubt that said folks know what to make of the data. At any rate, here's a sample from a Unix (probably V7) tar-ed up: https://app.box.com/s/htvxd534gvbccoajugfp01ndmfeevxt4 The original appears to be cpio-ed. I'll leave it up for a week. --Chuck

5 years, 9 months

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RSTS/E patches

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

I previously created a Github repository for various DEC things, including updated DECnet/E utilities. I thought that the RSTS patches I had posted in the past were there also, but that wasn't the case. I've added a "patches" subdirectory, which contains the patches I have collected. I just added a new one, which fixes a bug encountered when running SIMH set to be an 11/94. In that case (and possibly some other similar variations) RSTS tries to figure out the line frequency and gets it wrong because SIMH executes much faster. https://github.com/pkoning2/decstuff is the repository. paul

5 years, 9 months

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Looking for a TI technical report on Explorer virtual memory

by engel＠multicores.org

Hi, first, a big "thank you" to all of you who support me with my attempt to get our Explorers and Xerox Stars to run again. I?ll head down to the basement in the afternoon to see if I can build a system that is able to image the Explorer not-quite-SCSI disks (according to the documentation, these have in fact 256 byte sectors). Btw., this Raspberry Pi SCSI device emulator supposedly also supports emulating SASI drives: https://hackaday.com/2017/05/01/the-raspberry-pi-becomes-a-scsi-device/ The original Japanese web page linked in the article is no longer online, but there are several versions of the code (and a translated webpage in English) mirrored on github. This might be useful to build a working SCSI device emulation for the Explorer. So I have another favor related to TI Explorers to ask... One of the reasons (apart from the planned exhibition) I am interested in Lisp and Smalltalk machines is that I?m collecting information on systems using persistent memory, which could also help my students who work on persistent memory research topics to obtain a better insight into the topic and its history. There was a research prototype of a persistent virtual memory system for the TI Explorer by Satish M. Tatte (TI Artificial Intelligence Labs) metioned in these papers: Satish M. Thatte. 1986. Persistent memory: a storage architecture for object-oriented database systems. In Proceedings on the 1986 international workshop on Object-oriented database systems (OODS '86). IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington, DC, USA, 148?159. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/318826.318848) and Thatte S.M. (1991) Persistent Memory: A Storage System for Object-Oriented Databases. In: Dittrich K.R., Dayal U., Buchmann A.P. (eds) On Object-Oriented Database Systems. Topics in Information Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84374-7_16 The second paper cites a more detailed TI Tech Report which I have been unable to find: Thatte, S.M.: "Persistent Memory for Symbolic Computers", Technical Report TR-08-85-21, Central Research Laboratories, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX, July 1985. Does one of you maybe have a copy of this? Best wishes, ??? Michael

5 years, 9 months

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VAX 4000/300 start up / KA670 issues

by Aaron.Jackson＠nottingham.ac.uk

Hi I've had a VAX 4000/300 sitting around for the past couple of years. The second time I tried to switch it on there was a bit pop from the power supply. The 12v module of the H7874 PSU is completely dead and despite my best efforts I have not been able to fix it. Tonight I decided to remove that module and just use the PSU to provide the 5v, with -12 and 12v supplied from external supplies. Surprisingly this worked, as long as the 12v rails are up before you turn on the H7874 (so if you have a dead H7874 you might want to try this...). After some messing around with MMJ cables and various serial adapters, I finally got some stuff printing to a terminal (I have abbreviated this slightly because I don't want to type it out. ]] KA670-A V3.4, VMB 2.12 ]] Performing normal system tests. ]] 66..65.. ... 51.. ]] 50..49.. ... 35.. ]] 34..33.. ... 19.. ]] 18..17.. ... 11.. ]] ]] ?5F 2 0F 44 0000 0000 07 ; SUBTEST_5F_0D, DE_SGEC.LIS ]] P1=00000000 P2=00000000 P3=00000000 P4=00000000 P5=00000000 ]] P6=00000000 P7=00000000 P8=00000000 P9=0000080A P10=00000003 ]] r0=00000054 r1=20084001 r2=00000000 r3=00000000 r4=00000000 ]] r5=1FFFFFFC r6=C0000001 r7=00000000 r8=00004000 EPC=00000000 ]] 10.. ]] ]] ?5C 2 06 FF 0000 0001 00 ; SUBTEST_5C_06, DE_SHAC.LIS ]] P1=00000001 P2=00000000 P3=00000000 P4=00000000 P5=00000000 ]] P6=00000000 P7=00000000 P8=00000000 P9=0000080A P10=00000003 ]] r0=00000054 r1=0000002E r2=0000005C r3=20140784 r4=2005FFF8 ]] r5=20060028 r6=20065224 r7=20004000 r8=00000000 EPC=00000000 ]] 09..08..07..05..04..03.. ]] Normal operation not possible. ]] ]] >>> It allows me to type at this point but does not appear to do anything with the input. I've looked through the KA670 manual and found a listing of the error codes. 5F = SGEC (Second Generation Ethernet Controller) "loopback_type no_ram_tests" 5C = SHAC (Single Host Adapter Chip) "shac_number" I'm not sure if it is relevant but I removed the TOY battery when I got it to prevent it eating everything. I've not taken apart the console door thing but perhaps it was too late. The SGEC might refer to the ethernet controller installed on that door? If anyone is better at understanding these error messages I'd greatly appreciate any info you could give. Cheers, Aaron P.S. Apologies for the absurd footer appended by my university. You can probably ignore it... The list does not accept mail from my personal mail server for some reason. This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

5 years, 9 months

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Kennett Classic Anniversary Event and Outdoor Swap 9/26/2020

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

If you're in the Philadelphia / Baltimore area September 26th, please consider visiting us for our 1 year anniversary / outdoor swap day. We are debuting two new exhibit rooms that day. Because we can admit a limited number of persons inside at a time, we will also run an outdoor swap meet spanning from the outside front door, down the side of the building and into the back parking lot so people can congregate outside. There are a number of outdoor restaurants nearby and we're going to attempt a covid-friendly group dinner afterwards. Swap spaces remain, let me know privately to reserve your place. Kennett Classic is located in Kennett Square, PA. We're fostering a growing local interest in vintage computing. There might be "new stuff" for sale just because there are new-to-the-hobby persons in attendance and we have been publicizing the event locally. For more directions/details see https://www.kennettclassic.com/kennett-classic-in-two-weeks-sept-26-2020/ Thanks Bill 484 732 7041 (shop number) kennettclasic.com

5 years, 9 months

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Flyback transformer for Televideo TVI-9xx terminal

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

I am looking for replacement flyback transformers for Televideo TVI-912B terminals. The flyback transformer is labelled "KFS-00093" on the actual part and also in the schematic. This same flyback was used in a range of Televideo terminals (TVI-912B, TVI-920, etc). Does anyone know of a source for these? Google found the link below, but the photo looks very different from the actual flyback in the terminal: https://www.tedss.com/2023000453 I confirmed with the supplier that the photo on their website is from the actual part they sell. Unfortunately they don't have a datasheet for the flyback or even a specification sheet. The part is cheap, but they have a US$25 minimum order and then the shipping to Australia is just silly expensive at US$59.10. I could spend US$84.10 just to find out it is the wrong part. Any ideas? Thanks and regards Tom Hunter

5 years, 9 months

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Seeking "MEGATEK" Sun 3/4 era (?) VME Graphics accelerator information and driver

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

I picked up a pair (1 set) of these very neat old graphics boards. Alas I have no idea what they are or if there is hope of using them. One is a dual slot 9U VME board that has gobs of video ram all over it, including a board labeled Z buffer. The only output are (3) BNC connectors (R,G, and B) and a 50 pin connector marked P4. The other is a single slot 9UVME board with (8) 30 pin SIMM slots with 1mb SIMM in them, a couple of Weitek chips, another 50 pin connector labeled P4, jumpered with a baby backplane to the other board, and 6 led on the front. Anyone know what these are and where to get drivers? They appear to be Sun 3 era, and the boards are labeled ?Sun OHC? with a megatek sticker. They do not appear to work out-of-box in my 3/260 as console devices- the Kernel does not identify them correctly. Thanks.

5 years, 9 months

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What's the secret to LK201 leaf springs?

by athornton＠gmail.com

I got an LK201 recently that was a little damaged in transit. A couple of the keycap assemblies and their corresponding leaf springs have come off. I can see how the leaf springs fit on the little posts on the keycap assemblies, and I can see where those snap into the board, but what I don?t see is how to get that put together and then keep it together while I turn it over and then get it in place. Clearly there is some simple trick I am missing. What is it? Adam

5 years, 9 months

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What's the secret to LK201 leaf springs?

by marvin＠west.net

One thing I've tried and seems to work quite well (on another application) is UV curable plastic. The last thing I fixed was when the post holding one side of the exit paper tray broke off, and I used the UV curable plastic to fix it (still working just fine.) The trade name is Bondic, and I ran across it on a YouTube ad (first time EVER I bought something from an unknown YouTube ad!) This apparently is the same type of UV curable "glue" used by Dentists. It cures in about 4 seconds! > My guess is that the formed over part has broken off (you might find > some little white disks of plastic, about 1/8" diameter, rattling > about inside the case). Alas I have never found a way to re-fix them. > There's not enough plastic in the housing to drill it out and fit > screws/nuts. There is no way of gluing something to the ends of the > posts that would be strong enough, > > -tony

5 years, 9 months

1
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Fwd: [GreenKeys] Teletype 33 near Phoenix AZ

by jfoust＠threedee.com

> >From: Joe Clanin <macbax1 at gmail.com> >Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 04:56:27 -0500 >To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net >Subject: [GreenKeys] 28KSR, 26, 33 For Sale Near Phoenix, AZ > >I have no affiliation with the seller, just passing it along. > >28:? <https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/d/mesa-teletype-model-28/7194476271.…>https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/d/mesa-teletype-model-28/7194476271.… > >26:? https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/d/mesa-teletype-model-26/7194473134.… > >33:? <https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/d/mesa-teletype-model-33-ksr/7184200…>https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/d/mesa-teletype-model-33-ksr/7184200… > >-Joe >__________

5 years, 9 months

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What I've been doing lately

by dave.dunfield＠gmail.com

Hi everyone, Might not be exactly classic computer related, but I know many of you have been following my progress through my recovery (thanks for the many kind words), and I do think many of you might find this a tad interesting. What I've been doing for the past little while - check out my latest project "Dunfield Virtual Machine" on my personal web site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com Regards, Dave -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5 years, 9 months

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article on TRS-80 in Nuts and Volts

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Don't know if anyone gets/reads this old rag but I thought I'd share an article I came across: https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/the-trs-80-model-1 73 Eugene W2HX

5 years, 9 months

2
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Old DEC mice for sale

by sales＠elecplus.com

My friend Lidan at Continental Computers found some old DEC mice in his warehouse for me. These are in California. 3x VS10X-EA - $120 each (used complete) 1x VS10X-EA - $75 (missing 3 button caps) 1x VSXXX-AA - $125 (NEW in box) 3x VSXXX-AA - $75 (used complete) Lidan Sadon Sales Manager Continental Computers D - 310/906-3553 C - 818/554-8856 lidan at conticomp.com Please contact him directly if you want to order these. I had no idea old DEC mice were so expensive! Cindy -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

5 years, 9 months

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Virtual VCFMW Schedule Posted

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

aww damn ill be 30miles in the bush at work for 3 days On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 4:12 PM Lawrence Wilkinson via cctech < cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > Subject: Virtual VCFMW Schedule Posted > Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2020 16:08:39 -0500 > From: Jason T via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Reply-To: Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> > > > > Hi folks - we're doing this thing! The schedule is up, with links to > the individual videos being filled in by tomorrow evening: > > https://mailchi.mp/222b57fb03dc/virtual-vcfmw-schedule-posted > > The videos will be presented in sequence using YouTube's "Premiere" > function, which means there will be a live chat on the YT page where > (ideally) the video creator will chat along and conduct a Q&A during > and after. There is also an all-day open chat on a linked IRC/Discord > channel. Details are on our page here: > > http://vcfmw.org/virtual.html > > Hope you can join us online for a day of chatting and classiccmp video fun! > > -jt >

5 years, 9 months

1
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Virtual VCFMW Schedule Posted

by silent700＠gmail.com

Hi folks - we're doing this thing! The schedule is up, with links to the individual videos being filled in by tomorrow evening: https://mailchi.mp/222b57fb03dc/virtual-vcfmw-schedule-posted The videos will be presented in sequence using YouTube's "Premiere" function, which means there will be a live chat on the YT page where (ideally) the video creator will chat along and conduct a Q&A during and after. There is also an all-day open chat on a linked IRC/Discord channel. Details are on our page here: http://vcfmw.org/virtual.html Hope you can join us online for a day of chatting and classiccmp video fun! -jt

5 years, 9 months

1
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ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I was fortunate enough to be able to complete my VAXstation 100 setup this week, after a years-long search for parts. (In particular the M7452 fiber optic interface and the fiber optic cabling itself.) After futzing with the 4.3bsd kernel and compiling X10R4 on my VAX-11/750, I actually have it running! (See the below for a picture) https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMo_cUO4EiMWOHZVk8yg I'm kind of amazed that it all just worked after all this time. As you can see, I'm using an LCD for the display, and that just won't do. The official monitor for the VS100 was the VR100; a 19" monochrome CRT with BNC inputs on the rear for H and V sync and the video signal (ttl level signaling). Anyone have one of these? I'm also looking for earlier releases of X to run on this -- the VS100 was the development platform for X (and W ran on it at one point as well). I haven't been able to track down anything prior to X10R3. Does anyone know of an archive of these earlier releases? While I'm at it -- anyone know precisely what I need to use this under VMS? I believe 4.7 was the last VMS release that supported it, but there were additional packages that needed to be installed to support it, and I'm not entirely sure what they are. Thanks as always, Josh

5 years, 9 months

6
6
0 0

Matsushita 310JLB4 CRT datasheet

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

Has anybody got a datasheet for the 12" black&white CRT made by Matsushita (Panasonic) with part number 310JLB4 (N)? Thanks Tom Hunter

5 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

On 9/7/20 2:26 AM, Veit, Holger wrote: > Could this be a PGC card clone? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Graphics_Controller That had crossed my mind at one point, but there's no horsepower to this card at all - it's just TTL, RAM, BIOS and the 6845. The color output *appears* to be TTL level - or, at least, that's what it's using at power-on. It's not impossible, I suppose, for it to be switchable to some kind of analog mode, thereby giving more color depth. I'm wondering if it doesn't have some form of high-resolution bitmap mode for visualization, i.e. display construction would be processor-intensive and intended for static images/diagrams. I don't know if that really makes sense though because it would also imply having to switch the monitor - i.e. starting the machine with a CGA type display plugged in, then physically moving to something else later. On the back of that, I just found this thread too which refers to an identical board: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?48718-3-Weird-Video-Cards-any-ide… ... nothing there really "helps", but someone's comment about the medical field and a higher-resolution display via the RCA jack is interesting - that would at least get around the need to switch monitors (well, unless there was some special autodetecting analog/digital monitor that was sold to go with the hardware, I suppose). It's a shame that the hard disk in the machine is either snafu or has been wiped - the contents would have helped shed light on things. There's an EPROM as part of the video hardware; anyone know of a DOS-based util to poke at the contents and/or snarf them into a file on disk? It's possible I suppose that there might be some useful strings hidden away in there. cheers Jules

5 years, 9 months

5
17
0 0

NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

Does anyone have any idea where I can get install media at various support pack levels and / or support pack install files for NetWare 5.1 and / or BorderManager 3.5? I'm playing with some old things in VMs and can't get BorderManager 3.5 (sp0?) to work on 5.1sp7 / 5.1sp8. I need older 5.1spX or newer BorderManager. BorderManager patches would be bm35sp2.exe or bm35sp3.exe. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

5 years, 9 months

4
8
0 0

cctech Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

Thanks -----Original Message----- From: cctech <cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of cctech-request at classiccmp.org Sent: 09 September 2020 18:00 To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: cctech Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9 Send cctech mailing list submissions to cctech at classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctech-request at classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctech-owner at classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctech digest..." Today's Topics: 1. ftgh 95 ohm coax (Don Stalkowski) 2. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Jules Richardson) 3. Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases (Matt Burke) 4. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Liam Proven) 5. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Liam Proven) 6. RE: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases (Electronics Plus) 7. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Fred Cisin) 8. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Doug Jackson) 9. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Fred Cisin) 10. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Grant Taylor) 11. Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases (jim stephens) 12. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Grant Taylor) 13. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Liam Proven) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 12:33:07 -0400 (EDT) From: dstalk at execulink.com (Don Stalkowski) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: ftgh 95 ohm coax Message-ID: <20200908163307.241BDBEEAD4 at cel2.x> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii ftgh: a few lengths of 95 ohm coax pickup-only here in London, ON ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 16:12:09 -0500 From: Jules Richardson <jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> To: Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <30e83f7c-26ee-0ad0-907d-cd6a3efa4e56 at gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15; format=flowed On 9/7/20 6:18 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > Floppy boot seems like the next step. OK, it boots off a DOS 3.3 floppy if that floppy is inserted before it attempts to boot from the hard disk. If I wait for it to do its "system file not found" bit, followed by a subsequent prompt to insert boot media and press a key, it attempts to access the floppy drive but then goes off into la-la land. Odd. But anyway, taking the successful floppy boot route, I can certainly access the hard disk in terms of bringing up directory listings and TYPEing files to the display. So far, attempts to run anything from the drive just result in a lock-up (keyboard immediately unresponsive, hard reset required). There appear to be DOS utils on the drive, and command.com, but I've not checked for hidden system files yet. fdisk shows the partition as active. > Got an IBM "Advanced Diagnostics" floppy to try? No, but I see that the minuszerodegrees site has an image, so I'll write that out and see what happens. Looking at the drive contents, incidentally, I didn't see anything that explains (or interacts with) that unusual video hardware - it basically just holds DOS and a bunch of documents written by the original owner. Maybe they got suckered into buying this fancy graphics hardware without having any actual need for it, and then of course EGA and VGA came along and rendered it obsolete anyway. > XT controllers tended to NOT be interchangeable, even between various > OEMs of Xebec! Yes - something that people often seem to forget, too. I've run into that quite often, where someone will hang onto an old drive because of the contents, but they'll dump the controller that it was formatted against. > I don't know what the incompatability was. I don't think there was any kind of standard at all for what the low level looked like - vendors were free to do what they wanted in terms of what values they used for flags and how they actually ordered things within the sector header. I suppose there were some tweaks made over time for optimization or reliability (or at least, recovery) reasons, too, which is why even a single vendor had a few different incompatible formats. I expect it was the same in the SCSI and IDE worlds, but of course with those "the controller" which handles formatting is really part of the package, so it wasn't an issue. Jules ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 23:11:01 +0100 From: Matt Burke <matt at 9track.net> To: Josh Dersch via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases Message-ID: <91d46a24-04df-20c7-d154-d17064116c6f at 9track.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 On 05/09/2020 20:19, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > While I'm at it -- anyone know > precisely what I need to use this under VMS? I believe 4.7 was the > last VMS release that supported it, but there were additional packages > that needed to be installed to support it, and I'm not entirely sure > what they are. To use the VAXstation 100 with VMS you need to install the "VAXstation Software" layered product. I have not come across any original copies however DEC later contributed the source code to the DECUS library under submission V00376. The submission consists of a CMS library and some other source files. The only place you can reliably get this from is DECUServe as you need to get the files whilst preserving their RMS attributes. Then you need to compile the code and create an installation kit to use the software. The good news is that I've already done all of this so here is a link to the source and installation kit on Simh tap files: http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/v00376.zip http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/vsta012.zip This was built on VAX/VMS V4.4 with: Bliss-32 V4.3 FORTRAN V4.7 Pascal V3.7 CMS V2.3 MMS V2.2 I also have a VAXstation 100 that I hope to get working some day but I need the M7452 card and a VS10X-EA mouse. I did win an M7452 on eBay about 10 years ago but the seller then said that he had already sold it. I've not seen another one since (well not one for an affordable price. I did find a reseller that wanted $1000 for one). Matt ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 00:42:19 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <CAMTenCFtWq=TCgFb22jS4GhH2i=qgWEnFSVBqkSpSdr97TUwbw at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Tue, 8 Sep 2020 at 08:18, Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Does anyone have any idea where I can get install media at various > support pack levels and / or support pack install files for NetWare > 5.1 and / or BorderManager 3.5? Something like this any help? https://winworldpc.com/product/netware/5x I have physical media of this somewhere: https://archive.org/details/Netware_5_Operating_System_3_User_Demo_Novell -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 00:46:18 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <CAMTenCHotTw2=rULsgbg1LWKF4vBnoz5BeyoV9N2TjaTNJcdmQ at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Tue, 8 Sep 2020 at 06:47, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > 1) If the drive is larger than 32MB, then boot with DOs 3.31 or newer. > Although even with the older ones, you can still do quite a bit. 3.31 is > the first where DOS supports a partition larger than 32MB > MS-DOS 5.00 is first where debug commands have a "/?" option to get a > short reminder of usage. Agreed. (Like I'd dare to differ with Fred.) My 2?'s worth is just: for an XT, if you want to fit a CF card or something, try DR-DOS 3.41. It's out there in various places. RAM usage as small as MS-DOS 3.3 but offers most of the benefits of MS-DOS 4 and some of MS-DOS 5 (both of which take a *lot* more RAM on an XT-class machine.) -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 17:48:37 -0500 From: "Electronics Plus" <sales at elecplus.com> To: "'Matt Burke'" <matt at 9track.net>, "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: RE: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases Message-ID: <007501d68632$30c06410$92412c30$@com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" There is a DEC dealer in the UK that has M7452 cards listed as in-stock. Contact Spencer Dye at sales at swancomp.co.uk. Old mouse I have located, but he has to check if it is actually in stock, and if it works. Cindy -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Matt Burke via cctalk Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2020 5:11 PM To: Josh Dersch via cctalk Subject: Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases On 05/09/2020 20:19, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > While I'm at it -- anyone know > precisely what I need to use this under VMS? I believe 4.7 was the last > VMS release that supported it, but there were additional packages that > needed to be installed to support it, and I'm not entirely sure what they > are. To use the VAXstation 100 with VMS you need to install the "VAXstation Software" layered product. I have not come across any original copies however DEC later contributed the source code to the DECUS library under submission V00376. The submission consists of a CMS library and some other source files. The only place you can reliably get this from is DECUServe as you need to get the files whilst preserving their RMS attributes. Then you need to compile the code and create an installation kit to use the software. The good news is that I've already done all of this so here is a link to the source and installation kit on Simh tap files: http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/v00376.zip http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/vsta012.zip This was built on VAX/VMS V4.4 with: Bliss-32 V4.3 FORTRAN V4.7 Pascal V3.7 CMS V2.3 MMS V2.2 I also have a VAXstation 100 that I hope to get working some day but I need the M7452 card and a VS10X-EA mouse. I did win an M7452 on eBay about 10 years ago but the seller then said that he had already sold it. I've not seen another one since (well not one for an affordable price. I did find a reseller that wanted $1000 for one). Matt ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 16:04:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.2009081521250.17983 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Tue, 8 Sep 2020, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > OK, it boots off a DOS 3.3 floppy if that floppy is inserted before it > attempts to boot from the hard disk. If I wait for it to do its "system file > not found" bit, followed by a subsequent prompt to insert boot media and > press a key, it attempts to access the floppy drive but then goes off into > la-la land. Odd. How large is the drive? If it is over 32MB, then try to find DOS 3.31 or newer. MY preference is MS-DOS 6.22 > But anyway, taking the successful floppy boot route, I can certainly access > the hard disk in terms of bringing up directory listings and TYPEing files to > the display. So far, attempts to run anything from the drive just result in a > lock-up (keyboard immediately unresponsive, hard reset required). There > appear to be DOS utils on the drive, and command.com, but I've not checked > for hidden system files yet. fdisk shows the partition as active. Date and time of Command.com and any other DOS files will identify the version number. DIR /A or DIR /A:H will let you see the hidden files (presumably IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS; PC-DOS had IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM instead) Can you COPY files from the HDD to floppy? Being able to access contents of files, but not RUN them seems odd. IF the DOS on the floppy misunderstands the partition table, then root directory might look OK, but sub-directories might not be where it thinks they are, . . . >> Got an IBM "Advanced Diagnostics" floppy to try? > No, but I see that the minuszerodegrees site has an image, so I'll write that > out and see what happens. NOT a big deal. It's merely the only method directly from IBM for doing low level format. In most cases, Speedstor is more useful for LLF. > Looking at the drive contents, incidentally, I didn't see anything that > explains (or interacts with) that unusual video hardware - it basically just > holds DOS and a bunch of documents written by the original owner. Maybe they > got suckered into buying this fancy graphics hardware without having any > actual need for it, and then of course EGA and VGA came along and rendered it > obsolete anyway. It is probably completely CGA compatible, unless you invoke of of its other modes. The ROM on the video card may be a BIOS extension, in which case access to extended modes may be handled internally in various programs. For instance Windows 3.x, PC PAint, Pagemaker, and Xerox Ventura let you configure for a variety of video hardware. Otherwise, check to see if CONFIG.SYS has DEVICE commands to load any device drivers, usually .SYS, although sometimes .COM >> XT controllers tended to NOT be interchangeable, even between various OEMs >> of Xebec! > Yes - something that people often seem to forget, too. I've run into that > quite often, where someone will hang onto an old drive because of the > contents, but they'll dump the controller that it was formatted against. It always seemed counter-intuitive that makers of HDD hardware for XT didn't slavishly mimic IBM's XT HDD. And especially counter-intuitive that different vendor Xebec controllers didn't always interchange. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 09:16:42 +1000 From: Doug Jackson <doug at doughq.com> To: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <CAM_9E61O0gf_8_jPRCHfKfZMcA-1Okbdhvt-vT=ufVTChcC6PA at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" I recall some of the high end cards in the CGA / EGA era had adon boards that were connected with a 20 or 36 pin jumper cable across the top of the boards - They also ran more than 64K or ram, such as the ATI Wonder boards. Maybe it's like that - the ATI boards had 256K so they could page. Kindest regards, Doug Jackson em: doug at doughq.com ph: 0414 986878 Check out my awesome clocks at www.dougswordclocks.com Follow my amateur radio adventures at vk1zdj.net ----------------------------------------------------------- Just like an old fashioned letter, this email and any files transmitted with it should probably be treated as confidential and intended solely for your own use. Please note that any interesting spelling is usually my own and may have been caused by fat thumbs on a tiny tiny keyboard. Should any part of this message prove to be useful in the event of the imminent Zombie Apocalypse then the sender bears no personal, legal, or moral responsibility for any outcome resulting from its usage unless the result of said usage is the unlikely defeat of the Zombie Hordes in which case the sender takes full credit without any theoretical or actual legal liability. :-) Be nice to your parents. Go outside and do something awesome - Draw, paint, walk, setup a radio station, go fishing or sailing - just do something that makes you happy. ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G- In more laid back days this line would literally sing ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 9:04 AM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > On Tue, 8 Sep 2020, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > > OK, it boots off a DOS 3.3 floppy if that floppy is inserted before it > > attempts to boot from the hard disk. If I wait for it to do its "system > file > > not found" bit, followed by a subsequent prompt to insert boot media and > > press a key, it attempts to access the floppy drive but then goes off > into > > la-la land. Odd. > > How large is the drive? > If it is over 32MB, then try to find DOS 3.31 or newer. > MY preference is MS-DOS 6.22 > > > > But anyway, taking the successful floppy boot route, I can certainly > access > > the hard disk in terms of bringing up directory listings and TYPEing > files to > > the display. So far, attempts to run anything from the drive just result > in a > > lock-up (keyboard immediately unresponsive, hard reset required). There > > appear to be DOS utils on the drive, and command.com, but I've not > checked > > for hidden system files yet. fdisk shows the partition as active. > > Date and time of Command.com and any other DOS files will identify the > version number. > > DIR /A or > DIR /A:H > will let you see the hidden files (presumably IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS; PC-DOS > had IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM instead) > > Can you COPY files from the HDD to floppy? > > Being able to access contents of files, but not RUN them seems odd. > IF the DOS on the floppy misunderstands the partition table, then root > directory might look OK, but sub-directories might not be where it thinks > they are, . . . > > > >> Got an IBM "Advanced Diagnostics" floppy to try? > > No, but I see that the minuszerodegrees site has an image, so I'll write > that > > out and see what happens. > > NOT a big deal. It's merely the only method directly from IBM for doing > low level format. > In most cases, Speedstor is more useful for LLF. > > > Looking at the drive contents, incidentally, I didn't see anything that > > explains (or interacts with) that unusual video hardware - it basically > just > > holds DOS and a bunch of documents written by the original owner. Maybe > they > > got suckered into buying this fancy graphics hardware without having any > > actual need for it, and then of course EGA and VGA came along and > rendered it > > obsolete anyway. > > It is probably completely CGA compatible, unless you invoke of of its > other modes. > > The ROM on the video card may be a BIOS extension, in which case access to > extended modes may be handled internally in various programs. For > instance Windows 3.x, PC PAint, Pagemaker, and Xerox Ventura let you > configure for a variety of video hardware. > Otherwise, check to see if CONFIG.SYS has DEVICE commands to load any > device drivers, usually .SYS, although sometimes .COM > > >> XT controllers tended to NOT be interchangeable, even between various > OEMs > >> of Xebec! > > Yes - something that people often seem to forget, too. I've run into > that > > quite often, where someone will hang onto an old drive because of the > > contents, but they'll dump the controller that it was formatted against. > > It always seemed counter-intuitive that makers of HDD hardware for XT > didn't slavishly mimic IBM's XT HDD. And especially counter-intuitive > that different vendor Xebec controllers didn't always interchange. > > > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com > ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 16:28:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.2009081624080.17983 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Wed, 9 Sep 2020, Doug Jackson wrote: > I recall some of the high end cards in the CGA / EGA era had adon boards > that were connected with a 20 or 36 pin jumper cable across the top of the > boards - They also ran more than 64K or ram, such as the ATI Wonder > boards. Maybe it's like that - the ATI boards had 256K so they could page. I had a CGA "double board" that did 640x400 or 640x200 by more colors. It was not the same as this one, but might have been internally similar. But I don't remember ATI premium CGA. ATI had some interesting EGA boards, including one that had an add-on that included the mid-board connector for Compaq luggable internal video! Otherwise, you were stuck with Compaq CGA or Compaq EGA. ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 19:18:04 -0600 From: Grant Taylor <cctalk at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <9cbe174f-7eb1-bd77-88d9-a433449278f6 at spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 9/8/20 4:42 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > Something like this any help? > > https://winworldpc.com/product/netware/5x I'm very familiar with WinWorld and VetusWare. I quite like them. They are on the short list to find things like this. There is high overlap between a number of these places. That being said, I haven't tested that specific ISO. But that's mostly because I've long had a version of NetWare 5.1. Now that I'm looking for specific things, particularly patches, I decided to send a broadcast message. > I have physical media of this somewhere: > > https://archive.org/details/Netware_5_Operating_System_3_User_Demo_Novell I've been focusing on 5.1 and I've not yet broadened my net to include 5(.0). I was sort of hoping that someone might have had the support pack files tucked away somewhere. I'm currently working on re-organizing my 48 GB of Novell software. Partially to normalize the names and location, as well as to be able to tell what I do and do not have. Thank you for the reply Liam. You re-enforced the fact that I need to get a better understanding of what /specific/ versions I have and the things I know about are. -- Grant. . . . unix || die ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 20:25:19 -0700 From: jim stephens <jwsmail at jwsss.com> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases Message-ID: <7487c5f1-bfe6-0d6d-8b37-ee0668c2540c at jwsss.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 9/8/2020 3:48 PM, Electronics Plus via cctalk wrote: > Old mouse I have located, but he has to check if it is actually in stock, and if it works. They aren't the "normal" DEC hockey puck mice.? it's sort of like a PS2 mouse with I think an odd ball.? I had hands on Josh's and one for Paul Birkel (for too long, but they have them now), and the mouse was odd. I don't know how Josh is doing, since is is working, but the cabling on the mouse cord had degraded and had goo on it like the black crap you get form the wrong type of rubber when it turns tar like. Glad Josh got his going, pulling for Paul to get his running.? And interesting they may be a third one. So cool Cameron Kaiser collected two and passed them along. thanks Jim ------------------------------ Message: 12 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 22:33:47 -0600 From: Grant Taylor <cctalk at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <1668c3d3-f0c9-c574-e30f-e879893223a0 at spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 9/8/20 7:18 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > I haven't tested that specific ISO. The particular ISO that you linked to is Novell NetWare 5.1 (Support Pack 0). So it needs support packs installed on it. I've learned that there are different Support Packs, "Domestic" and "International" having to do with the 128-bit vs 56-bit encryption woes of the '90s. -- Grant. . . . unix || die ------------------------------ Message: 13 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 13:08:43 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <CAMTenCEQu_=MTZHP+o9e4Ho5Y+7Uk-XBhn1dSbcJyu1uwS65Tw at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Wed, 9 Sep 2020 at 06:34, Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On 9/8/20 7:18 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > > I haven't tested that specific ISO. > > The particular ISO that you linked to is Novell NetWare 5.1 (Support > Pack 0). So it needs support packs installed on it. But that's good, isn't it? I confess I may have misread your original message as being "I need NW5.1 with no SPs." Was that wrong? But if you have SP0, no bugfixes, then surely you can just install the SPs on top of it to get to whatever level you want? My $DAYJOB was part of Novell until about a year ago. I _may_ be able to find internal download links still but I am not confident. Want me to start asking around? I may need some fairly specific info as there are few Netware folk left now. E.g. how many separate SPs did NW5.1 get? Do you need both US and ROW versions? > I've learned that there are different Support Packs, "Domestic" and > "International" having to do with the 128-bit vs 56-bit encryption woes > of the '90s. Oh dear... TBH I have a suspicion nobody may have kept stuff like that, even inside Novell... :( -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 End of cctech Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9 *************************************

5 years, 9 months

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SunBlade 100 with USB type 7 keyboard

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

My Sunblade works fine with a generic USB keyboard, but does not recognize the Type 7 USB keyboard I bought for it. OpenBoot prom reports "no keyboard detected". If I boot with my generic keyboard plugged in and then plug in the type 7, it sees it fine in OpenBSD. It is the openboot prom that doesn't see it. Can anyone steer me to the most current openboot prom update for the SunBlade 100? I've looked like crazy on Oracle's site and all I find are the instructions on how to apply an update, but not the actual update. This problem is firmware, not software or hardware. The Type 7 keyboard works fine on my PC, or if plugged into the Sunblade once it has booted/started to boot. Best, Jeff

5 years, 9 months

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ftgh 95 ohm coax

by dstalk＠execulink.com

ftgh: a few lengths of 95 ohm coax pickup-only here in London, ON

5 years, 9 months

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CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

On Sep 7, 2020, at 6:24 AM, dstalk at execulink.com wrote: > > The description I have for AUIS (6.3.1) is: > > "AUIS (Andrew User Interface System) - compound document > environment offering a word processor, mail/bulletin board > reader/writer, drawing editor, spreadsheet, font editor, > application builder, and many other facilities" > > Again, an application, not a windowing system per se. Yes, the Andrew environment implemented proper layering, so ATK was made to work atop X and the applications (messages, ez, console, typescript, etc.) came along. At Carnegie Mellon in the early 1990s, you could (with only a little work, to use a console rather than graphical login) use either X or wm on some of the campus workstations. On a DECstation 3100 running Ultrix, if you weren?t going to run any X applications wm was *much* more responsive. I wasn?t around when the clusters had Sun-3 or IBM RT hardware but I can imagine the differences there were even more pronounced. (With wm, a DECstation felt as much faster than a Mac II as it actually was?) Applications built against ATK could run atop either wm or X; I don?t know if there were distinct builds of ATK or if the conditional logic was in the framework itself, but the applications themselves worked just fine with either since Andrew implemented a shared library mechanism. (Yes, even on Ultrix.) The publicly-released Andrew distributions don?t include the wm code, only the X version. I don?t know if they?ll actually build against the wm headers and libraries if they?re present, or if by the time CMU was releasing them publicly they had stripped that code out entirely. ? Chris

5 years, 9 months

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Looking for suggestions for this

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Hi folks - quite some time ago I picked up this little beauty (well I'm sure some may agree or disagree with me) off of ePAY. I happen to like black IBMs of any type. Of course I got gouged at the checkout paying the princely sum of $1.04 AUD - some might say I got robbed. In the photo with the other machines it's the big one. Included was the machine of course, the tape drive, the monitor (the keyboard is somewhere) and a heap of connectors and cables - and I did get the key with it too. What was missing were the HDDs (which they trashed to get rid of the data) and all the documentation (which they tossed before they realised that they could flog it on ePAY and get someone else to take it away). http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/as400/ But as I rationalise space in my increasingly small collection facility I need to make some decisions about things so I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I can do with this machine. At the risk of being applauded for some ideas and being flamed for others some suggestions are: 1. Do nothing - it's a very interesting conversation piece and its worth preserving. 2. Someone is looking for one of these for parts and will pay me a fortune. 3. Dump it. 4. Donate it to a museum - they'll need a truck and four big guys. 5. Trade it for scrap value. 6. Get it running - now there's a big leap I suspect!! I did manage to procure some HDDs from another AS/400 but as to whether they are suitable or this would even work is not even remotely my bailiwick. 7. Gut it and build a cluster inside it so at least it looks and runs like a big computer so I can get some WOW factor from those who don't know any different. 8. Gut it and turn it into a bar fridge. 9. Anything else... Thank you Kevin Parker

5 years, 9 months

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Clicking SCSI disks

by a.carlini＠ntlworld.com

I have a number of old (2000-era) DEC StorageWorks disks that fail to mount under VMS. They report MEDIUM OFFLINE. They power up in a similar way to other disks that do work, but they persistently click ina? "something isn't right" manner. I've tried reorienting some of the disks to see if that makes any difference, and for the ones I've tried, it didn't help. I've read about the "freezer" trick, but mostly I've seen negative opinions. However, those opinions mostly come from data recovery specialists! So I thought I'd tap the wisdom of the list. Is there any way that people have used to successfully recover data from RZ28, RZ29 disks (which all worked in 2003 :-))? Has anyone tried freezing a double bagged drive? Was it successful? If so, how long did you freeze it for? These disks are in StorageWorks containers ... should I remove them before freezing? Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com

5 years, 9 months

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VAX 11-780 Rack Available

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Hi friends. This rack is available for free. I am located in 10510 happy to drive, up to say 1.5 hours to meet up to transfer vehicles? https://w2hx.com/ForSale/DEC%20Rack/20200719_114742.jpg https://w2hx.com/ForSale/DEC%20Rack/20200719_114751.jpg it is in very nice condition. Comes with wheels/casters, no panels. It is, I believe 24" wide, but it has a set of vertical rails at 19" in addition to 24" I think the space on the right would carry cables etc? Regardless, it will work fine with 19" equipment. Just the perfect think you need to complete your DEC VAX or other DEC set up! Contact me directly. 73 Eugene W2HX PS Please pass onto any other list you may belong to that might have an interest in this rack. Thank you

5 years, 9 months

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TZ8x DLT III cartridge - torn leader

by a.carlini＠ntlworld.com

I've been trying to read data from some ~2000 era DLT III cartridges that were written on a TZ87. The first one read OK. But the second one failed and it seems that the leader was torn off. I tried a new drive and a second cartridge has failed the same way (the leader was there, now it's not). My immediate problem is that I now have two drives (a TZ88 and a TZ870 that fail POST (all LEDs blink). I guess I need to open them up, fish out the stray leader and fix them up somehow. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? My second problem is that I'd quite like to stop this from happening again. I'm guessing that it happened because the cartridge mechanism was jammed. I've just played around with a TK50-K cartridge and if I jam the two release mechanisms (using the "nose" of two pliers), open the "tape hatch" and gently pull the tape, it moves. Then I can "rewind" it and it's back to the way it was. I'm wondering whether this is safe to do on the DLT III tapes I still want to recover? Is it likely to at least tell me which tapes are likely to fail and which might load properly? My third problem i that I have two cartridges without a leader. Is this something that can be rectified? Thanks for any useful information. Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com

5 years, 9 months

2
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IBM 5160 math copro switch

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Sifting through my XTs and clones... I've had three so far with no math copro (8087) fitted, but switch 2 of SW1 is set to off. IBM docs say off is "math copro installed" and on is the "installed" position, i.e. the reverse of what I'm seeing (the minuszerodegrees site repeats this, although I expect that just copied what's in the manual, too). These three machines (two are 5160's, the other a clone) came from completely different sources - it seems unlikely that all three had 8087's fitted which were pulled at some point. Googling a few more system board images, ones with 8087's have that switch on - but for boards without, the setting seems to be pretty much 50/50. Did the meaning of the switch perhaps change at some point (both of my 5160's are late model 256-640 boards), and rather than being a simple installed / not installed it was more along the lines of "software should use it if present / software should never use it"? After all, it's not like the BIOS will do anything with an 8087; it's only there for software specifically coded to make use of it. I suppose it's also possible that users were in the habit of first setting all the switches to off when configuring a machine, then setting the relevant ones to on according to their memory/floppy/video config - and the copro setting just got overlooked. Weird, anyway. Jules

5 years, 9 months

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CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Digging through old PCs, on a battery-removal spree... came across a Sperry 3070 XT-a-like (I wouldn't quite call it a clone, it's a bit goofy) which has a Mitsubishi Electric system board, RAM expansion, and video hardware. The video hardware is... odd. It's actually two full-length boards, joined with a large IDC cable along the top edge as well as via the ISA bus. The only "complex" IC is a 6845 - other than that it's masses of TTL. Output is via a DE9, and pinouts seem consistent with CGA (15.7KHz on pin 8, 60Hz on pin 9, 3/4/5 at TTL levels and 1/2 ground). There's also an RCA jack on the backplate, and that 6845 IC... it all seems very CGA-like, except that total video memory is 192KB. CGA was normally 16KB, I believe. Hercules and EGA 64KB, although I think toward the end of EGA's existence there was a 192KB option. Physical outputs aren't consistent with EGA's two bits per pixel, though. Does this ring any bells with anyone? I don't know why it needs such a large amount of RAM if it's stuck with CGA capabilities. One board is branded WECD10 and the other WECD11, but there's no "model" or anything. cheers Jules

5 years, 9 months

3
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CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

Back before X11 took off, IBM funded CMU's development of Andrew, which had its own complete window system represented by its "wm" window manager. One of the many things that led to X's prevalence was that to get ahold of Andrew and wm, you had to license it from IBM, whereas X was licensed freely by MIT and available via FTP, tape, etc. When I was at CMU in the early through mid 1990s, the CMU Computer Club continued to maintain a fork of "wm" called "wmc" that was available to club members, including source code. While I'm pretty sure I have an archive of this code on a Zip disk somewhere, I thought I'd put out the call to the community to see if anyone else had preserved early Andrew bits since they're both historically important and architecturally interesting. What's architecturally interesting about them? Among other things, CMU created their own shared library mechanism for Andrew, and their own object oriented dialect of C (implemented via a separate preprocessor) that was surprisingly similar to Objective-C. The entire Andrew system was also component-oriented, such that it supported embedding components for handling different media types within each other, while keeping the embedded ones editable -- most of what developers got later with OLE and OpenDoc. So it'd be great if this stuff was archived in such a way that it could be used with contemporary systems, whether emulated or real hardware. Has anyone done any of this yet? -- Chris

5 years, 9 months

2
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Micro Memory VME card info? MM-6316

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

I have a Micro Memory Inc. 16MB VME DRAM card MM-6316 but unlike many other Micro Memory products I can?t find a user?s manual. Does anyone know anything about the jumpers/switches for this board? ? Chris Sent from my iPad

5 years, 9 months

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domains available (FTGH)

by john＠ziaspace.com

>> Over the years I've snagged a few domains related to classic computing with >> the best intentions of doing something with them. I have not, so I will be >> letting the following expire: >> >> decvax.org >> >> dgeclipse.org >> >> dgnova.org >> >> hp1000.org >> >> hp2000.org >> >> pdp11.org >> >> rt-11.org For anyone here with an interest in any of these domains, I'm happy to offer free hosting for at least as long as I'm alive (working on finding volunteers to take care of things after that). I've hosted some of my accounts and sites since the '90s and can provide email, web, dynamic web, development, gopher, mailman and more. I have real colocated servers, not purchased services, and the servers are, if nothing else, interesting. The collection include an AlphaServer DS25, a Sun Fire v254, an AMD Ryzen box (with ECC), a 1U Amiga 1200, and a 1U VAX. John Klos

5 years, 9 months

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Brittle plastic

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I don't have a way to make plastic new, but I've had good results with WD40 for restoring surfaces with WD40. Some plastics get dusty and highly ablative on the surface with age and environment. Plastic LOVES WD40, if it is 'thirsty' Coat the plastic with WD40, and wait. It will soak in, sometimes it takes an overnight. Repeat this until the plastic no longer 'drinks' the WD40. You've done all you can do now with this method. I don't know that it restores the original strength of plastic, I doubt that, but it sure helps with the surfaces' appearance and wear resistence. Best, Jeff

5 years, 9 months

1
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Brittle plastic

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

Today I was working on a very nice 1995 vintage SPARCstation LX with CDROM and QIC-150 tape drive (3 lunchbox type units). I was trying to install a newer version of NetBSD on it than was already installed. The stack of 3 units was stored in a museum grade glass display cabinet. Sadly all 3 units have a small degree of yellowing but more importantly the plastic cases have become very brittle and bits just break off with minimal mechanical strain. Is there any process to reverse the brittleness which could be used to preserve the cases? Thanks Tom Hunter

5 years, 9 months

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domains available (FTGH)

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Please - Would love t he hp2000 domain Jay. Thanks Ed# On Thursday, September 3, 2020 jwest--- via cctalk <jwest at classiccmp.org; cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: Over the years I've snagged a few domains related to classic computing with the best intentions of doing something with them. I have not, so I will be letting the following expire: decvax.org dgeclipse.org dgnova.org hp1000.org hp2000.org pdp11.org rt-11.org You can of course wait to get them until they expire via your registrar of choice. If you want them sooner, let me know and after a week or so I'll subjectively decide who to approve a transfer to their registrar. Best, J

5 years, 9 months

1
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domains available (FTGH)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Over the years I've snagged a few domains related to classic computing with the best intentions of doing something with them. I have not, so I will be letting the following expire: decvax.org dgeclipse.org dgnova.org hp1000.org hp2000.org pdp11.org rt-11.org You can of course wait to get them until they expire via your registrar of choice. If you want them sooner, let me know and after a week or so I'll subjectively decide who to approve a transfer to their registrar. Best, J

5 years, 9 months

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