23 Jun
2005
23 Jun
'05
6:19 p.m.
On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:06:14 -0700 (PDT)
"Jeff Davis" <jdaviscl2 at soupwizard.com> wrote:
Hi, I just acquired a few IBM POWERstation 370 in
unknown condition.
I can probably make a couple good units out of the 4 I have - they
have disks, memory, etc, were decommissioned from a university
environment.
I also have a diagnostics set of a cdrom labeled "POWERstation /
POWERserver Diagnostics v4.1.5" and a floppy labeled "POWERstation /
POWERserver High Capacity (2M byte) Diagnostics Test Diskette", and an
external plextor cdrom to use to install software.
Right now, since I don't have an AIX 4.3.3 (last supported) install
cdrom set, I just want to get a machine powered up and tested. I
don't have a 13W3 monitor, nor keyboard or mouse (which I think are
non-standard).
It's possible, if you want to just get a system powered up and tested,
that one of the disks you received has a working AIX on it. You won't
get past the login prompt, but you can 'bring it up' to that point. I
have an ancient POWER1 IBM box (a PowerStation 320H) that I've never
connected video or a keyboard to. (anybody got a microchannel bus video
card for it supported by AIX?) You should monitor for a console on the
first serial port after watching the LED readout (is there one on your
generation of machine). On mine, there is a VERY long blind period when
all you have as feedback are the LED codes. Then all of a sudden the
serial console wakes up. There still are support documents for my
machine at IBM's website and I suspect yours may be newer.
AIX install media is out there. If you're just a tinkerer and/or
wanting the machine 'running and live' as a hobby pursuit, it shouldn't
be that hard to locate a CD install set. A legal gray area. They don't
use an ISO9660 filesystem (I don't think,) but the CD sets duplicate
readily on Unix CD buring software that can read and write raw CD as
images, (once you've obtained your original media kit and want to make a
backup kit to protect your investment, of course)