1 Apr
2001
1 Apr
'01
7:53 a.m.
Chuck McManis wrote:
Most excellent progress. A useful command is 'SHOW
DEVICE' which will tell
you what devices and more importantly what type of disks you have installed.
I did try that. I came up with 3 HDs, ethernet, and something else.
I'll have to recheck it and right it down.
44M means you have 40 MB + the on-board 4MB on the
KA640 CPU. Thus you have
a fairly rare 32MB memory card and an 8MB card installed, or you have two
16's and an 8. I'm betting though its the former.
I think I have 2 16s, and an 8. If I am thinking correctly, I have 3
memory boards total
Next look at all the cards that are installed from the
front and write down
the 'M' numbers and post them to the list, we'll ID them for you. If there
are blank connectors, be sure to remove those and look behind them,
sometimes cards have no external connection.
I'll right these down too.
Sounds like one of the disks was pulled (which usually
means that part of
the system was installed on a disk in an expansion box) Normally, a good
sys admin will make sure that the box can boot without any external disks
attached but that isn't always possible.
If a whole disk is missing, it must have been external, as all of my
bays are used.
Well, since its bootable you should probably install a
new copy of the OS
on it. Either VMS or NetBSD will work fine on the machine. (a better
variety of languages in VMS and its more authentic) Install media is easier
to get for NetBSD and its license free.
I didn't think NetBSD supported the internal DSSI controller?
It will be useful to determine if you have a SCSI
interface in this machine
as that would enable you to use a SCSI CD-ROM to install software (much
faster than tape!)
I thought I did, at first. That card I thought was SCSI is a serial
card, I think. It has the same little double arrows on it as the
console port, even if the connectors are centronics 50.
Will it take anything special in a cdrom, or will anything scsi work? I
have an old 4Plex stashed away some place.
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA