30 Apr
2005
30 Apr
'05
9:24 p.m.
Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting new find:
An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main system, an external
SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM. Somebody else got the big
monitor (the main system has three BNC out video) and I never saw the
keyboard, but it was probably there. I only spied the system in the
mess of PC clones being sold as it came up for bid so I had to buy it in
a group with six other Intel boxes for $5. Shortly thereafter, and
before I noticed it, the monitor for it (marked HP, row of BNC
connectors on back, etc.) went for $1 to somebody else. SERIOUS
headslapping incident. The part that really bugs me is it likely went
to someone seeing 'big screen' and expecting a VGA connector on back.
The system has a single narrow SCSI drive inside, about half the memory
slots are populated. It looks like it was connected to the external
CDROM drive (a matching HP case drive that I *happened* to get in an
additional box lot) on the narrow SCSI connector, and the wide
differential SCSI cable was still attached to the big box that has six
additional drives in it.
I have a few questions for anybody on the list who has more experience
with Apollo workstations:
Will I be able to use this system over a serial console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt. This is the main way I use my
Sun boxes (serial console). Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
and bring up serial port A?
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't more 'on the ball' with this
system. I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
am fairly certain there was probably an HP keyboard in the mess, too.
I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
Anyhow, it's a cool 'tall narrow' tower system to add to my collection
and it's beautifully high quality construction. I just wish I had it
all.
-Scott
30 Apr
30 Apr
5:57 p.m.
On Sat, 30 Apr 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:
Will I be able to use this system over a serial
console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt. This is the main way I use my
Sun boxes (serial console). Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
and bring up serial port A?
Switching to the serial console is probably not going to be
as straightforward as it is on your Sun, but the service
handbook (link below) should tell you what you need to know.
IIRC you can boot into something like single-user mode to
bypass the login provided certain security features aren't
enabled. I've forgotten the details, but I'm sure I've
done this with other parisc hpux boxen
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking
at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
According to:
http://www.openpa.net/systems/735_755.html
It runs hpux, nextstep, linux, or openbsd. Of that lineup, I'd go
with nextstep: I don't know about the 735, but it's *really* pretty
on my 712 and my 715. The downside is that nextstep doesn't do
wide scsi and may or may not support your framebuffer.
The link to the service handbook from the above site is broken, but
here's one that worked:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/lpv38563/lpv38563.p…
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't
more 'on the ball' with this
system. I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
am fairly certain there was probably an HP keyboard in the mess, too.
I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
I may have a spare anchor^H^H^H^H^H^Hmonitor cable from a 425.
Does your framebuffer have three BNC ports? I also have plenty
of hp-hil keyboards (and mice) I'd just love to give away to a
good home, so contact me off-list if you're interested.
I wouldn't sweat missing out on the monitor: the video should
work with most any workstation monitor that has BNC connectors
(I've not yet encountered one that doesn't do sync on green).
If you're near Seattle, you can stop by Boeing surplus and
take your pick of 17"-21" BNC monitors for $5-$10. I suppose
that's one benefit of the state charging recyling fees to dispose
of anything with a CRT. :)
Nice box, by the way.
Regards,
--
Eric Josephson
9:33 p.m.
Scott Stevens wrote:
Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting
new find:
An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main system, an external
SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM. Somebody else got the big
monitor (the main system has three BNC out video) and I never saw the
keyboard, but it was probably there. I only spied the system in the
mess of PC clones being sold as it came up for bid so I had to buy it in
a group with six other Intel boxes for $5. Shortly thereafter, and
before I noticed it, the monitor for it (marked HP, row of BNC
connectors on back, etc.) went for $1 to somebody else. SERIOUS
headslapping incident. The part that really bugs me is it likely went
to someone seeing 'big screen' and expecting a VGA connector on back.
The system has a single narrow SCSI drive inside, about half the memory
slots are populated. It looks like it was connected to the external
CDROM drive (a matching HP case drive that I *happened* to get in an
additional box lot) on the narrow SCSI connector, and the wide
differential SCSI cable was still attached to the big box that has six
additional drives in it.
I have a few questions for anybody on the list who has more experience
with Apollo workstations:
Will I be able to use this system over a serial console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt. This is the main way I use my
Sun boxes (serial console). Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
and bring up serial port A?
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't more 'on the ball' with this
system. I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
am fairly certain there was probably an HP keyboard in the mess, too.
I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
Anyhow, it's a cool 'tall narrow' tower system to add to my collection
and it's beautifully high quality construction. I just wish I had it
all.
-Scott
They are nice machines. You can run HP/UX 10.20 on them and possibly
11.x but I don't think it's officially supported. They are also
supposed to run Debian as well without too much hassle. Slap a terminal
on "A" and start whacking the escape key during self tests. You should
be able to get a serial console running on it - I know I run mine that
way (also a 735). Good luck.
--
-Linc Fessenden
In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...
1 May
1 May
4:43 a.m.
On Sat, 2005-04-30 at 23:24 -0500, Scott Stevens wrote:
Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting
new find:
An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main system, an external
SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM. Somebody else got the big
monitor (the main system has three BNC out video)
Good-quality PC monitors will do sync-on-green quite happily by the way,
so hack up a cable if needs be (or if you have an Iiyama display they've
got BNC on the back anyway so it's easy)
and I never saw the keyboard, but it was probably
there.
These only use an HP-HIL keyboard from memory, so sourcing one of those
should be pretty easy - it's the Domain keyboard on the earlier Apollos
that's impossible to get hold of...
Will I be able to use this system over a serial
console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt.
And won't be able to shut it down cleanly without a keyboard... I'd
leave that for the moment if I were you!
Console... hmm... I think the 7xx machines are really just stock HP
boxes piggybacking on the Apollo name. One of the guys at the museum
swears it will run Apollo's DomainOS (and that there was a port to the
PA-RISC 7xx systems) but he's the only person I've ever heard that from.
Earlier 68k-based Apollos certainly did support serial console as some
of the range were specifically shipped without framebuffers for use as
servers.
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking
at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
HP-UX and *BSD certainly - I think Linux too. See above though; I'm
questionable about DomainOS (which is the interesting reason for owning
an Apollo!)
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't
more 'on the ball' with this
system.
Well it's not as bad as you may think. Proper keyboard and a suitable
screen should be pretty easy to find, and the fact that it has a disk
inside at least means there's a chance it has an intact OS.
I'm going to have to settle for serial console for
the time being, if that's even possible.
I'd pull the framebuffer, disconnect the internal disk, hook up a serial
console, and see what happens to be honest. I can't see doing that
breaking anything. I'm not sure if the lack of keyboard would be enough
to convince it that it's running headless, but hopefully the lack of
framebuffer will and there'll be the code in ROM to handle it.
Anyhow, it's a cool 'tall narrow' tower
system to add to my collection
and it's beautifully high quality construction.
Yep, we've got a couple, along with three 4xx machines (proper Apollos).
Still short a couple of late-model Domain keyboards though, and one of
the feet kits to allow the 4xx machines to stand upright...
cheers
Jules
11:42 a.m.
On Sat, 30 Apr 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:
Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting
new find:
An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
Nice; the system I'm typing on (remotely) is a 735/125 .
I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main
system, an external
SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM. Somebody else got the big
These are probably 2GB drives; you can still get 8GB drives.
monitor (the main system has three BNC out video) and
I never saw the
keyboard, but it was probably there.
What is the model number in the framebuffer? Some of the 735 framebuffers
were really nice.
I only spied the system in the
mess of PC clones being sold as it came up for bid so I had to buy it in
a group with six other Intel boxes for $5. Shortly thereafter, and
before I noticed it, the monitor for it (marked HP, row of BNC
connectors on back, etc.) went for $1 to somebody else. SERIOUS
headslapping incident. The part that really bugs me is it likely went
to someone seeing 'big screen' and expecting a VGA connector on back.
Too bad. But a good PC monitor that accepts sync on green will work.
I have a few questions for anybody on the list who has
more experience
with Apollo workstations:
Will I be able to use this system over a serial console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt. This is the main way I use my
Sun boxes (serial console). Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
and bring up serial port A?
Sure, these can be used headless. You may have to reconfigure it
"blind". Otherwise, I think that if you pull the framebuffer
then the console will default to the serial port.
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking
at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
These can run HPUX 9.x and 10.2 . It is possible to install 11.0,
but tricky as you have to know which stuff is 64-bit and leave it out.
There were two varieties of 735; the original 99MHZ with an HPPA 7100
cpu and the 125 MHz with the newer HPPA 7150 cpu. The I/O cards
needed to have the right PROM to support one or the other.
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't
more 'on the ball' with this
system. I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
am fairly certain there was probably an HP keyboard in the mess, too.
I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
Contact me off the list if you need install media.
Carlos E. Murillo-Sanchez
6956
days inactive
6956
days old
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
carlos＠jimulco.autonoma.edu.co -
chenmel＠earthlink.net -
ericj＠speakeasy.org -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
lincoln.fessenden＠verizon.net