11 Jul
2006
11 Jul
'06
6:35 a.m.
Quick check - does anyone have an earlier floppy-based release of Domain OS
for Apollo machines archived?
We've been offered an Apollo, but no idea yet of which model - all the details
say is that it dates from when Apollo were independent (which possibly still
means it's something like a 3000, I suspect - weren't HP not really involved
until the 400 series?)
Anyway, the machine has no OS, but it does have install floppies (that's
another thing; I thought Domain OS came on tape by the 3xxx machines -
floppies suggest it's much older).
I'm willing to bet that the floppies aren't in the best of health by now
though, so figured I'd check if someone has floppy-based install media
archived anywhere before I chase this one up! (last thing we want is yet
another machine with no software to run on it :-)
cheers
Jules
11 Jul
11 Jul
6:10 a.m.
G'Day,
On 7/11/06, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
[Floppies for DomainOS]
Anyway, the machine has no OS, but it does have
install floppies (that's
another thing; I thought Domain OS came on tape by the 3xxx machines -
floppies suggest it's much older).
I have seen floppies for DomainOS 9.7 (if my memory serves me
correctly) for a DN3000 Apollo. I have installed DomainOS from floppy
but I no longer have access to them, or the machine.
I'm willing to bet that the floppies aren't in
the best of health by now
though, so figured I'd check if someone has floppy-based install media
archived anywhere before I chase this one up! (last thing we want is yet
another machine with no software to run on it :-)
Probably as slighlty more healthy than the tapes and drives. The tape
drives in the Apollos also suffered from the drive wheels turning to
goo while reading the tapes.
The floppy drive appeared to be a standard PC style 5 1/4" drive. I
seem to remember there were some utilities for writting DOS formatted
disks available at some point.
Simon
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to
philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is
the utility of the final product."
Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh
7:50 a.m.
Simon Fryer wrote:
Possibly. We've got 10.x (.4 or .2, can't recall which) on good tapes though,
plus I've got archives here - but that release won't run on the earlier
hardware (I think it'll technically work on the 3000 and 4000 series, but it's
probably a real memory hog on those boxes)
We've got a few good QIC drives - no shortage yet (I make a point of seeking
those out when stuff's being dumped!); seems like only about 50% of the ones
out there suffer from the goo problem - but it seems spread across all
manufacturers and ages, strangely.
I'm
willing to bet that the floppies aren't in the best of health by now
though, so figured I'd check if someone has floppy-based install media
archived anywhere before I chase this one up! (last thing we want is yet
another machine with no software to run on it :-)
Probably as slighlty more healthy than the tapes and drives. The tape
drives in the Apollos also suffered from the drive wheels turning to
goo while reading the tapes. The floppy drive appeared to be a standard PC style 5
1/4" drive.
Yep, wouldn't surprise me - although it's possibly driven by a SCSI bridge
board (e.g. OMTI 5000 series) for some Apollos rather than being a native
controller (I think the 3xxx and 4xxx machines don't have SCSI and are either
ST412 or ESDI - presumably same goes for even earlier machines)
cheers
Jules
7:19 a.m.
All,
On 7/11/06, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hmmm. Going from memory here. The DN3000 and 4000 machines used ESDI
disks from a WD70?? controller. The controller had Apollo firmware. I
have seen identical controllers with x86 firmware. It was possible to
put the cards from Apollos into PCs - but without low level formatting
utilities etc.
The floppy interface on the WD70?? cards was used for the floppy drive
on the DN3000 I used with a floppy drive.
I forget how SCSI and the tape drives were connected - the OMTI cards
sound familear.
Simon
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to
philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is
the utility of the final product."
Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh
Simon Fryer wrote:
Possibly. We've got 10.x (.4 or .2, can't recall which) on good tapes though,
plus I've got archives here - but that release won't run on the earlier
hardware (I think it'll technically work on the 3000 and 4000 series, but it's
probably a real memory hog on those boxes)
I am pretty sure 10.4 with November 98 (or was it 97) patches worked
quite happliy on the 3000 machines. I was using one for a while (it
may have been a DN5000) in 99 as I prefered the keyboard and GUI to
everything else available.
I seem to remember that I was having problems getting X to work
properly at the time and ended up switching to a HP300 running OpenBSD
in 2000.
I'm
willing to bet that the floppies aren't in the best of health by now
though, so figured I'd check if someone has floppy-based install media
archived anywhere before I chase this one up! (last thing we want is yet
another machine with no software to run on it :-)
Probably as slighlty more healthy than the tapes and drives. The tape
drives in the Apollos also suffered from the drive wheels turning to
goo while reading the tapes. We've got a few good QIC drives - no shortage yet
(I make a point of seeking
those out when stuff's being dumped!); seems like only about 50% of the ones
out there suffer from the goo problem - but it seems spread across all
manufacturers and ages, strangely.
It is one of those problems that seems to plague old hardware! I think
the first tape of my 10.4 install has a mark where I have had the
roller wheel turn to mush. I pulled a tape drive from another apollo
at the time and was able to install without any problems.
The floppy
drive appeared to be a standard PC style 5 1/4" drive.
Yep, wouldn't surprise me - although it's possibly driven by a SCSI bridge
board (e.g. OMTI 5000 series) for some Apollos rather than being a native
controller (I think the 3xxx and 4xxx machines don't have SCSI and are either
ST412 or ESDI - presumably same goes for even earlier machines) 
12 Jul
12 Jul
6:05 p.m.
I've got some older Apollo's, some still have 8-inch floppies.
3xxx machines could support 5 1/4 inch drives.
I ~may~ have Aegis on 8-inch disks. I do have a running DN4500 with
most of the SAU's for early Apollo hardware.
This would let you boot diskless from my 4500, and then INVOL your
drive.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 9:35 AM
Subject: *early* Domain OS available?
Quick check - does anyone have an earlier floppy-based release of Domain
OS for Apollo machines archived?
We've been offered an Apollo, but no idea yet of which model - all the
details say is that it dates from when Apollo were independent (which
possibly still means it's something like a 3000, I suspect - weren't HP
not really involved until the 400 series?)
Anyway, the machine has no OS, but it does have install floppies (that's
another thing; I thought Domain OS came on tape by the 3xxx machines -
floppies suggest it's much older).
I'm willing to bet that the floppies aren't in the best of health by now
though, so figured I'd check if someone has floppy-based install media
archived anywhere before I chase this one up! (last thing we want is yet
another machine with no software to run on it :-)
cheers
Jules
6737
days inactive
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julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk