3 Dec
2003
3 Dec
'03
12:44 p.m.
I was really busy over Thanksgiving, and then I got really sick, I'm
just recovering today, so I haven't had much time to do any tinkering
with computers. I just got home a few minutes ago, and the back end of
my car is sagging from the weight of an IBM AS/400 Model 9404. It's
very heavy, and I can't lift it alone, so it's going to have to stay
there until I can get a friend to help me lift it out and get it into
the house, but I have the panels, tape drive and battery backup unit
inside (I took them out to make it lighter and easier to load).
Unfortunately, the machine is missing it's hard drives, as well as
their carriers. It does, however, have a tape drive installed, and
seems to have it's full compliment of boards. I can't wait to play with
it :). It's not like I need another project, and I really don't have
space for it at the moment, but I couldn't pass it up. I can always use
it as a nightstand/space heater...
Anyway, anyone know anything about this beast? I've only done a little
googleing, which hasn't turned up any information on the hardware. I
need to find at least one drive carrier, and an operating system for
it. Does Linux run well (if at all) on the AS/400? Like I said, I
haven't done much research yet, I'm just trying to see if anyone has
had any experience with this thing. It's an interesting (and heavy)
piece of hardware. It will be fun to get running, provided I can find
the time.
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
3 Dec
3 Dec
3:20 p.m.
Anyway, anyone know anything about this beast?
I've only done a little
googleing, which hasn't turned up any information on the hardware. I
need to find at least one drive carrier, and an operating system for
it. Does Linux run well (if at all) on the AS/400?
There has been talk, but I don't think anything ever surfaced.
Anyway - why would anyone *want* to run anything but OS/400 on an AS/400?
Not to cut down Linux at all, but once you install it on any machine, you
pretty much strip out all of the character of the system. OS/400, like
VMS, has a very definite flavor.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
7:04 p.m.
Around I think 94-ish IBM and Novell teamed up and you could layer
Netware onto OS/400, this would allow you to retain the OS and add some
additioanl accessibility/functionality to it.
Curt
William Donzelli wrote:
Anyway, anyone
know anything about this beast? I've only done a little
googleing, which hasn't turned up any information on the hardware. I
need to find at least one drive carrier, and an operating system for
it. Does Linux run well (if at all) on the AS/400?
There has been talk, but I don't think anything ever surfaced.
Anyway - why would anyone *want* to run anything but OS/400 on an AS/400?
Not to cut down Linux at all, but once you install it on any machine, you
pretty much strip out all of the character of the system. OS/400, like
VMS, has a very definite flavor.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
11:37 p.m.
On Wednesday, December 3, 2003, at 09:20 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
The only reason I would consider running Linux is because I was worried
that I wouldn't be able to find the proper operating system for this
beast. I always prefer to run the original operating system on a
machine, unless I can't get ahold of it, in which case, Linux is a good
choice, since it seems to run on anything.
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
Anyway, anyone
know anything about this beast? I've only done a little
googleing, which hasn't turned up any information on the hardware. I
need to find at least one drive carrier, and an operating system for
it. Does Linux run well (if at all) on the AS/400?
There has been talk, but I don't think anything ever surfaced.
Anyway - why would anyone *want* to run anything but OS/400 on an
AS/400?
Not to cut down Linux at all, but once you install it on any machine,
you
pretty much strip out all of the character of the system. OS/400, like
VMS, has a very definite flavor. 
4 Dec
4 Dec
7:47 a.m.
In message <D53F9F7B-2645-11D8-8A80-000393D7845A(a)yahoo.com>
Ian Primus <ian_primus(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
machine, unless I can't get ahold of it, in which
case, Linux is a good
choice, since it seems to run on anything.
There's always NetBSD - ISTR their
slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD" (nuff
said). Their website is located at http://www.netbsd.org/ IIRC. It's still
available for free download, BTW.
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com | ViewFinder, Ethernet (Acorn AEH62),
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/ | 8xCD, framegrabber, Teletext
Wanted: Heisenberg. Reason uncertain.
11:39 a.m.
On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, William Donzelli wrote:
There's an IBM-written port to the newer (read RISC) AS/400 iron.
Anyway, anyone
know anything about this beast? I've only done a little
googleing, which hasn't turned up any information on the hardware. I
need to find at least one drive carrier, and an operating system for
it. Does Linux run well (if at all) on the AS/400?
There has been talk, but I don't think anything ever surfaced.
Anyway - why would anyone *want* to run anything but OS/400 on an AS/400? Not to cut down Linux at all, but once you install it
on any machine,
you pretty much strip out all of the character of the system. OS/400,
like VMS, has a very definite flavor.
Indeed.
Peace... Sridhar
11:50 a.m.
Anyway - why
would anyone *want* to run anything but OS/400 on an AS/400?
There's an IBM-written port to the newer (read RISC) AS/400 iron.
4:07 p.m.
On Thursday, December 4, 2003, at 05:39 PM, vance(a)neurotica.com wrote:
There's an IBM-written port to the newer (read
RISC) AS/400 iron.
Yeah, but unfortunately this one is an older CISC machine. I had also
checked to see if NetBSD ran on it, but there isn't a port yet, and it
doesn't look like there ever will be. And it appears that OS/400 is
pure unobtanium. It's too bad, I would love to learn OS/400, and it
would be great to get this machine running again, but unless I somehow
come up with a system tape, it's just going to be a piece of furniture.
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
4:49 p.m.
Yeah, but unfortunately this one is an older CISC
machine. I had also
checked to see if NetBSD ran on it, but there isn't a port yet, and it
doesn't look like there ever will be. And it appears that OS/400 is
pure unobtanium. It's too bad, I would love to learn OS/400, and it
would be great to get this machine running again, but unless I somehow
come up with a system tape, it's just going to be a piece of furniture.
If anyone ever comes up with some real system tapes, please save them!
The lack of "early" IBM software is really annoying (not only AS/400, but
for the earlier S/3x and S/3 lines, and even the mainframe lines).
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
3 Dec
3 Dec
3:50 p.m.
See embedded comments
On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Ian Primus wrote:
my car is sagging from the weight of an IBM AS/400
Model 9404. It's
Heh heh, I managed to fit one of these into a two door Mitsubishi
Eclipse. I had to remove most everything to lift it, however.
very heavy, and I can't lift it alone, so it's
going to have to stay
there until I can get a friend to help me lift it out and get it into
the house, but I have the panels, tape drive and battery backup unit
inside (I took them out to make it lighter and easier to load).
Unfortunately, the machine is missing it's hard
drives, as well as
their carriers. It does, however, have a tape drive installed, and
seems to have it's full compliment of boards.
You might be screwed. If it a beige CISC model you probably are. It does
not run linux and the raw assembly code of the machine remains an IBM
proprietary secret. All non-IBM code ran an abstracted assembly code.
Most CISC 9404's maxed out at comically small amounts of RAM compared even
to machines of similar age. (My 9404-E20 had 8 MB as I recall which at
that feature code was the max)
You need special licensed code tapes to recreate the OS if the disks are
missing and then a secret number from IBM to keep it running past 90 days
of OS install. The manual which came with my 9404 even claimed there was
a movement sensor in the Operator control panel (with the display and key
which contains the proprietary licensing bits) which would cause the
system to demand a new code if it sensed too much movement.
The boards are probably all worthless, even on Ebay, unless possibly you
have an ethernet or token ring board.
Newer RISC models are substantially less onerous in their licensing. The
movement sensor is gone, the OS is sold with the machine not separately.
Like a HP3000, a faster CPU is still nop'd down to a less efficient level
if you have not purchased the highest 'trim line' of the server.
You can run some sort of linux partition on some of the newest ones.
Paul
--
11:47 p.m.
On Wednesday, December 3, 2003, at 09:50 PM, Paul Thompson wrote:
See embedded comments
On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Ian Primus wrote:
I got lucky, it just barely fits in the trunk of my car, a Toyota
Camry. I still haven't gotten it out of my trunk though, I'm going to
need help to lift it out.
my car is sagging from the weight of an IBM
AS/400 Model 9404. It's
Heh heh, I managed to fit one of these into a two door Mitsubishi
Eclipse. I had to remove most everything to lift it, however. You might be screwed. If it a beige CISC model you
probably are. It
does
not run linux and the raw assembly code of the machine remains an IBM
proprietary secret. All non-IBM code ran an abstracted assembly code.
Most CISC 9404's maxed out at comically small amounts of RAM compared
even
to machines of similar age. (My 9404-E20 had 8 MB as I recall which at
that feature code was the max)
Yeah, it's beige. I hope I can get it to do something, I don't have
room for a hundred pound doorstop.
You need special licensed code tapes to recreate the
OS if the disks
are
missing and then a secret number from IBM to keep it running past 90
days
of OS install. The manual which came with my 9404 even claimed there
was
a movement sensor in the Operator control panel (with the display and
key
which contains the proprietary licensing bits) which would cause the
system to demand a new code if it sensed too much movement.
Well, if I can get the OS installed and running even for 90 days, It
would be better than nothing. Does IBM have a hobbyist license program?
The boards are probably all worthless, even on Ebay,
unless possibly
you
have an ethernet or token ring board.
I haven't looked that closely, but I think it has a token ring board in
it.
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
4 Dec
4 Dec
7:09 a.m.
I have one of the AS 400's of this vintage and am in the LA area
I would be glad to let you have it. It has all you need to load and
run the code, but the drives are blank.
If you want it, email and arrange to come get it. I put it up for
parting out on Ebay at one time but never got any takers.
Jim
Ian Primus wrote:
<snip>
IBM AS/400 Model 9404. It's
very heavy, and I can't lift it alone, so it's going to have to stay
there until I can get a friend to help me lift it out and get it into
the house, but I have the panels, tape drive and battery backup unit
inside (I took them out to make it lighter and easier to load).
Unfortunately, the machine is missing it's hard drives, as well as
their carriers. It does, however, have a tape drive installed, and
seems to have it's full compliment of boards.
<snip>
6 Dec
6 Dec
10:12 a.m.
On Wednesday 03 December 2003 18:44, Ian Primus wrote:
the back end of
my car is sagging from the weight of an IBM AS/400 Model 9404. It's
very heavy, and I can't lift it alone, so it's going to have to stay
there until I can get a friend to help me lift it out and get it into
the house, but I have the panels, tape drive and battery backup unit
inside (I took them out to make it lighter and easier to load).
Anyway, anyone know anything about this beast?
I've only done a little
googleing, which hasn't turned up any information on the hardware. I
need to find at least one drive carrier, and an operating system for
it. Does Linux run well (if at all) on the AS/400? Like I said, I
haven't done much research yet, I'm just trying to see if anyone has
had any experience with this thing. It's an interesting (and heavy)
piece of hardware. It will be fun to get running, provided I can find
the time.
Linux runs on the newer RISC as/400, the 9404 is not one of them. I have a
pair of 9404's I'm missing the keys, and didn't notice any batteries when
I brought mine in the house for the winter.
Mike
--
Ottawa, Canada
Collector of vintage computers
http://www.ncf.ca/~ba600
7540
days inactive
7543
days old
12 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
aw288＠osfn.org -
curt＠atarimuseum.com -
dittman＠dittman.net -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
kenziem＠sympatico.ca -
philpem＠dsl.pipex.com -
thompson＠new.rr.com -
vance＠neurotica.com