10 Oct
2018
10 Oct
'18
2:42 a.m.
Long shot, but you never know...
I recently obtained an Altos 386/1000 system (80386 + 4GB RAM in a tower
case with tape drive and floppy)
After a quick clean and check it powered up, gave a whinge about a flat
battery (which I'm told is to be expected), and then booted SysV r3 Unix
OK.
After an hour or so poking about, I shut it down then powered it up again
a short time later...
Now, it starts up, does the power on checks (including the battery
whinge), loads Unix, prints some information about memory and a 16 user
license then stops. No more messages, no keyboard input, nothing.
So I'm a bit stuck. I've found some manuals online but they're not really
helping - I'll take it to bits later and see if I can read the internal
SCSI drive on another system but I'm not convinced there is an issue with
the drive though.
So wondering if anyone knows of any installation (or diagnostic) images
for these machines? It has a SCSI tape drive and I have some tapes for it,
so with some SCSI shenanigans I'm fairly sure I can write a boot tape on a
Linux system, or maybe even the floppy - but I need the images... Any
clues?
Thanks,
Gordon
10 Oct
10 Oct
7 a.m.
On 10/10/18 2:42 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk wrote:
So I'm a bit stuck. I've found some manuals
online but they're not really helping - I'll take it to bits later and see
if I can read the internal SCSI drive on another system but I'm not convinced there
is an issue with the drive though.
you REALLY should image this disk even if you think it is fine.
7:08 a.m.
On 10/10/18 7:00 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 10/10/18 2:42 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk wrote:
I have a diagnostic floppy image at http://bitsavers.org/bits/Altos/386-series
I had a S-1000, but it was stolen earlier this year by thieves that broke into
my shipping container before I could image the drive.
So I'm a bit stuck. I've found some
manuals online but they're not really helping - I'll take it to bits later and
see
if I can read the internal SCSI drive on another system but I'm not convinced there
is an issue with the drive though.
you REALLY should image this disk even if you think it is fine.
8:56 a.m.
On Wed, 10 Oct 2018, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 10/10/18 7:00 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
>
> On 10/10/18 2:42 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk wrote:
>
>> So I'm a bit stuck. I've found some manuals online but they're not
really helping - I'll take it to bits later and see
>> if I can read the internal SCSI drive on another system but I'm not convinced
there is an issue with the drive though.
>
> you REALLY should image this disk even if you think it is fine.
I will - once I've worked out how to open it. Took the plastic covers off
to find an enclosed steel case. Tin opener?
I have a diagnostic floppy image at
http://bitsavers.org/bits/Altos/386-series
Ah, I'll have a look, thanks.
I had a S-1000, but it was stolen earlier this year by
thieves that broke into
my shipping container before I could image the drive.
Wonder what they thought it was...
Thanks,
Gordon
11:09 a.m.
On 10/10/18 8:56 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk wrote:
I will - once I've worked out how to open it. Took
the plastic covers off to find an enclosed steel case. Tin opener?
there are pictures of the one I have open at
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/altos/386/photos
13 Oct
13 Oct
11:29 a.m.
On Wed, 10 Oct 2018, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 10/10/18 8:56 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk
wrote:
So that was very helpful, thanks. Knowing now that it's a sort of hinge
made all the difference - it was not initially obvious.
And yes, it was the Lithium RTC battery that was flat. I've temp. fitted a
different type of battery and lo and behold, it's booted just fine.
# uname -a
unix Altos 5.3.1 b 386/1000 (empty) (empty) (empty) 11
It's an older full-height 5.25" SCSI drive by the looks of it - not sure I
want to take it out right now to image it, but once I've re-remembered the
horrors of uucp, kermit or however else I can get stuff on/off it via
serial port... (ugh. no uucp, but it does have a C compiler, vi and make,
what more do I need ;-)
Looks like it's the base model with 8 serial ports, 4MB of RAM and a
386/DX-16 ... a bit faster than a pdp11, but ...
Now, about this Y2K thing... hardware RTC seems fine with it, but
SysVr3... Nope )-:
Cheers,
Gordon
I will - once I've worked out how to open it.
Took the plastic covers
off to find an enclosed steel case. Tin opener?
there are pictures of the one I have open at
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/altos/386/photos 
10 Oct
10 Oct
10:12 a.m.
There's a guy here in So Cal that has a bunch of vintage computers including an Altos.
I haven't seen it personally but he has a Craigslist ad.
Said he put it on ebay and sold it but didn't want to ship because it's real
heavy, so i guess the deal fell thru.
Current ad says $300 for all.
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 10, 2018, at 07:06, Al Kossow via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 10/10/18 7:00 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
I have a diagnostic floppy image at http://bitsavers.org/bits/Altos/386-series
I had a S-1000, but it was stolen earlier this year by thieves that broke into
my shipping container before I could image the drive.
On 10/10/18 2:42 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk
wrote:
So I'm a bit stuck. I've found some manuals online but they're not really
helping - I'll take it to bits later and see
if I can read the internal SCSI drive on another system but I'm not convinced there
is an issue with the drive though.
you REALLY should image this disk even if you think it is fine.
11:19 a.m.
Al, I don't know much about them, only from discussions on this list. Thought maybe
there were only one or two models made and thus maybe there was interest in any model,
even if it's just for parts.
As an aside, i'll be up in SF in late October and hope to stop by the museum.
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 10, 2018, at 11:10, Al Kossow via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 10/10/18 10:12 AM, Wayne S wrote:
There's a guy here in So Cal that has a bunch of vintage computers including an
Altos.
"an Altos" is meaningless without the model number
2262
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8 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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aek＠bitsavers.org -
gordon+cctalk＠drogon.net -
wayne.sudol＠hotmail.com