Concurrent Computer Corporation

[alexmcwhirter at triadic.us]

On 2016-07-30 13:51, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I'm trying to revive and old unix machine. A Concurrent Computer
> Corporation series 8000. This seems to be a later version of Masscomp
> MC5600/MC5700 which has a manual in bitsavers. The system runs RTU
> (which I assumes means Real Time Unix).
> 
> My machine is in great condition and both SCSI disks (Seagate ST516)
> seems to work fine and I've made images. But the machine panics at 
> boot:
> 
> ---
> panic: Unauthorized use of RTU
> For further assistance, contact Concurrent's
> Customer Service Technical Support Group
> ---
> 
> The NVRAM battery is long dead and upon entering the console I get a
> complaint regarding the TOD clock, but I see no way of setting it.
> 
> I can boot into a "stand alone mode" but not single user. In the SAM I
> can poke arround the filesystem and use "date" to set a date, but the
> clock appears not to be running.
> 
> Does anyone have experience with this type of machine, either CCC or
> masscomp and can offer assistance?
> 
> It's a dual MIPS machine with 16MB of memory.
> 
> /P

I know nothing about this machine in particular, but i know a decent 
amount about other unix machines of the era. Chances are that the copy 
of RTU on that box is licensed to the serial / id number programmed in 
nvram. Because the nvram is dead, those numbers no longer match and the 
OS panics from an invalid license. The TOD clock typically part of the 
nvram chip and loses it's value after every reset. If i had to guess, i 
would say replace the battery / nvram chip (if it's a self contained 
chip like the old sun boxes) and see if you can get enough data together 
to reprogram it. Whether or not the machine in question has a facility 
to do that like the old sun's do i am not sure.