Apollo problems

From: R. Stricklin <red_at_bears.org>
Date: Mon Jan 4 02:08:47 1999

On Sun, 3 Jan 1999, John Rollins wrote:

> interesting, I also forgot the root password. But luckily my memory came
> back quickly, I'd hate to think how long it would take to get it back up
> running if I forgot the password...

If you forget the password, you're pretty much just hosed and need to do a
complete re-install. This isn't always the case; sometimes there are
things you can do. But DOMAIN/OS isn't UNIX! A lot of things like
single-user booting that you start to take for granted don't work the same
way on an Apollo.

> actually you should type "init", at least on my system.

'init' to load the OS? 'go' is likely a synonym. It's been a while since
I've been at the phase 2 shell, though, so you could be right. I know 'go'
works, though. (:

> Ouch!! That wasn't very nice... But I don't think it's from a 5500. Maybe a
> 4000 or a 3000, but not a 5500. The machine seems to recognize it just

I'm almost positive the WD7000 won't work in the DN3000, and thus is
unable to use the 780MB disk. It'll work in a DN4000, though. All the
machines that support the WD7000 and are not the DN5500 are SAU7 machines.
The DN5500 is SAU14.

> fine, but won't do anything because it doesn't have the SAU7 stuff loaded.

Not only that, but the DN5500 uses a different block size for its disk
format than all the rest (4K vs 1K), which is why it's incompatible even
beyond the SAU issues.

> So now my DN3500 is loaded down and ready to pop circuit breakers(as if
> that huge monitor couldn't do it alone).

Nah. It only looks power hungry. The big 19" monitor is rated 2A. Wimpy!
<g>

> controller(got two more of those and lots of OMNI's), an ugly little DR
> network card(maybe I'll put ethernet in) and the PC card. No floppy drive

If you do, I could use one of the single slot ATR cards and some cabling
so I can make my DN5500 into a router...

> or tape drive, gotta work on that later. But first I need to figure out how
> to hook up and access two drives atthe same time! Can't boot from a disk
> with no OS, but can't plug in two drives at the same time with the cables I
> have...

You may be able to do this with just a network connection; check
comp.sys.apollo in DejaNews; you also may not be able to actually install
from the other drive depending on what files are on it and how they're set
up. Good luck!

> So next I'm going to try to stuff one of those 3000 motherboards(or was it
> from a 3010?) into the old 3500 case and see if I can't get it running.

Um.. that may not actually work. The 3000 and 3500 cases are different;
mostly in the power supply area.

> Unfortunately, I only have one keyboard and one monitor. But I DO have TWO
> mice. The new one has three buttons that are kinda slanted, and on the
> bottom it says it was made in Switzerland. And it's backwards! Roll it
> down, the cursor moves up... Might be good for an upside-down trackball
> though ;-)

The mice are just Logitech three button mice. Pretty sure they're simply
serially interfaced, too. Nothing obviously special about them at all.

-- 
ok
r.					r e d  _at_  b e a r s . o r g
					===========================
					[ urs longa | vita brevis ]
Received on Mon Jan 04 1999 - 02:08:47 GMT

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