more weird stuff - ChameLAN 100-s

From: technoid <technoid_at_cheta.net>
Date: Sun May 21 14:55:47 2000

No luck involved. The machine did not boot when I got it. It had bad ram and a
dead NVRAM batt. Security could not be maintained by NVRAM with a dead batt. I
grafted a clone batt onto the SG Thompson chip and got the system running without a
real-time clock ( I damaged the oscillator when repairing the chip). Eveni if the
NVRAM security had been enabled and the batt viable I would have defeated the
security easily by disconnecting the internal batt on the SG Thompson or as
eventually happened, replacing the chip with an equivalent device from Dallas
Semiconductor. Unfortunately these chips are in very short supply at the moment. I
got mine directly from Dallas and it was one of a handful left in their inventory.
Both Dallas and SG Thompson are gearing up for new production but some estimates for
volume availability are into the year 2001!

I have never been defeated by a computer.



Lawrence LeMay wrote:

>
>
> Hmm, you must have been lucky, and the system didnt have its EEPROM security
> features turned on. The standard way to hack VERY old Sun's, used to
> be to boot the computer with a hardware fault that the operating system
> couldnt solve and which it would then drop you into local root, and then
> fix the hardware problem. Traditionally, one would unplug the keyboard
> before powering on the system ;) The fix for this hardware problem is
> left as an extra credit problem for you to figure out... ;)
>
> -Lawrence LeMay
Received on Sun May 21 2000 - 14:55:47 BST