----- Original Message -----
From: "Neil Cherry" <ncherry_at_home.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: Vax Station 3100
> Jim Strickland wrote:
> >
> > Decstations were Ultrix-only machines based around the MIPS
archetecture. They
> > were considerably faster than comparably priced vaxen (if memory serves)
and
> > made fine workstations and light fileservers. But no, it won't run VMS.
> >
>
> According to message I found during a web search, I may have purchased a
> lemon. It states that the machine won't boot without a keyboard and mouse.
> Well I don't have any. I'll have to hunt them down and then load *BSD.
>
> --
> Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry_at_home.net
> http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
> http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
> http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
>
You may have read about the insidious mouse port dependency on these
machines :)
These systems must have either a mouse or a "mouse port terminator"
installed on
them to boot NetBSD (and others, perhaps) from the graphics console. I think
more
information on them can be found on the NetBSD/pmax Web site, or you could
also
probably look it up by typing something like "DECstation 3100 mouse
terminator"
into your favorite search engine.
I'm not sure if its a problem if you boot the system off a serial console
(which, incidentially,
you can do; just hook up a terminal to the port with the printer icon next
to it and flip the
little DIP switch S3 on the back of the system - then you don't even need a
mouse,
keyboard, or monitor). Unfortunately, unless you have a MMJ terminal
(VT3/400 series)
you'll need to either buy or build a converter to break out MMJ to something
more
useful. The only problem is that (out here, at least), MMJ plugs are just
about impossible
to find and the converters (MMJ->DB25) cost $25 from DEC. Ouch!
Don't get rid of it though! These are great little machines for light
network serving using
something like NetBSD (which runs on them well;
http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/pmax).
I've got one in my basement with 24Mb RAM, color framebuffer to a VR290
monitor,
and RZ23 and RZ24 hard disks in it. It works like a charm!
--Sean Caron (root_at_diablonet.net) |
http://www.diablonet.net
Received on Wed Oct 18 2000 - 14:16:45 BST