Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-11, 08:41:

[...]

Use plop from a floppy disk to boot the cd... or a lighter linux cd such as Damn Small Linux or similar.

I suppose that would do the trick, it just combines two things I hate (floppy & CDs).

That's one of my other little projects - using a RaSCSI Raspberry Pi SCSI emulator to basically do a Gotek-for-CDs. Managed to get it working for HDD images, but not (yet) CD images. Given that it was designed for FM Towns/X68000, then adapted to vintage Mac systems, it's hardly aimed at bootable PC CDRoms, but I'd be very happy if I could get it working. Still, no time to dig around any more for the next few weeks :'(

But for this purpuse plain old SCSI HDD would do the trick and be less fiddly than a Pi needing an extra USB power supply etc. Except of course all my suitable drives have SCA connectors, so need fiddly adapters after all...

dionb wrote on 2021-01-10, 23:36:

Frustrating day. I want the impossible, and surprise surprise: it turned out to be impossible ;) […]
Show full quote

Frustrating day. I want the impossible, and surprise surprise: it turned out to be impossible 😉

What? a 2000s era Knoppix Linux install with hardware detection and enough useful software for a lot of diagnostics, on a HDD smaller than the 2GB BIOS limit. Nope. Knoppix 5.1.1 at least requires 512MB swap if <128MB of RAM (likely), and install is about 1.5GB. It *just* fits onto a 2.1GB HDD, but that HDD is >2GB and so fails to be correctly recognized in the sort of early Pentium system I want to use it on. 1.6GB HDD is detected fine, but it doesn't fit.

Booting Knoppix from CD isn't an option due to lack of CD boot support. However SCSI might be an option, so that will be my next approach.

Also ordered 35 64k x 8 SRAM DIPs to boost some boards to 512kB/1MB of cache.

If you have at least 64MB RAM in the PC you can just use Puppy Linux Retro 4.1.3 and even install it onto a hard drive. Granted, it works a million times better with 128MB RAM.

dionb wrote on 2021-01-11, 09:20:

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-11, 08:41:

[...]

Use plop from a floppy disk to boot the cd... or a lighter linux cd such as Damn Small Linux or similar.

I suppose that would do the trick, it just combines two things I hate (floppy & CDs).

You rearly need to get over that when dealing with old kit and doing something they were never designed to do.

A friend of mine gave me a Goodfellas DVD, and I finally watched it last night (after hearing about it for all of these years)as I was disassembling my cousin's laptop for repair. I watched it on my AT system: TXP4, K6-3+ 450 @ 500, FX 5200, 64 megs of RAM, Win98 with an old version of Power DVD.

Tried the Baking Soda/Superglue trick over the weekend on the NEC Versa P/75 and oh my god did that work! I was able to reuse the stock screw anchors on the casing, "weld", extrude, fill, and "reinforce" the original structure. I made a hours long YouTube video of me doing all this at my desk on Saturday on my iMac that might take me awhile to edit and put together. Ran it all night last night for 2.2 hours playing games in FreeDOS including the 7th Guest, Wacky Wheels, and Ultima VI: The False Prophet.

So I'm sure some of you are aware of this chemical mixture and it's thermal activity, but at one point during the repair it totally rings true. I was re-attaching a brass screw anchor to the palm wrest in it's original position. and then flood-filling a specially blocked off area with superglue and baking soda - well...at one point I touched the bottom and I could feel that area was getting hot - on the other side, where the screw anchor broke through to the other side leaving a hole, under a piece of gorilla tape I put over it, the plastic melted and basically re-molded back to it's original solid gray structure, now reinforced from behind. That piece of tape has been removed.

That said I did skip 3 things inside the case I might mess with later - I found the trackball may still go out, and I think it's because there are 2 screw anchors for the motherboard in front that I found were loose after I removed everything. Then I have one screw-mount that's completley gone on the bottom, oddly where the other screw anchor I fixed is placed on the other side.

I did peel a BS/Superglue spill on the desk off with a razorblade last night, it's basically more flexible plastic than the original NEC Versa gray plastic - like I could layer this and make Guitar Picks out of it that would actually last....might be another video for another day.

I have one laptop coming in, hopefully soon, another M/75, that's the one I'll be using to make molds for a second case for the other M/75. I'm Seriously tempted maybe to mold it in some wild colors or with some more light blue accents and reproduce the screen casing as well. After that, I might attempt some nifty hardware mods that I've been brainstorming.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-11, 11:22:

[...]

If you have at least 64MB RAM in the PC you can just use Puppy Linux Retro 4.1.3 and even install it onto a hard drive. Granted, it works a million times better with 128MB RAM.

Thing is, I'm not looking for a usable desktop system, it's the hardware detection in Knoppix that I'm after, plus a high-res desktop to implicitly test video memory (yes, X-VESA can also do it but it takes a loooong time to do so).

Have now gotten it installed on a SCSI drive, but it's not helping: apparently the drive order is different on the two systems (despite neither having more than one SCSI drive in there on ID 0 with second partition active so the partition to be booted isn't hd(0,1) on the older one. Grub Stage 1.5 error 17. Ugh.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-11, 14:51:

[...]
You rearly need to get over that when dealing with old kit and doing something they were never designed to do.

Booting from a SCSI HDD not something an old system's supposed to do? I'd say that's not particularly exotic, the AHA-1542 I'm using is older than the rest of the system and my desired OS in this case is a bit newer, but still fully supports the hardware. This is eminently doable, I'm just a single Grub setting away from getting it working.

dionb wrote on 2021-01-12, 00:04:

Thing is, I'm not looking for a usable desktop system, it's the hardware detection in Knoppix that I'm after, plus a high-res de […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-11, 11:22:

[...]

If you have at least 64MB RAM in the PC you can just use Puppy Linux Retro 4.1.3 and even install it onto a hard drive. Granted, it works a million times better with 128MB RAM.

Thing is, I'm not looking for a usable desktop system, it's the hardware detection in Knoppix that I'm after, plus a high-res desktop to implicitly test video memory (yes, X-VESA can also do it but it takes a loooong time to do so).

Have now gotten it installed on a SCSI drive, but it's not helping: apparently the drive order is different on the two systems (despite neither having more than one SCSI drive in there on ID 0 with second partition active so the partition to be booted isn't hd(0,1) on the older one. Grub Stage 1.5 error 17. Ugh.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-11, 14:51:

[...]
You rearly need to get over that when dealing with old kit and doing something they were never designed to do.

Booting from a SCSI HDD not something an old system's supposed to do? I'd say that's not particularly exotic, the AHA-1542 I'm using is older than the rest of the system and my desired OS in this case is a bit newer, but still fully supports the hardware. This is eminently doable, I'm just a single Grub setting away from getting it working.

Haha yeah scsi been around since late 1980s and widely used until mid 2000's so is a good easy fallback if you know what you are doing (and I know you do). Funny comment Cal 😀

Horun wrote on 2021-01-12, 02:12:

dionb wrote on 2021-01-12, 00:04:

Thing is, I'm not looking for a usable desktop system, it's the hardware detection in Knoppix that I'm after, plus a high-res de […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-11, 11:22:

[...]

If you have at least 64MB RAM in the PC you can just use Puppy Linux Retro 4.1.3 and even install it onto a hard drive. Granted, it works a million times better with 128MB RAM.

Thing is, I'm not looking for a usable desktop system, it's the hardware detection in Knoppix that I'm after, plus a high-res desktop to implicitly test video memory (yes, X-VESA can also do it but it takes a loooong time to do so).

Have now gotten it installed on a SCSI drive, but it's not helping: apparently the drive order is different on the two systems (despite neither having more than one SCSI drive in there on ID 0 with second partition active so the partition to be booted isn't hd(0,1) on the older one. Grub Stage 1.5 error 17. Ugh.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-11, 14:51:

[...]
You rearly need to get over that when dealing with old kit and doing something they were never designed to do.

Booting from a SCSI HDD not something an old system's supposed to do? I'd say that's not particularly exotic, the AHA-1542 I'm using is older than the rest of the system and my desired OS in this case is a bit newer, but still fully supports the hardware. This is eminently doable, I'm just a single Grub setting away from getting it working.

Haha yeah scsi been around since late 1980s and widely used until mid 2000's so is a good easy fallback if you know what you are doing (and I know you do). Funny comment Cal 😀

Through SAS, it’s still in heavy professional use.

BetaC wrote on 2021-01-12, 18:32:

Horun wrote on 2021-01-12, 02:12:

dionb wrote on 2021-01-12, 00:04:

Thing is, I'm not looking for a usable desktop system, it's the hardware detection in Knoppix that I'm after, plus a high-res desktop to implicitly test video memory (yes, X-VESA can also do it but it takes a loooong time to do so).

Have now gotten it installed on a SCSI drive, but it's not helping: apparently the drive order is different on the two systems (despite neither having more than one SCSI drive in there on ID 0 with second partition active so the partition to be booted isn't hd(0,1) on the older one. Grub Stage 1.5 error 17. Ugh.

Booting from a SCSI HDD not something an old system's supposed to do? I'd say that's not particularly exotic, the AHA-1542 I'm using is older than the rest of the system and my desired OS in this case is a bit newer, but still fully supports the hardware. This is eminently doable, I'm just a single Grub setting away from getting it working.

Haha yeah scsi been around since late 1980s and widely used until mid 2000's so is a good easy fallback if you know what you are doing (and I know you do). Funny comment Cal 😀

Through SAS, it’s still in heavy professional use.

And SAS controllers work with SATA drives (not the other way round, though), so decommisioned servers can be put to good use with cheap drives .

Currently 3D printing this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3543297 for my IDE to SD Card adapter

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-12, 19:49:

Currently 3D printing this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3543297 for my IDE to SD Card adapter

Cool! Someone did something similar here on VOGONS before, yours apparently is to be connected from the rear view, the one I saw before was for the front view, I can't recall who and where.

Bruninho wrote on 2021-01-12, 20:28:

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-12, 19:49:

Currently 3D printing this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3543297 for my IDE to SD Card adapter

Cool! Someone did something similar here on VOGONS before, yours apparently is to be connected from the rear view, the one I saw before was for the front view, I can't recall who and where.

I can't put it on the front and spoil the looks of this! 😀

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-12, 20:37:

Bruninho wrote on 2021-01-12, 20:28:

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-12, 19:49:

Currently 3D printing this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3543297 for my IDE to SD Card adapter

Cool! Someone did something similar here on VOGONS before, yours apparently is to be connected from the rear view, the one I saw before was for the front view, I can't recall who and where.

I can't put it on the front and spoil the looks of this! 😀

Haha, I agree! But the one I saw before, was made to look similar to a floppy drive and fit without modding the case. I tried to search the forum for the post, but I had no luck. I can't even remember who did it.

Bruninho wrote on 2021-01-12, 20:45:

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-12, 20:37:

Bruninho wrote on 2021-01-12, 20:28:

Cool! Someone did something similar here on VOGONS before, yours apparently is to be connected from the rear view, the one I saw before was for the front view, I can't recall who and where.

I can't put it on the front and spoil the looks of this! 😀

Haha, I agree! But the one I saw before, was made to look similar to a floppy drive and fit without modding the case. I tried to search the forum for the post, but I had no luck. I can't even remember who did it.

I remember a front bay IDE CF adapter recently. I was interested as that's the way I plan to go on a few retro systems.

Sounds good, but would need to find the right slightly yellow off-beige 3D printer filament 😀

🤣, of course 😀 I wouldn't be looking for a perfect match, as many cases are slightly different anyway. If I had a 3D printer, I'd probably go for bright colours anyway, coz that would suit my taste and clash less than the wrong beige 😀

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-12, 19:49:

Currently 3D printing this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3543297 for my IDE to SD Card adapter

It's pretty good but could do with a bit of extra stiffening. I noticed on the original link there's a link to an updated one someone's done which is exactly that! (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4686963) I just didn't notice - but this is good enough for me, just bends a bit when changing the SD card.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2021-01-10, 23:21:

What on earth why no information on these twin computers? Are they intel-made servers?

Have some time taking these pictures and describe them in detail what are they? Web search is thin and your extra information will help big time.

Cheers,

Youtube premiere on the Unisys Aquanta HS/6 (aka ALR 6x6) @ 6:00PM tonight Eastern time. I take you through a quick tour of these monster Pentium Pro systems.

https://youtu.be/zU-0T9m3apU

Hope you enjoy!

liqmat wrote on 2021-01-12, 22:33:

Youtube premiere on the Unisys Aquanta HS/6 (aka ALR 6x6) @ 6:00PM tonight Eastern time. I take you through a quick tour of thes […]
Show full quote

pentiumspeed wrote on 2021-01-10, 23:21:

What on earth why no information on these twin computers? Are they intel-made servers?

Have some time taking these pictures and describe them in detail what are they? Web search is thin and your extra information will help big time.

Cheers,

Youtube premiere on the Unisys Aquanta HS/6 (aka ALR 6x6) @ 6:00PM tonight Eastern time. I take you through a quick tour of these monster Pentium Pro systems.

https://youtu.be/zU-0T9m3apU

Hope you enjoy!

Nice machine - thanks!

A few weeks back, I bought some non-working VLB graphics cards - one a CL-GD5429 and the other a CL-GD5426 / I/O Combo card. At this point I am not short on vesa local bus video cards, these are both novel enough to be worth fixing though.
Both are now working after fitting an EEPROM to each one (1mb eeprom jammed in place of 27c256/27c512), but the 5429 needed some more work - it originally came with a PAL chip to do 'linear addressing', which I still don't fully get what that does. It can have either that or a 74F32 in its place with some caps/resistors switched about.

Sadly I had neither and the UK's in lockdown again so I thought I'd make do with what's around - I never expected I'd find someone with my exact card re-engineered the PAL chip's code and put it up on Github: https://github.com/Tony814/GD5429PALMod

I found a GAL16v8 that could be removed from some useless printer ROM/RAM card (I knew it would be useful someday). Actually I tried 2, but one of them wouldn't write fully, I have bad luck with these PALs. Another one I bought off ebay had bad pins, so I've got 2 good and 2 bad ones 🙁

Flashed the GAL and made this unholy mess to fit it on the card, it works!