Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-02-05, 00:10

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

But I figure audiences like VOGONS are more than well versed in managing old computers inside modern networks, and don't need lecturing about that. D'oh! I mean, asking for a friend : what does managing old computers inside modern networks involve? Anyone? I never bothered to put mine on, precisely …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-02-02, 22:20

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

For Debian the recommended minimum RAM is 128MB without a GUI but it will work with as little as 60MB on an a 64bit PC. At least 2GB of disk is recommended but no harm in giving it more - perhaps 10GB if you've got the disk space. For x86 you need at least a Pentium II or better (the original …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-02-02, 06:02

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I think if running an old version of Samba isn't an option then Mars-NWE is perhaps a better alternative than WinSCP or FTP. It gives you mapped network drives just like SMB does with the added benefit of using vastly less conventional memory on DOS than the Microsoft LanMan/SMB client. Windows 9x …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-02-01, 02:53

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I've done a little bit more testing with Mars-NWE. The following seems to work fine - I could login, get network drives, etc: MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, Client32 2.71. VLM Client 1.21 also works fine. The real old NETX client which will work fine on the original IBM PC is also known to work. Windows …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-01-31, 11:25

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Samba is going to remove SMB 1.0: Good thing it looks like Mars-NWE works! I spent a few minutes setting it up on a spare Raspberry Pi 4 and I'm able to login from DOS using some version of Client32. Not very smoothly though but this is just a first attempt by someone who has never used Mars-NWE …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-01-31, 07:43

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Its really a shame IPX was cut from the Linux kernel a few years back. There is a Netware server implementation for Linux (Mars NWE) which would have been great for something like this. I don't know a whole lot about IPX, but is the project/code still maintained somewhere? If it's something I can …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-01-31, 06:30

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by davidrg

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Its really a shame IPX was cut from the Linux kernel a few years back. There is a Netware server implementation for Linux (Mars NWE) which would have been great for something like this. Why? Compared to the Microsoft SMB/Lanman client for DOS, the NetWare 32bit DOS client is absurdly memory …

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Re: Whats the most rare piece of hardware you own?

Posted on 2022-01-19, 09:33

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by davidrg

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have a TEMPEST VAXstation 3100. I don't know if its truly rare (after all, I just bought this one on ebay for not very much several years back) but a VAXstation wasn't exactly something you could just buy from your local computer store and a version thats specially shielded against spying through …

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Re: What do you use for MS-DOS networking?

Posted on 2022-01-07, 01:15

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Right now I'm wondering if I should go the easy route and use a netbios-over-ip lan client or set up a Novell NetWare 3.x or 4.x server with IPX and TCP/IP :D I took the NetWare path (4.11 virtualised under KVM) but mostly because I like it rather than it being particularly practical. There are no …

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Re: My AlphaPC - 164LX with 21164 533 MHz

Posted on 2021-11-28, 23:34

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Its been a while since I've played with Windows NT on Alpha (my Alphas have usually run OpenVMS and Digital UNIX/Tru64) but IIRC in the AlphaBIOS Setup there is a screen somewhere where you can edit the boot menu - I guess the setting you're after might be somewhere in there. I seem to remember …

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Re: My AlphaPC - 164LX with 21164 533 MHz

Posted on 2021-11-28, 19:47

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I've never tried Windows 2000 on an Alpha before. Do you have a screenshot of the problem you're having?

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Re: What is easiest/lightest mapped network drive setup for DOS?

Posted on 2021-11-23, 20:14

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by davidrg

in DOS

in DOS

NetWare would be the lightest - on a 386 or better with emm386 loaded and DOS 5.0+ it doesn't use any memory below the 640K line at all ( mem /c output , Client32 is the NetWare client). On anything older (8086/8088/80286, DOS 3.2-4.0) it will want somewhere around 60K of conventional memory …

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Re: Looking for: HP Vectra VL 6/xxx Series 6, System diskette flashable BIOS (wcb4z1en.exe)

Posted on 2021-11-12, 00:17

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have been wondering lately how long before some bean counter at HP switches off that ftp server. A lot of stuff on there isn't HPs anymore as a result of the HP/HPE split or is extremely "obsolete". I guess the warning sign will be HP posting drivers for new systems on their website or some CDN …

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Re: What are some must try game demos from the Windows 95/98 era?

Posted on 2021-11-09, 00:38

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Yeah, this behaviour is super annoying. Right-click and choose Save-as. If nothing happens after choosing where to save it check the downloaded files list.

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Re: NetWare Client and Conventional Memory

Posted on 2021-11-07, 02:07

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

You're right! The next section down on that page (NIOS) even discusses Client32 directly.

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Re: NetWare Client and Conventional Memory

Posted on 2021-11-07, 01:40

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Without loading emm386.exe the client won't automatically load high and so uses around 4KB of conventional memory ( mem /c output , module is NIOS). Total free conventional memory is unchanged but it is 4KB lower than if I wasn't running the network client or emm386 at all. I think usually I'd have …

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Re: Software you can't find, and your hunts for them

Posted on 2021-11-06, 11:29

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Not the OS/2 versions that are the problem but rather finding a compatible NetWare client for them. IIRC support for installable filesystems didn't appear until OS/2 v1.2 so earlier versions of OS/2 have a special NetWare client (NetWare Requester v1.0 for OS/2 1.0, NetWare Requester v1.1 for OS/2 …

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NetWare Client and Conventional Memory

Posted on 2021-11-06, 11:14

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Recently I saw some posts here on optimizing conventional memory. Somehow in my 20 years of playing around with vintage computers and DOS I don't think I'd ever used memmaker or even run the mem command. Surely that can't be right. Maybe I've just forgotten - I've not really used DOS much in the …

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Re: Software you can't find, and your hunts for them

Posted on 2021-11-06, 08:27

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Metropoli (files.mpoli.fi) was certainly a valuable source - quite a bit there that wasn't preserved anywhere else. I grabbed a copy a while back but so far I've only copied select files over to my little Novell archive. I'll hold off on copying the whole thing over to the FTP server while the …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2021-11-06, 06:19

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by davidrg

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also tried out Celebris XL 590 (dual Pentium 133). It has Windows NT 4.0 installed, I haven't used that OS for about 20 years. At first it ran dead slow. BIOS serrings were on defaults, f.ex disabled external cache. After corrected it runs just fine. Tray load CD-ROM and hard drive are SCSI. I've …

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