[SunRescue] 'Getting started' questions

[Fleet Captain Druaga]

>>Made a trip to the local dead freight warehouse yesterday and spotted a
>>pallet of old Sparc pizza boxes (all Sparcstation 2s, I think) and
>>shoeboxes (either IPC or IPX?  The one I opened had 72 pin simms).

If the "shoebox" has 72pin SIMMs then it has to be an IPX or better as the
IPC had 30pin SIMMs.

>>My introduction to the internet was through old machines like these, so I
>>bought a Sparcstation 2 out of curiosity.  After soldering up a serial
port
>>cable and reading through the boot monitor section of the hardware faq, I
>>was able to bring it up and gather some info:  40 meg ram, 2 Fujitsu 528
>>meg drives, GX/CG6 framebuffer, rom v2.4.1, SunOS 4.1.4.  I've got no
>>keyboard, mouse, monitor, or cabling.

Not a bad starter machine although you'll probably want to purchase more ram
for it.

>>So, what now?  I'd like to have a spare machine to transfer files between
>>work and the house;  something I could plug into the network, ftp, and
unplug.

You can run quite a lot on this machine.  One of the easiest for what you
want to do is a "headless" install of Linux which has anonymous ftp in the
default load for most distributions.  You could also run Samba on it and
transfer files to it via Win-blows systems.  The system you have seems to be
quite flexible from the specs you gave.

>>What would it take to adapt the AUI ethernet port over to something more
>>common, like RJ-45 or BNC?  I've never used AUI.

You can get an AUI->RJ45 transceiver/adapter from just about anywhere.  I
suggest E-Bay as they get as low as $9 for those particular items.

>>What's the OS of choice for this vintage?  Linux, FreeBSD?  I know nothing
>>about SunOS--I still haven't figured out how to add a user (!) or even how
>>to start up getty so I don't have to do the 'send a break to ttya, boot
>>disk -s' routine every time I power up.  Viewlogic didn't leave anything
>>other than the OS on the drives.

If you're starting out you have two really good choices:

1) For industry standard learning/playing you can probably still get Solaris
for the cost of the media +shipping.  It's what most Sun boxes run and it
should run quite well on the system you have as long as you're not trying to
do heavy graphics work.  It's also easier to find help for Solaris on Sparc
that Linux on Sparc.  (Sorry guys but that's still true.) You also will be
able to run some Linux apps under Lxrun which runs under Solaris 7 and 8.
The downside is that you'll have to install anonymous ftp and Samba
separately which may or may not be a pain - never done it myself.

2) If you're being adventurous and want to do something that will be closer
to where the industry seems to be moving then go with some form of Linux.
The support and spread of Linux on Sparc is growing rapidly and you'll have
your anonymous ftp and possibly Samba from the get-go.  Also many
applications with the source code can be compiled to work on the Sparc
hardware despite not being supported on such.

>>What's the going price on junk like this?  I could probably pick up a few
>>more for ~$10 each, but I'm not sure if I want to go to the trouble of
>>sticking 'em on eBay.  (Besides, I'm not sure they're all complete.  I did
>>see a couple with no drives or memory.)

Even if they have no drives or memory ~$10 each is quite a bargain for Sparc
hardware!  Sometimes building a system from scratch is far more desirable
than getting one pre-made.  (This is especially true if you want that warm
fuzzy from having accomplished something yourself. ;-)

Anyway $10 is a good deal any way you slice it.

BTW - What is a dead freight warehouse and how do I find one? =-)

Sincerely,

Mike Hebel

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