[SunRescue] 'Getting started' questions

[Gregory Leblanc]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scott Newell [mailto:newell at cei.net]
> Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 5:28 AM
> To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> Subject: [SunRescue] 'Getting started' questions
> 
[snip]
> 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.

Just a nice little AUI transciever.  There were a couple of people here
selling them for about $5, but I don't remember who.  You could probably
check the archives.

> 
> What's the OS of choice for this vintage?  Linux, FreeBSD?  I 

Well, certainly not FreeBSD, since it's just x86 and Alpha.  I believe that
you can run Open and NetBSD on that machine, as well as Solaris, and Linux.
If you're already comfortable with one, run that.  SCSI performance on Linux
is going to suck (for now), but if you're doing mostly network to disk
transfers, it won't be a big deal.  Solaris has the best hardware support
for these, but tends to require you to add a few packages to get a nice
useable system.

> 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.

I think you should be able to set the nvram defaults to output to ttya, but
I don't have an SS2 at home, and it's hard to check openprom via telnet.

> 
> 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.)

Probably about $80 or so.  Where are you at, I might be interested in 1 or
two...  They're really nice boxes to run as appliances, because of their
size and power consumption.
	Greg