[SunRescue] 3/150 questions (plus some odd bits)

[BSD Bob the old greybeard BSD freak]

> Well, I was recently the "winner" of a 3/150 courtesy of ebay....
> However, when the thing arrived, it appeared to contain 2 Sun3's crammed
> into a single 3/150 chassis. :)

Neat, I won one at our local mooU dumpster dive feeding frenzy a couple
months back for 5 bucks.  Couldn't resist the critter.

> The full chassis contained (in order)
> 
> 501-1206 3/2xx CPU
> 501-1102 8M 3/2xx memory
> (something) Sun3 scsi card

The above is basically a sun 3/260 crate in a tiny chassis.
it should make a good basic machine in that case.

> 501-1208 3/1xx CPU
> (something) CG3
> (something) Sun2 scsi card

Use these for spares.  The cpu would swap, but you would need the
correct ram for it, AFIK.  The sun2 scsi card is usable but an
old criter.  The CG3 may or may not be useful, depending upon whether
or not you have the monitor and keyboard.  I used mine headless.

> Obviously, it didn't boot like this... :)

Nope.  Remove the 3x1xx cpu, the sun2 scsi and the CG3 and try
bringing it up on a tty terminal of some sort at 9600 baud.
That would be your best bet for getting things started, initially.
If it comes up, then find the right cables and hook up some external
scsi (keep leads short and it may only support one box because of
crosstalk between devices on the scsi bus... the most I can support
is two on my machines).

Boot a sunos 4.1.1 or such for starters.  You will need to scrounge
up a tape or maybe it will run off a cdrom if you have a sun compat
one.  I always use tape.

> The 3/1xx board seems to boot fine if I take the 3/2xx board out of the
> chassis....
> 
> Question about the 3/1xx motherboard:
> 
> Is it possible to get this board to use any additional memory cards on the
> VME bus?  Placing the 8M board into the chassis still causes only the 4
> megs on the 3/1xx CPU board to be tested in the prom....

Wrong memory board for a 100 series cpu.  Use the 200 series cpu with it.

> Question about the 8M memory expansion:
> 
> Anyone know what the lights on the back of this thing mean?  I can
> describe them if needed...  This board doesn't actually seem to do shit
> except turn on the "CPU" and "DIS" lights when it has power.

It is conflicting with the other cards.

Put the 3/2xxx cpu in slot 1 with the ram in slot 2(?) and the scsi
in slot (dunno which one exactly... depends upon backplane jumpering
AFIK).
 
> Question about the 3/2xx motherboard:
> 
> This board does not appear to work.  Upon booting it, the PROM resets
> itself during the selftest after reaching "Memory Path Data Test".  Is
> this because the 8M memory board isn't showing up?  or a more serious
> error?

Pull the other boards and try it.

> Any useful information about any of these parts would be definately
> appreciated.

That is all I can think off offhand.  I would suggest using the 200
series cpu and ram, as a firstoff try at a 3/260 class machine.

Good Luck

Bob