🚀 go-pugleaf

In misc.forsale.computers.workstation Michael Batchelor <michaelb@ind-info.com> wrote:
: How about giving me a few pointers.
: I just bargained for two Sparcstation 2 model 147 mchines. Both have 32 MB
: RAM and work fine. Got them in exchange for getting something else working.

Not bad.

: There are two external disk chassis model EXP-2. One box goes with each;
: one boots up fine and is currently running. The other has an I/O error on
: the disk, and I cannot get it stable enough to try fsck. The working disk
: seems to be about 1GB, so I assume the other is. (both from the same
: office)

EXP-2 is the big hyuge Sun 386i expansion box, although they work fine 
when daisychaned to other Sun stuff (if you can find the right cables, they
use the DB50 50-pin scsi cables).  Dont assume they're both 1gig - the biggest
disk sold by Sun in these enclosures was 327mb or 650mb, if memory serves
me correctly.  You can put other disks in them, tho - I had a 700mb in 
the one hooked to my sparc 1.

: I have two Sun Monitors model GDM-1962. One works, one doesn't.

Tip on these - if you take the back off, and remove the metal cover, you
can increase the intensity of the color guns and solve the "fading brightness"
problem.  Just be careful to get the color balance right - and use a PLASTIC
screwdriver when adjusting the pots.  The other one - keep for parts, or
toss it... I have a 1601 sitting in my office because nobody wants it, but
I cant bring myself to throw it out (it works fine..)

: The SS2 which has a bad disk boots and runs fine when booted off the good
: disk, so I'm convinced it's in good shape.

Good!  scsi disks are cheap.

: Both Disks have Sun OS, not Solaris on them. The working disk seems to have
: a development system on it, make, yacc.ex, etc., but I'm not sure all the
: includes are there. The working disk has OpenWindows and Sunview.

I can send you a SunOS 4.1.3_u1 cdrom if you need it.

: Can I daisy chain a SCSI cable from the working disk to the bad disk and
: attemt to repair the disk? 

Yeah, just make sure you change the IDs.. 8-)  I would suggest just
getting Solaris or SunOS on CD-ROM, and attempting a reformat/fresh install
on the "bad" disk.

: Can I add a second disk in to each of the external cases?  1GB disks are
: small these days.

Yeah, there's room for two 5.25" FH drives in each case.

: Can I increase the RAM easily? I've already found that they use 30 Pin
: SIMMS, not 72 Pin ones which I have lots of. Will I just trash the old
: memory or is thre some expansion chassis?

You can go to 64mb in each machine using 4mb SIMMs.  Party, 100ns.

: Who is likely to be able to fix the monitor? No one in town wants to touch
: it.

Dont bother - toss it.

: How expensive would it be to get the latest Solaris for them and is there
: enough machine here for that to make sense?  How about a development
: system? I have an unused Soalris iX86 with a full development system. Can I
: use that to cross compile to the Sparc? could I cross compile gcc and then
: use the headers from the iX86?

You dont want to run Solaris on the boxes unless you put at least 64mb
of RAM into them - I can give you SunOS 4.1.3 if you'd like, and then
I'd recommend compiling gcc 2.8.0 under SunOS.

: Will one of these make a reasonable mail server for a two person office? My
: background is really in SCO, not Solaris. How much trouble will I have?

Should work just fine.  I have about 50 users on a sparc classic with 96mb,
and the system is damn snappy.

: Where is a good place to start scrounging for technical information? These
: will be a fun project, but we're really trying to run a business here and I
: can't get derailed looking for tidbits.

Try my website, http://www.sunhelp.com - the Sun Hardware FAQ by James
Birdsall is particuarly helpful, and if you need any more help, dont hesitate
to ask me at mrbill@texas.net.

-- 
Bill Bradford     Systems Engineer, Texas.Net   http://www.texas.net
mrbill@texas.net  BeOS Developer #9630             ICQ: 1864511
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