All i can say is that i have a 1850R and a 5000, both of which run wonderfully so far with OpenBSD, the 1850 is duel pII 450 and the 5000 is quad pII 400, havent had a single problem so far.
however that price tag is way out of range, i bought both of mine for 90. On 08/02/2008, Douglas A. Tutty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 07, 2008 at 11:24:14PM -0500, Nick Holland wrote: > > > I've warned you about a lot of them, you ignored that, but for some reason > > I feel obligated to try one more time. I just hate to see people do things > > like this to themselves (and I want to be able to say, "No, not interested > > in helping on this" in clear conscience). > > Thanks Nick, > > I didn't ignore it, but you weren't this specific. > > > > > For that kinda money, they better be delivering it...and helping you get > > it on the rack. > > > > Yeah. I know. > > > Old Compaqs are an art. Old Compaq servers are a black art. They are > > some of the quirkiest, strangest, and most obnoxious systems I've worked > > with. Kinda like a Cisco switch, in that once you get the dang thing > > running the way you want, you feel so great because the pain stopped, so > > you tend to forget it just shouldn't have been that way. > > > > I've yet to see a multi-Pentium and only one Multi-PPro machine run > > OpenBSD/SMP. (score is at least two Pentiums and two PPros that didn't > > work with SMP), > > > > I know that there's no SMP. > > > I suspect our EISA support has suffered severe bit rot. Between the > > system and the bus, I'd be rather surprised if you got the thing running > > OpenBSD (pleasantly surprised, yes, but surprised). If you do, please > > post dmesg. :) I just looked through the dmesg log, I saw no Pentium > > class EISA machines that people sent dmesgs from. I saw a few PPro > > systems, one PPro running GENERIC.MP, several Alphas and HPPA systems. > > > > I haven't investigated EISA. These boxes are supposed to be a > combination of PCI and EISA. I would be using the PCI slots. However, > I suppose that some things internally would be on the EISA bus (e.g. > keyboard, floppy drive). > > > The CMOS battery is dead (or will be soon). It isn't going to be easy > > to replace. See the SPARC Battery FAQ and the part about cutting into > > the old CMOS chip to solder in your own battery (it works, done it on a > > SS2 and a mvme88k, worked. I also seem to have toasted another mvme88k > > doing the same thing, but I didn't pay $300 for that machine. BTW: > > I'm way out of practice, but I'm still much better than your average > > $5 soldering iron novice, I used to do component-level repair on > > computers and other such things. I got good equipment and I sorta know > > what I'm doing...and I still managed to break the CPU board on the > > mvme88k. > > > > The service manual for these boxes has a section on adding an external > battery and there's supposed to be a socket/pin-pair on the motherboard > to accept the batttery. Presumably (hopefully??) a lithium button > battery of the same number of cells as the orgional should fit. > > But that is a lot of "shoulds" and "hopefullys" for a non-free box. > > > EISA isn't fun when it works properly. I've probably config'd more EISA > > machines than most people on this list, trust me, it's not fun. If you > > have never done it before, the time to learn was back in the 1980s, not > > now. WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS, Compaqs were some of the easiest to configure, > > but finding the right tools was exciting last time I tried. When it > > DOESN'T work properly...ew. > > > > Is it worse than ISA? Have that on my 486 with no PCI on which to > fall-back. > > > No disks...you better hope they include the Compaq config utilities on a > > CD so you can install 'em and configure the thing. I've done it from > > floppies, Not Fun. I screwed up the disk config, reinstalled. More Not > > Fun. I think I did this three or four times. I did learn disk OpenBSD > > disk configuration Really Well, so I guess it was a good, not fun thing. > > > > Hope they include disk trays. There are a lot of old servers laying > > around, there are a lot of old disk trays. The servers and disk trays > > are rarely in the same place. No idea how that happens. There are > > several variations of Compaq disk trays, not sure how cross compatible > > they are. (68 pin drives, 80 pin (SCA) drives, 1" drives, 1.6" drives). > > > > That is an open question which would have to be solved prior to > purchase. > > > Did I mention that Compaqs config the disk array using the utility > > partition or the utility CD? I have a stack of cac(4) cards. Spent a > > day or so building an array on a Windows machine, moved it to the > > target machine, and then discovered that cac(4)s are really, really slow. > > BTW: don't think that because you use SCSI, you don't have to worry about > > disk size. Expecting to build a 1TB disk array on a 15 year old > > controller may expose some "issues." > > > > I found the config utilities on the website. I don't yet know re > "issues". I wasn't planning a 1 TB array, more like 300 GB or so. > > > <speculation> > > Old cac's have some kind of battery on them, they look like large lithium > > cells. They don't really look like rechargeable. Even if they are, > > they are so old, they are probably dead on yours (and mine). That may > > be why my cac(4) experience was so uninspiring, or it may just mean the > > things will toast your file systems when the power goes out unexpectedly. > > </speculation> > > > > Anoter battery to replace. > > > Read, memorize, live by: > > http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#cpq16m > > "some" most likely includes you. > > > > I just re-read it. I've had that on some old boxes on Debian where you > have to specify ram size on the kernel command line. > > > Three words: "Power Hungry Pig". > > > > Yeah. > > > > > Bringing up an old workstation is usually just a matter of taking your > > PC skills and remembering a little history. Bringing up an old server > > is a test of patience. Bringing up an old Compaq is a little like > > restoring a rusty old car, 'cept none of the neighbors walk by and say, > > "wow, that's cool". > > > > I hear you. > > > One of my favorite dis-features of the Compaq servers of around that > > era was a case interlock: remove the cover and the thing would save > > itself from...what, eventually overheating and maybe crashing?...by > > immediately turning itself off. (I discovered this disfeature at a > > client's site -- I was sent in to do a server upgrade. Never seen > > the system before, had zero trust that they had sent me with the > > right parts. So, about 15 minutes before scheduled "get out of the > > system" time, I started gently sliding the cover off the machine, so > > that if something was clearly not right, we could cancel with minimal > > impact on the users. I missed the big, bright blue(?) warning sticker. > > "Click" and silence, followed by me saying, "oh shit", thinking of > > all those people working frantically to get their work done before > > the shutdown time...) HOWEVER, in your case, you might actually > > prefer that it does shut itself off if you break the RF shielding. :) > > > > > > If you really want to go that route, look at what the machines are > > SELLING for on e-bay, not what people are asking for them. BIG > > difference. Offer $50 to the person asking $300 for the machine, > > you will probably get a "no way in hell", and the machine a couple > > weeks later. :) > > > > Nick. > > > > Thanks Nick. > > Doug. > > -- -Lawrence -Student ID 1028219
