You will need a null modem cable. If you're going to run many headless
systems you might consider making your own using head shells, ribbon
cable and RJ-45 connectors. There's information on that at
http://yost.com/computers/RJ45-serial/index.html. If you're using more
that two it's a lot easier to plug/unplug the RJ-45 connectors. It's
more work up front, but pays off in the long run.
Until now I've used TeraTerm for console software under Windows.
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html
But this morning I see a new version of PuTTY is out that has serial
support. I'll be switching to that and finally letting go of TeraTerm.
I don't recommend HyperTerm. I've seen some systems (HP PA-RISC) that
just won't work correctly with it. Minicom works great under Linux for
console access.
The Ultra 5 and 10 are sort of like PC's with a SPARC CPU grafted in.
They use IDE disks. You may be limited on how large a disk you can use
for the boot disk.
You can run up to Solaris 10 on it or Linux for Sparc. You may find
some info at Sunsolve,
http://sunsolve.sun.com/, for the Ultra 10, but
these days you won't get too far without a support contract.
Sun made several combo cards. Combining network and SCSI. They're
called swift cards. So you've got SCSI and IDE and two NICs. You can
learn a lot on that box. Have fun with it.
Regards,
Tom
fouldragon@aol.com wrote:
> So today I grabbed one of these cute boxes at ASU surplus (it was
> sitting there, unguarded, with the notation "1Gb RAM, $10", how could I
> resist? :D)
>
> When it boots, it announces it's setting output to ttya because there's
> no keyboard (damn Sun... why can't they use PS/2 keyboards like SGI
> did?)
>
> So I hook my old dumb terminal (C.Itoh CIT-101) to ttya. I see nothing
> on the screen. Regular passthrough cable.
>
> Some sites suggest I need to use a null modem cable
> (http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Unix/Solaris/SOLARIS_UsingSerialConsol
> es.shtml) but these sites also insinuate ttya is a DB9 when it is in
> fact a DB25. :/
>
> It's possible that the cable's bad, but can anyone confirm it needs to
> be a null-modem one before I bother fiddling around with rewiring the
> cable (it's the kind you can open the ends and rewire the leads.
>
> Now, of course, the hard disc was pulled. Will there be any issues
> with using a standard PC-pulled IDE drive, or any other prep required?
> Or is it just "insert the Solaris/*BSD/Linux CD, boot from CD, pray"?
>
> Since honestly, I have no good application aside from "WOW! I remember
> seeing machines like that when I went to see the tour of a now-defunct
> dotcom!", the only real thing I'd like to do on it is run a real
> "commercial Unix feel" desktop like CDE (no, XFCE is NOT good enough)
> with the modern nicities like Firefox and a post-0.91 version of GIMP.
>
> If I can't find a good use for it, are there any parts with decent
> second-uses on regular x86 boxes?
>
> The RAM I coveted is (cry) 50ns FPM or something...
>
> There's an interesting card in PCI slot 2: Looks like SCSI+Ethernet...
> can it be enjoyed on an x86?
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and
> security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from
> across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
>
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
(text/plain)