[SunRescue] [OT] Digital Equipment Questions

[linc]

On Wed, 30 May 2001, Michael A. Turner wrote:

> 	Now the questions:
> 
> 	1. In hooking all the items for the decstation up can I string them
> together? all the peices have SCSI 1 style connectors on the backs of them,
> matched pairs. I got cables that I can use to do this stringing together. I
> am not sure if it makes a difference on which of the two connectors on the
> back i hook to/From. Also do I need to terminate the last one with a plug in
> terminator?

You can scsi chain them together provided they all have unique scsi id
numbers, then put a terminator on the last one.

> 
> 	2. I need some sort of monitor for this decstation, or some way to
> read output. It has what appears to be a video card in one of the exspansion
> slots. It is of BNC type with a screw type sheaf that I do have the cable
> for. What can I do about getting some sort of signal for this, I got a lot
> of cables with this (basically as we where cleaning out the store room this
> was in I told them to through anything that said digital into my pile) so if
> I should look for a particular cable for this let me know. Can I get a video
> card for this system that does straight VGA? Anyone got one for trade/sale?

No monitor needed here.  Slap a terminal on it (quicker anyway).  Use a
null modem cable on port marked 3 (I believe) on the back.

> 
> 	3. What can I load on this to get it working and how can I load it?
> Is their any way to hook a cd-rom drive to this to lead from that sort of
> media?

On the DS5K133?  Yeah sure!  Hook a scsi cdrom to it, and burn a copy of
NetBSD PMAX to a cdrom and install.  These are great machines.  If you
have troubles installing from cd (happens sometimes) follow the "helper
disk" instructions on the NetBSD PMAX installation instructions.

> 
> 	4. On the Alpha I want to load some sort of *nix operating system
> but all teh docs I have read lead me to beleive that this is desinged for
> windows NT, a bad thing in my opinion. I would like to load the digital unix
> onthis machine but from reading the instructions on installing redhat for
> the alpha, this may not be possible or practical. Is this digital Unix I
> have for the decstation or the Alpha?
> 

You already said it has Linux on it..  Try it out.  To get in without the
password boot it up and at the LILO prompt (or SILO, VILO - Alphas
derivitive) do a "linux single".  That should get you into single user
mode where you can change the root password.  Then reboot.

-Linc Fessenden
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