[rescue] OT: RS/6000s

[Steve Sandau]

Well, thanks in part to suggestions and encouragement from  Bob, I have
managed to breathe some life into both of the RS/6000 machines I have. I
needed to make the appropriate version of a null modem cable. It's more
like a null-RS2K cable I think. ;) (Neither box has video, keyboard or
mouse.)

The 6611 (a router configuration of the RS6K, with a *Token*Ring* card
in it! Ooooh!) boots fine now, but... I have no root password. Hmmm. I
took the drive out and tried to mount it in a Solaris box and a Linux
box (remove the root password). Neither supports the AIX filesystem.
Suggestions? Boot from a network image, mount the drive and then alter
the password file? Possible? Any ideas where I might find a boot image
or how to boot over the network?

Second box, a 7011/250 with no floppy, and a pasted-in SCSI drive can
only load an OS over the network. The ethernet works. I can ping a host
on the local net. I downloaded a couple of files that *might* be boot
images. I set them up on a tftp server, but can't get the thing to look
at a tftp server to boot. Ends with the same question as above. Though I
just noticed that it seems to have a SCSI problem. Maybe it wants a
special SCSI drive?

One other possiblity is to obtain a copy of AIX, I suppose. Anyone have
an unneeded copy for sale, maybe? If I look elsewhere, anyone know if
all RS6Ks run the same binaries? I have seen AIX 3-something and
4-something on eBay, but no information about what machines it might run
on; I know there are different processors in machines all labeled
RS/6000.

Boy, do I sound clueless!! However, this is a rescue list, and I am
trying to rescue some old hardware here...

Thanks in advance for any clues...

-- 
Steve Sandau
ssandau at bath.tmac.com