At 5:49 PM -0400 5/26/01, you wrote:

:)Based on what just happened with my 425e (see below), I think it really
:)was the ROM revision.

Yeah, that all sounds pretty conclusive.  I guess it's true, then, that Rev
A systems can't netboot.  Bummer.

One last thought -- what select code is your LAN set to?  It should be 21.
I suspect that if it isn't, that might cause it to not netboot.

:)> Hmmm, you're starting to trigger some fuzzy memories in me.
:)
:)Join the club. :-)

[g].

:)My box of "HP300 cables" included three (I think, maybe only two)
:)cables with RCA plugs on one end and BNC on the other, obviously
:)commercially made (molded-on strain reliefs).  Presumably they were
:)intended for video between a 98544B and a 98786A or equivalent.

Yeah, I had one of those for my 98786A.

:)> "The 948781A is a monochromatic (white) monitor for high resolution
:)> text and graphics applications.  It has a built-in speaker, twivel
:)> base, and passive HP-HIL jack.
:)
:)Definitely not what I've got. :-)

Yeah, I've never seen one of those.  I do like the phrase "twivel base" tho.

:)98774A, and experiment indicates it handles the video from a 425e,
:)which the 98786A doesn't.

Ah.  I'm pretty sure that the 425e mono and color framebuffers run at
1280x1024 at 72 Hz.  Very different from 1024x768 at 60 Hz.

:)>> The last board, at the top, has red-and-black handles, in case that
:)>> says anything to anyone.
:)> Got me.  But judjing by your total RAM, it must be 1 MB.
:)
:)No, no, there are six green-and-violet boards, and then that
:)red-and-black board in addition.  The sticker on it calls it a 98620B,
:)and past messages on the list imply say the 98620B is DMA support.

OK, right.  I guess they just had some spare reds and blacks lying around.
Either that or they do have additional color coding for all the DIO-I
boards (which wasn't my experience).  Yeah, the 946820B is DMA.

:)> I suspect if you somehow got a larger chassis with more DIO-II slots
:)> and some of those 4 MB RAM cards you could bump up your 330s.
:)
:)The 330s already have one spare slot; they're 4-slot cages, with only
:)three occupied (CPU, human interface, video).

Probably leaving the other for the 4 MB board to get to the max RAM of 8 MB.

:)Well, I have two working HP-IB drives at present, a 7937 and a 7958.  I
:)have a second 7958 that seems to have decided to die.  (Are the drives
:)in those things compatible with anything else in the known universe?
:)Standard ESDI, for example, or anything like that?)

Yeah, ISTR they might be ESDI, but the HPIB <-> ESDI interface is tuned for
a particular drive geometry.  Grab the early port-hp300 mail archives and
grep for ESDI, I think there was a useful post.

By "die" do you mean lots of bad sectors, or mechanical/power supply
problems.  I think you've got enough hardware to try to install HPUKES and
mediainit the other drive which will map out all the bad sectors.

:)The 7937 (furrfu, that drive weighs roughly as much as I do!) has a
:)working 1.2 install on it.  I'm trying to build a 1.4T kernel there,
:)but it's dog-slow, and 1.2 to 1.4T is a big enough jump that I'm having
:)tools-to-build-the-tools trouble.

Yeah.  What do you expect of a 6 MB 68020 with 300 KB/s max drive
throughput.  It's hardly in the same league as a 400 MHz G3 (which still
takes ~45 minutes to compile a new kernel).

:)(I tried the kernel off the 1.4.2
:)CD; it fell over with an unexpected-trap failure before it even cleared
:)the screen and printed the copyright notice.)

Could be the bootloader.  ISTR that SYS_UBOOT had been updated in that time
frame.

:)> Well, remember the 425e doesn't have serial console support in its
:)> BootROM, but NetBSD does start using it once you get the bootloader
:)> loaded.
:)
:)Where does it appear?  Serial port 1?  Does it use peecee-"standard"
:)pinout for the serial ports?

I don't know.  I've never tried using a 425e.  I think it is serial port 1,
normal null-modem cable, 9600 8N1.

:)> And if your 425e has HPIB,
:)
:)I wish. :-(  I don't even see anywhere it *could* have HP-IB.

:-( indeed.  So I guess it's not like the other series 400 models which
:have a small ribbon cable (20 pin? x ~20 cm) connecting to a small board
:(~8 cm x 5 cm) which has some chips and an HPIB connector that plugs into
:a special slot in the back of the machine.

:):-)  First I have to make it boot at all.  I'll play with serial
:)connectors a bit more...I have half a dozen DB9-to-DB25 things, all but
:)one of which are ones I made and promptly forgot the details of and
:)probably have one-off pin wiring.  I'll play with it....

Hey, be careful if you've got some HP brand DB9 to DB25 connectors -- some
of them are specially wired for the System Interface Board used by the 360
and 370 models.

Have fun,
  -- MW