> 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.

Good thought, but no dice - the 320 and at least one of the 330s has it
at 21.  (And no, I'm not just believing labels; that's what the bootrom
hardware probe reports during startup.)

>> 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.

Probably.  I wonder if they can do serial console...pulling the video
would give you _physical_ space for another board, at least.

>> 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.

Yes, there was.  Discouraging.  I may open the box up someday and see
what I can see....

> By "die" do you mean lots of bad sectors, or mechanical/power supply
> problems.

Mechanical, is my guess.  Based on the noises, it tries to spin up,
succeeds partially, gives up, and retries a half-dozen times before
giving up.  I forget the exact failure mode; I think the front-panel
lights turn red, or never stop flashing, or some such.

>> 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.

A 16.6667MHz 68020, no less.  Yes, that's one reason I've given up on
it, for the time being at least.

>> (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.

Hm, I'll try installing the 1.4.2 SYS_UBOOT, maybe.

>>> Well, remember the 425e doesn't have serial console support in its
>>> BootROM, but NetBSD does
>> 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.

I've had no luck so far.  I poked at the wires to make sure one end was
driving TxD and the other RxD, and wired the modem control signals
null-modem style (on the DB25 side of a peecee 9/25 adapter).  No
success so far.  Someday when I have the time, I may break out all nine
pins and see if I can figure anything useful out.

>>> 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.

No; there is nowhere such a board could plug in.  (Unless perhaps the
back panel could be replaced; I didn't poke around inside looking for a
place such a thing might plug in.)

Still no success.  I've considered trying to build a version of
SYS_INST and/or SYS_UBOOT and/or the kernel that uses the ROM for I/O
and hence works with screen/keyboard even on the 425e...I may someday
do it, if I get to feeling really ambitious.  Might get far enough to
make the console work, even, but don't hold your breath.

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