At 08:25 AM 6/19/98 , Soren S.Jorvang wrote:
>[Note: I haven't had a NeXT before]
>
>Hi,
>
>Wanting to play around with NetBSD/next68k, I just bought a Color
>Turbo (with soundbox and cable and a premade modem cable that I
>can make into a serial console cable, but nothing else, ie. no
>memory, no disk other than the floppy drive, no keyboard, mouse
>or monitor).
>
>What is the easiest way of setting it up for a serial console
>and netbooting? What will be required? (An ADB keyboard I could
>easily loan and I necessary, I could probably also find a
>monitor that will take the monitor signal from the box. I would
>prefer not having to install NeXTStep to run some NVRAM setup
>program.)
>
>I grounded the monitor sense pin to avoid the need for
>a monitor, as per the NeXT hardware FAQ and installed
>2 32 MB 36 bit memory modules. I assume the memory works
>with the box since the diagnostic LED triple-blinks when
>they are not installed, as opposed to the single blink on
>power-up when they are installed.
>
>I had sort of assumed that it would just default to netbooting
>upon finding no disks, but the TP transceiver does not come
>active.
>
>When the soundbox is connected, the speaker blurts out two
>quick "noise" sounds after half a minute or so, but nothing
>happens after that.

I own a Dimension Cube and a Station.  I don't believe either will allow
you to talk to the PROM from the serial ports as these machines were
designed to run only with their monitors connected (hence the need for
grounding the monitor sense pin.)  I can talk with authority about a Turbo
Color since I don't own one (yet).  If you can get a keyboard and monitor
then you want to boot the machine and when it starts print out stuff on the
screen hit the Command and the Tilde (~) key.  This drops you into the PROM
prompt (NeXT>) from here typing ben with boot from the ethernet, (bsd boots
from the lowest SCSI device) also using the p command from the PROM prompt
allows you to set several options one of which is the default boot command,
so if you can borrow a keyboard and screen for a few minutes you can set
the machine up to boot off the ethernet by default.

--------
Christopher R. Bowman
crb@ChrisBowman.com
http://www.ChrisBowman.com/~crb