Subject: Re: Hardware Issues with a NeXT Station N1100
To: Manuel Rabade - MiG <mig@mig-29.net>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-next68k
Date: 06/02/2003 02:45:14
> I have only the Monitor and the Case (witout cables and Hard Disk)
> and other friend have an Apple LC II (contemporany of the NeXT) and i
> have seen that in some pages who sell NeXT hardware they said that
> sell keyboards/mouse with ADB (Apple Desktop Bus or something like
> that) that work with NeXT's, anyone have used a keyboard from an
> apple in the NeXT ??

Yes, I believe ADB is Apple Desktop Bus.

ADB keyboards and mice work with _some_ NeXTs.  (I don't know whether
they are supported by NetBSD - I know NetBSD supports adb on the mac68k
port, but I don't know about next68k.)

But some NeXTs don't do ADB, and those require idiosyncratic keyboards
and mice.

If your NeXT needs the 19-pin box<->monitor cable, you may have trouble
finding a cable - I have never seen anything but NeXT hardware use that
connector.  I think I have some spares; if you need one and can't find
any locally, send me a note off-list.

> If the keyboard of the apple dont work i will try to use it without
> monitor and use it with a serial console cable to install NetBSD, the
> NeXT BIOS automaticaly opens a consle on the serial ??? or what i
> have to do ?.

Well, calling it a BIOS is misleading: it implies peecee thought
patterns that match up rather poorly with the reality of the NeXT (and
indeed most other non-peecee machines).

In my experience, yes, if you power up the machine without a
monitor/keyboard attached, it will use serial port A at 9600 baud as
the console.  However, this experience is limited to the non-ADB NeXTs;
I don't know about the ADB version.

> Sorry for the Bad English

Don't worry about it - you made a few mistakes, it's true, but your
meaning was clear.

Your English is certainly far better than my Spanish!

> and Thanks a lot.

No problem.  It's always good to see someone else getting use out of
old machines.  (NetBSD is good at that.)

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B