Re: Looking for DECstation 3100/2100 or DECsystem 5100

[Felix Deichmann <flxd%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

Am 09.08.2017 um 18:01 schrieb Scott Walters:
> I have two 3100s I've been hoarding, but I haven't been able to get the
> serial cable right in the RJ style port to get console, or else neither
> are working.  They're old enough that they likey need to be re-caped.

Need for re-capping is probable (also because DEC used so many
"quarternary ammonium salt" caps like Chemi-Con low ESR 105 degC types
in nearly all their power supplies).
I also saw that the DS3100 has a battery pack for RTC which runs the
risk of leaking and destroying whole PCBs when too close/not taken care
of. :/
There were also pmax machines which refused to boot when the NVRAM
battery was drained, but I think they were using "Dallas" RTCs with
integrated cell.

However, I'm prepared to do surgery on an offered machine if it's necessary.

> So, I could send you one if no one else has one they're eager to get rid
> of.  It would be really nice to have raw disc images I could write to
> SCSI disk on another machine to try to get a machine up without doing
> serial console/tftp/cd-rom.  Perhaps you'd be willing to post such
> a disk image regardless of whether you take a machine from me or
> someone else.
Thanks, I'm interested in case no-one will offer a machine which is
(still) working.
I can assist of course, but NetBSD runs well in gxemul with machine type
3MAX, so you can easily create a disk image yourself.

BTW using gxemul we even have automatic pmax test runs now!
    http://releng.netbsd.org/b5reports/pmax/

Felix