Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) (01/11/91)
Almost a year ago, at the last Trenton Computer Fair in NJ, I purchased a Plexus P/35 system box. The feller who sold it too me said that: 'It worked four years ago, when it was decommissioned'. After its decommission, it was stored in someones basement, until I got it in 1990... Anyways, when I try to boot the thing, after futzing around with the self-test, it tries to boot, and then reports to me that it cannot wake the disk contoller, and passes into coma. I am wondering if anyone can give me a hand, getting this thing to work? It would be kinda nice. Even tho its an older machine, its fairly large (both is size and assumed power!). On the other hand, if I cant get the thing working, I guess Ill just end up trashing it, and putting the large hard drive (84mb SMD) on my PDP-11 (anyone know of a Unibuss controller for SMD?:-) Thanx Oh, ignore the distribution address of this. Portal cannot recive mail, thanx to our mail router, sun, who stopped routing mail to us! Send responses to the address below Billy D'Augustine billy@westmark.com
allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) (01/12/91)
+--------------- | In article <37838@cup.portal.com> Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes: | >Anyways, when I try to boot the thing, after futzing around with the | >self-test, it tries to boot, and then reports to me that it cannot | >wake the disk contoller, and passes into coma. +--------------- Try reseating the cables from the controller to the drive first; apparent controller failures have been traced to cables that worked loose during transit.... ++Brandon -- Me: Brandon S. Allbery VHF/UHF: KB8JRR on 220, 2m, 440 Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG Packet: KB8JRR @ WA8BXN America OnLine: KB8JRR AMPR: KB8JRR.AmPR.ORG [44.70.4.88] uunet!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery Delphi: ALLBERY
john@crcaus.cactus.org (John R. Miller) (01/12/91)
In article <1991Jan11.152909.15864@zip.eecs.umich.edu> leasure@zip.eecs.umich.edu (Jerry Leasure) writes: >In article <37838@cup.portal.com> Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes: >> >>Anyways, when I try to boot the thing, after futzing around with the >>self-test, it tries to boot, and then reports to me that it cannot >>wake the disk contoller, and passes into coma. >> >>I am wondering if anyone can give me a hand, getting this thing to work? >> >>Billy D'Augustine >>billy@westmark.com > > Hi Billy, I too am having problems with a Plexus P/35. I have a extra > controller board (in fact I have an extra everything). What I don't have > is a working Release tape set, my dconfig and dformat won't boot, I think > the old tape has just had it! I am also looking for a large SMD drive to > put in this (it has a bad Northern Telecom 8212x). If you're interested > in help or trading or getting together at all on this either mail me or > call me direct (313) 663-3275 H or (313) 761-5000 ex. 198 W. > > kite@kitenet.ann-arbor.mi.us > kite@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us > ...sharkey!m-net!kite Include me in the ever growing list of people fiddling around with P/35s. I don't really have much to complain about compared to y'all. I don't have any spares, but my machine runs -- it's what I'm posting this from (I sound like Madge: "Of course it's mild. You're soaking in it.") I've got several working release tapes, but you might not want them. My machine is so old it's running System III. I can't even upgrade because the firmware is too old to support System V. Still, it works ok for a news node, and thanks to a recent purchase of a second 1 meg board I've even got emacs running (although I'm posting this from rn because I haven't got outgoing mail/posting working from emacs yet). I, too, would dearly love to get a larger drive for this puppy. It's a constant struggle to keep things from spilling out onto the carpet with only one 70 meg drive. Even a second small drive would be a big improvement. Surely we ought to be able to work something out. Send me a note (or do like me -- post if you don't trust your mailer) or phone if you're interested in selling part of your system or even if you'd just like to borrow a release tape (sys3 is better than nothing) -- either one of you (or someone we haven't heard from yet). -- John R. Miller 13102 Briar Hollow Dr. Austin, Texas 78729 hm: 512/331-0155 john@crcaus.cactus.org or ..cs.utexas.edu!bigtex!crcaus!john wk: 512/823-3867 john@glasnost.austin.ibm.com
rwelch@diana.cair.du.edu (RANDY S WELCH) (01/14/91)
Well I've been planning this for months, but never got around to it...
If you have a plexus or know somone with a plexus, we might want to find a
way to all keep in touch. I work for a company that uses plexus' as our
main hardware configuration ( p/35 p/60's ), and I am looking for other
plexus users.
For your info I do have most of the GNU stuff ported to the Plexus running
system V ( or Plexus's variation... ), with the exception of gcc. (
Actually if *anybody* out there has got gcc running on a plexus let me
know!! or is interested in working on it...)
I would be willing to maintain a list of fellow Plexus users so we all
have a list of people to turn to.
Please send your name, machine configuratin, whatever to :
randy@bldr.UUCP (..!uunet!ncar!scicom!bldr!randy)
-or-
rwelch@isis.du.edu
(This account expires in March...)
Hope to hear from you!
-randy
--
Randy Welch Mail to : ...!ncar!scicom!bldr!randy or rwelch@du.edu
Boulder, CO VOICE : 303-442-6717
"Unfortunately, life contains an unavoidable element of unpredictability"
-David Lynch "The Angriest Dog in the World"