jan@eik.ii.uib.no (12/30/90)
Thought I'd share this piece of good news for all the console-haters :-) out there: We bought 4 SS2's that we intended to set up as a small compute cluster. (Like: put'em in a rack, and let them share one VT100-terminal.) Remembering the funny stuff that happens to other Sun's when you take away their console terminal (instant BREAK), it was with some trepidation I went to the task. A Minor Hassle: First problem: You *have* to have a Sun console to be able to change the console input/output device the first time. The SS2 will send diagnostics messages to serial port A, but will not give you a boot prompt. You must change the console device before it will let you use serial port A as the console. The Good News: Once you have fixed this, it does not care if you un-plug the terminal. You don't have to do any funny stuff with pull-up resistors, or buy expensive 'terminal eliminators'. You're ordinary $25 data-switch (4 -> 1) will do the job. So don't throw away your old 19" racks -- they are going to become invaluable :-). Jan Berger Henriksen E-mail: jan@eik.ii.uib.no