That would do it. But it's interesting you made an AIX boot floppy that way. I'm interested to see what actually got on the floppy disk if you can image it before you restore it.
Eric's Apple Network Server 700 tinker log
- Thread starter eric
- Start date
I had everything working great a week ago. Turned it off. Turned it back on it comes up to the colorful AIX screen with a console and no text in the console at all anymore. Poked around in recovery thought maybe it was free space (it wasnt) so just went for a fresh install again.
Shutdown last night and booted this morning back into the AIX screen with console and no output..... what the heck is happening here?
edit:
did a soft reboot from the front panel - held down shift because desperate - and ... it started? what the heck.
Shutdown last night and booted this morning back into the AIX screen with console and no output..... what the heck is happening here?
edit:
did a soft reboot from the front panel - held down shift because desperate - and ... it started? what the heck.
Last edited:
Oh My,
I didn't see this post until just today.
I am so sorry I was not ignoring you.
I'd love to share what I know and along with the goodies I sent Erics way I don't mind giving to others.
Just yesterday I was convinced to work toward making the ANS run Classic MacOS. I know 8.6 works & 9.1 should also.
What I heard was the SMP card was shitcaned because the performance was "suboptimal" (plus 10% to %20 over single 603e.)
Someone may have managed to get the processor card from a 9500/180MP or 9600/200MP to work on a ANS system board.
The Shiner system board was a modified 9500 board due to the major failure to make the an ASIC memory controller to do EEC.
The ABS made a concerted effort to to block MacOS on Shiner and the only Shiners that ran MacOS were engineering ROM builds. There were other ROMs that allowed the PowerPC build of Windows NT. I tried to get one but failed before the whole ANS project shutdown.
I remember the ESB code name but don't remember what it was. Fill me in.
I do have two of the deep dish prototypes and a 700/200 that was fully loaded but the battery has done bad things in the last few years. I think I can fix it but it will take time and some luck. Anyway Eric H has mentioned you as someone that may help with working on the special ROM.
adios,
jt
OH WOW,
I knew that there was a dual processor CPU card but work had stopped because the performance was so poor.
I heard that the SMP card was only 10% to 20% better than the single processor.
I didn't think the card got off the engineering bench.
The corp guys kept us field pukes in the dark sometimes.
Yup, Eric started that thread (or if E-mail is better, ckaiser at floodgap dawt com). It is not difficult, just slow, to dump the ROM from OpenFirmware over a serial port.
I had heard similar things about the SMP card, though I thought that was also a 604 or 604e. I know early work on it suffered because of Motorola's problems with the 604. Ah well, the 200MHz card is plenty fast.
ESB = Extra Special Bitter (Shiner is a Texas brand of beer, still sold and advertised when I was in Houston last).
What does ABS stand for? Was this a spinoff from ATG?
What you mention about the other ROMs squares with Ellen Hancock's announcement that the ANS would be able to boot and run MacOS and NT as well as AIX *after* the ANS was released. I am actually surprised that was technically possible without modifications to both OSes (let alone the ROM) but I am very gratified to be proven wrong. Sad to hear you weren't able to get one, there has been some hobbyist interest in PowerPC NT on the Mac lately.
Yup, Eric started that thread (or if E-mail is better, ckaiser at floodgap dawt com). It is not difficult, just slow, to dump the ROM from OpenFirmware over a serial port.
I had heard similar things about the SMP card, though I thought that was also a 604 or 604e. I know early work on it suffered because of Motorola's problems with the 604. Ah well, the 200MHz card is plenty fast.
ESB = Extra Special Bitter (Shiner is a Texas brand of beer, still sold and advertised when I was in Houston last).
What does ABS stand for? Was this a spinoff from ATG?
What you mention about the other ROMs squares with Ellen Hancock's announcement that the ANS would be able to boot and run MacOS and NT as well as AIX *after* the ANS was released. I am actually surprised that was technically possible without modifications to both OSes (let alone the ROM) but I am very gratified to be proven wrong. Sad to hear you weren't able to get one, there has been some hobbyist interest in PowerPC NT on the Mac lately.
Greetings,
OH as much as I hated three letter acronyms, Apple was full of them. ABS was the Apple internal group that was “Apple Business Systems” the product group that did networking, COMM products and other business oriented things.
I did know that ESB was a product code (I have an empty ESB beer bottle…along with a Shiner bottle in my home office) I just couldn’t remember what it was. It was about 28 or so years ago.
It took a deal of arm-twisting to get the MacOS ROM.
adios,
jt
I'm trying to add Apple Network Server to the DingusPPC emulator. So far I can get into Open Firmware and see messages sent to the LCD.
Can someone report the output of `dump-device-tree` from Open Firmware using a serial port connection?
Can someone report the output of `dump-device-tree` from Open Firmware using a serial port connection?
joevt,
Yesterday was a good day. I now have my shiner up and running.
I need to wring out the serial connection. I have to parts and the only need time to
determine if I need a null modem adapter between the apple serial cable and the
db9 to USB adapter.
As soon as I can capture the data from the serial connection I will get the info to you.
Is there a preferred way to do this?
adios,
jt
Yesterday was a good day. I now have my shiner up and running.
I need to wring out the serial connection. I have to parts and the only need time to
determine if I need a null modem adapter between the apple serial cable and the
db9 to USB adapter.
As soon as I can capture the data from the serial connection I will get the info to you.
Is there a preferred way to do this?
adios,
jt
The serial cable should be a null modem cable, such as what you would use to connect a printer, like an Image Writer II serial cable.
The receive at one end should connect to the transmit at the other end.
Zip the captured text and attach to a post.
Also useful would be a dump of the PCI registers of all the PCI devices since
dump-device-tree shows only some of them. Here's a dropbox link with the required script for Open Firmware:https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ddwv...ey=rujv8sbhb8v4ehk9b845bd3k1&st=yrg9j2dj&dl=0
Use lspci in Open Firmware
- Make sure no device is selected using this command:
unselect-dev
- Paste the contents of the "lspci for Open Firmware 60.txt" file (make sure text pacing in your terminal app is set slow enough to allow pasting all the text without error - it depends on the baud rate; 0.005 seconds per character for 230.4 kbps; use a longer delay like 0.03 seconds for the default 38400 bps). The script creates a
lspcicommand in Open Firmware.
- Select a PCI root device and run
lspci; repeat for each PCI root device. Example:
Code:dev pci1 \ first PCI host lspci dev pci2 \ second PCI host for 9500 or 9600 or ANS lspci dev vci0 \ VCI host used by 8500 or 8600 lsvci \ use lsvci instead of lspci here for best results
- Copy the output into a text file and post as attachment.
"ParselspciFromOpenFirmware.sh" can parse the results copied from Open Firmware using
lspci from pciutils."lspci for Open Firmware.worksheet" is a BBEdit.app worksheet file with notes and example commands.
Another method to input scripts into Open Firmware (performing step 2 above) is by using the
dl command. This uses a much faster method of accepting text via the serial port so text pacing can be a lot faster. It accepts up to 62KiB of text. The last character needs to be an EOF character (Control-D which is 04 in hex). When the EOF is encountered, it enters and executes the script just like step number 2 does, so proceed to step 3. Using BBEdit.app you can find the end of the file and replace with \x04 which will appear in the document window as a red upside question mark ¿, Select All, Copy, type dl in Open Firmware and press return to start the download, then Paste.Example output from DingusPPC (using an ATI graphics card instead of the default ANS GPU):
Code:
0 > dl ok
0 > dev pci1 ok
0 > lspci
00:0B.0 [106B:0001] [060000] 6B10010016000000030000060820000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000C000001000000000700000000000000080000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00:0D.0 [1002:4758] [030000] 02105847140000000300000308200000000000810000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00006810:81000000.FF000000
00:10.0 [106B:0002] [FF0000] 6B10020016000000020000FF08200000000000F30000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00008010:F3000000.FFFE0000
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
00008810:00000801.FFFFFF01
00008814:F3102000.FFFFFF00
00008818:F3103000.FFFFF000
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
00009010:00000C01.FFFFFF01
00009014:F3105000.FFFFFF00
00009018:F3106000.FFFFF000
ok
0 > dev pci2 ok
0 > lspci
01:0B.0 [106B:0001] [060000] 6B100100160000000300000608200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000030000002000000000B00000000000000080000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
okHello fellow ANS nerds,
It is about time I finally joined Tinker Different, I am the owner of the Apple Network Server 500/132 that is the brother to Eric's, purchased from the same person and was decommissioned from the same data center. My system is currently operational (and running 24/7) with 128Mb of RAM and the base model processor, the 132MHz card. It is running AIX 4.1.5. I'm looking to do some upgrades, most notably to the storage situation. I only have a few of the boards that interface between the drive sleds and the backplane, the rest of my trays are unpopulated. Does anyone know what the connector that goes between each sled and the backplane is called, and/or where to source some? I would happily work on building replica boards if the connectors can be sourced, because drive sleds with those boards are hard to come by it seems. I have attached a couple photos of my ANS from back when I got it, so you know I'm not lying.
Thanks in advance,
Jeremiah
It is about time I finally joined Tinker Different, I am the owner of the Apple Network Server 500/132 that is the brother to Eric's, purchased from the same person and was decommissioned from the same data center. My system is currently operational (and running 24/7) with 128Mb of RAM and the base model processor, the 132MHz card. It is running AIX 4.1.5. I'm looking to do some upgrades, most notably to the storage situation. I only have a few of the boards that interface between the drive sleds and the backplane, the rest of my trays are unpopulated. Does anyone know what the connector that goes between each sled and the backplane is called, and/or where to source some? I would happily work on building replica boards if the connectors can be sourced, because drive sleds with those boards are hard to come by it seems. I have attached a couple photos of my ANS from back when I got it, so you know I'm not lying.
Thanks in advance,
Jeremiah
I’ve ordered various ANS parts and sundries from https://www.xs4trade.net/index.php?cPath=1_5_23 with good experience in the past. Not sure how they are dealing with the current tariff situation.
The maintenance manual is here... last two pages are part numbers.Hello fellow ANS nerds,
It is about time I finally joined Tinker Different, I am the owner of the Apple Network Server 500/132 that is the brother to Eric's, purchased from the same person and was decommissioned from the same data center. My system is currently operational (and running 24/7) with 128Mb of RAM and the base model processor, the 132MHz card. It is running AIX 4.1.5. I'm looking to do some upgrades, most notably to the storage situation. I only have a few of the boards that interface between the drive sleds and the backplane, the rest of my trays are unpopulated. Does anyone know what the connector that goes between each sled and the backplane is called, and/or where to source some? I would happily work on building replica boards if the connectors can be sourced, because drive sleds with those boards are hard to come by it seems. I have attached a couple photos of my ANS from back when I got it, so you know I'm not lying.
Thanks in advance,
Jeremiah
View attachment 24181View attachment 24182
I'm looking for the part number and manufacturer of the connector that is soldered to Apple's 922-2083 interface board, not the Apple part numbers for the boards- I don't think the connectors are listed in the maintenance manual, but I haven't had time to search the whole thing yet, so I will do some more reading. I'm looking to do things the non-Apple service way and build my own PCBs, not buy genuine replacement boards (although I probably would if some came up for sale at a reasonable price).
Nice to see you here. Apple called them mezzanine interconnect boards, or mezz boards for short (though this probably doesn't help you much).
Good information to know, and also glad to see you here! I still have yet to install Doom on my ANS, but you can bet it is on the to do list!