[K12OSN] using really old PCs as clients

Wed Oct 14 18:06:36 UTC 2009

I was about to try this method. But I am facing a peculiar problem. The
oldest HDDs I currently have is of 39 pin. But the connector on board is of
40 pins. When I tried to boot the PC by connecting one of these HDDs, (with
(DOS), the PC refuses to start.  I tried by flipping the cable ( to check
whether it is fitted reversley). Once the HDD is disconnected, the PC starts
without any problem.
Any clue what went wrong ?

Regards,
Raju

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 8:59 PM, "Terrell Prudé Jr." <
microman at cmosnetworks.com> wrote:

>  Also remember that even though the floppy drives aren't working, you can
> accomplish the same thing with the hard disk instead.  What I do in this
> case is pull the old box's hard disk out of it, install it in another
> GNU/Linux or other UNIX-style box, and then "cat" the Rom-O-Matic image to
> the hard disk, like so.  This example is for the 3Com 3C905 series, and it
> assumes the old box's hard disk shows up as /dev/hdb.
>
>   terrell at thinclientmaker$ su - root
>   Password:  (enter root's password here)
>   root at thinclientmaker# cat eb-5.4.4-3c90x.zdsk > /dev/hdb
>   root at thinclientmaker# halt
>
> Then, just pop this new "EtherBoot hard disk" back into the old box and
> boot from it.  If you set up one box to do all your old hard disks this way,
> it goes pretty quickly.  I did something similar with some EIDE Sun Ultra 5
> hard disks a few years back (I used an x86 machine for the cat'ing), and I
> had ten hard disks all config'd in about 20 minutes.
>
> --TP
> _______________________________
> Do you GNU <http://www.gnu.org>?
> Microsoft Free since 2003 <http://www.cmosnetworks.com>--the ultimate
> antivirus protection!
>
>
> raju VK wrote:
>
> Thanks for the clarification.  Hardware vendors and other people were not
> sure of this. That is why I posted it. This assumes significance as the
> floppy drives on al these machines  are not working. Therefore I  have
> decided to give a try even if  the query is not answered.
>
>
>
> with many thanks,
> Raju
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 8:54 AM, "Terrell Prudé Jr." <
> microman at cmosnetworks.com> wrote:
>
>>  Actually, it was answered, but perhaps you're not understanding just what
>> it is we're saying here.  Any card that supports PXE-booting is just such a
>> card as you describe, with its own boot ROM on it.
>>
>> Here's some additional information as well.  If you have any 3Com 3C905
>> cards handy (either the original or the "B" variant), you'll notice a socket
>> for a chip.  That socket is where you'd put the boot ROM for that card.  If
>> you do put that in, then your PC will happily boot from the network.  Jim
>> McQuillan sells these chips for several types of network card, not just
>> 3C905's.  But what if you don't happen to have that chip, and your employer
>> will not pop for these chips?  That's when you "substitute" the boot ROM
>> chip for a floppy disk, hard disk, or CD-ROM with that same boot ROM image
>> on it.  It accomplishes exactly the same thing.
>>
>> Hopefully this helps to clear some things up.
>>
>> --TP
>>  _______________________________
>> Do you GNU <http://www.gnu.org>?
>> Microsoft Free since 2003 <http://www.cmosnetworks.com>--the ultimate
>> antivirus protection!
>>
>>
>>  raju VK wrote:
>>
>>  Thanks for all the replies. But even now my question is not properly
>> answered. It is simply,  if I use a new network card with boot ROM,
>> whether I can boot in to a network even if the boot options does not have
>> an entry for network card as boot device.
>>
>>  From the replies I assume the answer is negative and the only option is
>> to use a boot floppy.
>>
>>  regards,
>> Raju
>>
>>
>>  On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 9:48 PM, Klaus Ade Johnstad <klaus at skolelinux.no
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>  Søndag 11. oktober 2009 17.44.09 skrev raju VK :
>>>  > I have successfully installed the terminal server on my fc10
>>> >  desktop.. Now my question is now I can use some vintage (1998/99)
>>> >  PCs as clients. The PCs has no option to boot from network. Other
>>> >  wise they are still functional. If I use a network card with boot
>>> >  ROM can I connect these PCs to the terminal server ?. I googling the
>>> >  net last two days does not yield any result.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > with thanks in advance,
>>> > Raju
>>> >
>>>
>>>  One person that is using realy old PC as clients (like i486 w/4MB ram)
>>> is Alberto Castillo from Argentina. Search the listarchives for mail
>>> from him,  Alberto Castillo <proyecto.edulin at gmail.com>
>>>
>>> That would be a good startin point.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Klaus Ade
>>> 67E61D18B2C44F8A3DA35C6D849F9F5F 26FA477D
>>>
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