[K12OSN] using really old PCs as clients
"Terrell Prudé Jr."
microman at cmosnetworks.com
Wed Oct 14 23:11:58 UTC 2009
Define more precisely "the PC refuses to start" for us.
--TP
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raju VK wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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
>>> <mailto:proyecto.edulin at gmail.com>>
>>>
>>> That would be a good startin point.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Klaus Ade
>>> 67E61D18B2C44F8A3DA35C6D849F9F5F 26FA477D
>>>
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