Re: TOP Network Interface Port of a Sun Ultra 30

On 2008-08-10, Barry L. Bond <barry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[ ... ]

Check them with the loopback connector (pin 2 to pin 3) and you
don't need the computers working to be sure that the terminals work.

That's true. I haven't checked more than the one yet, that worked on
the Sun attached to ttyb.

And the loopback connector keeps you from having to run back and
forth between the computer end and the terminal end.

I didn't have one minute yesterday to get to "this stuff". And, I
still went to bed late...

Hmm ... you haven't told me what Exabyte it is. Let's go for
the easy thing to check. What color is the tape cartridge?

1) Black Older Exabyte up through 8505 -- cartridges for this
should be dirt cheap on eBay -- and you can also use
8mm video tapes with some loss in reliability.

2) White Mammoth -- moderately expensive on eBay, sometimes
real bargains available however.

3) Blue Mammoth-2 -- very expensive most of the time on eBay.

Sorry about that! :-O

The tape cartridge is black, with green letters where it says, on the
cartridge, EXATAPE, 8MM DATA CARTRIDGE, 112m, and Exabyte.

Black -- so probably around 7GB maximum for the EXB-8505. Less
for the earlier ones like the 8200 (2.3 GB with normal length tapes -- I
think that the 112 Meter ones may be the XL ones. Nope -- 160 Meters is
the XL, so expect about 5GB per tape -- perhaps double that with the
drive using built-in compression. Is it half-height, with just a slot
to put the tape in and a small door behind it, or full height, with a
swing-out door. If the latter, it is an older drive, and is either the
8200 or the 8500. You can tell which by where the button is located vs
where the LEDs are. But I would have to dig up one of the old ones to
be sure. Not that it matters much at present. But if you put a black
tape cartridge into a Mammoth or Mammoth-2, it would perhaps try to read
it, but would start flashing an amber LED after you are done saying that
the heads need a cleaning tape -- *every* time you put such a tape into
it.

I just purchased a QFE card, just now, from Ebay. A "buy it now"
from weavh, with 100% positive comments. I just paid for it, via Ebay,
and they'll take it from my checking account.

It is a 501-4837 X1049A SBus Sun Quad FastEthernet Card.

When that arrives, I'll put it in a PCI slot in the Ultra 30.

No you won't! Unfortunately, the 501-4837 is the Sbus version
of the card -- and it won't fit in the Ultra-30. You need one of:

501-4366
501-5406
540-4094

the PCI versions to use in your Ultra-30. What you got can be used in
systems up to the Ultra-2 -- no later machine has the Sbus for it to
plug into.

I believe that I gave you the numbers to look for in an earlier
posting.

:-)

Well, first I want to say THANK YOU. Your indicating this, and my
emailing the ebay seller (weavh), and he's replied. He understands
COMPLETELY. And, he is switching it for me!

Great!

He mentioned he had the 501-4366 and the 501-5406 and he said he'd
prepare the 501-5406 for me. And, both of these numbers match what you
have, above.

Glad that you caught a reasonable vendor in time.

But, actually, I went back to one of the earliest replies you had to
me in this thread, and here is what I saw:

<<>>
That is because you don't *have* a separate card for that Ethernet
port.

If you have a spare PCI slot, you can add another Ethernet card
there, or replace the existing second Ethernet card with a QFE (Quad
Fast Ethernet) card. Look for the following numbers in eBay (assuming
that you have no business paying for replacement hardware):

501-4837
501-5443

501-4302

The first two would probably be the better choices.
<<>>

So, I typed 501-4837 as a result of that!

Oops! My apologies. One of the hazards of dealing with your
postings just before it is time to go to bed. :-) (I'm a little ahead of
time here, because Sunday has less usenet traffic in the newsgroups
which I frequent.

If you *ever* see a Sun Field Engineer's Handbook offered on
eBay -- get it. I have what I believe was the last edition (copyright
1999), and it is very useful for finding what fits what and what works
with what -- as long as the machine is not too new or too old. (The
sun3 (Motorola 68020 CPU) computers and some of the early Sparc based
machines (up through the SparcStation 2), and machines newer than the
Sun Blade 1000 (for example the Sun Blade 2000, which is very similar)
are not covered. A pity that they stopped offering printed copies of
this book.

No problem. Like I said, Jeff, the seller said he had a small house
fire in February and it took a LONG TIME to get back to normal, so he
understood my extra problems right now, dealing with lightning-fried stuff
while working (a job where my code was recently integrated, and I'm the
primary helper on AdaTEST) and trying to deal more with my mother than
I've had to in the past! :-O

Ouch!

Your telling me what you did allowed me to contact him, and the
501-5406 will be what is actually shipped to me! :-)

Great!

Just by renaming the hostname.hme0 and hostname.hme1 files to
hostname.hme1 and hostname.hme2 -- once you get the *right* QFE card.
Note that the PCI QFE card has LEDs to verify connectivity for each
port.

Okay... Actually, hostname.hme1 -- the Linux system, could be left
the same. Or, are you recommending that I also connect the Linux system
to one of these 4 QFE ports?

I'm recommending that you use only the QFE unless you need a
fifth ethernet port. Part of the problem is what the port in the card
will be called when you add the QFE as well. It may continue to be
called hme1, and the others would be hme2 through hme5, or it may be
that the QFE will be hme1 through hme4, and the old card would become
hme5 -- it all depends on the order in which the system scans the card
slots. Oh yes -- it may start out with the old card remaining hme1, but
if you do a reconfigure boot, it may get shuffled. With only the bad
hme0 on the system board, and the QFE in the box, the QFE will get hme1
through hme4 with no question, so you will have more predictability.

Yes -- and you could make a direct connection to the serial box
from one of those -- but you would have to edit some files to make it
work.

I AM planning on that! :-O A call to D-Link tech service (since I
am still able to make a free request, since I just recently purchased a
new D-Link router) wasn't much help!

:-(

I SUSPECT that I have to configure something in the D-Link router
differently. I've actually never had anything attached to one of the
ports that was LAN use only. The guy at Avocent and this tech support
person that I called right after midnight yesterday/Saturday said it was
possible. But, he wasn't any help whatsoever in helping me figure out
what that was!

I suspect that you'll need to allocate static IP addresses to
the D-link (which may be asking your router for IPs via dhcp), and to
configure the IP information in /etc/hosts (and in later systems -- not
sure about Solaris 8) you'll need to duplicate the information in
/etc/inet/ipnodes -- which you might make a symlink to /etc/hosts to
make sure that they contain the same information.

I DO want it just attached to now another network port I'll have on
the Sun, where I can just configure it as another IP/ethernet port and not
have the D-Link stuff "in the middle". :-)

I am BEYOND EXHAUSTED. I probably will try disconnecting the D-Link
router from my Linux system -- TEMPORARILY -- and plugging the serial hub
directly into it -- just to see if I can communicate with it.

O.K. Good Luck.

That will give me a confirmation it's working and perhaps give me a
better idea (seeing it on my web browser) of exactly what configuring a
serial port is all about. I just printed the 96-page manual, and I will
look over that.

O.K. Good luck there.

I do SUSPECT it's working. The D-Link router showed the MAC address
of it as an "Additional computer" on the LAN. The D-Link router and it
seemed happy and fine talking to each other -- even if I couldn't! :-D

:-) Can you find out what IP address the Serial box is using?
Is it in the address block which the Sun is using?

I'm going to bed tonight in time to get 8 hours of sleep before I get
up at 3:30 tomorrow morning! Every movement is a strain! :-(

My mother goes Wednesday to have her first eye, her left eye,
operated on for cataracts.

Good Luck.

I can even see myself moving and thinking SO SLOWLY! I need to get
back closer to normal!

Yes, you do.

But, I want to say -- THANK YOU again! :-D My wrong card purchase
wound up being fixed before the wrong one was actually shipped to me, so
all is well!

Great again.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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