Re: TOP Network Interface Port of a Sun Ultra 30


Hi Don!

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 would say it is likely an earlier one. Tony told me this Sun and
the tape drive... I think he said it was given to him, and he had it for
years and never did anything with it, so he gave it to me when he learned
that another system (and with two network ports) could be an ideal mail
host and router, and still allow my Linux to be on a "private" network.
The Linux is what my mother and I use. I have a LOT of stuff on it! (My
mother only uses my FMS - Financial Management System, a set of programs I
finished in 1988 that allows you to track all cash, credit card, checking,
savings, IRA, etc. transactions. It reconciles our bank statements and I
print my tax totals with it. And, if there is any thing I need to know
when I purchased something, I can find it if it is since 1988 [yep, so
about 20 years of data, this year!] without looking for the receipt! I
also have a DATES and ADDRESS database. The Caller ID box that is
normally hooked up to the Linux system reports caller IDs to the computer.
I have a high priority daemon I wrote running on the Linux system. If the
number is someone I know and have in my address database, it will actually
pronounce the name of who's calling, via the speech synthesizer which is
also hooked up via those same serial ports. [And, I have an extensive
"speech queue" that breaks the stream up into words. If there is a word
that is not properly pronounced, I have a file where I can insert the word
spelled properly on one line, and on the following line, I can spell the
word in such a way that the speech synthesizer will speak it better.
Also, acronyms... SAIC has "S A I C" on the following line, so it will
pronounce ESS AYA EYE CEE rather than SAYIK! :-D] I used to do all my
own programming, and I have a lot on it. This is just scratching the
surface.)

But, I don't know for sure. Even Tony didn't get it new.

It is half-height. You put the tape in where the is a "door" BEHIND
the outer portion of the unit. Worded another way, when you insert the
tape, you push in the door.

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.

And, today, the $26.75 ($19.95 plus shipping) showed up in my
checking account, through Paypal, and I got a personal email saying he had
shipped the 501-5406. Express mail, 2 to 3 days, so I may get that by the
end of this week!

(The 501-5406 is the same price.)

Glad that you caught a reasonable vendor in time.

Jeff is a VERY nice guy! He had 1,784 comments, and 100% positive.

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.

Okay. Thank you. Eventually, I'll look for this. (I have more than
I can handle at this moment!) :-O

I printed nearly every one of your replies. And, I'll be looking
over them carefully, for the little notes about "look for" and especially
about how to fix the Sun computer when I get this QFE card! :-)

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.

Ah! I understand. When I get it, do you have a preference for which
PCI slot I install it in? I have at least one blank PCI slot both above
and below the existing PCI card which is the hme1 network port.

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.

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

Thank you for your advice even on things you don't know! :-)

It is 192.1.1.1, unless it is changed. I am *thinking* that I had
the Linux routes configured to send 192.1.1.1 out the eth0 port when I had
it temporarily connected directly to the Linux, but I'll double-check that,
the next time I have a chance to try it out. I can't actually be sure!
:-(

I'll be off all of Wednesday of this week. I'll be taking my mother
for her first cataract surgery, left eye. I don't yet know how available
I'll be. If she has no problems, I'll take her for her one day post-op
check up Thursday morning and get to work for at least some hours on
Thursday. We'll see how things go. I certainly have a LOT to do, if I
have time for it! :-O :-)

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)
.