I'm thinking about building a box specifically to run OS 4.2 (instead of virtualized, see previous post).
So, if you were going to build a box specifically for OS 4.2, what hardware would you select for:
Motherboard/CPU?
Video?
SCSI (if any)?
Network?
Sound?
Anything else?
I left off several items, such as hard drives, memory, etc. as those items are pretty much defined based on the selections above.
Thanks,
Greg
You can simply check the driver/compatiblity lists f.e. here:
http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/next/hardware.htmlI have two systems, one with NS 3.3:
Gigabyte Mainboard (don't know type) with 200 MHz PII
ATI Mach64 video
AHA2940 scsi
3c900 network
Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum audio
192 MByte RAM
SCSI-HD and SCSI-CDRW
and one with OS 4.2:
Siemens Mainboard (don't know type) with 600 MHz PIII
Matrox Millenium II video
AHA 2940W scsi
3c905B network
Soundblaster AWE32 audio
Turtle Beach Tahiti for musickit DSP support
SCSI-HD, SCSI-CDRW and IDE DVD-RW (but no software to use DVD burner, I don't think there is anything usable without IDE support)
256 MByte RAM
A couple of problems I encountered with my OS server:
I had problems with my keyboard (Capslock hangs keyboard and mouse). The keyboad is a quite new PS2 logitech. My system is a Siemens PC (with Siemens mainboard, this is possibly the cause of the problem). Solved by disabling capslock with keyboard.app (I don't need caps lock). I've seen posts in newsgrpoups of this problem with some Dell systems, I think.
During installation I had a problem with the keyboard hanging after booting the system. Solved by enabling USB legacy support (thanks to mk_schmidt, see another thread here).
I also had problems with a 3Com EtherlinkXL 3c905C-TX. The card did work but I got two different ethernet addresses from the card, depending if system was cold or warm started. Replaced it with a 3C905B-TX.
Well, we'll see how it goes. I'm in the process of collecting hardware to build such a system. If all goes well, it should arrive over the next week or so, and I'll have a system running by the beginning of November.
I'm going to try for something along the lines of:
P3-700 (possibly 933)
256 meg RAM (maybe 512+)
matrox millenium w/8 meg
adaptec 2940 or dpt smartcache controller
2 or 4 gig scsi HDs (probably 8 to 12 gigs worth)
ide cd
intel 82557 ethernet
USR 56k external modem
Soundblaster AWE 64
Will OS use more than 256 meg RAM?
Now just to get everything in and put together. :)
Quote from: "winfried"I also had problems with a 3Com EtherlinkXL 3c905C-TX. The card did work but I got two different ethernet addresses from the card, depending if system was cold or warm started. Replaced it with a 3C905B-TX.
I'm looking for parts to make a PC running a few different operating systems, two of them will be BeOS & OPENSTEP, whilst looking for info on the 3Com 3c905 on BeOS I came across the following:
"The driver for the 3C905 NIC which ships on the R4.5 CD does not seem to support full-duplex mode. Trouble is, if your card is already in full-duplex mode, BeOS won't simply run it in half-duplex. Instead, BeOS will give you a "Duplicate IP Detected" error message. To fix this, boot into Windows and run the configuration utility that came with the card to knock it back into half-duplex mode. It will now run properly under BeOS. Hopefully BeOS will soon support full duplex mode for this card natively."
Which I found here:
http://www.betips.net/chunga.php?id=373And I think this is the same problem you have with OPENSTEP on your PC and the dual IP problem you mention
Quote from: "gsyoungblood"I'm thinking about building a box specifically to run OS 4.2 (instead of virtualized, see previous post).
So, if you were going to build a box specifically for OS 4.2, what hardware would you select for:
Motherboard/CPU?
Video?
SCSI (if any)?
Network?
Sound?
Anything else?
I left off several items, such as hard drives, memory, etc. as those items are pretty much defined based on the selections above.
Thanks,
Greg
The system I would build I'd want to run some kind of Unix, maybe Solaris or NetBSD, BeOS, W2K and probably Rhapsody so I'd go for the following.
Intel 440GX dual slot 2 with AGP
Dual Intel Pentium III Xeon 700/2048/100 (v cheap on eBay these days so why not)
ATI All in Wonder Pro (Rage Pro) AGP
512mb ram
2gb Seagate Baracuda 2LP
18gb Segate Baracuda 18XL
A lot of the 440GX server boards have built in Adaptec SCSI for which there are drivers for all the OS'es I listed. Some of them also have built in Intel Crystal audio and Intel network both of which again there are drivers.
Dual Xeons would be no use in NeXT and Rhapsody (one Xeon would work though) but they would be fine for W2K, BeOS and BSD. I reckon BeOS would be a hoot with this, plus the All in Wonder TV and VIVO work with the BeOS AIW driver.
You could use a later CPU than the slot 2 Xeon but you loose a massive amount of cache and it would also require motherboard based on Intel 820/840 series which needs RamBus memory. Add to that the NeXT drivers where made for the 440 FX, BX etc.
You could also look at a 440BX/GX dual slot 1 with Pentium III's. Clock for clock though I think the PIII Xeons with big caches where the fastest 32bit Intel chips ever made.
Quote from: "brams"Quote from: "winfried"I also had problems with a 3Com EtherlinkXL 3c905C-TX. The card did work but I got two different ethernet addresses from the card, depending if system was cold or warm started. Replaced it with a 3C905B-TX.
I'm looking for parts to make a PC running a few different operating systems, two of them will be BeOS & OPENSTEP, whilst looking for info on the 3Com 3c905 on BeOS I came across the following:
"The driver for the 3C905 NIC which ships on the R4.5 CD does not seem to support full-duplex mode. Trouble is, if your card is already in full-duplex mode, BeOS won't simply run it in half-duplex. Instead, BeOS will give you a "Duplicate IP Detected" error message. To fix this, boot into Windows and run the configuration utility that came with the card to knock it back into half-duplex mode. It will now run properly under BeOS. Hopefully BeOS will soon support full duplex mode for this card natively."
Which I found here:
http://www.betips.net/chunga.php?id=373
And I think this is the same problem you have with OPENSTEP on your PC and the dual IP problem you mention
Thanks for the hint, but I dumped the card, so I'm not further investigating this problem. I'm not sure, if I tried something like the suggested hint, but I did alter a lot of parameters with the configuration tool, without success.
OK so I just got an Intel 440BX dual slot 1 mainboard, 1gb ram and 2 coppermine PIII 700's. for about 50 bucks inc shipping.
I'm bidding on a SB AWE64 Gold ISA card which is going to cost about 10 bucks.
Looking for a decent PCI NIC (probably Intel) and an AGP ATI AIW Pro or Rage Pro and Brooktree 878 PCI TV Card (for BeOS) not sure yet.
I'm wondering if I should bother with SCSI, the mainboard has ATA 33 which is not bad esp with operating systems like OS 4.2 & BeOS which are not bloated out of existance. What do you think?. I do have a 68pin LVD 18gb Quantum Atlas 10k2 doing nothing, so I could use that with a 2940UW, this is going to be faster than an ATA 33 drive for sure but is it worth the hassle?
OS 4.2 on Intel still has got the 4gb partion limit yes? and is there a partion limit for Rhapsody DR2 and DR1?
Cheers
Mick Bramley
SCSI is definately the way to go. There are read,write, and access speed benefits from the driver, the disk, and the nature of SCSI.
I had a PIII 600 system using the onboard IDE with the Patch 4 IDE drivers that I upgraded to a 2940 with a 9GB Cheetah, and the performance increase was noticable.
Less lag overall.
I would compare it with the difference between OS X 10.0 and 10.1 on a Beige G3.
Quote from: "itomato"SCSI is definately the way to go. There are read,write, and access speed benefits from the driver, the disk, and the nature of SCSI.
I had a PIII 600 system using the onboard IDE with the Patch 4 IDE drivers that I upgraded to a 2940 with a 9GB Cheetah, and the performance increase was noticable.
I'm looking into installing OpenStep on my Linux box. It's got a PIII-600 and 384mb of RAM. I'll have to look into a SCSI setup - long load times tick me off.
You can look at the specs of my OS 4.2 box. All is standard. Try to find known hardware that comes with the drivers.
I get the ethernet driver working. But I do not have time to set up the network.