First Post so appoligies for the obvious questions. Yesterday I managed to get a TurboColor slab, I've got the full rig monitor, keyboard, mouse, soundbox [30 bucks]. I have not booted yet, I have to clear space to set up it up, but I went through it and gave it a good cleaning and everything seems to be complete. I'm hoping the harddrive is still working and has something on it.
Questions:
1) So it sounds like NeXTStep 3.3 is the prefered OS for this hardware vs OpenStep 4.2, is this right?
2) NS 3.3 Media seems to be getting hard to find, and I take it Apple will not send out any more media no matter how much we beg? Blackhole is selling it at $199 and as reported here it is just CD-R. That is kind of sad, besides hunting on Ebay any other outlets for NS 3.3 disks?
3) I have a spare 18GB Quantum Atlas III [SCA connector] + a 50pin -> 80pin adapter. It sounds like with some work on the disktab [with help from
http://deadstart.net/NeXT/disktab/quantumAtlas10k.ht I can get this working but the best I get out of it is 4x2GB partitions. Is that right?
Any other advice for a newbie to NeXT?
Thanks,
Mike
[PS - It looks like I ended up with a spare ADB Keyboard, not sure if anyone could use it, I'm SoCal.]
Quote from: "mgtremaine"
1) So it sounds like NeXTStep 3.3 is the prefered OS for this hardware vs OpenStep 4.2, is this right?
Yes its claimed that 3.3 is a little bit faster than 4.2 on black hardware.
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3) I have a spare 18GB Quantum Atlas III [SCA connector] + a 50pin -> 80pin adapter.
I would take a look on the "Amperes" of this drive and the heat. A dead slab PSU isn't worth fiddeling with big drives.
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It sounds like with some work on the disktab [with help from http://deadstart.net/NeXT/disktab/quantumAtlas10k.ht I can get this working but the best I get out of it is 4x2GB partitions. Is that right?
No, you can create 7 partitions but you need to add some lines in that disktab.
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Any other advice for a newbie to NeXT?
With such a big drive maybe Openstep 4.2 is the better thing, you can create 4 GB partitions.
I'll check the amps on the current drive. The Quatum is 900mA/1200mA, and I'm using these in other "Workstations" [SGI Indy, Sun Sparc 20] and the heat and sound are fine. THey also seem [total unscientifically] to disapte heat better. That is to the touch they do not feel as hot as some 7200RPM seagates and they cool down faster after they are powered off. But I hear what you are saying if I break the PSU I will not be happy!!
[Added]
I just checked and I have a Seagate ST1490N in there which is 4400RPM 426MB drive, the amps are [5v/12v] 530/540 and the wattage is typical 9.1watts / Max 15watts.. So pretty darn low... Going to have to dig through my drives to get as close as possible. [The Quantum Atlas III 10K is 10.2 watts idle, 17watts during read/write...] It's close and considered it is 10,000rpm vs 4400rpm is really shows you how much better the drives have become... Stilll would rather not ruin this PSU.]
-Mike
Well the good news for me is that it boots fine. I seem to have NeXTStep 3.3 installed
NS 3.3
Workspace Version 374.6
PostScript Version 125
My guess is that it is missing so patches because I can not set the Date beyond April 19 2002. So I'll have to read up on applying those.
My NeXTROM version is 3.3 v74 ... Is that upgradeable?
Otherwise nothing real interesting this one had FrameMaker 3.2, MESA 1.5A, and WriteNow 2.0... I was impressed with how "snappy" it was, with only 32MB of memory it was very useable. [Pretty sure I have the right memory in my horde to bring it up to 128mb.]
-Mike
Congratulations! You have a very nice setup there!
Like it's Grandson, NeXTSTEP likes RAM.
Read/Write access times on a newer drive make the system even snappier.
OPENSTEP 4.2 slows the system down noticeably, but it is required for some software (Omniweb 3, etc,) It is possible to copy the required OS4.2 libs into the NS3.3 system, but I haven't done it. There isn't a documented procedure on it, from what I can remember.
The Y2K patches are available here (
http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Patches/NEXTSTEP_3.3_Patch_3/).
What model monitor do you have? The Sony is supposedly a better monitor than the Fimi or Philips. I had a Fimi, and I thought it was fine.
There is some discussion about Community support for taking over the OS update fulfillment from Apple. There is some information in another thread, if you're interested and do not have media.
(Semi-OT: I'm trying to get my Quantum Atlas 10K WLS to play nicely with my Indy.. Keep getting RAM errors. Do you have a manual in PDF?)
Quote from: "itomato"Congratulations! You have a very nice setup there!
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What model monitor do you have? The Sony is supposedly a better monitor than the Fimi or Philips. I had a Fimi, and I thought it was fine.
There is some discussion about Community support for taking over the OS update fulfillment from Apple. There is some information in another thread, if you're interested and do not have media.
(Semi-OT: I'm trying to get my Quantum Atlas 10K WLS to play nicely with my Indy.. Keep getting RAM errors. Do you have a manual in PDF?)
Thanks! I'm pretty excited to have found it. I'll have to check the monitor it is down in the trunk of my car, it being a 17" beast and all. I had it out yesterday to check out the OS and general shape of everything but sadly I do not have a enough room on desk to keep it setup up. [The NeXTStation can sit on "workstation" stack, but the Monitor is right out.]
I read most of the threads I could find on NeXTStep 3.3 but I'm not sure I saw the one you are referring to, can you gimme the link? I saw that apparently Blackhole will sell me the OS for $49 so long as I have Black Hardware [which I do] but it sounds like I'll have to go through some effort to make that happen [phone calls? argh!]. [50 fifty bucks is still more then I paid for my IRIX 6.5 media ;P]
OT: Ram errors on the Indy? Hmm not sure I've tried several 18G drives on my Indy all of them without problems. I clone my original drive using a nice clone drive script and instructions from the forums at nekochan.net ... My guess is you should check the ram re-seat it and probably clean the contacts [use a pencil eraser that usually works well.]
-Mike