The most unusual hardware?

lambda64 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 12 Location: .se/.fi

Don't know about the power consumption of the Alphas, but it is true they tend to get rather warm even when turned off! (Maybe it's the same whether they're running or not.) Does any one know why that's the case? Was this considered rocket science in the mid-90:ies?

glug101 · n00b Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 22

displaced

Redhatter · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:54 pm Post subject:

I've recently picked up a new toy.

Tektronix TekXPress XP338 XTerminal
CPU: IDT 79R3052E (MIPS R3000 derivative)... ~40MHz
RAM: 16MB
HDD: None -- this is a network computer

It doesn't run Linux yet... but a few of us are currently in the process of porting Linux to this puppy.
http://tekxp-linux.hopto.org

I'm also tossing up whether I get a PlayStation 2 with the Linux Kit so that I can perhaps bang out some Gentoo stages and put some instructions in the Gentoo/MIPS Handbook.
_________________
Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...

Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member.

libellous · n00b Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 8 Location: LONDON

Rumour has it that the Goodmans freeview boxes run linux normally... I wonder if you could "take over"... I know you can certainly telnet into them

I did get Gentoo to boot off a 2gb Integral pen drive but I'm not sure that counts.

tom61 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 111

I've got a handfull of new non-x86 Linux boxes.

3x Mattle Juicebox:
Runs uCLinux out the box, and source has been released
1x with 2MB of RAM
2x with 8MB of RAM
240x160 (or something like that) 3" color LCD
ARM7 CPU
Can use SD or MMC cards via an adapter

Hacking it over at: http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=MJB&Idle=&Sort=&Order=&Session=

What's great, is that these are being clearanced at Wal-Mart for $13 each, and the MP3 kit for $9, sometimes less. The MP3 kit comes with the SD card adapter, a 32MB SD card, SD card reader that's Linux compatable, USB extension cable, and Windoze software to move over images and MP3s. MP3s can be copied directly over (some units are limited to only playing back 128K MP3s, though), pictures are in an odd format.

I plan to turn one into a text display (like a Matrix Orbital, or Crystal Fontz display) for my main box. Possibly turn one into a PDA, even though I have 3 full-featured PDAs (Dell Axim X5 400MHz 64MB, Dell Axim X5 300MHz 32MB, Sharp Zaurus 5500) and few lesser PDAs (couple of Cybikos, a couple of key chain organisers)

As far as more insteresting x86 boxes I've got(didn't list them before):
2x Socket 370 (400MHz Celeron in them now) Slimline Single Board Computer systems. They used to be harddrive testing boxes. Integrated everything on an i810 chipset.
One has holes drilled into the top for mounting a hard drive too.

Pictures:
Outside of box:
http://tom61.arcadecontrols.com/pics/slimline5.jpg

Outside of box with CD for size reference:
http://tom61.arcadecontrols.com/pics/slimline6.jpg

Box open, with CD rom attached for install of Smoothwall:
http://tom61.arcadecontrols.com/pics/slimline4.jpg
http://tom61.arcadecontrols.com/pics/slimline3.jpg

Picture of where I was thinking of leaving it. I decided to move it since I got tired of cold air from it's exaust blowing on my hand. On top of it is a 6 in 1 card reader, to the left is my 17" monitor, to the right is my old mid tower, and slightly above the card reader is the speakers I use.

http://tom61.arcadecontrols.com/pics/slimline10.jpg

I've also got a EBX formfactor SBC that I'm trying to cram into a 5-14" (cdrom) drive bay, along with a 20GB notebook drive, and a slot-loading slim line/laptop CD drive. Socket 370, 2 SODIMM (laptop memory) slots, Compact flash ports, built-in LCD (STN and TFT) controller. Main thing holding the project back, is that it uses 2mm (laptop sized) headers for everything, which means I need to custom build them. I tried to boot monowall on it (via the Compact flash port), but it stopped booting complaining about not having a keyboard.

Unofficial site, with more specs: http://www.clearwater.com.au/pcm-9574/?page=overview

Pic:
http://tom61.arcadecontrols.com/pics/Jun30-04.jpg

I've also got an I-Opener web appliance, which is really just a really integrated PC. 12" color LCD, 200MHz Rise Pentium compatable CPU, 16MB Disk On Chip, SODIMM memory slot, flipped 44-pin HD connector(soldered on the wrong board side), 1 USB port, 56K hardware modem, and a BIOS that's locked out of letting me change it to boot off an HD. Need to get a new BIOS chip and a flipped IDE cable from BadFlash.com to get it running. Runs QNX from the factory.

AS2100 · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:30 am Post subject: Odd Hardware

Multiple MicroVax 3100 and 3400 series machines. Also Digital PWS 600au and AlphaServer 2100's (these are my favorites).

Matthew

Devrethman · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:41 am Post subject:

I haven't installed it on anything that odd (just plain old X86's and an AMD64) but i can't wait to try it out on a PS3 :twisted:

tom61 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 111

Redhatter · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:09 am Post subject:

Just picked up yet another toy -- destined as my crash-and-burn SGI box :-)

Silicon Graphics Indigo2 Impact (IP28) Workstation
CPU: MIPS R10000 195MHz (MIPS IV Big Endian)
RAM: 384MB 72-pin ECC
HDD: 2.5GB Quantum/SGI SCSI (I'll need to upgrade this eventually)

It's running Linux with an n32 userland (64-bit) just fine. I'm striking several bugs -- largely due to instabilities with support for n32/n64 userlands (anyone using Gentoo/MIPS is generally encouraged to use the 32-bit "o32" userland -- unless they're extremely brave)

stsp · n00b Joined: 06 Dec 2003 Posts: 11

I have an old i386sx laptop, 20mhz, 8 mb ram, network over serial cable, black & white display.
It has been running slackware 3.5 to 4.0, some ancient debian, and now minix.
I might try a gentoo stage 1 install with ulibc for a laugh

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

GentooX on the xbox is the most exotic architecture I have gentoo running on, although it is so easy to set up that it isn't much of an accomplishment http://gentoox.shallax.com/

Redfriar · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 10 Location: North America

The most exotic environment I've run linux on was my IPAQ's, a 3630 (32mb of ram), a 3670 (64mb of ram), and a 3870 (64mb of ram, but a slightly faster memory controller, + bluetooth). These are all 203mhz arm based.

I tried DreamCast linux, but mostly for the mame port. I have thought about doing Xbox linux, in the hopes of using MythTV's frontend.

Hardware that I have in my basement, ready to test a linux install on:

Indigo2 w/233mhz r4000 MIPs
PowerMac 7500
PoweCenter Pro mac clone w/g3-400 upgrade
Sun Ultra5
An alpha-based NetApp Filer head (with 1gb of ram, and 4 shelves of disk. This one is not practical due to noise and power consumption. Drives the wife batty).

what would be really neat:
A pair of Sparc IPX's

If anyone has any practical advice for getting Gentoo and/or linux on Old World Macs, or the Sparc, do share!

shickapooka800 · Guru Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Posts: 304 Location: no

i have linux running on my 1st gen ipod -- nothing to impresssive, it can't sleep when it boots linux, although i have telnet'd into it via ethernet over firewire (once again -- anti-climactic)

there is a Tiger Gx86 sitting next to me with a cyrix 120mhz processor, the problem is that i havent succesfully booted a linux kernel on it -- though i have booted netbsd (figures).

i also have an apple performa 6320cd with tv tuner card -- i want linux on that thing so bad -- right now its my tv, with os9.

redhatter -- where do you find all these glorious machines? i want some of the action!

KozmoNaut · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 12:02 pm Post subject:

I've gotten Gentoo up and running pretty nicely on this beast:

Digital Alphaserver 1000A 5/400
400MHz Alpha EV56 21164A
384MB FPM ECC RAM
2x 18GB 10K RPM SCSI disks
5x 36GB 10K RPM SCSI disks
KZPSC-XB SCSI RAID controller (DEC-rebranded Mylex DAC960PD)
KZPAC SCSI controller for external devices
Onboard ISP1020 SCSI controller
S3 Trio64/32 graphics adapter
3Com Etherlink XL 10/100 NIC

The 18GB disks are in a RAID1 and used as the system drive. The 36GB disks are in a RAID5 and used as storage.

Oddly enough, Gentoo refuses to connect on the installed 3Com Etherlink XL NIC, so I had to install everything from the CD, and it's no use as a server right now. FreeBSD seems to have no problems using the NIC, so I'm going to install 5.4 on it soon. Altough I am contemplating OpenVMS after seeing the OpenVMS Hobbyist Program.

And I'm calling it "The Beast" for a reason. It's heavy enough that a friend and me struggled a lot getting it up the stairs to my apartment, and we both work out regularly. It's a double-wide case (one side is an integrated Storageworks shelf), making it rather bulky.
_________________
War. War never changes.

GNUtoo · Veteran Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 1919

for the dreamcast users:
is it possible to install 2 nic(network interface card=ethernet 10/100)
on this device
mabe i coul buy one for a router purpose
it coud also be funny running a x server on the tv...
does it make noise or counsume huge power

i plan to put linux on:
-m68k without mmu (ti-89)
-arm7(gameboy sp not mine) but i need to find shematics for a cartridge-compact flash adapter before
i've an arm9 device runing qtopia and i plan to put another distribution but there will be some problems with the display

i've aso a question
what's thedifference between:
-uclinux
-normal kernel with mmu less patch

dJCL · Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 1:19 pm Post subject: Reminded of...

Someone posted about an amstrad system... and reminded me of mine.

I collect portable and luggable systems, one of which is a luggable amstrad with full size keyboard and petite lcd(black on green) display. I booted that with one of the striped down and extended versions.

My favourite, and this also runs linux, is an old Compaq luggable system, again with a full keyboard, onboard hard drive this time, 386 with 16 meg, and - this is the best part - a reasobly large screen in 16 shades of blood red! Linux just looks cool when it is bleeding across your screen...

Gotta remember to fix the floppy on that sometime...

But I've just added my second processor to my main system, so it's got all the attention. Dual Athlon-MP 2800+, 2 Gig Ram,3 video cards(21", 17", 17" screens) and GigE to my laptop which has a 2800/64 for that extra ooomph!

JC

GNUtoo · Veteran Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 1919

dual x86 processor...
that sould be superfast on non parallel thread
(one processor for thread that are switched and one for only one thread that is never switched)
is there a good thread manager in linux that can do that???
i don't know anything about this because i've not any dual processor system

Redhatter · Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 12:22 am Post subject:

Dual x86 is nice... Not as nice as dual AMD64....but is still very nice.

Multitasking becomes a lot smoother. :-)

My desktop, for the record:

Dual Pentium III 1GHz
1GB PC133 SDRAM
3x18.2GB Quantum Atlas and 1x 9.1GB IBM SCSI HDDs
Excalibur (ATI) Radeon 9200SE 128MB Video Card
Creative Vibra128 Sound Card
Intel PRO/100 LAN
Adaptec AHA-3940U2W SCSI Card
Advansys SCSI Card
Askey CPH031 TV Tuner Card

Got it in December 2001 as an 18th birthday present/christmas present. :-)

I've found dual x86 tend to keep up better. We've had a Dual Pentium PRO 200MHz last a good 6 years as a workstation, and hence have gone SMP ever since. :-D

_________________
Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...

Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member.

Tulsaboyw · n00b Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Oklahoma

My best friends, dad ...has a fullblown Mainframe (360) in his garage ...has had in there for 15 years.

And was running a business from it for 10 years.... I recently showed him Hercules (Mainframe sw emulator) and was doing all of his stuff faster.

Oh, myself, I still have my ALTAIR .... though not currently plugged in........actually had it up for 8 years till my sisnlaw moved in...
I was using two bedrooms for my office.... One for real work, the other for entertainment.

I bought it a while before the TRS80 or Apple II was out, didnt even know about Apple I till later.

For those of you that dont remember, Altair, is a frontpanel switch w/8" diskdrive..
I even ran a earlyincareer biz back then on it.......though by todays standards I cant believe I actually did.

But I digress. I should be taling about exotic...not ancient...but other than above, I nothing nothing unusual...unless having my router running linux is considered... but then thats not exotic by me, owned by me but made by linksys... with bare bones linux setup.

Kewl discovering all that.

torchZ06 · Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 9:46 pm Post subject:

we have it running on an autonomous robot used for transporting materials in hospitals. the hardware is a via C3 based SBC.

orvtech · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:46 pm Post subject:

NSLU2

you can see a bunch of pictures here http://www.linuxevolution.org/gallery.html that hardware is hosting that site and other 2 sites.

alex.blackbit · Advocate Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Posts: 2397

the exotic architectures:

dec alphapc 600mhz ev56
intel itanium2 1x1.4ghz

had been running linux in the past on:
alphaserver 1000
alphaserver 2000
intel itanium1 2x733mhz
some ibm rs/6000 (pci based, the one that runs windows nt too)
some ibm rs/6000 4cpu system (f50 i think)
sun sparcstation 20
some hp9000

eccerr0r · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject:

I only have one machine that I run Gentoo on that's not x86 or x86_64 - Just my Itanium2 Dual 1.3GHz (Dell PowerEdge 3250) (granted, it can run x86 binaries under emulation).

If I could run Linux on my DEC DECstation 3100 (MIPSel R2000 @ 16.7MHz), I would... but it looks like the kernel porting effort dried up. And having 24MB RAM it's probably not going to run very well.

The Itanium2 runs Gentoo very well, then again it does have 4GB RAM unlike the DECstation.
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

armanox · n00b Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 36 Location: Baltimore, MD

OOOO

My turn...

I have a box with Dual Pentiums (Pentium MMX 200MHz, not Pentium Dual Core), with 512MB of RAM (PC-33), running RH 7.2.

My LUG has a SGI Octane (2 MIPS Procs, IP30, 300MHz) with 1GB of RAM, running Gentoo 2007.

I have a NEC Laptop (Intel 80286) with 1MB of RAM, running ELKS.

I have a Toshiba T1000 (the original Toshiba laptop, if not the original laptop) (Intel 8088 @ 4MHz or 8MHz, adjustable) with 640K RAM, dual booting ELKS and DOS off of a Floppy Drive (the HDD is soldered to the Mobo, and is dead as dead can be).

My LUG has a Sun SparcStation Classic (no idea on the specs, the old pizza box Sun) running RH 6.2.

Any questions?

For the record, I have two desktops,
Intel Pentium Dual Core (2.0GHz) with 2GB DDR2 RAM booting Fedora 9, OpenSolaris, Haiku in a VM, and Windows Vista
Intel Pentium 4 (1.7GHz) with 512MB ECC RDRAM booting Gentoo, Fedora 9, Ubuntu, and Windows XP.

Carnildo · Guru Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 595

I had Gentoo running briefly on a SunBlade 100, but it had serious problems with corrupted data on the hard drive -- I think it wasn't detecting the drive geometry properly. The system's now running OpenBSD without any problems.

I've also got a PowerMac G3 that refuses to run anything but MacOS 9: NetBSD wouldn't boot, Gentoo couldn't find the hard disks, and YellowDog wouldn't run.