Despite my #sunpci project being on hold due to two dead #sun ultra 10s (RIP). A SunPCi II arrived today!
I really love how it came with a disposable anti-static wrist band. That's such a great idea to prevent accidents, especially for this era of electronic equipment!
When I get a SPARC machine with PCI this will be the next RE target. I think these "chimera" models are quite similar to the "penguin" models, technically, but only one way to find out!
Given that my #sun ultra 10's are definitely dead until I get a bunch of replacement parts (hopefully just caps) I probably won't be able to finish the #sunpci video for #doscember (It'll still happen, just... not in December 😢)
I have a mostly written script and research for "OS/2 a better DOS than DOS?" in which I run Descent, better (amongst other things)
Does this sound at all interesting to the #retrocomputing nerds that follow me?
Trying to pivot! Pivoting is hard! 🫣
Some absolutely wonderful human is sending me a #sun blade 2500 for cost of shipping because they felt bad for my ultra 10s being broken and wanting the machine to be actually used again.
The #sunpci reverse engineering effort is about to be a lot easier!
Sometimes the #retrocomputing community really is a wonderful place. ♥️
The general consensus appears to be that the problem is almost certainly dead NVRAM batteries. Apparently having bad/unstable NVRAMs can lead to all sorts of weird and wonderful issues.
I ordered some new ones, so lets hope that that can fix it so I can still finish my #SunPCi mini documentary. (And create Linux drivers for them)
Well my OTHER #sun ultra 10 just died. I now have two machines that will power on, but the power LED stays off, and no display ever comes.
Before that started to happen it complained about the IDPROM contents being wrong, so I followed a guide to re-create the contents and allow my ultra 10 to boot. The "power led won't come on" problem started then.
Does anyone know how to get this unstuck? I need at least one to work for my #sunpci #DOScember video!
It's not all doom and gloom with the #sunpci app! Some of it is quake!
Perfect, absolutely no notes. Ready to ship this #sunpci client.
I can now also play back traces that I make from the #sunpci application! So now I don't need to have my ultra 10 powered on to even work on the client.
HP van Braam