Old Computer Craigslist Haul

[@willross6468]

I can help you quite a bit with the IBM box if you want. You have a Power5 there. Do not attempt to remove the CPU. Skip the HMC completely unless the machine is entitled for PowerVM (I dont think it is) The jist of it would be to pull the FSP and toggle the two DIP switched on it (they will be under a small piece of tape and are super tiny) and then power it back up. This will reset the admin login on the FSP which is where everything begins. Youll attach serial to the S1 port and login, then its 2, 11, 1, 1 to factory reset the FSP and take an inventory of all the parts in there. It will power up and down a few times and if it returns to slow blinking green light with no amber light, you're gonna have a better time. To install AIX return to the FSP and power the system up into SMS mode. SMS mode allows you to set the boot order, it will not automatically boot from the DVD you will need to specify it in the boot order. You should then boot the IBM 5.3 diagnostic media and test the machine fully. Repeat the process with AIX install media in hte drive, the AIX install process is pretty straight forward. The AIX installer will automatically set the hard disk containing AIX as the boot device. Other things of note: your machine is not equipped with RAID for the internal disk pack. You will want to obtain legit IBM scsi disks for this thing. There is a PCB interposer board that is required to get it to actually connect to the 4-pack backplane. Your RIO2 cables are for a different system, probably a 9133-55A

[@clabretro]

This is fantastic information, thank you. Probably just saved me several hours. I'll be taking a look at this in hopefully the next few weeks, if I get stuck or have more questions I'll reach out!

[@willross6468]

@@clabretro I could probably send you a drive if you want

[@clabretro]

@@willross6468 I've got plenty of non-IBM SCSI drives, is it critical that they be OEM drives? I was reading in the documentation that theoretically they should be.

[@willross6468]

@@clabretro It should work with a non IBM drive, as long as you are not running iSeries partitions. There are other comments hgere about the 522 byte sectors, but that is not relevant for pseries (aix) systems. You will, however, need the PCB interposer board in order to physically interface the drive. If you remove the 4-pack hard drive backplane to take a look, youll see what I'm talking about.

[@clabretro]

@@willross6468 awesome, thanks. I'll reach out if I hit any snags!

[@theserialport]

Awesome haul! thanks for the shout out - the Compaq server looks like a beast, looking forward to seeing you bring that online.

[@clabretro]

Thank you! Working on a video for that Compaq this very moment, also excited to see it come back to life.

[@mattelder1971]

I actually briefly worked for a Computer Renaissance in Jackson, MS in 2000 when I first moved there, before they shut down.

[@clabretro]

Amazing! My Dad owned a few stores in the greater Seattle area.

[@shrikedecil]

The SCSI cables were $50 brand new in the 90-00s :D

[@clabretro]

Haha oh yeah.

[@drawesome821]

6:58 307 is Wyoming's area code! This machine spent some amount of time in the Cowboy State. Neat find!

[@clabretro]

yup! I believe this whole lot came from Wyoming.

[@SylvieCanuck]

Rewatching through your catalog of videos again while homelabbing. Kind of cool to see you reference wanting the retro rack and knowing that you do have one now.

[@clabretro]

It's a journey

[@ericwood3709]

I loved going to Computer Renaissance back in the day.

[@clabretro]

oh yeah!

[@clabretro]

showed this comment to my Dad (he used to own some Computer Renaissance stores in the late 90s) and he was pumped haha

[@luctimm]

09:46 in these IBM POWER servers, the FSP is an isolated computer. Once you turn the server on, the FSP will boot up (and will take A LOT for that), and boot the entire server after that. All the system setup is performed in the FSP. You can either hook a serial cable or a network port on it. Through the FSP you can setup the LPARS (which is more like a physical division of the hardware, along with which operational system every LPAR will run). Once you got everything set, you tell FSP to boot up the LPAR, set the serial port to a virtual-serial module in the OS, and you're good to install the OS. It can be either AIX, Linux or IBM i (formerly IBM i5/OS, formerly IBM OS/400 - yeah, they're not very creative). As far as I remember, you can simultaneously run AIX and Linux, but IBM i requires some specific disk format, and can't co-exist with neither of them.

[@clabretro]

Thanks, this is super helpful! I haven't even powered up the thing yet, but I'll be making some videos on it when I do! Plan is to get AIX running on it.

[@nathan9510]

That small scsi cable end is VHDCI 68 pin. It was standard in mid 2000s. Also, those Dell monitors are nice because they support sync on green for certain old UNIX machines. Im planning on making a retro homelab as well, with as many different UNIX OSs on CPU architectures as possible. Still need to find an IBM POWER for AIX.

[@clabretro]

I didn't know about sync on green, that's great to know. Yeah I'm so in the dark on all the SCSI stuff, but I'm ramping up quickly with all this gear I've been messing with. I think I called it proprietary at one point in the video but obviously it's just another SCSI connector form factor haha. That's awesome about the retro homelab -- what kind of stuff have you acquired so far?

[@donaldwilliams6821]

Also known as Low Voltage differential. LVD Started at 80GB/GB, the 160GB/sec and 320MB/sec. With SCSI you need a terminator at the end of the chain of devices. LVD allowed higher speeds and longer length cables. Which is another important limit depending on type and speed. Enjoy!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

You lucky dog. You scored a Mac QuickSilver. One of Apple's best machines. Be sure to jam in all new RAM from OWC. Direct cheap.

[@clabretro]

Very lucky! I'll have a follow up video on that guy eventually.

[@movax20h]

About this battery in imac. I belive this is Lithium thylium battary. These are top notch battery in terms of longetivity. They are designed to live 20 years, and often 30 years. Used in things like seismic sensors on the bottom of ocean, and similar. They have super low self discharge, so should not fail. Do not throw them into bin or normal lithium recycling. They require special handling and disposal, due to super high toxicity. Maybe I am wrong, because I find it strange to use that kind of a battery in a consumer product like Mac.

[@clabretro]

I did end up leaving it in there because it looked totally fine (for now anyway). I'll have a follow up video on that thing eventually.

[@JesseTheStig]

Two videos in one weekend, what a treat! What a great way to end my Sunday, thanks for the upload. Also great haul!

[@clabretro]

Thanks!!

[@Dummvogel]

Compaq 1850R is the predecessor. Same case, but before they renamed all their lines to DL, ML and so on. The drive trays are original, they changed to black ones when U2W came out because of the SCA ports at the back of the drives which requires trays with open backs. Before that in the SE era the trays where beige.

[@Andy-fd5fg]

Compaq Smart Array.... my first adventure in to real hardware RAID. Had a couple of those cards, but just the 2 port versions... without the daughter card that gives the extra 2 ports. Installed one onto a Tyan dual CPU motherboard with two doctored Duron CPUs to turn them into "MP Athlon's".

[@nasasts51]

the service module in the ibm doesnt need an hmc. its a computer to start the computer. the big mainframes use a laptop with special software to manage the big iron. this is just a compact form of its big brother. now for the sad part. the computer isnt worth much without the os400 license. that is where the money is at. You should be able to load AIX. is the model number a 9406. if it is, its probably an as400. i loaded a port of linux for powerpc on mine. oh and the plug on the front is not ethernet. Its a serial port the needs a special adapter to access the service module or you can use a serial port on the back.

[@clabretro]

Thanks for the great info! I figured I'd be installing something like AIX or Linux on there... though it would be fun to give os400 a shot someday. I'll have to check the model number this evening and see what exactly it is.

[@Revivify]

Nice find. I'd love to hear the story behind your fathers shops and how it started you obsession with tech. Those Dell monitors are nice units, mine have a speaker that sits underneath and works well as a testing monitor.

[@clabretro]

Those Dell monitors are great, I had one with the speakers at work once upon a time. I've been thinking about the best way to go over the computer stores, I'll figure something out!

[@mattelder1971]

I have a basically identical G4. I actually have the matching display for mine. I work at a thrift store and it was donated there a while back. It actually sat around for over a week before I bought it for $100 (that was including the display). It's currently my oldest computer, and I have it dual booting 10.4 and 9.2.2.

[@clabretro]

Not bad at all including that display

[@SnowyPup]

That ibm system p5 seems really cool. I hope to see a video of that and aix. Seems like it would’ve shipped with aix 5.1, but 7.1 will apparently still run on it I really like alternative architectures, but ibm power seems relatively uncommon in the uk. I have a sparc T4 and 4 itanium blades so far.

[@clabretro]

I'll definitely be doing a video on that p5 in the future, try to get aix running on it!

[@svenmariawagner2858]

​@clabretro you will need ibm harddrives. They have a different blocksize. You also need a software subscription to get the aix image. If you need information I hope I can help you. ;) Would enjoy to see this "beast" in action

[@fordonmekochgalenskaper5665]

I had the last version of powermac G5 with dual cpus and 8Gb ram it was a beast at the time, used it for video and photo editing

[@RandomTechWZ]

It must have been a real treat to be a sys admin back in the 90s.

[@badmojoe]

Not sure if it's been said below already, but the 68 pin SCSI connectors are pin compatible. the lager one is HD SCSI ( HD for high density) and the smaller one is UHD (Ultra high density) SCSI. They can be adapted.

[@clabretro]

Yeah I found that out later, I actually picked up a few adapters for using these in the future.

[@pikadroo]

Oh, I used to garbage pick such great thing at Computer Ren. 😊

[@AmigaGod]

PIX 515e was my goto firewall until i virtualized everything. i even upgraded mine to a Pentium 3 1ghz(only 733mhz is used) and 768mb ram and gigabit nics. I collect Cisco gear, Sun and SGI. And they all need to be protected hehe

[@clabretro]

nice!

[@MacLimitRange]

250 is a steal!! Amazing deal.

[@PhillipFryman]

Really enjoying your videos! Keep it up.

[@clabretro]

thanks!

[@portalradio]

Man, those IBM system PXs are beautiful, I never see any complete ones, or ones in a somewhat good shape used. Lucky find!

[@clabretro]

agreed! I'll eventually have a video on it

[@lukedavis436]

Gotta get another rack, or upgrade to a 42U to store the servers inside. Best part is you don't even need them on all the time.

[@clabretro]

I know. Need a lot more rack space.

[@jessestrobel2]

Great vid and scores

[@callmebigpapa]

So glad the KZbin algorithm sent me to your channel

[@clabretro]

glad to hear it!

[@MarcosCastro-v5n]

Man the IBM server looks like an AS400 server platform, those relied on an Hmc console for admin tasks and management

[@clabretro]

Yup! It can trace its lineage back to AS400 and they hook up to HMCs.

[@drunkusr]

I just came to your channel, that P5 i remember are funny with aix and really fun with lpar and debian, RHEL & AiX running in the same box, i remeber when in datacenter of my company decide to kill all other architecture, PA-RISC of HP9000, Itanium from RX, Sparc and this Power 5, i decide leave the P5 in DC 6 months and this 6 months are lot of funny with all this stuff, saddly the company destroy all the equipment that is decommissed from the datacenter

[@clabretro]

Interesting! I'll be doing a video on that P5 eventually where I'll try to get AIX on it.

[@txtncnomad6095]

I wouldn't mind seeing a series on the IBM p5 if you can spare the time to do so. The former developer of TenFourFox uses a similar ibm power processor based system to host his personal website, so they actually can be made useful even in 2023.

[@clabretro]

I'll definitely be doing a video on the p5 eventually!

[@NekoCentral]

If shipping would not be a pain I would have loved to gift you the old Compaq i have at my mom's place it's a ML370 gen one, with dual P3 1ghz and running NT4

[@clabretro]

I appreciate that! I want to throw NT4 on this one eventually.

[@JasonsLabVideos]

OHH that Mac g4 !! WOOP WOOP !!

[@clabretro]

Right? So pumped on that haha

[@johnvanwinkle4351]

I have some SCSI disk drives for your Compaq server, 36-72GB in size......grin

[@ConnerWithAnE_]

Would be neat if you could fix up those ibm rails

[@clabretro]

Eventually. More on that IBM coming soon!

[@powermi2804]

G4 Quicksilver, best computer ever made. I have like 6 of them, if you put it on good use will be awsome.

[@clabretro]

Nice! Yeah these quicksilver machines are great.

[@TrolleyMC]

Shame that Sun PCI card didn't work, if you have an oscilloscope or a logic probe you can see if the CPU resets properly.

[@clabretro]

yeah this might be my excuse to up my game and get some additional equipment

[@hessex1899]

You know you need to put MorphOS on that G4. :)

[@leosmithonbass]

good deal all around

[@clabretro]

I can't complain!

[@wakeupcanadians]

no way you were in high school in 2002 not a chance you sir are older them 36 lol nice to think we are that young.

[@clabretro]

35 😂

[@KB0OTY]

I keep my rifle bullet inventory in the cloud.

[@WeirdFuckingRave]

I have an HPE server running my entire dev group! These things are hella reliable lol.

[@jeffnew1213]

That DL380 needs a copy of Windows NT 4 or Windows Server 2000. Not Windows 95. It's not a desktop PC.

[@clabretro]

Yeah I'm thinking we'll throw NT 4 on there!

[@ksampler6183]

Is this the stuff from Facebook Marketplace? Im also in Denver and was eyeing it for a while lol

[@clabretro]

haha quite possibly, I think he posted in a few places.

[@DerekDavis213]

Mac G4 from year 2000? Very slow and unable to run any modern software under macOS, right? IBM 200gb Ultrium tape drive? 200 gigs of very slow storage, in an era of 20 *terabyte* hard drives. These items are good for a tech museum, but have little utility in 2024.

[@itsj35513]

cool but can it run crisis

[@clabretro]

Might have to try

[@bradleyhifi8155]

i got same dell lcd monitor

[@clabretro]

I've been using them a lot, really nice monitors.

[@bradleyhifi8155]

@@clabretro my ccfl back litghts are worn out the thake a while to get bright but it isnt bright as use to ethier when it gets full bightiness

[@clabretro]

@@bradleyhifi8155 yeah I've got a third similar Dell monitor not in the video which has that issue. They last a long time since I think they were geared towards enterprises, but the bad news is that they get a lot of hours on them.

[@oggyosbourne]

What is that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles around 14:55?

[@clabretro]

It's this www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FVDG4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1 haha

[@Mirroxaphene]

Hoarding at its finest

[@netautorisationnetautorisa545]

*(THE SMELL) ... OIL .. "SOME MIL STUFF" .. ARE LIKE THIS ..* *I DONT KNOW WHY .. BUT I ALL WAYS THINK .."OLD SHIP"* *WHEN NEAR "ELECTRIC STUFF" ... I GOT FROM A ... "MIL SCRAP YARD" ....* NNNN