On Sun, 15 May 2011 19:48:36 +0300
Michael Sioutis <papito....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I ressurected an old pc yesterday (specs on title) with OpenBSD 4.9
> and without X to keep it light. It
> runs ridiculously well! Everything works fine except the automatic
> powerdown (shutdown -hp now), which
> is not supported aparently by the mobo, anyway, don't care about that.
>
> I currently have sshd, pf, sshguard and sendmail running, all in 4-5
> MB of 18-21 available RAM (the rest is taken
> by the hardware I suppose) and 1-2 MB of 42 MB swap.
>
> I could turn it into a firewall, but I allready have one, and I am not
> very excited about the idea.
> What I do find exciting is teaching my nephew some computer/programming
> basics.
> Anyone find it a good idea?
>
> I have allready installed python and gprolog, which I like for basic
> aritmhetics stuff.
>
> What dissapoints me the most, is that there don't exist USB ports and
> they might not even be supported, the pc
> is from 1998.
> I could use rtorrent with screen to download stuff to an external hard drive..
> But I will check on that when I find the time to open the case.
>
> What else could I use it for?
>
> Thank you!
> Mike
>
It should have an LPT port, you can use this port to interface with
other electronic devices. Anything from lighting up a few LEDs to
automatizing your home. I use the LPT port to upload firmware to
Atmel AVR microcontrollers for example (there is a C compiler for them
pkg_add -vi {avr-gcc,avr-libc,avr-binutils}).
http://logix4u.net/Legacy_Ports/Parallel_Port/A_tutorial_on_Parallel_port_Interfacing.html
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/
$ man i386_iopl
or
$ man amd64_iopl
and see the inb/outb functions/macros in /usr/include/{i386,amd64}/pio.h
