On 2016-04-01 11:07, ropers wrote:
And if anyone has ever operated the OpenBSD installer via a
teleprinter, I want to hear that story.
I think there's still a first-generation TI Silent 700 somewhere in my
parents' basement. If, when they either die and/or move out to a
seniors' residence prior to that certain event, I should run across it,
and I can find a compatible telephone (acoustic handset coupler,
remember!), and can find a compatible 300bps modem to dial into, and can
find an honest-to-god POTS phone line (I expect this to be the hardest
part) and can find a compatible system with a serial console that can be
stepped down to 300bps, and the thermal paper is still viable, I'll do a
fresh install just so I can mail you the ~3-4m of thermal paper I
suspect that would generate. Would that be close enough for you? :-)
(Actually, it just occurred to me that I don't need the phone line as
long as I can also find the old PENRIL modem that can start training on
a front-panel button-press instead of a -90v ring signal. Or maybe the
local museum will have a 300bps acoustic-coupler modem I can borrow?)
Many of the readers here have absolutely installed OpenBSD (and other
*NIXes) via serial port, sometimes using a local terminal, sometimes
using a modem, sometimes even vastly more esoteric combinations than
anyone could reasonably expect.
I vaguely recall once doing an OpenBSD install where the "console" path was:
Local VT220 -> multiplexer -> modem -> DATAPAC 3101 (Canadian X.25
service) PAD -> remote PAD -> remote dial-out service -> another modem
-> another multiplexer -> serial line into, IIRC, ttyA on a Sun system I
was helping someone repurpose. The entire install completed
successfully off a network boot in about an hour at 2400bps (*and*
simultaneously 2400baud, all you pedants out there...).
So while that wasn't quite an actual teletype, the whole purpose of
serial ports and serial terminals as a "standard" is that crazy shit
like that can actually happen!
-Adam
