On 4 April 2016 at 02:06, Adam Thompson <athom...@athompso.net> wrote:
> 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? :-) > YES! I'd be extremely honoured to receive something like that. But, I think there are probably more worthy recipients. Computer museums, even. > (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?) > Wikipedia currently says that at least some Silent 700s could be locally connected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_700 Of course, that technically sort of takes away the tele- part from the teleprinter (which is not to say that the device was now just a printer), but I definitely think that an install to a locally attached teleprinter counts. The key here is that it's monitorless, so not a glass terminal; the paper is the only place where you get to see output. I love it, btw., that the Wikipedia article speaks of "the new high-speed interactive computing environment" -- at 1200 baud. :) Those were days when actual interactive use of a computer was not unlike getting telescope time at a major observatory -- and before time-sharing allowed concurrent multi-user access, it must have been almost exactly alike. Like Woz said in the Youtube video I linked: "Your use on these company computers, it was so far above us in value." > 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...). > Wow.
