Good news. At our AHCS club meeting today, someone there just happened
to have a keyboard with the correct code page and connector for my
terminal. Yvan was correct in that the terminal doesn't operate at all
without one. With the keyboard, everything came alive. The machine
IPL'd just fine into a login screen after about 8 minutes. We were able
to get into the disk editor, recover the username and password, and
log-on successfully. So I apparently do have a working set of 1x 30 MB
and 1x 60 MB hard disks. Password and data security was not active and
there were only 3 total users. The CMAS accounting software menu or
library - default for the other users - was not found. I'm assuming it
was maybe deleted when the machine was taken out of service. But the
system is functional.
The BASIC, FORTRAN, and COBOL languages were not installed. But we did
try writing a Hello World program in RPG II but it failed to compile
correctly! It was fun trying. The default line level editor was about
the worst thing I've ever used in 40 years of pounding on a keyboard -
and I've seen a lot of bad in that time.
I still would like to get a set (or two) of later release SSP disks as
as well as archive and reimage some of the application software I have.
I'll email Mcguire. But if anyone else has experience in imaging IBM
mid-range floppies, I'd love to get some more advice.
Thanks,
Alan H.
On 2018-11-10 15:00, alan--- via cctalk wrote:
Thanks Yvan. I was hopeful when the terminal output the standard
status
line at the bottom with an 08 code in the lower right above the line
and
a blue K in the bottom center below the line - which I assumed was a
keyboard not present error. I could not find the address switch
anywhere on that terminal to configure it. The previous owner said it
was the system console so I assumed it was already set for address 0
'somehow'.
I also assumed the hard drives were bad or the load on them was corrupt
when never saw any terminal output after nearly 30 minutes. First
thing
I should see is the numerical countdown after 4-5 minutes, correct?
I have only disk 1 of SSP 3.0. When I try to start the machine using
function 3/1000, it throws SRC 210F which the code-manual describes as
not being able to find valid sector marks. Not sure if it's a problem
with the media or the drive at this point.
The machine came from a young man who didn't know much about it. He
said it was his fathers and it worked last time it was in-use. But
that
was at least 15 years ago. It has been siting indoors for that time.
So there is hope. The bearings in the hard drives sound pretty bad.
But during what I assume is the normal IPL (with no terminal output),
the drives are spun-down and then back up again in sequence about 1-2
minutes in. I can also hear the heads engage and vigorously move about
a minute past that for a while - which I assume is the IPL trying to
load the CPU kernels - but I obviously never get to the IPL sign-on.
-Alan H.
On 2018-11-10 14:44, Yvan Janssens wrote:
You will need the keyboard. Those terminals usually don't come up
without it. Good news tho if the keyboard has been nicked, the
protocol is compatible-ish with PS/2. I have successfully used
$generic_ps2_keyboard with the right plug for it. Make sure to not hit
the Windows key (or any other 'new' keys) - you'll lock up the
terminal's firmware.
You will also have to configure the terminal to use address 0 - Twinax
busses have an address range of 0-7 and you need bus 0, address 0 for
the console.
Generally speaking, bringing up the system is similar to bringing up
early AS/400s.
/y
On Sat, 10 Nov 2018 at 19:59, alan--- via cctalk
<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
Just picked up an IBM System/36 5362 last night. It is in pretty
good
physical condition with just a few minor scratches - other than
needing
a thorough cleaning. It has 2 60 MB hard disks in the unit. Not
sure
of the RAM capacity. Missing the the mode hard key.
A few of us tried to get it running tonight. It came with a 3179
twin-ax terminal but no keyboard. We connected the terminal via a
twinax cable direct from port 0 to the terminated Y adapter on the
terminal. Never got any output on the terminal at any time other
than
the fairly empty status line. The S/36 front panel console light did
illuminate after we connected the terminal. The key was locked to
Normal but we were able to by-pass it with a jumper to get it into
Service mode. The media that came with it only had disk 1 of an SSP
release and we could not get that to IPL from floppy (mode 3 / panel
1000). It stepped the head motor forward and back a couple times,
engaged the head, then immediately threw an error code.
Any idea where I can get an SSP release for the S/36 5362 and how to
write it to 8" floppies? Also where I might find a keyboard for the
terminal and what can be done if anything to gauge the health of the
hard drives?
-Alan H.
