I'm trying to bootstrap an old 486 Thinkpad. It's got two PCMCIA slots,
and might make a decent gateway.
First problem: I can't get external video off the system, not sure why.
Running it through an Omniview 4-port KVM.
So...I ran a getty on /dev/ttyS0, and am using minicom to access a
serial terminal.
- minicom -s /dev/ttyS0
- disable modem init and reset strings
- upping baud rate to 57600 (on both sides of the connection) speeds
response considerably over the 9600 default.
Which works relatively well. This is the only real connectivity I've
got to the box (floppies are pretty uniformly unreadable, and CDROM on
docking station is not currently accessible).
Without zmodem utilities, the only file transfer mode I had was ASCII.
Fortunately, there's a Perl implementation of uudecode. Use this to
bootstrap further installations by installing sharutils. I'm finding
it's easiest to do this by opening a vi session, then reading in cat
output, and deleting all blank lines:
vi sharutils.uu
:0r!cat
<file transfer>
^D
:1,$g/^$/d
:wq
File transfer setup is:
Source side:
cat package.deb | uuencode package.deb > package.uu
Once on the remote session:
./uudecode.pl package.uu
After this point, you can transfer shar archives (which use uudecode,
hence the above step), allowing for ASCII mode transfers.
I'm still looking for a good method for doing file transfers. I haven't
used kermit, x/y/zmodem, etc., for about fifteen years, so I'm not sure
what the options are here.
I'm also wondering if there is other terminal software other than
minicom I can use, preferably with color support. minicom seems to do
only vt100.
Some full-screen programs (notably 'top') don't work. vi and man do
though.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
SCO is the thief who puts a gun to his own head and says give me
your money or I'll shoot.
-- Bruce Perens http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=56225&&cid=5456337
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