SLUG memebers:
Here is a text copy for everyone that can't seem to find an issue =/
Please send _ALL_ input, both good or bad should the case may be, to
admins@textbox.net so that we can get a real feel for how it article is
presented, how it covers the topic, and over all feel. Be honest, I
trust everyone on this list and really don't need the sugar-coated info
I got from other "friends".
I'd like to hear the LUGs take on the article seeing how that Textbox is
really picking up steam now.....
Matt <matthew@textbox.net>
Tectbox Newtworks
http://www.textbox.net
***START***
Alteon iSD-100 Modification
phantasm <phantasm@textbox.net>
http://www.textbox.net
Among many of the things I love to take part in, dumpster diving always
has that small bit of thrill of actual treasure hunting. Sooner or later
you are bound to find a manual with enough information that keeps you
reading for a few days or even months. Other times you may get lucky
and find an old computer that has parts you can use.
A few months ago, during my weekly dive excursion, I happend to stumble
apon quite a treasure in my favorite dive spot. On top of the dumpster
sat a beautiful green system, just under 18" wide, 24" deep and 1.7
inches tall. I was quite excited about finding something aside from the
usual post-it note about where they were going to eat, or the regular
office memo to put cigarettes in the ashtray outside and not on the
sidewalk.
Dropping my umbrella, and a few attempts to the top of the dumpster, I
made it and put it in my car. Unsure of exactly what it was, I dug
around a bit more for a manual or something about it, and found nothing.
Later that evening I got home and peeled it apart, noting it was quite
compact internally. Inside was 3 PCI slots used by 1 Fiber Gigabit
ethernet adapter and 2 CryptoSwift SSL Cards. The CPU was an Intel
Celeron 500, 64M RAM Chip and a 64M CF Card as its drive. Looking more
into it, I noticed there was no keyboard port, or a video connector at
all, so getting into a console would be a slight challenge.
After writing down part numbers, I put it back together and did a few
searches. It appeard I had an Alteon iSD-100 and off I was on a search
for technical documentation. Hooking it up and going to power it on, I
found the power button was broke off. A pen tip was all I needed, and
the whirr of the fans chimed through the room. Running a serial cable
from its serial port to my system, I tried to get a console that way
with no luck.
After a bit more reading, I discovered a need for an Alteon WebSwitch to
access the system. So it was time for a lot more research.
The board inside was labled Teknor Applicom, Inc., with a PCI-946-1
system board. By using a PCI Video Card, I was able to remove the Fiber
card and replace it to get a video output of what was going on during
boot. I was quite pleased to see the system was fully functional and
booting fine.
The manual for the board shows the pin outs for its connectors, which
was a wonderful help. I was able to find the keyboard interface
information in the manual (Page 108 of the PDF), and set up to find a
way to add my own.
With an old P-II board that got fried, I cut out its PS/2 Keyboard
connector with some snips, removed the excess solder from the pins and
cleaned it up for better connection. I had to figure out a way to set up
the connector around the way this case was setup. In the true form of
improvision, I grabbed a nice length of Cat5 cable (Once again found
dumpster diving), and stripped the ends of the wires bare for a
connection. After some solder work we had the wires connected to the
PCI-964 board, and ran the Cat5 to the back of the system to another
hole provided for another serial port. The connector was solderd on at
the other end and some electrical tape to guard the bare wires and pins
from the case.
Plugging up a keyboard, I started it up and seen the damage that could
be done. During the BIOS load, the keyboard lights came on, and Red Hat
linux began to boot. Staring at the Login/Password prompt I was quite
excited, of course I started with a quick basic guess for root with the
password alteon and there I sat at a working console.
A quick browse around to see what was there, and I powered it down.
Removed a crypto card and popped in a 3Com NIC. Rebooted and brought up
the interface and turned on SSH. A few changes to set it all up
automagically for me, another power down, removal of the video card and
brought it back up. I now had a system to play with at my desk for more
comfort.
>From there I got a bit more curious and wanted to expand the system
some
more. Added 256M of RAM, attempted to add a 20Gig HDD and a CDROM. I
didn't have much luck with that, but found out if I removed the CF Card
I could use the HDD on /dev/hdc where the CF used to be. A bit more
playing, I got linux installed on the 20 Gig drive on /dev/hdc and
working fine as a home server.
The system provided me with well over a month of fun and learning, as
well as some interesting calls to Nortel trying to understand the BIOS
and restrictions set into it. Granted I did not get much information, it
was brought to my attention that resetting it required removing and
adding a new BIOS chip which I am too lazy to do.
The moral of this long winded article? Dumpster diving can provide you
with expensive treasures and a long time of fun and learning.
Thanks to 404 and Tyler for assistance on systems running ComactFlash
cards and the rest of Textbox Networks for help on other areas of
learning the system.
:::Related Sites:::
Alteon Users Guide:
http://www142.nortelnetworks.com/bvdoc/alteon/isd_ssl/050125.C.pdf
Teknor Applicom PCI-946-1 Hardware Guide:
http://www.kontron.com/techlib/manuals/PCI-946-1_and_P3S440BX_manual.pdf
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 15:06:56 EDT