The Daves Collective

David Spencer

Systems pages

Being pages describing each of my menagerie.

dsds [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/dsds.shtml ] - ABIT KR7A-RAID, Athlon 1400 running Slackware
napoleon [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/napoleon.shtml ] - Compaq Deskpro EN 6350 SFF running Win2kPro
rimbaud [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/rimbaud.shtml ] - SGI Indy running Debian
tubby [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/tubby.shtml ] - Intel Panther 486DX-33 running Slackware (OOU)
libby [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/libby.shtml ] - Toshiba Libretto 50CT running Slackware
router [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/router.shtml ] - Zyxel Prestige 643 four port ADSL router
fruck [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/fruck.shtml ] - Gigabyte GA-586ATE, Intel P90 (OOU)
others [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/sys/others.shtml ] - odds and ends

dsds

62.3.104.161

Abit KR7A-RAID motherboard
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1400 MHz CPU
512 Mb Crucial DDR PC2100 memory
NVidia Riva TNT2 32Mb video
Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 sound
Five HDDs, one CD-RW, one DVD-ROM
Serial port acts as console for rimbaud
Parallel port acts as network connection for libby using PLIP

This is my power box. I built it from scratch at the end of 2001; the components all came from the Stratford and central London computer fairs. Its main uses are surfing, software building, graphics and storage.

Recently reverted from Linux 2.6.6 to 2.6.5, as I have several Maxtor disks that have a known misfeature in the cache flush firmware which causes apparently harmless but nevertheless scary errors in the new 2.6.6 IDE cache flush code.

napoleon

62.3.104.162

Compaq Deskpro EN 6350 SFF (Small Form Factor). This box runs MS Win2K Pro, for a few select Windows applications (Agent, WinMX, eMule, Tag & Rename).

rimbaud

62.3.104.163

SGI Indy
R4600 CPU, 133 MHz
64 Mb memory
Indycam

This box runs the MIPS port of Debian GNU/Linux. It may become a DMZ box; non-i386 systems have certain advantages in exposed situations. (Hah!)

tubby

62.3.104.164

Intel LP486 Professional Workstation ("Panther" motherboard)
Intel 486-DX33 CPU
16 Mb (2x8Mb) 72 pin parity SIMMs
Western Digital WD8003EB Ethernet
Slackware 8.1, Linux 2.4.19

This was my DMZ box, providing outward facing SSH and web services - though it's currently out of use in a loft at a secret location, until I move house. It's actually a low profile EISA desktop box with onboard WD90C31 video, SCSI and LAN.

There is a site with handy info [ http://www.murphy.nl/~ard/systems/pws/index.html ] about these boxes. The Linux 'lp486e' network driver in 2.4 is specifically for the onboard LAN of this very box and it runs very happily. However, there's no hope for the onboard SCSI.

I got this box for £20 at a computer fair, complete with wonky Reuters 16bit ISA cards. It would appear from the FAQ [ http://www.murphy.nl/~ard/systems/pws/pws/node22.html ] that lots of these boxes got flogged by Reuters to banks for messaging; they ran QNX, which is nice, as it means this box has now run more than ten years without being tainted by M$ware.

libby

62.3.104.165

This is Tommo's Toshiba Libretto 50CT notebook. It now runs Slackware. It's intended to become a dedicated teensy weensy browser box.

router

62.3.104.166

This is a Zyxel Prestige 643 ADSL modem, router and four port 10/100 Ethernet hub. It has a cacheing DNS server and does a bit of filtering, nice SNMP support (see the MRTG page [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/mrtg/ ] for recent traffic stats snarfed via SNMP) and remote logging. There are various other features such as NAT and DHCP that I don't currently need.

I also use miniature transceivers, and an old repeater (which came out of a skip), as required.

fruck

Gigabyte GA-586ATE motherboard
Pentium P90 CPU overclocked to 100 MHz
Diamond Stealth64 3200 (S3 968) video (2 Mb)
Digital DE200 Ethernet
Future Domain TMC-850MEX SCSI
UMAX Astra 600S scanner

This box was my token MS Windows system until replaced by napoleon [ http://www.daves-collective.co.uk:80/sys/napoleon.shtml ]. It included some remnants from the first incarnation (1995-2001) of dsds, and ran MS Windows 98 SE. It's currently out of use; some components have been reused elsewhere.

maggot
192.168.44.2
This is a Sun 3/60. It would run NetBSD, if I turned it on, which I don't.
gromit
192.168.44.5
This is a 486-DX33. For a laugh, it has an old old ESDI disk, which is supported just fine in Linux 2.4 kernels. In fact this box was running 2.4.0 within a week of its release.
mince
192.168.44.12
In the attic is a MicroVAX 3100 M76, intended to run OpenVMS under the hobbyist licence. But DECUS membership is a prerequisite for the licence, and post the HP merger there are problems getting a DECUS membership... so it stays in the attic.
matts
62.3.104.165
Tentative plans to run a LaBrea tarpit on tubby using my "spare" IP addy, just to annoy port scanning skiddies.