Date   : Sun, 06 Sep 1992 03:14:45 GMT
From   : cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!wupost!waikato.ac.nz!comp.vuw.ac.nz!cavebbs!lesley@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Lesley Walker)
Subject: Unix on tired iron - info needed about Altos box

sarr@sinshan.citi.umich.edu (Sarr J. Blumson) writes:
>
>In 1982 we were running Xenix on 8086 boxes from
>Altos (with an Altos proprietary memory manager) and their own UNIX
>port on the Onyx Z-8000 machines mentioned earlier.  Both were 512k
>machines, and both worked well.

That first one sounds like a machine I am currently trying to repair.

Does anyone have any technical information about the Altos 586?

My immediate problem is with the floppy drive.  I bought a replacement
floppy drive for the one that died while I was trying to replace the
crashed hard disc... 

The good news is, it is possible to boot up from the new floppy. 

The bad news is, the system will only read from the floppy if the drive is 
already spinning when the read attempt is made.  Eg, the first boot attempt 
fails, but the second works, as long as the second attempt starts while the 
floppy is still spinning from the previous attempt. 

The question: Is there some way I can wire up the floppy drive so that the 
motor is always spinning as long as the power is on?  (I realise this is a 
horrible solution, but it's the easiest I can think of) 

Or is there some sort of Drive Ready signal that I can fake somehow? Would 
any of the jumpers on the drive have anything do with it? 

The drive is 5.25" quad density made by Mitsubishi and it has jumpers on it
labelled MX, HS, HM.  There is a jumper in the HS position.


(I have cross-posted fairly widely, and redirected followups to comp.periphs
and comp.unix.xenix.misc, as this hardly qualifies as a folklore question)

Replies by email would be appreciated, as the system I am posting from
expires articles *very* quickly and I could easily miss something important.


-- 
  -=- The Leather Goddess (aka Lesley Walker) -=- Wellington, New Zealand -=-
        lesley@cavebbs.welly.gen.nz                      Vote for MMP!
   DoD#258 -=- Yamaha XV1000 -=- Yamaha XS650 -=- Ford Cortina -=- Altos 586