[frgeek-michiana] Re: Lab Notes 5/22/03

What exactly is an 'iOpener'???

        Mike

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Mike Neuliep, Illiana Internet     | Providing solutions in networking, 
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Cell 708-932-9547 mike@xxxxxxxxxxx | much more.  -- Cisco Certified --
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On Fri, 23 May 2003, Tom Brown wrote:

> Lab Notes 5/22/03
> 
> Present: Mike Cook, Tom Brown; 6:00 pm - 9:30 pm
> 
> :: iOpener
> 
> Mike didn't bring the iOpener to the lab. He has made progress and believes
> he will have it booting off a hard drive this week. This iOpener is a late
> model and has anti-hacking measures applied by the manufacturer. Plus the
> previous owner hacked it or tried to hack it. The iOpener has a SanDisk.
> The trick is to transfer a small kernel with usb nic support to the SanDisk. 
> 
> A community of iOpener hackers exists. Mike has found considerable after
> market parts and hacking support on several web sites.
> 
> :: IBM NetVista N2800
> 
> Mike and I spent the entire lab working on the NetVista 2800 thin client.
> We gained ground but aren't close to booting Linux on one yet. 
> 
> . Bios Password
> 
> Mike and I solved the problem of unlocking the N2800 password protected
> bios. After searching the IBM support site for quite a while we got ideas.
> IBM's instructions are cryptic and include empty documents and missing
> diagrams. But it was enough to formulate some theories. The first few
> didn't work. Then Mike fell upon the right combination of jumper settings
> to unlock the bios.
> 
> . Hard Drive
> 
> We discovered the bios supports hard drives. Mike figures that an odd
> square plug mounted on the mobo is the power connector for a hard drive or
> cdrom drive. But will the N2800 boot from a local hard drive? Neither of us
> has a power cord with the oddball connector. We couldn't find a reference
> to the connector, the part or a hard drive at IBM.
> 
> . Token Ring Obstruction
> 
> Mike and I adjusted the bios to use dhcp. I installed an ethernet nic with
> a bootrom. The N2800 recognized it and the nic tried to communicate with
> the network. However the ethernet nic couldn't establish a conversation
> with Boris the boot server. Boris' system logs don't even reflect an
> attempt at dhcp from the N2800, so foreign was the protocol the N2800
> spoke. Unless we can find a way to turn off token ring, we can't boot a
> N2800-TUS from an ethernet card.
> 
> . Flash
> 
> The N2800 has a flash chip. We suppose the bios is on the flash chip and
> can be rewritten. If we try and fail, hello N2800 doorstop.
> 
> . CompactFlash
> 
> The most likely method to boot Linux on the N2800 is the CompactFlash (CF).
> Mike found prices for various sizes of CF. The least expensive are under
> $10.00. If we can put a Linux kernel with ethernet support on a CF, we may
> be able to netboot from an LTSP server. When I got home from the lab, I
> discovered Jay done the same research and sent a list of CF sizes and prices.
> 
> . IBM Hacks the N2800
> 
> Mike and I ran a searches on Google and came up with one thread advising
> folks that N2800's won't work with LTSP. However the writer mentioned a
> method of net booting Linux that IBM devised. With better search terms I
> found a reference to a Linux boot kit for the N2800 on IBM's site. IBM
> warns that it is designed folks who want to "build-your-own" thin client
> solution. Turns out that Jay had found the same page independently and
> mailed the same page url to the list.
> 
> The kit includes all the files necessary to boot a N2800 or N2200 from
> TurboLinux 6.0 or RedHat 7.1 server. The method is not the same as LTSP.
> IBM proprietary software is involved. So the N2800 thin client network will
> require its own server. And the hack probably won't get us around the token
> ring problem. The tar.gz file from IBM is 36 mb and the total install is
> 1.6 gb including RH rpms. 
> 
> Tom
> 
> 
> 
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