[frgeek-michiana] Netvista 2800 again..

Hi,

with google I found some hints on your mailinglist about Netvista NPCs and Linux.
I got a 8364-EXX here, but the problem I have:
- machine boots via network from a server (though it took my hours to figure out how the server (NT) has to be installed and configured..)
- machine has now BIOS update from 2001
- machine won't switch to "workspace on demand"

As soon as I switch from netboot to workspace, the monitor gets dark and the power-LED on the front start to blink. No matter what I try, I just cannot enter the "other" BIOS. Resetting/poweroff|on the machine shows the same effect - blinking LED. Pressing esc after power-on brings me back to the BIOS-choice-menu and I can switch back to netboot.

Attaching several IDE-devices seems to work somehow, I can see eg. an IDE-harddisk shown as flash-card in BIOS (though the machines seems to have the 8GB limit in BIOS for hd's). With netbooting everything works as supposed to, but the "other" side of the BIOS seems to be dead. I tried loading BIOS defaults for several times, do all the steps you wrote, but no chance as soon as I switch to the workspace on demand-BIOS. Anyone has an idea what the second jumper is for? Labeled "BOOTBLK", just beneath the "PASSWOD OVRD"? Or the connector called "VIP CONN" with 26 pins? The jumper 17 "WAKE" with 3 pins - wake on LAN?

My goal is to install Linux or FreeBSD on it to use it as a little firewall. These machines are very cheap to buy atm on eBay, consume not much power and are quite quiet. But forced to boot the kernel via nfs isn't what I really want..

any hints?

tia, Hermann



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