Help needed on my UNIX-PC....

[Jan Isley]

In article <4700001 at spdyne> root at spdyne.UUCP writes:
>I just bought a UNIX PC with 1 Meg of Ram, 40 Meg disk and all...
>And I have a few problems:

Welcome to the club.  Since no one else has responded to this, I'll bite.

>        1) Contrary to my understanding, it did not come with the Development
>           System.  ('C' Lang. Compiler etc..)

can you say, "caveat emptor"?

>        2) It is a rather old version of UNIX.  (no vi!!! - I wouldn't
>           have ever guessed that someone was selling a 'UNIX' without
>           vi!  Especally not AT & T!  Oh, well... Live and learn..
>           (Maybe it comes with the soft dev. kit?)

AT&T has unbundled software for quite a while, they get more money that way.
Yes, vi comes with the utilities package.  If you really must have vi now,
look at your encryption disks.

>        3) I need more Ram.  1 Meg is not very much.

1 MB is really not that bad.  I found a *truly remarkable* difference between
1/2 MB and 1 MB but not so much of a difference betweem 1 MB and 2 MB.

>        4) I Need a Mouse.  It didn't come with one and it would be nice
>           to have one.

Call my work number and get a keyboard and mouse for $30.

>        5) I would like to upgrade the OS to 3.51 (Current?) It is currently
>           at 3.0.

Call my work number and get 3.5 for $150 or 3.51 for $250, or call AT&T and
ask what their upgrade cost is.

>        6) I would like to hang at least one serial port of the thing.
>           (No, the one that came with it is hosed, tho I'm going to 
>            go in there with a Scope and see if I can trace it down...)

See a previous posting of mine to get an EIA board for $250, or call my work
number and get a 1/2 MB combo board for $549.

>        7) I would like a SCSI board for it... (Not a high on my list yet.)

You and everyone else!  There has been lots of talk about doing this but
I have not seen or heard of any results yet.  Anyone else have any good
news about a SCSI board?

>        8) I might like to get the DOS board/Software

Well, I have one I have offered for $500 or call me at work and pay $550.

>        9) I would like to upgrade the internal modem (s?? 2 lines - 2
>           modems??) - to 2400 baud.  Can this be done?

Not in this lifetime.

>        9) ** Most important ** I would like to get any documentation that
>           is availiable for it, including Schematics for it. (I'm dreaming
>           right?)

Yes, you are dreaming.  I have talked to just about everyone who still works
at AT&T and knows anything about the Unix PC and they all say there is no
stock on the reference manual.

>I talked to AT & T - 3 different 800 numbers... And I have talked to the
>three dealers that they gave me on the last call... So far, I'm lucky if
>they have even heard of the machine.... One tried to sell me UNIX for the
>386 - said it should work....[Gave up on that vendor...]
>
>    I talked to Technical Resource Center (800-433-4904) and they
>wanted to sell me a RAM board for it (w/0K) for only $1,200!  Gee, I
>could get a 286 with 4 Serial ports and UNIX for about that price...
>(and of course 1Mb ram...)   After the fourth time I asked the guy,
>he checked on the board a little more and found out that it also
>had 2 serial ports on it..

I (from work) can also sell you a 0k board socketed for 2 MB for $350,
or with 2 MB for $750.  If you put *your* RAM on it and it does not work
it *will* cost you to deal with it because these are new boards that are
*very* tested before you get them.

>    If AT & T is not willing to sell the Soft. Dev. kit anymore, is there
>anyone out there who would be so kind as to tar it up and UUCP / US-Mail 
>it to me? [or sell me their copy?] I'll trade ya Dbase 3 for it...

If you can talk someone into violating a whole variety of laws for you,
that is between you and them and your lawyers and AT&T's lawyers.  This
product is still very much for sale by AT&T.  We offer it at work for $495.

>    Also, is there any way to make the internal modem connect ONLY after
>6 rings?  What I want to do is to have the answering machine pickup after
>4 rings, then while it's resetting UUCP will try again, and this time
>the answering machine will just let the phone ring - 8 times from my
>tests, and the computer will take the call... It should work like a charm.

I do not think so, not without source code anyway.  Anyone else?

>    Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me on this...

No problem.

Jan Isley, follower of Zen, picker of nit

home = jan at bagend | gatech!bagend!jan | (404) 434-1335
work = Discovery Electronics (404) 425-5700