• IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions

    From Christopher Simms@1:2320/100 to All on Thu Feb 11 23:04:46 2016
    Hi folks, I have a few questions regarding a 1987 IBM PS/2 Model 25 I've been tinkering with:

    1) Is the Model 25 capable of color? If so, how do I enable it in DOS 5.0?

    2) What telnet clients are available for DOS 5.0?

    3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on one of these computers?

    I've been getting into vintage computing as a hobby lately, but there are
    some things I need help with from time to time. Thanks all and I look forward to hearing from you!

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    -I'm a nerdy metalhead. No one expects a nerdy metalhead.
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  • From Kurt Weiske@1:2320/100 to Andrew Clarke on Fri Feb 12 08:10:02 2016
    Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
    By: andrew clarke to Christopher Simms on Fri Feb 12 2016 08:03 pm

    mTCP Telnet should work. You'll just need to find the correct driver for the PS/2's network card, though.

    That could be a challenge. I don't think the 25 had a microchannel slot.
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  • From Mark Lewis@1:2320/100 to Christopher Simms on Fri Feb 12 10:23:52 2016
    11 Feb 16 22:57, you wrote to All:

    1) Is the Model 25 capable of color?

    yes, with the right monitor...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2

    If so, how do I enable it in DOS 5.0?

    ANSI.SYS in CONFIG.SYS... however, that only affects certain things... there's nothing like being able to get a directory listing with the files in different colors based on their extensions... you need a binary tool for that...

    2) What telnet clients are available for DOS 5.0?

    not many... they're going to need the network stack drivers loaded for whatever

    NIC you can find... then getting that NIC connected to a wire is going to be fun... you might get lucky and find an early CAT5 capable NIC that will fit the

    slots but you may have to go back further to the coaxial cable connection with the 'T' and terminators on each end... finding a CAT5 switch with a BNC connector may be tough, too...

    3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on one
    of these computers?

    possibly but it would likely need to be an older simpler *nix... certainly none

    of today's memory hogs... think of the memory ;)

    )\/(ark

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  • From Kurt Weiske@1:2320/100 to Mark Lewis on Fri Feb 12 14:42:58 2016
    Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
    By: mark lewis to Christopher Simms on Fri Feb 12 2016 10:18 am

    3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on
    one of these computers?

    possibly but it would likely need to be an older simpler *nix... certainly none of today's memory hogs... think of the memory ;)

    minix would run like a charm on it.

    http://minix1.woodhull.com/
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  • From Mark Lewis@1:2320/100 to Kurt Weiske on Fri Feb 12 19:46:30 2016
    12 Feb 16 14:34, you wrote to me:

    3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on
    one of these computers?

    possibly but it would likely need to be an older simpler *nix...
    certainly none of today's memory hogs... think of the memory ;)

    minix would run like a charm on it.

    http://minix1.woodhull.com/

    yup... i ran minix and i think another one maaaannny moons ago... i wish i had today's knowledge and understanding back then... it would have been much easier... but then again, IIRC, minix is what lead to today's linux for various

    reasons ;)

    )\/(ark

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    ... Mail waiting: musta said something rilly stupid.
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  • From Andrew Clarke@1:2320/100 to Christopher Simms on Fri Feb 12 19:53:00 2016
    11 Feb 16 22:57, you wrote to all:

    Hi folks, I have a few questions regarding a 1987 IBM PS/2 Model 25
    I've been tinkering with:

    1) Is the Model 25 capable of color? If so, how do I enable it in DOS
    5.0?

    There are several different Model 25s but only some are colour. It's possible yours is VGA but only has a greyscale monitor.

    An quick way to test whether you've got VGA with MS-DOS 5.0 would be to run this in QBASIC:

    SCREEN 12
    CIRCLE (200, 200), 50, 4
    CIRCLE (200, 200), 100, 2
    CIRCLE (200, 200), 150, 1

    This switches to 640x480 graphics mode (16 colors) and displays red, green and blue circles on the screen.

    If you get an error or a blank screen you probably have a monochrome graphics card.

    If you get grey circles on the screen, you have a greyscale monitor.

    2) What telnet clients are available for DOS 5.0?

    mTCP Telnet should work. You'll just need to find the correct driver for the PS/2's network card, though.

    http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP_Telnet.html

    3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on one
    of these computers?

    Linux requires at least a 80386 CPU, however most PS/2 Model 25s have either 8086 or 80286 CPUs.

    Even if your PS/2 is a 386SX model, you're unlikely to have enough RAM onboard to boot the Linux kernel, nor sufficient disk space to install the base OS.

    Something like Xenix might boot on your PS/2, but it'll be painful to use. For that machine I'd stick with mTCP on top of MS-DOS.

    I've been getting into vintage computing as a hobby lately, but there
    are some things I need help with from time to time. Thanks all and I
    look forward to hearing from you!

    I wish I'd kept some of my older PCs, but they can be a real pain to keep going.

    Currently my oldest PC is from 1995, unusually with a Cyrix 6x86 CPU. To my surprise the onboard battery is still working, keeping the clock ticking over and BIOS settings intact.

    I also have a working Pentium 90 motherboard, but no case to put it into yet.

    Have you looked at emulators? Running DOSBox, VirtualBox or PCem-X on a modern PC can be useful. Obviously it's not the same experience as using the real thing, but it can be very handy for experimenting with software before running it on real hardware.

    There's also the http://www.pcjs.org/ web site, where you can emulate early PCs

    entirely in a modern PC's web browser (using JavaScript).

    Regards
    Andrew

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  • From Kurt Weiske@1:2320/100 to Mark Lewis on Sat Feb 13 09:39:04 2016
    Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
    By: mark lewis to Kurt Weiske on Fri Feb 12 2016 07:41 pm

    yup... i ran minix and i think another one maaaannny moons ago... i wish i had today's knowledge and understanding back then... it would have been much easier... but then again, IIRC, minix is what lead to today's linux for various reasons ;)

    I had a job where I had hardware to spare and time to kill. Got a MINIX server running on a 286/12 with 2 megabytes of memory and a 32 megabyte hard disk. When I was done with it, it was running a web server, POP and SMTP email and a slave DNS server. It sat under my desk, when the hard drive churned I knew I'd gotten mail!

    I loved Minix for the source code. I learned more about networking by reading through the source code than I did from a couple of textbooks I'd had.
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  • From Kurt Weiske@1:2320/100 to Andrew Clarke on Sat Feb 13 09:43:40 2016
    Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
    By: andrew clarke to Kurt Weiske on Sat Feb 13 2016 09:07 pm

    That could be a challenge. I don't think the 25 had a microchannel
    slot.

    Well maybe. Wikipedia says the 80286 Model 25s had ISA (not MCA) slots but the 8088 Model 25s had no expansion slots at all.

    That's RIGHT! I remember them including a ISA slot causing a stink; IBM didn't want it to seem like they'd admitted than MCA wasn't all it was made out to
    be.

    I worked a job back then that was all IBM. I had a Model 80 - the tower with a 386, 80 megabyte ESDI drive, 8 megabytes of RAM, and OS/2 1.3. I was amazed at what OS/2 could do back then -- Word, Excel, connectivity to IBM AS/400s, Netware, and LAN Manager networks, and I had a comm program that could handle 2400 baud without a hitch with everything else running.

    I still have the Model M keyboard from that system. :)
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  • From Andrew Clarke@1:2320/100 to Kurt Weiske on Sat Feb 13 20:56:12 2016
    12 Feb 16 08:02, you wrote to me:

    mTCP Telnet should work. You'll just need to find the correct
    driver for the PS/2's network card, though.

    That could be a challenge. I don't think the 25 had a microchannel
    slot.

    Well maybe. Wikipedia says the 80286 Model 25s had ISA (not MCA) slots but the 8088 Model 25s had no expansion slots at all.

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  • From Sean Dennis@1:2320/100 to Kurt Weiske on Mon Feb 15 15:55:18 2016
    Kurt Weiske wrote to andrew clarke:

    I still have the Model M keyboard from that system. :)

    I had two Model Ms at one time.

    I loaned one to my dad and he's never quite gotten around to giving it back. He has his reasons: he told me that it's the only keyboard he can type well
    on with missing fingers (he had three fingers removed due to a car
    accident).

    Besides, Unicomp is still making those keyboards. Get 'em for around $100
    or less these days.

    Later,
    Sean

    I worked a job back then that was all IBM. I had a Model 80 - the tower


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