Need basic help with Unix-PC

[a.v.reed]

In article <12355 at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>, bobmon at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes:
> My terminal keyboard died this week, and since there are no more to be
> had, our school hardware shop let me scoop up an unused unix-pc in hopes I
> could make it emulate a terminal instead.

Congratulations. You are now using a real computer. Enjoy.

> Three floors later, I find that I have:  a box with a green-screen
> monitor mounted on a post on top, a keyboard that sort of latches onto
> the front but can detach, a mouse; the phrases AT&T and Unix-PC (modulo
> capitalization) are on the front, 7300 and 3B1 on the back.  It seems
> to have a hard disk (no wonder it was so heavy!).  It boots into some
> sort of unix (no wonder the name :-), and lets me log in as root
> without asking for a password.  There are some cryptic files, such as
> Environment and Filecabinet, in the accounts installed in /u.

Try to login as "install". If install has a password, ed it out of
/etc/passwd from root. When you log in as "install", you should get
mouse-driven menus (the user agent) to guide you through the process
of configuring the machine to your needs. For example, to configure the
RS-232 port, just select it from the "hardware" submenu of the
"administration" menu, and answer the questions it asks.

> I tried putting an MSDOS disk in the single floppy drive (tucked behind
> that keyboard) -- ugly noises resulted until I took it back out, then the
> thing tested its floppy again, tested its hard disk, and booted.

If you need to read an MS-DOS floppy, use the "floppy" submenu of the
User Agent.

> So can anyone tell me what I have?

You have a 3B1, a real UNIX machine that can do just about anything the
big UNIX machines can do, as long as you have room for it on its 40 or
67 Meg disk. Don't let this opportunity go to waste.

> What can I do with it, given that I
> have no doc. or software beyond whatever's on the hd?

Administer yourself in as a new user, then remove "exec ua" from the
.profile in your $HOME. You will now get a shell when you log in
(you can always exec ua from the shell if you wish). In the shell,
all the commands documented in Volume 1 of Bell Laboratories,
_UNIX_Programmers_Manual_, published by Holt, Reinhart and Winston,
and available from your local bookstore, ought to work.

> BIG QUESTION: can I
> use it as a terminal???  It seems to have an RS-232c jack; is one of the
> /dev entries something that will talk to that serial port?  How can I use
> it?

First, configure the port from install (see above). Then use a non-ua
login (root will do), and when the shell says "$ ", type
"cu -l/dev/tty000 <RETURN>". But for real fun, read the manual, then
ask a local UNIX enthusiast (I'm sure you can find one) to show you the
ropes. Then enjoy.
					Adam Reed (mtgzz!avr)