From: russo@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu (Thomas Russo)
Subject: [386BSD] New 386 purchase contemplations
Organization: Center for Biomolecular Simulation, Department of Chemistry,
	Columbia University
Distribution: us
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 23:59:57 GMT

I am considering purchasing a 386 box to run 386bsd, and have been
doing a little comparison shopping with the aid of hints I've seen
here, the 386bsd.FAQ and the PC-Clone-... hardware buyer's guide.  I
think I've narrowed the search down to two vendors, but want to make
sure that I've specified a box I can actually use with 386BSD and
Xfree86.  There's two questions here, one about the hardware, one
about the 386BSD distribution and its bootable disks.  

If you're going to respond, I guess the best thing is to do it by
email unless you think your answers will interest others in the group.
But then I leave it to you.

Oh, and I was only calling vendors which were listed in the buyer's
guide as "appearing to have a clue about Unix", which helped to narrow
it down to only a half a dozen.

Here's what I was asking the vendors to quote me on: 386-33MHz, 340Mb
disk (IDE or SCSI), 8Mb-16Mb RAM, 1.44Mb and 1.2Mb floppy, 2 serial
ports with 16550's, a color, noninterlaced 14", .28mm pitch monitor,
and a Microsoft mouse (didn't seem like anyone knew what a Mouse
Systems compatible mouse was!).

The two vendors with the best prices/support/service quoted me for
systems with ET4000 based VGA cards --- one was a Diamond Speedstar
Plus Hi-color, one was a Cardinal 800 (no, not 700).  Someone just
posted a list of "supported" cards, DS+HC was one, and C700 was there,
but anybody know about the Cardinal 800?

So, provided I remember to specify a 3 button mouse (which I just
realized I forgot to ask about :-( ) and an Adaptec 1542 SCSI
controller, which I also forgot to specify when getting the quote on
scsi systems:-(, will I be in for any nasty surprises when I try to
get 386BSD up on one of these beasts?  Anyone here have first hand
experience with either Ares or E.P.S, both of whom got favorable
mention in the buyer's guide?  Any special advice/caveats before I
plunk down my money?

Now for the question about the distribution:

The 386bsd.FAQ file (paragraph 2.40) says that tip needs to be
recompiled to work per the install notes.  This seems to preclude
using the serial port to grab the distribution!  Is it still the case?
I was hoping to get the barebones hardware without a tape device for
now (no comments on backups please:-) and without ethernet (it'll be
the only machine in my apartment), so was planning on getting the
distribution over slip or with tip and the zmodem software (I have a
v.32bis/v.42bis modem).  But slip seems like it would require me to
use tip to dial the phone and do the slip setup on our cisco box at
work, but the FAQ says tip is broken...ARGH!  Is there ANY way to get
the TinyBSD to download the distribution without a tape or ethernet?
Has the tip in the Tiny386BSD been fixed since the FAQ was last
updated?  Or is there no option but to spend less on disk and ram and
buy a tape drive (don't want to do that, but have fixed amount of
money to spend on the machine).  Of course, there's always the option
of trying to get it on floppies, but I'd rather not if it can be
avoided.



-- 
Thomas Russo			russo@nile.chem.columbia.edu
Department of Chemistry and Center for Biomolecular Simulation
Columbia University