I've instrumented the Snark Barker but somehow it boots...

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Tube🍂Time

I've instrumented the Snark Barker but somehow it boots without crashing and even plays back digital audio!

Like 4 Jun 2023 at 22:43 | Open on mastodon.social

22 comments

AMS replied to Tube🍂Time

@tubetime Some marginal timing that the added capacitance fixes?

Card wasn't seated last time?

4 Jun 2023 at 23:25 | Open on infosec.exchange

Tube🍂Time replied to AMS

@AMS hard to say, but i suspect timing. the IBM expansion module had two 14-pin chips that were probably used to buffer certain signals.

4 Jun 2023 at 23:34 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

now for something truly strange: the ESDI drive from my Model 50Z along with the riser card. will it work?

5 Jun 2023 at 0:25 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

i mean just admire how ridiculous it looks. ESDI hard drive->riser card->docking adapter->Thinkpad

5 Jun 2023 at 0:26 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

"Hello, IBM support? Can you help me with this weird error code?"

"IBM here, yes, we can help, what is the error code?"

"It is I̶9̷9̷9̴0̷0̵8̵̨̨̢̨̛͖̜̤̥̦̣͉̞͔̭͈̣̙̜̻̻̱̝̬̭͕̬͚̋̿͑̍̊̅̒͆͗3̶̛͇̰̬͚̬̫͕̼͈͕͖̗̟̯̥̝͖̳̥̻̘͖̻̟̪̗̦̣̤̪̩͈̝̖̐͑̋̍̾̅̈́̌̒̈́̀̏̀̈́͐͌̆͆̒̾͗̔͝ͅͅ"

"Say again?"

5 Jun 2023 at 0:30 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

i mean what did i expect? cursed setup, cursed error codes.

5 Jun 2023 at 0:32 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

so the first one is probably an Incompatible Diskette IML Record error, then what seems to be a Thinkpad system partition error, then a Set Configuration error, then a System Board error, then a System Partition boot error.

5 Jun 2023 at 0:34 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

i found a really good quality of life improvement for working with this machine. as with any PS/2, you can "bless" any boot disk and the PS/2 will think it is a Reference Disk. see http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/ohland/refpartn.htm

28 Jul 2023 at 23:35 | Open on mastodon.social

Thomas 🔭🕹️ replied to Tube🍂Time

@tubetime I didn’t know this, interesting!

28 Jul 2023 at 23:36 | Open on hachyderm.io

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

this is useful for accessing the IML partition, which is not a real partition! it is hidden by the BIOS and cannot be accessed using normal int13h routines. instead, boot with this "blessed" disk and the BIOS makes the IML partition show up as C:

28 Jul 2023 at 23:36 | Open on mastodon.social

Tube🍂Time replied to Tube🍂Time

since i'm booting from floppy all the time, using the "blessed" disk reduces the disk swapping i've had to do.

28 Jul 2023 at 23:37 | Open on mastodon.social

DrScriptt replied to Tube🍂Time

@tubetime please elaborate what the partition table looks like.

Does the partition table MS-DOS sees cover the size of the disk minus some amount for the convenience partition?

This if you move the drive to another machine does it look like inpartitioned space?

Is it before or after the otherwise standard partitioned space?

29 Jul 2023 at 2:00 | Open on oldbytes.space

Tube🍂Time replied to DrScriptt

@drscriptt these drives are Micro Channel and only work with compatible BIOSes. the raw sectors that MS-DOS sees sum to 3MB smaller than the capacity of the drive. the 3MB "partition" is at the end of the disk.