Hello
A friend and I recently got our hands on an old computer (a rainbow '83 I think), cleaned it, etc... And now we're trying to get the thing running. The problem is that the included OS is badly documented, so I thought of installing an old version of UNIX on it. So the questions are: Is that computer compatible with a unix os? If it is, where can I find old versions of unix, preferably before 1983?
XENIX -- Microsoft Short-lived Love Affair with Unix
What I remember of rainbow computers was it had 2 processors and could run two (or more?) OS... Was it Digital equipment great idea for it to be MS-DOS compliant also?... Anyway the friend who had one at the time was very happy with it...
Just for my understanding: is the challenge to install an old UNIX variant on the machine or to install any UNIX variant on the machine just to make it run?
If it is the former, then older versions of SCO OpenServer or BSD 4.2- may circulate. If it is the latter, then Puppy Linux comes to mind.
You are probably aware of this list, which admittedly does not contain any UNIXes: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
Do post your experiences, I am interested to know the end result and what issues you were facing.
Well, to answer figaro's question, it was a bit of both. The thing is, my friend wanted to use this computer for programming (don't ask me why) and, well, since we couldn't find documentation for the inclided software, we decided to install unix. After some looking around, I found that this computer could run venix, which is what I plan to install on it.
As for your proposition, figaro, how could a modern linux distro like puppy work on an old computer like our rainbow 100?
I understand your bigger concern is whether the hardware is supported and whether you are capable of connecting to a network. If network installations are not ruled out, is that something worthwhile pursuing?
Just for curiosity, what OS has it installed CPM ?
cpm68 sysguide pdf free ebook download from www.retroarchive.org
The DEC Rainbow had a 8086 processor. You should be able to install Xenix 2.1 or 2.2, but not Xenix 386 or SCO Unix 3.2. Finding installation media on 5-1/4 floppies is going to be a problem ( I tossed all of mine in the big clean up.) A 20mb hard drive is lots. The os was on about 16 diskettes, N1 through N4, B1 thru B3 and X1 through X9.
Xenix 2.2 is preferred because it is possible to type in the hard drive parameters rather than having only the BIOS options as in 2.1
It will run with 640kb of memory, but probably only one session/program at a time.
If the system has 1mb of memory, you may have to split it as 512kb lower and 512kb extended, rather than the more common 640 / 384 kb split.
Another OS to consider is QNX
Well, we actually got a good handbook for the included OS and are getting it up and running right now, so no need to switch... But thanks a lot anyway!
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Reference Post #7.
The DEC Rainbow had both Z80 (8-bit) and a 8088 (16-bit) processors. It also had a weird floppy-disc drive (doule sided) to read both CP/M and MSDOS formats.
It only really worked properly with CP/M-86. MSDOS at the time was a joke.