View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
quag7 Apprentice
Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 288 Location: Marana, Arizona - USA
|
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:49 am Post subject: Very old serial terminals - questions, suggestions |
|
|
I am curious if anyone here has attempted to hook up a very old serial terminal to their Gentoo system. I'm curious what terminal hardware was used.
I was also curious about using original DEC equipment and what other hardware other than these terminals I would require? Can these be hooked directly into a serial port?
I was also curious what percentage of middle 1980s and earlier terminals had standard serial ports/cables, and how they hooked up to the systems of their day, and what would be required to make them usable as serial terminals today with a Gentoo box. After hooking up the Apple //e to work as a serial terminal, I'm curious about other things that can serve as such. Mostly, I am interested in early hardware.
Thanks! _________________ http://www.dataswamp.net |
|
Back to top |
|
|
drwook Veteran
Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 1324 Location: London
|
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
Should be fine with a VT420/VT510 or any of the similar models (they were what I used with my last DEC system). Not tested myself though so no warranty expressed or implied |
|
Back to top |
|
|
John R. Graham Administrator
Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 10587 Location: Somewhere over Atlanta, Georgia
|
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
Heh. Most serial terminals are very old.
In the middle '80's, essentially all terminals that were not IBM 3270 interface (proprietary coax-based synchronous serial) had standard RS-232 interfaces. Linux should support essentially all of them through the ncurses library. This is a very old capability, having existed in *nix since Unix System III. To see all the terminals supported, look in /usr/share/terminfo. It's an impressively long list.
- John |
|
Back to top |
|
|
quag7 Apprentice
Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 288 Location: Marana, Arizona - USA
|
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Holy crow, you're not kidding. There are tons of them!
Thanks both of you for the information. I don't suppose anyone has any idea where's a good place to buy some of these old ones cheaply? _________________ http://www.dataswamp.net |
|
Back to top |
|
|
John R. Graham Administrator
Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 10587 Location: Somewhere over Atlanta, Georgia
|
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Check eBay, but be wary of "thin clients": those may look like serial terminals but they are low-resource computers with proprietary interfaces, and usually more trouble than they're worth.
- John |
|
Back to top |
|
|
quag7 Apprentice
Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 288 Location: Marana, Arizona - USA
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
drwook Veteran
Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 1324 Location: London
|
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
lynx all the way |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|