Some how i was inducted to make this thing work. We just got in a new P Series running AIX. I have a green screen that i have connected to the back of the machine and i can not get it to work. I can see that AIX is loading because it tells me that in the little display but i have no idea how to get in to the machine.

My boss put this off till the last moment and told me that i had to have this running and on the network by the end of the day. Any ideas on how the hell i can get in to this thig. It has a PS/2 slot for the keyboard and mouse( i know no mouse at the CLI) can i just pop a graphics addaptor in and expect it to work or willi hurt the machine?

How does that green screen look like ? Is it a terminal with a keyboard directly attached to the terminal ? Through a 9-pin connector ? Or is it "pc-like" screen with a SVGA connector ?
And where did you plug it ? To the "S1" port ?

You can put a graphics adapter in, but it needs to be an official IBM adapter that works correctly with AIX. However, you don't need to.

It would be useful to know which "green screen" you have (model number) and which model of pSeries server you have too.

In general, though, you connect to the S1 serial port on the pSeries server. If you power off the server (so it shows OK on the front panel) and hit enter, you should get up a firmware menu and be able to choose options, such as power on. If not, the console isn't connected correctly or isn't configured correctly.

You don't need a green screen. If you have a null modem cable, you can connect a laptop directly to the pSeries and use something like Hyperterm or minicom to log in.

Once the server is up and running, you'll probably log in remotely pretty much all the time (a lot of RS/6000 and pSeries servers I've managed have neither console nor monitor attached most of the time).

Bu the way, do you know the root password of that system ?

wasnt that desperate obviously.

Sorry, my question was not clear. If you want to make the thing work, you will need the root password. Else you will not be able to activate a terminal or define the Ethernet address, and define the user's passwords.

I caved in and paid IBM $400 for the card.