Slack, fluxbox, junk parts
 

OK,

Some of you may think this sounds a bit, err.... white trash-ish, but personally it doesn't bother me at all.

In the communtiy that I live in there is a transfer station (a dump, in laymens terms), where people dispose of their garbage. There is a picknic table set up at the transfer station where people leave useful items that they don't want to throw away so that other people may take them home and use them (furniture, vaccume cleaners, blenders...etc..). Many times people leave old computer systems that either a) they didn't want anymore or b) are broken or not functioning. Over the past 1 1/2 years I have taken home approx 20 different computer systems from the transfer station, and have over time collected quite the assortment of parts. The result is a system that I affectionately call 'frankenstein' because it contains parts from numerous systems. Specs:

VA 503+ Baby AT Mobo with K6-2 400 and 64 MB PC100 SDRAM. 1 2x AGP, 3 PCI, 3 ISA.
1 Enermax AT PSU, 250 watts
ATI Rage Pro AGP vid card
3com Etherlink 3 10mbps ISA card
425 MB Maxtor 3600 RPM HD
540 MB Maxtor 3600 RPM HD
12x Generic CDROM
3.5" Floppy
15" SVGA monitor


After I got Frankenstein to boot without any problems, I decided to throw Slackware 9.0 on it and use it to do some NFS and SSH stuff, and to see if I can get LTSP working on it with my Red Hat box. After about 4 different attempts to install slackware with some very inventive partitioning methods to try to get it all (Base Slackware install, dev libraries and X) to fit I finally got it installed and up and running at about 10:30 PM last night. I also downloaded (using Links), compiled and installed Fluxbox. X works flawlessly, fluxbox kicks butt, and the system is actually really stable, if a bit on the slow side. The NIC was detected during setup by slackware, and installed and configured without problems. This is my first install of Slack, and my first install of fluxbox, and so far I'm impressed. All of this old equipment (I mean come on, we're talking about JUNK here) would probably fry itself had I tried to install Win98 on it, but Slack took it like a champ and loved every minute of it. Given the circumstances and my still fairly limited knowledge of Linux I must say that I was pretty damn proud of myself last night.

I just had to share. If I get a chance, I may post some pics of Frankenstein just so you can see the rust (yes, RUST) on the case and the conglomeration of parts that it is made of.

:)

slight <-- one happy slacker

That's an excellent story! :) I'd certainly like to see some pics of it, sounds pretty cool.

Glad you like Slack, and I love to hear stories about Slack going on some "ancient" hardware without a hitch.

Congratulations!

Cool

I would like to see the pics too.

Well crap. And I was so happy about just buying a magazine with a Slack disk, a used computer, a second small hard drive, and sticking it all together today. And a desk. I had to build a desk to put it on.

Well... I'm still really happy about it. :D

But that's a great story. Congrats.




another happy slacker

- as soon as I get my *%@$# net connection working.

Good job, thats a great story, Pics would do us good

Pics will be coming soon.... I have to borrow a buddy's digital camera first. I unfortunately don't own one. :p

slight

OK..... pictures have arrived.

This is a front view of the case. Note that the CD-ROM doesn't quite fit, and that there are 2 'fake' floppy drives just to make the front look busy. There is a digital display that says '40' on it. Why does it say 40 you ask? Well, to tell you the truth, I am not quite sure. I have put 3 different Mobo's with 3 different chips in this box, and the darn thing has always said 40. Go figure.

Frankenstein1

This is a rear view of the case. Not the rust on the top of the case, and around the Power supply. The original PSU that I ripped out of this case had rust on it as well, but it still worked. I replaced it with this one because something about powering a computer with a rusty PSU just seemed wrong. Also of note is the old 5 pin keyboard connector, and the mouse plugged into a serial card with a PS/2 port.



Frankenstein2

This is a shot of the inside of the case. Again, note the rust on the bottom of the case. Also of note is the extra long 10 MBPS NIC sitting in the lower most ISA slot. You can also make out the CPU cooling fan and heatsink. Not much room to work with in this thing, but I made it all fit. You can clearly see both HDs, although the floppy and CD-ROM are partially obscured.



Frankenstein3

Thats all for now. I might be making a web page dedicated to Frankenstein, or 'franky' as I affectionately call him. If I do the link will end up in my Sig.

slight

That's really cool. I couldn't see all the second pic though - my browser only showed the top quarter, maybe, and even trying to save the target to my hard drive I still can't see any more.

If I was looking at that 3rd pic right, you've got a slot for another stick of RAM, right? I just put a second one in my computer today, finally, after waiting two or three weeks for it. That should speed you up. :)

Cheers to franky. ;)

2nd pic is now working. I think the FTP stalled half-way through uploading the pic, but it is all better now.

As far as adding more memory, I certainly could add another stick, but I am not doing anything all that memory intensive, so I don't think speed wise it would help much. I monitor this box using a remote gkrellm on my main box, and the memory use has never gone above about 70%. I don't think it has even touched the swap. Thanks for the suggestion though. :)


slight

That MASSIVE card at the bottom is a NIC?? :D

Nice work! Rust is called "character" ;) Remember that one, and use it anytime you feel someone is "putting down" your objects :D

Looks good though, excellent work! Nice pics too!

Cool

Dang. I never got to see the pictures. Guess that's what I get for checking back after 6 years. LOL, Where does the time go.

i have some parts i would be willing to donate you for a beowolf type setup. i, like you, have a computer junkyard in my basement,i would be willing to give you 4 motherboards, 2 processors, and some ram. ill ship it to your door step on the condition you give it a good home =)