MsDos terminal accessing nix (a Pogoplug).

As much of a 'nix advocate as I am, there are a few times when  for really old equipment, a dos boot disk just works. All you really need is a dos boot disk, a terminal program, usb to serial adapter, null modem cable. The biggest advantage of this is that you do not need a network to connect to the unit.

You can get dos from all boot disks and then use the dd command  to create a bootable disk. My computer did not have a floppy drive, so I found a usb floppy drive that was inexpensive. It is also great for making bios upgrade boot disks.

$ dd if=dosdisk.img of=/dev/sdb

For a terminal there are a variety to use. Started with our old dos terminal program to make sure things worked. Then we installed Hiterm on the boot floppy which takes little room.

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/flop
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/flop.
$ sudo cp the hitermfiles  /mnt/flop/.
$ sync; sync
$ sudo umount /mnt/flop

There is a default configuration file you need to edit for the serial port parameters. but that is not such a big deal. We included several other files for testing and other projects.

$ ls
ABELPROG.BAT   DRVSPACE.BIN  GEN4800.CFG  lizzytrm.bas  PRG9600.CFG  TS.BAT
ABELPROG.CFG   GEN1200.CFG   GEN9600.CFG  MSDOS.SYS     qbasic.exe
ABELPROG.CFG~  GEN19200.CFG  HITERM.EXE   PRG19200.CFG  qbasic.hlp
COMMAND.COM    GEN300.CFG    IO.SYS       PRG4800.CFG   qbasic.ini

Use ABLEPROG.BAT to start the program.

You will also need to set up your serial connection depending on whether you are using the traditional serial port or the more modern usb to serial adapter.  Every distro is a little different on the setup. We used "Arch Working with the serial console - ArchWiki.html" as a guide. Was working in just a few minutes after a host reboot.

When logging in you may have to hit the return or enter key a few times for things to sync. Minimal login might be like this.

TestSystem Login: username
Password:
Last login: Sat Dec 6 09:32:54 on ttyUSB0
[username@TestSystem ~$ _

From there you can use the system just like a ethernet connection, but there will be no gui. it is almost like going retro. 

 If you do have ethernet connected you could use lynx to connect to the net. This is great if you need internet access  to fix an issue.

                                                                        Google

   Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
   Web History | Settings | Sign in

   Google

     _______________________________________________________
     Google Search  I'm Feeling Lucky                          Advanced search
                                                               Language tools

   Advertising Programs     Business Solutions     +Google     About
   Google

                          © 2013 - Privacy & Terms

Enter a whereis query:
  Arrow keys: Up and Down to move.  Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
 H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list

 You can even play games from the terminal such as ninvaders.

Having this terminal setup could also be used to rescuing other linux systems in the rare case you might need it. Last but not least the terminal mode is great for running all those page scraping scripts to get data off the internet, we have shown you.  It is not how powerful your machine is, but how you use it!