Hi folks, I have a few questions regarding a 1987 IBM PS/2 Model 25 I've been tinkering with:

1) Is the Model 25 capable of color? If so, how do I enable it in DOS 5.0?

2) What telnet clients are available for DOS 5.0?

3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on one of these computers?

I've been getting into vintage computing as a hobby lately, but there are
some things I need help with from time to time. Thanks all and I look forward to hearing from you!

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-I'm a nerdy metalhead. No one expects a nerdy metalhead.
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11 Feb 16 22:57, you wrote to all:

Hi folks, I have a few questions regarding a 1987 IBM PS/2 Model 25
I've been tinkering with:

1) Is the Model 25 capable of color? If so, how do I enable it in DOS
5.0?

There are several different Model 25s but only some are colour. It's possible yours is VGA but only has a greyscale monitor.

An quick way to test whether you've got VGA with MS-DOS 5.0 would be to run this in QBASIC:

SCREEN 12
CIRCLE (200, 200), 50, 4
CIRCLE (200, 200), 100, 2
CIRCLE (200, 200), 150, 1

This switches to 640x480 graphics mode (16 colors) and displays red, green and blue circles on the screen.

If you get an error or a blank screen you probably have a monochrome graphics card.

If you get grey circles on the screen, you have a greyscale monitor.

2) What telnet clients are available for DOS 5.0?

mTCP Telnet should work. You'll just need to find the correct driver for the PS/2's network card, though.

http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP_Telnet.html

3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on one
of these computers?

Linux requires at least a 80386 CPU, however most PS/2 Model 25s have either 8086 or 80286 CPUs.

Even if your PS/2 is a 386SX model, you're unlikely to have enough RAM onboard to boot the Linux kernel, nor sufficient disk space to install the base OS.

Something like Xenix might boot on your PS/2, but it'll be painful to use. For that machine I'd stick with mTCP on top of MS-DOS.

I've been getting into vintage computing as a hobby lately, but there
are some things I need help with from time to time. Thanks all and I
look forward to hearing from you!

I wish I'd kept some of my older PCs, but they can be a real pain to keep going.

Currently my oldest PC is from 1995, unusually with a Cyrix 6x86 CPU. To my surprise the onboard battery is still working, keeping the clock ticking over and BIOS settings intact.

I also have a working Pentium 90 motherboard, but no case to put it into yet.

Have you looked at emulators? Running DOSBox, VirtualBox or PCem-X on a modern PC can be useful. Obviously it's not the same experience as using the real thing, but it can be very handy for experimenting with software before running it on real hardware.

There's also the http://www.pcjs.org/ web site, where you can emulate early PCs
entirely in a modern PC's web browser (using JavaScript).

Regards
Andrew

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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
By: andrew clarke to Christopher Simms on Fri Feb 12 2016 08:03 pm

mTCP Telnet should work. You'll just need to find the correct driver for the PS/2's network card, though.

That could be a challenge. I don't think the 25 had a microchannel slot.
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11 Feb 16 22:57, you wrote to All:

1) Is the Model 25 capable of color?

yes, with the right monitor...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2

If so, how do I enable it in DOS 5.0?

ANSI.SYS in CONFIG.SYS... however, that only affects certain things... there's nothing like being able to get a directory listing with the files in different colors based on their extensions... you need a binary tool for that...

2) What telnet clients are available for DOS 5.0?

not many... they're going to need the network stack drivers loaded for whatever
NIC you can find... then getting that NIC connected to a wire is going to be fun... you might get lucky and find an early CAT5 capable NIC that will fit the
slots but you may have to go back further to the coaxial cable connection with the 'T' and terminators on each end... finding a CAT5 switch with a BNC connector may be tough, too...

3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on one
of these computers?

possibly but it would likely need to be an older simpler *nix... certainly none
of today's memory hogs... think of the memory ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey

... Guns don't kill people. Moderators kill people.
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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
By: mark lewis to Christopher Simms on Fri Feb 12 2016 10:18 am

3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on
one of these computers?

possibly but it would likely need to be an older simpler *nix... certainly none of today's memory hogs... think of the memory ;)

minix would run like a charm on it.

http://minix1.woodhull.com/
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12 Feb 16 14:34, you wrote to me:

3) Would it be possible to install and run Linux via dual-boot on
one of these computers?

possibly but it would likely need to be an older simpler *nix...
certainly none of today's memory hogs... think of the memory ;)

minix would run like a charm on it.

http://minix1.woodhull.com/

yup... i ran minix and i think another one maaaannny moons ago... i wish i had today's knowledge and understanding back then... it would have been much easier... but then again, IIRC, minix is what lead to today's linux for various
reasons ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey

... Mail waiting: musta said something rilly stupid.
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12 Feb 16 08:02, you wrote to me:

mTCP Telnet should work. You'll just need to find the correct
driver for the PS/2's network card, though.

That could be a challenge. I don't think the 25 had a microchannel
slot.

Well maybe. Wikipedia says the 80286 Model 25s had ISA (not MCA) slots but the 8088 Model 25s had no expansion slots at all.

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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
By: mark lewis to Kurt Weiske on Fri Feb 12 2016 07:41 pm

yup... i ran minix and i think another one maaaannny moons ago... i wish i had today's knowledge and understanding back then... it would have been much easier... but then again, IIRC, minix is what lead to today's linux for various reasons ;)

I had a job where I had hardware to spare and time to kill. Got a MINIX server running on a 286/12 with 2 megabytes of memory and a 32 megabyte hard disk. When I was done with it, it was running a web server, POP and SMTP email and a slave DNS server. It sat under my desk, when the hard drive churned I knew I'd gotten mail!

I loved Minix for the source code. I learned more about networking by reading through the source code than I did from a couple of textbooks I'd had.
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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 25 questions
By: andrew clarke to Kurt Weiske on Sat Feb 13 2016 09:07 pm

That could be a challenge. I don't think the 25 had a microchannel
slot.

Well maybe. Wikipedia says the 80286 Model 25s had ISA (not MCA) slots but the 8088 Model 25s had no expansion slots at all.

That's RIGHT! I remember them including a ISA slot causing a stink; IBM didn't want it to seem like they'd admitted than MCA wasn't all it was made out to
be.

I worked a job back then that was all IBM. I had a Model 80 - the tower with a 386, 80 megabyte ESDI drive, 8 megabytes of RAM, and OS/2 1.3. I was amazed at what OS/2 could do back then -- Word, Excel, connectivity to IBM AS/400s, Netware, and LAN Manager networks, and I had a comm program that could handle 2400 baud without a hitch with everything else running.

I still have the Model M keyboard from that system. :)
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Kurt Weiske wrote to andrew clarke:

I still have the Model M keyboard from that system. :)

I had two Model Ms at one time.

I loaned one to my dad and he's never quite gotten around to giving it back. He has his reasons: he told me that it's the only keyboard he can type well
on with missing fingers (he had three fingers removed due to a car
accident).

Besides, Unicomp is still making those keyboards. Get 'em for around $100
or less these days.

Later,
Sean

I worked a job back then that was all IBM. I had a Model 80 - the tower

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