[bjornl]

Hi,
I got an IBM AS/400 a while ago and now I thought it was time to get it running.

The AS/400 has converter to RJ45 ethernet and I thought that qould be a good way to try and access it.
Supposedly I have the machines IP, the QSYSOPR login, and a user login but I haven't managed to get any response through putty.

I connected to it with a laptop which I changed the IP and subnetmask on but I couldn't even ping it.
Is there a way to make sure the IP is correct? Must I have a class-A subnet if the IP on the AS is 10.X.X.X (because I didn't try that)?

Should the small display show some specific 'code' when everything is ready to go?

I also have a terminal and some cables which I will send pictures of when I learn how to send pictures in the forum
I don't know exactly how the terminal should be connected with the cables I have. I have at least tried one way, but it didn't work.
I'm not sure the terminal is OK. No image shows up when I turn it on. Unless that is the way it should be if the cabling is incorrect.
When terminal is turned on I hear some beeps when I press keys on the terminal keyboard, but nothing happens.

[epitaxial]

Congrats on your AS/400. About the RJ45 adapter. It has nothing to do with ethernet. It allows you to use common cat5 cables instead of expensive twinax. Your machine probably has a real ethernet card installed.

The terminal should be connected to the lowest number port on the breakout box, likely 0. You should see a blinking cursor in the right top of the screen. When the terminal is connected to a system that cursor moves to the left.

Now, AS/400 boxes can take ages to boot, especially if they were not shut down gracefully. When you first plug in the box the screen will show some boot codes and should say something like

01   A   N   V=F

That tells is the machine is booting from the A or B side of the disk (for redundancy) and the IPL type N is unattended. Now press the power button and get ready to wait. You'll see tons of codes scroll by and hopefully some disk activity. If all goes well you should see something on the terminal.

Also Putty will not work for access. You need a 5250 terminal emulator like Tn5250

[bjornl]

Thank you
I think you are right about the real ethernet card. There is a port with a D-Link DE-853 transceiver which is where I tried to connect a laptop (via a switch).
There is also a 'silver' adapter with DB9 in one end and RJ45 in the other. No markings or text. Could this be the twinax adapter you mentioned?

Cables i have
Twinax breakout box with DB25 in one end and 8 twinax ports in the other end. At least that is what I think it is.
T-cable with DB15 in one end and 2x twinax (female)
T-cable with twinax (female) in one end and 2x twinax (female)
Y-cable with DB15 in one end (connected to the terminal) and 2x twinax (female)
Extension (?) cable with twinax (male) in both ends

When I turned it on there was disk activity, but I wasn't sure when it was done booting. It took a long time before i calmed down, but now I know this is normal.
I will check for boot codes like your example.

First attempt was to connect as400 - breakout box (port 0) - extension cable - terminal (one of the cables), but there was nothing on the screen.
I assume that the terminal is not working though since there was nothing showing on the screen. I will see if some local tv-repair guy can have a look at that.

Second attempt was ethernet and putty, but only with VT100 emulation, so I will have a go at that again with the proper terminal emulator.

[epitaxial]

Yeah it sounds like your terminal is bad. You should at least see a blinking cursor and line at the bottom. It sounds like you have everything connected correctly. I've never used the T connectors but I assume they are the same as the Y cables. I'm not sure about your DB9 to RJ45. Usually the adapters have an RJ45 jack with twinax pins on the other side.

BTW what model AS/400 do you have?

[bjornl]

All of a sudden everything worked. Well I did take the terminal apart and fixed the loose contrast wheel

I started the AS/400 and waited for the disk activity light to stop blinking. In the meantime I tried to login with tn5250 emulator. It failed. Ping failed. Everything failed.
After 2 hours I thought I could give it a go with the terminal again, because 'obviously' my IP was wrong. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture on the terminal either, just a blink and a beep again. The blink gave me hope though and I left the power on for a couple of minutes. When I powercycled again I got a faint little green cursor in the upper right corner.
After that I connected the twinax cables as I did before and after a while I got to the IPL 'boot screen'. Victory. So I executed the IPL and got to login screen after a long while. It turned out that the QSYSOPR password was incorrect but the user worked.

The picture on the terminal screen was good at the top and blurry at the bottom, but as it was getting warmer the picture got better.

I think I was just to eager in the beginning and didn't wait for all processes to get started or networking don't come up until IPL has been executed. Suddenly the IP adress I have worked, and I could login via tn5250 emulator.

I tried to find where to check and possible change the IP to match my usuall network, but I couldn't find it.

This is indeed a different beast to handle.

[uunix]

I've had a black AS/400 v5 I think.. (I still have tapes in the loft) and also the beige system before sys/36? one before it.. and yes.. forget everything you know and enter another dimension. I went to rehab to get it out my system but I still have nightmares about qsecofr.

What's worse is that, I worked at a large automobile company and we had these sys/36 and I had to administer it.. but when I say administer it.. I think it was just changing passwords.. we went to AIX after that. I just recall the huge tape drives like cinema films and the drums you took out that broke your back because they were in a drum you had to reach into.

[epitaxial]

Hey glad you got it up and running! See if your password works for the QSECOFR account. That basically the admin account.