does anybody know how to use a NeXT computer?

[lordsmurf]

I got one here, not sure how to use it. It does not boot into the OS, it shows some sort of UNIX-like screen and then I have no idea what to enter to get it to boot the OS or anything else. Totally lost.

I'm guessing the SCSI drive may be dead, not sure.
It's easily been in a box for 10+ years now.

[Soopafresh]

I recall a few of those boxes from the early 90s. My only guess if you can get to some prompt is to type in StartX

[ozymango]

It does not boot into the OS, it shows some sort of UNIX-like screen and then I have no idea what to enter to get it to boot the OS or anything else.

Do you just wanna boot it up to see what it looks like (always fun!) or are we talking actual useful advice for further use of the computer here?

In either case, I don't know myself but one of my friends collects old computers (got a stack of Amigas, which are actually a heck of a lot of fun to play with) and he's got a NeXT cube among his other junk ... er, other classic computers ... :P ... and I can bug him for more info, if you want.

However, if memory serves, this thing basically does just run some weird flavor of Unix so it's command-line-city, and I think it has a wopping 8 megs or RAM or so.

[ViRaL1]

It IS Unix-based but it also has a GUI. I remember those from when I was in school and had to courses using LISP. I don't miss it much. Google wasn't much help.

[ozymango]

I remember those from when I was in school and had to courses using LISP.

Wow, how old are you? I took a couple semesters of FORTRAN and COBOL and can remember not one line of code. But I can still make a mean hangman game in BASIC! :P

[ViRaL1]

I started college in the early 90s, I'm only 30.

[lordsmurf]

It's for fun. It's a GUI unix interface, sort of what OS X could be if they wanted to do it. As I udnerstand it, NeXT was a Steve Jobs project when he was not at Apple in the early 90s.

I'd like to just see what it's all about. It's not often I get to play with non-standard computers (Mac, Windows, boring).

I have no idea what to type in when it tells me SD(0,0,0) and then some fail messages. The 0,0,0 I know is the HDD, but I tried a handful of things before just giving up and seeing who may know more than me on this one (which is not hard to do).

[pfh]

I'd like to just see what it's all about. It's not often I get to play with non-standard computers (Mac, Windows, boring).

Looking for a challenge hey smurf! Sounds fun. Good luck.

[ozymango]

Okay, here it is -- how to boot a NeXT computer!!! I hope!!! I have no way to check this out myself and it's somewhat cryptic but hopefully it'll make sense if you're sitting in front of the keyboard.

As for the SD(0,0,0) thing, I'm told this is a good sign -- apparently the system is sorta running but doesn't know what boot device you want (seems you can boot from a network with this beast). This happens if the bios battery goes dead (very likely if it's been sitting). Again I'm flying blind here but the step by step is --

First, is this an ADB ("Mac") or non-ADB keyboard? It's different for each keyboard. So if you have an ADB keyboard:

Start the machine, wait until the "testing" message has displayed, and press the left ALT key and the Command bar (?) at the same time (hold them down), and then press the ~ (tilde) key. This should take you into the "rom monitor" -- I think it's just a command line with a # at the end -- and type "p" and return and you'll get a list of parameters you can change. In here somewhere there should be an option to change your boot device. If'n you get this far and can't change the boot device, or you change the boot device and it still won't boot, you've got a dead drive.

If you have a non-ADB keyboard:

Boot the computer and wait until the "testing" message is done, then hold down both "command" keys and press the ` key (should be over the number 7 key). This should take you to the same rom monitor window and do all that other stuff there.

If all goes well and you're able to set the SCSI drive as a boot device, when you boot you should get the prompt --

NEXT>

Then type "bsd" (for boot scsi disk), like

NEXT> bsd [then press enter]

and voila! Something should happen! Like hopefully boot you to the GUI menu. If not, and you get even more weird error messages, lemme know and I'll bug my friend some more.

Oh, and if this works, you owe him a beer.