As part of my deep dive into retro computing, I’ve recently had to figure out some SSH configuration in order for older DOS-based computers to be able to connect and authenticate. This is a summary of what I found out, since I had to puzzle my way through this and couldn’t find any info already online about it.
This is post is long overdue, since as I leaked a few weeks ago, I got the dang computer to work! I’m still completely amazed. I’m not totally out of the woods, as any other part of this could die on me at any moment, but things seem pretty solid for now. I wanted to write a bit about the technical side, but also to write more about what I’ve learned by going back in time.
On Day 22, finally, I got a hint that I may be able to get this project running in its original incarnation. But first, I’ll take a step back as well as, at the end, address the all-important question of: why?
I’ve been using OmniFocus for years. It’s outstanding, but I had found in recent years that my projects and todo lists were becoming overwhelming and needed an overhaul. I was spending too much time trying to figure out what to tackle on my list, constantly feeling anxious about prioritization and about properly teeing myself up to be successful and to get things done.
I’m still trying to get the 386 to boot or even show anything on the screen. All it does is beep loudly and continuously no matter what I do (save one thing, but that still doesn’t produce a picture and I doubt the CPU is even coming up in that instance—more below).