Client4

New thin client computer preloaded with eComStation 2.2

CLI MT3200

This computer was built to be a store terminal for Eckhart's. The hardware was something inexpensive, small and reliable and available in quantity. Once the original master was approved, a production run of store terminals was produced.

From the manufacturer's website: The MT2301L series is an extremely efficient thin client delivering outstanding performance at a great value. This compact device touts the form factor and the simplicity required by high production, low touch environments. The VESA mounting options offer a zero footprint desktop solution, making deployment in space constrained situations effortless.

Software

Software for store client computer, Feb 2015. Suntan Special was used to install and configure the following applications.

Revised and refreshed, March 2019

The computer was revised in March, 2019 to add Arca Noae Drivers and Software. Furthermore, the built-in audio, which was problematic, was replaced by USB audio, using Lars Erdmann's USB stack.

In addition, some software was added. ANPM and Suntan Special was used to bring the system up to date.

Specifications

Physical Dimensions

Height: 8 inches
Width: 5.6 inches
Depth: 1.4 inches
Weight: 1.4 pounds

Disk Layout

The disk is partitioned to a single bootable partition.

Volume NameDisk FormatDrive LetterVolume SizeDisk Name
eCSJFS C:1,998 MB2 GB Flash

USB Capabilities

This computer has been tested with the following USB peripherals:
External DVD-RW drive
IOMega KVM
Blonde Guy 4 GB thumb drive

Performance Benchmarks

This table reports the SysBench 0.9.5 benchmarks for this computer. You can download SysBench 0.9.5 here: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/

CategoryMeasurement
PM-Graphics-marks 55
CPU integer-marks 638
CPU floating point-marks 27
DIVE-marks 670
File I/O-marks 63454
Memory-marks 1294
Simultaneous I/O-marks 20
Disk I/O-marks 660

Build Notes

Before installing the operating system, go into BIOS and enable booting from CD.

This computer uses an external USB drive to boot from the eComStation Installation DVD. To make this work, choose Boot using menu for own values. Set the number of USB CD drives to 1 and check the box to set boot from CD.

eCS boots fine, shows 2 GB disk without needing LVM.

Installing using Panorama video driver quits at start of phase II, where it cannot run PMSHELL. Popuplog shows a crash in PMSHELL. Installing with the SNAP video driver works fine.

Trying MCP. Can't boot MCP installation disk. Unzipped MCP to C: drive. Got a Trap 6 on boot.

Sound support loads, but no sound results. Fooled around with unimix parameters, but I was unable to get consistent results. I upgraded to the Arca Noae build of UniAud, and now sound is consistent.

Supplied set_volume.cmd to set the sound on, and to adjust the volume.

More Notes

PMView Pro and RPF Zip Control are unlicensed demo versions. You may license them as you see fit.

A startup.cmd that logs in both Rick and Admin is provided. Rick and Admin users exist. The workgroup name is IBMPEERS.

The DOS window works with no revision of Config.Sys. On other computers, things had to be done.

I have installed SNAP graphics, which seems to work best on this computer. There are a lot of screen resolutions available here, which should give you the choice of supporting new or old monitors.

The PS/2 port Computer Lab International keyboard basically works. The F13-F24 keys need to be configured in Personal Communications.

Getting sound to work was difficult. A couple of times, it worked, but then later it didn't. Finally I installed the latest Uniaud from Arca Noae, and sound is working.

Even though sound is working, the volume control does not work. I think this is a generic error, and a fix may depend on sending the machine to the developer. For the present, I have implemented set_volume.cmd, which allows you to set a volume. Set_volume.cmd takes a single parameter, the volume (0-31). If no parameter, a default value of 16 (medium volume) is used.

All the installation programs except Personal Communications are all available using Suntan Special, or look under the c:\suntan\extra directory to run them manually.

I have not installed any boot manager. With Air-Boot, I did not see the recovery choices menu on my monitor. Without Air-Boot, the recovery choices menu is displayed. I have modified the recovery choices menu to show the computer name. If you subsequently change the computer name, rerun the Suntan Special application named recoverychoicesmenu to add the updated name.

BIOS dump

# biosdecode 2.10
SMBIOS 2.6 present.
        Structure Table Length: 1434 bytes
        Structure Table Address: 0x7DEB8000
        Number Of Structures: 48
        Maximum Structure Size: 132 bytes
BIOS32 Service Directory present.
        Revision: 0
        Calling Interface Address: 0x000FDD30
ACPI 2.0 present.
        OEM Identifier: PTLTD
        RSD Table 32-bit Address: 0x7DEB2858
        XSD Table 64-bit Address: 0x000000007DEB2890
PNP BIOS 1.0 present.
        Event Notification: Not Supported
        Real Mode 16-bit Code Address: E5CE:9380
        Real Mode 16-bit Data Address: 0040:0000
        16-bit Protected Mode Code Address: 0x000FAF51
        16-bit Protected Mode Data Address: 0x00000400

Set_volume.cmd

rem set startup volume
rem volume is from 0 to 31
rem cnt0 is right, cnt1 is left
rem
if zz%1==zz goto default
goto sound
:default
unimix -id1 -cnt0 -val16
unimix -id1 -cnt1 -val16
goto play
:sound
unimix -id1 -cnt0 -val%1
unimix -id1 -cnt1 -val%1
:play
play file=c:\mmos2\sounds\eeeooop.wav
Last Modified: 23 Feb 2015
Graphics by Colorful Language
Copyright 2015 by Blonde Guy