Cobalt Qube 2

The Cobalt Qube was a computer server appliance product line, meant to be web servers, developed by Cobalt Networks, Inc. (later purchased by Sun Microsystems) from 1998 to 2002 featuring a modified Red Hat Linux operating system and a proprietary Web GUI for server management.

The original Qube systems were equipped with MIPS RM5230 (150Mhz, Original Qube) or RM5231 (250Mhz, Qube 2) processors.

Both models come with 16MB of RAM (2x8MB SIMM's) and an 8GB or 10GB 3.5 inch IDE hard disk as standard.

Gateway also produced re-badged Cobalt Qube 2's which came in black and included a PCI Dial-Up modem. I do not have one of these so I cannot document its functionality or specifications

The original power supply can (and should) be replaced with a 45W USB-C power adapter. Bridging it requires a USB-C to 12V barrel connector and a Barrel to 3-pin DIN (Male) 5.5x 2.1mm cable

There is also a 40mm internal fan that should be replaced. Installing heatsinks on all internal chips is also recommended to prolong the lifespan of the device.

My Cobalt Qube 2 has been significantly modified since I purchased it from a user on eBay in late 2023. Some of the present modifications include

- RAM is maxed out to 256MB

- The original IDE hard disk has been replaced with 120GB SATA SSD using Startech SATA to IDE adapter. Due to the slow disk controller on the Cobalt Qube 2 (4MB/s at best) an SD card may be a more economical replacement

- The "BIOS" (or system bootstrap ROM) has been replaced with the "CoLo" bootloader. The original Cobalt firmware was hard-coded to launch a Linux kernel from an ext2 (not ext3 or ext4!) partition on /dev/hda1

CoLo additionally allows connection to the unit via the RS232 serial port for system control after power on. The standard 115200,8,1 configuration will allow connection to the unit. Kernels can be downloaded and executed via TFTP via the CoLo interface

At this time the unit is not presently in operation