[geeks] Sun Ultra 1

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 07 Aug 2004 @ 18:40 -0400, Joshua Boyd said:

> Very good deal.  I didn't know they could take that much ram.

I've never really thought about it before.  The DIMMs are huge.

> > Have any of you guys run the 64-bit version of NetBSD?  I've got to
> > decide between NetBSD and Solaris on this machine.  NetBSD is what my
> > current Sun SS5 server runs, so it would be nice to stick with it.
> 
> I've used NetBSD/sparc64.  I've run into problems with PHP in the ports
> tree not working, and the source code not building easily (I've since
> found out and then forgot how to fix that, but I think it had something
> to do with bad optimization flags).  That may have been fixed.

Even netbsd-sparc has problems like that now and then, though most of
that is ironed out these days.

The NetBSD ports system is very good most of the time.

> I've also run into problems with DEFPA cards under NetBSD/sparc64, but
> obviously isn't relevent to you.

How about FDDI?  All I need now is all the rest of a FDDI network to go
with the sbus card I have... :)

I wish I'd had this card about 6 months ago.  A local Sun shop was
willing to pay good money for one ASAP, and I couldn't dig one up.

> BTW, I think NetBSD/sparc32 will work on that machine, and it may be
> preferable to do so on a U1 (though I probably wouldn't).

I wondered about that, but my netbsd-sparc CD will not boot.  The PROM
loads the kernel, then says there is no valid executable there.

If it had worked, I was planning on just moving the drives from the SS5
into the U1.

I might still do that, since I should be able to "upgrade" to
NetBSD-sparc64 in-place, leaving my current configuration alone.

That's how I've done uprades on my SS5 server machine for years, going
back to NetBSD 1.3.x.

I've also considered running Solaris on it, but it's just so much easier
to build and maintain software on NetBSD.

> I keep wanting to do more with NetBSD/sparc64, but I never seem to get
> around to it.  I intend for that to be my main hardware development
> platform (USB, PCI soon, firewire someday), , but I haven't gotten
> that far on any of my hardware projects.

I have so many projects that never get done, though usually it is
funding more than anything else.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["And in billows of might swell the Saxons
before her,-- Unite, oh unite!	Or the billows burst o'er her!" -- Downfall
of the Gael]