[SunRescue] RE: rescue digest, Vol 1 #1205 - 19 msgs

[Ken Hansen]

Best OS is left up to others, my exp. is limited to Linux & Solaris - one of the BSDs would/should be fine I suppose.

You can leave the framebuffer (video card) in the machine, and run it off a serial terminal/over the network - the trick is that if you have a keyboard plugged in, the console will defualt to the installed framebuffer. I believe this behaviour can be overridden, but can not provide specifics (simply involves setting OpenBoot PROM values). You will need a real console (either a monitor or a serial terminal) to instal an OS. You might want to consider getting a 13W3 <-> SVGA adapter - one of Bill's Recommended vendors has them for about $25 - if you have a good keyboard/mouse, you will be all set. (The adapter should work with most recent multi-sync monitors, but you may want to make sure you can return it if it doesn't work in you rintended application)

When looking for hard drives I have two suggestions: first, consider the vendors listed on Bill's Recommended Vendor page at sunhelp.org, and if that fails, I have had very good luck with HiTechCafe.com. They charge a lot for S/H (starts at $11, IIRC), but they do pack your purchase very well, ship it promptly, and include a small selection of Jelly Belly jelly beans as well.

A small drive (say, 2 Gig or so) should only run you about $25-30 (IMHO), if you have a hard time finding such a drive, I could probably scrounge one up for you at a similar price.

My advise, avoid investing any real money into the SS/2, and try and refrain from buying a Weitek PowerUP CPU upgrade - it turns a (by current standards) slow desktop machine into a "not quite so slow" desktop machine, and will run anywhere from $40 - $100 depending on your luck.

The SBUS RAM upgrades are nice, but again, don't invest too much in them - 128 Meg is a real nice amount of RAM for such a box, but 64 Meg isn't that bad (for most uses). The RAM upgrade card will run $50-80, again, depending on luck.

Oh, and the SS/2 will require an Etherent Transciever to connect to either Cat5 or coax Ethernet...

Hope this helps,

Ken

-----Original Message-----

<snip>

Message: 17
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 22:12:40 -0500
From: Simeon Johnston <simeonuj at eetc.com>
Organization: Electronic Easel
To: sun-rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Subject: [SunRescue] SS2 and OS
Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org

I have a SS2 pizza box sitting under my desk at work and am thinking
about trying to get it working.  What would be the best OS to run on
this?  I don't have/want solaris so I think it is a choice between Linux
and a one of the BSD's.  I have had experience w/ Linux but would also
like to try out BSD as Mac OSX is based on this and I WILL be using a
Mac.  I would be seriously offended and may have to open a can on anyone
who tried to take my mac away.

It also has a video card in it but I have no monitor ( I think it got
thrown out.  It was some old 13 inch that was lying aroung in storage
).  Will I still be able to use the console w/ the card in or do I have
to take it out to get console access?  What about the keyboard and
mouse?  Do those have to be unplugged?

I don't even know if it will work but it's worth a try.  I will have to
get a new scsi drive.  The one in it now is a Micropolis ( My_what a
piece of_CrapItIs ).  We bought 15 of these drives and every one off
them died within a year.  Unfortuanetelly the company also went out of
buiseness at the same time.

I know very little about sparcs ( that's why I joined the list ) so bear
with me and my inane questions.

sim