[rescue] Ross sparcplug

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Loomis, Rip wrote:

> It was a Windows application (Win95/NT compatible) that allowed the
> SPARCPlug to use the PC keyboard/mouse as its input with hotkeys to
> switch back-and-forth between Solaris/SPARC and Windows/x86.

Isn't this what an X server does?  That fits the bill of Exceed running in
fullscreen mode on my PC.  I can alt-tab between Windows/x86 and
IRIX/MIPS.  You still needed a null-modem cable to get a true console on
the SPARCplug (unless you used the keyboard port), as it states in the
documentation.

> Perhaps you consider that capability to be trivial to replace... I
> don't.

Well, I never ran a SPARCplug inside of a PC.  I ran it independently with
a Sun framebuffer, keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and it performed
excellently.  However, given that the SPARCplug is entirely independent of
the PC by design (except for power) and doesn't interact with Windows at
-all- except via IP or RS-232, I can't see how the bundled software would
do any voodoo that can't be done with a good comm program and X server.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke
   > Can you SysAdmins tell me what might go on in a typical day?
   Hours of endless frustration punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
                                 --Saul Tannenbaum (in the Monastery)