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chris_andrew
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:14 am    Post subject: Sparc Station 20. Can I install Gentoo Reply with quote

Hi, guys. Silly question: Can I install Gentoo on a Sparc Sation 20. The reason I ask is that the references I see to Sparc seem to be 64 bit, and SS20's are only 32 bit.

Many thanks,

Chris.
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tunkaflux
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes you can, the only thing that is _NOT_ a 100% stable is running an SMP kernel with HyperSparc CPU's...
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cyan051
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yup, i did installed it on one ss20 and one ss5 last year...
but those babies are *slow*...

and compatability of sparc32 is nowhere close to sparc64...
also, i think there is still a problem on sparc32 with a boot loaded and large kernels...u might wanna trim the kernel as much as possible
(plus stripping after compile)


Last edited by cyan051 on Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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chris_andrew
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheers, guys. I'll give it a go, then.

Thanks,

Chris.
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 1:08 am    Post subject: Re: Sparc Station 20. Can I install Gentoo Reply with quote

chris_andrew wrote:
Hi, guys. Silly question: Can I install Gentoo on a Sparc Sation 20. The reason I ask is that the references I see to Sparc seem to be 64 bit, and SS20's are only 32 bit.

Yes, I have a stable installation on a dual CPU SS20. You will need to use the experimental 32-bit Gentoo. And, yes, it is slow.

Good luck!
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Toady
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:26 am    Post subject: Re: Sparc Station 20. Can I install Gentoo Reply with quote

starrbuck wrote:
chris_andrew wrote:
Hi, guys. Silly question: Can I install Gentoo on a Sparc Sation 20. The reason I ask is that the references I see to Sparc seem to be 64 bit, and SS20's are only 32 bit.

Yes, I have a stable installation on a dual CPU SS20. You will need to use the experimental 32-bit Gentoo. And, yes, it is slow.

Good luck!


Its fast enough for a firewall but thats about it.

I have a 2004.3 build that I updated to 2005.0 and that took AGES (but then it is only a dual 50 Mhz).
They are not "bad" machines, but personally I would say you would be loads better off with an UltraSPARC machine, somthing like and Ultra 2 would be a far better bet.
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chris_andrew
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, the SS20 is on its way, so i'd better make the most of it. I'll probably just use it to learn scripting. I'll just do a really cut down install, and will try the same with debian. X may be a bit ambitious, I guess.

Thanks,

Chris.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:27 pm    Post subject: Re: Sparc Station 20. Can I install Gentoo Reply with quote

Toady wrote:
Its fast enough for a firewall but thats about it.

I have a 2004.3 build that I updated to 2005.0 and that took AGES (but then it is only a dual 50 Mhz).
They are not "bad" machines, but personally I would say you would be loads better off with an UltraSPARC machine, somthing like and Ultra 2 would be a far better bet.

I agree. I revived this SS20 here at work and I have an Ultra 1 (143 MHz) at home. Working on the Ultra 1 is slow as well but not nearly as painful. It's MUCH faster than the SS20.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chris_andrew wrote:
Well, the SS20 is on its way, so i'd better make the most of it. I'll probably just use it to learn scripting. I'll just do a really cut down install, and will try the same with debian. X may be a bit ambitious, I guess.

Thanks,

Chris.


The SS20 was my first taste of both Sun hardware AND Gentoo, its easy enough to do the install (dont bother with the stage 1 it will take a LONG time).

As for X I would use the pre-compiled packages where possible to save time, provided you have enough Ram it will should run tho.. well OK maybe it will walk ;)
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chris_andrew
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, i've got 256 megs and a 2gb drive, so hopefully it will "walk". I took the lid off it yesterday (all I can do until my house move provides my Sun monitor) and it looks like a few slots exist, that I could use.

Anybody done any upgrades to an SS20, that worked well with linux?

Thanks,

Chris.
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chris_andrew wrote:
Well, i've got 256 megs and a 2gb drive, so hopefully it will "walk". I took the lid off it yesterday (all I can do until my house move provides my Sun monitor) and it looks like a few slots exist, that I could use.

Anybody done any upgrades to an SS20, that worked well with linux?

Thanks,

Chris.



The RAM and the hard drive wont be an issue when it comes to upgrading..

256 Meg of RAM is OK (more never hurts) and its just plug and play no config to worrey about. You just need the right kind of RAM.
The Hard disk is going to be an issue tho, you will need more than 2Gb to play with to get gentoo installed. Either drop in another drive or find a single larger one.

*I could be wrong about the 2Gb thing, but I am sure I ran out of disk when I tried...*

Processors are also plug and Play, and you can mis match them (like a 50Mhz and a 150Mhz for example) - SMP is broken for hypersparc processors tho so carfull what you buy.

The SS20 will run up to 4 processors and IIRC you can get up to 200Mhz units...

Be warned tho SS20's can suffer cooling problems with a quad proc setup.
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chris_andrew
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More processors, that sounds like fun. Do you know if anybody has written any guides to this? Before I commit money etc, it would be good to know I was ordering the right thing. The RAM could be more problematic, and it seems to be very expensive (certainly on Crucial Memory's site).

Thanks,

Chris.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:52 pm    Post subject: I'm doing the same thing Reply with quote

Hi,

I just finished installing Gentoo on my newly acquired SS20. Like you, I have "Sun standard" 2.1G HDD -- and I had no problem getting Gentoo installed. I did a stage3 install using the experimental sparc32 liveCD. Doing a stage1 or stage2 might not work -- I suspect that compiling gcc and glibc would use most of the available space.

Memory is expensive if you buy it from those online dealers like MemoryX and such. Look on eBay -- you can usually see people selling original barcoded Sun memory, and another 256M of SS20 RAM probably won't cost you more than $39 or so if you look around a bit. The easiest way to find it is to find out what the Sun part number is and then search eBay for something like "Sun X7003A" or whatever -- this should get you at least a handful of hits.

I'd be interested in hearing about it if you try to add processors. I've asked around on the forums a bit, but there doesn't seem to be any real agreement about whether or not SMP will work on the HyperSPARC CPUs, and I'm not sure I want to embark on a long experiment for the sake of a "hobby" machine like this one... :-)

Cheers,

-Marc-
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chris_andrew
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marc,

I hope to plug the SS20 in, after moving house tomorrow (sometime over the weekend). Will also try the live CD build. I'm reluctant to add more stuff to the box unless it is cheap. I hope to get a Blade, next. I had an Ultra 30, a while ago, but am ready to move-up.

Thanks,

Chris.
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 8:00 pm    Post subject: Speedy.. Reply with quote

Take a look at this URL and then look for ROSS CPU modules on ebay. :-)

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/ross-sparc/


I installed a 4GB SCSI drive in my SS20. I own 2 * 50Mhz CPU modules. However one is broken and needs replacement.

I own a lot of old Sparcs over here. I have 5 IPX, 3 IPC and 2 classic. My intention is to use a SCSI to IDE converter to give them back some life with a 80GB drive. Then selling it as a small samba server to friends. Should be enuf power.


Cheers,
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have an SS5 110. It has all of the SBUS expansions with 10/100 NICS in it. It's set up as a router/firewall. I have a wireless basestation setup on it, so wireless users can get on the internet without compromising our network to badly.
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:57 am    Post subject: Re: Speedy.. Reply with quote

das_leid wrote:
Take a look at this URL and then look for ROSS CPU modules on ebay. :-)


Hypersparcs are not nearly as fast as you would think. Regular 85 MHz modules will beat the living hell out of a 150 MHz ROSS. A 60 MHz module with the L2 cache will give a Hypersparc a run for its money.

Quote:

I own a lot of old Sparcs over here. I have 5 IPX, 3 IPC and 2 classic. My intention is to use a SCSI to IDE converter to give them back some life with a 80GB drive. Then selling it as a small samba server to friends. Should be enuf power.


The IPCs are too slow even to run Samba. They can barely saturate a 10 mbit connection.

Also, the heat generated by a modern 80G drive would be dangerous to any of those lunchbox systems.

The IPX systems could be useful if you have a Weitek powerup. Otherwise, they're pretty much DNS servers and dumb X terminals. They're like an SS5 with 1/2 the processing power, and SS5s are already dog slow compared to the SS10 and SS20.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 11:15 am    Post subject: Re: Speedy.. Reply with quote

Blood Fluke wrote:

Hypersparcs are not nearly as fast as you would think. Regular 85 MHz modules will beat the living hell out of a 150 MHz ROSS. A 60 MHz module with the L2 cache will give a Hypersparc a run for its money.


Sorry for the thread hijack here...

I thought SMP was broken for Hypersparc ?
Also if a regular 85MHz cpu is faster than ROSS 150's what would it be best to populate the SS20 with ? (If you can find them that is)
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:09 pm    Post subject: Re: Speedy.. Reply with quote

Toady wrote:
Blood Fluke wrote:

Hypersparcs are not nearly as fast as you would think. Regular 85 MHz modules will beat the living hell out of a 150 MHz ROSS. A 60 MHz module with the L2 cache will give a Hypersparc a run for its money.


That depends on what kind of calculations you are doing, isn't it? Also, there were no dual 85 Mhz modules... HyperSPARC has dual modules.

Quote:
Sorry for the thread hijack here...

I thought SMP was broken for Hypersparc ?


It is :)

Quote:
Also if a regular 85MHz cpu is faster than ROSS 150's what would it be best to populate the SS20 with ? (If you can find them that is)


I'm note sure. I can only say that my dual 180 Mhz HyperSPARC system 'feels' faster than my dual 75 Mhz SuperSPARC system... You can find more information about the Sparc MBus modules in The Rough Guide to MBus Modules: http://mbus.sunhelp.org/.
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