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DeadlyMuffin
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Joined: 29 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:30 pm    Post subject: Installing with no cdrom or floppy Reply with quote

I managed to snag an Ultra 30 that was being tossed by my lab. I'd like to install gentoo on it, but I'm not sure where to start...

The unit has no cdrom or floppy, so I'm not sure where to begin with an installation.

I'm also looking for an adaptor for the video card, but in the meantime is there anyway to get an output from this? Would a serial cable be my best bet until I can get a working monitor? Could I run a PCI video card for the time being?
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Magic Michael
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
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Location: Berlin (West) / Deutschland

PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I installed my UltraAXi board without framebuffer of keyboard, I used the serial console (9600,8,N,1) and an external SCSI-DVD-ROM (be sure to jumper the block size to 512), and everything went fine.
Maybe a way to start ...
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jrhodes
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The U30 uses a scsi cd-rom drive with an IDC50 connector. They're not as common as they would ideally be, but they're cheap. I probably have one lying around somewhere that I could spare for free (you pay shipping) if you ask me nicely enough.

Many of the sparc monkeys here swear by their serial consoles and don't even use framebuffers, and if you're going to be using that thing as a server then that's probably the direction you should go as well. However, certain PCI video cards have been known to work as the primary video output device on those systems; specifically, the Matrox Millennium II, the 3dlabs Permedia2, and a few proprietary cards under the "Raptor" brand made by Tech Source. One could probably also use an ATi Rage Pro but I've only seen them in an onboard configuration on Sun machines.
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DeadlyMuffin
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From what I'm seeing online, IDC50 is just the old SCSI-1 50-pin connector... I think I actually have an old internal scsi burner that'll do the trick.

I'll do some research on serial consoles to avoid asking a rtfm question, thanks alot for your quick response and good advice.

-DM
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Drunkula
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just an FYI: I have a spare Yamaha CDR SCSI drive I tried to use. It would not boot any discs I tried (Solaris or Gentoo). So I put the original CD drive back in. Shame - it would have been nice to have CDR, not to mention a faster drive in that box. No biggie...
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Magic Michael
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Drunkula, did you jumper the Yamaha drive to use the 512 block size (if your drive allows that) ? With the PC-standard 2048 it won't boot.
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Drunkula
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not certain if that drive has a blocksize jumper. My guess is that it doesn't.

{EDIT}

My mistake. Guess I never noticed it but it does have a blocksize jumper. Will have to give that a shot next time I bring that box down....
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