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freke
l33t
l33t


Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 962
Location: Somewhere in Denmark

PostPosted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:35 pm    Post subject: Sun E450 - how to install? Reply with quote

Hi,

Just got myself 2 Sun E450s; 1 with a clean install of Solaris (4.x IIRC) with an static IP on my network, so that I can telnet to it.
I haven't got access to any Sun monitor (will an ordinary PCI-gfxcard work in it?) nor Sun keyboard/mouse.

What are my options for installing Gentoo on such a E450?
Do I need a keyboard/monitor for it/them? or can I in anyway do it via telnet?

So far I haven't been able to establish a connection through a serial cable though that should be possible, too - right?


Any help/input would be higly appreciated as I'm a total newbie into the world of these sparcs.

--

Should've read the installation docs properly first I guess, never noticed the installation from existing distro - part. Now I just hope that I can follow that guide on Solaris :)
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P3SM
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Gronsveld - The Netherlands

PostPosted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You don't need a monitor to get Gentoo installed onto them. You can access your boxes through the console (using a serial cable) onto some host PC's RS232 port using a VT100 terminal emulator and 9600,N,8,1 settings on your port.

Once you are on the console you can net boot the machine following the instructions here:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-sparc-netboot-howto.xml?style=printable

If you need to you can also net boot from a windows PC using these tools:

RARPD: http://www.panix.com/~perin/rarpd.zip
TFTP: http://www.solarwinds.net/Tools/Free_tools/TFTP_Server/

Both tools are free and run under WinXP!

Mind that the naming of the netboot image is identical as if netbooting from a Linux environment!

Once booted you just follow the Gentoo Sparc handbook!

Can't go wrong :D
_________________
Smaug: Sun Netra T1 105, UltraSPARC-IIi 440MHz, 512MB, 2*36GB 10kRPM; 2 Sun Netra D130: 6*36GB 10kRPM, swraid 0
Haku: Dual P3 Xeon 500MHz, 512MB; Sun Multipack: 12*18GB 10kRPM, hwraid 5
Falkor: Sun SparcStation LX, 128 MB, 2.1GB
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freke
l33t
l33t


Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 962
Location: Somewhere in Denmark

PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot,

Will give this a try again this weekend - really want to get these two into action :)
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dontremember
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 21 Sep 2002
Posts: 151
Location: Oklahoma

PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 4:26 pm    Post subject: Re: Sun E450 - how to install? Reply with quote

freke wrote:
So far I haven't been able to establish a connection through a serial cable though that should be possible, too - right?


If I remember rightly, you need a crossover (null modem) cable to connect a standard PC serial port to a Sparc serial. Also, I think the E450 has two serial ports on the same connector. If you need to use the B port, you can get a Y-splitter cable, or make one up from parts.

If a Sparc has no keyboard plugged in, it defaults to putting the console on serial port A. Unless someone fiddled with the settings in the eeprom, it will be 9600, 8bit, no parity, one stop bit.

Make sure you're actually getting the serial port. I don't often look in the back of my E450, but I seem to remember another port that *looks* like it might be serial, but it's either SCSI or a parallel port.

I'm running 2.6.17-gentoo on it, with Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Hobbit for monitoring a whole bunch of other machines.
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