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lagrima
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:01 am    Post subject: I just bought an ultra 10 Reply with quote

I just got an sun ultra 10 in ebay. Im new to sun/sparc systems and im wondering if this system i got from ebay is working/has no problems. It doesnt have a hard drive and it says this message at boot up as far as the seller is saying. what kind of hard drive do i need to get the system up and running? also what does it mean when they say its a "creator 3d"? I need to get a keyboard and a mouse for it, which type of sun keyboard and mouse should i get since i notice there are varrying sun keyboard numbers? what other things should i do to check if it is a working system?

http://i10.ebayimg.com/03/i/02/5f/4e/89_1.JPG
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As for a hard drive, if you are only going to be using Linux on it, you can put any old IDE hard drive in there for the most part. There is a size limit of somewhere around 130 GB that the onboard IDE controler can handle if I recall correctly.

You can get any Sun keyboard and mouse as long as they are not USB and have the mini-din connector. The types to look for are type5 or type6 (though there can be type 6 usb keyboards so double check).

As for the firmware password, you'll need to reset OBP to factory defaults. To do this, you'll need to set the NVRAM jumpter to allow writing to NVRAM. You can find a document for your specific UltraSPARC at http://sunsolve.sun.com. Once you've changed the jumper to allow writing, power the machine on and hold down the Stop and N keys. This will reset the firmware to factory defaults and should clean out the firmware password.
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dkaplowitz
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:25 am    Post subject: Re: I just bought an ultra 10 Reply with quote

lagrima wrote:
also what does it mean when they say its a "creator 3d"?

I imagine they mean that there's a frame buffer card in the unit so you can hook a Sun monitor up to it. I think you can just get an adaptor for that monitor type to fit a standard VGA monitor.

Also, you don't necessarily need a keyboard/mouse/monitor for that unit. You can set up the OS in console mode, hooking it up to a normal PC and use minicom (Linux) or Hyperterminal (Windows). Then once you're networked ssh will do ya. Though hooking that up to a monitor should be fun to see what it does, it's an old enough system that waiting for X apps to load will be sheer drudgery after about 5 minutes.

If you really must have a monitor, Sun monitors come fairly cheap. I just bought a 21" Sun Trinitron monitor that has a VGA port and the Sun frame buffer port too so I can hook it up to 2 systems. It cost me ~150. and I probably could have gotten it for as much as $50. less if I really scoured around.

BTW, what are the rest of the specs for your system, and how much did you pay? I'm curious. I got an ultra60 off e-bay (2x360 CPUs, 512MB RAM, and an 18GB SCSI HDD) for $300. about 2 months ago. I like the system a lot, but I run Solaris 9 (I'm studying for the cert, so that's what I'm using for now)

Good luck with the new system.
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lagrima
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got it for an extremely ridiculous price of $11.50, shipping is a lot more. Thats why im asking if the deal is too good to be true which probably is, i just gotta wait and see whats the surprise when i get the item. Here is the url of the deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5725585102&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT

as for what im going to use it for, im thinking about making it a standalone webserver but pretty much i just wanted to mess around with a sun system for a long time now.
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dkaplowitz
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's a good deal....though the shipping kinda' evens it out some. I saw 9GB scsi hard drives with the SPUD connector on ebay for ~$40., though you might want to shell out for some 18s. I think you should be able to configure RAID on that system, so that's a plus.
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riposte
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 6:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

looking at the auction description it seems that it has a vga video card. I think that will be the Creator3d. The onboard framebuffer is an ATI one of some sort from memory. I dont think you will need a Sun monitor the connector will probably be a standard PC style one.
The sunsolve site that Weeve recommended is really good for finding out all of the stuff you will need to know about this machine - you got a great deal!!
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lagrima
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dkaplowitz wrote:
That's a good deal....though the shipping kinda' evens it out some. I saw 9GB scsi hard drives with the SPUD connector on ebay for ~$40., though you might want to shell out for some 18s. I think you should be able to configure RAID on that system, so that's a plus.


do you have a specific name for which scsi controllers would work on this thingy? i think from what i have read so far my regular nic cards like 3com3c9xx would work on these too unless i read wrong. thanks for the help everyone
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mikeiver
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 6:17 pm    Post subject: Not a bad deal but no creator3d in there Reply with quote

I looked at the photos and the unit doesn't have the creator3d card in there, it appears to have been pulled (horozontal slot in the back. The ultra5/10s have an ATI Rage controler built on and you can just plug in a standard monitor. If you get the Creator3D card it will have a 13W3 connector on it and you will either need a Sun monitor or you will need one of the adaptors that convert 13W3 to DB15 off of Ebay (around $10.00 with shipping to the USA). I use one on my SparcServer1000 and my Sparc20 with my switch box and it works just fine. Just for info, the ultra5 and the ultra10 have the same motherboard the cases are just different allong with the riser card. Also, there is a limit of 137GB for the drive on the built on ATA controler. From what I have read here you may need to flash the OBP to get it to work though.

Good luck and hope this helps,

Mike
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dkaplowitz
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you search sun.com for ultra10 you'll find all manner of documentation and schematics for it, including the part numbers of devices that will work with it. I know I found tons of stuff like that for my ultra 60.

BTW, I just scored a 2nd 18.2 GB SCSI drive for my ultra 60 (with the SPUD connector attached) for $41. shipped. It's a good refurb drive and is so much quieter than the one that came with mine, I'm thinking about replacing the orig. with another.

Good luck.
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