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Max_Headroom
n00b
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Stockholm
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 Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:22 pm Post subject: Multiple Hypersparcs - a headache? |
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I am blessed... or cursed with given a sparcstation 20 for free.
Its a real treat, fully loaded with max memory, big HD and 4 90 MHz Hypersparcs.
After trying repeatedly getting those 4 babies to run Gentoo I finally resorted to read the FAQ's.
Is there really no way of having Gentoo to do SMP on Hypersparcs with some certainty?
I mean, having the my pretty Sparc doing compiling for close to 24 hrs, and then seeing it freezing up on 4 separate occassions, you tend to get kinda' grumpy.. 
Also, I was given a Rasterflex graphics accelerator card. Anyone seen any support for that on Linux?
Magnus/Stockholm |
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tunkaflux
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 76
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Max_Headroom
n00b
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Stockholm
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 4:45 pm Post subject: Hypersparc Headache. |
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I have been told that using NetBSD would get me a lean, mean machine.
Unfortunately I not THAT linux-savy.
I am told that in setting up NetBSD you really have to tell the system which components to use, when and where.
The allure with Gentoo was all the nice How-To's.
My sparc is currently running Sol9, which is a little bit like drowning in syrup.
What graphics card are you using?
The TGX I'm using, gives a really hard-to-read screen when surfing.
Cheers/Magnus |
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tunkaflux
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject: Re: Hypersparc Headache. |
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Hi there,
| Max_Headroom wrote: | I have been told that using NetBSD would get me a lean, mean machine.
Unfortunately I not THAT linux-savy. |
Well, let me put it this way, NetBSD + evilwm + a cg14 was very fast on my machine considering it's age. OpenBSD ran noticably slower under X. Solaris is acceptable, albeit under X, it seems to perform better than OpenBSD.
Also, OpenBSD doesn't support SMP, so you'll only be using 1 processor. That was already a no-go for me. Next thing, a decent browser on NetBSD: firefox or anything mozilla related is unusable on NetBSD 2.0.2. Actually in the end, with some help from some NetBSD people, I was able to compile firefox, however, when I tried starting it, it always gave me Segmentation Fault.
So, Solaris is slow on my machine, however, everything works...
| Max_Headroom wrote: | I am told that in setting up NetBSD you really have to tell the system which components to use, when and where.
The allure with Gentoo was all the nice How-To's. |
No, everything works However, the documentation is quite lacking in my opinion, but they have nice mailing lists.
| Max_Headroom wrote: | | My sparc is currently running Sol9, which is a little bit like drowning in syrup. |
Hehe, that's understandable
| Max_Headroom wrote: | What graphics card are you using?
The TGX I'm using, gives a really hard-to-read screen when surfing.
Cheers/Magnus |
I have/had a cg14, however it broke down... I'm trying to find a replacement now... What do you mean by hard-to-read?
For reference, this is my machine: SparcStation 20 with 128 Mb RAM, Dual HyperSparc 180 Mhz... |
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Max_Headroom
n00b
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Stockholm
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject: So, |
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what would you suggest then?
That I stick to Sol9?
Obviously nothin' much is going to happen here, as far as Sparc's concerned...even less with Hypersparcs.
Easily understood I guess; the processors are old, manufacturing stopped ?7? years ago & there's far hotter processors on the market right now.
And without SMP I'd be stuck to the syruppy speed, running 1 processor Gentoo.
The aim was to revive a computer whose mechanical design is superior to anything (affordable) I have seen.'
Ahh well, I guess I'll buy a PC like everybody else then.. 
Or?
Ideas anyone?
Cheers/magnus |
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tunkaflux
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:33 pm Post subject: Re: So, |
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| Max_Headroom wrote: | what would you suggest then?
That I stick to Sol9?
Obviously nothin' much is going to happen here, as far as Sparc's concerned...even less with Hypersparcs.
Easily understood I guess; the processors are old, manufacturing stopped ?7? years ago & there's far hotter processors on the market right now.
And without SMP I'd be stuck to the syruppy speed, running 1 processor Gentoo.
The aim was to revive a computer whose mechanical design is superior to anything (affordable) I have seen.'
Ahh well, I guess I'll buy a PC like everybody else then..
Or?
Ideas anyone?
Cheers/magnus |
Well, you could leave Solaris 9 on there, or you can check out NetBSD. If you really need a decent browser (you probably do ;-p) you can always use a solaris one on NetBSD... Just a thought of course... If you want to dump your SparcStation, I'm always prepared to take it of your hand |
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GenTimJS
Guru
Joined: 03 May 2003
Posts: 406
Location: NH, USA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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Consider FreeBSD...
FBSD has outstanding SMP support, and runs on sparc32.
The BSD ports collection is simmilar in function to portage (but has less features, imho) and is itself relativly fast.
I've run FBSD 4.1 on a 486 DX66 with xfree86 and icewm, and while it was slow I didnt find it unbearable.
NetBSD would also be a good choice, has ports and such .. however i dont know the status of SMP with NBSD.
It may sound lame/dumb/etc but what about running an older solaris? Like solaris6 or whatnot? Sure, you'll have to perform a little work to bring it "up to spec" (ssh, firefox,etc) but it -can- be done and it was of current generation for those systems, so it should perform reasonably "ok"...
Just my 2 yen.
_________________
-Tim Smith |
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tunkaflux
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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| GenTimJS wrote: | Consider FreeBSD...
FBSD has outstanding SMP support, and runs on sparc32.
The BSD ports collection is simmilar in function to portage (but has less features, imho) and is itself relativly fast.
I've run FBSD 4.1 on a 486 DX66 with xfree86 and icewm, and while it was slow I didnt find it unbearable. |
No, FreeBSD won't run on Sparc32. |
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Gentoo on Sparc
