On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 07:49:20 +0200, Lasse Jensen wrote:
> Doesn't wrote:
>> I have a Sparc 5 box here and I was wondering if there was any way to tell
>> how much memory the machine was detecting.
>
> Doesn't it tell you when you turn it on? All my Sun machines does that.
>
>> Also, any links to basic diagonstics for a Sun Sparc 5 would be
>> appreciated!
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=sun+boot+prom+commands
>
>> My Sparc 5 is an 85Mhz unit with 256meg of memory (I think), two 2gig SCSI
>> drives internally, slim Sun internal CDRom and Turbo XGX framebuffer card.
>>
>> Everything seems to work, but being new to this I can't even get an OS
>> installed with confidence.

It is not that hard. Nothing you can harm. Just go for it! Since ISTR
Sparc5 is sun4m architecture(?) it should run Solaris up to 9 (but not 10,
which won't run on a 32-bit CPU IIRC). I have some Sparc-20s. Love 'em.

>> Any suggestions as to what OS to run? The box won't be dedicated to much,
>> but I'd like to try configuring it as a workstation and/or web server.
>
> Perhaps you should try Linux. It might be easier than Solaris to figure out.

I think the usual experience and opinion is that Sun gear works best with
Solaris (properly designed for Sun gear). IMO Linux seems to have a number
of x86 leanings/dependencies designed into it. I know it runs on a number
of different CPUs but still many Linux programmers seem to just assume x86.

I did manage to install Debian Woody on an Ultra2 and tinker with it a
bit. BTW, it did NOT install on a CycleQUAD Ultra2+ clone. Well, it seemed
to install, but crashed/hung on trying to boot. So, I hesitate...

Personally, I run Solaris on Sun SPARC and Linux on x86 PCs. The Linux
thing is to gain experience, and for a while there was some Sun ambiguity
about x86 platform. I would only try hard to put Linux on Sun SPARC if: I
had lots of play time (not likely to happen) or I had some particular
software that would refuse to compile/run on Solaris (can't imagine why)
while there is a Sun SPARC (compilable? binary?) Linux version of that
software that I really, really need (so badly). YMMV

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.