Hi,

I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand Sun
Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive available but
no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common configuration at
HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that I can use EIDE HD
commonly used for PC ? Also, HP site said that the standard OS bundled
with this station is Solaris 7. Will it cause problem (e.g.
performance) if I install Solaris 10 on it ?

Hope the questions won't be too naive for you.

:>

indyszeto wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand Sun
> Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive available but
> no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common configuration at
> HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that I can use EIDE HD
> commonly used for PC ?

Yes.
Immediate installation might fail due to "missing disk label".
Then run the "format" program, select the disk, and label it.

Also, HP site said that the standard OS bundled
> with this station is Solaris 7. Will it cause problem (e.g.
> performance) if I install Solaris 10 on it ?
>

HP?
Solaris 10 will work.


--
Michael Tosch @ hp : com

According to Michael Tosch <eedmit@NO.eed.SPAM.ericsson.PLS.se>:
> indyszeto wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand Sun
> > Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive available but
> > no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common configuration at
> > HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that I can use EIDE HD
> > commonly used for PC ?
>
> Yes.
> Immediate installation might fail due to "missing disk label".
> Then run the "format" program, select the disk, and label it.

This is because all EIDE drives from the average computer store
are pre-formatted for Windows, and Solaris uses a very different format.

Also -- beware not to get too big a EIDE drive. IIRC, anything
under 120 GB is fine, over you hit some magic threshold which the
hardware can't handle.

> Also, HP site said that the standard OS bundled
> > with this station is Solaris 7. Will it cause problem (e.g.
> > performance) if I install Solaris 10 on it ?
> >
>
> HP?
> Solaris 10 will work.

I've got Solaris 10 installed in a Ultra-5 with no problems.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

DoN. Nichols wrote:
> According to Michael Tosch <eedmit@NO.eed.SPAM.ericsson.PLS.se>:

>> Immediate installation might fail due to "missing disk label".
>> Then run the "format" program, select the disk, and label it.
>
> This is because all EIDE drives from the average computer store
> are pre-formatted for Windows, and Solaris uses a very different format.

What kind of nonsense is this, a hard drive you buy in average joe's computer
shop is unformated and lacks partition table information, even on a microsoft
machine you need to run fdisk before you can formate the hard drive and first
then you can use it.


//Aho

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 03:30:00 +0000, dnichols@d-and-d.com (DoN.
Nichols) wrote:

>According to Michael Tosch <eedmit@NO.eed.SPAM.ericsson.PLS.se>:
>> indyszeto wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand Sun
>> > Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive available but
>> > no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common configuration at
>> > HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that I can use EIDE HD
>> > commonly used for PC ?
>>
>> Yes.
>> Immediate installation might fail due to "missing disk label".
>> Then run the "format" program, select the disk, and label it.
>
> This is because all EIDE drives from the average computer store
>are pre-formatted for Windows, and Solaris uses a very different format.
>
> Also -- beware not to get too big a EIDE drive. IIRC, anything
>under 120 GB is fine, over you hit some magic threshold which the
>hardware can't handle.

The EIDE specified a 28 bit value to represent a sector. (2 ^ 28)
sectors * 512 bytes/sectors = 268,435,456 * 512 = 137,438,953,472 or
128GB.

Josh

indyszeto 寫道：

> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand Sun
> Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive available but
> no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common configuration at
> HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that I can use EIDE HD
> commonly used for PC ? Also, HP site said that the standard OS bundled
> with this station is Solaris 7. Will it cause problem (e.g.
> performance) if I install Solaris 10 on it ?
>
> Hope the questions won't be too naive for you.
>
> :>

Besides, I'd read the Ultra 5's white paper from below link

http://www.filibeto.org/sun/lib/hard...arch052001.pdf

I would like to ask if I don't use Sun monitor as display, any other
model of 17" monitors are good choice ? I mean those 2nd hand model 17"
monitors.

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005, indyszeto wrote:

> I would like to ask if I don't use Sun monitor as display, any other
> model of 17" monitors are good choice ? I mean those 2nd hand model 17"
> monitors.

Most modern monitors should be OK. But if you can, try before you buy.

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA, OpenSolaris CAB member

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-group.com/rich

indyszeto wrote:

>indyszeto 寫道：
>
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand Sun
>>Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive available but
>>no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common configuration at
>>HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that I can use EIDE HD
>>commonly used for PC ? Also, HP site said that the standard OS bundled
>>with this station is Solaris 7. Will it cause problem (e.g.
>>performance) if I install Solaris 10 on it ?
>>
>>Hope the questions won't be too naive for you.
>>
>>:>
>>
>>
>
>Besides, I'd read the Ultra 5's white paper from below link
>
>http://www.filibeto.org/sun/lib/hard...arch052001.pdf
>
>I would like to ask if I don't use Sun monitor as display, any other
>model of 17" monitors are good choice ? I mean those 2nd hand model 17"
>monitors.
>
>
>
I've successfully used a couple of different PC monitors with Sun Ultra
5s and 10s. You'll want a monitor that will do 1024x768x75 and perhaps
1280x1024x75 as well. Lower resolutions; e.g 640x480 and 800x600 are
available but I doubt that you will find them satisfactory.

"Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88@comcast.net> wrote in
news:ieqdnXgbY-Y46xbenZ2dnUVZ_tidnZ2d@comcast.com:

> indyszeto wrote:
>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I'm a newbie to Sun H/W & S/W. Recently I found some cheap 2nd hand
>>>Sun Ultra 5 stations available in my city (CPU, RAM, CD drive
>>>available but no HD). I want to buy one for use. I read some common
>>>configuration at HP that the station uses EIDE HD. Does it mean that
>>>I can use EIDE HD commonly used for PC ? Also, HP site said that the
>>>standard OS bundled with this station is Solaris 7. Will it cause
>>>problem (e.g. performance) if I install Solaris 10 on it ?
>>>
>>>Hope the questions won't be too naive for you.
>>>
>>
>>Besides, I'd read the Ultra 5's white paper from below link
>>
>>http://www.filibeto.org/sun/lib/hard...arch052001.pdf
>>
>>I would like to ask if I don't use Sun monitor as display, any other
>>model of 17" monitors are good choice ? I mean those 2nd hand model
>>17" monitors.
>>
> I've successfully used a couple of different PC monitors with Sun
> Ultra 5s and 10s. You'll want a monitor that will do 1024x768x75 and
> perhaps 1280x1024x75 as well. Lower resolutions; e.g 640x480 and
> 800x600 are available but I doubt that you will find them
> satisfactory.

The m64 graphics card, standard in the U5, can only do 24 bit color up
to Sun's strange 1152x900 format, but it can do this at both 66 and 76
Hz. Any higher resolution is limited to 8 bit color. Just not enough
memory in this card. FYI, from /usr/sbin/m64config -prconf (run as
root):

Card possible resolutions:
720x400x85, 640x480x60, 640x480x72, 640x480x75
800x600x56, 800x600x60, 800x600x72, 800x600x75, 1024x768x60
1024x768x70, 1024x768x75, 1280x1024x75, 1024x768x85, 800x600x85
640x480x85, 1280x1024x60, 1152x900x66, 1152x900x76, 1280x1024x67
1600x1280x76, 1920x1080x72, 1280x800x76, 1440x900x76
1600x1000x66, 1600x1000x76, 1920x1200x70, 1280x1024x85
1280x1024x76, 1152x864x75, 1600x1200x75, 1600x1200x60
1024x768x85, 800x600x75, 640x480x85, 1920x1200x60, 1920x1080x60
1400x1050x60, vga, svga, vga, svga, sxga+, 1152, 1280, 800x600
1024x768, 1280x1024, 1152x900, 1400x1050, 1600x1280, 1920x1080
1600x1000, 1920x1200, 1600x1200

FWIW, I run my U5 headless, but it runs Solaris 10 with no problems.

Warner D. Brigham wrote:
> The m64 graphics card, standard in the U5, can only do 24 bit color up
> to Sun's strange 1152x900 format,

What's strange about 1152x900? Back in the 8-bit days, it made lots of
sense, since 1152 * 900 is just slightly less than 1024 * 1024. Thus
you can do 8-bit graphics at that resolution with 1 MB of video RAM.

1152x864 makes sense for similar reasons (and the pixels are square
on a 4:3 ratio screen), but 1152x900 gives you more screen real estate.
Enough to equate to 3 or 4 more lines of text.

Also, for what it's worth, 1152 is a multiple of 128, which could be
useful in certain situations.

- Logan