Elar Saar <sucksbigtime@hot.ee> wrote:
> Toomas Soome wrote:
> > >
> > > Well, one reason could be avoiding licence hassle and/or extra cost. The
> > > cost of a licence for Solaris is prohibitive for a SS5. (yes I know you can
> > > *download* it for free, but you only get a free licence for 1 CPU systems
> > > bought from Sun or an authorized dealer, etc.pp.).
> > >
> >
> > have you more than 1 cpu in ss5?

> You can't have more than 1 CPU in SS5.

Correct, but with regard to the licence, it doesn't make a difference: If you
haven't bought the SS5 from Sun or an authorized dealer, you always have to
buy a licence, regardless of number of CPUs - *if* you want to run
Solaris/Sparc legally.

Cheerio,

Thomas
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Ribbrock http://www.ribbrock.org
"You have to live on the edge of reality - to make your dreams come true!"

"Thomas" <emgaron@gmx.net> wrote in message news:<3fc47a08$0$147$e4fe514c@dreader4.news.xs4all .nl>...
> Bo Snyder <bobo_snyder@hotmail.com> wrote:
> [...]
> > How does it handle the gui compared to newer machines? I also have been
> > playing with an old dual pentium pro box that I have that has a 6 gig ide
> > drive in it and it has 392 megs of ram (72 pin simms!!!) in it . I put
> > mandrake 9.1 on it which runs okay, but its stil a bit pokey, but then
> > again, thats a much newer gui.
>
> I couldn't find much information about your SS5 (cpu speed, frame buffer),
> but even if you have one of the faster SS5's (110MHz/170MHz), don't expect
> too much. I found things like KDE or Gnome to be unbearable on those machine
> (I own a SS5/170). Also, most likely you'll have a cg6 framebuffer, which
> is 8bit - which doesn't seem to go down too well with the newer desktop
> environments, IMO.
> On the other hand, when using a small window manager, it's not too bad.
> You'll *definitely* need the extra RAM, though. I'm using Window Maker, but
> it has issues with 8bit displays on Sparc (regardless of OS), which never
> got resolved. Fortunately, I have a S24 frame buffer (24bit) in my SS5...
>
>
> > Also I just downloaded and I am thinking of going with Aurora Linux instead
> > of redhat 6.2, is that a good idea or is there any other OS choices that
> > might be better or worse? Your opinions are valued greatly!!
>
> Depends on what you want to do. RH 6.2 is definitely old now and it's
> unmaintained (as Yann mentioned already). I made very good experiences with
> Aurora Sparc Linux 1.0 and I don't find it unfinished - but then again, I
> never tried Debian. One thing to note with Linux is that it tends to run
> unstable on a SS5/170 (TurboSparc). RH 6.2 will not even install on those
> (at least it never did on the two I had).
>
> Another options is Solaris, which is interesting, as - being from Sun as
> well - it's supposed to run best on Sparc hardware. Unfortunately, it has
> licence issues: Unless you got your SS5 from Sun or an authorized dealer,
> you'll have to buy a licence (which is more than the SS5 is worth) or run
> Solaris illegally (you can *download* the actual OS for free).
>
> Last but not least, there are the *BSDs. I myself only ever used OpenBSD on
> the SS5, but I'd assume that NetBSD will work as well. My experiences with
> OpenBSD were very good - I've used a SS5/170 under OpenBSD as my ADSL
> firewall+lightweight webserver for quite some time. I've also installed a
> desktop for test purposes once and it felt a tad faster than the same setup
> under Aurora, though I didn't do any "scientific" measurements.

Wow, thanks for everyone's input on this discussion.

The main reason why I don't use solaris is because I don't have it. I
got the hardware for free from a friend of mine and he only had redhat
6.2.

I am having boot problems once again. I installed aurora linux (the
only version I have besides redhat 6.2) and it installed fine (it
wanted 3 cd's). Once it finished installing it then said everything
was done and rebooted. Once it rebooted, it just sits there at the
main post window. it never gives me any errors or anytbhing now, it
just sits there with the blinking cursor. I tried doing a stop a and
then a boot-disk but it doesn't work.

how do i make this drive bootable? (first parittion is a 50 meg boot,
then the next section is the main / parittion (either 8 and change
gigs or 17 and change gigs, i tried it with 2 different external lvd
scsi drives.) and the 3rd partation is the little 192 meg swap
partition.

Any ideas?

Also i am curious about the sparc software, what version of solaris
should one use in a sparc 5?

"Thomas" <emgaron@gmx.net> wrote in message news:<3fc47a08$0$147$e4fe514c@dreader4.news.xs4all .nl>...
> I couldn't find much information about your SS5 (cpu speed, frame buffer),
> but even if you have one of the faster SS5's (110MHz/170MHz), don't expect
> too much. I found things like KDE or Gnome to be unbearable on those machine
> (I own a SS5/170). Also, most likely you'll have a cg6 framebuffer, which
> is 8bit - which doesn't seem to go down too well with the newer desktop
> environments, IMO.
> On the other hand, when using a small window manager, it's not too bad.
> You'll *definitely* need the extra RAM, though. I'm using Window Maker, but
> it has issues with 8bit displays on Sparc (regardless of OS), which never
> got resolved. Fortunately, I have a S24 frame buffer (24bit) in my SS5...
>

Sorry for not putting info about my system into the last posts. its a
sparc5 with 110 mhz cpu and 32 megs of memory (soon to be 256 megs)
and my choice of external hard drives (either a 9 gig or an 18 gig lvd
external scsi lvd hard drive) and i have the built in 2 x cdrom and an
external 16x scsi cdrom (toshiba, can i make it the bootable drive?).

As for the framebuffer, it says on it "turboxgx" and when aurora
probed it, it said it was capible of 800x600 at 16 bit color or
1280x1024 (or some high res like that) with 8 bit color.

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, bo snyder wrote:

> The main reason why I don't use solaris is because I don't have it. I
> got the hardware for free from a friend of mine and he only had redhat
> 6.2.

That's a good reason! :-)

> Also i am curious about the sparc software, what version of solaris
> should one use in a sparc 5?

The latest version of Solaris 9.

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, bo snyder wrote:

> As for the framebuffer, it says on it "turboxgx" and when aurora
> probed it, it said it was capible of 800x600 at 16 bit color or

That would be a VERY neat trick: the CG6 frame buffers are
8-bit only!

BTW, about the SOlaris 9 license. Yes, it is $99, unless you
qualify for a FREE license, as described here:

http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/binaries/

In short, if you're a developer or educational user, you
qualify for a free license. You can also obtain a free
"Evaluation" license.

Given the vintage of your equipment, I think Sun will be
happy if you purchased an S9 media kit from them (but you
might as well wait a bit unitl S9 12/03 ships).

HTH,

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

Hello,

> Sorry for not putting info about my system into the last posts. its a
> sparc5 with 110 mhz cpu and 32 megs of memory (soon to be 256 megs)
> and my choice of external hard drives (either a 9 gig or an 18 gig lvd
> external scsi lvd hard drive) and i have the built in 2 x cdrom and an
> external 16x scsi cdrom (toshiba, can i make it the bootable drive?).

Yes, you could probably boot on, typing "boot cdrom" at the openBoot
prompt. You just have to verify that the cdrom drive is on ID 6.
If it doesn't boot, search the block mode jumper on the rear of the
drive and set it. If not, search a scsi plextor drive/burner. My
UltraPlex 32 and my PlexWriter 4/2/20 work perfectly on Sun, SGI, DEC,
HP harware.

> As for the framebuffer, it says on it "turboxgx" and when aurora
> probed it, it said it was capible of 800x600 at 16 bit color or
> 1280x1024 (or some high res like that) with 8 bit color.

The Txgx is a cg6 and so, it's a 8 bits frame buffer, sorry.
Try to find S24 or Leo FB.

--
@+ Yann Marigo
Dernier mini_howto: "Ajouter le support ext3 à son noyau 2.2.2x" :
http://www.geekounet.org/docs/ext3_2...ini_howto.html
Article en Free Documentation Licence biensûr ! ;-)

Hello,

> > Also i am curious about the sparc software, what version of solaris
> > should one use in a sparc 5?
>
> The latest version of Solaris 9.

Don't you think it would be too heavy ? All this java on a such
processor...


--
@+ Yann Marigo
Dernier mini_howto: "Ajouter le support ext3 à son noyau 2.2.2x" :
http://www.geekounet.org/docs/ext3_2...ini_howto.html
Article en Free Documentation Licence biensûr ! ;-)

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, Yann Marigo wrote:

> > The latest version of Solaris 9.
>
> Don't you think it would be too heavy ? All this java on a such
> processor...

Not in the least - Solaris 9 is MORE efficient that its
predecessors, not less. Besides, last time I checked, the
kernel and most userland apps weren't written in Java.

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, Yann Marigo wrote:

> The Txgx is a cg6 and so, it's a 8 bits frame buffer, sorry.
> Try to find S24 or Leo FB.

Those two ARE 24-bit, but very slow...

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

Hello,

> On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, Yann Marigo wrote:
>
> > The Txgx is a cg6 and so, it's a 8 bits frame buffer, sorry.
> > Try to find S24 or Leo FB.
>
> Those two ARE 24-bit, but very slow...

What can he find in 16/24 bits, but more speedy on a SS5 ?

--
@+ Yann Marigo
Mini_howto : "Apache + mod_ssl + mod_PHP + mod_caucho + resin" :
http://www.geekounet.org/docs/apache...miniHowTo.html