On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Shawn Walker <swal...@opensolaris.org> wrote: > Hartmut Krafft wrote: >> >> Hi all, >> >> recently, someone gave me an Ultrasparc5 workstation, and I decided to >> give it a try. Right now, it's running Debian Lenny quite nicely. But as >> there are some annoyances with Linux on Sparc (some proprietary software not >> ported to the platform), I tought about installing a newer version of >> Solaris. >> The Solaris 9 that came with the computer is way out of date and I would >> have to download a lot of patches (and I'm not even sure if all of them are >> accessible w/o a service contract). Being condemned to a slow Internet >> connection (64 kb/s), I refrained from this for the time being and decided >> to apply for a free Opensolaris CD instead. This was a fortnight ago, and >> since then, I didn't hear anything from Sun. >> So, is anyone here who recently ordered such a CD and knows how long it >> might take, or if I should give it another try? > > Please be aware that the opensolaris sparc live cd cannot be booted from for > installation. > > -- > Shawn Walker
This CD, on the other hand, can be booted from: http://www.martux.org/SPARC_distro_incl_Xorg7.2/cdrom__NoGnome_NoJDS_with_icewm/README.txt http://www.martux.org/SPARC_distro_incl_Xorg7.2/cdrom__NoGnome_NoJDS_with_icewm/Natamar_0.4__b96_sparc_cdrom.iso It offers a very basic LiveCD functionality without much else, as of now. It boots into an auto-logged in root session of IceWM. This is possible because it comes with Xorg from the FullyOpenX- OpenSolaris.org community project. The U5 and its m64 chip (and others {#0} are well supported. {#0} http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/fox/SPARC-Xorg/ Due to newboot (ramdisk-stays-root way) the boot archive is huge and hence boot time is extremely long, sorry for that. This is the primary reason why Sun has decided not to offer a LiveCD for SPARC (the other reason is Xorg's still limited driver support on SPARC). But there is a simple way to get along the boot-archive_is_huge-problem. A small-boot-time and low-memory-requirement LiveCD can still easily be built for SPARC. I do not know if the opensolaris.com / Indiana crew is interested in this, though. If they are, I upload a sample and commit it to their DC gate. The CD comes without any pkg-management, not to speak of any installer (such as the grand Caiman installer designed and implemented by Dave Miner). I have decided to keep my SPARC hw so this situation is going to change :-) But right now, if you desire to test MartUX (Natamar) on your Ultra 5 and decide that you would like to put it onto hdd, then here is how you might proceed: Here are the steps (several variations could be imaginable) to install the LiveCD: #0) Boot off the Natmar LiveCD #1) After you got auto-logged in as root, do # format [ENTER] (without the leading '#', which is your superuser-prompt) This will present you with a list of the hdd's that are in your box, choose an empty one which you can completely erase, be sure not to chose a wrong one. #2) Inside format you get a menu, now select partition [ENTER] #3) Inside the partition sub-menu create a custom slice layout of your choice, maybe one slice for the system (normally s0, but you can pick what you want) and one slice for the home accounts (normally s7, but this is only a common practice, not by any means a technical requirement) #4) Write the VTOC to disk by means of entering "label" [ENTER] #5) Quite the format utility and remember the cNtNdN name of the disk (which you saw when you entered the format utility) and the newly defined slice that you intend to use as the target system slice. Then do this from the shell prompt: newfs /dev/rdsk/cNtNdNsN and wait a short while. Now your disk is partitioned / sliced plus has got a fresh UFS filesystem on it. But right now it is not yet bootable. For this you must issue ... #6) installboot EXAMPLES Example 1 Installing UFS Boot Block To install a ufs boot block on slice 0 of target 0 on con- troller 1 of the platform where the command is being run, use: # installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk \ /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0 (maybe you must instruct installboot to use UFS via "-F ufs" now) #7) Now you are ready to copy the LiveCD content to hdd. /bin/cp is a bad choice, because it has problems when it encounters sysmlinks or special files. cpio is also not ideal. With /bin/tar you are best off. Do it like this: (cd /mnt/<Mounted2ndCopyOfLiveCD_root_here> ; tar cvf - .) | (cd /mnt/<YourNewlyCreatedTargetSliceHere> ; tar xvf -) After you are at this stage, a few modifications will be required to adjust some configuration files to the fact that the system now resides on hdd, rather than CD. At this point feel free to contact me again, via one of the opensolaris.org mailing lists (or off-list, if you so choose). Alternative: With a few days or so of additional patience, you get a more user-friendly new version directly based on Indiana aka OpenSolaris.com_The_Distro. Regards, %martin _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
