Linux on sparc64

[Kevin Hodle]

I am currently running debian woody with custom 2.4.20 kernel on my sparc ultra 5.. For those not 
familiar w/ the ultrasparc family, this is a uniprocessor workstation utilizing PCI and ATA 
architectures instead of SBUS/SCSI.. I was able to drop a new 40 gig ultraATA hard drive in it with 
no problems (no problems for debian anyway).

Here are afew other flavors/OS's I have tried to throw on the thing:

- Aurora (someone mentioned it, it is basically an updated version of the original redhat 6 sparc 
release)... I had problems with it.  It would fully lock the system during HD partitioning (manual 
or autopartitioning)
- FreeBSD 5 sparc version.. Seemed like it would work okay, but the initial setup screens prompt 
you to select terminal emulation, and 'sun' is not one of the options (seems strange since it was 
the sparc release).. I tried ANSI/VT100/VT220 and they all either completely mangled the screen 
output or would not properly accept input from the arrow keys, required to navigate installation 
menus, VERY annoying.
- OpenBSD sparc, failed to detect any HD (?? Clueless on this one, maybe because of the new ATA 
drive I added)
- Mandrake 7.3 sparc edition, installed and worked flawlessly, but I love apt-get.

I was thinking about installing gentoo sparc release, but the installation notes seem to be crappy 
and I've heard bad things about its support for X windows on sparc'n (if anyone has gentoo on a 
sparc64 and has gotten X windows running, let me know!).

I have installed solaris 9 on it before, with no problems on the new HD.

Maybe some of the problems I am experiencing are because I need to flash my promlib with the latest 
version, but I havent read up on how to do this under linux (anyone have any how-to URLs handy?)

Anyway, here is my /proc/cpuinfo:

farp at sunshine:~> cat /proc/cpuinfo 
cpu             : TI UltraSparc IIi
fpu             : UltraSparc IIi integrated FPU
promlib         : Version 3 Revision 11
prom            : 3.11.12
type            : sun4u
ncpus probed    : 1
ncpus active    : 1
Cpu0Bogo        : 539.03
Cpu0ClkTck      : 000000001017df80
MMU Type        : Spitfire

 
Kevin Hodle
Alexander Open Systems
Network Operations Center
(913)-307-2366
kevinh at aos5.com