Thread

Suns and another IBM

68kMLA Networking 12 posts Jul 8, 2008 to Jul 10, 2008

#1 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 13:53 68kMLA

Got two Sun SPARCStations 20 and an IBM T20 via FedEx yesterday.

One of the Suns looks a bit shot, so I've moved all the RAM and the processor to the other one, meaning I now have a dual SuperSPARC system with 288 MB RAM. Just about to install NetBSD on it... and I'll probably try NeXTSTeP too when I get a monitor adaptor.

Also, a second IBM T20. Quite possibly one of the nicest laptops ever..

#2 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 16:58 68kMLA

w00t SPARCstation 20! I only have a four and its dog slow =p. and YAY for Thinkpads! Congrats on a nice haul

//wthww

#3 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 17:14 68kMLA

Oh man, nice going with the T20. Those older Ts are pretty much the best laptops ever made, I owned a T40 up until about several months ago. Great computers.

#4 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 19:22 68kMLA

Sun SPARCStations 20..... Just about to install NetBSD

Although I think NetBSD is a great OS, and I use one for my router/gateway/dns/dhcpd box, I try an use original OS if possible. Can you not get hold of Solaris 9 any more?

#5 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 19:58 68kMLA

I think I may have T-Envy now.

Anywya, congrats on the suns and the T. all, very worthy computers.

#6 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 22:21 68kMLA

I try an use original OS if possible. Can you not get hold of Solaris 9 any more?

I'm sure I could, but I don't really see the point? NetBSD supports all of the SS20's hardware, except for the audio which I wasn't planning on using, anyways. Also, the only Sys V I've used is IRIX, and whilst the graphical parts of it are certainly decent, I have to say I find BSD much more pleasant, though I'm sure it's just familiarity. I need a UNIX box that's a serial console away from my Quadra, and this is a very good bet.

I'm nor really sure what Solaris, especially the newer version which are supposedly quite big, could offer me except for the concept of an "original" OS? I certainly don't have any Sun-specific applications that I'm wanting to run.

#7 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 22:42 68kMLA

I run a Solaris 6 box on 1.5 gig disk space and a Solaris 7 box on 2gig drive. Solaris 8 and 9 will both run on a 3 gig drive. All complete installs, with gcc, openssh and including swap space.

You get variety.

#8 Tue, 8 Jul 2008 - 22:59 68kMLA

I've got a 8GB root partition on my Solaris 10 box, and I filled it up today. Threw out a bunch of downloaded tarballs and working files to get under 90%. I need to find another decent-sized SCSI drive so I can squeeze some more on it.

#9 Wed, 9 Jul 2008 - 10:59 68kMLA

The T's are very nice. I picked up a T20 to fix a T21 I had. Turns out the T21 is quite messed so I just swapped the processors and heat sinks and now I have a T20 with 800mhz processor. This T20 beats my old IBM 390x with a broken hinge in so many ways.

Congrats on the Sun, I hear they're quite reliable.

#10 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 - 15:07 68kMLA

Well, this is turning into a complete nightmare.

One was somewhat working, the other somewhat not. I tracked the problem to a bad stick of RAM, did some swapping about, and now they're not making it past POST.

#11 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 - 21:03 68kMLA

I tracked the problem to a bad stick of RAM, did some swapping about, and now they're not making it past POST.

Are you filling the banks correctly? My SparcStation LX (also a sun4m) has to be done in pairs but the sockets are not adjacent.

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/805-4450/6j47ekk4e?l=ru&a=view

and

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/805-4450/6j47ekk4e?l=ru&a=view#z40001b74c5

#12 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 - 23:57 68kMLA

It was definitely RAM related, but I fixered it by seating them very carefully... So it is now indeed a 288MB dual SuperSPARC NetBSD system. Woohoo.