Re: [debian-sparc] Which is best distro for Ultra 10
> > - Debian Linux distro available on debian site is for SPARC so will this work
> > on this ULTRA10 machine?
> Your Ultra10 *is* a Sparc machine. In fact, it's an UltraSparc machine (64
> bits). So Debian *will* work on it.
The classes of Sparc processor in Sun Microsystems equipment are sun4,
sun4c, sun4d, sun4m and sun4u. sun4c and sun4m are probably the best
supported, covering SPARCStaion 1 -> 20, etc. sun4d (things like
SPARCServer 1000) had support under the 2.2 series kernel but AFAIK
aren't supported on 2.4 yet (if anyone can tell me the status I'd love
to know as I have one next to me that wants a Debain install). sun4
machines are very old and I'm not sure of the current status of support
-t here was limited support at one point. sun4u covers all of the
UltraSPARC processors and is well supported. IIRC there are also sun4e
machines but they are very rare and turned up in things like Tadpole
laptops, etc.
> > - The application which I want to port uses C/C++, Informix7.1, DataView (for
> > GUI features). This application is originally built on HP-UX 10.20. So is
> > Debian a good choice?
> Wrong question. The good one is: will you be able to rewrite or work
> around everything that doesn't exist yet under Linux for Sparc? For
> example, I don't know if Informix or DataView have been ported to this
> architecture/OS combination. If not, will you be able to work around
> them?
Also how much support do you need - does the database have to run on the
same machine? What about graphical display? It might also be worth
looking to see if there are Solaris binaries avaliable and whetehr you
can get them to run on Linux/SPARC.
> > - Are there any porting guidelines document available? If yes then where can I
> > find them?
> A good C or C++ compiler, a good debugger, a good documentation of your
> product, and a lot of cleverness.
Those nice folk at Debian & dselect have given me the gcc tool chain and
more documentation than I could shake a stick at - any idea where I can
get the last one from?
:-)
Sweet Dreams,
- Martin
--
Martin
inkubus@interalpha.co.uk
"Seasons change, things come to pass"
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