Trouble installing Debian on a SunBlade 100

["Greg" <runman@speedfactory.net>]

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I cannot find the answer on
Google or the list group archives from the past year.

I have bought the sparc Debian cd's for 3.01 R1 from AACDS.com and attempted
to install them on a SunBlade 100.  On my SunBlade the OBP version is 4.0.45
2001/02/08 and the POST version is 1.2.6 2000/08/30.  It has over a half Gig
of RAM and a 30 GB HD.  I have attempted to install by getting to the prom
and typing in "boot cdrom".  The install starts out fine and then stops with
a message about missing MMU memory or such (I cannot recall the exact
words) - and that is as far as I have gone.  This happened on 3 install
attempts.  Solaris 9 and OpenBSD 3.4 have run fine on the machine so I think
the hw is ok.

It seems to me from Googling that there is a problem with the Sun prom and
Debian.  In some instances folks have said to upgrade the prom and in others
they have said not to upgrade.  I can upgrade using Patch-ID# 111179-08
Jul/24/2003 to version OBP:  4.10.3 created 2003/05/02 and POST: 2.0.1
2001/08/23 .  My question is if I do this will Debian install from the CD's
?  will there be a  sparc R2 coming out soon ?  is a net install my only way
of getting Debian on the box ?

Any hints/pointers/etc would be appreciated.  I have just finished my first
Debian install on an old beater pc (i386) just to see what Debian looks like
and I am impressed with Debian (even if KDE does not work and I have to use
gnome).  I am currently using RH 7.3 (soon to be retired), Suse, and OpenBSD
and I am hoping I can replace them all with Debian - starting with my
SunBlade.

Thanks in advance,

Greg