Re: stuff

[Doug Alcorn <doug@lathi.net>]

I have recently leased a couple of Sun Sparc IPXes as dedicated
servers from an ISP (netmar.com).  The main reason I went with netmar
was because I could install whatever OS I wanted to over the serial
console.  They have the console running through a terminal server with
access through ssh.

The staff at netmar was kind enough to test the install for me before
turning it over to me.  Here is a summary of some of the problems he
ran into.  I was hoping someone familiar with debian-sparc could give
me some pointers.  Of course, none of this knowlege is first hand.

Staff Account <staff@netmar.com> writes:

> I've setup RARP and TFTP service on the network.
> You should be able to boot off the network.  However, it appears
> that Debian defaults to using the on-board video if it finds it (yours
> has one built in that can't be removed), and thus won't use the actual
> console device (serial port).  I took the liberty of also downloading the
> latest Redhat image (which for sparc is 6.2).  That booted up fine, and
> used the default console device, rather than trying to use the video
> so that it could display PC-like white-on-black text.
>
>[snip]
>
> Now, I currently have the RARP/TFTP server setup to feed your machines the Debian,
> boot image.  But like I said, I don't think that'll work (it didn't on two test
> machines I tried).  I recommend redhat (largely because it worked on my test).
> The Debian boots that didn't work forced me to go power cycle the machine--
> it wouldn't even respond to BREAK's (CTRL-\ b).  But you're welcome to try.

I don't want to subscribe to the list until I actually have a sparc
running debian (or commit to getting one running debian).  So, please
cc your replies to doug@lathi.net.
-- 
 (__) Doug Alcorn (mailto:doug@lathi.net http://www.lathi.net)
 oo / PGP 02B3 1E26 BCF2 9AAF 93F1  61D7 450C B264 3E63 D543
 |_/  If you're a capitalist and you have the best goods and they're
      free, you don't have to proselytize, you just have to wait.