Install on Sunfire V100
I had a very hard time installing Debian 3.3.5 on a Sunfire V100 and thought I'd post as I've seen several related issues around in Google with no resolution.
The first problem is the CD install doesn't work. A net boot and install will work with some extreme measures. I believe most machines with a Davicom DM9102 or similar NIC will be affected. The dmfe driver module is the default, but this driver will cause error spam making the system nearly unusable unless you can do a quick ifdown. Here's a workaround I've been successful with.
Boot from the network, but immediatly choose a back options so that you can load a shell. modprobe tulip. Add 'alias eth0 tulip' and 'alias eth1 tulip' to modules.conf (one for each NIC). Keep in mind that Debian mixes up eth0 and eth1. 1 is marked as 0 on the back of the machine and 0 is marked as 1. The install will now run.
Once the reboot happens, you have to do a hard reboot to reload the partition data correctly. This means executing 'poweroff' and 'poweron' from the lom prompt.
After the reboot, again exit to the shell through the back button asap. ifdown eth0 (or eth1) should stop the error messages. Add dmfe to the blacklist in /etc/hotplug. In
modprobe.d/aliases add the line 'alias dmfe tulip'. This makes every instance of dmfe use tulip instead which works. Reboot and continue the installation.
Could someone look into an easier fix or patch? That was a pita to figure out for someone that is new to linux on sparc.
Enjoy,
Charity
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