[SunRescue] Re: Sun3

[james]

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Adamson, Stuart wrote:

> The last time I looked was 6 months ago and they could
> get a Sun4 (not 4c, 4m or whatever - a plain old Sun4)
> up to the  stage where it spawns init and then it paniced.
> 
> Given 6 months I'd say that it might well run now - 
> although I  wouldn't be sure about how fast linux runs
> on it.

Keep in mind that nearly 24 months ago they could get it up to the stage
where it spawns init and then panics.  There just isn't much development
happening.  VME device support is nearly totally nonexistant.

If you want a modern OS that runs well on sun4 hardware then I would
recommend NetBSD.  It's been stable and production quality for years on
this hardware.

That said, Solaris 2.4 is actually not too bad.  Sure, the patch list is a
mile long, but it's quite stable and modern enough so that most things run
without a hitch.  You can load the CDE kit from 2.5.1 on it with no
problem.  Chews up a lot of RAM, but I was running it on a 4/330 with 40MB
for years and it did all right.

I'd even recommend SunOS 4.1.4 if it was easier to apply the huge needed
patch sets.  Someone needs to write a script that takes a virgin SunOS
4.1.4 install and all the patch files and autoapplies the whole set.  It
would be nearly impossible to make it work with a running legacy system,
but a fresh install would be easy.

-James