[SunRescue] Any Sun3 freaks in the crowd using NetBSD?????

[Robert D. Keys]

> "Robert D. Keys" wrote:  (I did... I really, really did.....)
> 
> > I am curious if anyone has sunos 3.x or earlier running these days?
> > For the fun of it, it might be interesting to see what it was all about,
> > relative to the 4.1.1U1 that most folks seem to be running on the old
> > sun3 hardware.  Also, it might be worth seeing if a restoration of it
> > still exists, for inclusion in the sun3arc archives.  What is the
> > earliest sunos that still survives?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I would be interested in obtaining an old SunOS version as well, since I
> have sitting here 2 Sun3/260's that could use an original OS.  I am
> planning on installing NetBSD until I can get my hands on some vintage
> SunOS releases...

Let me know if you get NetBSD to work.  I have been trying for over
6 months with mostly nil success.  I can't get a machine up far enough
and stably enough so I can do some wacking on the code to the scsi sun2
and sun3 drivers.  There is a new release of NetBSD-1.4, as of only
a couple of days ago, and I am writing tapes to try, myself, as we
Internetspeak.....  I have had a dastardly time with it on the si
sun3 scsi controllers, yet the on-board esp(?) controllers work fine
with NetBSD and OpenBSD.  My early sparc 4/110 (501-1237) cpu is quite
happy running the upcoming OpenBSD 2.5 relase.  I wish the separate
si controller machines worked.....(:+{{.....  But the old sunos still
plys those waters, and I use it well as the base for my home apache
web test server.  That is good use for the old deskside VME dinosaurs.
The silly things can be just turned on and they will run essentially for
forever...(:+}}....  I wish I could get the source to the sun si driver
so Net/OpenBSD could be made really hardware compatible with the old
early VME dinosaurs.  They really needs the help there so the sun2 and
sun3 scsi controllers will work as well as on sunos.

The cannonical archive for sun3 stuff is sun3arc.krupp.net, and maybe
there will eventually be some US archive(s).... (musing wistfully?)?
(Bill what about the sunhelp site????)  I am hoping that someday,
the 3.X releases or even whatever is earlier, will be put there, too.
Heiko is working on it with a Sun man in Sweden, but IMHO, for the
historical preservation of the early releases, we all should be
digging in the tape bins and make sure we have a readable copy
somewhere (unless someone knows someone at SunMS that will donate
a set of the early stuff to Heiko's archives ... again musing wistfully).

You will need to touch up the tape writing scripts a bit, but that
should not be difficult.  They call a strange tape device that does
not seem to exist on my suns, a /dev/nrst9 if memory is correct, which
needs editing to /dev/nrst0.  Then just roll off the tapes.  It will
write two tapes, one with the boots and main system files, and the
second with the windows and frills files and manuals.  It is possible
to make one DC6150 tape work, or one gzipped DC600A tape work, as
opposed to the usual compressed tarball tape, although I have been
toying with the idea of seeing if it will write a 1000 foot 9 track
cartridge tape (DC6250 cartridge) and use that.  That way you could
install everything from one tape, without mucking around in the
miniroot to add gzip there, and still use the original compressed
tarballs.

The archive sunos 4.1.1 boots and installs fine.  Making the update
tape is a little strange, but it installs fine, too.

I recommend you install only the minimal system, and then install
the rest, only as needed (add in the manual and text tarballs off
the second tape, for example).  Then you have a fine minimal system,
that you can add to as you wish.  If you want to install the whole
thing, it takes a goodly quantity of time (like overnight), with
a tape change in the middle.

> Also, does anyone know if there exists a VME ISDN card that can be used
> on the above systems?  I heard about such things but never found a
> part#...

I dunno exactly what you mean there.  Others may.....

> Chris

Have fun and keep us posted how it goes..... old VME monsters forever!

Sorry to be so windy, but I got into some deep musings......(:+}}....

Bob Keys