[SunRescue] Re: Trolls and MP on rescued suns

[Bjorn Ramqvist]

Ken Hansen wrote:
> 

<snip>

> On my SS5/70 I run Linux, on my Ultra2/300 I run Solaris - other machines
> vary (notably, I also run SOlaris 2.6 on my SPACRbook 3GX, an SS5/110-kina
> machine w/64 Meg RAM, but that is because Solaris 2.6 supports the hardware
> better than Linux - note, I have not tried *BSD on it yet...).
> 
> So, if you have an Ultra, Solaris my be better - if you have a Sun4M (SS2,
> SS5, SS10/20, LX, etc.) Linux may be a better platform. SMP SS10/20s may do
> better under an older Solaris (like R2.5.1 or 2.6).

A side-note here;
I don't know the status of current kernels, distributions what-so-ever
related to Linux, but I was recently in a situation where I needed the
MD (Multiple Devices driver, RAID-support) under Linux on SPARC. Tried
installing RedHat 6.2, just for fun, at home on my SS5/70 which went
good.
After that, I tried installing on SS5/170, which made me sad. The kernel
paniced upon me and overall it was really unstable and buggy, which
forced me over to Solaris again.
Same thing with a SS20/501. The kernel went fine, all the way until I
started using the RAID-features. Then the whole system paniced a couple
of times, and was generally unstable.

All of this, in opposite of my SS5/70, makes me wonder if Linux/SPARC is
generally a good idea (so far) on sun4m machines. I tried a newer kernel
at that time, but without any better result.
Same thing there, it went for Solaris instead.

Another thing; RedHat installation program failed due to _too many_
connected disk devices. For some reason, it couldn't handle all of my 4
trays with 6 disks in each. (4 x 6 = 24 disks)
If I look at the SSA's, this is a serious problem, where in an SSA you
can hose up to 30 disks.
Looks like the o'so-enterprise RedHat can't handle more than 20 or so
disks...
(I have no clue)

I'll sure try this operation again some other time, but for now my need
force me to run Solaris.

/Bjorn

> Soory I couldn't be more specific, but your question is sort of vauge,
> 
> hope this helps,
> 
> Ken
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stout, Logan" <ldstout at broadband.att.com>
> To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 8:58 AM
> Subject: RE: [SunRescue] Re: Trolls and MP on rescued suns
> 
> >
> > Apologies in advance to those who find this question off topic, heretical,
> > offensive, or just plain bad smelling.
> >
> > one or two people have mentioned running Linux on older sparc machines, so
> > I'm hoping someone can answer a couple of questions.
> >
> > 1: does it run, slower, faster, about the same? as Solaris 2.6
> >
> > 2: anyone know any guru tricks for dealing with a system that refuses to
> > properly boot after a Linux install.. for what appears to be, among
> possibly
> > other things, a problem with prom settings. I manually made a new devalias
> > to try booting, but for some reason this still, at best gets me to a point
> > where SILO dies..  (I realize this description is not super detailed, but
> I
> > suspect if it has happened to you, you will recall the event based on this
> > info.
> >
> > Logan
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> 
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