[rescue] "New" SPARCserver 20

[Brian Hechinger]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2001 at 12:07:38PM -0400, sambo at charm.net wrote:
> 
> 'K, so that's done. I was wrong, though. The 9G SCA drive is in the
> machine currently serving as firewall/public services server. OK, new
> plan. Move /home/sambo from 9G non-SCA to 18G with fresh install, put 9G
> in server, move data, remove SCA drive. Hmmm. Requires at least one
> reboot. (Got a way to insert/remove SCSI devices under linux without
> rebooting, but I'll have to boot from new drive before removing old
> one).
> 
> So not all in one night.

but easily done anyway, yes?

> No joy. I got hopefull when I did the alcohol thing and it took keyboard
> input immediately after the first "stop-a" (I typed "boot cdrom"), but
> when it got to the installation prompt asking me what language I wanted,
> it didn't take.

hmm, that's too bad.

> I had an idea, though. I've got an Agenda PDA
> (http://www.agendacomputing.com). I'm gonna try using it as a serial
> console tonight. The serial cable that it comes with is already nulled,
> so all I should need is a straight-through adapter. Than you say I can
> install from there?

should be no problem, you just need to figure out how to send a break from the
agenda.  can't help you there though.

> S'never a waste of time to make something work properly, or even
> improperly. I've been thinking about it, and I think I'd rather have the

good point.

> SS20 on my desk than the rack. Though I'll probably get better graphics
> running X on my x86 linux box and doing it remotely, yes? Come to think
> of it, if I'm running that at 1400xWhatever 24bpp, what will graphical
> stuff pulled over from the SS20 look like? Limited to ehat the SS20
> could do on it's own, or as good as the workstation?

the sparc20 is never going to have the snappy graphics of the PC for a price
that you would enjoy.  the SX is an ok 24-bit framebuffer, but dog slow.

the way X works, the graphical abilities are determined by the server (the
machine with the graphics card) so you will get nice PC 24-bit color for all
your apps on the sun box.  if you are looking to do heavy 24-bit stuff like
gimp though, i would recommend a full duplex 100Mbps ethernet connection, or
FDDI.

> I've got an AMD K6-233/128RAM dedicated to ripping and burning. It does
> fine.

it's got a little more CPU power than my sparc. :)  wav->mp3 is a CPU bound
process.

> So how do I boot cdrom from a serial console with no "stop" button?

figure out how to get your terminal (or terminal software) to send a BREAK on
the serial line.  sometimes you can unplug the serial cable and get it to do
a break, or after it has booted to the point that it doesn't see your keyboard
(where it complains about the keyboard missing) plug your keyboard in and use
it to generate the break (ala stop-a) although figuring out your terminal would
be the best solution.

> What other key combinations do I need to know?

depends on what you use to hook up with.

cheers,

-brian