[SPARCbook] My Sparcbook3 adventure (Debian X config?) (long)

[troehr at nj-onramp.com]

Michael,

You can pick up Sun bootable cdroms for $4 at www.pcsurplusonline.com (Plextor 
2X SCSI, or a Plextor 20X for $8.99 at the same site.)


As for the 2.3.5 kernel vs the others, I was current up to the 2.3.99Pre 
something kernels, and then was not able to devote any more time to staying 
current. The 2.3.5 was very stable, and was the base I would use most of the 
time. It works very well being dropped in on a 2.2 system. I should shortly 
have a house to live in where I can get reasonable high speed access to the 
net, and will build and make available the most current kernels. If you want to 
build one on your own, I would be happy to answer any questions. 

Tom Roehr
troehr at nj-onramp.com

Quoting Michael Schwarz <mschwarz at multitool.net>:

> On Sunday 17 November 2002 11:47 am, David Cantrell wrote:
> >
> > The good news is that debian doesn't really care what kernel you are
> > running.  If you want to be a purist, then you can create a deb
> package
> > containing that kernel and install it 'properly', but that's not
> necessary.
> > On my debian boxes, whether they be x86, sparc or ppc, I don't
> bother
> > keeping the kernel under package manglement.
> 
> Yes, I know that.  But RedHat is notorious for patching kernels nine
> ways from 
> Sunday such that you often can't replace a RedHat kernel with one from
> 
> anywhere else.  But of course, I can always keep my original kernel
> around as 
> a fallback.
> 
> What I'm really after here is once I install this 2.3.x kernel from 
> www.nj-onramp.com (and is that the best way to go?  Was this patch
> merged in 
> such that it is in 2.4.x kernels?  This seems unlikely since I saw this
> 
> particular patched kernel mentioned in the mailing list archive in
> October of 
> this year.), what do I have to do to set up the X server?  When I
> installed X 
> via atp-get, I "guessed" at the configuration, so I'm sure I'm all
> messed up.  
> Any tips on that?  Also, is that particular kernel from that particular
> place 
> what I want to use?  Or do I just want to install a 2.4.x kernel?  (This
> is 
> my first non-Intel Linux box, and I don't assume that just because 2.4.x
> is 
> out and stable for Intel that it is there for Sparc -- although I see
> Debain 
> does have 2.4.x kernel packages for Sparc, so you would think it works,
> but 
> if I do go with the Debian 2.4.x, does the framebuffer work on
> Sparcbooks?)
> 
> Sorry if I'm being over-paranoid, but it comes from the newness of the
> 
> environment (to me).  I know the hardware on my PC's right down to the
> I/O 
> controller reigsters.  I don't know diddly about my Sparcbook and that
> just 
> plain makes me nervous.  I know I can always re-install if I really mess
> up, 
> but even with my 256kbit link, this takes quite a bit of time!
> 
> >
> > If you have a SCSI CD-ROM drive try installing from that.  If at first
> you
> > don't succeed, see if there's a switch to set the sector size, which
> Suns
> > (and SGIs for that matter, and no doubt others) can be fussy about.
> 
> I don't have any SCSI hardware, and I don't have budget for hardware
> right 
> now.  I was pretty pleased with myself for getting net boot working. 
> PC's 
> don't have bootp capable BIOSes, so I never had occasion to set up the
> server 
> side of a bootp setup before.  (I'm a programmer mainly, I'm only a
> sysadmin 
> at home, so I have used plenty of net-booted workstations, but I've
> never 
> managed the server side before).
> 
> -- 
> Michael Schwarz
> http://www.multitool.net
> mschwarz at multitool.net
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