[SPARCbook] [Newbie] Many questions

[Robert Meier]

Sparc users,

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Bob.

I recently acquired a SPARCbook 3, Tadpole.  I've been using linux since 1994,
and SuSE since 1999.  My principle goal is an inexpensive laptop suitable for
presentations (web server feeding external vga projector).



I acquired SuSE disks for sparc (5 disks, source disk apparently corrupt)
and installed the minimum (without X) which was the only one that would
fit within the 512M hard drive.

I've been unable to see the mouse
	o under openfirmware
	o gpm
	o X

How can I address the mouse?
How can I test the mouse using openfirmware?
How can I attach the mouse with gpm?
How can I configure the mouse with X?
So far all choices available at the curses level with gpm and xf86config
have failed to present a mouse-movable cursor on the screen.

After reading past articles on this list, I started downloading debian
(woody-sparc).  My plan is to install debian and see if the mouse and/or
X works "out-of-the-box".



Other questions will remain?
How can I access floppy disks?  pcmcia?  scsi?
How can I rapidly transfer data?  serial?  ethernet?

More configuration details are available on request.

Thank you for any suggestions or pointers,
-- 
Dr. Robert J. Meier
mailto:eaglecoach at wwnet.com