[SunRescue] help with scsi, mem, etc

[James Lockwood]

On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, CEO Dan Jameyson wrote:

> This might be a little off topic... but...
> 
> I have an ultra5, and I'd love to put a scsi drive in it... so, first, I
> need an UW scsi card. I heard somewhere than an adaptec 2940 would work,
> but I'm not too sure about that... any advisory on this would be
> apperciated.

Don't go for the Adaptec.  There's a long and ugly story behind this, but
it basically boils down to:

 They are absurdly expensive for their capabilities.
 They were only supported on SPARC in a special Open Firmware (/OF) version.
 They are no longer supported (and the old drivers only work in 32-bit mode).

Sun themselves rebadge a Symbios 53c875 dual-port card.  If you get a card
based on this chipset that uses the reference design (most cards, but not
the Tekram series) then it will use the native Sun "glm" driver, which
will likely be supported for a very long time (as it's what the Ultra 450
and many other Suns use internally).  These are quite inexpensive ($60-90
from most retailers).  If you would pay a few extra bucks to get a card
"as shipped by Sun", then I know of a few people who have them up for
sale.

> Also, in upgrading the memory, will it take normal off-the-shelf PC
> dimms?

Of a sort.  They are 168-pin JEDEC but of a flavor not found often in the
PC market now.  I recommend www.memoryx.com for reasonable prices and
guarantees that memory will work in Suns.  Ken is a great guy and stands
behind his products 100%.

> I'm also looking for a german-layout type-5 keyboard and an optical
> mouse.

No idea on the keyboard, but you should be able to order this from Sun if
all else fails for a reasonable amount.  Mice are easy.

> I guess I'd say I'm just starting a Sun collection, and I'd love to have
> some older equipment (32bit sparc stuff)... so, if anyone has any
> "donations", heh. 

Grab a cheap Classic or LX, they can be had for a pittance now and still
make useful machines.  A big step up from that would be a low-end SS5, the
older versions are good deals.

> Could anyone point me to some good books on Solaris (2.)7 and sun
> hardware in general (I so wish I knew more about these nice machines)?

Most of the best stuff is on the net, docs.sun.com is a very useful
reference.  The Sun Hardware Reference is useful but is now very dated.  I
wish I had a better answer than this.

-James