[SunRescue] Recommend starter Sun?

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2001 at 05:02:13PM -0500, dave at cca.org wrote:
> bobkeys at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu writes:
> 
> >> I'd recommend it too - if I could ever get it to load.  2.8 does not seem to
> >> want to boot on my Sparcs - floppy or CD.  I can't try out all the security
> >> "stuff" I've heard so much about. :-(
> 
> >Gee, your experiences seem just opposite mine.  I have serveral SS1,SS2,
> >IPX boxes, and they always reliably load OpenBSD.  I have had most of
> >my problems on NetBSD, except for the recent 1.5 mini-cd image.
> >That is the first one that boots and loads fine, in my hands.
> >It even came up well on my 4/300, after using the IPX to load it.
> >OpenBSD, has always been, for me... insert floppy, boot, and 30
> >minutes later it is loaded, from cd or ftp.
> 
> I had problems installing OpenBSD from CD to an SS2, probably the
> 512/2048 byte block thing, I don't know. Since then I've installed to a
> 4/380, buncha SS2s, and a SS5 via netboot/ftp with no problems.

I picked up some IPCs from Mike N and found out that the boot program
and the way you populate the SIMMs can affect what happens.

Apparently on some Sparc boxes the memory is not allocated in one
contiguous chunk.  If the boot loader is trying to load something into
RAM and there ain't no RAM there, you will have problems - it will
stop partway thru the boot process.

Answer - load the sucker up with RAM and then install; once installed,
put the "normal" amount of RAM in it and everything is OK.

Cordially

Patrick Giagnocavo
patrick at zill.net