[rescue] best OS for SPARCserver 10

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

>From: "Mike Nicewonger" <twmaster at twmaster.com>
>
>As has been pointed out either NetBSD or OpenBSD would be the best operating
>system choice for your nice vintage SS10. [0] If you have more than one CPU
>then your best choice is NetBSD, or to remove one CPU to use OpenBSD. I
>would avoid Solaris on that machine. [1]

128M would be short on RAM for Solaris... but with more RAM and a couple
of decent processors, Solaris isn't all that bad on a Sun-4m for most of
what he wants to do.... sure NetBSD and OpenBSD are going to be faster
due to their smaller footprints, etc....

I have an SS20 I still use from time to time with two SM71s running
Solaris 8.  It has SX video, and I even have Mozilla running on it
(will be switching to Mozilla Firebird on it for the improved memory
footprint).  It is acceptable for most of the tasks I use it for.

>
>You should be fine with 128 MB of memory. You may however run into booting
>problems if you try to use an Apple CD-ROM. The Sun CD-ROM FAQ is your
>friend.
>
>If you boot from Floppy you should be OK.

ick... floppy... yuk !

OpenBSD Sparc CDs are bootable (if you bother to buy the CD).  Not
sure about NetBSD... I've only played with that on a Sun-3/80....
painfully.

>
>HTH!
>
>Mike N
>
>[0] Possibly the very finest of all the 4m machines IMHO.

hmmm... built really well such that I like it's overall construction
a bit better than SS20, but the SS20 has the SX video (sure, the
SS10SX exists... but they are hard to find), has 50MHZ MBUS and takes
SCA scsi drives (although still only powering them off a narrow bus...
but it is much easier to find large SCA scsi drives than 50 pin scsi
drives).

>
>[1] Not saying Solaris in it's current form is bad. Just is too much
>overhead for the good ole' SS10

Depends on what your going to do with it... for most of the server
tasks he mentioned, it would be fine... although I'd recommend at least
a dual SM61 or faster, or if going uniprocessor, an SM71 (better yet an
SM81 or HS150).

Put a couple of HS150, HS142, HS166, or faster processors in one of this, and
they run very nicely.  Dual SM81s are nice too.

-- Curt

>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "simeon johnston" <simeonuj at eetc.com>
>To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 11:35 PM
>Subject: [rescue] best OS for SPARCserver 10
>
>
>> I've got a SPARCserver 10.
>> 128MB ram.
>> 2x 1.8GB HD.  I'll probably upgrade one of them to a 10GB.  Possibly
>> upgrade both.
>> Video card (Don't know what kind it is) w/ 13w3->DB15 adapter.
>> I also have a few old Apple SCSI CDROM drives that should work great
>> for booting it.  That or the built-in floppy.
>>
>> I want to use it for a minimal Appletalk/Samba fileserver (5 users max
>> at any given time.  1 user most of the time if that) as well as OpenAFP
>> (just to test it out.  Play around a little).
>> FrontBase (SQL database).
>> PostgreSQL
>> Possibly CVS.
>> Some remote X stuff.
>> Burning CD's (If possible).
>> Playing some musice if I can find the adapter for the audio.  What is
>> that connector?
>>
>> This is a machine I traded Pete L. Wargo for a Quadra 840AV (where is
>> he anyway?  Haven't seen him for a LONG time).
>> I wanted to load Solaris on it since it should handle all of the above
>> nicely.  I thought that you could download the OS free from Sun (at
>> least a version of it) but couldn't really find anything on there sight
>> (I was very confused with the download section).
>> It's currently running Debian quite well, but I have enough Linux boxes
>> at work to admin.  I want to try something different.  Maybe a *BSD.
>> I also found a box for Solaris Server 2.5.1.  It's pretty old.  I think
>> it came with the other Sparc 10 at work.  That or the Sparc 5 (both
>> from Marner.  Not Sun cases.  There pretty ugly).  I'd rather have
>> something newer.
>>
>> sim
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Curtis Wilbar
Hawk Mountain Networks

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