[rescue] My new UltraSparc 5's, also my first Sun stations

[Jochen Kunz]

On Thu, Jun 02, 2005 at 04:38:07AM -0500, Paul Mantz wrote:

[...]
> I was thinking of putting
> Solaris 10 on one of them and some breed of linux on the other.
> 
>   Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping track of what works well for
> old 64-bit processors nowdays.  My first instinct was slackware,
\begin{daemons advocate}
Use NetBSD. NetBSD is the most sane implementation of the Unix paradigm
in existence. It runs quite nice on sparc64 machines. -current supports
X11 on the U5 / U10 on board ATI grafics. The package management, called
pkgsrc, works well. I needed only a single command to install the whole
KDE shebang. (Only to get konqueror as web browser. I don't use any
other KDE stuff. KDE is way to bloated for my taste.)
\end{daemons advocate}

>   Also, I know nothing about the kind of wonky keyboard connection
> that it seems to be employing.  What is that standard called, and are
> there KVMs readily available for it?  I would prefer that than having
> to set up two 17" monitors in my apartment!
It is a standard Sun type 4 / 5 keyboard / mouse interface. You will
need a suitable type 4 / 5 keyboard and mouse from Sun. Shouldn't be too
hard to get one used. If you wane interface the machine to a KVM you can
get an expensive KVM that supports the Sun type 4 / 5 keyboard / mouse
interface or you can try to get a Sun keyboard / mouse to PS/2
converter.

Or you can use the Sun keyboard / mouse and switch only the video with
the KVM. There are also software solutions for switching keyboard /
mouse between machines. Google for "x2x-1.27.tar.gz" or have a look at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2/
-- 



tsch|_,
         Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/