[SPARCbook] Powerlite170 and Solaris 9
Borgen_Gary
gary.borgen at verizon.net
Sun Feb 22 21:22:57 CST 2004
I tried to re-install the SUNWaudd package from Solaris Install CD 1
(12/03).
pkgadd was successful, but unfortunately, after doing a reconfig, the audio
drivers were still not detected.
Time to try Aurora or Solaris 8 and fvwm2.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Borgen_Gary" <gary.borgen at verizon.net>
To: <sparcbook at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 7:12 PM
Subject: RE: [SPARCbook] Powerlite170 and Solaris 9
> For some reason these reply's are not getting in the Archives.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Borgen_Gary" <gary.borgen at verizon.net>
> To: "Rich Kulawiec" <rsk at gsp.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 1:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [SPARCbook] Powerlite170 and Solaris 9
>
>
> > Rich,
> >
> > I was planning on killing all the processes, if I can get by the other
> > problems.
> >
> > I'm sure that 128 MB of RAM is not enough at this point. I am looking
> into
> > expanding it to 256, but it's a tough beast to find. My memory board
has
> a
> > lot of vacant pads for more memory. I'm trying to find chips to fill
it.
> >
> > The Powerlite 170 is basically a portable SS5, with TGX graphics and a
> > Crystal CS4231audio chip. That's why I can't figure out the audio.
> >
> > pkginfo |grep -i audio gives me the same results as you, except two
more
> > entries in the GNOME2 results.
> >
> > Which release of 9 are you using? 12/03 or 4/03? 12/03 does not have
any
> > "audiocs" driver in the /platform/sun4m/kernel/drv directory. So it was
> > maybe compiled without it?
> >
> > The "hostname: unknown" with is mainly an annoyance. Plus not being
able
> to
> > fix it bugs me. I'll check the Google Usenet for a solution as
suggested.
> >
> > I've run debian linux on a SS5 before and it ran fine. I'll post after
I
> > try Aurora.
> >
> > Gary
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Rich Kulawiec" <rsk at gsp.org>
> > To: "Borgen_Gary" <gary.borgen at verizon.net>
> > Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 1:08 PM
> > Subject: Re: [SPARCbook] Powerlite170 and Solaris 9
> >
> >
> > > On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 12:03:58PM -0800, Borgen_Gary wrote:
> > > > My Powerlite 170 has a 170 MHz processor, 128 MB of ram, and 6
GB
> of
> > > > hard drive space (512 MB swap). I don't expect the system to be
fast,
> > but
> > > > crashes aren't good.
> > >
> > > I don't get this. I have a 110 MHz Sparcbook 3GX with 128M of RAM,
> > > a 2G disk, and about 128M of swap running Solaris 7 and it's
reasonably
> > > responsive. (Though starting things like Mozilla takes a while.)
> > > I'm not running GNOME, however: and I usually kill off the Solaris
> > > "dtwm" and run "icewm", though that's probably inconsequential.
> > >
> > > Suggestion: try shutting down unused daemons such as NFS stuff, the
DMI
> > > stuff, etc., and see if performance improves.
> > >
> > > Suggestion: run "top" and see if you've filled that 128M. Which
> > > ties into my question:
> > >
> > > Question: is the combination of all the GNOME stuff large enough that
> > > you're paging? (Let me pause to note that running the GNOME desktop
> > > on my 170 MHz, 256M RAM, Sparc 5, Solaris 9 desktop was rather
sluggish.
> > > Given that it matches your CPU speed and has double the RAM, I wonder
if
> > > perhaps the combination of memory exhaustion and bloated GNOME code is
> > > causing your problem?)
> > >
> > > > 1. Audio support for the sun4m arch has disappeared.
> > > > I have done /reconfigure several times, yet no /dev/audio entry ever
> > > > occurs. In addition, the audio entry is missing from the
> > /platform/sun4m
> > > > directory.
> > >
> > > Ah. I'm not much help here, as I've long since given up on audio on
my
> > > Sparcbooks. However, I *do* have audio under Solaris 9 on my Sparc 5
> > > (and it works!). Question: what do you get if you run:
> > >
> > > pkginfo |grep -i audio
> > >
> > > I get:
> > >
> > > system SUNWauda Audio Applications
> > > system SUNWaudd Audio Drivers
> > > system SUNWaudf Audio Sound Files
> > > system SUNWaudh Audio Header Files
> > > GNOME2 SUNWgnome-audio GNOME audio support
> framework
> > > GNOME2 SUNWgnome-audio-devel GNOME audio support
> > framework - developer
> > >
> > > on my Solaris 9 desktop.
> > >
> > > > 2. I am running DHCP and attaching to a D-Link router. While I
can
> > get an
> > > > IP address and surf the net, I can never set the hostname to
anything
> > that
> > > > sticks. I have run the hostname commad and set the hostname, set
the
> > > > hostname.le0 file to read a proper hostname, but the system always
> > reboots
> > > > to "hostname: unknown". The D-Link does not have the ability to
> assign
> > a
> > > > hostname.
> > >
> > > Solaris does not seem to like dynamically setting the hostname
> post-boot.
> > >
> > > Question: why are you trying to set the hostname? (Reason for
question:
> > > I have my Sparcbook set up so that outbound mail will always carry the
> > > correct return address for me, no matter where I'm plugged in. Since
> > outbound
> > > mail is the only thing that interacts with the outside world by
> hostname,
> > > and since I have it set up to omit the hostname ;-), only people who
> > > look closely at the headers will notice that I'm moving from place to
> > > place while doing this.)
> > >
> > > > 3. The system is dog slow under gnome and hangs when I try to have
> more
> > > > than two windows open.
> > >
> > > See comment above about GNOME bloat + possible memory starvation.
> > >
> > > > 4. I takes about 8 hours to do an install from scratch.
> > >
> > > Yipes. I don't get that: even my old Netra (which is my firewall here
> > > at home, running Solaris 9) only takes a few hours to install. And it
> > > has a fairly clunky CDROM drive. I wonder why your install is so slow?
> > >
> > > > 5. Sun is threatening to drop support for the sun4m arch in future
> > releases.
> > >
> > > Yeah, I know. Given that I have a bunch of Sun4m machines, I'm
probably
> > > stuck. However: I run OpenBSD on quite a few of them and it is
> incredibly
> > > stable and fast. It lacks support for some things -- though that's
> being
> > > addressed bit by bit. It may be worth your while to snag a copy of
> > > OpenBSD 3.4 and fiddle with it -- if you're going to fiddle with
Aurora
> > Linux
> > > anyway.
> > >
> > > Question: any general comments on Aurora Linux? I keep meaning to
> > > get a copy and try it, but just haven't found time.
> > >
> > > ---Rsk
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