Re: Sparcstation 670MP Operating Systems

From: Derek Konigsberg (octo_at_logicprobe.org)
Date: 02/25/04 

Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 22:41:53 GMT

>>A while back I picked up a Sparcserver 670MP. I had no idea if it worked
>>or not, but it was free so that wasn't much of a turnoff. It sat idle for
>>a while until I picked up a framebuffer card, and it fired up and tested
>>the memory without issue.
>>Now that I know that the thing works I want to go about getting some hard
>>disks in it and getting the old beast up and running, but I'm unable to
>>find a free (beer or speech) operating system that completely supports the
>>machine. As far as I know Linux supports SMP but not the VME bus. NetBSD
>>and OpenBSD supports the VME bus but not SMP.
>>Any suggestions?

Actually, you can run Solaris 8 (maybe even 9) on a SPARCserver 670MP,
provided that your MBUS CPU modules are still supported (it's the same type
of modules used in the SS10/SS20/SS1000/SS2000). However, you won't get
VME support (that's ok, the 600-series also has SBus, and I doubt you'll
run across any VME cards you really need anyways). Basically, you just
have to hack the kernel to disable a section that essentially says "If this
is a 600MP series machine, don't boot". In reality, the 600MP series is
just a sun4m /w VME slots. So Solaris 8 will work just fine, albeit
without VME support.

http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick/sunshack/data/sunos_6x0.html
(these instructions are for Solaris 2.6, but I've used them (albiet with
some poking around, as the addresses in the 8 kernel are different) to
successfully hack a Solaris 8 kernel)

However, as this involves a kernel hack, the actual installation isn't as
straightforward anymore. You basically have to either swap out the kernel
on the install CD (i.e. modify the ISO), or do a network install (where it
is easy to change anything).

-Derek Konigsberg <octo@logicprobe.org>

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