[rescue] Q about sun2 boot flow

[Todd Vernon]

You know, frankly I’m astounded at the outrage from a few of you.

I found Walter’s question interesting, so I did a little research. I didn’t
know the answer, but I understand the concepts involved well enough to
evaluate the response and thought it might help move the discussion forward.

Walter didn’t say, “Only answer this if you already know it from memory.”
He asked a technical question.

Twenty-five years ago I might have searched Usenet archives. Ten years ago
I would have Googled it, searched mailing lists, Stack Overflow, or dug
through old Sun documentation. I might have asked somebody who knew more
about it than I did. Today, one of the tools I can also use is AI.

Does information somehow become invalid because Google helped you find it?
Because grep found it in a manual? Because somebody on a mailing list
pointed you toward it? Of course not. You evaluate the information and
follow the references.

The AI response was actually pretty good based on the available general
knowledge. More importantly, it contained a number of specific clues about
where the answer might lie and referenced specific Sun documentation that
could be checked. That seems considerably more useful to me than simply not
responding because I didn’t personally know the answer beforehand.

Andrew and Liam seem to want to impose some sort of purity test on how
someone is allowed to acquire knowledge before helping another person in
this group. I was unaware of any such rule.

I’ve helped plenty of people here over the years with very specific
information based on my own experience.

In fact, a few weeks ago I posted about converting a SunOS 4.1.4 disk image
from sun4c to sun4m and got a lot of great feedback. I eventually wrote the
process up.

And, GASP, I used AI while figuring out how to do it:

https://oldsilicon.com/technologies/sunos-414-sun4c-to-sun4m-graft/

The result works. That seems like a considerably more meaningful test of
the tool than whether using it offends somebody’s sensibilities.

AI can be wrong. So can Google results. So can documentation. So can Stack
Overflow. So can people on technical mailing lists. The answer has always
been the same: understand what you’re reading, verify what matters, test
it, and contribute what you learn.

If this group is so closed-minded that we now have to decide not only
whether someone’s contribution is useful, but whether they acquired the
information through an approved method, then I guess I’ll move on.

You can always find me at oldsilicon.com.

-t


Todd Vernon
Entrepreneur | Investor
Email: todd at toddvernon.com
LinkedIn: toddvernon <https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/>


On Sep 5, 2026 at 12:11:50 PM, Andrew Jones <andrew at jones.ec> wrote:

> If O.P. wanted an AI response, he'd have asked the AI chatbot himself.
>
> On Friday, September 4th, 2026 at 06:38, Todd Vernon via rescue <
> rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
>
> Sorry to try and help.  I clearly stated it was AI. A lot of people don’t
> try AI.  I would put forth your response was less on target than mine.
>
> ---
> Todd Vernon
> Entrepreneur | Investor
> Email: todd at toddvernon.com
> LinkedIn: toddvernon <https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/>
> On Sep 4, 2026 at 5:45 AM -0400, Liam Proven via rescue <
> rescue at sunhelp.org>, wrote:
>
>
>
> On 03/09/2026 8:06 am, Todd Vernon via rescue wrote:
>
>
> was interested to see what AI (ChatGPT) would say.
>
>
>
> *Please* do not be a meat proxy.
>
> https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-03/
>
> --
> Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ~ gMail/Twitter/LinkedIn/FB/Bsky: lproven
> IoM: (+44) 7624 227612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884
> Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
>
>
>
>
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