From ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de Tue Nov 30 12:27:56 1999 From: ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de (Michael Lorenz) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:27:56 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] SPARCBook 3gx and PCMCIA... Message-ID: Greetings ! > I think a 3c509 series is a ISA card, I don't think this will fit into a > sparcbook pcmcia slot...... > The 3c509 (also called EtherLink III )is one of the most widely used ethernet controllers and exists in a variety of designs: there exist at least 4 versions of the 3c509: one for ISA, one for PCI, one for PCMCIA and - maybe I'm wrong here - one for MCA. Maybe there was even an EISA version. bye Michael From rick at tampabay.rr.com Mon Nov 1 23:33:08 1999 From: rick at tampabay.rr.com (Richard S. Bunke) Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 00:33:08 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: > That would be me. X runs now, and I'm working on the uctrl support, but no > PCMCIA, or internal modem support yet. I've been checking the work into > current 2.3 kernels, but I'm at 2.3.5 since currently 2.3 won't run on > sparc32. I can make a kernel available somewhere if people care. I've been running your 2.3.5 kernel that you made availbale for about a month now and it works well ( except I don't think I got the 2.3.5 system map ) I was about to download the kernel source so I could play around with kernel code when I remembered reading this post. I was wondering if the sparc32 portions have been fixed in the current 2.3.24 or should just download 2.3.5? (from my quick peek at the spark linux archive it looked like it wasn't fixed yet, but I thought would ask just to be sure =0) Have Fun Rick From paul at partitura.com Tue Nov 2 09:59:09 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 09:59:09 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] 2.51 and Y2K Message-ID: Does anyone know if the Sparcbooks that Ross Pennington had for sale (with Solaris 2.51 installed) also had the appropriate 2.51 Y2K patches installed? Thanks, Paul Phillips From kfelix at hyperfeed.com Tue Nov 2 10:13:23 1999 From: kfelix at hyperfeed.com (Kenneth Felix) Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 10:13:23 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] 2.51 and Y2K Message-ID: You can get the patches off sun web site. They are free and easy to obtain. BTW: My notebook was not patched. > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Phillips [SMTP:paul at partitura.com] > Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 10:59 AM > To: sparcbook at sunhelp.org > Subject: [SPARCbook] 2.51 and Y2K > > Does anyone know if the Sparcbooks that Ross Pennington had for sale (with > Solaris 2.51 installed) also had the appropriate 2.51 Y2K patches > installed? > > Thanks, > Paul Phillips > > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From scott at scottyelich.com Tue Nov 2 19:57:25 1999 From: scott at scottyelich.com (Scott D. Yelich) Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 18:57:25 -0700 (MST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Re-installing Solaris 2.5.1 ... Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- If someone wanted to install Solaris 2.5.1 on a sparcbook 3X ... what would they have to do in order to get back all the sparcbook specific stuff including NCE? I don't have a tadpole/rdi solaris 2.5.1 disk -- only pure sun dists. It seems like tadpole only has 2.6 stuff on the FTP site -- and no NCE? Scott -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBOB+WhR4PLs9vCOqdAQEgOgP7BE/qR1cG9sYN3kEUqU9J93jDHYYhUpPL UIdjjt+sfa5nHM6LVhYTGX+5vjUy/Yo1A5Yfcg6roW+gE2thogkvwL1uXqd+yc/S bXBG3P3nNBhu7a9G5e4HKALTUgUD7XW5sCFk2Nmm9DtWTpibCBGwExD7RkEcJkQi dxoghn94WFA= =ak+Z -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From dkl at netcom.com Wed Nov 3 02:37:46 1999 From: dkl at netcom.com (Douglas K Landau) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 00:37:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [SPARCbook] 3GX for sale Message-ID: as it came from Ross. has battery, AC, floppy, mech. mouse, modem, case, SCSI cable, printer cable, bit-of-phone cable $600 From shadow at dementia.org Wed Nov 3 15:11:00 1999 From: shadow at dementia.org (Derrick J Brashear) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:11:00 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Richard S. Bunke wrote: > > That would be me. X runs now, and I'm working on the uctrl support, but > no > > PCMCIA, or internal modem support yet. I've been checking the work into > > current 2.3 kernels, but I'm at 2.3.5 since currently 2.3 won't run on > > sparc32. I can make a kernel available somewhere if people care. > > I've been running your 2.3.5 kernel that you made availbale for about a > month now and it works well ( except I don't think I got the 2.3.5 system > map ) I was about to download the kernel source so I could play around > with kernel code when I remembered reading this post. > > I was wondering if the sparc32 portions have been fixed in the current > 2.3.24 or should just download 2.3.5? (from my quick peek at the spark > linux archive it looked like it wasn't fixed yet, but I thought would ask > just to be sure =0) at this point: a) 2.3.24 won't work on sparc32 yet b) the drivers i checked in have been modified to use the new sbus code which doesn't yet work on sparc32 c) stock 2.3.5 plus my drivers apparently isn't good enough as soon as i get back from a trip i'll bring up my sparcbook on the net and put the source somewhere useful -D From len at NETSYS.COM Wed Nov 3 18:23:44 1999 From: len at NETSYS.COM (Len Rose) Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 19:23:44 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Not being sarcastic or anything, genuinely curious. If I wanted a portable that could run Linux( OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc) , I'd rush out and buy a modern, incredibly fast X86 laptop. If I wanted a portable that could run Solaris SPARC applications I'd use (I do) a very slow Tadpole. Can someone help me understand why people take these very slow Tadpoles and install Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc. when they could be using faster X86 laptops? len at netsys.com http://www.netsys.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBOCDSDoef0OvUNu5PAQF3QgQAwkqYYCdaNY18UoTDja5BG9BYnFeNjYU9 I6rBYYmCXGaC8aAfOsS68b4jBjAvZSBiSsW3EYQywcNWoGBEtw7speHxck3qsf5J D0/jFt2ASYtwAw3jUK5LpwNs1S7ovoQMDdDcQLNedXkL8inzPXScVk/XS7AJm8zo 2zSFzYGNBF0= =0ANP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From dowdy at cs.colorado.edu Wed Nov 3 18:44:34 1999 From: dowdy at cs.colorado.edu (Stephen Dowdy) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 17:44:34 -0700 (MST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: Len, > Not being sarcastic or anything, genuinely curious. >.., > Can someone help me understand why people take these very slow Tadpoles and > install Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc. when they could be using faster X86 > laptops? Several reasons: 1) Most of us paid $200 or $400 for these. They have 800x600 TFT LCD displays. Tell me where you can get an equivalent PC Laptop for that price. (any PC laptop i could buy for $200 just isn't very attractive to me) 2) Some of us really despise the entire PC (Pile-o-Crud) architecture. I only use PCs when i absolutely have to. (quality, reliability, interoperability have historically not been high on the PC's list of priorities.) 3) because it's kind of cool (yeah, the dork-factor) --stephen -- Stephen Dowdy - Systems Administrator - CS Dept - Univ of Colorado, Boulder dowdy at cs.colorado.edu - 303-492-6196 - http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dowdy/ { NO Cold Sales Calls !!! } From scott at scottyelich.com Wed Nov 3 18:51:14 1999 From: scott at scottyelich.com (Scott D. Yelich) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 17:51:14 -0700 (MST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Stephen Dowdy wrote: > 3) because it's kind of cool (yeah, the dork-factor) I'm sorry, I just don't get it. It's cool to show up somewhere with a cool sun laptop... and when people swoon, you triumphantly proclaim how well linux runs on it? Sorry, sun = solaris (for me). peecee = whatever, doesn't seem to really matter. Am I missing something somewhere? Scott -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBOCDYgx4PLs9vCOqdAQHozQQAn+rreh61yZh5BdW+BfiGc/MVVaokffbB qlVuWsqoTeQTVKos4zvnIKdjVS9Co+RTWj8isPUp+gAg09tFQeK9ZNlh7+iun3We B/gcS0F0jdtrSu+Je7qx4tRBrRT7XrdMoALjtiejPHMqvI7giEenz2drKL3z5Z1R tgRQ1taz/wo= =QTNP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From rich at alcor.concordia.ca Wed Nov 3 19:00:09 1999 From: rich at alcor.concordia.ca (Rich Lafferty) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 20:00:09 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: Quoting Len Rose (len at NETSYS.COM) from Wed, Nov 03, 1999 at 07:23:44PM -0500: > > Not being sarcastic or anything, genuinely curious. > > If I wanted a portable that could run Linux( OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc) , I'd rush > out and buy a modern, incredibly fast X86 laptop. > > If I wanted a portable that could run Solaris SPARC applications I'd > use (I do) a very slow Tadpole. > > Can someone help me understand why people take these very slow Tadpoles and > install Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc. when they could be using faster X86 > laptops? I can't speak for anyone else, but... I have a G3 running Linux at work that I use for things that require fast computing. But I also have, or use, a VAXstation 4000/60, a Macintosh SE/30, a DECstation 5000, a Toshiba 386 laptop (with a gas-plasma display!) that would survive being run over, an Apple IIe, and soon a NeXT slab. And a Sparcbook 3GX, which is faster than all of the preceding. I've also got two 486s running Linux that I've been using for "work". I haven't put the small army of compact Macs into service yet, but I'll soon have a Classic, a Classic II, another SE/30, an SE, and a Plus up and running. The first SE/30 acted as a webserver for a while. I don't just work with computers. That'd get boring. I play with them too. "Fast" doesn't do much for me anymore. If I need to do something in a hurry, I'll put it on one of the big Alphas at work. For personal machines -- especially ones that aren't a "primary machine", which the sparcbook certainly isn't for me -- I want interesting. The sparcbook's an engineering masterpiece. It's fun to use. It attracts comments from wizards and newbies alike. It's small and rugged. It's a Unix workstation through and through -- not as much an intel-laptop-but-with-a-sparc as it is sparcstation-shrunk-into-a-little-box. Having said *that*, I take exception to a couple of things in your question. Firstly, I don't think I'd call the 3GX 'very slow', and certainly not the 3XTs and such -- they're not gaming machines, and I doubt people are doing quantum mathematics on them, so a 110 or 170MHz sparc is more processor than many people need. On mine, the load seldom hits 1, unless I'm using netscape :-). Second, I'm not sure what sort of faster x86 you'd get for $US 450; looking on eBay I'd get a P133 or P166 with similar RAM, disk and display. The 166 is probably competitive with the 110MHz sparc (with usual cross-architecture caveats), but I don't get sbus, I don't get built-in ethernet, I don't get built-in ISDN, I get a cheap plastic case and probably a cheap flimsy keyboard. I *certainly* don't get a three-button 'mouse'. And I have the same computer as a lot of other people. Oh, and watch how you measure performance -- your "faster" x86 laptops will often have an IO bottleneck. (There's more to it than the processor, after all.) (I wonder if, back when it was barely a kernel that would boot, people said "I wonder why people take this hardly functional Linux kernel when they could be running Xenix, SCO or Minix on their x86?" :-) Oh, and from the Jargon File: hack value n. Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal is a hack. For example, MacLISP had features for reading and printing Roman numerals, which were installed purely for hack value. See _display hack_ (q.v.) for one method of computing hack value, but this cannot really be explained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once said when asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know." The last sentence is particularly apropos. Cheers, -Rich -- ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty --------------------------- Sysadmin/Programmer, Information and Instructional Technology Services Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625 ------------------------- rich at alcor.concordia.ca ---------------------- From rich at alcor.concordia.ca Wed Nov 3 19:02:30 1999 From: rich at alcor.concordia.ca (Rich Lafferty) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 20:02:30 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: Quoting Scott D. Yelich (scott at scottyelich.com) from Wed, Nov 03, 1999 at 05:51:14PM -0700: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > > On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Stephen Dowdy wrote: > > 3) because it's kind of cool (yeah, the dork-factor) > > I'm sorry, I just don't get it. > > It's cool to show up somewhere with a cool sun laptop... Okay, if you've got this part, the second part's easy -- some people don't share your OS preferences, whether for productive reasons or for reasons of hack value. People like different things. > Sorry, sun = solaris (for me). ^^^^^^ See, you do get it! -Rich -- ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty --------------------------- Sysadmin/Programmer, Information and Instructional Technology Services Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625 ------------------------- rich at alcor.concordia.ca ---------------------- From sety at wn.com.au Wed Nov 3 19:14:14 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 01:14:14 +0000 Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: Perhaps they don't know that the older versions of Solaris can be usefull aswell? I have a SPARCbook2, so Linux is out of the question for the moment... Solaris is just as good, though... My SPARCbook CD came with a version of GCC that was modified for use on the Tadpole SPARCbook.. With this, I can compile and run anything I want. I use Afterstep instead of owlm, it has navigator, acrobat, etc.. It's fine :) Cheers, Stuart Duncan Len Rose wrote: > Not being sarcastic or anything, genuinely curious. > > If I wanted a portable that could run Linux( OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc) , I'd rush > out and buy a modern, incredibly fast X86 laptop. > > If I wanted a portable that could run Solaris SPARC applications I'd use (I do) > a very slow Tadpole. > > Can someone help me understand why people take these very slow Tadpoles and > install Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc. when they could be using faster X86 > laptops? > From sety at wn.com.au Wed Nov 3 19:32:42 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 01:32:42 +0000 Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: Scott D. Yelich wrote: > On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Stephen Dowdy wrote: > > 3) because it's kind of cool (yeah, the dork-factor) > > I'm sorry, I just don't get it. > > It's cool to show up somewhere with a cool sun laptop... > and when people swoon, you triumphantly proclaim > how well linux runs on it? > > Sorry, sun = solaris (for me). > peecee = whatever, doesn't seem to really matter. > > Am I missing something somewhere? HAHA! It's still cool to have a Sun laptop, regardless of operating system. It's even better here in Australia, where they're so rare, not many people know that SPARC laptops exist, and will probably never see one (unless they see mine ;) It's fun when "Windows Power-Users" come and try to impress you with how much money they can spend on a laptop and you can say... "Oh.. An Intel? *turned lip* Why would I want one of those? I'll bet it's IDE, too. What's with these cheap plastic cases? Aren't portables supposed to be made from Magnesium Alloy so they don't get broken?" *grin* Cheers, Stuart Duncan From len at NETSYS.COM Wed Nov 3 21:07:13 1999 From: len at NETSYS.COM (Len Rose) Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 22:07:13 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hi Rich! Excuse me, but I use fast sparc machines all the time, and the 3GX is dog slow. I still use it a great deal but I'm a realist. I'm not going to debate anything else you've said with the above exception because I don't want this to turn into some holy war. I honestly wanted to know what others felt about not using Solaris on such a slow machine when there are so much faster laptops around. Maybe I'm a minority but I didn't buy the Tadpoles because they were cheap. I bought them because I needed a portable solaris/sparc platform. Also, I don't consider laptop I/O performance a factor, I don't do I/O intensive applications on laptops anyway because of the almost universally inferior drive performance on any laptop. Also mentioning the SBUS isn't appropriate here since there is no SBUS in my Tadpole..oops, I said I wouldn't debate anything else.. On that note, thanks. > > Firstly, I don't think I'd call the 3GX 'very slow', and certainly not > the 3XTs and such -- they're not gaming machines, and I doubt people > are doing quantum mathematics on them, so a 110 or 170MHz sparc is > more processor than many people need. On mine, the load seldom hits 1, > unless I'm using netscape :-). > > Second, I'm not sure what sort of faster x86 you'd get for $US 450; > looking on eBay I'd get a P133 or P166 with similar RAM, disk and > display. The 166 is probably competitive with the 110MHz sparc (with > usual cross-architecture caveats), but I don't get sbus, I don't get > built-in ethernet, I don't get built-in ISDN, I get a cheap plastic > case and probably a cheap flimsy keyboard. I *certainly* don't get a > three-button 'mouse'. And I have the same computer as a lot of other > people. > > Oh, and watch how you measure performance -- your "faster" x86 laptops > will often have an IO bottleneck. (There's more to it than the > processor, after all.) > > (I wonder if, back when it was barely a kernel that would boot, people > said "I wonder why people take this hardly functional Linux kernel > when they could be running Xenix, SCO or Minix on their x86?" :-) > > Oh, and from the Jargon File: > > hack value n. > > Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward > a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal > is a hack. For example, MacLISP had features for reading and printing > Roman numerals, which were installed purely for hack value. See > _display hack_ (q.v.) for one method of computing hack value, but this > cannot really be explained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once > said when asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never > know." > > The last sentence is particularly apropos. > > Cheers, > > -Rich > > -- > ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty --------------------------- > Sysadmin/Programmer, Information and Instructional Technology Services > Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625 > ------------------------- rich at alcor.concordia.ca ---------------------- len at netsys.com http://www.netsys.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBOCD4YIef0OvUNu5PAQGZtgQAt11C+qq6ZzHHlnkm2Rwh8HOM20tcOb3o m9nSa/I33Tb+/OvbkhYvHpK0E36uotUxjA+aet/opzS3fFzLscHevR1xcXRKetsm 6QIepFo88Gi1lS+DmRbiHM2+PtmbTtNDNZGGX6KbZV0IKZnh3ub8TdXvlDBFRixm 9Y60+ywJc5c= =Dhm8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From whofmann at yahoo.com Thu Nov 4 01:20:38 1999 From: whofmann at yahoo.com (whofmann at yahoo.com) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 00:20:38 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: > > 3) because it's kind of cool (yeah, the dork-factor) > > I'm sorry, I just don't get it. > > It's cool to show up somewhere with a cool sun laptop... > and when people swoon, you triumphantly proclaim > how well linux runs on it? > > Sorry, sun = solaris (for me). > peecee = whatever, doesn't seem to really matter. > > Am I missing something somewhere? Well, from what I've seen, Solaris is wonderful on large machines with the resources and processors to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, for a small single-processor machine with 32MB of ram, Solaris tends to be kind of...well...slow. On a machine with such limited capability, in my experience, linux or netbsd performs noticeably better. Wes Hofmann __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com From whofmann at yahoo.com Thu Nov 4 01:42:43 1999 From: whofmann at yahoo.com (whofmann at yahoo.com) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 00:42:43 -0700 Subject: Compiling (was RE: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX) Message-ID: > Excuse me, but I use fast sparc machines all the time, and the 3GX is > dog slow. I'll agree with that. At work, my workstation is an Ultra10/Creator3D. What I've found to be very nice is using the following value for CFLAGS, "-O2 -msupersparc" when compiling software on my Ultra running Solaris 2.6. I can then just copy the binaries in /usr/local over to my sparcbook (also running solaris 2.6). Needless to say, the ultra compiles MUCH more quickly than my sparcbook. The quesiton is, since they have two different processors, WHY are they binary compatible? What compiler flags SHOULD I be using on the ultra? On the sparcbook? Is there a problem with what I've been doing? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. Wes Hofmann __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com From bmajik at vai.loathe.com Thu Nov 4 02:48:29 1999 From: bmajik at vai.loathe.com (Matt Evans) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 02:48:29 -0600 Subject: Compiling (was RE: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX) Message-ID: whofmann at yahoo.com wrote: > I'll agree with that. At work, my workstation is an Ultra10/Creator3D. > What I've found to be very nice is using the following value for CFLAGS, > "-O2 -msupersparc" when compiling software on my Ultra running Solaris 2.6. > I can then just copy the binaries in /usr/local over to my sparcbook (also > running solaris 2.6). Needless to say, the ultra compiles MUCH more quickly > than my sparcbook. The quesiton is, since they have two different > processors, WHY are they binary compatible? What compiler flags SHOULD I be > using on the ultra? On the sparcbook? Is there a problem with what I've > been doing? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. the Ultra is SPARC v9 architecture, and is a superset of SPARC v8 (the supersparc is included in v8). in other words, when you compile with -O2 -msupersparc, you're building a binary optimized for supersparc chips (which btw, your tadpole isn't, it's a microsparc II) Something like an SS10 or SS20 would be a supersparc (unless it were using ROSS modules, in which case it would be a hypersparc). at any rate, super, micro, microII, and cypress are all different implementations of the sparc v8 architecture. -msupersparc will just tell the compiler to do scheduling optimizations based on the supersparcs internal architecture (multiple issue, cache size assumptions). THis may be less than optimum on your tadpole. It is certainly less than optimum on the Ultra, but not that bad. For maximum performance out of the ultra you'd probably want to specify sparc v9 instructions. currently, gcc can't do this to the best of my knowledge. the best you can do with gcc is probably something like gcc -O3 -mv8 for your tadpole if you have Sun's cc/CC, you can do much better IMO. things like cc -O5 -xchip=super exist. you can even specify the L1/L2 caches sizes of the target processor. Sun's cc is very comprehensive. if you have it available somewhere, to get the best performance out of your tadpole, you might try cc -xO4 -xtarget=ss5 Note that this is as of SC 4.2. 5.0 probably has more options and features, and better support for ultra machines. -- Matt Evans email: mevans at cse.unl.edu web: www.loathe.com/~bmajik "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." - Genesis 6:5 From whofmann at yahoo.com Thu Nov 4 02:52:34 1999 From: whofmann at yahoo.com (whofmann at yahoo.com) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 01:52:34 -0700 Subject: Compiling (was RE: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX) Message-ID: Thanks for all of your info, but I have one remaining quesiton: What would be the optimum gcc command to compile software under the SparcBook? Thanks! Wes > > whofmann at yahoo.com wrote: > > I'll agree with that. At work, my workstation is an > Ultra10/Creator3D. > > What I've found to be very nice is using the following > value for CFLAGS, > > "-O2 -msupersparc" when compiling software on my Ultra > running Solaris 2.6. > > I can then just copy the binaries in /usr/local over to my > sparcbook (also > > running solaris 2.6). Needless to say, the ultra compiles > MUCH more quickly > > than my sparcbook. The quesiton is, since they have two different > > processors, WHY are they binary compatible? What compiler > flags SHOULD I be > > using on the ultra? On the sparcbook? Is there a problem > with what I've > > been doing? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. > > the Ultra is SPARC v9 architecture, and is a superset of SPARC v8 (the > supersparc is included in v8). > > in other words, when you compile with -O2 -msupersparc, > you're building > a binary optimized for supersparc chips (which btw, your > tadpole isn't, > it's > a microsparc II) Something like an SS10 or SS20 would be a supersparc > (unless it were using ROSS modules, in which case it would be a > hypersparc). > > at any rate, super, micro, microII, and cypress are all different > implementations of the sparc v8 architecture. -msupersparc > will just tell > the compiler to do scheduling optimizations based on the supersparcs > internal architecture (multiple issue, cache size > assumptions). THis may > be less than optimum on your tadpole. It is certainly less > than optimum on > the Ultra, but not that bad. > > For maximum performance out of the ultra you'd probably want > to specify > sparc v9 instructions. currently, gcc can't do this to the best of my > knowledge. the best you can do with gcc is probably something like > > gcc -O3 -mv8 > > for your tadpole > > if you have Sun's cc/CC, you can do much better IMO. things like > > cc -O5 -xchip=super exist. you can even specify the L1/L2 > caches sizes of > the target processor. Sun's cc is very comprehensive. if you have it > available > somewhere, to get the best performance out of your tadpole, > you might try > > cc -xO4 -xtarget=ss5 > > Note that this is as of SC 4.2. 5.0 probably has more options and > features, > and better support for ultra machines. > > -- > Matt Evans email: mevans at cse.unl.edu web: > www.loathe.com/~bmajik > "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the > earth, and that > every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil > continually." > - Genesis 6:5 > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com From aheitner at andrew.cmu.edu Thu Nov 4 07:43:48 1999 From: aheitner at andrew.cmu.edu (Ari Heitner) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 08:43:48 -0500 (EST) Subject: Compiling (was RE: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX) Message-ID: Just a further note: SPARC has interesting backwards compatibility from the 64bit SPARCs to the 32bit ones. In general user applications (stuff that you're not that obsessed for speed over) are just compiled to work on v8's -- I steal plenty of utilities and whatever else for my SB3 off of the Ultra's I use day-to-day, and everything always works, except for library compatibilities :(. This is of course truly bizarre for a 64bit chip -- Merced sure won't run i386 stuff natively (it'll have a separate P6 core for doing that). But the Ultras have something called 32bit userland, which is for user-mode apps. So the OS kernel has to be 64bit, but most of your apps don't have to be -- and it doesn't make sense for them to be, since 64bit apps waste a lot of memory on all those big pointers. Your typical UltraSPARC Linux distribution -- say Debian UltraSPARC -- has a kernel specially compiled with egcs64, the 64bit-specific compiler, along with a _few_ userland apps compiled 64bit. Everything else is the same as the standard Debian distro for 32bit SPARCs. I of course find it tremendously amusing to run the same stuff on an Ultra-60 and my SPARCStation 1+ :) Ari Heitner DC: 703/5733512 CMU: 412/8622699 www.singularity-software.com "You know how your whole life flashes in front of your eyes before you die? That's just gdb unwinding the call stack . . . " From rogoyski at cs.utexas.edu Thu Nov 4 09:09:37 1999 From: rogoyski at cs.utexas.edu (Adam Rogoyski) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 09:09:37 -0600 (CST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Len Rose wrote: > Excuse me, but I use fast sparc machines all the time, and the 3GX is > dog slow. I still use it a great deal but I'm a realist. I'm not going to debate > anything else you've said with the above exception because I don't want this to > turn into some holy war. I honestly wanted to know what others felt about not > using Solaris on such a slow machine when there are so much faster laptops > around. Maybe I'm a minority but I didn't buy the Tadpoles because they were Why is buying a laptop to run Solaris any different from buying a laptop to run OpenBSD or NetBSD or Linux or whatever? You are right, there are much faster laptops around, and you can run Solaris on those intel laptops as well, just like BSD and Linux. You can argue this over scsi/ide, intel/sun, sun5/ibm keyboard, whatever. Different things suit different people at different times. Adam From jmeacham at hume.jhuccp.org Thu Nov 4 05:10:25 1999 From: jmeacham at hume.jhuccp.org (James Meacham) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 06:10:25 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: Just wanted to add my two cents in on this discussion. I have to agree that the 3GX is not the most peppy machine in the world, particularly running solaris. And it's true that the level of quality of the hardware, and particularly the hardware integration, is much higher than it would be in similarly priced intel machines. For me, the deciding factor was the unix-centricity of the sparcbook. I could get a P133 and run Linux on it, sure, and it might even be as fast, but intel machines are not designed with my mind in mind. I'm a unix geek for 10 years now, and I appreciate that this is a machine that is designed for a particular OS, and that OS happens to be one I can be productive in without a lot of arm-twisting. For years, because I used originally Macs, then NeXTs, then Suns, I have been totally, blissfully ignorant of the configuration of my hardware. They just work. So I decided to go with the sparcbook because I knew I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time making the system work (and again, where can you get decent P133 laptop with SCSI/ISDN/Sound/800X600vid/Externalvid/PCMCIA/Ethernet?) Peace, James On 04-Nov-99 Adam Rogoyski wrote: > On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Len Rose wrote: >> Excuse me, but I use fast sparc machines all the time, and the 3GX is >> dog slow. I still use it a great deal but I'm a realist. I'm not going to >> debate >> anything else you've said with the above exception because I don't want this >> to >> turn into some holy war. I honestly wanted to know what others felt about >> not >> using Solaris on such a slow machine when there are so much faster laptops >> around. Maybe I'm a minority but I didn't buy the Tadpoles because they were > > Why is buying a laptop to run Solaris any different from buying a > laptop to run OpenBSD or NetBSD or Linux or whatever? You are right, > there are much faster laptops around, and you can run Solaris on those > intel laptops as well, just like BSD and Linux. You can argue this over > scsi/ide, intel/sun, sun5/ibm keyboard, whatever. Different things suit > different people at different times. > > Adam > > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook James David Meacham, 3rd System Administrator/Internet Systems Specialist JHU Center for Communication Programs 410.659.6367 (office) 410.619.6760 (pager) From scottb at iis.com Thu Nov 4 09:40:18 1999 From: scottb at iis.com (Scott Bartram) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 10:40:18 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX Message-ID: 1. I use Solaris at work and I occasionally want to use it at home but I didn't have (until now) a Sparc box at home. 2. I hack NetBSD alot and I now have another platform to use that I didn't have before. All that for $200! Pretty good deal, I'd say. ;-) Len Rose wrote: > > Not being sarcastic or anything, genuinely curious. > > If I wanted a portable that could run Linux( OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc) , I'd rush > out and buy a modern, incredibly fast X86 laptop. > > If I wanted a portable that could run Solaris SPARC applications I'd use (I do) > a very slow Tadpole. > > Can someone help me understand why people take these very slow Tadpoles and > install Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc. when they could be using faster X86 > laptops? > > len at netsys.com > http://www.netsys.com From dkl at netcom.com Thu Nov 4 11:32:32 1999 From: dkl at netcom.com (Douglas K Landau) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 09:32:32 -0800 (PST) Subject: [SPARCbook] re: linux on GX (fwd) Message-ID: 1600x1200. I use mine in 1600x1200 mode and use the rk24 font for everything. one of these days I'm going to invest 5 min and come up with some better fonts. > SCSI/ISDN/Sound/800X600vid/Externalvid/PCMCIA/Ethernet?) From paul at partitura.com Fri Nov 5 07:52:15 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 07:52:15 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: On ebay I have seen copies of Solaris for sale. Some say Solaris 2.51 server edition. Others say 2.51 workstation edition. Some say nothing... Is there a real difference between server and workstation editions of Solaris, or are these just packaging terms? Thanks, Paul Phillips From canavan at xmailer.informatik.uni-bonn.de Fri Nov 5 07:57:37 1999 From: canavan at xmailer.informatik.uni-bonn.de (Rainer Canavan) Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 14:57:37 +0100 (MET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: > > On ebay I have seen copies of Solaris for sale. Some say Solaris 2.51 > server edition. Others say 2.51 workstation edition. Some say > nothing... > > Is there a real difference between server and workstation editions of > Solaris, or are these just packaging terms? > > Thanks, > Paul Phillips Hmmm, I have Solaris 2.5.1, and I tried multiple times to install it on my sparcbook, but i can't get the save/resume feature to work, whatever I try. (restoring the old stuff with ufsrestore, tar, just plain copy over NFS, no luck until now) Is there some magic trick involved, or do I need the tadpole Solaris CDs? Or is there anybody who has the tadpole patches and NCE2 for 2.5.1, and wants to get rid of it? Rainer From lambert at ecst.csuchico.edu Fri Nov 5 14:09:54 1999 From: lambert at ecst.csuchico.edu (Tyson J. Lambert) Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 12:09:54 -0800 (PST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: I assume you've tried the downloadable NCE and patches from tadpole's ftp site? That and make sure you have the extra xx mb partition where xx is mb of ram. Other than that. don't know what the problem could be. > Hmmm, I have Solaris 2.5.1, and I tried multiple times to install it > on my sparcbook, but i can't get the save/resume feature to work, > whatever I try. (restoring the old stuff with ufsrestore, tar, just plain copy > over NFS, no luck until now) > > Is there some magic trick involved, or do I need the tadpole Solaris > CDs? Or is there anybody who has the tadpole patches and NCE2 for > 2.5.1, and wants to get rid of it? > > > Rainer > > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > From lambert at ecst.csuchico.edu Fri Nov 5 14:12:13 1999 From: lambert at ecst.csuchico.edu (Tyson J. Lambert) Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 12:12:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: [SPARCbook] sundoom Message-ID: This is kindof an odd question, but has anyone out there gotten sundoom working on a 3gx? I can get it to start but after about 3 seconds of play I get a bus error. Anyone know what the problem could be? Thanks -Tyson From tanabi at bellsouth.net Sat Nov 6 01:38:48 1999 From: tanabi at bellsouth.net (Steve Conley) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 02:38:48 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: Could be the soundserver barfing (this frequently happens). Edit the .doomrc file in your home directory, find the "sndserver" and change it to "./sndserver". Try again. If that doens't work, move the "sndserver" file to some other filename like "biteme" and try again. If that doesn't work, then I dunno what hte problem is. However, that's a problem on every Solaris machine I've played sundoom on. TTYL, Steve Tyson J. Lambert wrote: > > I assume you've tried the downloadable NCE and patches from tadpole's ftp > site? That and make sure you have the extra xx mb partition where xx is > mb of ram. Other than that. don't know what the problem could be. > > > Hmmm, I have Solaris 2.5.1, and I tried multiple times to install it > > on my sparcbook, but i can't get the save/resume feature to work, > > whatever I try. (restoring the old stuff with ufsrestore, tar, just plain copy > > over NFS, no luck until now) > > > > Is there some magic trick involved, or do I need the tadpole Solaris > > CDs? Or is there anybody who has the tadpole patches and NCE2 for > > 2.5.1, and wants to get rid of it? > > > > > > Rainer > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From tanabi at bellsouth.net Sat Nov 6 01:39:48 1999 From: tanabi at bellsouth.net (Steve Conley) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 02:39:48 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] WHOOPS Sun Doom mixup Message-ID: I replied to the wrong message. Whoever had the sundoom message, read my reply to Solaris server or workstation SORRY EVERYONE!! Steve From lambert at ecst.csuchico.edu Sat Nov 6 04:52:30 1999 From: lambert at ecst.csuchico.edu (Tyson J. Lambert) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 02:52:30 -0800 (PST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: on the sunxdoom, setting the path to the curr directories worked. it was hosing on sndserver. Thanks Does anyone know how to get it to run in a higher res in X than 320x200? thanks again -Ty From jeisch at boku.net Sat Nov 6 04:55:20 1999 From: jeisch at boku.net (Jonathan Eisch) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 04:55:20 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: "Tyson J. Lambert" wrote: > Does anyone know how to get it to run in a higher res in X than 320x200? yeah, run it with the '-2' option to double the size. -3 to triple, but I doubt you can do that on a sparcbook. -Jonathan From ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de Sat Nov 6 06:56:56 1999 From: ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de (Michael Lorenz) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 13:56:56 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: Greetings ! > on the sunxdoom, setting the path to the curr directories worked. it was > hosing on sndserver. Thanks > > Does anyone know how to get it to run in a higher res in X than 320x200? sundgadoom -2 doubles every pixel, -3 triples it... "real" higher resolution is impossible with sundgadoom but maybe there exists another solaris doom port which supports this ( have a look at www.doomworld.com, look for the source ports area ) bye Michael From paul at partitura.com Sat Nov 6 12:42:28 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 12:42:28 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] 2.1 gig drive Message-ID: If anyone has upgraded their Sparcbook to a larger hard drive and is interested in selling the old 2.1 gig Tadpole drive, please let me know. I would need both the drive and the SCSI adapter card. (Note - I'm not interested in the 1.2 gig drive...) Also, I'm interested in putting Solaris 2.6 on my Sparcbook. If anyone has a copy they want to sell, please let me know. Thanks! Paul Phillips paul at partitura.com From jmeacham at hume.jhuccp.org Sat Nov 6 09:02:35 1999 From: jmeacham at hume.jhuccp.org (James Meacham) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 10:02:35 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] pgkadd doesn't work on TAD* packages Message-ID: I'm probably showing my ignorance of things sun (I'm a BSD/Linux hand), but I can't get the pkgadd utility to work on the TAD* packages downloaded from Tadpole-RDI for my new Solaris 2.6 installation. The fact that these packages aren't in standard tar.g?[zZ] format makes this a mystery for me. For example: pkgadd -d /opt/TADaudio yeilds: pkgadd: ERROR: no packages were found in Any suggestions from a Sun adept to help out with this. Thank! Peace, James From whofmann at yahoo.com Sat Nov 6 14:09:56 1999 From: whofmann at yahoo.com (Wes Hofmann) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 13:09:56 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] pgkadd doesn't work on TAD* packages Message-ID: Try going into the directory containing TADaudio and typing: pkgadd -d . And see what happens. Hope this helps! Wes Hofmann > I'm probably showing my ignorance of things sun (I'm a > BSD/Linux hand), > but I can't get the pkgadd utility to work on the TAD* > packages downloaded > from Tadpole-RDI for my new Solaris 2.6 installation. The > fact that these > packages aren't in standard tar.g?[zZ] format makes this a > mystery for me. > For example: > > pkgadd -d /opt/TADaudio > > yeilds: > > pkgadd: ERROR: no packages were found in > > Any suggestions from a Sun adept to help out with this. > Thank! Peace, > > James > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com From tclaret at cybercable.fr Fri Nov 5 19:13:41 1999 From: tclaret at cybercable.fr (Claret) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 02:13:41 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris server or workstation Message-ID: You need a special partition for your save & resume. Take a look to the pdf files : ftp://ftp.tadpole.com/pub/s3000_userguide.pdf ftp://ftp.tadpole.com/solaris2x_installation_guide.pdf -- Thierry CLARET Paris tclaret at cybercable.fr claret_t at admiral.fr From godfreyb at cmu.edu Sun Nov 7 01:28:11 1999 From: godfreyb at cmu.edu (Brighten Godfrey) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 02:28:11 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] sundoom Message-ID: On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Tyson J. Lambert wrote: > This is kindof an odd question, but has anyone out there gotten sundoom > working on a 3gx? I can get it to start but after about 3 seconds of play > I get a bus error. Anyone know what the problem could be? I downloaded Doom 1.8 from a site linked off sunhelp.org (towards the bottom of the page). It worked fine for me, after I did two things: 0. I run it when cd'd into the Doom directory. I think you can set up symlinks or edit your .doomrc instead, but as I only play doom about once a week, I'm lazy. :-) There is a description of this problem in the readme file, I believe, or on the web site. 1. Make sure you're running the sunxdoom binary and not sundgadoom, which won't work on SparcBooks as the frame buffer is not supported. (sunxdoom doesn't access the framebuffer directly). HTH, Brighten ___________________________________________________________________________ Brighten Godfrey | godfreyb at cmu.edu | godfreyb at bigw.org | brighten.bigw.org From paul at partitura.com Sun Nov 7 19:45:33 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 19:45:33 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] disassembling the sled Message-ID: Sparcbook 3GX -- Well, I'm trying to disassemble the sled that holds the hard drive. It is easy enough to see how the top and bottom plastic parts separate from one another. However, I can't figure out how to get the little "sliding" piece off the end without breaking it. This is the piece that the user slides down on the outside to pull the drive out of the sparcbook. Any advice? Paul Phillips From rich at alcor.concordia.ca Sun Nov 7 20:25:04 1999 From: rich at alcor.concordia.ca (Rich Lafferty) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 21:25:04 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: Hi, I'm just about to send in my dead (watchdog resets even with known-good memory) 3GX into Tadpole to see what they can do with it. I've had difficulty getting responses out of them by email, although I suspect it'll be better when I find someone on the phone. Has anyone on the list had any experience with Tadpole support? How'd it go, if so? Any caveats? -Rich -- ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty --------------------------- Sysadmin/Programmer, Information and Instructional Technology Services Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625 ------------------------- rich at alcor.concordia.ca ---------------------- From jeisch at boku.net Sun Nov 7 20:31:09 1999 From: jeisch at boku.net (Jonathan Eisch) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 20:31:09 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: Gosh, I'd think you could get a new one for the price of sending one into Tadpole. I had a watchdog reset for a while, when my sister turned the system on with the battery at 3%. Can you boot from a cdrom, maybe you just need to clear out your suspend file. I don't know, but I'd be dead sure that it doesn't work before sending it off. -Jonathan Rich Lafferty wrote: > > Hi, > > I'm just about to send in my dead (watchdog resets even with known-good > memory) 3GX into Tadpole to see what they can do with it. I've had > difficulty getting responses out of them by email, although I suspect > it'll be better when I find someone on the phone. Has anyone on the > list had any experience with Tadpole support? How'd it go, if so? > Any caveats? > > -Rich > > -- > ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty --------------------------- > Sysadmin/Programmer, Information and Instructional Technology Services > Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625 > ------------------------- rich at alcor.concordia.ca ---------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From rich at alcor.concordia.ca Sun Nov 7 20:48:04 1999 From: rich at alcor.concordia.ca (Rich Lafferty) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 21:48:04 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: Quoting Jonathan Eisch (jeisch at boku.net) from Sun, Nov 07, 1999 at 08:31:09PM -0600: > Gosh, I'd think you could get a new one for the price of sending one > into Tadpole. I had a watchdog reset for a while, when my sister turned > the system on with the battery at 3%. Can you boot from a cdrom, maybe > you just need to clear out your suspend file. Hrm. I don't *think* it's that -- this guy doesn't even get to the openboot prompt. Just cycles through watchdog resets (in the little status LCD display) until there's no power left. When you had your problem, were you able to get to the boot prompt, or was it this early? How would I go about telling it to look at a cdrom? -Rich -- ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty --------------------------- Sysadmin/Programmer, Information and Instructional Technology Services Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625 ------------------------- rich at alcor.concordia.ca ---------------------- From ebusto at hotmail.com Sun Nov 7 21:35:48 1999 From: ebusto at hotmail.com (Eric Busto) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 19:35:48 PST Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: On this note.. has anyone had display problems with their sparcbook? The display is all scrambled and relatively incomprehensible except for a few portions which seem to be perfectly clear. Also, after sitting around for a bit, ie.. at the CDE login prompt, it seems to clear up, but goes nuts as soon as there is any screen activity. Any ideas? -Eric ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From nmanisca at vt.edu Sun Nov 7 21:53:50 1999 From: nmanisca at vt.edu (nm) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 22:53:50 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: I had something similar and noticed that if I twist the display around it sometimes fixes it. Recently I took the cover off of the display and found a set of plugs to on one side that were loose, I unplugged them and plugged them back in securly and the display has wored well since then. Nick At 07:35 PM 11/7/99 -0800, you wrote: > > >On this note.. has anyone had display problems with their sparcbook? The >display is all scrambled and relatively incomprehensible except for a few >portions which seem to be perfectly clear. Also, after sitting around for a >bit, ie.. at the CDE login prompt, it seems to clear up, but goes nuts as >soon as there is any screen activity. Any ideas? > >-Eric > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > >_______________________________________________ >Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org >http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > From jeisch at boku.net Sun Nov 7 21:58:30 1999 From: jeisch at boku.net (Jonathan Eisch) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 21:58:30 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: Rich Lafferty wrote: > Hrm. I don't *think* it's that -- this guy doesn't even get to the > openboot prompt. Just cycles through watchdog resets (in the little > status LCD display) until there's no power left. When you had your > problem, were you able to get to the boot prompt, or was it this oh, ouch. I'd still wonder about the cost of getting it repaired vs. a new one. -Jonathan From ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de Mon Nov 8 01:32:17 1999 From: ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de (Michael Lorenz) Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 08:32:17 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris 2.6 Message-ID: Greetings ... I just installes Solaris 2.6 ( I found a CD with nearly complete SPARCBook-support ) - works great but goes dog slow when awakened from a suspend, as if they set down the clock and don't remember to set it up again upon wakeup... any idea ? bye Michael From Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl Mon Nov 8 03:39:23 1999 From: Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl (Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 10:39:23 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris 2.6 Message-ID: On Mon, 8 Nov 1999, Michael Lorenz wrote: > I just installes Solaris 2.6 ( I found a CD with nearly complete > SPARCBook-support ) - works great but goes dog slow when awakened from a > suspend, as if they set down the clock and don't remember to set it up > again upon wakeup... any idea ? Did you install: - Tadpole packages? - Tadpole fixes? - Solaris fixes? Hugo. -- Hugo van der Kooij; Oranje Nassaustraat 16; 3155 VJ Maasland hvdkooij at caiw.nl http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~hvdkooij/ -------------------------------------------------------------- Use of any of my email addresses for unsollicited (commercial) email is a clear intrusion of my privacy and illegal! From mmayer at iname.com Mon Nov 8 07:40:07 1999 From: mmayer at iname.com (Markus Mayer) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 14:40:07 +0100 (MET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Upgrading a 3GX Message-ID: Hi! I've got a 3GX with 32MB RAM and a 1.2 GB SCSI-disk. It looks as if I might have to get myself a new hard-disk. Sometimes the system issues SCSI error-messages accessing the disk. Occasionally the system even hangs (probably because an error occurred accessing swap). Read-only testing the drive using 'format' showed no bad blocks however. Since I'm almost out of space, a bigger disk would be nice anyway. Has anybody successfully upgraded from a real SCSI-disk (i. e. bought an IDE- converter)? Any experience with those SCSI-converted HDs offered by www.powerbook1.com and www.powerbookguy.com? While I'm at it, I also thought about more RAM. Is there a chance that the internal battery will still fit if I buy my RAM at one of the 3 stores listed in the Sparcbook FAQ? Thanks for your help. Regards, Markus From ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de Mon Nov 8 06:14:31 1999 From: ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de (Michael Lorenz) Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 13:14:31 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Solaris 2.6 Message-ID: Greetings ! > > I just installes Solaris 2.6 ( I found a CD with nearly complete > > SPARCBook-support ) - works great but goes dog slow when awakened from a > > suspend, as if they set down the clock and don't remember to set it up > > again upon wakeup... any idea ? > > Did you install: > - Tadpole packages? > - Tadpole fixes? > - Solaris fixes? > 3x yes, maybe the patches from tadpole sort of interfere with the sparcboot packages from the Solaris CD ? bye michael From tclaret at cybercable.fr Mon Nov 8 12:39:27 1999 From: tclaret at cybercable.fr (Claret) Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 19:39:27 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Upgrading a 3GXd Message-ID: If you upgrade for a bigger disk I'm interested by you 1.2 GB SCSI-disk. I have a sparbook3 and a 528 GB disk... I have to desinstall something if I want to install GCC.... -- Thierry CLARET Paris tclaret at cybercable.fr claret_t at admiral.fr From sety at wn.com.au Mon Nov 8 17:33:50 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 23:33:50 +0000 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole service experiences? Message-ID: Yeah... Tadpole-RDI sucks. They're realy not interested in supporting personal SPARCbooks. Send it to the UK. They're nice there. I was even able to call them for information on my SPARCbook 2. Cheers, Stuart Duncan Rich Lafferty wrote: > > Hi, > > I'm just about to send in my dead (watchdog resets even with known-good > memory) 3GX into Tadpole to see what they can do with it. I've had > difficulty getting responses out of them by email, although I suspect > it'll be better when I find someone on the phone. Has anyone on the > list had any experience with Tadpole support? How'd it go, if so? > Any caveats? > > -Rich > > From pc at NOSPAM-wintix.fr Mon Nov 8 18:03:36 1999 From: pc at NOSPAM-wintix.fr (Christian Edmond) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 01:03:36 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] new one test only Message-ID: Message en plusieurs parties et au format MIME. ------=_NextPart_000_0004_01BF2A4E.404C9680 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable ------=_NextPart_000_0004_01BF2A4E.404C9680 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
------=_NextPart_000_0004_01BF2A4E.404C9680-- From jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com Tue Nov 9 11:09:26 1999 From: jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com (Matthews, Jack) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 10:09:26 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] Re:Upgrading a Sparcbook 3GX Message-ID: This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------ =_NextPart_000_01BF2AD5.2D13EA46 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The hard disks are hard to find. The RAM can be upgraded without any issues of interference by the original battery. However, If you are using Solaris 2.5.1 you will have to increase the size of your hard = disk slice to accomidate the extra RAM so your hard disk has even less = space. Kind of a catch 22. Upgrading to Solaris 2.6 will remedy this as it handles desktop saves = in a different manner. Bricks=A0-=A0Looks, history, permanence, performance, heritage. <>=20 ------ =_NextPart_000_01BF2AD5.2D13EA46 Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="Matthews, Jack.vcf" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Matthews, Jack.vcf" BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 N:Matthews;Jack FN:Matthews, Jack EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com REV:19990730T163136Z END:VCARD ------ =_NextPart_000_01BF2AD5.2D13EA46-- From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Thu Nov 11 10:26:49 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 11:26:49 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: I was just given a sparcbook 2 that seems to be all there, and boots into the rom monitor, but won't find vmunix. I have the SparcBook solaris 1.0.1 B.1, and would like to use that since it is a sunos distribution and should have a c compiler still. Alas, I don't have that silly 36 pin scsi cable thingie. Can it be netbooted enough to work from something like a FreeBSD or SunOS sun4 or OpenBSD IPX box? Thanks Bob From paul at partitura.com Thu Nov 11 10:26:51 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 10:26:51 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] sys-unconfig Message-ID: When I first got my Sparcbook (Solaris 2.51), I wanted to attach it to my LAN, so I used the sys-unconfig command, and it asked for all my network parameters. It worked fine. Soon, I am going to take the plunge and install Solaris 2.6. I will also want to take the Sparcbook out on the road and use ppp. Obviously when I use ppp all my networking parameters will be different. Do I use sys-unconfig again to tell it I am not attached to the LAN any more? If so, what parameters do I put in for IP address, etc, when ppp will assign all those dynamically? Or is there some other way to correctly change the networking parameters from fixed IP on a LAN to dynamic IP over ppp? Thanks, Paul Phillips From pete.schmidt at onrpinc.com Thu Nov 11 10:50:40 1999 From: pete.schmidt at onrpinc.com (Pete Schmidt) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 11:50:40 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] sys-unconfig Message-ID: Do not use sys-unconfig for routine changes in interface! What you need to do is configure your network interface to work on your network and configure aspppd to dial your modem. Set /etc/gateways to prevent routing between the two interfaces. Solaris is designed to work with machines that have multiple interfaces. All of this is documented in the man pages. Start with aspppd. I have only used aspppd, on Solaris 2.51, hopefully on 2.6 it is better. -pete > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Phillips [mailto:paul at partitura.com] > Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 11:27 AM > To: sparcbook at sunhelp.org > Subject: [SPARCbook] sys-unconfig > > > When I first got my Sparcbook (Solaris 2.51), I wanted to > attach it to my LAN, so > I used the sys-unconfig command, and it asked for all my > network parameters. It > worked fine. > > Soon, I am going to take the plunge and install Solaris 2.6. > I will also want to > take the Sparcbook out on the road and use ppp. Obviously > when I use ppp all my > networking parameters will be different. Do I use > sys-unconfig again to tell it > I am not attached to the LAN any more? If so, what > parameters do I put in for IP > address, etc, when ppp will assign all those dynamically? > > Or is there some other way to correctly change the networking > parameters from > fixed IP on a LAN to dynamic IP over ppp? > > Thanks, > Paul Phillips > > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > From ltemplin at monolith.leonine.com Thu Nov 11 12:03:28 1999 From: ltemplin at monolith.leonine.com (Lion Templin) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 12:03:28 -0600 (CST) Subject: [SPARCbook] sys-unconfig Message-ID: On Thu, 11 Nov 1999, Pete Schmidt wrote: > your network and configure aspppd to dial your modem. Set > /etc/gateways to prevent routing between the two interfaces. > Solaris is designed to work with machines that have multiple > I, honestly, just 'ifconfig' and 'route' when it comes time to move between networks. > All of this is documented in the man pages. Start with > aspppd. I have only used aspppd, on Solaris 2.51, hopefully > on 2.6 it is better. > I also use the common "pppd" package that you'll find on most Linux installs. (Yes, it compiles on Solaris, and more!) http://www.freshmeat.net/appindex/1998/04/24/893447159.html Lion = lion is Lion J Templin (KB9ENE) lion at leonine.com = = || // ||> UNIX Systems Consulting for the = = ||=EONINE \\OMPUTATIONAL ||\ESOURCES Northland FROM the Northland = = UNIX Systems Consultants http://www.leonine.com = From kurthuhn at k-huhn.com Fri Nov 12 19:00:34 1999 From: kurthuhn at k-huhn.com (Kurt Huhn) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 17:00:34 -0800 Subject: [SPARCbook] 3Com 3c589b/c Message-ID: Has anyone been able to get a 3c589b or c pcmcia NIC to work on thier sparcbook? I'd like to get it working so can dump the transciever and cable and use the PCMCIA NIC instead. I found in the FAQ that it is supported, but no how-tos on the subject. If anyone can point me in the right direction I'm all ears. Kurt From sety at wn.com.au Fri Nov 12 22:26:01 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 04:26:01 +0000 Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: Bing :) Yes, it can be net installed, but the unit will need to have a working hard disk. If you need more information on this, let me know. However, in this case, I suspect that SPARCbook OS is already installed and you just have a problem with a flat NVRAM battery. Do this... Boot operating system or file Boot alterate file Boot from hard disk > 3 1 vmunix If it's not there, try... > 0 1 vmunix Let me know how you go Cheers, Stuart Duncan BSD Bob wrote: > > I was just given a sparcbook 2 that seems to be all there, and boots > into the rom monitor, but won't find vmunix. I have the SparcBook > solaris 1.0.1 B.1, and would like to use that since it is a sunos > distribution and should have a c compiler still. Alas, I don't > have that silly 36 pin scsi cable thingie. Can it be netbooted > enough to work from something like a FreeBSD or SunOS sun4 or > OpenBSD IPX box? > > Thanks > > Bob > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From rick at tampabay.rr.com Sun Nov 14 21:09:00 1999 From: rick at tampabay.rr.com (Richard S. Bunke) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 22:09:00 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] xwindows keys? Message-ID: I have the enlightenment window manager running on my 3GX under linux. I can't seem to get my alt key work properly. By default Enlightenment has it's key bindings set up so that when you alt+left click any where on a window it's suppose to move that window, and when you alt+right click any where on a window it's suppose to bring up a win_ops menu. On my 3GX alt does not change the click action at all. Does any one know how to get the Alt button working normally? Rick From jmeacham at hume.jhuccp.org Sun Nov 14 17:19:40 1999 From: jmeacham at hume.jhuccp.org (James Meacham) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 18:19:40 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] How to change screen res/pixel depth w/o TAD utilities Message-ID: I don't know whether it is my own lack of expereince with Solaris or a bug in the system somewhere, but I can't get the TAD packages from the Tadpole FTP site to install on my 3GX with a non-Tadpole install of Solaris 2.6. I posted about this before, but none of the suggestions took care of the entire problem (i.e. some of the Solaris packages installed with pkgadd -d . , but the TADpole ones didn't). In any event, I'b sick if 8 bit color at 800X600, and I was wondering the quick way to change it to something in 16 bit and, if possible, with a larger virtual screen. If this was Linux or BSD, I'd have it done in a second, but I'm right now just getting my solaris (as opposted to SunOS4.0, which I used some years ago) legs. Thanks very much. Peace, James From jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com Mon Nov 15 09:49:52 1999 From: jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com (Matthews, Jack) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 08:49:52 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] Best Hard drive configuration Message-ID: This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------ =_NextPart_000_01BF2F81.10F475AA Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I have two Sparcbooks 3GX and 3TX they bothe have the 1.2GB hard drive. While I am running Solaris 2.6 on each I was wondering if any one feels they have the best (robust) partitioning? Swap file not withstanding. thanks for any advice you can lend. Bricks=A0-=A0Looks, history, permanence, performance, heritage. <>=20 ------ =_NextPart_000_01BF2F81.10F475AA Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="Matthews, Jack.vcf" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Matthews, Jack.vcf" BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 N:Matthews;Jack FN:Matthews, Jack EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com REV:19990730T163136Z END:VCARD ------ =_NextPart_000_01BF2F81.10F475AA-- From jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com Mon Nov 15 10:01:01 1999 From: jmatthews at robinsonbrick.com (Matthews, Jack) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:01:01 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] Best Hard drive configuration Message-ID: I have two Sparcbooks 3GX and 3TX they bothe have the 1.2GB hard drive. While I am running Solaris 2.6 on each I was wondering if any one feels they have the best (robust) partitioning? Swap file not withstanding. thanks for any advice you can lend. From scott at scottyelich.com Mon Nov 15 10:08:38 1999 From: scott at scottyelich.com (Scott D. Yelich) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:08:38 -0700 (MST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Best Hard drive configuration Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Just make / and swap. Scott -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBODAwBh4PLs9vCOqdAQHp2AQA0yFhpXiUmvvWK0HqraYTmeWL3P1tC30y ELJppHKH/J4xx74QTdbOiFAWLS7N8HbylC4KyzRty6xVYXpcgVTbA3HFwJ0JUIGN 80Rq5B0d5AxzqG97ew3sA1g7LI8MzM9TDtYiXkUkAak1cf+ydEyrWXE9f2PZ2E5y 4rpMmLKSbsw= =8wss -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From dowdy at cs.colorado.edu Mon Nov 15 10:35:38 1999 From: dowdy at cs.colorado.edu (Stephen Dowdy) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:35:38 -0700 (MST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Best Hard drive configuration Message-ID: > From: "Scott D. Yelich" > Just make / and swap. There are some distinct advantages to having unique mountpoints. I'm more familiar with SunOS 4.x, so some of this might not apply to SunOS 5.x 1) fragmentation If you have /var mounted within /, then the entire partition will frag affecting everything, not just your volatile file partitions. 2) security Often root-kit type exploits will involve somehow creating setuid binaries inside /tmp or /var/spool/*... If you mount your non-usr partitions with 'nosuid' flags, many of these common exploits will fail to function. You could, i suppose, use a loopback file system with 'nosuid' on top of your single / partition to emulate this. 3) reliability file system corruption on one partition might not be fatal. With a single filesystem, you risk being dead on any failure. That all said, i would suggest you at least create a / partition along with a /usr (make /var a symlink into /usr/VAR, and /tmp a symlink into /usr/TMP or a 'tmpfs' mount, or use loopback mounts onto such things, which is waaaay gross, but there's no perfect solution). That way you have a reasonably secure and stable / partition that will be unaffected by catastrophes in /usr. (seems i'm using about 16MB on my / partition, so i'd recommend doing a 24MB / for some lee-way. --stephen -- Stephen Dowdy - Systems Administrator - CS Dept - Univ of Colorado, Boulder dowdy at cs.colorado.edu - 303-492-6196 - http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dowdy/ { NO Cold Sales Calls !!! } From scott at scottyelich.com Mon Nov 15 10:42:48 1999 From: scott at scottyelich.com (Scott D. Yelich) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:42:48 -0700 (MST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Best Hard drive configuration Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, Stephen Dowdy wrote: > > From: "Scott D. Yelich" > > Just make / and swap. > 1) fragmentation > If you have /var mounted within /, then the entire partition will > frag affecting everything, not just your volatile file partitions. This is my laptop. I can't see it logging all that much. In fact, I really haven't looked at my laptop logs ever. I could just log to /dev/null. I'm not sure what else ends up under /vavr, but it's just not a lot with my laptop. > 2) security > Often root-kit type exploits will involve somehow creating setuid > binaries inside /tmp or /var/spool/*... If you mount your non-usr > partitions with 'nosuid' flags, many of these common exploits will fail > to function. You could, i suppose, use a loopback file system with > 'nosuid' on top of your single / partition to emulate this. Blah. My laptop has ipfilter on it. If they can get on it, then they deserve root. > 3) reliability > file system corruption on one partition might not be fatal. With a > single filesystem, you risk being dead on any failure. I don't think I've ever lost data this way... ever. I've been running suns since sunos 3.2 ... > That all said, i would suggest you at least create a / partition along > with a /usr I'm not trying to start a battle here.... I just find that partitioning a 1.2GB (especially for sol6/7) is more trouble than it's worth. With 2.5, I'd probably do /, swap and /export/home... anyway, good night. Time to go. Scott -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBODA4CR4PLs9vCOqdAQGx9wP9HOO+RFs4E68K39gbOn92q093MHb3z9na 4b7s4UN9MUBkCmwde6JbytVsTtOIjRmL8yYknD6S/JYmRMPApecsVAC2tfunm7sQ 7lTiZJvS3AV9m+lD9n3vRmJvhkVyGJhiVJJQiEBzvgw4R/cywBqZBOANYu2tl6r8 nLcj8jSwuww= =7Ena -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Mon Nov 15 11:56:37 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 12:56:37 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: > Bing :) > > Yes, it can be net installed, but the unit will need to have a working > hard disk. I think the hd is working, it seems to boot up to looking for the kernel. I dunno whether or not the kernel or root has been nuked. > If you need more information on this, let me know. > > However, in this case, I suspect that SPARCbook OS is already installed > and you just have a problem with a flat NVRAM battery. Do this... > > Boot operating system or file > Boot alterate file > Boot from hard disk > > 3 1 vmunix > > If it's not there, try... > > > 0 1 vmunix > > Let me know how you go OK, I will try that tonight. I was given a second SparcBook 2, that does not have a battery, but it does have two internal hard disks. IT SEEMS to be stuck on booting, in that it is calling from some maintenance password or response code. Anyone have any idea what that is, and if it will require a new nvram chip (I hope not)? It seems like it senses the second drive was added (friend who gave it to me said he put the second drive in but could not get it to work). Possibly all it needs is setting the nvram correctly? I did load up an IPX so I could netboot it, if necessary. What needs to be loaded off the cdrom onto the IPX to set it up? I loaded up the SPARCbook2.OS tree, but I think it also needs the bundled tree, but am not sure. Thanks Bob From tclaret at cybercable.fr Thu Nov 11 13:58:26 1999 From: tclaret at cybercable.fr (Claret) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 20:58:26 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting Message-ID: My sparbook 3 was stuck on booting : It was one of the memory module that move in transport. Check the memory, put in off and on???? -- Thierry CLARET Paris tclaret at cybercable.fr claret_t at admiral.fr From paul at partitura.com Mon Nov 15 19:17:26 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 19:17:26 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] on the road Message-ID: A couple of tips that I found by experimentation (and a question) My Sparcbook is usually attached to my LAN via ethernet (the LAN has an ADSL internet connection). Over the weekend I took it out on the road, using ppp to dial into my ISP. I found that I had to edit /etc/resolv.conf to list the nameserver of my ISP, as if couldn't find the nameserver sitting on my LAN. The other one stumped me for awhile until I figured it out. I could connect to every web page I wanted except my own - the one sitting on my server on my LAN. Then I realized - that server was listed in /etc/hosts, and the machine was trying to connect to it via the LAN connection rather than through the ppp link. I've still got to test this, but I think that removing my server name from /etc/hosts will fix this. Now my question. Before disconnecting from my LAN I did a full system shutdown. When I brought it back up in my hotel, it took a LONG time to start Open Windows. Like 2 -3 minutes. Open Windows is obviously looking for something it can't find. CDE, however, starts up just as quickly as normal. Any ideas why this happens? Thanks, Paul Phillips From paul at partitura.com Mon Nov 15 19:24:12 1999 From: paul at partitura.com (Paul Phillips) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 19:24:12 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] about to upgrade Message-ID: Next week it looks like I will be going through the upgrade on my Sparcbook 3GX to move from Solaris 2.51 to Solaris 6. A couple of questions. After installing the Solaris system and the Tadpole packages from their FTP site, will Pause-O still save the system in the quick save mode like it does in 2.51? I understand that the method Solaris 2.6 uses is different than 2.51, and that additional save partition is no longer needed. I just wonder if the command is the same. Also, the Sparcbook manual mentions the file /etc/defaultrouter as being the file where I should list my gateway IP address. I use this currently and it works fine. Being new to Solaris -- is this a standard Solaris file, or some kind of extension that Tadpole uses? When I do the upgrades to 2.6, will I still list my gateway here? If anyone has any tips about going through this procedure, I'd love to hear them. I'm scouring the FAQ and the maillist archives, but I'm still worried... Thanks, Paul Phillips From ebusto at hotmail.com Mon Nov 15 20:29:59 1999 From: ebusto at hotmail.com (Eric Busto) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 18:29:59 PST Subject: [SPARCbook] Font problem. Message-ID: Good day, All of a sudden I decided to completely shut down my sparcbook and reboot it fresh, and all was well until X tried to start. The screen text changed briefly from normal to orange, as it did before, but then crapped out with the message "The X-server can not be started on display :0..." Hmm, I thought, then I logged in and tried to start X up manually with /usr/X/bin/X, and it responded with the following: "Fatal server error: could not open default fond 'fixed'" I found no reference to 'fixed' in any font directory to my knowledge, but I'm probably just lacking something simple and silly. Any help would be much appreciated. -Eric ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From aheitner at andrew.cmu.edu Mon Nov 15 21:23:53 1999 From: aheitner at andrew.cmu.edu (Ari Heitner) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 22:23:53 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Font problem. Message-ID: On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, Eric Busto wrote: > Good day, --snip-- > Hmm, I thought, then I logged in and tried to start X up manually with > /usr/X/bin/X, and it responded with the following: > "Fatal server error: could not open default fond 'fixed'" > > I found no reference to 'fixed' in any font directory to my knowledge, > but I'm probably just lacking something simple and silly. Any help would be > much appreciated. > > -Eric > I think I know what's happening: you can't do that -- you don't have an appropriate environment to start X with, namely you don't have a font path set. You need to be using xinit to start X. For a while I was using the standard Debian startx script (in the xbase-clients package), which worked fine. Don't have a copy of the one I'm using now (not on the SB3 at the moment). Cheers, Ari From Mark at Misty.com Mon Nov 15 21:56:43 1999 From: Mark at Misty.com (Mark G. Thomas) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 22:56:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] about to upgrade Message-ID: Hi, > Next week it looks like I will be going through the upgrade on my > Sparcbook 3GX to move from Solaris 2.51 to Solaris 6. > > A couple of questions. After installing the Solaris system and the > Tadpole packages from their FTP site, will Pause-O still save the system > in the quick save mode like it does in 2.51? I understand that the Yes. > method Solaris 2.6 uses is different than 2.51, and that additional save > partition is no longer needed. I just wonder if the command is the > same. Correct. > Also, the Sparcbook manual mentions the file /etc/defaultrouter as being > the file where I should list my gateway IP address. I use this > currently and it works fine. Being new to Solaris -- is this a standard > Solaris file, or some kind of extension that Tadpole uses? When I do > the upgrades to 2.6, will I still list my gateway here? This is standard for Solaris. You can see where this file is used during boot in /etc/rc2.d/S69inet. I find using my SPARCBook on multiple networks, it is generally faster and easier then doing a full reboot to use the `route add default` command to add a new default route. The `ifconfig` and `route` commands are not very complicated to use, and give you a lot of flexibility for changing interface IP addresses and routing on the fly as needed. > If anyone has any tips about going through this procedure, I'd love to > hear them. I'm scouring the FAQ and the maillist archives, but I'm > still worried... The FAQ info is good. Be sure to install any Solaris-2.6 patches, such as 2.6_Recommended *before* installing the Tadpole packages and patches. I also suggest doing an install and not an upgrade, after saving anything important of course, and using the 5/98 version of Solaris-2.6. I hope this helps, -Mark -- Mark G. Thomas (Mark at Misty.com -- http://www.misty.com/) From sety at wn.com.au Mon Nov 15 23:27:45 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 05:27:45 +0000 Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: > I was given a second SparcBook 2, that does not have a battery, but it does > have two internal hard disks. IT SEEMS to be stuck on booting, in that Lucky you. ;) I wish someone would give me another SPARCbook 2. :P > it is calling from some maintenance password or response code. Anyone have > any idea what that is, and if it will require a new nvram chip (I hope not)? No, it won't need a new nvram chip (well, it's probably got a flat battery.. but, whooptydoo) You will, however, need to contact Tadpole UK, and be very nice about it too, cos SB2's aren't supported anymore, and they'd be allowed to tell you to nick off. :P You'll need to supply the serial number (appears on the boot monitor screen) and the maintenance code in order for them to generate a key. > It seems like it senses the second drive was added (friend who gave it to > me said he put the second drive in but could not get it to work). Possibly > all it needs is setting the nvram correctly? There's the reason you're getting locked out and asked for a maintenance code. ;) Rip the second hard disk out and the machine should start correctly. It's a security feature - if you want to use a hard disk in the machine that didn't come with it, you'll need a working NVRAM and you'll need to apply for a maintenance code. > > I did load up an IPX so I could netboot it, if necessary. What needs to > be loaded off the cdrom onto the IPX to set it up? I loaded up the > SPARCbook2.OS tree, but I think it also needs the bundled tree, but am > not sure. You need to do a 'standalone restore' wich will rebuild the minifs... Once you reboot into the minifs, using kernel munix, it'll start an install program and copy the stuff from the CD it'self. The minifs image is in /SPARCbook2.OS/stand/minifs Find me a keyboard ;) Cheers, Stuart Duncan From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Tue Nov 16 15:38:05 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:38:05 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: > > I was given a second SparcBook 2, that does not have a battery, but it does > > have two internal hard disks. IT SEEMS to be stuck on booting, in that > > Lucky you. ;) I wish someone would give me another SPARCbook 2. :P Well, mebbie, if things go well. > > it is calling from some maintenance password or response code. Anyone have > > any idea what that is, and if it will require a new nvram chip (I hope not)? > > No, it won't need a new nvram chip (well, it's probably got a flat > battery.. but, whooptydoo) > > You will, however, need to contact Tadpole UK, and be very nice about it > too, cos SB2's aren't supported anymore, and they'd be allowed to tell > you to nick off. :P That would be bad business practice. I would hope they are better than that. Stiff upper lip, the customer is always right, and all that. > You'll need to supply the serial number (appears on the boot monitor > screen) and the maintenance code in order for them to generate a key. Ol' chicken vs egg syndrome..... how do I supply the maintenance code when it expects me to INPUT the maintenance code, and some long gone fellow left any info in the dustbin, years ago? I just luv such silly shennanigans. > > It seems like it senses the second drive was added (friend who gave it to > > me said he put the second drive in but could not get it to work). Possibly > > all it needs is setting the nvram correctly? > There's the reason you're getting locked out and asked for a maintenance > code. ;) > Rip the second hard disk out and the machine should start correctly. I will try that for starters. What is the best way to lay it out for operation, disassembled? When I had it apart, it looked like it was going to be a 3 handed, 12 fingered operation. > It's a security feature - if you want to use a hard disk in the machine > that didn't come with it, you'll need a working NVRAM and you'll need to > apply for a maintenance code. I am not believing that..... how can they be so cruel to service techs, down the road. Bad, bad, karma.... > > I did load up an IPX so I could netboot it, if necessary. What needs to > > be loaded off the cdrom onto the IPX to set it up? I loaded up the > > SPARCbook2.OS tree, but I think it also needs the bundled tree, but am > > not sure. > > You need to do a 'standalone restore' wich will rebuild the minifs... > Once you reboot into the minifs, using kernel munix, it'll start an > install program and copy the stuff from the CD it'self. > > The minifs image is in /SPARCbook2.OS/stand/minifs OK, I copied that off the cd into tftpboot, so will try that next. As a test I netbooted the factory kernel, and that got as far as booting and then died when calling nonexistent machine files in root. I sense the previous root was really, really nuked clean by someone. The drives partition to a huge root and a tiny swap on HD3 and a full disk file system on HD 2. I did not see anything else in particular. Does it know how to obtain the files from a remote machine or remotely mounted cd? I did put the live SPARCbook2.OS onto the remote machine, and might be able to nfsmount it perhaps? I thought I remembered reading something to that effect on one of the readmes in the CD. > Find me a keyboard ;) I have one in the box of junk that came with it, from a third machine that was in total pieces. Alas, it seems to be missing keypads. I will trade you the hulk of the third machine for a 36 pin scsi cable! (really!) > Cheers, > Stuart Duncan Cheers, or whatever. They seem like nice little machines. For the fun of it, assuming I can get the beastie up and running, I would like to make it a portable webserver, to show some things to the local suits. I think it would do nicely in that mode, with a minimal system, gcc, and Apache aboard, kindof like a wallet-sized version of my venerable 4/260 crate......(:+}}... Thanks Bob From Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl Wed Nov 17 04:20:42 1999 From: Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl (Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 11:20:42 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, BSD Bob wrote: > > > it is calling from some maintenance password or response code. Anyone have > > > any idea what that is, and if it will require a new nvram chip (I hope not)? > > > > No, it won't need a new nvram chip (well, it's probably got a flat > > battery.. but, whooptydoo) > > > > You will, however, need to contact Tadpole UK, and be very nice about it > > too, cos SB2's aren't supported anymore, and they'd be allowed to tell > > you to nick off. :P > > That would be bad business practice. I would hope they are better than > that. Stiff upper lip, the customer is always right, and all that. The customer is not always right. These machines won't work properly anyway within a few weeks. There is an end to supporting old machines. Normally I would say 5 years after the last unit was sold new. (This is what Compaq does and they have at least gone to some heavy expenses for a single machine.) Hugo. -- Hugo van der Kooij; Oranje Nassaustraat 16; 3155 VJ Maasland hvdkooij at caiw.nl http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~hvdkooij/ -------------------------------------------------------------- Use of any of my email addresses for unsollicited (commercial) email is a clear intrusion of my privacy and illegal! From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Wed Nov 17 12:22:12 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 13:22:12 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 -- IT WORKETH! Message-ID: Ripley's Belive It or Not Time.... I actually got the silly little SparcBook 2 up and purring, via netbooting from an old IPX SunOS-4.1.1 load. Nice little brick, for sure. Questions..... 1. The VGA output on the back. What exactly sort of monitor is that designed to work with? It looks like generic VGA, but..... 2. The keyboard/mouse I am assuming is any old Sun4/5ish keyboard and mouse? 3. I loaded up the GCC 2.1 that came with the Solaris 1.0.1, but it seems a tad ancient. Anyone have any pointers to any archives that have any precompiled SparcBook2 stuff? I was particularly wanting Apache and some sort of WebScraper (anything better than Lynx would be nice), so I could use it as a portable website. I don't mind compiling Apache, but would like to borrow a precompiled WebScraper (Netscape, Mosaic, whatever). I figure gcc-2.5.8 would probably do for general gnuish compiles. Any insights or suggestions are appreciated. Anyone know why the keyboard is like pounding meal with a stone? Very stiff critter it is. Also, it seems to be keystroke-timing sensitive. I guess one gets used to that. Anyone know what it takes to filter correctly the man output so that it omits the backspace+underscore when it is piped via man through more? That is the only irksome thing I have found, so far. Thanks Bob . From whofmann at yahoo.com Wed Nov 17 16:43:30 1999 From: whofmann at yahoo.com (Wes Hofmann) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 15:43:30 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 -- IT WORKETH! Message-ID: > 1. The VGA output on the back. What exactly sort of monitor is that > designed to work with? It looks like generic VGA, but..... I own a SPARCbook 3, and the connector for it is a standard VGA connector. I would assume the 2 is probably the same. Might as well give it a shot. :) > 2. The keyboard/mouse I am assuming is any old Sun4/5ish keyboard and > mouse? Once again, that's true for the SPARCbook 3. > 3. I loaded up the GCC 2.1 that came with the Solaris 1.0.1, but it > seems a tad ancient. Anyone have any pointers to any > archives that > have any precompiled SparcBook2 stuff? I was particularly wanting Well, what I would do is download the latest GCC from ftp.gnu.org and compile it using your current version of GCC. Can't hurt to try. :) Hope this helps! Wes __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Wed Nov 17 17:13:34 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 18:13:34 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: > > > You will, however, need to contact Tadpole UK, and be very nice about it > > > too, cos SB2's aren't supported anymore, and they'd be allowed to tell > > > you to nick off. :P > > > > That would be bad business practice. I would hope they are better than > > that. Stiff upper lip, the customer is always right, and all that. > > The customer is not always right. These machines won't work properly > anyway within a few weeks. There is an end to supporting old machines. > Normally I would say 5 years after the last unit was sold new. (This is > what Compaq does and they have at least gone to some heavy expenses for a > single machine.) Well, I see we can agree to disagree.....(:+}}... and that is fine. I learned from the old school that in business, ``the customer is always right''. Nowadays, it seems, that may have changed a little, and the customer is ``constrained to accept'' whatever. Bad karma. As to the machines working.... good machines work for a long time. I have some 15 year old unix toys going strong every day, and if you don't need gigahertz speeds, then the still speak the speak and quack like the racing ducks, just fine. Some of the older machines are even built way better than some of the newer machines, in many respects. That silly little SB2 is built like a Tiger Tank, and will probably outlive me. I would expect I could get at least another 5 years out of it, and possibly more. It won't be a prancing horse from Modena, but it will still do its job, just fine. But, it has two potential buggerboos. One is that darned NVRAM Sun thingie of the latter SPARC era. Battery nvram is a nice idea in theory, but a dud in practice. Also, it locks you into system. IFF that particular nvram goes out of production, and by now it probably has, with just shelfstock around, then what do you do? A nightmare for service folks or the tailendian charlies like many of us aboard the list, who only touch the prized high and mighty unix toyz when they come out the other and at a fiver per. A second are special codes that become lost in time as support fades or parts need replacing and docs become separated from the hardware, or something as simple as the guys left the company for elsewhere, last year. Then a perfectly fine machine becomes a total dud because not because of any fault of its own, but because of a silly 4 digit code (or whatever it actually is). A nighmare for us service folks or tailendian charlies, again. That is the kind of thing that tends to bother me, as a great waste of horsepower. It is a compromise in design type of constraint upon the customer. If a company backs the customer into that kind of a corner, and then just totally forgets you, that IMHO is not too kool. Tadpole has been nice, though, to me to help me resurrect the critter. I commend them heartily for their assistance, even though it is now out of the mainstream niche. One of my pair of SB2's is purring almost like that prancing horse from Modena (well maybe like the Arrows), but the other still needs its secret codes twiddled. It will survive in the end, and be a fine little machine. > Hugo. Bob From tanabi at bellsouth.net Wed Nov 17 19:27:46 1999 From: tanabi at bellsouth.net (Steve Conley) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 20:27:46 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Modem woes Message-ID: Hey there, I have two modems, a us robotics MMegahertz 56k card with XJack and a Megahertz 33.6 w/XJack and cellmodem. Neither of them work in my sparcbook. It's a 3GX, and I -thought- it was fully tadpole patched ... If I cat /dev/term/pc0 the sparcbook hangs until I eject the card. :-/ Anyone know what's up with that? See ya, Steve From stuart at perth.wni.com Wed Nov 17 19:48:38 1999 From: stuart at perth.wni.com (Stuart Duncan) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 09:48:38 +0800 Subject: [Fwd: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how?] Message-ID: > > > it is calling from some maintenance password or response code. Anyone have > > > any idea what that is, and if it will require a new nvram chip (I hope not)? > > > > No, it won't need a new nvram chip (well, it's probably got a flat > > battery.. but, whooptydoo) > > > > You will, however, need to contact Tadpole UK, and be very nice about it > > too, cos SB2's aren't supported anymore, and they'd be allowed to tell > > you to nick off. :P > > That would be bad business practice. I would hope they are better than > that. Stiff upper lip, the customer is always right, and all that. > Not realy. The SPARCbook 2 is no longer supported, and that's exactly what they'd tell you if they wanted to. The people at Tadpole Tech UK are realy nice tho... You'll have to phone, and if you're pleasant, I'm sure she'll help you out. They're not like the people at Tadpole-RDI... They suck. ;) > > > You'll need to supply the serial number (appears on the boot monitor > > screen) and the maintenance code in order for them to generate a key. > > Ol' chicken vs egg syndrome..... how do I supply the maintenance code > when it expects me to INPUT the maintenance code, and some long gone > fellow left any info in the dustbin, years ago? I just luv such silly > shennanigans. > Nono... It outputs the maintenance code, and you input the maintenance key. Like this... Incorrect hard disks found! Maintenance code is: ffeeffff Enter maintenance key: The maintenance key is generated by an alogrithm from the machine's serial number, and the maintenance code. The maintenance code is generated by the machine's serial number and the date. ;) hint: rip the NVRAM out and boot the machine... It'll stop with the same error, but give you a maintenance code simmilar to the one above. Use that when you call tadpole.. That way, if you need a maintenance key again, you can pull the NVRAM out and use the one that you got from Tadpole without having to call them again. Once you're into the machine, select 'Update disk security' from the System Administration menu in the bootprom... That should stop that error from appearing (untill the next time that you format the drives). > > > > It seems like it senses the second drive was added (friend who gave it to > > > me said he put the second drive in but could not get it to work). Possibly > > > all it needs is setting the nvram correctly? > > There's the reason you're getting locked out and asked for a maintenance > > code. ;) > > Rip the second hard disk out and the machine should start correctly. > > I will try that for starters. What is the best way to lay it out for > operation, disassembled? When I had it apart, it looked like it was > going to be a 3 handed, 12 fingered operation. > umm.. all the ribon cables to the display are folded up and glued.. carefully seperate what you can to get a bit of length, and lay the LCD/Top cover down on a desk with something like a couple of matchboxes to support it where the cables go into the machine :) > > > It's a security feature - if you want to use a hard disk in the machine > > that didn't come with it, you'll need a working NVRAM and you'll need to > > apply for a maintenance code. > > I am not believing that..... how can they be so cruel to service techs, > down the road. Bad, bad, karma.... > You know what computer companies where like back then... 'This is a realy cool feature. We give free support, so our customers won't mind this. We'll be able to support this machine for ever. There are only two digits in a year." The idea was that if someone stole your SPARCbook, they couldn't put the drives into another SPARCbook and read your info, and they also couldn't use your SPARCbook for themselves without your root password, because if they put other drives in, or even formatted the existing ones, it'd stop working, making the machine useless to them. Afterall, you'd want some sort of security against theft for a $30,000 computer, the size of a notebook and commonly left laying arround at universitys, etc. > > > > I did load up an IPX so I could netboot it, if necessary. What needs to > > > be loaded off the cdrom onto the IPX to set it up? I loaded up the > > > SPARCbook2.OS tree, but I think it also needs the bundled tree, but am > > > not sure. > > > > You need to do a 'standalone restore' wich will rebuild the minifs... > > Once you reboot into the minifs, using kernel munix, it'll start an > > install program and copy the stuff from the CD it'self. > > > > The minifs image is in /SPARCbook2.OS/stand/minifs > > OK, I copied that off the cd into tftpboot, so will try that next. > As a test I netbooted the factory kernel, and that got as far as > booting and then died when calling nonexistent machine files in root. > I sense the previous root was really, really nuked clean by someone. > The drives partition to a huge root and a tiny swap on HD3 and a full > disk file system on HD 2. I did not see anything else in particular. > Does it know how to obtain the files from a remote machine or remotely > mounted cd? I did put the live SPARCbook2.OS onto the remote machine, > and might be able to nfsmount it perhaps? I thought I remembered > reading something to that effect on one of the readmes in the CD. > The SPARCbook 2 OS precompiled kernels do not support nfsroot. You're supposed to rebuild the operating system. I've built a kernel on my SPARCbook that will support nfsroot, I'll upload it to my ftp site oneday. > > > Find me a keyboard ;) > > I have one in the box of junk that came with it, from a third machine that > was in total pieces. Alas, it seems to be missing keypads. I will trade > you the hulk of the third machine for a 36 pin scsi cable! (really!) > Neat... Tho, I don't realy feel like building a SCSI cable... That's _alot_ of soldering. ;) I'd like my SPARCbook to work once again, so I'll build you one :) How much will it cost to ship the hulk of the third machine to Australia? Regards, --------------------------------------- Stuart Duncan / Systems Administrator WNI Science and Engineering 31 Bishop Street JOLIMONT WA 6014 AUSTRALIA http://www.wnise.com Phone: +61 8 9387 7955 Fax: +61 9387 6686 Email: stuart.duncan at perth.wni.com From sety at wn.com.au Thu Nov 18 04:50:47 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 10:50:47 +0000 Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: It's not that it's going to just keel over and die in a few weeks - SPARCbook 2 isn't y2k compliant. Dead NVRAM batteries can be repaired easilly. (easilly - given the circumstances) I don't know about compatibillities =/ I know that I can still buy new NVRAM chips... and I put a new NVRAM chip from an ELC into my SPARCbook and it worked. :P BTW: Are you the shmuck who baught the two SPARCbook 2's from Tadpole? (Old stock.. brand new, still in thier boxes with all the manuals, accessories, etc) I wanted to buy one of them. :P If so, I'd realy love a set of the boxes/packing that they ship with. Perhaps if you send me this dead SB2, you can pack it in there. :) Cheers, Stuart Duncan Bob wrote: > Well, I see we can agree to disagree.....(:+}}... and that is fine. > I learned from the old school that in business, ``the customer is > always right''. Nowadays, it seems, that may have changed a little, > and the customer is ``constrained to accept'' whatever. Bad karma. > > As to the machines working.... good machines work for a long time. > I have some 15 year old unix toys going strong every day, and if you > don't need gigahertz speeds, then the still speak the speak and quack > like the racing ducks, just fine. Some of the older machines are even > built way better than some of the newer machines, in many respects. > That silly little SB2 is built like a Tiger Tank, and will probably > outlive me. I would expect I could get at least another 5 years out > of it, and possibly more. It won't be a prancing horse from Modena, but > it will still do its job, just fine. But, it has two potential buggerboos. > One is that darned NVRAM Sun thingie of the latter SPARC era. Battery > nvram is a nice idea in theory, but a dud in practice. Also, it locks > you into system. IFF that particular nvram goes out of production, and > by now it probably has, with just shelfstock around, then what do you do? > A nightmare for service folks or the tailendian charlies like many of us > aboard the list, who only touch the prized high and mighty unix toyz > when they come out the other and at a fiver per. A second are special > codes that become lost in time as support fades or parts need replacing > and docs become separated from the hardware, or something as simple as > the guys left the company for elsewhere, last year. Then a perfectly fine > machine becomes a total dud because not because of any fault of its own, > but because of a silly 4 digit code (or whatever it actually is). > A nighmare for us service folks or tailendian charlies, again. > > That is the kind of thing that tends to bother me, as a great waste > of horsepower. It is a compromise in design type of constraint upon > the customer. > > If a company backs the customer into that kind of a corner, and then > just totally forgets you, that IMHO is not too kool. > > Tadpole has been nice, though, to me to help me resurrect the critter. > I commend them heartily for their assistance, even though it is now > out of the mainstream niche. One of my pair of SB2's is purring almost > like that prancing horse from Modena (well maybe like the Arrows), > but the other still needs its secret codes twiddled. It will survive > in the end, and be a fine little machine. > > > Hugo. > > Bob > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From kurthuhn at k-huhn.com Thu Nov 18 11:20:02 1999 From: kurthuhn at k-huhn.com (Kurt Huhn) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 09:20:02 -0800 Subject: [SPARCbook] sparcbook video drivers Message-ID: Well, I've done it now. Started fooling with the system and managed to injure Solaris so badly that my sparcook cannot boot up now. I've installed Solaris 2.6 and it is working fine, but the framebuffer isn't supported. Does anyone know where I can get the drivers for that framebuffer? They're not on ftp.tadpole.com. Kurt From khansen at pluto.njcc.com Thu Nov 18 10:56:32 1999 From: khansen at pluto.njcc.com (Ken Hansen) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 11:56:32 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] FA - Tadpole 3GX for auction at amazon.com Message-ID: Hello, Just wanted to let folks know that I am seeling one of my two Sparcbooks since I find I don't need the spare/backup unit. The unit is in very good condition, good battery life and is being sold with the case and 32 Meg RAM installed. I have a set of SIMMs to upgrade the unit to 64 Megs, if the winning bidder desires, or I will use the SIMMs for another machine (not for sale seperately). The link is below, please feel free to email me directly if you have any questions regarding this offer/auction. I hope this posting does not offend anyone on the list, and I hope this posting conforms to the guidelines of the maillist. ;^) The Link: http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y03X6138730X4312133/002-8572 545-1642620 (or you can just search for sparcbook) Thanks, Ken Hansen khansen at njcc.com From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Thu Nov 18 12:34:39 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 13:34:39 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how? Message-ID: > It's not that it's going to just keel over and die in a few weeks - > SPARCbook 2 isn't y2k compliant. OK, that is not a problem, particularly, for my needs. When I got it up and running, and set the installation dates, I chose 7 backward leaps, and it now is in November, 1971. So, even if it is nil officially y2k, it will do for my needs. It is purring along like a warm fuzzy kitty, and I am loading it out with addins today, to suit. > Dead NVRAM batteries can be repaired easilly. (easilly - given the > circumstances) > I don't know about compatibillities =/ I know that I can still buy new > NVRAM chips... and I put a new NVRAM chip from an ELC into my SPARCbook > and it worked. :P Yeah, they can be repaired, but I nuked my first go at that. Those wire ends are mucho delicate and really require a fine soldering pencil. My 15watter felt like an elephant in a mouse cage, and the outcome was fair, but not to my liking. > BTW: Are you the shmuck who baught the two SPARCbook 2's from Tadpole? > (Old stock.. brand new, still in thier boxes with all the manuals, > accessories, etc) > I wanted to buy one of them. :P Nope. Mine came in surplus as junk, from a local company. One was a castoff that noone seemed to know how to make work. One was dead but should be ressurectable. The third was parts scattered all over a big box. Nil manuals, docs, accessories, etc. Bob From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Thu Nov 18 12:46:43 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 13:46:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Fwd: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how?] Message-ID: > The maintenance key is generated by an alogrithm from the machine's serial number, > and the maintenance code. The maintenance code is generated by the machine's serial > number and the date. ;) I hope the date is still valid. > hint: rip the NVRAM out and boot the machine... It'll stop with the same error, but > give you a maintenance code simmilar to the one above. Use that when you call > tadpole.. That way, if you need a maintenance key again, you can pull the NVRAM out > and use the one that you got from Tadpole without having to call them again. Neat trick. I will have to remember that. > Once you're into the machine, select 'Update disk security' from the System > Administration menu in the bootprom... That should stop that error from appearing > (untill the next time that you format the drives). EVERY TIME YOU FORMAT DRIVES? Egads, what a thoughtless seeurity key. IFF the drive is alredy nuked, who gives a flying doggie doo about security that went bellyup with the nuke. Oh, well. > umm.. all the ribon cables to the display are folded up and glued.. carefully > seperate what you can to get a bit of length, and lay the LCD/Top cover down on a > desk with something like a couple of matchboxes to support it where the cables go > into the machine :) I wound up doing something like that on pillows. > The SPARCbook 2 OS precompiled kernels do not support nfsroot. You're supposed to > rebuild the operating system. > > I've built a kernel on my SPARCbook that will support nfsroot, I'll upload it to my > ftp site oneday. OK, which url? > > > Find me a keyboard ;) I looked at the remains of my third machine. It is really rather sad. There is probably not enough of the keyboard left to resurrect other than maybe dissassembling it for the keyparts and membranes. The whole left pad area (about 6 or 7 keys worth are broken. Maybe it got dropped at one time? Dunno. > How much will it cost to ship the hulk of the third machine to Australia? Probably a lot more than it is worth, considering its shape. The display is gone, the drives are gone, but the power supply and memory/cpu boards are still there, and the drive cables. The back connector panel and some of the ribbons are still there. You would have to really be desparate to need bits that far gone. The case castings are there, though. Bob From patl at phoenix.volant.org Thu Nov 18 13:44:39 1999 From: patl at phoenix.volant.org (patl) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 11:44:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: [SPARCbook] on the road Message-ID: >The other one stumped me for awhile until I figured it out. I could >connect to every web page I wanted except my own - the one sitting on my >server on my LAN. Then I realized - that server was listed in >/etc/hosts, and the machine was trying to connect to it via the LAN >connection rather than through the ppp link. I've still got to test >this, but I think that removing my server name from /etc/hosts will fix >this. This is more likely to be a routing problem. I suspect it still has the ethernet port set up with the IP address you use on your LAN; and routing entries indicating that the rest of your network is accessable via that interface. -Pat From sety at wn.com.au Thu Nov 18 18:04:05 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 00:04:05 +0000 Subject: [Fwd: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how?] Message-ID: > I looked at the remains of my third machine. It is really rather sad. > There is probably not enough of the keyboard left to resurrect other than > maybe dissassembling it for the keyparts and membranes. The whole left > pad area (about 6 or 7 keys worth are broken. Maybe it got dropped at > one time? Dunno. > Yeah.. I only realy need the flex PCB inside the keyboard... I tore mine. That'd be easy to send, cos you could put it in an envelope. :) > > How much will it cost to ship the hulk of the third machine to Australia? > > Probably a lot more than it is worth, considering its shape. The display > is gone, the drives are gone, but the power supply and memory/cpu boards > are still there, and the drive cables. The back connector panel and > some of the ribbons are still there. You would have to really be > desparate to need bits that far gone. The case castings are there, > though. > Heh. It'd still be good for spares. :) How much RAM's on it? Cheers, Stuart Duncan From bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu Fri Nov 19 08:09:51 1999 From: bsdbob at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu (BSD Bob) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 09:09:51 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Fwd: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how?] Message-ID: > Yeah.. I only realy need the flex PCB inside the keyboard... I tore > mine. > > That'd be easy to send, cos you could put it in an envelope. :) Well, send me an address, and if it won't break the beer piggie, I will see what I can do. The thing has 32mb ram, soldered on, but the stack of boards seems to be there and intact. Will slow boat around the horn do? Bob From helsod at algonet.se Sat Nov 20 05:17:48 1999 From: helsod at algonet.se (Peter Soderholm) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 12:17:48 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Sparcbook Power supply question Message-ID: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_002E_01BF3351.424BE1A0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello Sparbook owners ! I just wondered if the power supply of the sparcbook has any provision = for switching between US standard voltage (127V is it ? or ?) to the European standard of 230 V. Some of = the more well thought out electronics equipment sometimes has this feature and since the Sparcbook seem to one = such system i thought maybe it would. Otherwise i guess the supply could easily be exchanged for something = else that gives the same voltage and current ratings, except that its = also a charger to the battery so the charging may not work or there = might be some longtime damage to the battery possibly. Are any of you people on the list located in Europe, and how dis you = solve this ??? Thanks for any thought Peter ------=_NextPart_000_002E_01BF3351.424BE1A0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Hello Sparbook owners !
 
I just wondered if the power supply of the sparcbook = has any=20 provision for switching between US standard
voltage (127V is it ? or ?) to the European standard = of 230 V.=20 Some of the more well thought out electronics
equipment sometimes has this feature and since the = Sparcbook=20 seem to one such system i thought maybe it would.
Otherwise i guess the supply could easily be = exchanged for=20 something else that gives the same voltage and current ratings, except = that its=20 also a charger to the battery so the charging may not work or there = might be=20 some longtime damage to the battery possibly.
 
Are any of you people on the list located in Europe, = and how=20 dis you solve this ???
 
Thanks for any thought
Peter
------=_NextPart_000_002E_01BF3351.424BE1A0-- From mcs at mbox303.swipnet.se Sat Nov 20 05:52:25 1999 From: mcs at mbox303.swipnet.se (Magnus Sjoegren) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 12:52:25 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Sparcbook Power supply question Message-ID: Article: <003101bf3348$e1c66240$599264c3 at helsod> Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 12:17:48 +0100 Author: Peter Soderholm Hello, > I just wondered if the power supply of the sparcbook has any > provision for switching between US standard > voltage (127V is it ? or ?) to the European standard of 230 V. Some > of the more well thought out electronics > equipment sometimes has this feature and since the Sparcbook seem to > one such system i thought maybe it would. It say's on the back of the AC adapter. Just change the connectorcable to one that fits the wall sockets in Sweden. Cheers, Magnus -- Magnus Sjgren From Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl Sat Nov 20 05:51:17 1999 From: Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl (Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 12:51:17 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Sparcbook Power supply question Message-ID: On Sat, 20 Nov 1999, Peter Soderholm wrote: > I just wondered if the power supply of the sparcbook has any provision for switching between US standard > voltage (127V is it ? or ?) to the European standard of 230 V. Some of the more well thought out electronics > equipment sometimes has this feature and since the Sparcbook seem to one such system i thought maybe it would. > Otherwise i guess the supply could easily be exchanged for something else that gives the same voltage and current ratings, except that its also a charger to the battery so the charging may not work or there might be some longtime damage to the battery possibly. Guess what. On the adapter there is a label that reads: Series 2 AC adapter AC Input: 100-240V ~ 50-60Hz Hugo. -- Hugo van der Kooij; Oranje Nassaustraat 16; 3155 VJ Maasland hvdkooij at caiw.nl http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~hvdkooij/ -------------------------------------------------------------- Use of any of my email addresses for unsollicited (commercial) email is a clear intrusion of my privacy and illegal! From ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de Sat Nov 20 08:21:01 1999 From: ml at rz.uni-potsdam.de (Michael Lorenz) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 15:21:01 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] Sparcbook Power supply question Message-ID: --------------8B23CBD15A4F51D6EC645FBC Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Greetings ! The AC adaptor I got with my sparcbook works with 220V, I just had to replace the plug. "part no. ZVC-55-12-G, Tadpole Technologies, Series 2 AC Adapter, input 110-240V, 50-60Hz" > I just wondered if the power supply of the sparcbook has any > provision for switching between US standardvoltage (127V is it ? or ?) > to the European standard of 230 V. Some of the more well thought out > electronicsequipment sometimes has this feature and since the > Sparcbook seem to one such system i thought maybe it would.Otherwise i > guess the supply could easily be exchanged for something else that > gives the same voltage and current ratings, except that its also a > charger to the battery so the charging may not work or there might be > some longtime damage to the battery possibly. Are any of you people on > the list located in Europe, and how dis you solve this ??? > > --------------8B23CBD15A4F51D6EC645FBC Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Greetings !

The AC adaptor I got with my sparcbook works with 220V, I just had to replace the plug.
"part no. ZVC-55-12-G, Tadpole Technologies, Series 2 AC Adapter, input 110-240V, 50-60Hz"

 I just wondered if the power supply of the sparcbook has any provision for switching between US standardvoltage (127V is it ? or ?) to the European standard of 230 V. Some of the more well thought out electronicsequipment sometimes has this feature and since the Sparcbook seem to one such system i thought maybe it would.Otherwise i guess the supply could easily be exchanged for something else that gives the same voltage and current ratings, except that its also a charger to the battery so the charging may not work or there might be some longtime damage to the battery possibly. Are any of you people on the list located in Europe, and how dis you solve this ???
 
 
--------------8B23CBD15A4F51D6EC645FBC-- From Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl Sat Nov 20 08:41:51 1999 From: Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl (Hugo.van.der.Kooij at caiw.nl) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 15:41:51 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] plea for email manners Message-ID: This is a plea for email manners. 1. Do NOT send vcard's. 2. Do NOT send HTML messages. (They abuse bandwidth and diskspace.) 3. Put answers AFTER a question. 4. Only cite the relevant lines This will reduce email traffic by at least 50% These manners were good custom in the past and the use of some software which does seem to think that bloating messages is good practice is no excuse. Hugo. -- Hugo van der Kooij; Oranje Nassaustraat 16; 3155 VJ Maasland hvdkooij at caiw.nl http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~hvdkooij/ -------------------------------------------------------------- Use of any of my email addresses for unsollicited (commercial) email is a clear intrusion of my privacy and illegal! From helsod at algonet.se Sat Nov 20 11:46:57 1999 From: helsod at algonet.se (Peter Soderholm) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 18:46:57 +0100 Subject: SV: [SPARCbook] Sparcbook Power supply question Message-ID: > Guess what. On the adapter there is a label that reads: > > Series 2 > AC adapter > AC Input: 100-240V ~ 50-60Hz > > Hugo. Thanks Hugo ! Thats very good news indeed. I have never seen a Sparcbook in real life yet so I could not find out by looking at the power supply. I'm on the list to find out about these machines before I buy one, which I may do when I find a good unit at a good price (sometime soon I hope). Thanks Peter From helsod at algonet.se Sat Nov 20 11:56:31 1999 From: helsod at algonet.se (Peter Soderholm) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 18:56:31 +0100 Subject: SV: [SPARCbook] Sparcbook Power supply question Message-ID: Tack Magnus ! Jag har inte kpt ngon Sparcbook nnu. Jag r med p listan fr att kolla upp saker som dessa innan jag eventuellt kper en, vilket antagligen intrffar om jag inte kan vertala mig sjlv att lta bli, och nr jag hittar en till ett bra pris och bra prestanda, helst med lmpligt OS p CD etc. Fr man frga var du hittade din maskin? Kpte du den p Ebay eller liknande? Hur funkar det med att skicka den frn USA till Sverige, fraktkostnad etc.. ? MvH Peter > It say's on the back of the AC adapter. Just change the connectorcable > to one that fits the wall sockets in Sweden. > > > Cheers, > Magnus ://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > From helsod at algonet.se Sat Nov 20 12:00:35 1999 From: helsod at algonet.se (Peter Soderholm) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 19:00:35 +0100 Subject: SV: [SPARCbook] Sorry !! Message-ID: Oups ! It seems I sent my replies to the list when I meant to respond to each person. Especially the reply to Magnus in swedish should be of little interest to anyone else... sorry... : -| From khansen at njcc.com Sat Nov 20 14:13:28 1999 From: khansen at njcc.com (Ken Hansen) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 15:13:28 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Re: New Harddrive for SPARCbook 3GX Message-ID: -----Original Message----- From: Wes Hofmann To: SparcBook Owners List (E-mail) ; SunHelp List (E-mail) Date: Saturday, November 20, 1999 3:07 AM Subject: New Harddrive for SPARCbook 3GX >Hello all. > >Today, I received my new Hitachi 10.05GB IDE harddrive for my SPARCbook 3GX. >However, the >SPARCbook refuses to see it's actual size. Here is the disk information: > >size: 10.05GB >cylinders: 16383 >heads: 16 >sectors: 63 Wes, If you multiply cyl*heads*sectors*sector size (512 bytes) you get about 8 gigabytes... your cylinder count needs to be larger, more like 20000 (since 16383 yields 8 gig, see the relationship?)... HTH, Ken khansen at njcc.com From mw at ee.cornell.edu Sat Nov 20 18:56:57 1999 From: mw at ee.cornell.edu (Michael Wolfson) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 19:56:57 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] How do I run Solaris Xsun at > 16 bpp Message-ID: Howdy, I can't seem to get my 3GX (from Ross Pennington) to display at anything other than 8 or 16 bpp, even though the specs say it can do 24 bpp properly. Using Xsun from Solaris 2.6 3/98 and fbconfig -m 4, I get garbage on my screen (flashy yellow stuff primarily). I tried using two of the pre-compiled X11R3 Xservers out there, and they didn't even find the p9100. Any suggestions? Thanks, -- MW From sety at wn.com.au Sat Nov 20 22:42:59 1999 From: sety at wn.com.au (Stuart Duncan) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 04:42:59 +0000 Subject: [Fwd: [SPARCbook] Resurrecting sparcbook 2 ... how?] Message-ID: > > Yeah.. I only realy need the flex PCB inside the keyboard... I tore > > mine. > > > > That'd be easy to send, cos you could put it in an envelope. :) > > Well, send me an address, and if it won't break the beer piggie, I will Cool! I'll do that later today. I'll look at finding a supplier of those mini honda connectors, too, and build up a SCSI cable. > see what I can do. The thing has 32mb ram, soldered on, but the stack > of boards seems to be there and intact. Hmmn.. Is that soldered on as in a modification? or in the factory? If it's a modification, I'd be very interested in getting hold of it to see how they've done it. If it's factory work, well, I'd still be interested - Mine's only 16Meg :P > > Will slow boat around the horn do? > Yah Cheers, Stuart Duncan From mrbill at mrbill.net Sun Nov 21 07:21:41 1999 From: mrbill at mrbill.net (Bill Bradford) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 07:21:41 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] New mailing list announced Message-ID: I've started another mailing list alongside the ones on mrbill.net / sunhelp.org: VENT. For when you just want to bitch about something to other people, and get it off your chest. Anything goes. To subscribe: http://www.mrbill.net/mailman/listinfo/vent Email list postings to vent at mrbill.net or vent at sunhelp.org, etc. Have fun! -- Bill Bradford * mrbill at mrbill.net / http://www.mrbill.net mrbill at sunhelp.org / http://www.sunhelp.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to using Windows NT for mission-critical applications." -- What Yoda *meant* to say From krakxl at mail.owc.net Wed Nov 24 01:24:44 1999 From: krakxl at mail.owc.net (2711) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 01:24:44 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] SparcBook for sale? Anyone? Please? Message-ID: Hello all, I'm 15, and my name is dave. I have reallized how pathetic a workstation my 386 laptop makes, espescialy sence I don't have it anymore. (It involved an undisciplined 6 yearold girl with a desgustingly active immagination, a 25 step staircase, and that's all you need to know.) I am interested in purchasing a sparcbook. Please keep in mind, I am Not by anymeans a fountain of wealth. I am sadly quite poor. Therefore, should you intend to sell, you wouldn't be able to sell for much (I'm positive I've lost most if not all of my clientelle by now.) I'm homeschooled, and materiel is scarce, and I need it for educational purposes, Which means I don't need all the frills. I DO need a functional unix workstation. If you would like to trade, I can offer you a messed up 3gig IDE HDD, and a scuffed, no OS, IPC. I didn't think so. Please, some one mail me back. From hpeyerl at beer.org Thu Nov 25 12:50:24 1999 From: hpeyerl at beer.org (Herb Peyerl) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 11:50:24 -0700 Subject: [SPARCbook] SB 3GS screen brightness problem. Message-ID: I recently got a Tadpole 3GS and am ecstatic with it. It's a thing of beauty. However, the screen is really dim while running X and while at the OP prompt. I tried every combination of "-" and "-" and can't get the screen to go brighter or dimmer. ie: I can't actually prove the claims that those key sequences should affect the brightness of the display. Various other "-" sequences work so I know the key works. I also know the arrow keys work.. Does anyone have any insights for me? I've scoured the list archives and FAQ. Please reply privately as I'm not on the list. If others ask, I will be happy to summarize to the list. Herb. From mike at engg.ksu.edu Thu Nov 25 17:10:59 1999 From: mike at engg.ksu.edu (Mike Jacobi) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 17:10:59 -0600 (CST) Subject: [SPARCbook] SB 3GS screen brightness problem. Message-ID: Herb, Sometimes the Pause-up and Pause-down take a couple of tries to get working the way you would expect. The best way for you to check the setting is by using the hardware settings utility that Tadpole makes. I'm not in front of my tadpole at the moment so I don't remember the exact command but if you have the Tadpole packages installed from ftp://ftp.tadpole.com it should be easy to find. The program sets or queries various hardware settings like screen brightness, audio volume, pointer options, etc. Good luck, Mike P.S. If you don't find what I'm talking about email me back -- I'll be at my house later tonight and can fire up the tadpole and give you the specifics (and even mail you the software if you need.) On Thu, 25 Nov 1999, Herb Peyerl wrote: > I recently got a Tadpole 3GS and am ecstatic with it. It's a thing of > beauty. > > However, the screen is really dim while running X and while at the OP > prompt. > > I tried every combination of "-" and "-" and > can't get the screen to go brighter or dimmer. ie: I can't actually > prove the claims that those key sequences should affect the brightness > of the display. Various other "-" sequences work so I know the > key works. I also know the arrow keys work.. > > Does anyone have any insights for me? I've scoured the list archives > and FAQ. > > Please reply privately as I'm not on the list. If others ask, I > will be happy to summarize to the list. > > > Herb. > > _______________________________________________ > Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook > From canavan at cs.bonn.edu Thu Nov 25 04:56:56 1999 From: canavan at cs.bonn.edu (Rainer Canavan) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 11:56:56 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole Solaris 2.5.1 CD Message-ID: Hi, I'm looking for either the Tadpole set of patches for Soalris 2.5.1, including NCE2 etc., or the tadpole solaris CD, which hopefully should come with that as standard. I don't think that I want to go 2.6, as I only have 32Megs of Ram, but i really need the suspend feature, and i can't get it to work with Sun Solaris 2.5.1 ;-( Rainer From smw at pixel.citadel.org Thu Nov 25 19:16:35 1999 From: smw at pixel.citadel.org (Steve Williams) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 20:16:35 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] PCMCIA ethernet. Message-ID: Ok, I don't feel like buying an AUI cable for my Sparcbook 3GX, but I DO have a pcmcia dlink ethernet card. The SPARCBook is running 2.5.1 (Solaris). Any idea if this card is supported? If so, how do I get it working? (ifconfig what?) Thanks, -Steve From kfelix at hyperfeed.com Fri Nov 26 08:10:22 1999 From: kfelix at hyperfeed.com (Kenneth Felix) Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 08:10:22 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole Solaris 2.5.1 CD Message-ID: have you taken a look at the ftp site ftp://ftp.tadpole.com/pub/sbu/S3-patches/ -----Original Message----- From: Rainer Canavan [mailto:canavan at cs.bonn.edu] Sent: Thursday, November 25, 1999 5:57 AM To: sparcbook at sunhelp.org Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole Solaris 2.5.1 CD Hi, I'm looking for either the Tadpole set of patches for Soalris 2.5.1, including NCE2 etc., or the tadpole solaris CD, which hopefully should come with that as standard. I don't think that I want to go 2.6, as I only have 32Megs of Ram, but i really need the suspend feature, and i can't get it to work with Sun Solaris 2.5.1 ;-( Rainer _______________________________________________ Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From canavan at xmailer.informatik.uni-bonn.de Fri Nov 26 09:07:03 1999 From: canavan at xmailer.informatik.uni-bonn.de (Rainer Canavan) Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 16:07:03 +0100 (CET) Subject: [SPARCbook] Tadpole Solaris 2.5.1 CD Message-ID: > > have you taken a look at the ftp site > ftp://ftp.tadpole.com/pub/sbu/S3-patches/ I did have a loko at it, but NCE doesn't seem to come with it. There is a version of NCE on their Server, but, as far as I can see, it's only for Solaris 2.3. The patches would most probably help me with the suspend/resume stuff. I think I'll try another isntall of solaris.. Rainer From smw at pixel.citadel.org Mon Nov 29 20:53:42 1999 From: smw at pixel.citadel.org (Steve Williams) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 21:53:42 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] SPARCBook 3gx and PCMCIA... Message-ID: I've got a sparcbook 3gx and a Linksys 10/100 ocmcia ethernet card. I've never used pcmcia with *ix before and I have no clue how to get it recognized. The system is running Solaris 2.5.1. I guess I just need to know the device name for it. Anyone? TIA, -Steve From ml at wisent.de Tue Nov 30 07:23:12 1999 From: ml at wisent.de (Michael Lorenz) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 14:23:12 +0100 Subject: [SPARCbook] SPARCBook 3gx and PCMCIA... Message-ID: Greetings... > I've got a sparcbook 3gx and a Linksys 10/100 ocmcia ethernet card. I've > never used pcmcia with *ix before and I have no clue how to get it > recognized. The system is running Solaris 2.5.1. I guess I just need to > know the device name for it. Anyone? Hmm, as far as I know the only PCMCIA network cards supported by Solaris 2.5.1 are the 3c509 and some Wavelan device, nothing else. Anyway, to recognize hardware try , should be in /usr/sbin, the device name for the 3c509 would be pcel0 or pcel1, depending on the slot it is plugged in. bye Michael From kfelix at hyperfeed.com Tue Nov 30 09:50:50 1999 From: kfelix at hyperfeed.com (Kenneth Felix) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 09:50:50 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] SPARCBook 3gx and PCMCIA... Message-ID: I think a 3c509 series is a ISA card, I don't think this will fit into a sparcbook pcmcia slot...... -----Original Message----- From: Michael Lorenz [mailto:ml at wisent.de] Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 8:23 AM To: sparcbook at sunhelp.org Subject: Re: [SPARCbook] SPARCBook 3gx and PCMCIA... Greetings... > I've got a sparcbook 3gx and a Linksys 10/100 ocmcia ethernet card. I've > never used pcmcia with *ix before and I have no clue how to get it > recognized. The system is running Solaris 2.5.1. I guess I just need to > know the device name for it. Anyone? Hmm, as far as I know the only PCMCIA network cards supported by Solaris 2.5.1 are the 3c509 and some Wavelan device, nothing else. Anyway, to recognize hardware try , should be in /usr/sbin, the device name for the 3c509 would be pcel0 or pcel1, depending on the slot it is plugged in. bye Michael _______________________________________________ Sparcbook mailing list - Sparcbook at sunhelp.org http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook From khansen at pluto.njcc.com Tue Nov 30 09:54:38 1999 From: khansen at pluto.njcc.com (Ken Hansen) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 10:54:38 -0500 (EST) Subject: [SPARCbook] Problem with upgraded SB 3GX (64M/6.4G) Message-ID: Hello all, I am having a problem with rebuilding my SB 3GX now that I have upgraded the RAM to 64 Meg and put a new HD inside. I can boot off the original 1.2 Gig drive with my new RAM size (but no suspend/resume!), but when I put the new 6.4Gig SCSI drive inside the tray and boot the laptop, I can not get the install to accept the drive (no valid Sun disklabel IIRC)... I know others have replaced their drives, how did you get around this? On a typical Sun system I would simply boot off another disk, then label/partiton drive, but I can't see how to do that here. I do have external SCSI drives available, should I build an external backup of my 1.2Gig HD image, boot from that ext. drive/backup and then label/format the new drive and restore images into larger partitions? Help. Thanks, Ken khansen at njcc.com From wstrange at polarisdata.com Tue Nov 30 10:11:02 1999 From: wstrange at polarisdata.com (Bill Strange) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 10:11:02 -0600 Subject: [SPARCbook] Problem with upgraded SB 3GX (64M/6.4G) Message-ID: Ken Hansen wrote: > Hello all, > I am having a problem with rebuilding my SB 3GX > now that I have upgraded the RAM to 64 Meg and put a new > HD inside. I can boot off the original 1.2 Gig drive > with my new RAM size (but no suspend/resume!), but when > I put the new 6.4Gig SCSI drive inside the tray and > boot the laptop, I can not get the install to accept the > drive (no valid Sun disklabel IIRC)... What I did was allow the solaris install sequence to continue to the GUI level, and before continuing with anything at all just opened a command tool and ran format. This allows a back-door approach to labeling and partioning. Then, I just rebooted and ran the install nominally. It will see the drive at that time and you can take or leave your original partitioning. Bill Strange From sunder at sunder.net Tue Nov 30 10:31:01 1999 From: sunder at sunder.net (Sunder) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 11:31:01 -0500 Subject: [SPARCbook] Problem with upgraded SB 3GX (64M/6.4G) Message-ID: Ken Hansen wrote: > > Hello all, > I am having a problem with rebuilding my SB 3GX > now that I have upgraded the RAM to 64 Meg and put a new > HD inside. I can boot off the original 1.2 Gig drive > with my new RAM size (but no suspend/resume!), but when > I put the new 6.4Gig SCSI drive inside the tray and > boot the laptop, I can not get the install to accept the > drive (no valid Sun disklabel IIRC)... If you have an external 512 byte/block SCSI CDROM (i.e.: A Sun compatible CDROM), you can boot off of that, and upgrade to Solaris 2.6. Once you go to 2.6 be sure to throw the tadpole 2.6 patches or else you won't have power management, X, or anything else. If you decide to go with 2.6, don't forget to apply the latest recommended Sun patches, including security, Y2K, etc. Then go have a visit to ftp://metalab.unc.edu for the usual GNUwarez of packages you'll be needing, etc. (Mine took overnight to apply the 2.6 patches, be sure your sparcbook has lots of ventillation while you install/patch 2.6 as the power manager is disabled and your book will get very hot! I popped the feet up on mine and placed it on a slab of marble from the kitchen, then aimed a fan at it!) 2.6 doesn't require a special partition to swap out the RAM to when it sleeps. 2.5.1 with the NCE does. If you really want to stick to 2.5.1, I'd suggest you attach an external CDROM and another SCSI hard disk. Boot from a Solaris 2.5.1 CD. (use boot cdrom -SVR to skip the install, boot verbosely, etc) Then Backup all your files to that, shutdown, install the new disk, partition it with format, newfs each of the slices, restore the files you've backed up, and install a new boot sector. Don't forget to include /dev and /devices as well as the NCE stuff! To install a new boot sector, hit the installboot manpage. Basically you have to run /usr/sbin/installboot bootfile /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0 (or whatever disk, notice there's no slice because this goes before the partitions). You can probably find the bootfile in /usr/platform/platform-name/lib/fs/ufs. (This should be /usr/platform/sun4m/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk but I don't have the sparcbook infront of me.) If you change the partition slice order (ie: var is now slice 3 instead of whatever it was) Be sure to edit the new /etc/vfstab and if you're sharing /etc/dfs/dfstab or your tadpole will be very confused when it tries to boot from different slices. :) > I do have external SCSI drives available, should > I build an external backup of my 1.2Gig HD image, boot > from that ext. drive/backup and then label/format the new > drive and restore images into larger partitions? Don't make an image of the old 1.2G disk - if you do, you'll be limited to slices of that size when you mount them on the new drive - which is okay if you know you'll never use more space than you have available, but... OTOH, If you've dd'ed the backup slice (i.e. that one big s2 slice whose cylinders encompass the whole disk) congrats, you've just limited your entire new disk to 1.2Gb :) It's not an easy process, but it's straightforward, and lots of fun - especially when you get everything to work! Enjoy. -- ---------------------------- Kaos Keraunos Kybernetos -------------------- + ^ + Sunder "Only someone completely distrustful of /|\ \|/ sunder at sunder.net all government would be opposed to what /\|/\ <--*--> -------------------- we are doing with surveillance cameras" \/|\/ /|\ You're on the air. -- NYC Police Commish H. Safir. \|/ + v + Say 'Hi' to Echelon "Privacy is an 'antisocial act'" - The FedZ. ---------------------------- http://www.sunder.net ----------------------- I love the smell of Malathion in the morning, it smells like brain cancer.