26 replies to this topic

[dinscurge]

basically i'm asking if anyone knows where to download a sparc dist/os .img i need it for a sparcstation 5 that i got for free, btw it only has 32mb of ram so it cant be like a 10 floppy ramdisk. it doesnt have a cd drive which is why i am asking for floppy based install as i dont have any idc/50 pin scsi cd drives that happen to be 1in tall and fit the special mounts for the original toshiba rom that is supposed to be there. it does have network so if theres such a thing as a floppy based net install that would work aswell.

[Ohm]

What's a floppy disk?

Look into net booting. I think most Sun machines (if not all) can net boot. It'll be much easier, and isn't actually all that hard. I did this some time ago on an old SPARC workstation to get Debian installed. I think all you need to do is set up a TFTP server and.. not much more.

[dinscurge]

What's a floppy disk?

Look into net booting. I think most Sun machines (if not all) can net boot. It'll be much easier, and isn't actually all that hard. I did this some time ago on an old SPARC workstation to get Debian installed. I think all you need to do is set up a TFTP server and.. not much more.

you know those oldschool disk inside a box usually 1.44mb lols. yeah it can net boot but im a noob and dont know what a tftp server is, i can tell it uses the ftp protocol but not sure what the t is for. so i wouldn't have the foggiest setting up a tftp server and i probably cant i need a wired switch for my room now, as im guessing i would have to use linux to set up tftp? mabey it can be done with virtual box, not sure. was just wondering if anyone knew any floppy dist's as texas instraments has been around for "awhile" so i figured some one would have made a dist for them.

[Ohm]

30 seconds of googling would have told you that TFTP doesn't use and isn't related to FTP at all. Seriously, go read about it before you assume it's too difficult.

[dinscurge]

30 seconds of googling would have told you that TFTP doesn't use and isn't related to FTP at all. Seriously, go read about it before you assume it's too difficult.

true i was just guessing from the name but then again some people make complicated names that make no sence.
anyways any suggestions for a tftp client?

[Ohm]

Had you dont any reading whatsoever you would have found that you need a TFTP server. Go read.

[dinscurge]

Had you dont any reading whatsoever you would have found that you need a TFTP server. Go read.

thats what i meant to say lols http://tftpd32.jounin.net/ likes this<? was just wondering for specific servers that could be recomended

[Spyril]

Had you dont any reading whatsoever you would have found that you need a TFTP server. Go read.

thats what i meant to say lols http://tftpd32.jounin.net/ likes this<? was just wondering for specific servers that could be recomended

Sure, use that, why not. You just need this to net boot, so it doesn't really matter what you use.

Edit: As an avid watcher of your signature, could you tell me what those numbers mean?

Edited by Spyril, 04 April 2009 - 07:14 PM.

[dinscurge]

Had you dont any reading whatsoever you would have found that you need a TFTP server. Go read.

thats what i meant to say lols http://tftpd32.jounin.net/ likes this<? was just wondering for specific servers that could be recomended

Sure, use that, why not. You just need this to net boot, so it doesn't really matter what you use.

Edit: As an avid watcher of your signature, could you tell me what those numbers mean?

rapid thought i was trying to encrypt something in my last sig so i figured id take 2-3 minutes and make a new crypt and see if he gets it, its pretty simple but i havent done anything for cryptology so its probably doesnt look like other methods. ithe first digit of the first number "11" in "11,7. the first 1 is the first sentance, the second is the first word, basically its a distraction. the 7 is the 7th letter of the alphabet g, every letter after the first in each word is salted with a +1 so "11,7.16." 7 the first letter is 0 so dont add any the second letter is o 15+1=16. its simple but it has worked for this purpose i guess , i probably will just use this hopefully i can figure out how to net boot lols

[systems_glitch]

As mentioned, you should forget floppies and netboot it. Alternately, if you have an external SCSI CD-ROM drive (these are usually quite cheap nowadays), your SPARC will boot from that too.

For a guide to TFTP booting, look for the Debian SPARC-32 netinst guide. It's pretty complete. Replacing the Debian-specific boot image with another boot image lets you load up any OS installer that supports net booting and your architecture (which is SPARC-32). Not too many OSes support SPARC-32 anymore. You'll probably get the most use out of OpenBSD or NetBSD. I can personally attest that the Debian netinst takes /forever/ on SPARC-32 hardware with better specs than yours (on the order of days). However, I managed to get OpenBSD installed on an old SparcStation LX in under an hour.

Other than that, you could find a really old version of SunOS or Solaris (did Solaris ever support the 32-bit SPARC processors?).

[Aghaster]

As mentioned, you should forget floppies and netboot it. Alternately, if you have an external SCSI CD-ROM drive (these are usually quite cheap nowadays), your SPARC will boot from that too.

For a guide to TFTP booting, look for the Debian SPARC-32 netinst guide. It's pretty complete. Replacing the Debian-specific boot image with another boot image lets you load up any OS installer that supports net booting and your architecture (which is SPARC-32). Not too many OSes support SPARC-32 anymore. You'll probably get the most use out of OpenBSD or NetBSD. I can personally attest that the Debian netinst takes /forever/ on SPARC-32 hardware with better specs than yours (on the order of days). However, I managed to get OpenBSD installed on an old SparcStation LX in under an hour.

Other than that, you could find a really old version of SunOS or Solaris (did Solaris ever support the 32-bit SPARC processors?).

I once asked someone on craigslist who had an old Sun SparcStation 5 to sell, and he said it was running Solaris 8, and that it wouldn't really support much more than that. Solaris 8 might be a good choice then.

@dinscurge: You need to do an installation over the network. Just follow the advice that was already given by other people in this thread.

[dinscurge]

As mentioned, you should forget floppies and netboot it. Alternately, if you have an external SCSI CD-ROM drive (these are usually quite cheap nowadays), your SPARC will boot from that too.

For a guide to TFTP booting, look for the Debian SPARC-32 netinst guide. It's pretty complete. Replacing the Debian-specific boot image with another boot image lets you load up any OS installer that supports net booting and your architecture (which is SPARC-32). Not too many OSes support SPARC-32 anymore. You'll probably get the most use out of OpenBSD or NetBSD. I can personally attest that the Debian netinst takes /forever/ on SPARC-32 hardware with better specs than yours (on the order of days). However, I managed to get OpenBSD installed on an old SparcStation LX in under an hour.

Other than that, you could find a really old version of SunOS or Solaris (did Solaris ever support the 32-bit SPARC processors?).

yeah for the sun/ti microsparcII is supported up to solaris 9, mabey 10. i've tried dhcp but the box cant find it.
http://www.mail-arch...g/msg14613.html found that< guide but now i nead rarp daemon as it appears thats the only thing it searchs for when i try

boot net

just says rarp timeout nout found or something like that. anyways any suggestions on rarp daemons? havent found anything yet

Edited by dinscurge, 04 April 2009 - 11:16 PM.

[IndexPhinger]

You looking for one of thoose?

cheapest I found was $9 americano.

http://www.weirdstuf...-bin/item/16001

cheers din-din

[dinscurge]

You looking for one of thoose?

cheapest I found was $9 americano.

http://www.weirdstuf...-bin/item/16001

cheers din-din

basically but i dont see the point as its a crappy fujistu 170mhz proc instead of the 110mhz t.i. so its not really supported by anything/ super buggy. idk so far it didnt work with the open bsd floppy

Edited by dinscurge, 06 April 2009 - 01:08 PM.

[IndexPhinger]

You looking for one of thoose?

cheapest I found was $9 americano.

http://www.weirdstuf...-bin/item/16001

cheers din-din

basically but i dont see the point as its a crappy fujistu 170mhz proc instead of the 110mhz t.i. so its not really supported by anything/ super buggy. idk so far it didnt work with the open bsd floppy

they sell sparc cpus too.

[dinscurge]

You looking for one of thoose?

cheapest I found was $9 americano.

http://www.weirdstuf...-bin/item/16001

cheers din-din

basically but i dont see the point as its a crappy fujistu 170mhz proc instead of the 110mhz t.i. so its not really supported by anything/ super buggy. idk so far it didnt work with the open bsd floppy

they sell sparc cpus too.

yeah but then i'd have to get a 110mhz proc thats half the power, id have to get new ram and i dont know if the cpu is soldered in or not, but the mobo will support the 110mhz t.i. proc though .

[doomtroll]

http://dlc.sun.com/p...801-6396-11.pdf SparcStation 5 Service Manual

http://obsolyte.com/sun_ss5/ More info

http://sunsolve.sun....Systems/SS5/SS5 and a bit more

http://auroralinux.o...?SPARCstation_5 then some more again

I have the SS4, SS5, & SS20. if you want a non-Solaris Distro on these machines, Netbooting or getting a CD-ROM drive are your only options. You can try Floppy distros, but they are known to not be very stable ands installations usually fail on Sparc arch.

Edited by doomtroll, 07 April 2009 - 11:29 AM.

[dinscurge]

I have the SS4, SS5, & SS20. if you want a non-Solaris Distro on these machines, Netbooting or getting a CD-ROM drive are your only options. You can try Floppy distros, but they are known to not be very stable ands installations usually fail on Sparc arch.

yeah i'm probably gonna get a cd drive as yeah y not, it actually doesnt have any distro on it now, its partitioned 3 parts im guessing boot/swap/home but havent been able to check really it doesnt boot though, so i was just going to try and use the openbsd floppy to net install the full bsd so wouldnt have to work that good but o well. wanted bsd because y not, and i dont want to download a solaris 9/10 dvd

[doomtroll]

http://www.sun.com/s...ris/9/index.xml

You can download Solaris 9 CD version for Sparc here. You need to set up an account, but its all free.

[dinscurge]

You looking for one of thoose?

cheapest I found was $9 americano.

http://www.weirdstuf...-bin/item/16001

cheers din-din

basically but i dont see the point as its a crappy fujistu 170mhz proc instead of the 110mhz t.i. so its not really supported by anything/ super buggy. idk so far it didnt work with the open bsd floppy

they sell sparc cpus too.

got a site where i can get KTS32000/S5 ram for the 170mhz sparc station 5? the only ones i can find are like 20-$300 perstick and yeah need 6 of them and dont want to spend $20 for a fin 32mb stick of ram