From eric@xenrix.net Mon Jul 2 10:14:46 2007 From: eric@xenrix.net (Mr Eric Rudolph Pizzani) Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 19:14:46 +1000 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Netra X1 Solaris Headaches Message-ID: <3FBF283B-23F3-4E00-8E60-5C4162EF9467@xenrix.net> Hey all, I recently acquired a very nice looking Netra X1, however it has a show stopping problem. When it attempts to boot off it's internal hard drive (which has Solaris 9 installed) it locks up at the spinning stick (After displaying the solaris copyright notice.) It also does the same thing when I attempt to boot off a Solaris 10 DVD (using a Pioneer DVD-ROM drive) and a Solaris 10 CD (using a Sony CD-ROM drive). Sometimes it'll also mention an Fast Data MMU Miss or something when you run any sort of boot command- this virtually guaranteed to happen if bootmode is set to forth (as opposed to breaking the boot process before it locks up, and then booting off the DVD/CD.) Now, the strangest part is that the NetBSD 3.0 Installer CD will boot to the installation screen. I know that there can't be anything wrong with the Solaris media, as I have reburnt the Solaris CD twice, and the Solaris DVD has worked fine when setting up an Ultra 10. Any suggestions? Eternally in your debt, -E. From andre@purplecow.org Mon Jul 2 12:30:09 2007 From: andre@purplecow.org (Andre van Eyssen) Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 21:30:09 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Netra X1 Solaris Headaches In-Reply-To: <3FBF283B-23F3-4E00-8E60-5C4162EF9467@xenrix.net> References: <3FBF283B-23F3-4E00-8E60-5C4162EF9467@xenrix.net> Message-ID: On Mon, 2 Jul 2007, Mr Eric Rudolph Pizzani wrote: > Hey all, > I recently acquired a very nice looking Netra X1, however it has a show > stopping problem. > > When it attempts to boot off it's internal hard drive (which has Solaris 9 > installed) it locks up at the spinning stick (After displaying the solaris > copyright notice.) > It also does the same thing when I attempt to boot off a Solaris 10 DVD > (using a Pioneer DVD-ROM drive) and a Solaris 10 CD (using a Sony CD-ROM > drive). > > Sometimes it'll also mention an Fast Data MMU Miss or something when you run > any sort of boot command- this virtually guaranteed to happen if bootmode is > set to forth (as opposed to breaking the boot process before it locks up, and > then booting off the DVD/CD.) Yep, that happens. eeprom auto-boot? false reset-all And make sure the LOM isn't set to "forth" mode. Set it there if you have to set get these parameters done, but then set it normal and power cycle the box. This will give you a clean state. > Now, the strangest part is that the NetBSD 3.0 Installer CD will boot to the > installation screen. I know that there can't be anything wrong with the > Solaris media, as I have reburnt the Solaris CD twice, and the Solaris DVD > has worked fine when setting up an Ultra 10. Sounds like your break solution to get to the OBP is causing the machines some hassles. After you've followed the above to get some clean state, you might want to setenv diag-switch? true setenv diag-level max reset-all To run some diagnostics on the box. -- Andre van Eyssen. "the only value you can add to a banana is a bruise" -- McNealy. From pjcreath+openbios@gmail.com Mon Jul 2 19:56:06 2007 From: pjcreath+openbios@gmail.com (Peter) Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 14:56:06 -0400 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Some old Suns stopping w/o keyboard? Message-ID: I've got a few old SS10's lying around, and some of them exhibit the following annoying behavior. If you unplug the keyboard, it's equivalent to hitting stop-A -- you get the monitor prompt. If you replug the keyboard, you have to type "go" to resume. But some of the SS10's don't do this. They just keep merrily chugging along without a keyboard. Does anybody know why this is, or how I might convince the ornery SS10's to keep on running without a keyboard? Thanks! From paul@anastrophe.com Tue Jul 3 00:11:23 2007 From: paul@anastrophe.com (Paul Theodoropoulos) Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:11:23 -0700 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Some old Suns stopping w/o keyboard? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20070702231221.E291993CF@tigger.net-kitchen.com> At 11:56 AM 7/2/2007, Peter wrote: >I've got a few old SS10's lying around, and some of them exhibit the >following annoying behavior. > >If you unplug the keyboard, it's equivalent to hitting stop-A -- you >get the monitor prompt. > >If you replug the keyboard, you have to type "go" to resume. > >But some of the SS10's don't do this. They just keep merrily chugging >along without a keyboard. > >Does anybody know why this is, or how I might convince the ornery >SS10's to keep on running without a keyboard? edit /etc/default/kbd, and change KEYBOARD_ABORT to 'disable'. if you want it to take effect immediately (without rebooting), type kbd -i Paul Theodoropoulos http://www.anastrophe.com From pjcreath+openbios@gmail.com Tue Jul 3 22:21:50 2007 From: pjcreath+openbios@gmail.com (Peter) Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 17:21:50 -0400 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Some old Suns stopping w/o keyboard? In-Reply-To: <20070702231221.E291993CF@tigger.net-kitchen.com> References: <20070702231221.E291993CF@tigger.net-kitchen.com> Message-ID: On 7/2/07, Paul Theodoropoulos wrote: > edit /etc/default/kbd, and change KEYBOARD_ABORT to 'disable'. > > if you want it to take effect immediately (without rebooting), type > > kbd -i Thanks! Any idea how to do this on versions of SunOS prior to Solaris 2.5.1 (i.e. ones that don't have the kbd command)? From paul@anastrophe.com Tue Jul 3 22:25:16 2007 From: paul@anastrophe.com (Paul Theodoropoulos) Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:25:16 -0700 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Some old Suns stopping w/o keyboard? In-Reply-To: References: <20070702231221.E291993CF@tigger.net-kitchen.com> Message-ID: <20070703212520.E657E93CB@tigger.net-kitchen.com> At 02:21 PM 7/3/2007, Peter wrote: >On 7/2/07, Paul Theodoropoulos wrote: >>edit /etc/default/kbd, and change KEYBOARD_ABORT to 'disable'. >> >>if you want it to take effect immediately (without rebooting), type >> >>kbd -i > >Thanks! Any idea how to do this on versions of SunOS prior to Solaris >2.5.1 (i.e. ones that don't have the kbd command)? offhand no, however, I wonder if there's something similar/related within /etc/default in the older OS that does the trick - as you had mentioned, some of your machines don't have this problem, which suggests that perhaps their configs were suitably altered. maybe check the existing files in /etc/default on those machines for differences with the ones that aren't playing nice.... Paul Theodoropoulos http://www.anastrophe.com From eric@xenrix.net Sun Jul 8 23:19:53 2007 From: eric@xenrix.net (Mr Eric Rudolph Pizzani) Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:19:53 +1000 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Netra X1 Solaris Headaches Message-ID: <6F47B215-337B-4F0A-9BB6-621D056BE5E5@xenrix.net> Hey All, I'm just sending this, summarizing what I've learnt in the last 2 weeks with the Netra X1, for the benefit of everyone here. Based on Andre's advice (to whom, I'm very grateful,) to get an ok prompt for booting without using break (which tends to be nasty) is run the following (either after using break or switching to forth mode) eeprom auto-boot? false reset-all the things you should try with a Netra, if it is giving you troubles is : setenv diag-switch? true setenv diag-level max reset-all as well as connecting up it's ethernet ports. In my case, it turned out that the system board was... a little dodgy. The replacement machine I got sent had a fubar'd processor- which no matter what, without fail would report divide by zero errors. swap the two, and hey presto- one completely screwed machine and one good machine. hope this is useful for someone else. :-) Smiles, Eric. From silvercreekvalley@yahoo.com Tue Jul 10 12:23:38 2007 From: silvercreekvalley@yahoo.com (silvercreekvalley) Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:23:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Stopping the disks clicking Message-ID: <633271.53607.qm@web56211.mail.re3.yahoo.com> I have a SunBlade 1000 which is fitted with two SCSI drives (70G) and it works wonderfully :) However - I've noticed that when the unit is switched on and idle - the disks emit a click or 'clunk' sound every 2-3 seconds. I'm guessing this is something to do with swap space or similar? Anyway I just wondered if there is any way of stopping this or making it less frequent. Its not too irritating, sounding a bit like an old grandfather clock - but just wondered... Ian. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz From Keywords: ; Tue Jul 10 13:21:40 2007 From: Keywords: ; (Craig Dewick) Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:21:40 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Stopping the disks clicking In-Reply-To: <633271.53607.qm@web56211.mail.re3.yahoo.com> References: <633271.53607.qm@web56211.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Message-ID: On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, silvercreekvalley wrote: > I have a SunBlade 1000 which is fitted with two SCSI drives (70G) and it > works wonderfully :) Still trying to solve that problem on my SB1000. Still working fine using the external 73 GB SCSI drive though. The internal 73 GB FCAL drive doesn't show up at all when I run 'format'. Bizarre. ATM I don't have any other FCAL drives to try for comparison so it might just be a drive firmware issue since the OBP sees it. > However - I've noticed that when the unit is switched on and idle - the > disks emit a click or 'clunk' sound every 2-3 seconds. Depending what brand they are... If the drives happen to be Seagate's then some of those tend to re-calibrate every so often and that action results in a noticable sound a bit like a clunk. Seems to be specific to the Cheetah series drives based on my experience. Craig. -- Post by Craig Dewick (tm). Web @ "http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick". Email 2 "cdewick@lios.apana.org.au". SunShack @ "http://www.sunshack.org" Galleries @ "http://www.sunshack.org/gallery2". Also lots of tech data, etc. Sun Microsystems webring at "http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=sunmicrosystemsu". From andre@purplecow.org Tue Jul 10 13:18:24 2007 From: andre@purplecow.org (Andre van Eyssen) Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:18:24 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Stopping the disks clicking In-Reply-To: <633271.53607.qm@web56211.mail.re3.yahoo.com> References: <633271.53607.qm@web56211.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Message-ID: On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, silvercreekvalley wrote: > I have a SunBlade 1000 which is fitted with two > SCSI drives (70G) and it works wonderfully :) > > However - I've noticed that when the unit is > switched on and idle - the disks emit a click > or 'clunk' sound every 2-3 seconds. If they're under disksuite control, they'll get a probe periodically to make sure they're still alive. It gets a lot more noticable when you've got a lot of drives together. -- Andre van Eyssen. "the only value you can add to a banana is a bruise" -- McNealy. From n2vip@verizon.net Tue Jul 10 18:33:34 2007 From: n2vip@verizon.net (n2vip@verizon.net) Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:33:34 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Stopping the disks clicking Message-ID: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> >From: silvercreekvalley >Date: 2007/07/10 Tue AM 06:23:38 CDT >To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com >Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Stopping the disks clicking >I have a SunBlade 1000 which is fitted with two >SCSI drives (70G) and it works wonderfully :) Correction - FC-AL drives, not SCSI drives (assuming the drives are internal) >However - I've noticed that when the unit is >switched on and idle - the disks emit a click >or 'clunk' sound every 2-3 seconds. Odd... >I'm guessing this is something to do with swap >space or similar? Anyway I just wondered if >there is any way of stopping this or making >it less frequent. Can you isolate it down to one drive? If you power up the unit, but do not boot into Solaris, does the clicking continue? I suspect it is a drive that is starting to fail, but that is just a guess... >Its not too irritating, sounding a bit like an >old grandfather clock - but just wondered... Best of luck with it, Ken From benjamin.lewis@belgacom.net Sun Jul 15 18:02:45 2007 From: benjamin.lewis@belgacom.net (Ben Lewis) Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:02:45 +0200 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> References: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> Message-ID: <2D35AE5B-AF5C-49C4-A1B9-F2AA7A9BDF74@belgacom.net> Hello Folks Taking a line from Iggy Pop and the Stooges I wanted to throw out a question to the forum. Having acquired a E3500 and an Ultra 1 in the last couple of months I find myself only really switching on my Ultra 5 to actually do anything useful. The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the Ultra 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". Is there a size-power-cpu-ram-diskspace to usefulness equation that I'm not aware of? Best regards Ben PS I'm heading off to the UK to do a product install on HP-UX on Monday. Wish me luck but I have to admit that SAM and it's disk management stuff is pretty good. From andre@purplecow.org Mon Jul 16 01:34:00 2007 From: andre@purplecow.org (Andre van Eyssen) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:34:00 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: <2D35AE5B-AF5C-49C4-A1B9-F2AA7A9BDF74@belgacom.net> References: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> <2D35AE5B-AF5C-49C4-A1B9-F2AA7A9BDF74@belgacom.net> Message-ID: On Sun, 15 Jul 2007, Ben Lewis wrote: > Having acquired a E3500 and an Ultra 1 in the last couple of months I find > myself only really switching on my Ultra 5 to actually do anything useful. > > The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the Ultra > 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". > > Is there a size-power-cpu-ram-diskspace to usefulness equation that I'm not > aware of? Yes. The more CPU, RAM, Storage and network connectivity a box has the more potentially useful. This is an easy one to spot. The Ultra-5's CPU is far faster than the Ultra-1, no doubt it has a better framebuffer and will be much snappier to use. The E3500 takes half an hour to POST, so if you're switching machines on-and-off the wait would drive you nuts. Personally, I'd try to score a SunRay thin client or two and plug 'em into your 3500. The performance may surprise you. -- Andre van Eyssen. "the only value you can add to a banana is a bruise" -- McNealy. From n2vip@verizon.net Mon Jul 16 14:08:50 2007 From: n2vip@verizon.net (n2vip@verizon.net) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:08:50 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power Message-ID: <15206981.18357081184591330882.JavaMail.root@vms071.mailsrvcs.net> >From: Andre van Eyssen >Date: 2007/07/15 Sun PM 07:34:00 CDT >To: Ben Lewis >Cc: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com >Subject: Re: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power >On Sun, 15 Jul 2007, Ben Lewis wrote: > > >> Having acquired a E3500 and an Ultra 1 in the last couple of months I find >> myself only really switching on my Ultra 5 to actually do anything useful. Old habits die hard... >> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the Ultra >> 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". It is very PC-like, esp in hardware design (IDE, "VGA" monitor connector, etc.), and likely faster than the Ultra 1... >> Is there a size-power-cpu-ram-diskspace to usefulness equation that I'm not >> aware of? > >Yes. The more CPU, RAM, Storage and network connectivity a box has the >more potentially useful. And the more power it uses ;^) >This is an easy one to spot. The Ultra-5's CPU is far faster than the >Ultra-1, no doubt it has a better framebuffer and will be much snappier to >use. Agreed - Ultra 1 has an UltraSPARC I CPU and the Ultra 5 has an UltraSPARC IIi processor. Does the Ultra 1 have a Creator (UPA) framebuffer or SBUS TGX? >The E3500 takes half an hour to POST, so if you're switching machines >on-and-off the wait would drive you nuts. > >Personally, I'd try to score a SunRay thin client or two and plug 'em into >your 3500. The performance may surprise you. Or, run the Ultra 1 or 5 as a remote desktop terminal over a 100 Mb/sec connection. You can also run application on the E3500 and have them display on your "friendly" Ultra 5... Just a few thoughts - hope they help... Ken From aaron_milwaukee@yahoo.com Mon Jul 16 21:12:13 2007 From: aaron_milwaukee@yahoo.com (Matt Radtke) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:12:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power Message-ID: <183185.61315.qm@web54304.mail.re2.yahoo.com> >> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the Ultra >> 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". > It is very PC-like, esp in hardware design (IDE, "VGA" monitor connector, etc.), and likely faster than the Ultra 1... I'd say it really depends on your usage. The Ultra1/2 tend to have better I/O than the 5/10. Yes, the CPU is very likely faster in the 5, but that IDE bus is /garbage/. IIRC, its only ATA33. The onboard video is also lackluster. -Matt -- Matthew Radtke aaron_milwaukee@yahoo.com ~ This shell script has been rated R for improper quoting, not checking error codes, and gratuitous use of cat ~ ____________________________________________________________________________________ No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail From shannon@widomaker.com Tue Jul 17 00:47:22 2007 From: shannon@widomaker.com (Charles Shannon Hendrix) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:47:22 -0400 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: <183185.61315.qm@web54304.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <183185.61315.qm@web54304.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20070716194722.66bfaeeb@daydream> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:12:13 -0700 (PDT) Matt Radtke wrote: > >> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the > >> Ultra 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". > > > It is very PC-like, esp in hardware design (IDE, "VGA" monitor connector, > > etc.), and likely faster than the Ultra 1... > > I'd say it really depends on your usage. The Ultra1/2 tend to have better > I/O than the 5/10. Yes, the CPU is very likely faster in the 5, but that > IDE bus is /garbage/. IIRC, its only ATA33. The onboard video is also > lackluster. On that note, are there *ANY* newer SPARC based Sun systems that have decent PCI and IDE/SATA busses, and that aren't priced out of the "equivalent power" market? Or is that pretty much limited to their AMD based machines? -- shannon | An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto | one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth. From fitzgerrell@gmail.com Tue Jul 17 04:23:02 2007 From: fitzgerrell@gmail.com (Kevin Fitzgerrell) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:23:02 -0400 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: <20070716194722.66bfaeeb@daydream> References: <183185.61315.qm@web54304.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <20070716194722.66bfaeeb@daydream> Message-ID: On 7/16/07, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote: > > >> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the > > >> Ultra 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". > > > > > It is very PC-like, esp in hardware design (IDE, "VGA" monitor connector, > > > etc.), and likely faster than the Ultra 1... > > > > I'd say it really depends on your usage. The Ultra1/2 tend to have better > > I/O than the 5/10. Yes, the CPU is very likely faster in the 5, but that > > IDE bus is /garbage/. IIRC, its only ATA33. The onboard video is also > > lackluster. > > On that note, are there *ANY* newer SPARC based Sun systems that have decent > PCI and IDE/SATA busses, and that aren't priced out of the "equivalent power" > market? > > Or is that pretty much limited to their AMD based machines? > Not really answering your question (no IDE/SATA), but I'm really pleased with the price and performance of Ultra 60s - I've got a dual 450mhz, dual Creator video box that makes a really nice personal workstation - picked this up off EBay a year or so ago for $60 and added the 2nd CPU a bit later. It's got a decent PCI bus with one high speed slot, and reasonably fast scsi for the internal drives. It's a long way from silent but not too bad. Cheers, Kevin From laurens@daemon.be Tue Jul 17 23:43:57 2007 From: laurens@daemon.be (Laurens Vets) Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:43:57 +0200 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 Message-ID: <469D462D.4080406@daemon.be> Hi all, I've recently acquired an Ultra 60. However, when I try to use it with my Sun GDM-20D10 monitor, the screen is scrambled as if the wrong resolution is used. I tried changing the resolution but nothing seems to work. I entered various command in OBP and at one time I got the correct resolution, but when I rebooted, screen was garbled again and I cannot seem to get it correct anymore :( Anything else that I can try? From n2vip@verizon.net Wed Jul 18 12:34:29 2007 From: n2vip@verizon.net (n2vip@verizon.net) Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:34:29 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 Message-ID: <18097223.45751184758469857.JavaMail.root@vms172.mailsrvcs.net> >From: Laurens Vets >Date: 2007/07/17 Tue PM 05:43:57 CDT >To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com >Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 >Hi all, > >I've recently acquired an Ultra 60. However, when I try to use it with >my Sun GDM-20D10 monitor, the screen is scrambled as if the wrong >resolution is used. I tried changing the resolution but nothing seems >to work. I entered various command in OBP and at one time I got the >correct resolution, but when I rebooted, screen was garbled again and I >cannot seem to get it correct anymore :( > >Anything else that I can try? Have you tried holding down "stop-n" when powering up the workstation? It sounds to me like the previous owner had programmed in an unsupported resolution, and the NVRAM needs to be reset. You could, I imagine, actually update the NVRAM to a supported resolution, but the "stop-n" should set everything back to factory settings, and "just work". If you've not done it before, the way it works is you hold down the "stop" and "n" keys as you power up the machine and hold them down until you see the lights on the keyboard blink, then you let go of the keys and the machine will restart again. You might notice a message on power-up that the NVRAM has been reset, just above the usual banner reporting various facts about the machine CPU speed & number, RAM installed, MAC address, etc... HTH, Ken From laurens@daemon.be Wed Jul 18 16:27:12 2007 From: laurens@daemon.be (Laurens Vets) Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:27:12 +0200 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 In-Reply-To: <18097223.45751184758469857.JavaMail.root@vms172.mailsrvcs.net> References: <18097223.45751184758469857.JavaMail.root@vms172.mailsrvcs.net> Message-ID: <469E3150.7080905@daemon.be> >> I've recently acquired an Ultra 60. However, when I try to use it with >> my Sun GDM-20D10 monitor, the screen is scrambled as if the wrong >> resolution is used. I tried changing the resolution but nothing seems >> to work. I entered various command in OBP and at one time I got the >> correct resolution, but when I rebooted, screen was garbled again and I >> cannot seem to get it correct anymore :( >> >> Anything else that I can try? > > Have you tried holding down "stop-n" when powering up the workstation? It sounds to me like the previous owner had programmed in an unsupported resolution, and the NVRAM needs to be reset. > > You could, I imagine, actually update the NVRAM to a supported resolution, but the "stop-n" should set everything back to factory settings, and "just work". > > If you've not done it before, the way it works is you hold down the "stop" and "n" keys as you power up the machine and hold them down until you see the lights on the keyboard blink, then you let go of the keys and the machine will restart again. You might notice a message on power-up that the NVRAM has been reset, just above the usual banner reporting various facts about the machine CPU speed & number, RAM installed, MAC address, etc... I just tried your suggestion, to no avail :( From Keywords: ; Wed Jul 18 17:49:44 2007 From: Keywords: ; (Craig Dewick) Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:49:44 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: References: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> <2D35AE5B-AF5C-49C4-A1B9-F2AA7A9BDF74@belgacom.net> Message-ID: On Mon, 16 Jul 2007, Andre van Eyssen wrote: > On Sun, 15 Jul 2007, Ben Lewis wrote: > >> Having acquired a E3500 and an Ultra 1 in the last couple of months I find >> myself only really switching on my Ultra 5 to actually do anything useful. >> >> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than the >> Ultra 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". >> >> Is there a size-power-cpu-ram-diskspace to usefulness equation that I'm not >> aware of? > > Yes. The more CPU, RAM, Storage and network connectivity a box has the more > potentially useful. > > This is an easy one to spot. The Ultra-5's CPU is far faster than the > Ultra-1, no doubt it has a better framebuffer and will be much snappier to > use. > > The E3500 takes half an hour to POST, so if you're switching machines > on-and-off the wait would drive you nuts. I noticed this when I set up my E450 last year - POST takes a good 10 minutes or more depending what diag level, etc. I have it set up for. It's supremely quiet apart from disk noise, and it replaced about four small server boxes (a couple of t105's and some older systems) I had running in my rack with one single, relatively more energy-efficient, quiet, powerful system that's simple to move around when that need arises. > Personally, I'd try to score a SunRay thin client or two and plug 'em into > your 3500. The performance may surprise you. How freely available is the software, etc. to run SunRay's like that? Has sun closed off access to it just like they've done with SunSolve and access to Solaris patches, etc.? If the software is freely available, that's good as SunRay's (esp. the earlier ones) show up on Ebay all the time now at cheap prices. Craig. -- Post by Craig Dewick (tm). Web @ "http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick". Email 2 "cdewick@lios.apana.org.au". SunShack @ "http://www.sunshack.org" Galleries @ "http://www.sunshack.org/gallery2". Also lots of tech data, etc. Sun Microsystems webring at "http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=sunmicrosystemsu". From Keywords: ; Wed Jul 18 17:56:34 2007 From: Keywords: ; (Craig Dewick) Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:56:34 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 In-Reply-To: <469D462D.4080406@daemon.be> References: <469D462D.4080406@daemon.be> Message-ID: On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Laurens Vets wrote: > Hi all, > > I've recently acquired an Ultra 60. However, when I try to use it with my > Sun GDM-20D10 monitor, the screen is scrambled as if the wrong resolution is > used. I tried changing the resolution but nothing seems to work. I entered > various command in OBP and at one time I got the correct resolution, but when > I rebooted, screen was garbled again and I cannot seem to get it correct > anymore :( The GDM-20d10 is the non-PC compatible version which requires seperate H and V sync signals, unlike the later GDM-20E20. What sort of framebuffer card are you trying to run the monitor from? If it's a Sun-native one like a Creator3D or Elite3D it should be fine as it'll plug straight into the D13W3 port, but if you are trying to use it with a PGX-32 or PGX-64, etc. which isn't Sun-native originally, the signals may not be fully compatible with the GDM-20D10's expectations particularly if you're trying to use a 1280 x 1024 display config. The monitor should, however, fully support the default size of 1152 x 900 at 66 Hz, so if that's what your system is set up for as it's default display config, the monitor should handle that and if not, suspect the video card if it's not one with a D13W3 output. What do other people think of that synopsis? Craig. -- Post by Craig Dewick (tm). Web @ "http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick". Email 2 "cdewick@lios.apana.org.au". SunShack @ "http://www.sunshack.org" Galleries @ "http://www.sunshack.org/gallery2". Also lots of tech data, etc. Sun Microsystems webring at "http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=sunmicrosystemsu". From sun.mail.list@oryx.cc Wed Jul 18 18:13:50 2007 From: sun.mail.list@oryx.cc (Jerry Kemp) Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:13:50 -0500 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: References: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> <2D35AE5B-AF5C-49C4-A1B9-F2AA7A9BDF74@belgacom.net> Message-ID: <469E4A4E.80708@oryx.cc> I would second the SunRay recommendation. I have an 8 processor E4500 in my home with SunRay's for me and my wife. The SunRay's work very well. The E4500 OTOH, is very noisy and generates a lot of heat. As time goes by, it is becoming more and more a winter only machine. Jerry Craig Dewick wrote: > On Mon, 16 Jul 2007, Andre van Eyssen wrote: > >> On Sun, 15 Jul 2007, Ben Lewis wrote: >> >>> Having acquired a E3500 and an Ultra 1 in the last couple of months I >>> find myself only really switching on my Ultra 5 to actually do >>> anything useful. >>> >>> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than >>> the Ultra 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". >>> >>> Is there a size-power-cpu-ram-diskspace to usefulness equation that >>> I'm not aware of? >> >> Yes. The more CPU, RAM, Storage and network connectivity a box has the >> more potentially useful. >> >> This is an easy one to spot. The Ultra-5's CPU is far faster than the >> Ultra-1, no doubt it has a better framebuffer and will be much >> snappier to use. >> >> The E3500 takes half an hour to POST, so if you're switching machines >> on-and-off the wait would drive you nuts. > > I noticed this when I set up my E450 last year - POST takes a good 10 > minutes or more depending what diag level, etc. I have it set up for. > It's supremely quiet apart from disk noise, and it replaced about four > small server boxes (a couple of t105's and some older systems) I had > running in my rack with one single, relatively more energy-efficient, > quiet, powerful system that's simple to move around when that need arises. > >> Personally, I'd try to score a SunRay thin client or two and plug 'em >> into your 3500. The performance may surprise you. > > How freely available is the software, etc. to run SunRay's like that? > Has sun closed off access to it just like they've done with SunSolve and > access to Solaris patches, etc.? > > If the software is freely available, that's good as SunRay's (esp. the > earlier ones) show up on Ebay all the time now at cheap prices. > > Craig. > From rufius@gmail.com Wed Jul 18 20:42:40 2007 From: rufius@gmail.com (Zachary Brown) Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:42:40 -0400 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: References: <20710791.4633941184088814722.JavaMail.root@vms246.mailsrvcs.net> <2D35AE5B-AF5C-49C4-A1B9-F2AA7A9BDF74@belgacom.net> Message-ID: <469E6D30.6070903@gmail.com> Craig Dewick wrote: > On Mon, 16 Jul 2007, Andre van Eyssen wrote: > >> On Sun, 15 Jul 2007, Ben Lewis wrote: >> >>> Having acquired a E3500 and an Ultra 1 in the last couple of months >>> I find myself only really switching on my Ultra 5 to actually do >>> anything useful. >>> >>> The E3500 has much more power and the Ultra 1 is much quieter than >>> the Ultra 5 but somehow it feels like my "home machine". >>> >>> Is there a size-power-cpu-ram-diskspace to usefulness equation that >>> I'm not aware of? >> >> Yes. The more CPU, RAM, Storage and network connectivity a box has >> the more potentially useful. >> >> This is an easy one to spot. The Ultra-5's CPU is far faster than the >> Ultra-1, no doubt it has a better framebuffer and will be much >> snappier to use. >> >> The E3500 takes half an hour to POST, so if you're switching machines >> on-and-off the wait would drive you nuts. > > I noticed this when I set up my E450 last year - POST takes a good 10 > minutes or more depending what diag level, etc. I have it set up for. > It's supremely quiet apart from disk noise, and it replaced about four > small server boxes (a couple of t105's and some older systems) I had > running in my rack with one single, relatively more energy-efficient, > quiet, powerful system that's simple to move around when that need > arises. > >> Personally, I'd try to score a SunRay thin client or two and plug 'em >> into your 3500. The performance may surprise you. > > How freely available is the software, etc. to run SunRay's like that? > Has sun closed off access to it just like they've done with SunSolve > and access to Solaris patches, etc.? > > If the software is freely available, that's good as SunRay's (esp. the > earlier ones) show up on Ebay all the time now at cheap prices. > > Craig. > Sun Ray software is freely available and I think they can even be hooked up to linux boxes. I seem to recall a linux version of the software available at Sun as well. Regards, Zac From laurens@daemon.be Thu Jul 19 12:14:28 2007 From: laurens@daemon.be (Laurens Vets) Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:14:28 +0200 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 In-Reply-To: References: <469D462D.4080406@daemon.be> Message-ID: <469F4794.8030000@daemon.be> Craig Dewick wrote: > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Laurens Vets wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> I've recently acquired an Ultra 60. However, when I try to use it >> with my Sun GDM-20D10 monitor, the screen is scrambled as if the wrong >> resolution is used. I tried changing the resolution but nothing seems >> to work. I entered various command in OBP and at one time I got the >> correct resolution, but when I rebooted, screen was garbled again and >> I cannot seem to get it correct anymore :( > > The GDM-20d10 is the non-PC compatible version which requires seperate H > and V sync signals, unlike the later GDM-20E20. What sort of framebuffer > card are you trying to run the monitor from? If it's a Sun-native one > like a Creator3D or Elite3D it should be fine as it'll plug straight > into the D13W3 port, but if you are trying to use it with a PGX-32 or > PGX-64, etc. which isn't Sun-native originally, the signals may not be > fully compatible with the GDM-20D10's expectations particularly if > you're trying to use a 1280 x 1024 display config. According to the part number it should be a Creator3D Series 3 FFB2+... What is the best framebuffer for an Ultra 60 for 2D? > The monitor should, however, fully support the default size of 1152 x > 900 at 66 Hz, so if that's what your system is set up for as it's > default display config, the monitor should handle that and if not, > suspect the video card if it's not one with a D13W3 output. Hmmm, I tried the following: - "stop-n" 'method' - set-defaults - setenv output-device screen:r1152x900x66 Nothing seems to work... > What do other people think of that synopsis? From lists@groll.co.za Thu Jul 19 09:35:15 2007 From: lists@groll.co.za (Jonathan Groll) Date: Thu Jul 19 09:40:17 2007 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Raw Power In-Reply-To: <20070716194722.66bfaeeb@daydream> References: <183185.61315.qm@web54304.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <20070716194722.66bfaeeb@daydream> On Mon, Jul 16, 2007 at 07:47:22PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote: > On that note, are there *ANY* newer SPARC based Sun systems that have decent > PCI and IDE/SATA busses, and that aren't priced out of the "equivalent power" > market? > > Or is that pretty much limited to their AMD based machines? Don't forget, the Ultra 60 (and I assume Ultra 80 as well?) machines also have PCI and can take regular PCI-PATA/SATA controllers (although maybe not OBP supported). Cheers, Jonathan. From adh@an.bradford.ma.us Thu Jul 19 15:00:34 2007 From: adh@an.bradford.ma.us (Sandwich Maker) Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:00:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 Message-ID: <200707191400.l6JE0YT09619@an.bradford.ma.us> " From: Laurens Vets " " " According to the part number it should be a Creator3D Series 3 FFB2+... " What is the best framebuffer for an Ultra 60 for 2D? imho that's pretty much the one. " > [] " " Hmmm, I tried the following: " - "stop-n" 'method' " - set-defaults " - setenv output-device screen:r1152x900x66 " " Nothing seems to work... can you get in to the box from another machine? or can you get a readable commandline in sincle user mode? fbconf should let you see and set display modes. ________________________________________________________________________ Andrew Hay the genius nature internet rambler is to see what all have seen adh@an.bradford.ma.us and think what none thought From laurens@daemon.be Sun Jul 22 10:22:38 2007 From: laurens@daemon.be (Laurens Vets) Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 11:22:38 +0200 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 60 + GDM-20d10 In-Reply-To: <200707191400.l6JE0YT09619@an.bradford.ma.us> References: <200707191400.l6JE0YT09619@an.bradford.ma.us> Message-ID: <46A321DE.3020206@daemon.be> Sandwich Maker wrote: > " From: Laurens Vets > " > " > " According to the part number it should be a Creator3D Series 3 FFB2+... > " What is the best framebuffer for an Ultra 60 for 2D? > > imho that's pretty much the one. > > " > [] > " > " Hmmm, I tried the following: > " - "stop-n" 'method' > " - set-defaults > " - setenv output-device screen:r1152x900x66 > " > " Nothing seems to work... > > can you get in to the box from another machine? or can you get a > readable commandline in sincle user mode? fbconf should let you see > and set display modes. I connected via serial to it and that works fine. I also updated the OBP to 3.31 from 3.17. Upon first reboot after the update, everything worked. However I did a set-defaults and now I have the same problem again :( From Keywords: ; Fri Jul 27 21:53:46 2007 From: Keywords: ; (Craig Dewick) Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 06:53:46 +1000 (EST) Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Wanted - Weitek PowerUp CPU for SS2 and IPX, or multiples thereof Message-ID: Hi I know this is probably a long-shot, but I have a Sparcstation 2 and an IPX which I use from time to time, and both could benefit from having Weitek PowerUp's to replace the stock 40 Mhz CPU. Also, I'm keen to try these for something else. My Solbourne 5/502 Kbus system (which runs the true multi-tasking derivative of SunOS 4.1.x that Solbourne called OS/MP) uses the exact same 40 Mhz Sparc processors as SS2's and IPX's. I don't remember at present if the CPU's are socketed or not, but if they are socketed on the Solbourne CPU boards, I'd be very keen to try them on the CPU boards of my Solbourne system and see if they work. I suspect they will. Anyway if you have any of these CPU's, let me know. They used to be very common but are now incredibly rare and almost never come up on Ebay! Regards, Craig. -- Post by Craig Dewick (tm). Web @ "http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick". Email 2 "cdewick@lios.apana.org.au". SunShack @ "http://www.sunshack.org" Galleries @ "http://www.sunshack.org/gallery2". Also lots of tech data, etc. Sun Microsystems webring at "http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=sunmicrosystemsu". From benjamin.lewis@belgacom.net Tue Jul 31 19:56:21 2007 From: benjamin.lewis@belgacom.net (Ben Lewis) Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:56:21 +0200 Subject: [Suns-at-Home] Apple Terminal In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <0B8065E7-204D-4019-9EDB-71FA61E1C973@belgacom.net> Hello Folks All this talk lately about using old Apple machines as serial terminals came to a head this weekend when a friend emailed me these links saying "Seen these?" http://www.dataswamp.net/apple2eserialterm/ http://www.bytecellar.com/archives/000113.php Not to be outdone I whipped up my own creation and sent him a picture right back :- http://www.ipcress.net/images/ColourClassicTerminal.jpg That's NSCA Telnet running on Mac OS System 7. Thinking that serial connections were now old hat I fitted a TCP/IP network card from an old Performa and installed the Apple Open Transport extensions and hey presto, "it just works" :) Ok I know it's not rocket science but it whiled away a rainy sunday afternoon. Best regards Ben