On Sun, 11 Jun 2000, you wrote:
> T Korte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > As I understand the news posting on the Mandrake site, this mailing list will
> > cover the ultrasparc port as well. Is this correct?
> >
> > I have looked through about a hundred or so messages and none of them seem to
> > refer to the sparc port. Will someone please tell me if this is the correct
> > list and if it isn't, point me to the correct list? I have tried installing
> > both the 7.0 and 7.1 betas on an Ultra1 Creator and have had problems. I'd
> > like to see if I can get some info as I'd rather run Mandrake on my sparc
> > instead of RH6.2 that I'm currently using. I use Mandrake on my Athlon system
> > and rather miss it on the sparc.
>
> It is the correct list. However there is low traffic because a lot of
> people are interested in the x86 version. Alpha seems to interests more
> people than Sparc. But anyway, maybe a lot of people are waiting to post
> their comments on the sparc port?
>
> Please do send on this mailing list your problems related to the Sparc
> port.
>
>
> --
> Guillaume Cottenceau
As I mentioned above, I have tried installing both the 7.0 and 7.1 betas on my
ultrasparc. I ran into problems both times but got further with the 7.1 beta.
I realize that details are a debugger's delight, so here goes.
The machine:
Ultra1 Creator ( Model 170E )
UltraSparc @ 167MHz with 64bit eprom upgrade done
128M RAM
2.15Gig SCSI HD ( Seagate Barracuda Model #ST32550WC )
12x SCSI CDROM ( Toshiba Model #XM-5401B )
onboard audio I/O
onboard video input as well as a small color camera from Sun
Sun Happy Meal Ethernet Card (10/100-BaseT)
Sun 20" monitor
7.0 beta install:
-----------
I won't say much about the 7.0 install, except that it would find the CDROM so
that it could start the install, but then when it asked what type of media
contains the install files, it couldn't find the CDROM at that point. I then
tried both mounting the CD and copying the entire CD onto another Mandrake http
box I've got and it would get as far as "loading the second stage install" and
then just hang at that point. Running out of options, I decided to wait for a
new release.
-----------
7.1 beta install:
This seemed to have taken care of the problems that I encountered in the 7.0
install. The installer seemed to find most stuff ok except for the monitor,
which it just gave as a generic multi-frequency monitor. It also didn't seem
to sayanything about the video input system, but I really wasn't expecting that
as I suppose it's a bit of a special case (not found on most sparcs, I'm sure).
I don't know about the audio (it doesn't seem to work right on RH6.2) as I
didn't get to try it as you will see.
The install proceeded along with just minor difficulties ( I think, as I've
done the install on my Athlon since then & I'm trying to remember the details
from the sparc). Several times I thought I had it wrapped up, but as I
recall it didn't exit cleanly and I know for certain that I was never able to
boot it afterwards. SILO would start to come up on the screen and then it
would stop and first say that couldn't find the message and then that it
couldn't find the image. I tried many different installation methods
(automated, expert, custom, etc.) but I was never able to boot it after the
install. The machine doesn't have a floppy drive so there's no workaround
there with a rescue disk.
I am writing this from the same machine that I have since installed RH6.2 on.
I would rather run Mandrake (like my other two boxes) but I don't want to have
the machine down for too long. I could perhaps have it out for about a week or
so but I'd like to have it back up by then - even if it's running beta code,
at least it's running. Perhaps I could copy the CD's onto my http server and
then work with modifications from there. That way I wouldn't have to burn a
new CD set just to try a change.
Any thoughts? I realize that I've been a bit vague on the problem desciption,
but it's been many days and several installs since so I've forgotten details.
The one thing that I'm certain of is that it could not boot afterwards. When I
did the current install of RH6.2 on it after the Mandrake attempts, the RH
install told me that the partition table was corrupted so I had to redo all of
the partitions. That may be a big clue.
If I know I can get some help on this list then I'd be willing to try it again
and give more detailed feedback. Would it be possible to try the install from
the CD's copied to the http server as I suggested?
Let me know how you want to proceed. I'm not a pro but will contribute where I
can in this regard.
Thanks for the reply
Tom Korte
