Hi. I've been running Debian on a SparcStation 20 for a while now, and have tried with limited success to contribute to the sparc32 kernel code. Just the other day I updated my machine to the latest packages that the 'unstable' branch of Debian offers, and things ran fine for a while. After shutting the machine off, I disconnected the ethernet cable to plug in another machine, did some stuff on that machine, then reconnected the SS20 to fiddle around on it for a while. Now, when the networking part of the the boot sequence is run, the 'eth0' interface doesn't start. It had been working flawlessly with 'dhclient' connecting to the router, but now the thing doesn't seem to find the router. I was able to establish a connection after the boot sequence began once by typing 'dhclient eth0' at a prompt, but after another shutdown and restart I find that hasn't worked after many tries.
The point of my tale of woe is that I've come to realize that I don't have the time to be fiddling around with this machine. The problem above is not that the ethernet cable is bad, as I can plug it into the other machine and that system connects to the router without difficulty. It could be that something in the last set of updates, which included libc6, has problems, or it might be that there is a hardware problem with the ethernet plug on the machine itself. I don't know. I do know that there are other things I need to be spending my time working on, and trying to keep a 10 year old computer running that I use just for fun is not one of those things. So, I've come to the point where the SS20 and my other Sparc hardware needs to find a new home. Ideally there is someone or a group that could take this machine, fix whatever the eth0 problem is, and use it to contribute to the sparc32 linux kernel, Debian, Aurora, or possibly the sparc32 NetBSD port. The machine is a dual processor box with 512 M memory, a cg6 video card, and it has a big/heavy Sun monitor. In addition to this machine, I also have another SS20 and an SS10 machine that have never done anything while in my possession other than take up space. They were given to me and I always intended to use them at least as boxes to take parts from or potentially as functional machines, but that hasn't come to pass. Furthermore I have a box (somewhere) with four 9G SCSI drives that were used in Sparc machinery. These drives do _not_ fit in the SS20 as they are too tall, but were in some Sun boxes at one point. I haven't the slightest clue what they contain, as they were given to me and they did not fit in the SS20 as I and the person donating the drives hoped. Here's the deal - I'll give away this machine and all my other Sparc hardware to someone that can use it. I live around New Orleans and am often in the Houston area, so if you live in these areas send me an e-mail and let me know if you're interested in the hardware. I'd like to get rid of everything at once instead of a piecemeal fashion, so please do not ask for just the monitor, or memory from the machine, or something like that. If you want the stuff but delivery would require shipping you'll have to make arrangements for that and contact me; the stuff is heavy and bulky so shipping will probably be expensive. Any takers out there? Art Haas P.S: I sent this message out to the sparclinux mailing list but had no replies yet, so posting it to 'debian-sparc' is in order, and arguably a list I should have sent the message to initially. A quick review of the debian-sparc mailing list indicated that there were people in San Antonio looking for an SS5 - could the machines I have be of use? -- Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. -Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]