Re: re SS5 newbie
I've something to add to your question about the SS5. About 3-4month ago I reinstalled my own SS5. Some of the experiences made during this work are documented on a web page which is hosted on the SS5 :-) You see it at http://bastei.home.bieselt.de/ (text is in german) If you cannot connect, my DSL connection is probably down. Please try again later. If it takes some time -> the SS5 is not that fast! Greetings Christoph Herbert Raimund schrieb: Andy, Martin, James, David .. thank you for all the valuable replies! Now I have some orientation, couple of links, the Anysystems page to check for prices and I know what to look for on the webauctions. Will be back suun : ) Thanks again gurus.. herbs
re SS5 newbie
Andy, Martin, James, David .. thank you for all the valuable replies! Now I have some orientation, couple of links, the Anysystems page to check for prices and I know what to look for on the webauctions. Will be back suun : ) Thanks again gurus.. herbs
Re: SS5 newbie
Herbert Raimund wrote: Recently I got an interesting offer, a Sparc 5 with 2 SCSI (SCA) disks, 64 MB RAM. It goes for about $ 100. So I browsed and read anything I could get on websites and HOWTOs, but there are many elementary questions left. Not knowing anything about the performance and setup of these systems I have some trivial questions: I plan to run Linux (Debian, Slackware). The Linux HOWTOs say that there are dedicated distribution for Sparcs. Sounds obvious. Though applications have to be compiled for Sparcs - is that right? How is the performance of the SS5 (TI MicroSparc II 85 Mhz). The Specs talking about 70 bogomips - thats not quite exciting compared to contemptorary systems. But how does it perform with 'modern' software? KDE? Gimp? How is the response of X11 over the sparcs graphic card? Annoying slow? Or are you even able to use xine? I have really no idea at all.. Note that your SS5 cannot use standard PC hardware, meaning that $100 had better include a Sun keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Note also that many of these old machines were never equiped with floppy or CD-ROM, meaning that you'll be learning the joy of setting up a network Linux install. Most CD-ROMs for these machines will require animal sacrifice to properly read many CD-R (burned) discs. My SS5 has a high-end "24-bit framebuffer" installed. Unfortunately, so far as I can tell, the XFree86 driver gives me 8-bit colour and one fixed resolution. That's 256 colours. That means that many modern applications will simply refuse to start and the ones that do look like a 4-year-old has mangled them with a box of crayons. Also, my SS5 is twice as fast as yours and has 3-times the RAM; yet I'd not ever consider putting KDE or Gnome on it. There simply isn't enough CPU to give the windowmanager more than the apps themselves should get. Fluxbox with a very minimal colour scheme works nicely, and even this is usually just so I can fit 4 xterms on the display rather than looking at entire VTs. And the audio chip CS4231 - are there drivers? Yes. It's only 8-bit audio though. These Sun Stations are an old dream since I work with computers and now its avalaible for such a little money. I hope theres somebody out there who can shed light on this exotic machines... If you havn't already, check out the FAQABOSS for info on these older 32bit SPARCs. http://faqaboss.sunhelp.org/ If you're willing to shell out a bit more for a slightly more modern (though genuinely drool-worthy) Sun machine, check out this site (I have no affiliation other than being a very happy customer): http://anysystem.com Now, I hope I havn't sounded like I'm trying to deter you, just making sure you know what you're getting. I'm the very proud owner of several pizzaboxes and lunchboxes, and host a few websites, mail, subversion, cvs, etc. from an Ultra 1 that has been humming along quietly for a long, long time, and I'm convinced that if I could keep a UPS under it, it'd survive a nuclear blast and keep humming reliably while crappy PC hardware melted down and died. -- - David A. Riggs
Re: SS5 newbie
> I plan to run Linux (Debian, Slackware). The Linux HOWTOs say that there are > dedicated distribution for Sparcs. Sounds obvious. Though applications have > to be compiled for Sparcs - is that right? Yes. There are dedicated ports of distros to particular architectures, mostly including Sparc. The software available is largely comparable however you may find a few architecture specific things haven't yet been ported yet. In Debian most of the userland software has been ported. > How is the performance of the SS5 (TI MicroSparc II 85 Mhz). Faster than an 85 Mhz Pentium. Comparable to something like a 200 Mhz Pentium Pro in my experience. > The Specs talking > about 70 bogomips - thats not quite exciting compared to contemptorary > systems. No, but they were EOL'd over 6 years ago. > But how does it perform with 'modern' software? KDE? Gimp? It will run them but probably not at what most people would class as a 'useable' speed - all depends on what your expectations are I guess. > How is the response of X11 over the sparcs graphic card? Annoying slow? Or > are > you even able to use xine? I have really no idea at all.. Support for sbus graphics cards (and their performance) varies quite considerably. Depending on exactly which card it has you should be able to get something running. > And the audio chip CS4231 - are there drivers? Yes, I believe so. > These Sun Stations are an old dream since I work with computers and now its > avalaible for such a little money. I hope theres somebody out there who can > shed light on this exotic machines... With the greatest respect to both the original poster and all users of 32 bit SPARC systems... It depends what you want to do. If you want to get the basics of SPARC architecture or have a particular nostalgic connection to the SPARCStation series then this is not a bad choice (althought I would have thought $100 was a bit steep; if you can get to South West UK you are welcome to have one of my old machines of this era for free). If you want something that's slightly more practically useful then I would suggest holding out for a Ultra 5,10,30,60 or 80. I don't know US prices but I recently acquired a pair of Ultra 5's for a client at 100 UKP each. If you seriously want a powerful SPARC box then I would acquire a low end box and look at Sun's current trade in offer http://www.sun.com/ibb/sb15002500promo/ Until the end of the month they are offering 20% trade in against Blade 1500 and 2500 boxes. [ No I don't work for Sun, I just thought it was a rather good deal and am very tempted by a dual Blade 2500 ... ] HTH Cheers, - Martin -- Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Seasons change, things come to pass"
