This document is a step by step guide meant to provide information in order to help you running Linux on SPARC based computers,As these computers are quite different from PCs an hardware section will provide you with the needed information inorder to understand how they work and what can be expected from thevarious CPUs and models.
I am not a SPARC specialist, nor a Solaris or Linux guru, I am justsomeone who is realy found of well engineered products, and wish tohelp you in choosing your hardware and finding information. Thus Ihave tried to write down this document in order to ease your path.
I hope this HOWTO will help you and you will have a lot of funwith your SPARC Computer.
Kim Hyun-Gyu<babyworm@atlas.korea.ac.kr>provide a Korean translation. You can read it online athttp://kldp.org/HOWTO/html/SPARC-HOWTO/
This document deals only with SPARC based computers, in order to check, justtypeuname -m command and you should readsomething likesparc4x where x is blank,c,d,m,uif the system runs Solaris, orsparc for 32 bits SPARC architecturesandsparc64 for 64 bits SPARC architectures if it runs Linux.2.x.y
SPARC stands for Scalable Processor ARChitecture,it derives from research done between 1984-1988 on the RISC architecture at UC Berkeley.It exists 3 versions of this archiecture, SPARC-V7, SPARC-V8 (32 bits) and SPARC-V9 (64 bits).As you are likely to encounter a lot of implementations ofthe SPARC architecture, in the next section, the main featuresof theses processors are summarized.
This is quite obsolete, it is an implementation of the SPARC-V7 ; its main feature are an Integer unit (IU), an external Floating Point Unit (FPU),an unified data + instruction 64KB direct associative cache, and an Memory Managment Unit (MMU).There is a 4 stage pipeline for the integer instructions (fetch F, decode D, exec E, update WB)FPU and IU are synchronized.
This is Texas Instrument and Sun's brainchild, it is usualy found at around 50Mhz clok ratesfeaturing up to 1MB of L2 cache, it is available both as single and dual processor modules (SparcStation 10 and SparcStation 20). The higher clock frequency Ihave encountered so far is 60Mhz.
On a technical point of view this is a SPARC-V8 implementation,it is a superscalar processor,having 2 caches, one for instruction the other one for data.
This is once again Texas Instrument and Sun's brainchild, it can be foundin the SparcStation Classic, SparcStation LX, at frequency up to50Mhz. Its derivative, the Micro SPARC II can be found in the SparcStation4 and SparcStation 5 at frequencies up to 110Mhz.
On a technical point of view, its main features are a high level ofintegration, having 2 caches, one for instructions, the other one fordata.
It is not possible to add an L2 cache.If you wish to learn more about the MicroSPARC processor you can browseSun's Ultra SPARC ressources.
This processor was introduced by ROSS in 1993, it is usualy found in the SparcStation 10, and SparcStation 20, at frequencies up to 150Mhz (I have heard of 200Mhz dual processor modules, but Have notwitnessed one yet). It can be found on single or dualprocessor modules.
On a technical point of view it is an implementation of the SPARC-V8,it is superscalar. It can be found with L2 cache up to 512KB
This is a radhard SPARC V7 microprocessor designed to be used on thespace segment.
It comes as a single unit or as a three chip package. Main manufacturer isATMEL in Nantes,France. At least, one software vendor claims to have GNU/Linux runningon this CPU, this is for the
http://dse.cyberclwn.com/sparc-rtems-erc32.htm. This projecthas not been updated since March 2001. As I have not had theopportunity to check this claim. I am more than doubtful.
This is also a radhard implementation of the SPARC V8 designed to beused on the space segment. It is the ESA's brainchild and the leaddesigner is jiri gaisler. More information can be found on LEON's website:http://www.gaisler.com/leonmain.html
The 2.4 and 2.5 kernel series are not yet supported, however the 2.0 kernelseries is supported by theuClinux MMU lessGNU/Linux distribution. This distribution has been built at ESA/ESTEC December 26 2003on a SuSE 8.0 GNU/Linux distributionwith gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 and a 2.4.18 kernel.Hereafter is the boot sequence and a sample session inside thetsim-leon simulator.
piou@linux:~/uClinux-dist/images> ./tsim-leon -nfp image.elf TSIM/LEON SPARC simulator, version 1.1.4a (evaluation version) Copyright (C) 2001, Gaisler Research - all rights reserved. This software may only be used with a valid license. For latest updates, go to http://www.gaisler.com/ Comments or bug-reports to tsim@gaisler.comFPU disabledserial port A on stdin/stdoutallocated 4096 K RAM memory, in 1 bank(s)allocated 2048 K ROM memoryicache: 1 * 4 kbytes, 16 bytes/line (4 kbytes total)dcache: 1 * 4 kbytes, 16 bytes/line (4 kbytes total)section: .text at 0x0, size 252944 bytessection: .data at 0x40000000, size 38452 bytessection: .romfs at 0x3dc10, size 67584 bytestsim> gresuming at 0x00000000aCDG512k RAMFound my keyMoved .dataFound my keyuClinux/SparcFlat model support (C) 1998-2000 Kenneth Albanowski, D. Jeff DionneLEON-2.1 Sparc V8 support (C) 2000 D. Jeff Dionne, Lineo Inc.LEON-2.2/LEON-2.3 Sparc V8 support (C) 2001 The LEOX team <team@leox.org>.Calibrating delay loop.. ok - 6.68 BogoMIPSMemory available: 3904k/4080k RAM, 0k/0k ROM (176k kernel data, 247k code)Swansea University Computer Society NET3.035 for Linux 2.0NET3: Unix domain sockets 0.13 for Linux NET3.035.uClinux version 2.0.39.uc2 (root@linux) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) 6 Thu Dec 26 18:28:01 PST 2002LEON serial driver version 0.9ttyS0 (irq = 3) is a builtin LEON UARTBlkmem copyright 1998,1999 D. Jeff DionneBlkmem copyright 1998 Kenneth AlbanowskiBlkmem 1 disk images:0: 3DC10-4E40F (RO)VFS: Mounted root (romfs filesystem) readonly.Sash command shell (version 1.1.1)/> pwd//> cd bin/bin> pwd/bin/bin> lssh/bin>
The Ultra SPARC processor is an extension of the SPARC-V9architecture, it is a 64 bits processor, it features some videoprocessing instructions. It is found in all the computer whose namestart with Ultra.
The Ultra SPARC II is an improvement of the Ultra SPARC, the Ultra SPARCIII is actually the second generation of Ultra SPARCprocessors, it was first introduced in the SunBlade 1000 Workstation.If wish to learn more about the UltraSPARC processors you can browseSun's Ultra SPARC ressources.
This processor is based on the SPARC V9 and is made by FujitsuIt is a 64bits CPU with some very interesting error handling features such asECC memory forthe L1 cache, hardware instruction retry, error classification.
There is a 64 bit virtual address space and 43 bit physical address space. It is used in the PRIMEPOWER high end servers to mainframe class of Fujitsu's offering.
The cache is organized as :
More information can be found on thehttp://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/PRMPWR/JPS1-R1.0-SPARC64V-pub.pdfwhitepaper.
You may read theCPU-Design-HOWTO, this HOWTO has a lot of interesting linkswhen it comes to studying the CPUs.
To summarize, the 32 bits workstations are the:
For more information on the SparcStation 5, 10, 20you can read Sun's documentationonline or download it available.
The following model have an 64 bits UltraSPARCarchitecture (sun4u).SunUltra 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60, 80 and SunBlade 1000, 1500, 2000.The SunUltra 2, 60, 80 and SunBlade 1000 are SMP capable, with the Ultra 80 and SunBlade 1000 and 2000 accepting up to 4 CPU modules, the SunUltra 2 and 60 accepting only 2 CPU modules.
The SunBlade 2000 is the latest one featuring Sun's latest marvelthe Ultra III CPU, at a premium price of course.You can have a summary of the UltraWorkstation still in productionatSun's website.
A lot of information has been compiled in theSun hardware reference that is found on many sites, or onSunHelp 's website.
At first, a reference like SM61 or RT-200-D-125/512 seems to be, to say the least, quite cryptic.Actually, understanding theses references is really easy.
Theses CPUs's naming scheme isRT-a00-b-freq/cachewhere
a is a digit:1 SparcStation 10.2 SparcStation 20.6 SPARC MP600 ( not exactly a workstation ).b is a letter:D Dual CPU.Q Quad CPU.S Single CPU.freq The frequency expressed in Megahertz.cache The amount of cache memory expressed in Kilobytes.When these modules are in a workstation the naming convention is HSxy, for exampleywing is a SparcStation 20 HS22,thus it is easier to have a look inside the workstation.
This table is extracted from theFAQABOSS
Name Speed( MHz ) Cache( MB ) Number of SuperSparc Processors SeriesSM20 33 0 1 ISM30 36 0 1 ISM40 40 0 1 ISM41 40 1 1 ISM50 50 0 1 ISM51 50 1 1 ISM512 50 1 2 ISM51-2 50 2 1 ISM61 60 1 1 ISM61-2 60 2 1 ISM71 75 1 1 IISM71-2 75 2 1 IISM81 85 1 1 IISM81-5 85 2 1 II
Warning: theSM100 is aRT-600-D-40
Cypress manufactured SPARC compliants processors;AFAIK their naming scheme is CYnnn.
As you can see, this is easy to understand.
This is a family of Network computers that used to be manufactured by Sun,there is a very goodJavaStation-HOWTO about it.
You have decided to buy a SPARC based computer, now you can tell what CPU each model sports, but can you tell how thatparticuliar model looks like? How its is inside?
Do not worry, this section will help you on that topic as well as providing you with some hints on how to inspect and test the hardware.
PC hardware is everywhere and usualy one is quite familiar with it, this is not exactly the case with SPARC based hardware,even more when it comes to the innards of a computer. The good newsis that it exists some sites on the web, where you can find picturesof Sun hardware, with some very detailed shots, thus you should beable to instantly identify the model and its condition prior to buy it.The two main site where I usualy go are:
On the one hand, it is very easy to find information on Sun hardware, while it can bedifficult to find it for clone systems on the other hand it should bemore fun to work with exotic hardware.
Clone systems have been or are still manufactured, at least by:
Of course if you buy first hand hardware everything should be fine, but if you decide to go for second hand hardware, you will have todecide how you want to buy it, and you should be able to test it by yourself.
Second hand hardware can be brought from Sun as refurbished hardware, at auction websites, or inspecialised stores, or directly from companys that upgrade theirhardware.
When it comes to second hand hardware one has to be as cautious aspossible about the source, and the condition of that hardware.
For the source of the hardware, if you can track it, it is a very goodpoint. If you can't track it, it is up to you to decide if you trustthe seller or not ( If the seller cannot give you the reference of thehardwre and if, obviously he/she is clueless about Sun hardware, youshould switch to condition red ).
Another interesting point is to see if check is accepted as apayement.
If you can check the hardware before buying itthen first have a general look at it, search forcracks, for stains; check the connector's pin. If this firstinspection is OK, then ask to see the inside, look for spills, watchcarefuly the connectors, then if it is OK ask to see it running, watch carefully boot messages, issue thedmesg|more or if it runs Solaris you can issue themore /var/adm/messages command,and also very important listen to your computer, do you hear unusual noises? Does it smell OK?. Then enter the OpenBoot by thestop+a command and run some tests ( see the OpenBoot section).When you have decided to purchase it, it is very important that youalways make sure that the computer you are purchasing is the oneyou have tested: always keep an eye on it, do not let someone go tothe backoffice with it for example, do not accept to leave withoutyour computer.
Then, when you are at home, recheck it as if it was the first time yousee it. If it comes with CDROM drive, try to mount/umount a few CDs and read them in order to check that device. If there is a floppy diskread/write/format a few floppys, this should be a good test.
Of course, it exists tools to automaticaly test the hardware, but usualy you do not have them when you need them, thus the scriptbelow relies only on ressources provided by a Linux base system.
You should run the following script for three days, basicaly itis going to use the CDROM, floppy and hard drive, and to reboot the computer every 3 hours. This should stress it,
## Enter this in the crontab(5)# run the torture.sh script every 3 hours if possible#0 */3 * * * /root/torture.sh
torture.sh is#!/bin/sh# # these are for controlling the loops# the CDLIMITS and FDLIMITS# are for the CD and FD loops# CPT=1CDLIMIT=3FDLIMIT=10## to which devices are# CDROM and floppy attached#CDROM=/dev/sr0FLOPPY=/dev/fd0## where is the program we# intend to compilePATH=/path_to_big_package_to_compile## this section si meant to # test the CDROM and floppy drives# comment what you do not need to# testwhile [ $CPT -le $CDLIMIT ]do # # CDROM drive # mount -rt iso9660 $CDROM /cdrom find /cdrom -exec cat {} \; >>/dev/null 2>&1 umount /cdrom CPT=$(($CPT+1))done # # floppy drive #CPT=1while [ $CPT -le $FDLIMIT ]do mke2fs -c $FLOPPY >/dev/null 2>&1 mount -t ext2 $FLOPPY /floppy cd /bin/ cp dd ps echo sh /floppy find /floppy -exec cat {} \; >>/dev/null 2>&1 umount /floppy CPT=$(($CPT+1))done## The big, intensive # compilation# cd $PATH# # now compile#make# ## we remove every .a .o .s and every executable#find $PATH -name "*.[aos]" -exec rm -f {} \; >/dev/null 2>&1find $PATH -exec test -x {} \; -exec rm -f {} \; >/dev/null 2>&1## time to reboot#rebootOf course you should run this script manualy once in order to know howmuch time it requires to complete, this is just an idea on how toautomate things.
There exists SPARC based, laptops.
They are not very widespread but, they are actually very good SPARC workstations.
There exists aLinux Mobile Guide that provides you with the neededinformations about GNU/Linux on laptops.You can read it there:http://www.tuxmobil.org/Mobile-Guide.db/Mobile-Guide.html
Today there are some manufacturers of SPARC based laptops.You can access their websites at
Nearly ten years ago in 1994, Sun microsystems introduced the SPARCStationVoyager (ss240).This computer was a Sun4m architecture, powered by a microSPARC II processor.It is a very compact computer, behing a hybrid between a desktop and a Laptop.It has the footprint of a very compact workstation with a builtin color LCDdisplay, PCMCIA and InfraRed ports with a 2"5 SCSI harddrive.I have seen one at the CCC in Berlin, runing Debian GNU/Linux but the InfraRed and PCMCIA ports are not supported.Its datasheet is actually very impressive:
More information about this computer can be found on Sun's website at:
GNU/Linux is known to run on the following systems:
http://sunsite.ulatina.ac.cr/Unix/Linux/Splack/sparc/splack-8.0/kernels/sun4u.s
GNU/Linux is known to run on the following systems:
http://sunsite.ulatina.ac.cr/Unix/Linux/Splack/sparc/splack-8.0/kernels/sun4u.s
GNU Linux runs fine on these systems:
GNU/Linux runs on the following servers from this manufacturer:
At least one of their supercomputers, the AP1000+,runs GNU/Linux. This is a distributed memory multi-computer. It is used in theCAP program which is a collaborative research program betweenFujitsu Laboratories and theAustralian National University. This computer was used in the phase 1 of thisproject.They have managed to run Linux on a 16 node computer with 16 MB ram per CPUmodule. More information about this project can be found on this page:http://cap.anu.edu.au/cap/projects/linux/
More information can be found about Fujitsu's offering on this page:http://www.fujitsu.com/support/computing/server/unix/documents/
Actually Linux on SPARC architecture comes in two flavors:
You are very lucky, it seems that you can pick the one you like.In order to help you with this task here are some links, that shouldhelp you to make an informed decision.
This distribution is based on the RedHat 7.3 SPARC distribution.The homepage is:http://www.auroralinux.org/It is on the rise.There exists 3 mailing lists. You can join them athttp://lists.auroralinux.org/mailman/listinfo
The latest version codenamed wombat can be downloaded on theftp://auroralinux.org/pub/aurora/build-1.91/ ftp site.
Debian GNU/Linux runs on SPARC platform;you can find a lot of informations about this port at thehttp://www.debian.org/ports/sparc/ webpage
You can join the mailing list by sending a mail to< debian-sparc-request@lists.debian.org > with subscribe as the subject.
This is a SPARC and SPARC64 distribution, more informations can befound in the Gentoo handbook athttp://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/draft/handbook-sparc.xml
This distribution is based on the RedHat and is developed in Poland.They do have a SPARC 32 port.More information can be found at their homepagehttp://pld.orgThey also provide some mailing lists. More information can be found there:http://mail.pld.org.pl/mailman/listinfo/
The latest RedHat Linux distribution for the SPARC architecture is the 6.2; you can download itathttp://www.linuxiso.org/download.php/243/zoot-sparc.iso for example.
There exists a mailing list about Linux and RedHat on SPARC Processors, you can access it there:http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/sparc-list
There exists a port for the SPARC architecture, more information is available athttp://www.slackware.com/ports/sparc/
Actually, the SPARC-Linux Xterminal Package is not a distribution, it is a way to use a diskless SPARCStation as an X terminal. This is a a very convenientpackage.More information can be found athttp://www.pucebaboon.com/SLXT/
The Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)is a convenient way to turn a SPARC or an Ultra SPARC workstation intoa diskless workstation.The project's homepage ishttp://www.ltsp.org/
Step by step instruction to setup a client on an Ultra SPARC can be found at the following website:http://math.univ-lille1.fr/ltsp-sparc/
It is meant to be Slackware Compatible for SPARC.Its homepage ishttp://sourceforge.net/projects/splack
The SuSE Linux 7.3 distribution is quite complete, you have 5 ISOs todownload. You can grab it at the following URL:ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc
In the subdirectories you will also find bonus software such as KDE libraries and programms.
There is a mirror site located in Germany:ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/And, there are some extra files on the SuSE'sserver.You can join the mailing list by sending a blank mail to< suse-sparc-subscribe@suse.com >More information can be found at:http://www.suse.com
This is a Japanese distribution and there exist a SPARC port.It is an rpm based distribution.From the documentation, it supports both SPARC 32 and SPARC 64.The documentation (in Japanese ;-) ) can be read online athttp://www.vinelinux.org/sparc/2.1.5/install-vine-sparc-2.1.5.html
To install Linux on a SPARC based computer, should be strightforwardif you follow the informations provided by your distribution.
To boot from a floppy drive you have to have an install image on afloppy disk and to issue theboot floppy from the OpenBoot.
If your computer does not have a CDROM or a floppy drive, you can always try to perform a network installation usingNFS as explained by this French document:http://www.linux-france.org/article/materiel/sparc-install/Sparc-netinstall.html. Basicaly, you have to set up anNFS server and to boot yourcomputer using theboot net vmlinux nfsroot=192.168.52.12:/tmpin order to access the image that is exported by the192.168.52.12 computer on the/tmp directory.Another source of information, this one is written in English,is this FAQ from the UltraLinux website (http://www.ultralinux.org/faq.html#q_5_9)
In this section, you will be given an overview of what is the OpenBoot,andyou will be given the main commands you need to know in order to testyour hardware and to install Linux.
If you are used to PC hardware, you are used to interact with its BIOS. SPARC computers have an Openboot, it may seem to be like your BIOS, but it is actually far more powerfull. The Openboot performs the following tasks:
In this section, we will juste use a small set of the OpenBoot's capabilities, in order to test hardware and to boot the system.First you have to enter in the OpenBoot, just hit thestopanda keys simultaneously. Then you should see aokprompt, if instead you see the> prompt then typen. Now you can proceed to the next section.
The OpenBoot, gives you a lot of commands to test and to gather information about your hardware.
.version Displays version and date of the startup PROM.banner You will see the banner, that is displayed atpower-on. It is useful to gather some data about CPUs.pcia-probe-list Test PCI on computers that have a PCI bus.module-info This will display the Buses clockspeed,and processors frequency and amount of cache.probe-scsi This will test all devices connected to the on boardSCSI controler.probe-scsi-all This will test all devices connected to allthe SCSI controlers.show-devs This displays all installed and probed devices.show-sbus Use this, if you just want to display a list ofinstalled and probed SBus devices.test-all This will test all devices in thesystem that have a self test program.test floppy If a floppy drive is installed, it will test itreminding you to have a formated floppy disk inside.test-memory If the systemdiag-switch? is set totrue, this will test the memory.test net This will test the network interfaceswatch-aui This will test the AUI ethernet link.You will see '.' for good packets and 'X" for bad ones. Strike any key to abort.watch-clock This will test the real time clock chip, itwill tick once a second. To stop this test strike any key.watch-net This will check the network connection ( bothAUI and TP ). You will see '.' for good packets and 'X" for badones. Strike any key to abort.watch-net-all This will test all Ethernet interfaces.You will see '.' for good packets and 'X" for bad ones. Strike any key to abort. When you abort one, it will test the next one.watch-tpe This will check the TPE ethernet interface.You will see '.' for good packets and 'X" for bad ones. Strike any key to abort.The OpenBoot allows you to boot from various devices, the commandyou are the more likely to enter are below.
boot Boot kernel from default device.boot cdrom Boot kernel from CDROM drive.boot net-tpe Boot kernel from network urnel from CDROM drive, this is thecommand you are the more likely to type when installing Linux.boot net Boot kernel from network using auto-selectedinterface.boot net-aui Boot kernel from network using AUIinterface.boot net-tpe Boot kernel from network using TPEinterface.boot tape Boot default file from tape.eject-floppy Ejects the floppy.power-off Poweroff the computer.power-offFor more informations on the OpenBoot you can read this FAQ at
Depending on their architecture, the computers are likely to featureone of the following hard drive buses.
An SCSI connector is located at the rear of the Computer; the SCA chanel is found on the internal bus of the SPARC Worstation. Itcan be basicaly seen as an SCSI bus that provides power supply andassigns SCSI ID to the peripherals.
This is found for example in an Ultra 5 or Ultra 10 computersThis bus is the one you can find in your intel box.
This is the FiberChannel bus.It is used by the SunBlade 1000 workstation.
The easiest way to install linux on SPARC computer is to use aCDROM. If your computer does not have a CDROM you can plug anexternal SCSI CDROM drive, but there are two things to do or youare doomed to fail:
boot cdrom command, the CDROM ismapped to ID number 6.The Sparc Improved Boot LOader ( SILO ), is the boot loader that isused in the SPARC architecture. It allows you to boot Linux, Solarisor SunOS. It can load a Linux kernel from ext2, iso9660, UFS or ROMFS. From the SILO's README:
This is the first attempt at a complete boot loader for Linuxon the Sparc. Because of the lack of space on the bootblock, we haveto do it in two steps, the first step is a very simple loader based onPeter Zaitcev's silo (we will call this the first stage loader) whichshould fit in 512B and its sole purpose is to load a morecomplete bootstrap loader, herein refered to as the second stage bootloader. The cool thing about the second stage loader we implemented isthat it makes use of the ext2 library (provided with the ext2fs tools) andsome ufs code, and thus allows the loader to access any file on a ext2 fsand ufs, uses silo.conf, handles gunzipping and a lot of other things.This is different from Linux/i386 lilo which needs a map for eachkernel. In silo we just keep one map file for the second stageloader, we don't expect you to be changing the second stage loader onyour daily routine (you can do so, you will just need to use a tool toreinstall the maps).
Actually, IMHO it is easier to use than LILO.
If you have already compiled a kernel on x86 architecturethere is just a little difference when you wish to compile a kernel on SPARC architecture.
you do not type
#make zImage#make modules#make modules_install
#make vmlinux#make modules#make modules_install
linux/System.map to your bootfile directory (eg./boot), and rename this file toSystem.map-<kernel-version>
linux/vmlinux to your bootfile directory, and rename this file tovmlinux-<kernel-version>
/etc/silo.conf, and add your new kernel to this file.If you have trouble compiling your kernel, maybe it needs to bepached. There are many patches floating around on the net. Thereexists a website that put some of them online on a regular basis bothfor the stable and unstable branches, up to the 2.6.x kernel series. Those patches apply to thehardware used by the site's owner and this should be considered as avery good starting point to be adapted to your hardware.More information can be found athttp://osinvestor.com/sparc/You can also email the site's owner, Rob Radez :<rob@osinvestor.com>If you are unfamiliar with paches he also made them available asdebian packages.
Most of the sun4m workstation have a special connector for thekeyboard. In this case the mouse is connected indifferently to left or the right side of the keyboard. Some computers have a PS2 connector, it is very easy to spot the difference. The keyboards you are the more likely to encounter are the type4 and type5.
At the time of this writting, I didn't manage to have mouse supporton the Sun Blade 100. Things should become easier in the near future.
XFree, usually, runs fine on theses systems.The table below helps you choose the XFree86 4.2.0 server that matches yourgraphic adapter:
Graphic Adapter XserverSun Creator 3D sunffbSun Elite 3D sunffbSun GX suncg6Sun Leo (ZX) sunleoSun TCX suntcxSun Turbo GX suncg6Sun bw2 sunbw2Sun cg14 suncg14Sun cg3 suncg3
There is a catch with the 13W3 video connector that equips some of the framebuffers you may encounter.One may try to plug it on a VGA monitor using an 13W3 to VGA adaptor thatis sold on the market. The problem is that SGI and Sun Microsystems donot have the same definition of this standard and depending of the adapteryou buy, this may work or not (you know Murphy ...). As a rule, idealy you shouldtry it before you buy.
Ouaich, SMP is supported, and I am sure that ROSS's dual CPU modules are supported as you can see by yourself:
piou@ywing:~ > cat /proc/cpuinfo cpu : ROSS HyperSparc RT625 or RT626fpu : ROSS HyperSparc combined IU/FPUpromlib : Version 3 Revision 2prom : 2.25type : sun4mncpus probed : 2ncpus active : 2Cpu0Bogo : 125.33Cpu1Bogo : 125.33MMU type : ROSS HyperSparcinvall : 0invmm : 0invrnge : 0invpg : 0contexts : 4096CPU0 : onlineCPU1 : onlinepiou@ywing:~ >
The SparcStation 10 and SparcStations 20 are SMP capable computers andaccording to theFAQABOSSthe following combinations are known to work :
And, as stated earlier, CPU modules in SparcStations 10 and can run adifferent clock speeds, the following ones __SHOULD__ work:
How does it performs? Well, it is fast, really fast. Some of the java Demos can run faster on a dual HyperSparc 125Mhz 128MB (ywing ) than on a dual celeron BP6 433@433Mhz 192MB (calimero ). The same applies for the Gimp. When itcomes to compilingcalimero runs faster thanywing. Both computersrunning 2.2.16 kernel andcalimero's hard disk subsystem is full SCSI.
One important detail when you plan to have different CPU modules inyour computer is to have the same kind of modules, you cannot mixSuperSparc and HyperSparc for example, but you can have an odd numberof CPUs, for example 3. They are said to be able to run modulesat different clock speed as written in this article formAcesHardware, but I have not witnessed it.
ywing has been upgraded to quad-CPU. You can read thekernel's message:
cpu : ROSS HyperSparc RT625 or RT626fpu : ROSS HyperSparc combined IU/FPUpromlib : Version 3 Revision 2prom : 2.25type : sun4mncpus probed : 4ncpus active : 4Cpu0Bogo : 125.33Cpu1Bogo : 125.33Cpu2Bogo : 125.33Cpu3Bogo : 125.33MMU type : ROSS HyperSparcinvall : 0invmm : 0invrnge : 0invpg : 0contexts : 4096CPU0 : onlineCPU1 : onlineCPU2 : onlineCPU3 : online
and its main memory is now 256MB:
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:Mem: 263028736 29114368 233914368 22958080 1695744 12779520Swap: 133849088 0 133849088MemTotal: 256864 kBMemFree: 228432 kBMemShared: 22420 kBBuffers: 1656 kBCached: 12480 kBBigTotal: 0 kBBigFree: 0 kBSwapTotal: 130712 kBSwapFree: 130712 kB
So I have performed an empiricalproftpd compilation test using themake -JN. The results are:
with makereal 3m27.466suser 3m15.670ssys 0m12.030swith make -j2real 1m52.670suser 3m27.210ssys 0m15.310swith make -j3real 1m22.560suser 3m43.910ssys 0m18.070swith make -j4real 1m13.582suser 4m2.200ssys 0m22.830swith make -j5real 1m13.445suser 4m4.060ssys 0m22.640swith make -j8real 1m15.550suser 4m1.840ssys 0m22.960swith make -j 10real 1m20.091suser 4m2.440ssys 0m22.170s
As expected the best results are with make -j5 ( one instance per CPU +one ready to enter when a cache miss occurs ); then N increasing the resultsare starting to worsen.
As a conclusion, thosesun4m SMP systems will be veryinteresting when Gimp 2.0 will be available because of multitreadingand paralelization of algorithms.
If you want to learn more about SMP and Linux you can read theSMP-HOWTOhttp://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/SMP-HOWTO.html
The sound works fine on my SparcStation 20 and a 2.4.x kernel series.Most of the people I know report succes with the 2.4 kernel series.
If you plan to use an older kernel, you can read the Linux/Sparc audio webpage atsparcaudio which is a very good source of information about Sound support on Sun'sSparcStations.
Sun workstations ususaly have 2 serial ports, but on sun4m workstation there is usualy only one serial connector at the rear,you need a special Y cable in order to have access to both ports.
The following sites are given for your information, I am independentfrom them and does not represent them. If you would like to suggest awebsite or to add any information do not hesitate to email me.
Windows NTM.http://wwws.sun.com/software/linux/compatibility/ultralinux/index.html
.ps format.Among the various Auction websites available on the net you can trytheses ones. Remember to be very cautious when you purchase hardware (see the Buying a SPARC computer section. )
There exists a very reliable source of used Sun workstations in France:solutions-rl
Among the many people who showed me how great Unix and the Unixcomputers can be, some people have earned a special placeI would like to thank them:
Also many thanks to "old crocodile" virgile for the time he spent atthe library helping me to get the big picture.
Some people gave a lot of time and ressource to help mewith this project, hereafeter is their names sorted by alphabeticorder:
Copyright © 2000-2004 by Lionel, trollhunter Bouchpan-Lerust-Juéry.This document may be distributed under the terms set forth in the GNU Free Documentation Licencehttp://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.txt .
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty. The information in this document is correct to the best of my knowledge, but there's a always a chance I've made some mistakes, so don't follow everything too blindly, especially if it seems wrong. Nothing here should have a detrimental effect on your computer, but just in case I take no responsibility for any damages ocurred from the use of the information contained herein.
In this document you will encounter some commercial products andbrands. Theses products are cited for information purpose, it is notan endorsement from the author. The trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this documentunder the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;with the Invariant Sections being : "Copyright, Disclaimer and Trademarks""Preface.", "SPARC, which one ?", "Buying a SPARC computer.","SPARC based laptops","The wonderful SparcStation Voyager","Sun's Netra servers","Sun's Enterprise servers","Tatung's Workstations","Tatung's SPARC servers","Fujitsu's supercomputers", "Linux on SPARC: 2 kernels.", "Choosing a distribution.", "Installing Linux.", "Working with the Openboot.", "Hard drive buses.", "CDROM: specific settings.quot;, "SILO.", "Keyboard and mouse.", "X Window.", "SMP.", "The sound.", "Serial port.","Ressources.","Thanks and Credits.","Revision History.",
, with theFront-Cover Texts being "title" and "abstract.", and with no Back-Cover Texts .
This text is included in the Linux Documentation Projecthttp://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html .
If you wish to mirror it or to translate it, please contact me.
Lionel, Trollhunter Bouchpan-Lerust-Juéry<trollhunter@linuxfr.org>or at<trollhunter@free.fr>