7 Aug
2006
7 Aug
'06
9:53 a.m.
I have 2 that I picked up the other day. They "appear" to power up (e.g. lights,
drive seeking, etc). I tried 2 different monitors, but I don't get any video. Any
troublshooting tips, or should I connect to the serial A port and see if there is any
outut there?
Any other things that could cause no apparent video on these units?
thanks,
Kelly
7 Aug
7 Aug
10:16 a.m.
I have 2 that I picked up the other day. They
"appear" to power up (e.g.
lights, drive seeking, etc). I tried 2 different monitors, but I don't get
any video. Any troublshooting tips, or should I connect to the serial A
port and see if there is any outut there?
Any other things that could cause no apparent video on these units?
thanks,
Kelly
Connect a terminal to the Serial port. Are you sure the monitors and
cabling are compatible?
I'd recommend looking into running either OpenBSD or maybe NetBSD on them.
I know OpenBSD has a small enough memory footprint to fit on one nicely
(won't guarentee it's supported hardware though as I don't have any LX's).
Even Solaris 2.6 will be painful on one.
Zane
10:39 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
I'd recommend looking into running either OpenBSD
or maybe NetBSD on them.
I know OpenBSD has a small enough memory footprint to fit on one nicely
(won't guarentee it's supported hardware though as I don't have any
LX's).
Even Solaris 2.6 will be painful on one.
NetBSD runs very nicely on an LX. About ten years ago, I had a whole
slew of them dedicated to different tasks on my home network...a
nameserver, a news server, a mail server, a file server...all running
NetBSD and performing their jobs quite well.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL
10:48 a.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
Zane H. Healy wrote:
I use an LX and a Classic, currently, running NBSD 2.0.1 for
those roles, here.
And, you can squeeze 96M into the LX (haven't tried that trick
with the Classic -- yet)
I'd recommend looking into running either
OpenBSD or maybe NetBSD on
them. I know OpenBSD has a small enough memory footprint to fit on one
nicely
(won't guarentee it's supported hardware though as I don't have any
LX's). Even Solaris 2.6 will be painful on one.
NetBSD runs very nicely on an LX. About ten years ago, I had a whole
slew of them dedicated to different tasks on my home network...a
nameserver, a news server, a mail server, a file server...all running
NetBSD and performing their jobs quite well. 
11 a.m.
Don wrote:
I use an LX and a Classic, currently, running NBSD
2.0.1 for
those roles, here.
And, you can squeeze 96M into the LX (haven't tried that trick
with the Classic -- yet)
My old Classic ran just fine in Solaris 2.6 or 2.7 with 96MB. RedHat
would randomly dump core with 96MB.
My $0.02?
The LX is an OK system, but if you ran local graphics, the Classic
was just about the definition of suck.
Doc
2:10 p.m.
The LX is an OK system, but if you ran local graphics,
the Classic
was just about the definition of suck.
Yeah. The Classic was the one with a cg3 onboard, rather than a cg6.
The cg3 was about as dumb as a dumb colour 8bpp framebuffer could get,
and it showed. If I wanted to use a Classic headed, I'd put a cg6 in
it, minimum.
/~\ The ASCII der Mouse
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11:02 a.m.
I use an LX and a Classic, currently, running NBSD
2.0.1 for
those roles, here.
And, you can squeeze 96M into the LX (haven't tried that trick
with the Classic -- yet)
Does the LX allow the use of the RAM expansion cards (S-Bus) used in a
SparcStation 2? I know at least one of the "lunchbox" models does. Still
if NetBSD is anything like OpenBSD I'd think 64MB would be enough RAM.
Zane
11:13 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
Does the LX allow the use of the RAM expansion cards
(S-Bus) used in a
SparcStation 2? I know at least one of the "lunchbox" models does.
No...The IPX (and I believe the IPC) do, but not the LX or Classic.
Still
if NetBSD is anything like OpenBSD I'd think 64MB would be enough RAM.
OpenBSD was originally derived from NetBSD, and remains substantially
similar...assuming SPARC, 64MB is quite spacious for all but the most
demanding applications, for either OS.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL
11:28 a.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
Zane H. Healy wrote:
Well, building kernels is painful. And, queries on some of
my larger databases often tempt me to fire up another machine...
But, each boxes of these are *quite* comfortable in their roles
as appliances... I often wish I had kept all the other LX's
and Classics that I had but I figured one of each is about
all I can justify for "space" :-(
(The LX's used to be Huey, Dewey and Louie while the Classics
were Curly, Larry, Moe and Shemp :> )
Still
if NetBSD is anything like OpenBSD I'd think 64MB would be enough RAM.
OpenBSD was originally derived from NetBSD, and remains substantially
similar...assuming SPARC, 64MB is quite spacious for all but the most
demanding applications, for either OS.
11:24 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
I don't think so. At least, I've not noticed the "extra" 10 (8?)
pin connector that the flex-circuit would connect to on the MB.
I'd have to check, though (I've got a spare SBUS memory card
out in the garage *if* I find said connector on the LX)
I use an LX
and a Classic, currently, running NBSD 2.0.1 for
those roles, here.
And, you can squeeze 96M into the LX (haven't tried that trick
with the Classic -- yet)
Does the LX allow the use of the RAM expansion cards (S-Bus) used in a SparcStation 2? I know at least one of the
"lunchbox" models does. Still
if NetBSD is anything like OpenBSD I'd think 64MB would be enough RAM.
It's *fine* in the Classic. But, since EXTRA memory is as
ridiculous a concept as extra MONEY, I figured adding it to the
LX was A Good Thing.
The LX and Classic here are lightly loaded:
-- TFTP to serve up boot images for my X terminals
-- NFS to support the configuration files for those terminals
-- DNS
-- LPD
-- xfs for the X terminals and other X servers
-- NTP
-- routing
-- NAS
Both run headless since I treat them as appliances.
The heaviest weight process is Postgres but since I don't
hammer on any of the databases that much, it's not a big load.
I keep gcc/gdb/et al. and emacs running so I can develop
code fragments without having to power up a bigger machine
since I can do static testing on the LX/Classic just as
easily as on a bigger box.
~4-5G drive in each with /usr/{src,xsrc,pkgsrc} available on
another drive in a 411 -- which, unfortunately, means I can't
mount the lunchboxes vertically in their little stands. :-(
(maybe some day I'll put bigger drives *inside* but all of my
larger drives are SCA or Wide)
3:49 p.m.
Don wrote:
And, you can squeeze 96M into the LX (haven't
tried that trick
with the Classic -- yet)
While the advertised maximum amount of RAM is 96MB (6 x 16MB modules)
you can in fact install 128MB of RAM into a Sparc LX. Two of the six
slots will recognize 32MB modules (2 x 32MB + 4 x 16MB = 128MB) which
is double the capacity of the IPC and IPX although, as noted by
others, the IPC and IPX support the 64MB SBUS card originally intended
for the Sparc 1, 1+ and 2.
I can also confirm that the Classic has an on-board CG3 and the LX has
an on-board CG6. The former is almost unusable and the latter is
relatively decent, albeit only at 8 bits per pixel.
I've got the world's most 'pimped out' (I think that's the phrase the
teenagers are using) LX system gathering dust in my basement. I just
don't have the heart to junk it and I can't find anyone that would put
it to good use. (If that sounds like you, email me. I'm in Toronto
BTW.) I've also got a RasterFlex/HR (24 bit accelerated SBUS
framebuffer) with 8MB of on-board RAM if anyone is interested.
Manufacturer supported drivers up to Solaris 2.51 (if memory serves)
although I think it works with 2.6 and perhaps beyond. It has been a
long time since I've used it. I do remember that it's fast as heck
compared to Sun's anemic framebuffers.
Ah, the memories...
--
Golan Klinger <gklinger at gmail.com>
Dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.
4:07 p.m.
Golan Klinger wrote:
Don wrote:
Then I misspoke :< I must have 128M in it because the oversized
SIMMs in the first two slots is what I have done. I just don't
know if that works in the Classic as well...
And, you can squeeze 96M into the LX (haven't
tried that trick
with the Classic -- yet)
While the advertised maximum amount of RAM is 96MB (6 x 16MB modules)
you can in fact install 128MB of RAM into a Sparc LX. Two of the six slots will recognize 32MB modules (2 x 32MB + 4 x 16MB
= 128MB) which
is double the capacity of the IPC and IPX although, as noted by
others, the IPC and IPX support the 64MB SBUS card originally intended
for the Sparc 1, 1+ and 2.
I can also confirm that the Classic has an on-board CG3 and the LX has
an on-board CG6. The former is almost unusable and the latter is
relatively decent, albeit only at 8 bits per pixel.
I've got the world's most 'pimped out' (I think that's the phrase
the
teenagers are using) LX system gathering dust in my basement. I just
don't have the heart to junk it and I can't find anyone that would put
it to good use. (If that sounds like you, email me. I'm in Toronto
BTW.) I've also got a RasterFlex/HR (24 bit accelerated SBUS
framebuffer) with 8MB of on-board RAM if anyone is interested.
Manufacturer supported drivers up to Solaris 2.51 (if memory serves)
although I think it works with 2.6 and perhaps beyond. It has been a
long time since I've used it. I do remember that it's fast as heck
compared to Sun's anemic framebuffers.
Ah, the memories...
10:27 a.m.
Kelly Leavitt wrote:
I have 2 that I picked up the other day. They
"appear" to power up
(e.g. lights, drive seeking, etc). I tried 2 different monitors,
but I don't get any video. Any troublshooting tips, or should I
connect to the serial A port and see if there is any outut there?
Any other things that could cause no apparent video on these units?
Keyboard plugged in?
SBUS card seated properly?
STOP-N during boot (reset NVRAM -- or have I misremembered that?)
6674
days inactive
6674
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12 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
gklinger＠gmail.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
kelly＠catcorner.org -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA -
THX1138＠dakotacom.net