Installing Aurora LINUX on Sparc20

[Stephen Scotti]

I downloaded the Aurora Linux distro (I think it was 2.0), burned the
CD's and installed the OS. I had to use the text interface because
the graphical install did not work, I did not see anything on the
screen. The interactive text install worked, but when I tried to
reboot the system it fires up the X Server display and then bombs for
reasons that are not clear to me. I think the graphics card is a Sun
Turbo GX type. The machine is original SUN equipment that was used
for medical applications. It only has about 256 MB of RAM in it
currently and a CD ROM drive. I am going to try and reinstall the
system from CD, but I was wondering if anyone has suggestions about
how to get X Windows working with KDE or Gnome, what I might do to
jazz of the RAM (not even sure what it can hold max, although it looks
like there are 8 slots).

I'd like to use the machine as a server running tomcat, MySQL, PHP
server app and a fair number of images on it as well. I think the
current disk drive is only about 8 GB as well. If it can handle a
decent amount of RAM and a several 100 GB disk drive we might be in
business. Looks like it used SCSI for the peripherals.

Any help appreciated.

BTW, after it bombed out of the XServer start up it fall back into
single user or command line mode and I am able to log in as root and
execute most command line functions. I tried startx as root and get
the same error.

Thanks.

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

Post by Stephen Scotti
I think the graphics card is a Sun
Turbo GX type. The machine is original SUN equipment that was used
for medical applications. It only has about 256 MB of RAM in it
currently and a CD ROM drive.

Be aware that a lot of the medical SUN systems have custom video cards
for which there is no proper Linux support.

If you have the "lssbus" package installed, and you run lssbus, it
should tell you what devices it sees on the SBUS, including your video
card.

I might also be able to determine more from your /var/log/Xorg.0.log
file.

~spot

[Gatling, Paul]

I know this doesn't address your original problem, but it shouldn't be
necessary to have xwindows working to get your machine to serve the
purposes you had mentioned.

In fact, from a security standpoint you may be better off not installing
any X packages, as they won't be needed for any of the server functions
you mentioned. From a resouce standpoint, you would be better off not
running an X server either. It sounds like this machine isn't a speed
demon.

Or, if you simply need to use some GUI tools, you could have the machine
start in runlevel 3 and ssh in from another machine that has a
functioning x server and run the GUI apps remotely.

I know it isn't the answer you wanted to hear though!

-----Original Message-----
From: aurora-sparc-user-***@lists.auroralinux.org
[mailto:aurora-sparc-user-***@lists.auroralinux.org] On Behalf Of
Stephen Scotti
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:39 PM
To: aurora-sparc-***@lists.auroralinux.org
Subject: [Aurora-sparc-user] Installing Aurora LINUX on Sparc20

I downloaded the Aurora Linux distro (I think it was 2.0), burned the
CD's and installed the OS. I had to use the text interface because the
graphical install did not work, I did not see anything on the screen.
The interactive text install worked, but when I tried to reboot the
system it fires up the X Server display and then bombs for reasons that
are not clear to me. I think the graphics card is a Sun Turbo GX type.
The machine is original SUN equipment that was used for medical
applications. It only has about 256 MB of RAM in it currently and a CD
ROM drive. I am going to try and reinstall the system from CD, but I
was wondering if anyone has suggestions about how to get X Windows
working with KDE or Gnome, what I might do to jazz of the RAM (not even
sure what it can hold max, although it looks like there are 8 slots).

I'd like to use the machine as a server running tomcat, MySQL, PHP
server app and a fair number of images on it as well. I think the
current disk drive is only about 8 GB as well. If it can handle a
decent amount of RAM and a several 100 GB disk drive we might be in
business. Looks like it used SCSI for the peripherals.

Any help appreciated.

BTW, after it bombed out of the XServer start up it fall back into
single user or command line mode and I am able to log in as root and
execute most command line functions. I tried startx as root and get the
same error.

Thanks.

[venn]

Post by Gatling, Paul
I know this doesn't address your original problem, but it shouldn't be
necessary to have xwindows working to get your machine to serve the
purposes you had mentioned.
In fact, from a security standpoint you may be better off not installing
any X packages, as they won't be needed for any of the server functions
you mentioned. From a resouce standpoint, you would be better off not
running an X server either. It sounds like this machine isn't a speed
demon.
Or, if you simply need to use some GUI tools, you could have the machine
start in runlevel 3 and ssh in from another machine that has a
functioning x server and run the GUI apps remotely.
I know it isn't the answer you wanted to hear though!
-----Original Message-----
Stephen Scotti
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:39 PM
Subject: [Aurora-sparc-user] Installing Aurora LINUX on Sparc20
I downloaded the Aurora Linux distro (I think it was 2.0), burned the
CD's and installed the OS. I had to use the text interface because the
graphical install did not work, I did not see anything on the screen.
The interactive text install worked, but when I tried to reboot the
system it fires up the X Server display and then bombs for reasons that
are not clear to me. I think the graphics card is a Sun Turbo GX type.
The machine is original SUN equipment that was used for medical
applications. It only has about 256 MB of RAM in it currently and a CD
ROM drive. I am going to try and reinstall the system from CD, but I
was wondering if anyone has suggestions about how to get X Windows
working with KDE or Gnome, what I might do to jazz of the RAM (not even
sure what it can hold max, although it looks like there are 8 slots).
I'd like to use the machine as a server running tomcat, MySQL, PHP
server app and a fair number of images on it as well. I think the
current disk drive is only about 8 GB as well. If it can handle a
decent amount of RAM and a several 100 GB disk drive we might be in
business. Looks like it used SCSI for the peripherals.
Any help appreciated.
BTW, after it bombed out of the XServer start up it fall back into
single user or command line mode and I am able to log in as root and
execute most command line functions. I tried startx as root and get the
same error.
Thanks.
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Aurora FAQ: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~mas01r/aurorafaq.html

I second this. Running X on a 20 is not much of an option. I think the
20 maxed out @ 200mhz? I can tell you Gnome is not really usable on a
Ultra5 440mhz box. I think Mr. Paul is correct. Your best option is to
ssh into the machine.

[T. Ribbrock]

Post by venn
I second this. Running X on a 20 is not much of an option.

Of course, for what the OP wants to do, X is not needed, but otherwise,
running X on an SS20 as such works just fine. Of course, you must not run a
resource-hog like Gnome or KDE, but a lightweight window manager (my
preference is Window Maker, but there are even lighter ones) works. I've
had such a set-up running on my SS20 which has two 75MHz CPUs and a CG14
(SX) framebuffer. This was under Aurora 1.0. I pretty much stopped
toying with that machine with the advent of 1.92, as SMP was no longer
supported with kernel 2.6.

BTW: I even had X with Window Maker running on an SS5/170, which was
very workable. Also, X with Window Maker works very well on an U10/440,
even with a Raptor (even better with a Creator). ;-)

Cheerio,

Thomas