On Fri, Mar 17, 2000 at 12:25:59PM -0600, Alex Winbow wrote:
| I'm considering putting together a old sparc box as a
| bridge/firewall (the requisite linux connection!), and I've a buncha
| questions about the hardware. These questions have all been asked before
| I'm sure, so better yet would be a pointer to a comprehensive resource.
|
| I'm looking at the IPC, IPX, Sparc2, and Classic, as sold on eBay
| and used dealers.
Don't forget the LX. Same cpu as a Classic, but has built in video.
And you might want to check Sparc 5's too - they've become cheap lately.
| Display: usually a propriatary sun cable and monitor, but can the
| system drive a VGA monitor? Alternatively, can one do entirely a
| serial-console install without needing a screen or keyboard?
You can use a VGA monitor with the right adapter/cable.
Or you can do a serial console install.
| ether: do all those models come with onboard ether? AUI?
Yes. But finding a second ethernet may be hard - in fact, it may
cost you more than the box did itself.
| floppy: people claim that you don't need the floppy, but without
| either floppy or cd or tape drive, how to install an OS? Entirely netboot?
You never boot off a floppy - either harddisk, cd or netboot. Well,
maybe Linux has a boot floppy for these, but Solaris/SunOS has a boot
cd only. The floppy is only needed for reading floppies.
| hard disk: do they all just use internal scsi-II 3.5" drives?
Yes, but the SS5 takes SCA drives internally if you get one of those.
| Speed: what's the difference between those models, besides CPU
| clock speed?
Forget the IPC entirely. IPX and SS2 are the same. LX and Classic
are perhaps 50% faster than the IPX/SS2. SS5 is a lot faster than a
LX or Classic.
IPC, IPX and SS2 are not supported by Solaris 7 and newer. LX,
Classic and Newer machines are.
| Traps: what are the common traps for getting into with this
| hardware?
Memory is hard to find and expensive compared to modern PC memory.
SS2 takes 30 pin SIMMs. Very hard to find nowadays.
IPX, Classic and LX all take 72 pin parity SIMMs.
SS5 takes it's own memory.
If you buy any of these boxes, it's usually best to make sure you get
all the memory you'll need with the box, rather than trying to get it
later. Getting it later will usually cost you more.
And on an unrelated note, is there *anything* we can do about this?
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to locutus.csres.utexas.edu.:
>>> MAIL From:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<<< 550 Mail from 24.27.53.112 rejected;see http://www.orbs.org/
554 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Service unavailable
24.27.53.112 is NOT in the orbs database, at least not according to
this web page it references. And I've checked several times over the
last several weeks.
--
Doug McLaren, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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