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dion_b
Guest
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 Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:14 am Post subject: Ancient SunPC (*NOT* SunPCI) on Solaris >7? |
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I recently acquired an ancient SunPC Sbus card - basically an AMD
5x86-133 that plugs into a SPARC-based system and can be used for
interoperability (i.e. running DOS/Win 3.1 in a window under Solaris).
Looking at the documentation I could find on it, there are drivers
available for Solaris 2.5 and 2.6 and native support exists under
Solaris 7. However no reference is made to it in the Solaris 8 and later
Hardware Platform Guide. This obviously means it is no longer supported.
However my experience with the later SunPCi cards (PCI-based cards with
not only an x86 CPU but also their own RAM and in later versions LAN
connections) is that it is a relatively trivial matter to get them to
run on unsupported Solaris versions. All it really takes is a few hard
links to fool Solaris into thinking the old package is really for the
newer system. Following simple guides I have been able to get a SunPCi I
(supported up to Solaris 8) running under Solaris 9 and a SunPCI II
(supported up to Solaris 9) running under Solaris 10.
Now I have an SS20 which fairly happily runs Solaris 9 and wonder
whether anyone would have any tips as to whether a similarly simple hack
might get this ancient piece of hardware working under Solaris 9.
The only problem is that I've not been able to find loose Solaris 7
packages for the card, the most recent download on sunsolve is this 4.2
patch for Solaris 2.5 and 2.6 from 1998:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-21-105557
Of course, if it's impossible I can always install Solaris 7 on the old
beast - it's not actually doing anything sensible that requires Solaris
9, just a nice piece of nostalgia (that can also ssh and web surf if
needed), but it would be fun to see this working under Solaris 9 - so,
tips anybody? |
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Maciej Szymanski
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:54 pm Post subject: Re: Ancient SunPC (*NOT* SunPCI) on Solaris >7? |
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dion_b wrote:
| Quote: | However my experience with the later SunPCi cards (PCI-based cards with
not only an x86 CPU but also their own RAM and in later versions LAN
connections) is that it is a relatively trivial matter to get them to
run on unsupported Solaris versions. All it really takes is a few hard
links to fool Solaris into thinking the old package is really for the
newer system.
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I've tried to run SunPC under Sol7 without success. I've tried to fool
install scripts to use the 2.6 kernel module as the 7 module (taht's
easy) but it caused kernel panic every time I've tried to boot SunPC.
Finaly I've downgraded to 2.6 and ofcourse SunPC works perfectly.
Maybe It can be solved by some kernel patches on later releases, but I
haven't find any info on that. I would be simple if you can have source
code of the kernel module...
BTW there is one interesting thing about SunPC software. It emulates 286
PC without the hardware accelerator board at resonable speeds (at last
for DOS apps) on my SS20 2xSM71 with SX framebuffer running Solaris 2.6.
But still requires the *** kernel module.
Maciek |
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dion_b
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:03 am Post subject: Re: Ancient SunPC (*NOT* SunPCI) on Solaris >7? |
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Maciej Szymanski wrote:
| Quote: | I've tried to run SunPC under Sol7 without success. I've tried to fool
install scripts to use the 2.6 kernel module as the 7 module (taht's
easy) but it caused kernel panic every time I've tried to boot SunPC.
Finaly I've downgraded to 2.6 and ofcourse SunPC works perfectly.
Maybe It can be solved by some kernel patches on later releases, but I
haven't find any info on that. I would be simple if you can have source
code of the kernel module...
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 sounds like I'll have to look into running 2.6 then (which tempts me
to find an old IPX/Classic lunchbox somewhere to put this in instead of
the SS20)
| Quote: | BTW there is one interesting thing about SunPC software. It emulates 286
PC without the hardware accelerator board at resonable speeds (at last
for DOS apps) on my SS20 2xSM71 with SX framebuffer running Solaris 2.6.
But still requires the *** kernel module.
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My SS20 also has 2xSM71 and SX, but seeing as I have the accelerator
board I might as well stick it in an older box if 2.6 is the limit. |
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