Sparc Ultra 5 - 400MHz - 512MB RAM // Basic info needed

[rainman]

Hello,

I've been in the PC/Mac/Linux world for many years, and I'm trying to get a feel for how the Sun Sparc operates. I see there is no BIOS on this box, however there is a CLI-based BIOS "OpenBoot v3.25".

Since I'm coming from a PC/Mac/Linux world and I'm used to the X86 architecture, what do I have to know about this Sparc? How do I perform similar functions that I would in a PC BIOS (such as fixed disk information / boot device info / etc).

I'm not exactly what OS I'm going to run on it ... Possibly the new Free BSD v5.2.1 for Sparc 64. I'd rather not run Solaris 9. Any thoughts / suggestions / points / tips?

I'm familiar with doing the Stop+A then "boot cdrom" to install OS's. Just want to get a feel for the OpenBoot and after my OS is installed, is there anything I need to change in OpenBoot to point it to a boot slice or something, or does the OS install usually take care of that?

Thanks in advance for any advise,

Rainman

 

[daFranze]

all you want to know (and not want to know) about OBP

http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/General/OBP.html

or

http://sunsolve.sun.com/data/802/802-3242/html/TOC.html

do not invest to much time in this, i think this is not _that_ important

Solaris set's the boot-device during Installation, but you can set this easily if FreeBSD won't boot (setenv boot-device /cryptic-device-path), but I think this will work without editing...

I think you do not need to know anything about sparc architecture as a first step; what is essential to know about x86 when installing an OS? I don't think you need to know much, as a first step...

feel free to post further questions, I don't know what to tell you right now...


Regards
-- Franz
Sorry I'm not a native spaeker, I'm from Munich, Germany - "Home of the Whopper", oh no, "Home of the Oktoberfest" ;-)
Solaris System Manager; I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years