[lug] SPARC/RAID/2.4 Kernel?

[David Morris]

I am setting up a SparcStation 20 with a RAID-5 array, and I was wondering
if anyone out there has worked with a similar situation.

In short:

Debian Potato will be the distro of choice.

SS 20 with 2 processors, will be running a SMP kernel.
512 MB internal disk
4 9GB disks in an external SCSI box, to be partitioned into a RAID-5 array.

I understand the 2.4 kernel is by far preferred over the 2.2 kernel, but
also that the 2.4 kernel can have troubles on the Sparc, especially with
SMP enabled.  Anyone have any experience or recommendations here?

I also plan on using the RAID array as the root filesystem, which of course
means I will have to boot from it...or at least, that is my ideal
situation.  As I cannot install linux directly to the raid array, what is
the easiest way to get the root filesystem over there?  Just copy it over
as one would with an nfsroot setup, or is there a better way for RAID?

Thanks for any advice you can give...

--David