[lug] Re: [TAG] Linux on Sun Sparc?? (fwd)

[John Karns]

FYI, Linux / Sparc users:

Just received this msg from the Linux Gazette mail list.  Although I don't
have a Sparc, I thought I'd pass it on for those here that do.  The msg
seems to summarize available resources Linux on Sparc pretty well.

----------------------------------------------------------------
John Karns                                        jkarns at csd.net

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 08:53:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Heather <star at betelgeuse.starshine.org>
Reply-To: linux-questions-only at ssc.com
To: linux-questions-only at ssc.com
Subject: Re: [TAG] Linux on Sun Sparc??

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>
> Is there a way to install this. I can see the Sparc64 architecture under
> /usr/src/linux/arch
>
> Booting from the slackware 8 cd does not work, and it seems as if
> Slackware's Web site is "unavailable"
>
> Please, any pointers!
>
> Cheers
> Danie

Sure.

The Linux Weekly News just wrote that Slackware is no longer supporting
their Sparc distro.  There's a sourceforge project to take over the code:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/splack

Entirely possible that some decent community interest would boost it nicely,
but if so, why'd Slackware have to let go of it... dunno...

Maybe you want to try another distro that builds for Sparc - RH's sparc build
isn't well regarded amongst a few non-Intel types I know locally... I think
in part because they get to Sparcs last.  But you've lots of choices anyway.
The search engines (keywords: sparc distribution) reveal that Mandrake and
SuSE both have Sparc distros, Rock Linux (a distro that builds from sources
- http://www.rocklinux.org) builds successfully on it, and of course there's
my personal favorite, Debian.

The Sparc-HOWTO adds Caldera OpenLinux and TurboLinux to the mix.  I know
that Caldera is really pushing to support the enterprise  but that points
to openlinux.org and appears to be an unhappy weblink - I only did a spot
check, but didn't see "Sparc" on Caldera's own pages.  One may safely
presume that someone who wants Caldera's style of enterprise level support
for Linux will be getting Sun maintenance contracts for their high end Sparcs,
right?

Anyways the reasons that Debian is my personal favorite in this regard are:
1. It's the only distro that I've tried on a Sparc
2. It worked just as smoothly as on a PC
3. apt-get install <package name here>

But you don't have to take my word for it :) There's a bunch of folks at
	http://www.ultralinux.org

who pay attention to how well things work on ultrasparcs, and they've
helpfully gathered a bunch of pointers into the arcvhives and subscribe
methods for the lists maintained by the major vendors in this regard.  So
check out what people who really use Sparcs have been saying about 'em!
Using your model number as a search key may narrow things down, too.

-* Heather Stern * star at starshine.org * The Answer Gang's Editor Gal *-
   The Linux Gazette (http://www.linuxgazette.com) is under the LDP