[lug] on a Sparc 5?

[Gus Huber]

I was trying to resist this thread as long as possible. but here goes.

Ok, I have had several problems relatated to installing linux on 32bit sparc platforms.  The most common being silo wierdness.  This usualy occurs when you have one of the 'upgraded' sparcs that have turbosparc cpu's, or non standard boot roms.  these difficulties can usualy be worked around with a bit of engineering, but are usualy not a task for the weak at heart.

AFIK with redhat the only install option that reliably works is tftpboot ( should also note this is how I install all of my sparcs regardless of os ).  I know debian works well on the sparc32's currently.  I would stronly discourage trying to install any linux distro for sparc32 that tries to use a 2.4.x kernel as it has lots of known issues.

Basicaly support for Sparc32 is sluggish at best.  Most people who care about a sparc port of linux have Sparc64 (UltraSPARC) machines and care not for us poor folks who have to use sparc32.  

Hopefuly this helps some.. if you have more specific questions reply off list.


	gus huber <gus at pbx.org>