Linux on a SUN E5500

Linux on a SUN E5500

[Mike Hemstock]

Hi folks,

We have bits of SUN kit lying around at work and I've assembled them to make 
an E5500.  The box has the following:

2x StorEdge D1000 HVD disk carriers with 4 9.1Gb SCSI disks a piece
1x Fibrechannel Enterprise Network Array with 4 9.1Gb disks
Single Ended SCSI IO card 270-3113-30 Rev S 5013113006645

Sbus IO card with:

Fore ATM SBA-200
HVD SCSI C479929A73722
Fibre channel Vixel OE1063SV 370233012343

I have tried to install Debian on this however, it boots the installer and 
then tells me that there are no disks found.  I'm not sure where to go from 
here.  There are a few hardware problems with the box.  I have tried to 
install SuSE and it hangs and Solaris reports memory errors.  I need to do 
some hardware fixing, but I'd like to get a general finger in the air of what 
to expect when trying to build this box.  Does anyone think that Debian will 
support the hardware?  What is the best Sparc Linux for E5500?  Basically I 
just need some advise on getting started.

Many thanks,
Mike.

Re: Linux on a SUN E5500

[Ben Collins]

> Fore ATM SBA-200
> HVD SCSI C479929A73722
> Fibre channel Vixel OE1063SV 370233012343
> 
> I have tried to install Debian on this however, it boots the installer and 
> then tells me that there are no disks found.  I'm not sure where to go from 
> here.  There are a few hardware problems with the box.  I have tried to 
> install SuSE and it hangs and Solaris reports memory errors.  I need to do 
> some hardware fixing, but I'd like to get a general finger in the air of what 
> to expect when trying to build this box.  Does anyone think that Debian will 
> support the hardware?  What is the best Sparc Linux for E5500?  Basically I 
> just need some advise on getting started.

Debian supports the hardware, but I don't think any of the storage cards
are built-in to the kernel. You may have to do some hand made root image
based the Debian initrd for the install. Just copy the modules on to it,
and get things going that way.

There's not really a "best dist for box FOO", since they all use the
same kernel, and generally support the same thing.

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Re: Linux on a SUN E5500

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 902 bytes --]

On Mon, 2004-01-12 11:13:46 -0500, Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
wrote in message <20040112161346.GT31486@phunnypharm.org>:
> There's not really a "best dist for box FOO", since they all use the
> same kernel, and generally support the same thing.

Um, well, for most non-mainstream hardware (i386, ia64, amd64 and maybe
s390 and ppc) there's basically no (up-to-date) distribution available
except Debian, maybe Gentoo and a fully hand-made distro...

To keep things easy, Debian is IMHO quite a good choice, esp if you need
to run it on different architectures...

MfG, JBG

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Re: Linux on a SUN E5500

[C.Newport]

On Saturday 10 January 2004 6:39 pm, Mike Hemstock wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> We have bits of SUN kit lying around at work and I've assembled them to
> make an E5500.  The box has the following:
>
> 2x StorEdge D1000 HVD disk carriers with 4 9.1Gb SCSI disks a piece
> 1x Fibrechannel Enterprise Network Array with 4 9.1Gb disks
> Single Ended SCSI IO card 270-3113-30 Rev S 5013113006645
>
> Sbus IO card with:
>
> Fore ATM SBA-200
> HVD SCSI C479929A73722
> Fibre channel Vixel OE1063SV 370233012343
>
> I have tried to install Debian on this however, it boots the installer and
> then tells me that there are no disks found.  I'm not sure where to go from
> here.  There are a few hardware problems with the box.  I have tried to
> install SuSE and it hangs and Solaris reports memory errors.  I need to do
> some hardware fixing, but I'd like to get a general finger in the air of
> what to expect when trying to build this box.  Does anyone think that
> Debian will support the hardware?  What is the best Sparc Linux for E5500? 
> Basically I just need some advise on getting started.

Your first job is to check out the memory errors.
First get to an OBP ok prompt.
test-memory-all should check the memory. You probably have plenty,
to you could just remove a faulty bank. A handbook search at 
http://sunsolve.sun.com/ for E5500 memory should get you to a
diagram showing which banks are which.

printenv will list the environment settings, what does boot-device say ?
Next run probe-sci to list the devices on the default bus.
Then run probe-scsi-all to list all devices.

Where are you in the UK, I may be able to help, I am near Bristol.
If I know exactly what is happening I should be able to cut a custom
Splack install CD for your environment.