Tell me more ×
Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems.. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

I just bought a Sun Blade 2000 and a type 7 USB keyboard from EBAY. The blade has Solaris 8 installed and while I can login, I'd rather switch to something like UBUNTU.

If I type STOP - A during the boot process, I get a white screen but no prompt that I can see. The video card is PCI and seems to work fine with Solaris. I'm not sure if the prompt is being directed elsewhere?

Any ideas?

share|improve this question
With STOP-A you enter the OpenBoot command prompt. There is not much screen output. With help you should see some options and e.g. with boot cdrom you should be able to boot from the cdrom drive, e.g. to install or boot another OS. Ubuntu is not supported on Sparc systems. I am running Debian an my Sun Sparc workstation, which I would recommend if you want to run a Linux flavour. – Marco Jul 30 '12 at 20:19

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

Look at the Service Manual for Sun Blade 2000. The sections about VTS and POST look promising.

My guess is that you can use VTS via GUI under Solaris to get POST configured the way you expect it.

Are you using serial port A for the TIP-connection?

share|improve this answer
Based on your comment, I switched to serial port A, now I can communicate with the blade, thanks for that. I've installed a frame buffer from a Sun Ultra 30 and I can see output from the OBP at points during the dialog. I was planning to use the blade as a desktop/workstation so what is likely to be my best choice for an OS? I had chosen Ubuntu because, supposedly, it supported the PCI plug-in AMD/Windows adapter and I thought it might be fun to play with that but I can't get Ubuntu 8.04.1 to finish the load process so maybe that's not the way to go. – hirsutus Sep 8 '12 at 18:21
@hirsutus is there any special reason why you do not want to run Solaris (11 is current afaik) on it? – Nils Sep 8 '12 at 19:26
I had Sol 8 on my now defunct Ultra30 and found it a real pain when I changed hardware configuration, I would have edit a number of files to include the new hardware. I suspect S10 or S11 are the same. I was hoping that one of the Linux OS's was a bit more friendly and auto-sensed and configured hardware additons automatically, until I get one to work, I can't know that. I have to admit I'm a tinkerer and am always swapping parts around on my computers. Second reason, I was talking to a Sun engineer a couple of years back and his advice was to go with a version of Linux rather than the Sun OS. – hirsutus Sep 9 '12 at 16:55
@hirsutus so what about Ubuntu 12.04 LTS? Or was RISC dropped in Ubuntu? – Nils Sep 9 '12 at 20:04

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.