This Old SPARC
The story of a geek and his Sun SPARCstations (and UltraSPARCs), and the trials, tribulations,
and small victories that go with the care and feeding of such a menagerie.
Saturday, September 30, 2000
I installed StarOffice 5.1 a couple of days ago. I was thinking that maybe I'd use it to record my training activities, rather than Excel. However, in playing with it, I've discovered it's a little shakey. I dumped my current Excel spreadsheet onto a floppy and tried to manipulate it in StarOffice. It locked up good and hard when I tried to format a large range of dates. It must have been in a tight loop because the CPU was pegged at 98% for about 2 minutes. I finally just killed it. Too bad: I was hoping to make a switch. I still might -- God knows that Excel isn't a model of stability, either, but it's been pretty reliable on this particular spreadsheet.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/30/2000 08:58:38 PM
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
A couple of nights ago I realized that Solaris 8 apparently comes with, and automagically installs (at least I don't remember asking for it), the Apache web server. This is great, since I didn't really feel like obtaining the binaries, etc. to get it installed.
Once I realized it was there, it only took a couple of seconds to configure it with the example configuration and have it serving up the documentation pages from localhost. Pretty cool.
Today, I added 128M more memory to buzz. It was brand new memory I got from eBay, for what I consider a steal: $80! It was a dutch auction for 64M pairs at $40 a pair. I bid on, and won two. I've seen 64M go for $80 and I got 128M for the same price. I'm very pleased :-).
posted by Mike Thomas 9/27/2000 08:30:51 PM
Tuesday, September 26, 2000
An online Solaris Journal: Inside Solaris / Home Page
posted by Mike Thomas 9/26/2000 01:30:39 PM
Sunday, September 24, 2000
I finally got around to attempting to get 'zap', my SPARCstation IPC up and running today. He's actually the first SPARC I bought - an impulse buy for $25 on eBay. He's got 24M of RAM and a 400M+ hard drive. When I bought him I didn't have a monitor or keyboard, so there was little I could do with him. By the time I had a monitor and kb I also had sparky, so zap languished on the desk as a paperweight.
Anyway, I decided to hook up a kb and monitor to him today and see what he has to offer. Well, he has an OS. I actually get to a login prompt, but unfortunately, he's got a "used" configuration. That means I don't know any of the passwords, and my guesses didn't work. So, he's basically useless as he sits.
I spent a lot of time looking around for tiny linuxes that would be easy to install from floppy (that's all he's got), but didn't have any luck with "tiny" ones. Looks like Debian probably is a decent option, since they have tons of documentation on their site about installing from floppy. I have other options - I could break down and buy a bootable CD-ROM and install from that, too. But when it comes down to it, it's going to take some time to get old zap up and running. It'll be something I get to eventually.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/24/2000 03:38:50 PM
Saturday, September 23, 2000
Well, I've got a lot to say this time because a lot has happened since the last log entry.
Installing Solaris 8 on buzz Call me silly, but I decided to install Solaris 8, even things were going swimmingly with Solaris 7 on buzz. I mean, after all, I'd paid for this version and I now have a CD-ROM drive, so it'd be a shame not to install it, right? The install actually went very smoothly. I used the "WebStart" method to do it, since I'm a newbie. This is apparently much slower than using the old-style install, but it also holds your hand a bit more.
So, I started the install by inserting the CD-ROM and getting to the PROM command line (by hitting Stop-A), and then typing 'boot cdrom'. This process, obviously, boots the machine from the CD-ROM device, which at 4X speed, is quite a lengthy process. There's not much else to say about the install except for a few random notes:
- While it's safe to install over Solaris 7, you better have a large swap drive or the Solaris 8 install will want to reformat your drive. Guess whether I had a large enough swap drive. Right.
- Once you've indicated your connectivity (and that connectivity is required to be live, BTW), WebStart provides a web "kiosk" that takes up the entire root window, while the install dialogs are kept in front. This allows you to look stuff up on BigAdmin while installing. Very cool feature.
- WebStart will automagically set up your partitions for you. That is, if you just want a '/' partition and a swap partition. I didn't. If you're not a hardcore Unix geek (I'm not), be ready to set up your partitions by having some reference material available to tell you what partitions you should set up, and how big they should be. The kiosk browser is handy for this. A nice feature of the partition dialog is that it automatically adjusts '/' as you add /usr, etc. I think I set up too large an /export partition, so I'll have to adjust at some time.
Adventures with IE 5.0
I was very excited about having Solaris 8, and therefore couldn't wait to get IE5 on it. IE5 had seemed rock solid on Solaris 7 (contrasted with IE4, which kept locking up). So, I used Netscape (which is installed with Solaris 8) to go to Microsoft to download IE5 overnight.
The next day I installed IE5 and, when I executed it, was rudely informed that it wouldn't run on Solaris 8. What a bummer! I mean, is it only that it's not tested on Solaris 8? I bet there's a bit of code in there that just prevents it from running, whether it might be able to limp along or not. Anyway, this was quite frustrating because I really like IE. I've been thru it before in this blog -- IE is just a better browser than Netscape.
Sparky Returns to Life
I finally got around to setting up sparky again. He'd been languishing on the floor disconnected since buzz got here because I was out of power and LAN cables, and therefore couldn't set him up again. Anyway, I wasn't sure if, after buying buzz, I'd just sell sparky or not. In the end, I decided I don't have the heart to sell him (just yet, anyway), and besides, I could do some pretty cool stuff if I kept him around.
It hit me the other day that one cool thing I could do is run IE on sparky with the output redirected to buzz. That's one of the great advantages of XWindow. I was very excited to try this, so I got to work today.
I ran out to get a power cord and some more network cables in order to get sparky back up. I'd read that running a machine "headless" required a PROM setting, but I ignored that and plugged sparky in and turned him on. Lo and behold, once he was booted I could immediately telnet to him - no PROM settings required. Sweet!
Now to run IE. In a telnet session on buzz, I did the following:
- echo $DISPLAY. This spits out the display info that I'll use on sparky to set his DISPLAY env variable.
- telnet to sparky and do 'export DISPLAY=x' where 'x' is copied from the other buzz terminal session. X clients run on sparky now send their requests to buzz' Xserver and display.
- Run IE. Curses! It says that the client is not authorized to use the server (or words to that effect).
OK, now I've got a problem, but I understand the parameters of the problem. IE is an X client (attempting to run on sparky), and it needs permissions to get to the X server (which is on buzz). Now how do I give those permissions? Long story short I rooted around until I found 'xauth', which maintains the .Xauthority file, which in turn defines permissions. Essentially, each X server has a unique key which it uses to authenticate clients. The client needs to send this key to the server upon connection. I needed to setup sparky (the client) to send the correct key to buzz. Here's how:
- RTFMP (read the f'ing man page). While I couldn't use the example directly, I hacked around until I got an equivalent:
- run 'xauth list' on buzz. This gives me a list of auths for each display.
- telnet to sparky and run 'xauth'. This puts me in xauth command mode. Type the add command 'add x', where x is the appropriate line from the output of the previous step on buzz. The "appropriate" line is the one that starts with 'fbuzz:0.0'. I just dragged it from the buzz term to the sparky term and hit enter.
- 'exit' from xauth on sparky, which saves and quits xauth. I've now added an authorization line that allows clients running on sparky to send requests to the X server running on buzz. Cool.
Of course, it can't be that simple. I try to run IE4 on sparky, and it works, but it pretty much immediatly locks up. What a bummer. OK, I think, I always had trouble running IE4 on sparky, so maybe I should upgrade to IE5. After all, it seemed rock solid when I ran it on buzz/Solaris 7.
So, I downloaded and installed IE5. When I tried to run it, it complained of a registry problem. I recalled having seen something about that on MS' site, so I returned and grabbed the 'registry5' file I found there. I ftp'd the file to sparky, gzunzipped it, copied it to the correct directory (instructions on MS' site), and deleted my $HOME/.microsoft directory, and restarted IE. It started right up, and then locked right up, too. Bummer.
For now, I've given up on running IE on Solaris. I will likely download 'gcc' and attempt compiling Mozilla and see how that is, but that seems like a lot of work to just have a decent browser.
BTW, I did submit this blog via Netscape. Some time ago I said that blogger doesn't work correctly under Netscape on Solaris. Well, that's true, but I figured out just exactly how it doesn't work, and am working around it. I key my log into the CDE Text Editor (just in case). Then I go to my blog edit page and paste the text in and post it. I have to manually refresh the page to see if the post worked, because under Netscape it doesn't automagically refresh. If I'm lucky it posts. If I'm not, then repeat until posted.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/23/2000 06:53:21 PM
Thursday, September 21, 2000
Still more on CDE: CDE 2.1 Data Sheet
posted by Mike Thomas 9/21/2000 08:10:38 AM
And one for CDE: Common Desktop Environment FAQ
posted by Mike Thomas 9/21/2000 08:07:53 AM
Might come in handy: The X Window User HOWTO
posted by Mike Thomas 9/21/2000 07:39:27 AM
Wednesday, September 20, 2000
Now I'm rocking. Let me say a bit about "buzz", my new Sun workstation:
- Sun Ultra 1 200E
- Creator Graphics (24-bit)
- 128M RAM
- 4.5M Hard Drive
- Floppy/CD-ROM
- Solaris 7
Buzz is freshly configured with Internet Explorer 5.0 for Solaris. Let's hope that it's a little more stable than IE 4.0 was on sparky. If so, it'll be my full-time browser and I'll be a very happy man.
Speaking of sparky, he's currently off-line. I need to get a power cord, then I'll reconnect him to the network and run him headless. I figure I can run some stuff on him with buzz as the login machine.
Setting up buzz was fairly straightforward, since I'd already done a lot of suffering and learning while configuring sparky a couple of months ago.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Solaris 7 was pre-installed on buzz. The person who sold him to me claimed that Solaris would not be there. However, it is, and it's a pretty complete install, with man pages and all (sparky's setup is much more spartan). I did have to work some command-line magic to get buzz communicating to the proxy server because, for some reason, Solaris didn't prompt me with the same questions after a sys-unconfig that it did on sparky. Namely, DNS and default gateway questions were not asked. Here are the steps I followed to get buzz network configured:
- sys-unconfig as root
- Halt
- Boot, and go thru all the setup stuff that you have to do after a sys-unconfig. This includes assigning buzz an IP address (90.0.0.5).
- Log in as root and spend some time in /etc (note that the proxy server's address is 90.0.0.2):
- Created a file called "defaultrouter", with a single line containing "90.0.0.2" (without the quotes).
- Created a file called "resolv.conf" with a single line containing "nameserver 90.0.0.2" (no quotes).
- Edited the nsswitch.conf file line that contains "hosts: files". Changed it to "hosts: files dns".
That's it. Now buzz can see my proxy server (gateway to him). Sweet.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/20/2000 08:53:51 PM
Tuesday, September 19, 2000
OK, "buzz" is now set up. This is a test to see if I can post a blogger entry using Netscape 4.51, which came with Solaris 7 (that's a little newer than what I was using on sparky).
posted by Mike Thomas 9/19/2000 10:17:25 PM
Monday, September 18, 2000
I would have received my new Ultra today if my in-laws had been home to receive it. Damn their hides! Anyway, I'll have it tomorrow, and I've borrowed a copy of Solaris 7 from work so I can get it configured right away. I've also bought a copy of Solaris 8 direct from Sun for $75, plus tax and shipping. That's not a bad deal considering this is a premiere server operating system and I can install it on as many sub-8-processor machines as I like.
I'm getting very antsy to get a real, working copy of a browser under Solaris. As I've said before, IE looks (and for the most part, behaves) great, but locks up on me way too much. Netscape, on the other hand, can't render its way out of a paper bag, and it cores on me every so often, too. I'm excited about Netscape 6, but of course they're not releasing a Solaris version anytime soon, it seems. I'm hoping the version of Netscape that ships with Solaris 8 is decent.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/18/2000 08:49:26 PM
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
I won a Sun Ultra 1 200E yesterday on eBay. I paid $895 for it, which isn't a great bargain, but it's reasonable. The machine is a Sun-refurbished model and comes with a 30-day warranty. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with Solaris loaded, so I'm busily bidding for Solaris bundles on eBay. A copy of Solaris can run up to $75 or so. I haven't yet decided whether to keep Sparky. It would be kind of cool to keep him around so I'd have more than one Sun attached to my network, but it would also be nice to have the money. We'll see.
I did work out a deal with the guy from whom I purchased the Type 6 Country kit (the one I mistakenly assumed would have a PC layout). He agreed to exchange the PC-style kit he has with the one he sent me. Awesome! A real nice guy.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/13/2000 01:24:59 PM
Saturday, September 09, 2000
It's been a while, so I thought I'd post a catch-up entry. Not much has happened, really, other than I received a new keyboard and mouse yesterday from an eBay auction. It's a brand-new 'Type 6 Country Kit'. I mean sealed-box new. Mint. But the big bummer is that I had assumed that all Type 6's had PC-style keyboards (the Unix layout switches the location of the CapsLock and Control keys, among other things). Well, that's not the case. This beautiful new keyboard has the same damn layout as my old Type 5 keyboard. I'm not saying the layout is bad, mind you, it's just that I spend most of my time on PC-style keyboards. The Unix layout is just different enough to cause me major hassles moving between the two.
On another note, I'm searching for a brother for Sparky. He needs a big brother, really, because now that I've been using him for a while I've come to realize that Sparky just isn't a very good web-browsing platform. He's limited to 256-color graphics, and well, he's pretty damn slow at rendering web pages. I guess I shouldn't be surprised - at 100mhz (dual 50's) he's just not a powerful guy. Dual processors seemingly would help, in that browsers tend to be multi-threaded, and a multi-threaded program can take fine advantage of a MP machine. However, something leads me to believe that maybe the browser is only running on one CPU, which means you're trying to run on a 50mhz "machine". So, I'm shopping for Ultras on eBay. I was inches away from winning an Ultra 10 at $1250, but got outbid in the last 3 minutes of the auction. I thought I had it locked up. Anyway, the search continues. If I do end up getting another Sparc, I'll probably rename this blog to "This Old Sparc"
Oh, and last night I found a very well done (not perfect, but pretty darn good) Windows9x X server. It's not free, but the only limitation of the unregistered version is a 2-hour limit per session. It's called X-Win32, and is from StarNet. I set it up on MB's machine, and had it installed, running and connected to Sparky within 15 minutes. Pretty nice.
posted by Mike Thomas 9/9/2000 09:43:22 AM
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