On Sat, 14 Feb 1998, Db wrote:

> Heya listians!

>    X, sun3, netbsd...linux, miniroot....and lusts of the mad;

>  Someone once asked why......"It's just one of those things. Years ago
> when we were growing up, the thought of having one's very own Sun
> workstation, was like a flirting glimpse passed to the dark regions at
> the back of one's mind....the idea was so unimaginable, so far fetched
> and beyond reality. Who could have guessed just 10 or so years later,
> these things would be available for frightfully small amounts of money,
> you just *have* to get one...but that's not enough, and not the end of
> it. Once you have it, you want it to work...and the dream of getting it
> to work the way you *would've* if you were rich enough to buy one,
> becomes a displaced reality.....and if it doesn't work, the drive to
> complete the dream makes you not sleep for serveral days on end, comsume
> enough coffee to shutdown (-h ;) your kidneys, and generally drive you
> nuts thinking 'I was dreaming...of *THIS* nightmare??'...but you keep
> going. Why? The 3/50 might only ever be a little more than useless to
> me, if at best it's a fine 19" monochrome irc client :)....but it still
> doesn't fade the impact of telling someone you own a Sun....[really?
> wow!]"

my 3/60 still has teh same WOW factor.  too bad it don't work, and I'm not
an electrical engineer enough to fix it.  (if someone in mineapolis wants
to repeat this man's frusterations, except with a 3/60 with a bad
eeprom/eprom please let me know.)  

My linux box might even have a 1.2 install that it could netboot from,
complete with X.  

> bootparamd as supplied with that pack, because it refused to compile

your not the first to notice that.  you probably won't be the last.  Most
people end up finding a pre-compiled version.  I'm not convinced the
version there EVER accually compiled on ANYTHING.  See, you have nicked
the first major hassle already.

>   Using the same tftpd/bootparamd setup that was already going, relavent
> substitution and links done, I had the netbsd-rd up on the sun. In real

next problem out of the way - netboot can work.  Or at least network works

[snip a strnage problem I've never seen]

>   The miniroot/install procedure seems none to gracious about a flunked
> install process with no /dev/MAKEDEV at the end of it <grin>, and so you

most people run into this, anougher major common problem APPEARs to be out
of the way.  wouldnt' hurt to check again though.

> network/config changes, I chose [Y], and mounted everything manually,
> and untgz'd the install sets to the drive, and then exited to return to
> the install script.
> 
>    You can imagine my constination in finding that after doing that
> manual untgz of the sets.tgz to the drive, the install script then FINDS
> the NFS mounted sets?!?!?!?! All of them except the basexx.tgz. I figure
> it's already been done, so it doesn't need to do anything else really
> 'cept finish-out, so I let it, and after a long while, am left with a
> booting, functional (to a point) netbsd-1.2 on the sun3 :)

WOAH! stop here.  once something is functional to a point mack a good
backup.  :)  

>    But then X wouldn't run...at all. Couldn't find it's things that WERE
> there anyhow, paths didn't work...sheesh. So I decided to upgrade to
> netbsd-1.3/sun3.... 

did you really instal x?  I seem to recall that the files you need are not
seamless, tey are ina different place.

>  "I think you said 'X should work straight out of the box' on a thing
> such
>  as sun3/netbsd. That's funny....it's what I thought as well :) Well, it
>  DOESN'T, ok!? Not yet anyhow."

get the tar file, untar it, cd /usr/x (whatever it is) and figgure out
what x server you use, Xsunmono or somthign like that.  and link it to
something else...   that mgiht be the out of box behavior for mono, but
for color you have to start teh right server.

>  Ok, you replied something along the lines indicating you thought that
>  was fixed in the later netbsd~sun3 ports, so considering I was actually
>  toying with netbsd-1.2, I've downloaded the current (1.3) port,
>  including the x????.tgz packages...the whole sha-bang..

not sure if this is good or not.

>   Hahahaha!!!!  You gotta laugh, trying to boot the 1.3 miniroot image
>   from /dev/sd0b gives this;
> 
> > error: kernel too big for Sun3/50

hmm... I had though they said on the list this was fixed.  you seam to
have gotten around it, so no matter.

>    ..hehehehe, last time I looked, sun3/50 was still part of the
>  compatible hardwares list...or did I miss something??  %@@%%@$@!

I think a 486sx-20 with 16 meg of ram is on the win95 compatability list.
Your more supporeted then that.

>  installed, it just skips on by as though it doesn't exist...no errors,
>  no warnings....and when it gets out the other side, it goes looking for
>  /dev/MAKEDEV which it doesn't find of course, says curtly;
> > 
> >   ...something is wrong here...
> > 

those naughty devices, gotta watch them.  Everytime someone posts an
install problem to the list they get 3-4 messages "did you make ALL the
deivces in /dev?"   I've never trusted thsoe scripts without first reading
them, and running them 2 or 3 times.  often that is enough to creat all
the devices.

>  install from a RHL linux box cleanly, the sun3 netbsd ports both
> 1.2/1.3 
>  should carry a warning message waring redhat linux users who either;
> 

Why limit it to RHL?  It isn't any better for any other linuxes.  I don't
think it is better for other non-linux's in general, though the spectific
problems change.

> 
>    Now.....where's my rifle....

I gotmy great-grandpa's 12 guage in a corner, and some shells.  I cna't
quite bring myself to destroy a almost working SUN.  besides I might lose
some of the WOW value, and I need to get my money's worth out of this
thing somehow.  

I have given up, and am getting around to decideding if it is forsale or
not.  But everytime I get sick of the monitor on my PC (vga only, 13 inch)
I look back and think no, maybe someday a miricale will occure, and it
will boot.  Then as I'm looking back to my screen I happen accroos my mac
SE, wich is sitting between my sun and the pc.  And I wonder if it is
worth it, that thing boots if you turn it upside down (which may or may
not be upside down depending on the last time I tried) and drop it form an
inch - sometimes.  With its 9 inch screen, it isn't worth it.  

I could go on about my pc, which isn't in much better shape, for all I've
managed to achive an uptime of 33 days.  

The only box that works at all seems to be my old 386 linux server.  I'm
willing to bet that it wno't boot after 2000 though, it would be the type
of thing my hardware would do.


See, comtpuers are creations of the devil ment to increase the rate of
alchaholism, drug abuse,  divorce, and church skipping.  And here you
thought it was innocent.  The devil is just getting tired of seeing
murders in hell, and he keeps losing golden fiddles to hill billies who
shoudlnt' be able to play a note, much less a song.

(You do understand that this is written in humor, don't you?)

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