The Aurora Linux 1.00 FAQ ver 0.2

Questions:

What Architectures are Supported by Aurora?

sun4m eg. Sparc Classic, SPARCStation 20

sun4u eg. UltraSPARC, Blade

Status of Aurora on the SPARCStation 5/170

How do I improve ssh performance on the sun4m?

How do I setup the SX (cg14) Graphics cards on the SS10/20?

SMP Issues on the sun4m

Problems with ROSS HyperSPARCs

Graphical install Hangs

IDE Install Hangs (Ultra 5, 10 and Blade 100, possibly Blade 150 and sunfire V100)

Autodetection fails to find sungem network cards (Blades)

Getting to the OBP prompt via the Keyboard

Getting to the OBP prompt via a serial cable

Why Aurora Install Media should be burned at 4x or less

Install from the Network

My type 6 UK keyboard mapping in X is broken with all keys mapped one to the left

Answers:

What sun4m Architectures are Supported by Aurora?

sun4m

1. SPARC Classic
2. SPARC LX/ZX
3. SPARC 4 (Netra i4, i400, j4)
4. SPARC 5 (Netra i5, i500, s5, i525)
5. SPARC 10 (10SX/10BX)
6. SPARC 20 (Netra i20, s20, i600, i625)

What sun4u Architectures are Supported by Aurora?

sun4u

• Ultras

  1. Ultra 1/1E
  2. Ultra 2/2E
  3. Ultra 5
  4. Ultra 10
  5. Ultra 30
  6. Ultra 60
  7. Ultra 80

• E Series

  1. E250
  2. E450

• Blades

  1. Blade 100
  2. Blade 1000
  3. Blade 2000

Status of Aurora on the SPARCStation 5/170

Aurora doesn't currently support this architechture and currently there are no plans to implement this support.

The reason for this is the rest of the SPARCStation 5 line use Texas Instruments CPUs which are supported in the kernel but the 170MHz version contains a Fujitsu TurboSPARC that only bears a slight similarity to the TI SPARCs. Linux has booted several times on this processor but it is unstable and had never been supported by Linux. BSDs will run on this architechture.

How do I improve ssh performance on the sun4m?

Be aware it can take up to 15 minutes to generate the SSH keys on this architecture during install.

For vastly improved ssh performance install the openssl-XXXX.sparcv8.rpm with the command: rpm -Uhv openssl-XXXX.sparcv8.rpm

How do I setup the SX (cg14) Graphics cards on the SS10/20?

There is an issue with the 8MB VSIMM in the SS10 & SS20. Workaround: During initial install select 16bpp colour however during normal use the Xconfigurator won't work.

SMP Issues on the sun4m

There is an issue with swapon segfaulting on boot of sun4m SMP machines. This should be resolved in the near future. The swap partitions apparently work so this isn't a major problem.

Problems with ROSS HyperSPARCs

There is an issue with ROSS HyperSPARC processors, symptoms are hanging on free kernel memory or just after the init stage of boot. They can also suffer kernel halts. Their performance also seems to be very sluggish compared to SuperSPARCs.

Graphical install Hangs

If the graphical install hangs (usually on the format after parted) use the text install instead.

IDE Install Hangs (Ultra 5, 10 and Blade 100 (possibly Blade 150 and sunfire V100)

If installation hangs with disk problems try: boot cdrom linux ide=nodma or boot net linux ide=nodma and at the SILO prompt use linux ide=nodma.

Autodetection fails to find sungem network cards (Blades)

Autodetection of sungem network card nonfunctional, manually select sungem.

Getting to the OBP prompt via the Keyboard

During boot before the monitor is activated hit the STOP & A simultaneously.

Getting to the OBP prompt via a serial cable

Connect a serial cable to the serial port, ensure the keyboard isn't connected. Set the terminal settings to 9600bps, data to 8N1 and emulation to VT100. During initial boot send a BREAK to the sun. If you are using a HyperTerminal on windows the correct command for a BREAK is CTRL + ESC then F.

Why Aurora Install Media should be burned at 4x or less

This is the cure for a lot of problems from installer hanging before it can print the SILO prompt up. In fact this is the cure for a lot of mysterious problems so I suggest you always do this! If you ask on the newsgroup this is one of the most common problem.

Install from the Network

For this installation you will need:

1. A functioning server running:
   • TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)
   • RARPD (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) or DHCPD (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and one of FTP (File Transfer Protocol), HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) or NFS (Network File System).
2. A network connection from the SPARC to be installed to the server listed above. IT MUST BE ON THE SAME SUBNET.
3. The SPARCs ethernet MAC address. This is printed on the top of the screen during boot and is of the form 08:00:20:xx:xx:xx (e.g. 08:00:20:9b:e7:ca).
4. A free IP address for the SPARC to use.

Installation Instructions:

1. Setup the RARPD (DHCPD) to supply the MAC address of the SPARC with the IP chosen above. (Please refer to appropriate FAQs as this is outside the scope of this one).
2. Copy the appropriate boot image, tftp32.img for sun4m or tftp64.img for sun4u from en/os/sparc/images to the root of the TFTP server (usually /tftpboot/).
3. Create a symlink the address of the workstation in hex (if you want to look it up the full name is hexadecimal) to the appropriate image. Note: Simply converting the number will NOT work as the IP adress is divided into 4 segments. Convert each segment into hex and concatenate them together in order eg. 0.0.0.1 becomes 00000001, not 1!
   Full Example:

   192.168.0.77 becomes C0A8004D

   A quick way of generating the link using PERL is: ln -sf tftp32.img `perl -e 'printf ("%02X%02X%02X%02X\n",192,168,0,77);'`

4. For the SUN4M: To boot a sun4m you need to append a .SUN4M to the end. It has been reported that some versions of TFTPD don't respond without a link to both the image as hex (see above) as well as the hex.SUN4M image. Please contact me if you have more information on this issue.
   e.g.

   Create these symlink on the server: ln -sf tftp32.img C3196DA0.SUN4M and ln -sf tftp32.img C3196DA0 for a sun4m machine booting on IP 192.168.0.77

5. Acess the OBP and type boot net and follow the installation.

My type 6 UK keyboard mapping in X is broken with all keys mapped one to the left

This is an unresolved error with that keymap. A workaround exists by editing the following line in the XF86Config-4 file:

Option "XkbModel" "type5_us" to read Option "XkbModel" "type5"

Unfortunately this is the american mapping so characters such as " and @ are swapped but most should be functional.