not a Mac (but not a PC either)

[ChristTrekker]

I just picked up a free Sun Ultra 5 (just the machine, no peripherals) from a local guy. I don't know anything about it, except that it's modern enough to run Solaris 10. I've wanted a Sun box to run Solaris on for some time now.

But I know next to nothing about Sun hardware! Can I identify exactly what I've got here by looking up the serial number somewhere? I showed it to a fairly knowledgable guy who pointed out it has some kind of x86 daughtercard inside. He also told me I need a special Sun keyboard before I can do much with it. I've downloaded the ISOs; what else do I need to know before I can set this guy up? Anyone know?

Is there a forum similar to this for the Sun community?

Update 6/11: It has a 333 MHz CPU, which means it's actually somewhat faster than the G3 I'm using as a server currently. The G3 still has over 2x the RAM and disk though, so it's not going to be replaced. I may try to move some of the tasks to the Ultra though.

The daughtercard is a 400 MHz SunPCi card, which is basically an AMD K6-2 PC on a card (complete with its own 64 MB RAM, USB, video, and sound ports), and will run Windows or just about any other x86 OS. With some hacking, it's supposed to work under Solaris 10. If no monitor/kbd is attached, it will direct I/O to X11.

 

[Quadraman]

Cool. I got a SpacClassic recently, but I haven't been able to test it yet. I need a video adapter as the video out on the Suns are proprietary. I have been wanting to try out Solaris myself for a while, but the Classic isn't shown on the supported list for 10.

 

[paws]

I think you need a special sun keyboard and monitor if you want to use it directly.

How good are you with UNIX? It'll have a serial port or two on the back, which I think will be of the same type as Macs (round, RS422), so you can use any olde Mac and ZTerm to connect via serial port (it should default to serial port if there isn't a keyboard attached when you boot it). You should be able to install Solaris and then move in via X forwarding over SSH, but it'll be a little hairy and involve a lot of reading if you haven't done it before..!

 

[Quadraman]

I think you need a special sun keyboard and monitor if you want to use it directly.
How good are you with UNIX? It'll have a serial port or two on the back, which I think will be of the same type as Macs (round, RS422), so you can use any olde Mac and ZTerm to connect via serial port (it should default to serial port if there isn't a keyboard attached when you boot it). You should be able to install Solaris and then move in via X forwarding over SSH, but it'll be a little hairy and involve a lot of reading if you haven't done it before..!

You can get a 13W3 to VGA adapter and use any PC monitor with a Sun.

 

[dualdflipflop]

You do need a Sun keyboard (I use a type 5). They are slightly different than what most people are use to, takes a while to fit in. I haven't seen any PS/2 adapters, but I'm sure there are some out there. But there should be a USB port on the back as well. I've never tried that (and don't think it would work, but worth a try).

You shouldn't need a 13W3 adapter, mine came with a standart ATI Rage 128 PCI VGA card. I haven't tried using any other PCI video cards yet, but just about anything PCI should work.

Solaris 10 does work, but 400MHz with >256MB RAM is not going to make it fun. I decked my Ultra5 out with a Debian SPARC install. BSD is also a decent choice. But it depends on what you want to do with it. I'd say find what makes you happy. Solaris 7 to 9 would be fine.

As for those of you with Classic 32-bit SPARC machines, I would suggest either going with OpenBSD, or Solaris 2.4 - 2.6

Anyhow. I hope that helped.

 

[ChristTrekker]

You do need a Sun keyboard (I use a type 5). [snip] But there should be a USB port on the back as well. [snip]

Yeah, everyone seems to agree on that. There's no onboard USB...but see below.

You shouldn't need a 13W3 adapter, mine came with a standart ATI Rage 128 PCI VGA card. [snip]

Not worried too much about video, as I plan to use it headless mostly. But it is a standard VGA port, so assuming I can find a kbd, it should be painless to set up.

Solaris 10 does work, but 400MHz with >256MB RAM is not going to make it fun. [snip] But it depends on what you want to do with it. [snip]

Mostly the goal is to learn more about Solaris. I have Linux, NetBSD, A/UX, and IRIX machines already. Just one more flavor in the mix...

I researched some specs, and edited the original post with them.