68k Macintosh Liberation Army Forums

68k Macintosh Liberation Army Forums

68k Macintosh Liberation Army Forums

Home | Members | Search | FAQ

Lounge

SparcStation 10 liberated

Author	Topic
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 14 Dec 2002 : 17:23:27 The university has a pile of old computer equipment to be disposed of. While I was there, I looked through the pile. On top of an old PC compatible and a broken LaserWriter, I found a Sun SparcStation 10 with mouse, keyboard, and external SCSI CD-ROM. Since I've never owned a Sun, I took it home with me. Then, I found out that I have no monitor that will work with the machine. I attached it to my 6100 with a DB-25 null modem adapter and a PC->Mac serial cable. When I turned on the SparcStation, the machine booted to a login prompt. During boot, it said that the machine had 64 MB RAM. I opened the case and found that it had 2 Seagate hard drives and 1 floppy disk drive. Now, I have to figure out how to reset the root password, and I need to go back to the university to pick up the monitor. Just to see if there was anything in it, I turned on the external CD-ROM and found that the caddy had a Solaris 2.6 CD in it. Does anyone here know if you can use a Mac monitor with a Sun? Does anyone have a copy of NeXTSTEP or OpenSTEP for SPARC? Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3
catsdorule Senior Member Canada 1627 Posts	Posted - 14 Dec 2002 : 19:18:27 Nice find!!! Mabye there is a mac to pc like adapter for it, try looking on google and ebay. That has a sun processor in it, i have never heard of a port of ***step for it. As for reseting the root password try asking over at the geek culture forums there there seem to be a lot of people that know nix there . -danny You! What PLANET is this! -- McCoy, "The City on the Edge of Forever", stardate 3134.0 ------- 68k Macintosh Liberation Army 68k Macs Liberated: 3
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 14 Dec 2002 : 19:45:26 There is a port of NeXTstep to SPARC. It's on the same CD as the port to HP. Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 14 Dec 2002 : 21:14:41 I opened the box once more to see what cards it had. The card in the MBUS slot had a processor labeled TMS390. I take it that means my Sun is single-processor. The video card takes up the whole top row of slots on the back of the case. It has two PCBs sandwiched together, and it's labeled Matrox SG3. Any idea what kind of video card this is, or how good it is? After a bit of research, I learned that the mouse is optical. My mouse is rectangular with three gray buttons that are the same color as the rest of the mouse. I think I need a special mousepad. I've seen a PDF file that will make a mousepad that works with mice with red buttons, but I've read that it doesn't work with mice with gray buttons. Can I get the special mousepad anywhere else? Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3
cory5412 68KMLA Comrade-in-Arms USA 4679 Posts	Posted - 14 Dec 2002 : 21:20:03 TRULY the master of his field... right on top of his OpenSTEP knowlege... getting yet another system and loading it right up with OpenStep... no staying with solaris for this grizzled OpenStep Veteran... cool... I like Sun stuff Official 68k videographer
~Coxy Leader, Tactical Ops Unit Australia 2822 Posts	Posted - 17 Dec 2002 : 19:19:51 Is that the mouse with the two sensors on the bottom (they look like small, clear LEDs?) The mousemat for that mouse is metal with a regular black grid on it. ~Coxy - Leader, Tactical Operations Unit Mayor of NuBus City v3.0
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 17 Dec 2002 : 19:53:53 Yes, that's the mouse. I might be getting a monitor for it soon. Someone in a local Linux user group has one. Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3
cory5412 68KMLA Comrade-in-Arms USA 4679 Posts	Posted - 17 Dec 2002 : 22:30:29 hehehe... cool... I traded away my optical mouse for a 7300 complete system and lots of PPC OSs ;) Official 68k videographer
jruschme Junior Member USA 196 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 09:08:42 quote: I opened the box once more to see what cards it had. The card in the MBUS slot had a processor labeled TMS390. I take it that means my Sun is single-processor. The video card takes up the whole top row of slots on the back of the case. It has two PCBs sandwiched together, and it's labeled Matrox SG3. Any idea what kind of video card this is, or how good it is? I get the impression that it is a 24-bit framebuffer, possibly a CG12 (though I thought those were triple width). As for monitors, any decent modern, large, multisync monitor should be able to handle it. 13W3-to-VGA adapters are about $15 on ebay and details of monitor requirements can be found in the "Sun Framebuffer FAQ". quote: After a bit of research, I learned that the mouse is optical. My mouse is rectangular with three gray buttons that are the same color as the rest of the mouse. I think I need a special mousepad. I've seen a PDF file that will make a mousepad that works with mice with red buttons, but I've read that it doesn't work with mice with gray buttons. Can I get the special mousepad anywhere else? Rectangular sounds like a Type 4 mouse. If so, it is the same as the old Mouse Systems optical mouse and the PDF file should work fine. Alternately, you could get a Type 5 mouse with a ball and a keyboard (Sun referes to it as a country kit) cheap on ebay. <<<john>>>
jruschme Junior Member USA 196 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 09:10:00 quote: There is a port of NeXTstep to SPARC. It's on the same CD as the port to HP. Anybody know where to find a copy? I'd love to try it on my spare Sparc. <<<john>>>
Alien Junior Member Netherlands 269 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 11:15:29 quote: I found a Sun SparcStation 10 with mouse, keyboard, and external SCSI CD-ROM. Since I've never owned a Sun, I took it home with me. Good choice, that is a fine machine. quote: I turned on the external CD-ROM and found that the caddy had a Solaris 2.6 And that is a fine OS to go with it. It'll install and run Solaris 7, 8 or 9 (9 is a free download from Sun), but none of those will run much better than 2.6 unless you have multiple CPUs (the SPARCstation 10 can take up to 4). quote: The card in the MBUS slot had a processor labeled TMS390. That's a single 50 MHz SuperSPARC CPU. Not bad. Not exactly a screamer, either, but overall not too shabby. quote: The video card takes up the whole top row of slots on the back of the case. It has two PCBs sandwiched together, and it's labeled Matrox SG3. Any idea what kind of video card this is, or how good it is? I'd guess it's a CG3, either a GX or a GX+. It should have a part number somewhere, something like 501-xxxx. If you can find that, it'll be easier to identify things. Same goes for the CPU module, BTW. quote: quote: There is a port of NeXTstep to SPARC. It's on the same CD as the port to HP. Anybody know where to find a copy? I'd love to try it on my spare Sparc. Try http://www.blackholeinc.com/. ,xtG .tsooJ -- RTFM
foetoid Full Member USA 554 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 12:15:04 quote: It has two PCBs sandwiched together, and it's labeled Matrox SG3. Any idea what kind of video card this is, or how good it is? I know that Matrox does video stuff for video editing nowadays that's for broadcast... the whateverXwhatever.... don't know what yours is used for, but maybe what i said can help you on your quest.... ________________ foetoid, that's (fee-toy-duh) http://www.foetoid.doesntexist.com
jruschme Junior Member USA 196 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 13:08:48 quote: quote: I found a Sun SparcStation 10 with mouse, keyboard, and external SCSI CD-ROM. Since I've never owned a Sun, I took it home with me. Good choice, that is a fine machine. Agreed, though I also like my SS20. :-) quote: quote: I turned on the external CD-ROM and found that the caddy had a Solaris 2.6 And that is a fine OS to go with it. It'll install and run Solaris 7, 8 or 9 (9 is a free download from Sun), but none of those will run much better than 2.6 unless you have multiple CPUs (the SPARCstation 10 can take up to 4). Solaris 2.6 was the last version before the 64-bit support was introduced. As a result, it is also the last version to support a lot of older expansion cards such as strange 24-bit frame buffers. quote: quote: The video card takes up the whole top row of slots on the back of the case. It has two PCBs sandwiched together, and it's labeled Matrox SG3. Any idea what kind of video card this is, or how good it is? I'd guess it's a CG3, either a GX or a GX+. It should have a part number somewhere, something like 501-xxxx. If you can find that, it'll be easier to identify things. Same goes for the CPU module, BTW. It's definately not a CG3 which was a single board fitting in a single SBUS slot. The CG6 (which comes in GX, GX+, TGX, and TGX+ variants) is also a single board and only the earliest is double wide. FYI, both the CG3 and CG6 are 8-bit cards with varying degrees of acceleration. The bits that I can gleam from Google indicate that this is a CG12, an early 24-bit card last officially supported in Solaris 2.4 (though it is apparently possible to use it with newer versions by loading the drivers from the 2.4 CD). The definitive answer would be to check the 501-xxxx code. <<<john>>>
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 14:38:49 I must have made a typo. It is Solaris 2.4. The mouse does say "Mouse Systems" on the bottom. I'm pretty sure it's a cgtwelve framebuffer. I saw of a picture of one just like it that was labeled as a cgtwelve. I've heard that the performance isn't great with this card. Does anyone have experience with it? Any recommendations for what else to use? I've seen TGX cards on eBay for $5. Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3
jruschme Junior Member USA 196 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 15:26:59 quote: I must have made a typo. It is Solaris 2.4. Makes sense given the hardware. quote: The mouse does say "Mouse Systems" on the bottom. Definately a Type 4 then. Generic Mouse systems pad would work... quote: I'm pretty sure it's a cgtwelve framebuffer. I saw of a picture of one just like it that was labeled as a cgtwelve. I've heard that the performance isn't great with this card. Does anyone have experience with it? Any recommendations for what else to use? I've seen TGX cards on eBay for $5. I get the impression that there are really no great 24-bit options in SBUS framebuffers. The CG12 is reportedly bad and is only supported to 2.4. The ZX (aka Leo) is also considered slow and is only supported to 2.6. There is apparently a version of the SS10 with an SX onboard (like the SS20), but they don't sound common and require a VDIMM. The TGX cards are nice and apparently are what most people recommend, but are only 8-bit (if that is an issue to you). Personally, I'd grab one of those or run the box headless and use the Xserver on a remote box. <<<john>>>
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 16:34:54 8-bit graphics is fine for me. I wasn't able to buy the monitor for the Sun, so I'm thinking about buying an adapter to let me use a Mac or PC monitor. Would this work with a monitor that only supports 1024x768? Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3
oldmacman Full Member USA 713 Posts	Posted - 18 Dec 2002 : 16:37:25 Also, my SparcStation doesn't have the built-in SX graphics. It has a monitor port cutout on the back of the case, and it has solder pads on the motherboard, but there is no port for the monitor to attach. Official 68kMLA Music and NeXT Expert Macs Liberated: SE (2), LC, IIsi, PB 145b, Quadra 700 (2), LC 575, 6100 (2), PB 5300, PowerMac 5400/200, Performa 6400/180 PCs liberated from Windoze: 3

68k Macintosh Liberation Army Forums

� 2001-2003 68kMLA

68k of the Week: kastegir's PowerBook 180.