Thanks everybody :-)

This is my second Sparc.  I have another ULTRA1 that has been  running Aurora 1.0 for a couple years with no none zero nota problem.  I still have the five CD .iso set from which I loaded this Aurora.

Andy, thank you for the gentoo sparc WEB site.  I had not found it.  It suggests that sda4 might not be the boot partition.  However my good machine and my broken machine both use sda4 as the /boot.

This machine has two scsi hard drives.  Might it be wise for me to figure out which on is 'broken" and remove it?  It could be the disk itself.  It could be the SCSI driver.  It could be the DMA system.  Trouble is I have never unscrewed the Sparc cover.  Oh, dear....

Thank you all for your support.

Alan Riccardo suggested that I use a cross over cable and the equivalent of HyperTerminal so at least I could capture the messages as they fly up the screen.  That is a great idea.  Now to find where I put that old cross over cable.....

Ken Jones



Andy Stewart wrote: 
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Keith Wright wrote:
  
From: ken jones <kjones@ziplink.net>

I just acquired by second Sparc ULTRA1 Creator.
      
What is that, a CD?
    

If I recall correctly, the Sparc Ultra1 Creator is a desktop system
manufactured by Sun Microsystems.  Its processor is not an x86
architecture, but it is the Sparc architecture.



  
It does not boot.
I've tried booting from my aurora 1.0 iso disk set.  No luck.
I've tried booting from my just out of the envelope GENTOO disk.  No luck.
      
Gee, it sounds like things don't boot.

    
Any ideas?
      

I found this website, but perhaps you've already been here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-sparc.xml

I also recall that SuSE Linux had a version for Sparc a long time ago.
I've used it.  I think it was version 7.x but I'm not sure.  Perhaps you
can still get this CD.

  
No.  But carry on.  We're rooting for you.

Is there a ROM setup program that you
can get into before booting?
    

I thought there was a magical sequence of commands to type at the
OpenBoot prompt.  My memory is very vague since its been a long time
since I've done this.

Here's another URL which may help:
http://www.linux.com/howtos/SPARC-HOWTO-12.shtml

One last thing.  I did a quick Google and found this tidbit about
properly burning the CD.  Perhaps it will be helpful.

http://lists.suse.com/archives/suse-sparc/2001-Mar/0146.html

I'm sorry that I couldn't have been more help, but hopefully these will
point you in the right direction.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Andy

- --
Andy Stewart, Founder
Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org)
Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393)
Amateur Radio:  KB1OIQ
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