Re: Installing OpenBSD 4.6 on a Sun Netra X1

Hi Zach,

The Netra X1 is basically the same hardware than Sunfire V100 minus a CDROM
unit.

http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/validateUser.do?target=Systems/Netra_X1/components

So, you need to either plug the HD into a machine with CDROM or plug a CDROM
drive in the second IDE port.

Also, as Mark noticed, there is the strict limitation of 137 GB per HD.
Personally, I've picked up a second HD caddy (about 8$ on Ebay) for all my
Sunfire V100 to get additionnal capacity via a second HD.

Based on my limited experiences, OpenBSD is way easier to install on Sun
Netra X1 / Sunfire V100 than Linux :

- no problem with the wrong network driver being loaded
- no need to disable DMA at boot time

Also, the SPARC64 port is officially supported in OpenBSD but it is a Tier-2
plateform on FreeBSD and Linux (Debian, etc.).

Have fun!

Hans.

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Zach Wendell <[email protected]> wrote:

> So I picked up a few Netra X1's on Ebay for cheap, and I'm planning on
> installing OpenBSD on one of them tonight... Anything I should know before
> attacking this project? I've had a lot of trouble trying to get Linux
> running on it, but I'm hopeful for OpenBSD, based on a few things I've
> read.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> ~Zach