Installing Solaris 9 on a Sun Ultra 10

Revisiting the Sun Ultra 10 from the previous video, let's see if we can get it running and get Solaris installed. Spoiler alert... all attempts at Solaris 10 were thwarted.
Twitter: / talesofweird
Instagram: / talesofweirdstuff
00:00 Intro
01:32 Review
04:58 It's alive!
07:03 Tale of woe
14:08 Drive configuration
16:50 Drive size limitations
20:17 NVRAM configuration
22:52 Drive configuration (again)
25:09 Installation begins!
28:12 Disk partitioning
29:54 Network, date, and time
33:11 Picking software
38:43 Disc 3
41:21 Reboot
43:54 Post-install configuration
45:14 First login!
46:51 Closing words
Solaris 9 ISOs that I used:
fsck.technology/software/Sun%...
Sun NVRAM FAQ (the "cheat sheet"):
www.obsolyte.com/sunFAQ/faq_nv...
VCFed forum discussion about the M48T58Y:
forum.vcfed.org/index.php?thr...
Solaris 10 release notes for bop_alloc_chunk issue:
updates.oracle.com/readme/142...
Music credits:
Kreuzberg Nights by Futuremono
Cognative Dissonance - Electronic Medium by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@charlesdorval394]

Interesting! I would have guessed it was for a tape drive considering the size :)

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I was also pretty surprised. A PCMCIA slot seems like the least useful add-on.

[@minombredepila1580]

Thank you for this video. I will be following your lead when I have the opportunity to install Solaris on the 4 Sun(s) in storage. I could feel my own despair at your silences and groans, as I also had many one-to-ones with these Sun consoles via rs-232. There should have been a lot of work behind the curtains as you suggested, but this is also the fun part: good music, manuals, browsing and a nice drink is all I like about this hobby. Love the plans for the next videos later this year. 🙂

[@csudsuindustries]

Kodak had photo kiosks that were designed around the U5. They had the PCMCIA modules installed for flash devices.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

Ah... I remember seeing those in some stores. I wonder if that add-on device existed exclusively for some deal with Kodak. That is very interesting.

[@csudsuindustries]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff The PCMCIA readers for the U5/10 were not something someone could order. Never seen them for sale, nor in the FEH.

[@chaoticsystem2211]

damn. those cases are beautiful... i need one

[@charlesdorval394]

Have you looked if Necroware's replacement for those Dallas chips would work?

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

In the current form, they are not compatible. The Necroware chips are 24-pin Dallas DS128x compatible, but the Suns use a 28-pint Dallas DS1642 compatible chip. It should be possible to modify his design to use a different clock / NVRAM chip that would be compatible with Suns.

[@charlesdorval394]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff Oh okay, figured it wouldn't be that simple hehehe

[@twentyrothmans7308]

I watch this, and wonder why I'm doing this to myself. Still, you're doing the heavy lifting.

[@rascalwind]

Try removing the thingamabob for the pcmcia and see if it boots. Might have to have a working system then install the drivers and reboot. It’s possibly addressing something on the bus it doesn’t like.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I don't actually have the PCMCIA thing. The thing on the case is just a plastic bezel with a movable door.

[@wdd6864]

PCMCIA was used for flash storage. I like the videos. For the video issue, could the RetroTink work? I heard about it on Adrian’s videos.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

Aside from the very new (very expensive) Retro Tink 4k, I don't think the Retro Tink can do 1024x768 and higher VGA resolutions. I think Adrian mostly uses an OSSC for VGA. I think I might have to break down and get one of those. I was really hoping to get something that would do the capture directly from VGA instead of having to convert to HDMI first.

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

vga capture using startech's vga to hdmi converter into an hdmi capture card generally works in my experience though i don't claim to have tried every weird vga format that existed lol

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I looked at a few VGA to HDMI upscalers. I was hoping to be able to capture VGA using a single device instead of two. I think I'll probably just get an OSSC at this point.

[@viscountalpha]

i almost triggered a manual stack overflow on solaris with a bunch of spacebar attempts. I've been meaning to see if I can do it with some keyboard module installation.

[@rascalwind]

Iomega click drive and compare flash adapters would both go in that slot.

[@csudsuindustries]

Been some time since I last did an install not over serial, you should just issue at the ok prompt “boot cdrom text” for the cli installer.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

That is the method some of the Solaris 10 documents suggest for systems less than 384MB RAM. It seems that somewhere on they way to U11, the *required* *minimum* increased to 1.5GB. 🙀

[@shadowoneau]

Could the PCMCIA slot be for a PCMCIA security card reader ala the sunray?

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

i've always wondered what the odds of ebay new old stock nvram not having a dead battery in it are the dremel technique is ugly, but it does work

[@TheBurvis]

Heya. Can you provide the source location for the solaris 9 iso download. Been trying to get it installed on my Ultra1 and yours looks very different. Thanks

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

Ohmygosh! I had intended to put that link in the description, but I forgot. 😬 The description is updated now. Thank you for reminding me.

[@xXxCobraCommanderxXx]

I went with Solaris 8 on my U5 and U60. Seemed like a good compromise.

[@borlibaer]

Solaris 9 seem to me like MS Vista 😁 Solaris 8 or Solaris 10 are more mature after all.

[@spectreofspace]

Not sure why 10u8 wouldn't install but 10u11 gave a kernel panic due to not enough RAM. Oracle claims you need 1.5 GB of RAM to install but I was able to install on an Ultra 5 with 768 MB of RAM using a network install. 10u5 also runs great on the older systems as starting around u7 or u8 it takes upwards of a minute to even begin to boot. Runs fine afterwards though.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

That is pretty shocking. I had to really search, but I eventually found "Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Release Notes" that says the minimum memory requirements is 1.5GB. Since the Ultra 10 can only have 512MB, I guess it's not actually supported. Ouch. :(

[@spectreofspace]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff The Ultra 10 supports 1GB of RAM, same as the Ultra 5. I'm not sure how I got 1/13 to install on half the memory it calls for unless installing over the network helped. It's a bit confusing to set up but I used a virtual machine running x86 Solaris to act as the install source. Or you can source the u5 CDs that are out there. My Ultra 5 originally came with only 256MB of memory and a set of burned discs of u5. I used them on a Sun Fire v100 and a Blade 100 before getting their memory upgraded to run both u11 and have zfs roots.

[@jinxterx]

The fonts aren't too small, it's just your eyes are too old :P

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

It can be both. 🤣

[@BerlinLive2021]

Solaris was made to program applications or small programs in a programmer group in the early 2000, it was used in the University to teach Informatic courses but u need at least understand alot of basic programming skills before espacially the Java programming language for Solaris

[@keyboard_g]

Solaris released in 1992 to replace SunOS from the 80’s. It’s a general purpose workstation and server OS based on AT&T Unix System V.

[@BerlinLive2021]

For programming u need to install the Java KDE on the Workstations then u can start programming if u can😂