Sun Ultra 10 and Ultra 60 workstations power on

Spring means Sun! Three 1998 Sun Ultra workstations recently rescued from e-waste are examined. In this first video I just want to see if they are alive at all. Future videos will have (possibly) further trouble shooting and (possibly) operating system installation.
Twitter: / talesofweird
Instagram: / talesofweirdstuff
00:00 Intro
02:22 Ultra 10 weigh-in
02:47 Ultra 10 externals
04:58 Ultra 10 internals
10:47 glxgears
11:41 Ultra 10 power on
15:57 Ultra 60 Mk.1 weigh-in
16:27 Ultra 60 Mk.1 externals
19:30 Ultra 60 Mk.1 internals
24:18 Ultra 60 Mk.1 power on
26:11 Ultra 60 Mk.2 externals
28:45 Ultra 60 Mk.2 internals
34:44 Ultra 60 Mk.2 power on
41:36 Ultra 60 Mk.2 is alive!
45:04 Closing words

[@livefreeprintguns]

That grey and purple was by far the best aesthetic for 90's workstations... and the pizza box design was one of the coolest of it's era.

[@PeterBakNielsen]

Nice seeing some proper workstations

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

Yes! It was fun to get back to working on this kind of stuff. After getting the machines to boot... I already ordered some upgrades. More videos to come!

[@PeterBakNielsen]

@@TalesofWeirdStuffthis reminds me that I should be getting back to resurrecting the Ultra-3 mobile workstation I picked up a while back…

[@repatch43]

When I started my EE career we had a bunch of these machines both as host machines for some very special hardware (over SCSI of course) and for running 24 hour long compiles. They are simply bulletproof, only time they ever went down was when we had to reboot them due to a driver issue with for the attached hardware.

[@thedarkhenrik]

That "plasticky" bit with a case screw through it is a Kensington lock, its for using wire to lock it to the desk, preventing theft

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I would have thought the almost 50lbs of computer would be enough to prevent theft. Lol. The cable through the plastic block would also prevent people from opening the case.

[@foobar1979]

The reason the 2nd ultra 60 and the ultra 10 took so long to come up is because the nvram is dead so they did a full diagnostic test. If you plug into the serial port you can see the 1000 or whatever tests it does.

[@davidg_nz]

This is the answer. A new/repaired NVRAM chip and turning off the extended self tests with "setenv diag-switch? false" should fix it

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

That makes sense. I didn't notice until pretty late in the editing process that the NVRAM in the first Ultra 60 still had data. This explains the difference between the systems. I didn't remember the difference being so dramatic on the SPARCstation 5, but... it didn't have 2GB RAM!

[@minombredepila1580]

Amazing systems and a very funny video. And yes, the serial port really helps in this process. I cannot wait to see how you install the OS. I will have to do it on my two Sun in storage and would really learn from you !!

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

Replacement NVRAM chips have arrived, so I hope to start installing operating systems this weekend. :)

[@minombredepila1580]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff Whohoo !!!!! Getting the popcorn ready 😀

[@TheStefanskoglund1]

The 10 is basically a PC but with a UltraSPARC CPU...

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

Yeah... and a UPA slot for graphics instead of an AGP slot. They were definitely designed to be as inexpensive as possible by using commodity parts.

[@Myself-yh9rr]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff If it was made by Apple it would not work with any parts most people would have. I will never buy an Apple device!

[@johnmay4803]

fantastic vid as always! ive never seen them sun stations before im from the uk and i dont get to see them

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I had previously missed this whole generation of Sun machines. I used the SPARCstations that came before and the Blade workstations that came after, so this was new for me too. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@nnj248]

Thanks for sharing! Very interesting and cool hardware to play with.

[@mpmarvin999]

I used to work for Sun back in the days. I hated working on those because customers would always try to do their own thing with them. I rarely worked on them as I worked mainly on the server/enterprise stuff. I left about a little over 2 years to start my own thing. Wasn’t the smartest move. Dot com crash came shortly after. But I did have a couple of sun Ultra Enterprises 2 machines fully loaded. Customers who upgraded just gave them to me. Last machines I recall working on was the E10K. The computer that came with another computer just to talk to it. 😂😂. Sadly I don’t remember anything from those days except the gbic disaster that plague Sun’s hardware. I think the ibm brand were the faulty ones. I don’t recall. I did enjoy working there though. Except for some clients, looking at you major bank that will be unnamed in the “Citi”

[@yatapaws]

i love these sun systems so much. i definitely gotta find an ultra 60 some time :p

[@venturefanatic9262]

I took hundred of Suns, SGIs, NeXTs apart in the 90s this was at a Reclamation Company in the Santa Clara.

[@xXxCobraCommanderxXx]

The caps lock key will occasionally blink on a Sun keyboard while it's booting, but the serial terminal is the best way, in case there is a problem with the keyboard or framebuffer. I use a laptop with null model cable.

[@TheNovum]

Sun owner here. Got the little brother, Ultra5. As a disk i bougt a ide to sata converter. Works great!

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I've been looking at disk options for all of these machines. The IDE-to-SATA converter would be pretty good for the U10, but it would still suffer from the slow integrated IDE controller. Sun made a SAS controller for the U60, but it has to go in the PCI slot that a faster video card (like the Expert 3D) would want to be in.

[@TheNovum]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff my U5 came with a pci scsi controller. Yeah, your U60 looks pretty cool. PCI-X gives a lot of options

[@matthewkeen6281]

Nice

[@michaelpelley2815]

Had the later model Ultra 60 configured like your model. I had to turn it off in summer because of all the heat it generated. The first Ultra 60 with the quad port gigabit NIC was probably a firewall. We used to run CheckPoint on Ultra 60s back in the day

[@horusfalcon]

9.5 minutes with a 9 minute FSCK the first time? Not so bad. 😆 Patience is a virtue when dealing with retro hardware.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

In so many ways, patience is for sure a virtue in this hobby. I don't think it would be doing fsck until after starting an OS... but maybe I'm wrong? It may well have been doing some kind of diagnostics. Next time I start it up, I'll have a terminal connected to the console serial port. I'm sure some information was being logged there.

[@Torbjorn.Lindgren]

MII = Media-independent interface (IEEE 802.3u), used for 100 Mbps Ethernet, the replacement for the AUI ports often used for 10 Mbps Ethernet. IIRC these ports were not that common, as I understand it by this time either fixed ports or modules like GBIC (later replacd by SFP) had already started to take over but makes sense on a motherboard ports. Variants of the basic MII signalling is often used even today up to at least 10G.

[@litebkt]

I bought a new sparc 5 to do work at home wish I loved that system. I don’t know why I ever got rid of it.

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

In the early 90's I had a Sun 3/60 I used as a monochrome X term for a 486-66 with 16MB I had that was headless running Linux. Sun hardware was great!

[@georgedone7997]

SUN uses Sync on Green video signal. I have a number of those 13W3 to VGA15 adapters they work with some higher end CRT monitors (including non-SUN ones) but I never saw an LCD monitor working with Sync on Green. I guess they exist since SUN toward the end sold some SUN branded LCD monitors but not encountered those either.

[@mk500]

More Sun please

[@TheducksOrg]

I worked for a University EE department from 2001 till 2004 and they were using a SSU10 as a staff mail/shell server at the time and did until 2012 🤣

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I can totally believe that. In 1998 my university was still using a Sun 3/60 as a print server in one of the labs. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[@Decap1956]

very nice. i have a Sun pc i need to work on it got bad caps

[@xXxCobraCommanderxXx]

Two of the RAM modules are offset from the others at the top in an Ultra 60.

[@artiphology]

If you order replacement NVRAM chips online, they're likely new-old-stock - meaning they've been ticking and discharging ever since they were manufactured. At least that was the case with one I ordered a few years ago. Ultimately, I was able to do some battery surgery and recover the chips (including the new one), but it's not exactly simple. Most instructions I've seen say to dremel away at the chip to access the battery terminals, but I used a heat gun instead to soften the shell and epoxy and peel it off. Maybe I should've documented it in video form...

[@elTurBoss]

i used to work next to the sun office at valencia, when oracle bought them they just put a big sticker on top of their door logo :D

[@ronwatkins5775]

I have a bunch of old Sparc 5 & 10 boxes and a SUN monitor. Had it for many years, in storage. Have no idea if it still works or not.

[@ultrametric9317]

My E420R is an Ultra 80 in a rack mount case. I saved a lot of money on a NVRAM chip by buying a generic one and reprogramming it from Open Boot. Details are out there. You should hook up a serial terminal to see that. Null modem + Putty on a PC. 9600/8/n/1.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

I need to dig out my null modem cable for debugging the Ultra 10. I did that before with the SPARCstation 10. The previous NVRAM chips that I got were from somewhere like Digikey. This time I ordered some from a seller on Amazon. We'll see how that goes. Also... very envious of both the Ultra 80 and the rack mount case! There's a kit to make the Ultra 60 rack mountable, and that would be nice.

[@AlexanderWeurding]

Sun, best effer machine! Would be great to get more information about the history.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

History of... a particular system or of the company? I think there are a few videos about the rise and fall of Sun, but I don't know of any about specific systems or components.

[@AlexanderWeurding]

@@TalesofWeirdStuffLike the Compaq history. They did make the difference and really made something epic. But just disappeared

[@AlexanderWeurding]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff Thanks! let me check!.

[@AlexanderWeurding]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZu1aKaIdridmtE // Oral History of Andy Bechtolsheim

[@sebastian19745]

For that Ultra 10, you did not press that front button (at least not on camera); maybe that was the power on? Note that the LED above it was off too. I remember having one of the Ultra 60 machines at work, it was always on and connected to a network with many network computers. I do not know the configuration because the IT guru was managing those remotely from another location and the IT departament at the factory only dealt with Windows machines.

[@AnonyDave]

Maybe I'm too early in the video, but if you don't get video output after a few minutes your best bet is the serial console. Since the nvram is flat, they'll come up in full diag-mode and will let you know absolutely everything going on during startup. Also, the '60 is a lightweight compared to the tank that is the ultra 80. Those mf's are nearly 30kg😰 The server stuff gets even crazier from there edit: that dvd-rom is a sun part. It's just from a later system once they changed the colour scheme a bit

[@xXxCobraCommanderxXx]

I think Creator3D and Elite3D can run glQuake. Not positive, heard that second hand.

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

It should run, but I would fully expect it to be a slideshow. Those cards don't have any texture mapping hardware, so all the rendering will be done by the CPU. I *will* give this a try!

[@xXxCobraCommanderxXx]

@@TalesofWeirdStuff You may be right, again I heard it second hand. Expert3D could definitely do it from its specs. Elite3D is a bit low on texture fill rate I guess, and I'm not sure about Creator3D - it uses the UPA bus and main system memory for texture mapping. Not sure about the differences between Creator models that you mentioned.

[@PyroRob69]

I miss the old Sun gear with Slow Solaris installed. Loved the graphics, hated the speed. Their saving grace is when you slap a fresh copy of Linux on them, they are tolerably usable again

[@garfield12344]

Make fully working one arround 2*UltraSparc3 at 450mhz + 2 graphics card ( one 3D one basic for dual head) + gigabit *4 net card and keep lower specs one for parts (MB, power, CPU s) also move SCSI HDD into working one - Solaris on one possible preinstalled ?!? - maybe a Linux on second

[@ran2wild370]

Hollly crap!! BAck in those times probably 10000% of then Linux users were deliriously contemplating about getting those as a personal domestic computer! Their specs sounded like melodies and voices from the future