Sun

Hi,

Just got a Sunblade 2500 silver and a V445. OBP is down level for both systems. Is it available anywhere other than Oracle's paywall?

The 2500 has an interesting video card, a Tritec DG2-64-1: http://tritec.de/index.php?id=0031&idsu ... aphiccards
It's radeon based and similar to the XVR-100 but has dual DVI. As far as I can tell, it doesn't work as an OpenBoot screen though. I'm not terribly experienced with Sun gear so I'm not sure if it has to be enabled or what. Any hope?

Any recent efforts to get the XVR-600 or XVR-1200 supported in xorg? Otherwise I guess I'll be grabbing an XVR-100, the intent is to run Solaris 11 or OpenIndiana on the 2500.

I found some documentation for the SunBlade 2500 and XVR cards in docs.sun.com (it redirects to a non-paywalled page). Documentation for Sun stuff is under "Legacy Sun Products" obviously. Here is the specific link for the Sun Blade 2500. (convinient zip package for English language here ). Here is the specific link for the XVR graphics cards. I don't know if these are what you are looking for.

PS: Can you point to the specific paywalled page you tried to access?

No firmware downloads, but if you can find readily available documentation for the system, SunShack has an on-line Sun System Handbook that includes the Sun Blade 2500 (Silver): http://www.sunshack.org/data/sh/2.1.8/i ... 2500S.html

I'm probably even less experienced with Sun gear than thyself but ... here's my unsolicited advice :

Toss the graphics card as far as you can. Solaris, from a command line, is nice ! Solaris, from a graphical interface, is intolerable !!

About three years ago I picked up a hotdog quad-Xenon triple redundant Intel-Inside server with a ton of memory. Tried several os'es, Solaris was the only one that saw everything, did everything right out of the box so I went thataway. Getting it set up turned out to be miserable because Sun has gone through at least four major interfaces. None of them are compatible with each other, about ten percent of the people on the Internet bother to mention which subsystem they are talking about with their useless "tutorials", the entire thing is a total mess. Once you get the system the way you want it, life is good because you never have to touch the thing, it just works. But getting there is a nightmare.

Fast forward three years, Intel-based bigname box dies, I decide my dick is actually big enough, a smaller server will do a fine job, the only interesting thing available is a Sun v100, oh well, survived that once can probably do it again. Getting through the Oracle defensive artillery emplacements was tricky but hey now, I'm a great firewall veteran with a wooden leg, we can go anywhere, do anything.

There are no graphics with a V100. The processor is pitiful. Memory a measly 2 gigs. Disks, IDE, what a joke.

This little thing kicks butt. Server performance (at low loads, anyhow) is better than the 4p 12gig IBM-Intel monster. Without the stinking useless awful garbage graphical desktop, this thing is nice to administer. ZFS is a dream. The commands make sense and seem to be pretty standard through the years. The information you find online generally applies and works. Once you get away from the useless piece of shit graphical desktop, Solaris is nice and works very very well. But otherwise, YUCK !!!

So if it were I, I'd take that graphics card and see how plastic and solder hold up to thirty-eight caliber projectiles

.38, not so interesting. .357, meh. .45ACP? Yawn. High-power rifle? Much more interesting.

Sorry, the metric system confuses me. I meant 38 pounders ...

or did I mean thitty-eight inchers ?

Life can be so confusing ... but I knew thirty-eight was the correct number
.