[OpenIndiana-discuss] A poor SPARC user's introduction

[Marion Hakanson]

msokolov at ivan.Harhan.ORG said:
> Then I was pleasantly surprised to see that the OpenIndiana community is not
> totally x86-exclusive, and there was a SPARC release made a week or so ago by
> some wonderful fellow.  But again, the ISO file is DVD-sized, not CD-sized -
> hence the same problem as with Oracle's version.
> 
> I wonder, what would it take to produce a distribution of OI for SPARC that
> fits on a CD?  Assume that it's going to a server that will be used with a
> serial console, no monitor or keyboard ever, hence no need for any desktop
> GUI components.  (The ability to use a serial console instead of a keyboard/
> monitor for operations such as initial OS install is one of the main reasons
> why I need SPARC rather than x86.  I love my real DEC VTxxx terminals, and
> hate PeeCee keyboard/video/mouse stuff with a passion.) 

Been there, felt that pain.  As Jim has already mentioned, it might be faster
to setup your Bobware server as a DHCP/TFTP/NFS server, and net-boot your
SPARC from that.  No need for any special distribution.  I guess an old-enough
SPARC might need RARP/BOOTP/TFTP if it doesn't know "boot net:dhcp ...".

BTW, and I'm not trying to talk you out of your psychoemotional aversion
to x86, but I've got dozens of x86/x64-based systems running Solaris/Illumos
and using their serial consoles.  Works for Sun, Dell, and SuperMicro hardware,
in my experience.

Regards,

Marion