Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

OS Review: NetBSD 1.6.2 on SPARC64

Posted by michael on from the esoterica dept.

JigSaw writes "NetBSD is the king of operating system portability, running on 40+ different hardware platforms, including x86, MIPS, and even the Sega Dreamcast. So it comes as no surprise that among the supported platforms, NetBSD runs on Tony Bourke's Sun Ultra 5. Here is his review."

6 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. The only real competitor to Linux... by DesScorp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...in the embedded space, that is. I see NetBSD turning up in a lot of devices now, including our new office copier of all things.

    Competition is a good thing, mmmmmkay, as some here would say.

    I have to wonder what's driving Net's adoption in the embedded space. Is it technical merit, or the the BSD license allowing vendors to keep their changes closed?

    I'm just glad to see that Netcraft was wrong :P

    --
    Life is hard, and the world is cruel
  2. Ultra 5? Oh please no by keesh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're going to review an OS on an UltraSparc box, please pick anything other than the u5/10. The u5/10 is basically a PC clone with an ultrasparc processor. It has a pisspoor IDE chipset, a crippled CPU (IIi has far less cache than a II), a crippled PCI backplane, low memory bandwidth and a PC-like chipset. A far better measure of how well an OS has been ported is an Ultra 2.

    (and yes, I do know what I'm talking about, and I have sparc-related code in the Linux kernel to prove it :) )

    1. Re:Ultra 5? Oh please no by xaoslaad · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is also cheap to snag on eBay. So are U2's, but well beggars can't be choosers. And if I remember what started all these posts on OS News, it was someone snagging a U5 on ebay or some such. I might be making that up; but i seem to recall. Anyway, for someone wanting to learn about Sparc, Solaris, OpenBoot, and just plain mess around with something different, it is not a bad place to start. And not caring too much about performance what's it matter if he does it on a U5 or U2, and the U5's come in under the U2's a lot of the time. Ya I'm a baised whore cause that's how I got my U5, but then I can also tell you price was a problem, and when I wanted and UltraSparc to learn about Solaris 8/9 and OpenBoot on I got my hands on a beautiful looks like its fresh out of the U5 for $200. I ear the U10's are flaky, but I don't know I've never used one and cannot say myself, but whatever. I tend to think the U5 is just fine for what he's doing without inserting the 'you're using a cheap loser system' type snobbery.

    2. Re:Ultra 5? Oh please no by dohcvtec · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I installed OpenBSD on my Sparc Station 5 without a hitch, but on my dual CPU ultra2, it paniced...

      For one thing, OpenBSD doesn't do SMP (yet) and IIRC it will not function with a second processor present. It's not like other hardware, where if it doesn't recognize it, it just ignores it - I seem to recall that it will panic with more than one processor installed.

      --
      -- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
    3. Re:Ultra 5? Oh please no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      For the record, it _will_ work with x number of CPUs installed, the kernel just won't detect them.

  3. Platform support by Octorian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Honestly, there is nothing special about those machines, beyond that they are just weird PC boxes.

    However, it would be nice if open-source OSes did support SGI's real MIPS-based machines a bit better. All the ports I've seen so far do not provide very good support for the hardware beyond the basics. And frankly, if they can't support the graphics hardware, what is even the point of running something other than IRIX?

    Another platform I'd like to see support for would be the older microchannel-based non-CHRP IBM RS/6000 machines. They are frankly quite nice boxes, but the only OS they'll run is AIX. (which isn't bad, but tends to confuse hobbyists who aren't multi-platform savvy)