Hi,
I recently got a SparcStation 20 running SunOS 5.1.1. I bought a 13W3 to VGA adapter (without sync on green), but it didn't work, so my friend brought over his old Sun monitor, which didn't work either (i'm guessing a bad video card).

Having tried this, i resorted to a null modem cable connected to my debian box running minicom. I got the connection right last night and watched it boot up correctly to the login prompt. I am very new to Sun hardware however, and since I have no idea what the root password is on this machine (i got it on ebay), i'm going for a debian install. I've read several places about typing in "boot cdrom" and when i do this, it reboots, and then gives me this message:


ok boot cdrom
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@6,0:d File and args:
Bad magic number in disk label package
Can't open disk label package

Can't open boot device

ok


i'm also quite unfamiliar with these device names, or with the BIOS, OpenBoot, or whatever this is.

if anyone has some knowledge or experience they can share on this, it would be greatly appreciated.

--Zerg4141

alright, after working on this for some time, i think i've figured it out.

for those interested:

i got access to the SS20 through the minicom program using a null modem cable with a male DB25 connector on the sparc end and a female DB9 on the x86 linux box. (the settings for minicom were 9600 8N1)

for debian, i had to go download the sparc iso off their website and burn it (iso9660) to a cdrom. then, at the minicom prompt type "boot cdrom" and it will reset itself and come up and load SILO which is the sparc version of LILO. once there, you are smooth sailing through a fairly normal linux install.

--Zerg4141

After seeing so many idiot posts (incomplete, inconsiderate, etc.) today, it was a real pleasure to come across yours. Thank you for having the grace to tell us you solved your problem & sharing the information about you did it.