Hi there --

I acquired a Sun Ultra60 worsktation that already has the Solaris OS installed on it. What I would like to do is fdisk the existing configuration and install Gentoo, Debian, or Mandrake Linux onto the system. I am not sure how to boot from the CD-ROM in order to accomplish this task. Does someone know how it can be done? Thanks.

Head on over to docs.sun.com and look up the OpenBoot commands.

If I am reading this correctly, hitting the <STOP> <A> keys simultaneously either on boot up or after the system has been booted will get me to the PROM OK prompt. Do you concur?

I think STOP A is correct. You could also type "halt" (no quotes) from any OS prompt and it should drop you to the OK prompt, if I recall... then you just do boot cdrom (there should already be an alias for cdrom pointed at the correct device).

You can just hit Stop + A at any time and then type: boot cdrom.


Easy as pie.

ouch!, why would you want to install something built for x86 on a UltraSparc machine?

That is a 64-bit architecture system, and you want to put on a 32-bit O/S?

Solaris is built for that system, it is a free download, and Solaris 9 has multiple performance improvements,.... stick with it!

<edit>
I stand corrected, the only version of Linux I knew of previously that had been ported to Sparc HW was based off of RedHat 6. But now I am seeing Debian and Suse both claim ports to Sparc. There are 2 or 3 others but they are not as big of names.

Actually -- I settled on Aurora Linux 1.0. It is based on Red Hat 7.3. So far, it looks great. The URL if you are interested is:


http://auroralinux.org/

DirtDart had it right:

Before boot, do a Stop-A
boot cdrom (as long as cdrom is defined in the OBP, which it should be.)

Don't think fdisk will be your partitioning tool on a Sun system, but there should be a partitioning tool on either a Solaris or Linux CD.

There are several distros out there for Sparc, including those mentioned earlier and Mandrake 7.1 at http://www.mandrake.org