Re: Hard drives for Sun Blade 2500

On 2009-07-12, shmerl <> wrote:
>
> I've got a used Sun Blade 2500. What HDs are compatible with it? Dos it
> support only SUN specific hard drives ('Sun's page'
> (http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/sunblade2500/) says: up to two
> 146-GB, 10,000 RPM, Ultra 320 SCSI drives), or some other SCSI HDs
> should work there too? If yes, which ones?

Pretty much any SCA interface drive should work based on the
"Ultra 320 SCSI" designation. Sun only lists what they have tested the
system to work with. I'm using Sun Blade 2000s and Sun Fire 280Rs with
146 GB FC-AL drives when they say that 72 GB FC-AL drives are the
maximum. Take into account what was available at the time the machines
were being tested.

> (I plan to install OpenSolaris there).

O.K. Not Solaris 10? I thought that OpenSolaris focused on the
x86 and x64 processors, not the UltraSPARC ones in the SB-1000, 2000,
1500, and 2500 systems. You can download Solaris 10 from Sun's site
(after registering) or even buy the DVD set from Sun for $35.00 (Solaris
10 UltraSPARC, Solaris 10 x86/x64, software development (Compilers and
NetBeans IDE), and Software Companion (pre-compiled open source
software). I'm currently typing this on a system installed from the set
in question. It was worth the $35.00 to not have to do that many long
downloads through a T1 (and it is slower than a T1 should do, so I think
that the bandwidth limit is on Sun's end of the connection. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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In article <>,
DoN. Nichols <> wrote:
> O.K. Not Solaris 10? I thought that OpenSolaris focused on the
>x86 and x64 processors, not the UltraSPARC ones in the SB-1000, 2000,
>1500, and 2500 systems. You can download Solaris 10 from Sun's site

Sun's OpenSolaris distribution and Nevada (Solaris Express) are
available for both architectures and include some nice new desktop
usability features.
<URL:http://www.opensolaris.org/os/downloads/>

Happy hacking,
John

On 2009-07-14, shmerl <> wrote:
>
> DoN. Nichols;1055682 Wrote:
>> Not Solaris 10? I thought that OpenSolaris focused on the x86 and x64
>> processors, not the UltraSPARC ones
>
> The latest release of OpenSolaris can be already installed on SPARC
> architectures (though it's still catching up to x86 ones, for example
> there is no OpenSolaris LiveCD yet for SPARC).

Are there any benefits for going OpenSolairs instead of the
official release -- and you don't need access to the source?

Thanks,
DoN.

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"DoN. Nichols" <> writes:

> Are there any benefits for going OpenSolairs instead of the
> official release -- and you don't need access to the source?

According to the Sun folks at the recent Kernel Conference Australia,
all new development takes place for OpenSolaris, and this is then
periodically merged into Solaris. Thus, if you want to be closer to
the bleeding edge, OS is the way to do it.

mlp

On 2009-07-25, Mark L Pappin <> wrote:
> "DoN. Nichols" <> writes:
>
>> Are there any benefits for going OpenSolairs instead of the
>> official release -- and you don't need access to the source?
>
> According to the Sun folks at the recent Kernel Conference Australia,
> all new development takes place for OpenSolaris, and this is then
> periodically merged into Solaris. Thus, if you want to be closer to
> the bleeding edge, OS is the way to do it.

Thanks! Since I would rather *use* my machines than experiment
with them, I think that I'll stick with the Solaris releases. But one
thing I wonder about. The USB interface, even with the SB-1500/2500 USB
2.0 card in the computer, seems to work up to 4 GB CF cards and thumb
drives, and to hang on 8 GB ones, suggesting that it does not support
the proper version of FAT filesystem for the larger ones. Is this also
the case with the OpenSolaris systems? It is a pain having to go to the
Mac Mini to download things from the larger devices, and then transfer
via the net to the systems I really want to work on. :-) This has kept
me from getting a 8 GB CF card for my camera -- assuming that the Nikon
D70 knows how to access the larger cards anyway. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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Email: <> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
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