This document is a step by step guide meant to provide information in order -to help you running Linux on SPARC based workstations, -As these computers are quite different from PCs there is -an hardware section, this should help you on understanding, how they -work, what to expect from the various CPUs and models. +to help you running Linux on SPARC based computers, +As these computers are quite different from PCs +an hardware section will provide you with the needed information in +order to understand how they work and what can be expected from the +various CPUs and models.
I am not a SPARC specialist, nor a Solaris or Linux guru, I am just -someone who is realy found of well engineered product, and I wish to +someone who is realy found of well engineered products, and wish to help you in choosing your hardware and finding information. Thus I have tried to write down this document in order to ease your path.
-I hope this document will help you and you will have a lot of fun
-with your SPARC Workstation.
+I hope this HOWTO will help you and you will have a lot of fun
+with your SPARC Computer.
+
+
+Kim Hyun-Gyu
+
-We are only dealing with, SPARC based
-workstations, in order to check, just
+This document deals only with SPARC based
+computers, in order to check, just
type uname -m command and you should read
something like sparc4x where x is blank,c,d,m,u
if the system runs Solaris, or sparc for 32 bits SPARC architectures
and sparc64 for 64 bits SPARC architectures if it runs Linux.
-2.2.x
+2.x.y
@@ -57,26 +65,26 @@ SPARC stands for Scalable Processor ARChitecture,
it derives from research done between 1984-1988
on the RISC architecture at UC Berkeley.
It exists 3 versions of this archiecture, SPARC-V7, SPARC-V8
-( 32 bits ) and SPARC-V9 ( 64 bits ).
-As you are likely to encounter a lot of implementations of
-the SPARC architecture, I have summarized the main features
-of theses processors.
+(32 bits) and SPARC-V9 (64 bits).
+As you are likely to encounter a lot of implementations of
+the SPARC architecture, in the next section, the main features
+of theses processors are summarized.
This is quite obsolete, it is an implementation of the
-SPARC-V7 ; its main feature are an Integer unit ( IU ), an external Floating Point Unit ( FPU ),
-an unified data + instruction 64KB direct associative cache, and an Memory Managment Unit ( MMU ).
+SPARC-V7 ; its main feature are an Integer unit (IU), an external Floating Point Unit (FPU),
+an unified data + instruction 64KB direct associative cache, and an Memory Managment Unit (MMU).
There is a 4 stage pipeline for the integer instructions
-( fetch F, decode D, exec E, update WB )
-FPU and IU are synchronized
+(fetch F, decode D, exec E, update WB)
+FPU and IU are synchronized.
-This is Texas Instrument and Sun's brainchild, it is usualy found at clok rates around 50Mhz
-featuring up to 1MB L2 cache, it is available both on single and dual processor modules
-( SparcStation 10 and SparcStation 20 ). The higher clock frequency I
-have encountered is 60Mhz.
+This is Texas Instrument and Sun's brainchild, it is usualy found at around 50Mhz clok rates
+featuring up to 1MB of L2 cache, it is available both as single and dual processor modules
+(SparcStation 10 and SparcStation 20). The higher clock frequency I
+have encountered so far is 60Mhz.
On a technical point of view this is a SPARC-V8 implementation,
it is a superscalar processor,
@@ -88,10 +96,10 @@ having 2 caches, one for instruction the other one for data.
-This is once again Texas Instrument and Sun's brainchild, you can find
-it in the SparcStation Classic, SparcStation LX, at frequency up to
-50Mhz. Its derivative the Micro SPARC II can be found in SparcStation
-4, SparcStation 5 at frequencies up to 110Mhz.
+This is once again Texas Instrument and Sun's brainchild, it can be found
+ in the SparcStation Classic, SparcStation LX, at frequency up to
+50Mhz. Its derivative, the Micro SPARC II can be found in the SparcStation
+4 and SparcStation 5 at frequencies up to 110Mhz.
On a technical point of view, its main features are a high level of
integration, having 2 caches, one for instructions, the other one for
@@ -102,29 +110,121 @@ data.
This processor was introduced by ROSS in 1993, it is usualy found in the
SparcStation 10, and SparcStation 20, at frequencies up to 150Mhz
-( I have heard of 200Mhz dual processor modules, but Have not
-witnessed one yet ). It can be found on single or dual
+(I have heard of 200Mhz dual processor modules, but Have not
+witnessed one yet). It can be found on single or dual
processor modules.
On a technical point of view it is an implementation of the SPARC-V8,
it is superscalar. It can be found with L2 cache up to 512KB
+
+This is a radhard SPARC V7 microprocessor designed to be used on the
+space segment.
+
+It comes as a single unit or as a three chip
+package. Main manufacturer is ATMEL in Nantes,
+France. At least, one software vendor claims to have GNU/Linux running
+on this CPU , this is for the
+RTEMS
+
+This is also a radhard implementation of the SPARC V8 designed to be
+used on the space segment. It is the ESA's brainchild and the lead
+designer is jiri gaisler.
+More information can be found on LEON's website :
+
+The 2.4 and 2.5 kernel series are not yet supported, however the 2.0 kernel
+series is supported by the uClinux MMU less
+GNU/Linux distribution.
+This distribution has been built on a SuSE 8.0 GNU/Linux distribution
+with gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 and a 2.4.18 kernel.
+Hereafter is the boot sequence and a sample session inside the
+ tsim-leon simulator.
+
The Ultra SPARC processor is an extension of the SPARC-V9
architecture, it is a 64 bits processor, it features some video
-processing instructions. It is found in all the workstation whose name
+processing instructions. It is found in all the computer whose name
start with Ultra.
The Ultra SPARC II is an improvement of the Ultra SPARC, the
@@ -133,14 +233,37 @@ processors, it was first introduced in the SunBlade 1000 Workstation.
If wish to learn more about the UltraSPARC processors you can browse
Sun's
+This processor is based on the SPARC V9 and is made by Fujitsu
+It is a 64bits CPU with some very interesting error handling features such as
+ECC memory for
+ the L1 cache, hardware instruction retry, error classification.
+
+There is a 64 bit virtual address space and 43 bit physical address space.
+It is used in the PRIMEPOWER high end servers to mainframe class of Fujitsu's
+offering.
+
+The cache is organized as :
+
You may read the
@@ -162,32 +285,32 @@ capable: up to 2 CPU modules.
For more information on the SparcStation 5, 10, 20
you can read Sun's
The following model have an 64 bits UltraSPARC
-architecture ( sun4u ).
-SunUltra 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60, 80 and SunBlade 1000.
+architecture (sun4u).
+SunUltra 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60, 80 and SunBlade 1000, 1500, 2000.
The SunUltra 2, 60, 80 and SunBlade 1000 are SMP capable,
-with the Ultra 80 and SunBlade 1000 accepting up to 4 CPU modules,
+with the Ultra 80 and SunBlade 1000 and 2000 accepting up to 4 CPU modules,
the SunUltra 2 and 60 accepting only 2 CPU modules.
-The SunBlade 1000 is the latest one featuring Sun's latest marvel
+The SunBlade 2000 is the latest one featuring Sun's latest marvel
the Ultra III CPU, at a premium price of course.
You can have a summary of the UltraWorkstation still in production
at
A lot of information has been compiled in
the
+This is a family of Network computers that used to be manufactured by Sun,
+there is a very good
+
-You have decided to buy a SPARC based workstation, now you
+You have decided to buy a SPARC based computer, now you
can tell what CPU each model sports, but can you tell how that
particuliar model looks like? How its is inside?
@@ -269,7 +400,7 @@ providing you with some hints on how to inspect and test the hardware.
PC hardware is everywhere and usualy one is quite
familiar with it, this is not exactly the case with SPARC based hardware,
-even more when it comes to the innards of a workstation. The good news
+even more when it comes to the innards of a computer. The good news
is that it exists some sites on the web, where you can find pictures
of Sun hardware, with some very detailed shots, thus you should be
able to instantly identify the model and its condition prior to buy it.
@@ -299,11 +430,16 @@ more fun to work with exotic hardware.
Clone systems have been or are still manufactured, at least by:
Then, when you are at home, recheck it as if it was the first time you
see it.
@@ -467,6 +603,190 @@ Of course you should run this script once in order to know how
much time it takes to complete, this is just an idea on how to
automate things.
+
+
+There exists SPARC based, laptops.
+
+They are not very widespread but, they are actually very good SPARC workstations.
+
+
+Nearly ten years ago in 1994, Sun microsystems introduced the SPARCStation
+Voyager
+(ss240).
+This computer was a Sun4m architecture, powered by a microSPARC II processor.
+It is a very compact computer, behing a hybrid between a desktop and a Laptop.
+It has the footprint of a very compact workstation with a builtin color LCD
+display, PCMCIA and InfraRed ports with a 2"5 SCSI harddrive.
+I have seen one at the CCC in Berlin, runing Debian GNU/Linux but the InfraRed and
+PCMCIA ports are not supported.
+Its datasheet is actually very impressive:
+
+
+GNU/Linux is known to run on the following systems:
+
+GNU/Linux is known to run on the following systems:
+
+
+GNU Linux runs fine on these systems:
+
+GNU/Linux runs on the following servers from this manufacturer:
+
+At least one of their supercomputers, the AP1000+,
+ runs GNU/Linux. This is a distributed memory multi-computer. It is used in the
+CAP program which is a collaborative research program between
+Fujitsu Laboratories and the
+Australian National University.
+This computer was used in the phase 1 of this
+project.
+They have managed to run Linux on a 16 node computer with 16 MB ram per CPU
+module. More information about this project can be found on this page:
+
+More information can be found about Fujitsu's offering on this page:
+
@@ -474,7 +794,7 @@ Actually Linux on SPARC architecture comes in two flavors:
-
-
-The 2.2 release of OpenLinux for SPARC platform can be downloaded at
-
+This distribution is based on the RedHat 7.3 SPARC distribution.
+The homepage is:
Debian GNU/Linux runs on SPARC platform;
@@ -521,88 +841,136 @@ You can join the mailing list by sending a mail to
-Mandrake corporate server for SPARC can be downloaded at
+This is a SPARC and SPARC64 distribution, more informations can be found at
+This distribution is based on the RedHat and is developed in Poland.
+They do have a SPARC 32 port.
+More information can be found at their homepage
+
-The latest RedHat Linux distriution is the 6.2; you can download it
+The latest RedHat Linux distribution for the SPARC architecture is the 6.2; you can download it
at
-This distribution is unsupported at the time of this writting,
-and is not available as ISO.
-You can download it at
+There exists a mailing list about Linux and RedHat on SPARC Processors,
+you can access it there:
-The SuSe Linux 7.0 distribution is quite complete, you have 4 ISOs to
+There exists a port for the SPARC architecture, more information
+is available at
+
+
+Actually, the SPARC-Linux Xterminal Package is not a distribution, it is
+a way to use a diskless SPARCStation as an X terminal. This is a a very convenient
+package.
+More information can be found at
+
+
+It is meant to be Slackware Compatible for SPARC.
+Its homepage is
+
+
+The SuSE Linux 7.3 distribution is quite complete, you have 5 ISOs to
download. You can grab it at
the following URL:
-
+
To install Linux on a SPARC based computer, should be strightforward
if you follow the informations provided by your distribution.
To boot from a floppy drive you have to have an install image on a
floppy disk and to issue the boot floppy from the OpenBoot.
-If your workstation does not have a CDROM or a floppy drive, you can always try
+If your computer does not have a CDROM or a floppy drive, you can always try
to perform a network installation using NFS as explained by
this French document:
-In this section, I will give you an overview of what is the OpenBoot,
+In this section, you will be given an overview of what is the OpenBoot,
and
you will be given the main commands you need to know in order to test
your hardware and to install Linux.
@@ -610,9 +978,9 @@ your hardware and to install Linux.
If you are used to PC hardware, you are used to interact with
-its BIOS. SPARC computers have an Openoot, it may seem to be like
+its BIOS. SPARC computers have an Openboot, it may seem to be like
your BIOS, but it is actually far more powerfull.
-The Openoot performs the following tasks:
+The Openboot performs the following tasks:
-Depending on their architecture, the worstations are likely to feature
+Depending on their architecture, the computers are likely to feature
one of the following hard drive buses.
-An SCSI connector is located at the rear of the Workstation;
-the SCA chanel is found on the internal bus of the SPARC Worstations, it
+An SCSI connector is located at the rear of the Computer;
+the SCA chanel is found on the internal bus of the SPARC Worstation. It
can be basicaly seen as an SCSI bus that provides power supply and
assigns SCSI ID to the peripherals.
-This is found for example in an Ultra 5 or Ultra 10 workstations
+This is found for example in an Ultra 5 or Ultra 10 computers
+This bus is the one you can find in your intel box.
+This is the FiberChannel bus.
It is used by the SunBlade 1000 workstation.
-The easiest way to install linux on SPARC workstation is to use a
-CDROM. If your workstation does not have a CDROM you can plug an
+The easiest way to install linux on SPARC computer is to use a
+CDROM. If your computer does not have a CDROM you can plug an
external SCSI CDROM drive, but there are two things to do or you
are doomed to fail:
Actually, IMHO it is easier to use than LILO.
+
+If you have already compiled a kernel on x86 architecture
+there is just a little difference when you wish to compile
+a kernel on SPARC architecture.
+
+you do not type
+
+If you have trouble compiling your kernel, maybe it needs to be
+pached. There are many patches floating around on the net. There
+exists a website that put some of them online on a regular basis both
+for the stable and unstable branches. Those patches apply to the
+hardware used by the site's owner and this should be considered as a
+very good starting point to be adapted to your hardware.
+More information can be found at
+
Most of the sun4m workstation have a special connector for the
keyboard. In this case the mouse is connected indifferently to
-left or the right side of the keyboard. Some workstations have a
+left or the right side of the keyboard. Some computers have a
PS2 connector, it is very easy to spot the difference.
The keyboards you are the more likely to encounter are the type4 and type5.
+
+At the time of this writting, I didn't manage to have mouse support
+on the Sun Blade 100. Things should become easier in the near future.
-
-XFree, usualy, runs fine on theses systems.
-The XServer for the Sun hardware should be the Xsun, XsunMono or Xsun24 one.
+XFree, usually, runs fine on theses systems.
+The table below helps you choose the XFree86 4.2.0 server that matches your
+graphic adapter:
+
+
@@ -839,10 +1284,7 @@ different clock speeds, the following ones __SHOULD__ work:
How does it performs? Well, it is fast, really fast. Some of the java
Demos can run faster on a dual HyperSparc 125Mhz 128MB ( ywing ) than on a dual
@@ -860,27 +1302,128 @@ url="http://www.aceshardware.com/Spades/read.php?article_id=76"
name="AcesHardware">
, but I have not witnessed it.
-I plan to upgrade ywing to 4 CPU in order to see how the performance
-scales.
+ywing has been upgraded to quad-CPU. You can read the
+kernel's message:
+
+
-The sound is supposed to work under Linux, using the ioctl application.
-On my SparcStation 20, the sound works fine under Solaris8, but I have not yet managed to hear
-anything under Linux ( The Sound of Silence? ).
+The sound works fine on my SparcStation 20 and a 2.4.x kernel series.
+Most of the people I know report succes with the 2.4 kernel series.
+
-You can read the Linux/Sparc audio webpage at
+If you plan to use an older kernel,
+you can read the Linux/Sparc audio webpage at
Sun workstations ususaly have 2 serial ports, but
on sun4m workstation there is usualy only one serial connector at the rear,
you need a special Y cable in order to have access to both ports.
+
@@ -896,13 +1439,13 @@ website or to add any information do not hesitate to email me.
url="http://www.aceshardware.com/"
name="http://www.aceshardware.com/">
An hardware information site having a SPARC area, actually
-the whole site runs on a SparcStation 20 SM71, 128MB ! Ouaich,
-definitively not an Intel clone.
+the whole site used to run on a SparcStation 20 SM71, 128MB ! Ouaich,
+definitively not an Intel clone running Windows NTM.
Among the various Auction websites available on the net you can try
theses ones. Remember to be very cautious when you purchase hardware (
-see the Buying a SPARC workstation section. )
+see the Buying a SPARC computer section. )
+There exists a very reliable source of used Sun workstations in France:
+solutions-rl
+
+
+
+
+
Among the many people who showed me how great Unix and the Unix
-machine can be, some people have earned a special place
+computers can be, some people have earned a special place
I would like to thank them:
+Also many thanks to "old crocodile" virgile for the time he spent at
+the library helping me to get the big picture.
+
+
+
+Some people gave a lot of time and ressource to help me
+with this project, hereafeter is their names sorted by alphabetic
+order:
+
+
@@ -1024,9 +1602,17 @@ Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
"Copyright, Disclaimer and Trademarks"
"Preface.",
"SPARC, which one ?",
-"Buying a SPARC workstation.",
+"Buying a SPARC computer.",
+"SPARC based laptops",
+"The wonderful SparcStation Voyager",
+"Sun's Netra servers",
+"Sun's Enterprise servers",
+"Tatung's Workstations",
+"Tatung's SPARC servers",
+"Fujitsu's supercomputers",
"Linux on SPARC: 2 kernels.",
"Choosing a distribution.",
+"Installing Linux.",
"Working with the Openboot.",
"Hard drive buses.",
"CDROM: specific settings.quot;,
@@ -1037,7 +1623,7 @@ Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
"The sound.",
"Serial port.",
"Ressources.",
-"Thanks.",
+"Thanks and Credits.",
"Revision History.",
, with the
@@ -1049,21 +1635,12 @@ Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
-This text is included in the LINUX DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
+This text is included in the Linux Documentation Project
-The latest version of this document is available in HTML format at
-
-
+
If you wish to mirror it or to translate it, please contact me.
Lionel, Trollhunter Bouchpan-Lerust-Juéry
@@ -1071,16 +1648,37 @@ Lionel, Trollhunter Bouchpan-Lerust-Juéry
url="mailto:trollhunter@linuxfr.org"
name="<trollhunter@linuxfr.org>">
or at
+
+piou@linux:~/uClinux-dist/images> ./tsim-leon -nfp image.elf
+
+ TSIM/LEON SPARC simulator, version 1.1.4a (evaluation version)
+
+ Copyright (C) 2001, Gaisler Research - all rights reserved.
+ This software may only be used with a valid license.
+ For latest updates, go to http://www.gaisler.com/
+ Comments or bug-reports to tsim@gaisler.com
+
+FPU disabled
+serial port A on stdin/stdout
+allocated 4096 K RAM memory, in 1 bank(s)
+allocated 2048 K ROM memory
+icache: 1 * 4 kbytes, 16 bytes/line (4 kbytes total)
+dcache: 1 * 4 kbytes, 16 bytes/line (4 kbytes total)
+section: .text at 0x0, size 252944 bytes
+section: .data at 0x40000000, size 38452 bytes
+section: .romfs at 0x3dc10, size 67584 bytes
+tsim> g
+resuming at 0x00000000
+aCDG512k RAM
+
+Found my key
+
+Moved .data
+
+Found my key
+
+
+
+uClinux/Sparc
+Flat model support (C) 1998-2000 Kenneth Albanowski, D. Jeff Dionne
+LEON-2.1 Sparc V8 support (C) 2000 D. Jeff Dionne, Lineo Inc.
+LEON-2.2/LEON-2.3 Sparc V8 support (C) 2001 The LEOX team
+http://sunsite.ulatina.ac.cr/Unix/Linux/Splack/
+sparc/splack-8.0/kernels/sun4u.s
+
+
+
+
+http://sunsite.ulatina.ac.cr/Unix/Linux/Splack/
+sparc/splack-8.0/kernels/sun4u.s
+
+
+
+#make zImage
+#make modules
+#make modules_install
+
+but
+
+#make vmlinux
+#make modules
+#make modules_install
+
+More information can be found on
+System.map-
+vmlinux-
+
+Graphic Adapter Xserver
+
+Sun Creator 3D sunffb
+Sun Elite 3D sunffb
+Sun GX suncg6
+Sun Leo (ZX) sunleo
+Sun TCX suntcx
+Sun Turbo GX suncg6
+Sun bw2 sunbw2
+Sun cg14 suncg14
+Sun cg3 suncg3
+
+
+There is a catch with the 13W3 video connector that equips some
+of the framebuffers you may encounter.
+One may try to plug it on a VGA monitor using an 13W3 to VGA adaptor that
+is sold on the market. The problem is that SGI and Sun Microsystems do
+not have the same definition of this standard and depending of the adapter
+you buy, this may work or not (you know Murphy ...). As a rule, idealy you should
+try it before you buy.
+cpu : ROSS HyperSparc RT625 or RT626
+fpu : ROSS HyperSparc combined IU/FPU
+promlib : Version 3 Revision 2
+prom : 2.25
+type : sun4m
+ncpus probed : 4
+ncpus active : 4
+Cpu0Bogo : 125.33
+Cpu1Bogo : 125.33
+Cpu2Bogo : 125.33
+Cpu3Bogo : 125.33
+MMU type : ROSS HyperSparc
+invall : 0
+invmm : 0
+invrnge : 0
+invpg : 0
+contexts : 4096
+CPU0 : online
+CPU1 : online
+CPU2 : online
+CPU3 : online
+
+
+and its main memory is now 256MB:
+
+
+total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
+Mem: 263028736 29114368 233914368 22958080 1695744 12779520
+Swap: 133849088 0 133849088
+MemTotal: 256864 kB
+MemFree: 228432 kB
+MemShared: 22420 kB
+Buffers: 1656 kB
+Cached: 12480 kB
+BigTotal: 0 kB
+BigFree: 0 kB
+SwapTotal: 130712 kB
+SwapFree: 130712 kB
+
+
+So I have performed an empirical proftpd compilation test using the
+make -JN. The results are:
+
+with make
+real 3m27.466s
+user 3m15.670s
+sys 0m12.030s
+
+with make -j2
+
+real 1m52.670s
+user 3m27.210s
+sys 0m15.310s
+
+with make -j3
+
+real 1m22.560s
+user 3m43.910s
+sys 0m18.070s
+
+with make -j4
+real 1m13.582s
+user 4m2.200s
+sys 0m22.830s
+
+with make -j5
+real 1m13.445s
+user 4m4.060s
+sys 0m22.640s
+
+with make -j8
+
+real 1m15.550s
+user 4m1.840s
+sys 0m22.960s
+
+with make -j 10
+real 1m20.091s
+user 4m2.440s
+sys 0m22.170s
+
+
+
+As expected the best results are with make -j5 ( one instance per CPU +
+one ready to enter when a cache miss occurs ); then N increasing the results
+are starting to worsen.
+
+As a conclusion, those sun4m SMP systems will be very
+interesting when Gimp 2.0 will be available because of multitreading
+ and paralelization of algorithms.
+
+If you want to learn more about SMP and Linux you can read the
+SMP-HOWTO
+
+http://wwws.sun.com/software/linux/compatibility/ultralinux/index.html
+
+
+