I have just acquired an Ultra 5. It has 256MB of memory and a 360Mhz Ultra IIi SPARC processor. So far, I have had some typical fun and games to get it working:
It had a dead NVRAM chip. I hacked it open and installed a CR2032. It looks suitably bodged up, but is working. I set the MAC address and machine ID to some existing values that were on a web site (how to), because my machine is connected to a LAN and accesses the Internet via a router.
There was no hard drive, so I slung in an old 8.2GB hard disk.
I then installed Solaris 2.6 and configured it for DHCP. It can connect to the Internet.
So far, so good.
I have some questions though and I hope you can help.
What is the latest version of Solaris that will run comfortably on this machine? I have a copy of Solaris 10 but it will not boot (with a DVD reader installed it complains that it hasn't got enough memory). But I read that Solaris 10 on these machines is too slow.
Is the memory really limited to 512Mb? If that is true, how does the Ultra 10 (which I read uses the Ultra 5 motherboard) manage a maximum of 1Gb?
Is it "safe" to connect to the Internet? I'm thinking "vulnerabilities" here. Bear in mind it is sitting behind a firewall. I would like to be able to SSH into it from outside.
I notice it has no C compiler. What is the best approach for getting this installed, and how do I do it?
Finally, what's the best (fastest, most secure, easiest to use) Linux distribution for this and can it dual boot?
The U5 service manual is describing a four 256MB DIMM configuration leading to 1 GB so I guess it is possible.
The obvious risk is to run unpatched services/libraries. You would need to run current openssh/openssl software and make sure the system is quickly updated when vulnerabilities are discovered.
The simplest would be to find a gcc package for Solaris 8, this site looks to fit the need Index of /tgcware/sunos5.8_sparc/stable , it also had openssh/openssl packages.
dont know... I have one in my garage ( or 2?) but it has been there for nearly 10 years... I remember seeing one running solaris 7 and at home I have a sunblade with similar speed (I think) running a solaris 8, I remembered trying a solaris 9 but it was starting to be slow... I upgraded my sunblad to 2GB in order to try again but never found the time
For the rest I dont know as you would have to go to the sun free software site to look for what can still be found and install, for C you would have to go for gcc... I am not sure but I think there was a security package for solaris 8 with ssh suite...
Confirmed, Solaris 8 runs fine. But my favourite is Solaris 9 (but I never tried it on Ultra-5).
Solaris 8 and 9 take 1-2 GB more disk space because of 64bit, and providing 32bit compatibility.
Solaris 9 comes with lots of convenient addons: sshd, logadm, -h option for ls/df/du ...
The Solaris bundled package can't be updated but it can be removed and an alternate third party, up to date package can be installed instead of it, or even built from source. I already suggested a location where to find such an openssh package in post #2.
I have lots of reading to do, clearly. I have some plans for it. I'm upgrading it with an Ultra 10 case, 1Mb RAM, 60 gig SSD and Solaris 8. I may fit a 440mhz processor card too, because it's got 2mb of L2 cache. Will see how fast it is without, first.
My problem is that, while I used Solaris and OpenDesktop professionally as a software developer, I never did any system admin. Employers didn't tend to hand root passwords to devs back then! So it's new direction for me, and a more intimate relationship with the OS.
