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F.3. Installation Differences from Intel

Most of the installation procedures for Linux/SPARC systems are identical to those of Intel-based Linux systems. The differences that do exist are just a side effect of different hardware, different booting procedures, and other similar divergences.

F.3.1. Graphics and X

Graphics cards are different on each system, and Linux/SPARC systems use different X servers. All SBUS-based and several onboard SPARC graphics cards use the Xsun series of servers. They are named:

Server Purpose
XsunMono For monochrome graphics cards only
Xsun For 8-bit color and monochrome displays
Xsun24 For 24-bit color graphics cards only, including Creator/Creator3d

Unlike Xfree86 on Intel, these X servers do not use a server configuration file for several reasons. First, the mouse and keyboard types are known on SPARC systems. Second, the graphics card and resolution can be completely autodetected and configured, so no specification of these parameters is needed in a configuration file.

The PCI systems start to bring in some exception cases for graphics cards. Several of the desktop systems (such as Ultra 5 and Ultra 10) have an ATI Mach-64 derived graphics card on the motherboard. Also ATI Mach64 PCI expansion boards are available as well. These graphics cards do use the Xfree86 servers and thus have a configuration file to set up.

For these ATI cards, you set up the XF86Config file just as you would for ATI cards on an Intel system. There are a few sticking points to be aware of:

F.3.2. The SILO Boot Loader

SPARC stations also differ from Intel-based systems in the boot loader. SPARC systems use a bootloader named SILO (for SPARC Improved LOader).

From the user's perspective, SILO behaves just like Intel's LILO. The main noticeable difference is that you don't need to run a special /sbin/silo program each time a new kernel image is added to the config file (which is /etc/silo.conf ) as you need to do with Intel. Also, SILO is capable of loading any kernel image found on your ext2, UFS, or ISO9660 filesystems by name.

The reason SILO is able to do this is OBP (Open Boot Prom, the firmware used on SPARC systems). It provides a way for the bootloader code to read blocks off of boot devices, such as disks. With the kernel filename and device name you tell it to use, SILO simply reads your ext2 partition and loads it. (Note: in another light this creates a slight limitation. See the section that follows on bootable devices and consoles.)

It is possible to use SILO to dual boot both Linux and some other SPARC OS. Some helpful hints on how to do this can be found at http://www.sun.com/software/linux/dual_boot.html.

F.3.3. Partitioning Disks

We now tackle the peculiarities of disk partitioning on Linux/SPARC systems. You can treat this process just like you would on an Intel system with the following exceptions:



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