Article 41293 of comp.sys.sun.hardware: From: jdl50630@huey.csun.edu (james d lockwood) Subject: Re: support for 4/6xx machines post-Solaris 2.5.1 - will it be re-introduced? Newsgroups: aus.computers.sun,comp.sys.sun.hardware,alt.sys.sun,comp.unix.solaris Followup-To: aus.computers.sun,comp.sys.sun.hardware,alt.sys.sun,comp.unix.solaris References: <6jt2sj$3tf$1@lios.apana.org.au> Organization: The Electric Mayhem X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] NNTP-Posting-Host: csun1.csun.edu Message-ID: <35627ccc.0@130.166.1.64> Date: 20 May 98 06:48:44 GMT Lines: 63 Path: news1.meer.net!nntp2.ba.best.com!news1.best.com!newshub.northeast.verio.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!164.67.42.145!awabi.library.ucla.edu!134.139.1.31!csulb.edu!newshub.csu.net!130.166.1.64!jdl50630 Xref: news1.meer.net aus.computers.sun:3241 comp.sys.sun.hardware:41293 alt.sys.sun:3802 comp.unix.solaris:128626 Craig Dewick (cdewick@lios.apana.org.au) wrote: > Given that all of sudden there would have been many thousands of 4/6xx > machines orphaned by the decision to no longer support them in current SunOS > releases, has Sun ever re-considered their decision, perhaps with a view to > either re-releasing the 4/6xx support in a future 5.6/2.6 patch kit, or in > SunOS 5.7? The decision to drop the 4600 was made when it was determined that VME support would be dropped. It's fairly trivial to get the 4600 working under 2.6 (and, I suspect, 2.7) provided that you are using Viking (SuperSPARC) or ROSS HyperSPARC modules (SM100 support was deleted entirely from the kernel), and you have no VME devices (though oddly enough, the cg8 driver is still in 2.6 FCS). > So, can people inside Sun who are close to those who look after deciding > what machines to support and what machines to drop tell me what is going on > with 4/6xx support? Is it forever dead in the water now? Should I be > advising people that there is definitely no chance of current SunOS releases > supporting their 4/6xx machines? I would say this is almost certain. VME driver work has stopped and the 4600 has always been the "odd machine out" in Sun's 90's lineup. If you're willing to do something totally unsupported, have SM40 (or better) modules installed, and have no VME hardware, use adb to nop out the "call halt" after the "call iam_ss600": (offsets may vary depending on patch level) # adb -w /platform/sun4m/kernel/unix startup+0x720,10?ai startup+0x720: startup+0x720: ld [%l0 + 0x1c4], %o0 startup+0x724: call startup+0x724 startup+0x728: nop startup+0x72c: call iam_ss600 startup+0x730: nop startup+0x734: orcc %g0, %o0, %g0 startup+0x738: be startup+0x754 startup+0x73c: nop startup+0x740: sethi %hi(0xf0269000), %l0 startup+0x744: call startup+0x744 startup+0x748: add %l0, 0x350, %o0 startup+0x74c: call halt startup+0x750: clr %o0 startup+0x754: call param_init startup+0x758: sethi %hi(0x0), %l0 startup+0x75c: ld [%l0], %l0 startup+0x74c?W 1000000 startup+0x760: 0x7fffe9fa = 0x1000000 startup+0x760?ai startup+0x760: startup+0x760: nop This will give you a SS600-bootable sun4m kernel (you'll have to netboot or burn a boot CD with the modified kernel to get a SS600 up). This is totally unsupported by Sun so try at your own risk. -- James D. Lockwood The Getty Information Institute System Administrator 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 300 james@gii.getty.edu Los Angeles, CA 90049-1680