How to install Debian on Sun Netra 240

How to install Debian on Sun Netra 240

Why would i need to install Debian OS on Sparc?

-Maybe you're finding Solaris OS stupid and you need better managable OS on your Sparc like Linux especially Debian distro.

This article is going to cover problems in installation of Debian 5.0.1 Sparc on Sun Netra 240 Server!

1) Obtain your Debian Sparc from offical Debian link http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.1/sparc/iso-cd/

-Y ou need to download only first CD for a basic OS installation, i suggest you to download other elements via apt-get or .deb packets after OS installation done, this will save your valuable bandwidth

2) Burn your iso image with what CD burning program you like and place it in your N240 server

-Nero, Roxio etc.

3) You need to go "ok" prompt first for boot choice

- Easiest way to do that is sending Break while server in power-cycle

4) When you get the "ok" prompt, write "boot cdrom"

-This will reboot the box and it will boot from our Debian CD

5) Debian installer will welcome you with couple of parameters, you don't need them, just pressing Enter is enough

- 2 options "expert" and "rescue" are quite useful if you know what to do but this is out of scope this article

6) Sometimes (generally after Solaris installation) SILO cannot load itself to memory and fails to start.

- If you face a problem like that, easiest way to avoid this is unplugging N240 from power source, this will reset memory allocation.

You might see following error:

>>>>> Allocated 8 Megs of memory at 0x40000000 for kernel
>>>>> Uncompressing image...
>>>>> Loaded kernel version 2.6.18
>>>>> Loading initial ramdisk (4704626 bytes at 0x1F802000 phys, 0x40C00000
>>>> virt)...
>>>>> ERROR: Last Trap: Memory Address not Aligned

7) Setup guide will ask you about which ethernet interface dou yo prefer as primary NIC

NetXtreme BCM5704 problem on Debian Sparc Sun Nerta 240 with 4 NICs

- If you choose eth0, there is a bug about that, cause of tg3 driver, you cannot connect network when installation finished. To avoid this use eth2 instead of eth0.

- If you've already selected eth0 as your primary NIC, no worries you can edit /etc/network/interfaces file just replace eth0 to eth2. After networking service restart, your network connection will work as charm.

This bugs take sometime to finish my installation, i had to google hundreds of pages to solve them. I hope you find it usefull.

Cheers

Typhoon Master