Sun U20 supported, fully/partially working... or not at all?

[Julien Gabel]

>>>> I am currently looking for feedback on using a Sun U20 Workstation.
>>>> [...]
>>>> Any chance to get it working using FreeBSD?  Many thanks in advance
>>>> for reply(ies) and feedback(s).

>>> It seems to run Linux, so I'd _guess_ that most things would work. Not
>>> sure if Xorg supports PCI-express yet.

>> This is what i would gess too at first, but since some additional
>> "Driver and Diagnostics updates" are also provided[1], i am not sure
>> anymore this kink of hardware (especially the motherboard and the SATA
>> controller) may be supported "out of the box", based on the assumption
>> of generic hardware or similar Linux support.  On the other side,
>> Windows is also supported and if i can imagine Sun to provide some
>> binary driver(s) for Linux, i don't think it may be the case for
>> Windows.  So, i don't really know what to think... and ask the list ;)

> Well, the thing comes with UNIX ((Open?)Solaris) installed, so unless
> there is some functionality in FreeBSD that you can't do without, you
> can always fall back on that.

For sure!  I just wanted to use FreeBSD on this kind of machine, but
falling back to Solaris 10 will be the answer if that is not (yet?)
an option.

>> I think that PCI-Express is -- at least partially -- supported by Xorg
>> via the 'Option "BusType" "PCIE"' configuration entry.  The problem is
>> more to know if a driver is provided by Xorg or in the binary updates
>> on the downloadable ISO from Sun: i am pretty sure this one is a problem
>> (i can't see any reference for the proposed cards on the release notes
>> for Xorg 8.6.2...).

> Most of the cards listed use NVidia chips. Most nvidia cards will work
> in 2D in Xorg, but might not use much of the accelleration features
> provided by the card. Hardware OpenGL will probably not work.

I am not interesting in gaming here, so lack of 3D support isn't a
problem.  But because i had problem running an U10 (sparc64) in the past
with a Creator graphic card, i am suspicious here -- maybe without reason
(but nothing say the opposite).

>>> But I bet you can have a no-name amd64 PC built to your specs for
>>> less.

>> Since this one is provided at work, it isn't an issue.

> If there is already a machine in the house, just try booting the FreeBSD
> install CD, and look at the dmesg output. That should give you an idea
> what works and what doesn't.

Right, unless it is just _planned_ to acquire some of this kind of machine,
hence my questioning.

-- 
-jpeg.