[TriLUG] sparc 4 hardware

[Mike Johnson]

Greg Brown [gregbrown at mindspring.com] wrote:
> Is a Sparc4 system with 32 megs of ram and a 500 meg scsi drive even worth 
> loading a Linux distro on?  I was thinking of using it as a firewall.  But 
> here's what I don't recall - the Sparc4 had two ethernet ports - one DIX/AUI 
> and one RJ-45.  Can I use both ports at the same time is it only one or the 
> other in use at one time?

I'm actually using a similar system for my home firewall.  I have a
Sparc5/70 (which uses the same CPU - MicroSPARC II @ 70MHz - as your
Sparc4).  It has 32MB of RAM and a 500MB HDD.  It works quite well for
my purposes.  I've put two NICs in it, in addition to the onboard
ethernet.

That said, what you have is one onboard ethernet interface with two
different physical interfaces.  You cannot plug both in and expect them
to work simultaneously.  If you want to use it as a firewall, you'll
need an SBUS nic.
 
> Assuming that I can use both ethernet ports can I load Mandrake 9.0 with only 
> what is required to support routing and iptables and perhaps one or two other 
> goodies?   Given the vintage of the hardware is this totally pointless?

You might think about trying OpenBSD. :)  That's what I run on my
firewall, and it rocks.  That said, you could probably run a minimal
Linux install just fine on that thang.  32MB of RAM is just fine for a
box with no services/no X.

Mike
-- 
"Let the power of Ponch compel you!  Let the power of Ponch compel you!"
   -- Zorak on Space Ghost

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