[TriLUG] Fwd: [Aurora-sparc-announce] [ANNOUNCE] Build 1.0 (Ansel) releases

Sun Jan 19 13:03:11 EST 2003

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FYI, this is the first "stable" release of a very nice distro for sparc  
hardware.  I've been following it a few months now and for those who  
want a distro very much like Red Hat 7.3 for sparc/sparc64, look no  
further than Aurora.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Tom 'spot' Callaway" <tcallawa at redhat.com>
> Date: Sun Jan 19, 2003  12:41:51 PM America/New_York
> To: aurora-sparc-announce at linuxpower.org
> Cc: aurora-sparc-devel at linuxpower.org,  
> <aurora-sparc-user at linuxpower.org>, <lwn at lwn.net>
> Subject: [Aurora-sparc-announce] [ANNOUNCE] Build 1.0 (Ansel) releases
>
> The Aurora SPARC Linux Project is proud to announce Build 1.0 (Ansel)  
> to
> the world. This is the first "STABLE" build of Aurora. Nevertheless,  
> its
> very much a work in progress. If you run this on your production  
> server,
> you do so at your own risk.
>
> Download links are at the bottom of this email message, but please,
> please, please read the whole message before installing.
>
> New features in this release include:
>
> Too many security & bugfix updates to count.
> Lots and lots of installer fixes (including the parted bug)
> The sparc64 kernel has O(1) and lowlatency patches applied to it.
> The sparc64 kernel also now has Firewire support.
> Cipe has been enabled in both sparc and sparc64.
>
> You should be aware of the following items:
>
> - When the installer detects the video card, it doesn't really probe  
> the video ram. You need
> to manually select the proper amount.
>
> - The USB mouse is never detected by the installer. Select the Generic  
> 3 Button Mouse from
> the list, and the installer will continue into GUI mode.
>
> _ Some hardware seems to have a difficult time being detected by  
> anaconda. Specifically, the
> esp driver on the Sparcstation 2, the sungem & sunhme network drivers,  
> and the qlogicisp,
> qlogicfc, and sym53c8xx scsi/fc drivers. I've added a lot of fixes  
> that should make it all
> work properly, but be prepared to load these modules manually when  
> prompted (if you're not
> prompted, boot with linux expert, and it WILL prompt you).
>
> - The Quad Happy Meal card seems unhappy in general. It may not like  
> tftp, using all ports,
> or working at all.
>
> - In some situations, the installer will not create a boot alias.  
> Usually, this is when it
> sees Solaris present (and not replaced by Aurora) and doesn't want to  
> step on it.
>
> - KDE seems to want to use /dev/dsp, and this doesn't seem to work. I  
> don't use KDE much,
> so this is low priority. If you fix it, and send me the patch, and it  
> looks sane, I'll apply
> it. I suspect this is an issue on the kernel level, with the audio  
> drivers. /dev/audio works.
> The quick fix is to rmmod soundcore.
>
> - Swapon segfaults on sparc32 SMP. *shrug* Accepting patches.
> The first swap partition will still load.
>
> - Floppy installs probably don't work on sparc64. I wouldn't waste  
> much time trying.
> This is a hardware issue, not a software issue.
>
> - SPARCs don't generally like ISOs burned at high speeds. I had the  
> most
> success burning at 12X or lower. Your mileage may vary. If you are  
> getting
> screens full of DMA timeout messages, try reburning at a lower speed.
> Also, they don't seem to like low grade media very much. If in doubt,  
> passing -vvv to
> cdrecord will tell you the grade of your media. If its worse than A-  
> grade, don't use
> it. Again, this is a hardware issue, not so much of a software issue.
>
> - Some of the language translations are probably really really off. If  
> you catch
> something mistranslated or wrong, please please please send me a fix.
>
> - Large disks (e.g. 40+ GB) may lock up the GUI installer when it  
> tries to format the
> partitions. If this happens to you, try it in text mode.
>
> - SparcStation 20s (and maybe 10s) with a VSIMM installed may have X  
> issues. Some work has
> been done to try to make them play nicely, but if it doesn't work,  
> switch to text mode
> (or remove the VSIMM).
>
> - Sun4d machines simply do not work. The 2.4 kernel needs a lot of  
> sun4d
> cleanups and fixes before it will work, and none of the Aurora hackers
> have sun4d hardware.
>
> - KDE has the wrong startup logo. Whoops. Just pretend it says "Aurora"
> instead of Red Hat Linux. Aurora is not a Red Hat product.
>
> - The iso label identifies them as 0.51 instead of 1.0. Again, whoops.
> 0.51 was the internal number for this build.
>
> Tested machines:
>
> Ultra 2, Ultra 10, Sun Blade 100, Sun Blade 2000, SparcStation 20,  
> SparcStation 4
>
> Install methods:
>
> Serial (works)
> Network (FTP works, HTTP works, TFTP works)
> HD (not tested, no idea if it works or not)
> Text (works)
> Graphical (works)
> Floppy (works (at least for sparc32))
>
> Full downloads are available at the following locations:
>
> ftp://auroralinux.org/pub/aurora/build-1.0/
> http://www.auroralinux.org/pub/aurora/build-1.0/
> ftp://ultra.linux.cz/MIRRORS/zenIII.uk.linux.org/pub/distributions/ 
> aurora/build-1.0/
> ftp://kickstart.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/aurora/build-1.0/
> ftp://angus.ind.wpi.edu/pub/mirrors/aurora/build-1.0/
> ftp://ftp.rdsor.ro/pub/Linux/Distributions/Aurora/build-1.0/
>
> This download site is ISO only (it was too full to hold the rest of the
> tree):
>
> ftp://zenIII.uk.linux.org/pub/distributions/aurora/build-1.0/en/iso
>
> This site should be sync'd up in the next several days:
> ftp://aurora.markab.net/build-1.0/
>
> Wanna be a mirror? Found a bug in the tree? Something missing/corrupt?
> Email the mailing list (you may even want to join):
> aurora-sparc-devel at linuxpower.org or email me: tcallawa at redhat.com.
>
> Aurora is seeking qualified individuals to perform the following roles:
> - errata manager/coordinator
> - contrib manager/coordinator
> - bugzilla administrator
> - kernel hacker
> - userspace hacker
>
> The jobs are unpaid, but the community is friendly, and the rewards of
> seeing Linux run well on SPARC are endless. ;)
>
> Thank yous go out to:
>
> Peter Jones, without whom, there would be no 1.0.
> Ed Halley, for doing all the art in the installer (that you actually  
> get to see now!).
> Jeremy Katz, for not killing me when i asked installer questions after  
> taking over the work.
> Ingo T. Storm, for tireless devotion to Aurora, and missed trains.
> Robr, for carrying that heavy box.
> Jakub Jelinek, for multi-lib.
> Dave Miller, for fixing the UltraSPARC III+ (again).
> David Andrew and Uzi, for supporting the community within Sun.
> Hunter Matthews, for access to the SB2000
> Tom Duffy, for doing the initial O(1)+ll work on sparc64
> All of the mirror admins, thanks for the disk and pipe.
> Everyone on aurora-sparc-devel & aurora-sparc-user.
>
> the Aurora SPARC Project lives at:
>
> http://auroralinux.org
>
> ~tom "spot" callaway <tcallawa at redhat.com>, January 19th, 2003
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Aurora-sparc-announce mailing list
> Aurora-sparc-announce at lists.linuxpower.org
> http://lists.linuxpower.org/mailman/listinfo/aurora-sparc-announce
>
>

Chris Hedemark .. Prospect Park, PA .. http://yonderway.com
Homeland Security begins at home; support your Second Amendment.

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