🚀 go-pugleaf

Stacy and Tom wrote:
 
> 1.    My monitor seems to flicker as if it was interlaced.  It's a Sun
> GDM-1962B model.  Is this normal, or is it my video card (501-2325)?

Sun doesn't do interlacing AFAIK. What you're probably seeing is the 66Hz
refresh rate on the screen. The other option is 76Hz, but I don't know if the
monitor supports it, as it is an old monitor.
 
> 2.    Will the Sparc run w/o an Mbus card?  I tried running it barebones (no
> cards, only a 64mb card) and with and without a drive.  It wouldn't work.  I
> tried putting a (501-2825) card in it and it started fine.

The MBus cards have the CPUs on them. Obviously a computer can't run without a
CPU.
 
> 3.    I have 3 mbus cards - (501-2825) (501-2519) and (501-2360).  Which 2
> of these 3 would give optimal performance?

You need MBus modules that are dual-cpu compatible and are the same speed. Try
http://mbus.sunhelp.org.

The 501-2825 is a 60MHz SM61 module. Pretty nice by itself.
The 501-2519 is a 60MHz SM61 module. It should work with the one above.
The 501-2360 is a 50MHz SM51 module. Don't bother unless the other two don't
work. 

> 4.    What is the (501-1910) sbus card?

Dunno. What kind of connector does it have on it?
 
> 5.    I have a 1.06gb and a 2.15gb hard drive I can install.  The 1.06 has
> the OS (which I cannot use) installed.  If I add the 2.15 it boots, but
> falls into an endless loop.  I'm guessing that it is looking for something
> that does not exist any longer.

Probably. With a used system, it's best to reinstall Solaris from scratch. You
could spend weeks figuring out what's wrong, especially if you don't know
anything. Eventually you'd get frustrated and toss the box in the junk.
 
> 6.    Given the stated information above (and an additional 64mb card, plus
> 6 16mb cards) what OS would I be able to run?  I would like to get Solaris
> 8, but read that someone said it will not run on a SS20.

I don't think you read that anywhere. Solaris 8 runs just fine on an SS20. You
should have at least 128MB of RAM, which I think you do. But, I'm not going to
do your math homework for you :)
 
> 7.    Will an external scsi cdrom work to boot from, or should I take the
> cdrom out of the unit and install it internally?

Internal or external doesn't matter, as long as it's at SCSI ID 6 and is a
Sun-bootable CDROM.
 
> Sorry for all the questions, but after a year of waiting and a day of
> excitement of getting it to actually boot to login, I am just full of
> questions I had NO IDEA would arise.  I've read through info at docs.sun.com
> and on sun.com, and all the newsgroups I am now posting to, and have only
> come up with more questions and few answers.

Sun only wants to deal with and support current hardware. An SS20 is ancient,
and has long been EOL by Sun. Of course they aren't going to waste money
advertising or supporting old junk.

Try http://www.sunhelp.org for more pertinent information.