🚀 go-pugleaf

Vincent Fox <vincent@cad.gatech.edu> wrote in message
news:81qc4n$d6n$1@ubu.cad.gatech.edu...
> This should be a FAQ item by now. I see the same question
> reposted so often, and so many bad answers.
>
> You need Solaris 7 or later to deal with large (>8G) drives.
>
> 1. I toss out the Sun IDE cable.
> 2. Set first drive as master, second drive (if any) as slave by jumpers.
> 3. Connect up using a standard IDE cable, not the Sun cable, to the
>    primary IDE channel. I have had some problems using drives attached
>    to the secondary channel, it works well most of the time but there
>    are apparently some issues there. While putting two drives on the
>    primary channel may not be ideal, neither is using IDE in the first
>    place. Use what works.
> 4. Boot up your Solaris 7, and install or newfs as needed.

Those last four steps have absolutely nothing to do with any "large IDE"
problem (on Sparc U5/U10s or Intel platforms). AFAIK, on Sparc systems
installing Sparc Solaris 7 is sufficient. Perhaps you didn't notice that
the vast majority of >8G related questions posted in this newsgroup are
from people installing the x86 version not the Sparc version of Solaris.
For Solaris x86 the solution is to wait for Solaris 8.

Tossing the Sun supplied cable is silly. Is it possible you've never heard
of "Cable Select"? You're supposed to install the drive's CS jumpers,
not the MA (master) or SL (slave) jumpers. Using a CS cable and
installing the CS jumpers on all drives is functionally (and electrically)
equivalent to using a non-CS cable and the MA or SL jumpers on all drives.
The only way there can be any sort of "issue" with the Sun supplied cable
is if you mistakenly mixed CS and MA/SL drives (or aren't aware that
shifting a drive to the other connector on a CS cable changes its drive
number).