|
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
|
[PLUG] Fwd: [Aurora-sparc-announce] [ANNOUNCE] Build 1.0 (Ansel) releases
|
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
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@redhat.com>
Date: Sun Jan 19, 2003 12:41:51 PM America/New_York
To: aurora-sparc-announce@linuxpower.org
Cc: aurora-sparc-devel@linuxpower.org,
<aurora-sparc-user@linuxpower.org>, <lwn@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@linuxpower.org or email me: tcallawa@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@redhat.com>, January 19th, 2003
_______________________________________________
Aurora-sparc-announce mailing list
Aurora-sparc-announce@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.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (Darwin)
iD8DBQE+KuhmYPuF4Zq9lvYRAh/1AJwPOlJDJq/+B9eqeOU5PRUrX6HcDgCg5mzQ
lD6WdJqpsLOrph1Y4MujL0Y=
=i1fQ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug
|
|