How to install Debian on a SparcStation

WARNING! Everything that is stated below is probably wrong and dangerous, don't blame me if/when something goes wrong.

I made this install a net install as the SparcStation in question lacked both CD-ROM and floppy-drive. Further more the install was done from a computer running MS Windows, and not as described in the Debian documentation from some host already running some kind of UNIX.

Running over a serial console with a null-modem is an option if you don't have a monitor and keyboard for your SparcStation. The SparcStation 4 has a magic two-in-one serial port, that works just fine as a 25-pin serial port, but it is female instead of male, so you probably need a genderbender for the null-modem. For terminal emulation I recommend TeraTerm, which is free, and lets you send the all important BREAK with a simple Alt-B.

Removing the prom password. WARNING THIS MIGHT DAMAGE YOUR SYSTEM!
Consider that there are other options, a good place to start learning about them is this document from the NetBSD documentation. If your SparcStation is locked by a prom password and you don't know it this method can be used to remove it (actually it is a pretty bad idea to do it this way, so don't ever come and complain if it breaks your machine).

  1. Remove the cover of the SparcStation.
  2. Start it. And press L1-A (or send a BREAK if you use a serial terminal) to get into the prom. If the prompt is "ok>" then there is no password, skip this section.
  3. Remove the chip marked with bar code. It is placed in a cradle and the easiest thing is to remove the whole cradle.
  4. Type n.
  5. When the prompt changes to "ok>" replace the chip, make sure you don't bend any pins.
  6. Type setenv security-mode none
  7. Type reset
  8. The password should not bother you again, either it is gone, or you just trashed a perfectly good computer.

Next you need a RARP server and a TFTP-server, these are common place on UNIXen, but there are alternatives that work with Windows too. I used rarpd written by Lew Perin, download it here. And Tftpd32, which is freeware and can be downloaded here.

rarpd configuration is straight-forward, just make a RARPD.TBL file and put it among the other rarpd files. Notice that it uses "." instead of ":" between the numbers in the mac address.

Tftpd32 configuration is easy too, just make sure to uncheck the "Option negation" box.

Running the self tests
Enter the prom, and give the commands: 

ok setenv diag-switch? true
ok test-all
ok setenv diag-switch? false

Linux as boot server

If you do an install over ftp/http don't go with the default US-server, it has caused my installs to fail a few times. Use "ftp://ftp.du.se/debian" instead, it works fine.

Install from CD-ROM
If you can find a scsi CD-ROM, set it to ID 6 and connect it (externally or internally doesn't matter). Get the first CD of the install set at least, it is enough to install a basic system from. Then it is just to enter the prom console and give the command "boot cdrom" to install ("probe-scsi" might be needed for the sparc to detect the cdrom). Remember to remove the CD-ROM as an APT-source in dselect if you only want to get new packages from the network.

Disk space requirements
I have never seen a SparcStation 4/5 with a smaller disk than 500MB. Even though 500MB isn't very much it is enough to install Debian. A basic install without any extra packages uses a just short of 100MB once the install is done (a bit more during the actual install). If a C/C++ development environment is installed it needs another 70MB, and once that is in a very minimal X install (xdm, xterm and twm, and all that is needed to support them) can be had for another 25MB. I also want ssh support, screen and mpg123. All of it uses 200MB, leaving about 240MB for user files and other applications.

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