To add information to the FAQ send a email to: henric@digital-bless.com

PLEASE NOTE:

As the original author of this document no loger hosts it, I contacted him and got permission to mirror and modify this document
after my own liking. I will not modify any existing information, althought I will add new information as I get it.
The new author's name (me) is Henric Blomgren and I can be reached at henric@digital-bless.com
The original author of this document is named Michal Wells and he can be reached at michael@wells.org.uk

Sun Blade 100 hardware questions

Sun Blade 100 Software/OS questions

Questions yet to be answered

SPARC Linux on the Sun Blade 100/Netra X1

Answers in this category:
How do I use the Blade 100 FAQ?
Click here to go back to the Sun Blade 100 resources page
What does the Sun Blade 100 look like?
Should I buy a Sun Blade 100, or a fast Intel workstation?

OpenBoot 4.x on the Sun Blade 100

Answers in this category:
What memory can I use in the Sun Blade 100?
Can I use a hard drive larger than 15GB?
Can I overclock the Sun Blade 100?
What's the build quality like?
Which Sun Blade 100 configuration is best?
I've added some new hardware. How do I get Solaris to detect it?
Can I use a Cable Modem with the Sun Blade 100?
Why does the motherboard sometimes make a high pitched noise?
Does the Blade use a normal PC monitor connection, or 13W3?
Can I use my <advanced PC device> on the Blade?
Can I use a standard CD-ROM, DVD, CDRW drive in the Blade?
How many IDE devices can I install?
Are any other soundcards supported?
How fast is the Sun Blade 100?
Which printers are supported?
Does the Sun Blade 100 support FireWire hard drives?
How can I make the Sun Blade 100 quieter?
Which USB devices are supported?
Which monitors are supported?
What is the card reader for?
Can I use a serial console to access the Blade?
What problems are there with the SunBlade 100 clock?
Can the system beep volume be adjusted?
Which PCI devices are supported?
Can I use a PS2 mouse and/or keyboard?
How can I get temperature readings from the motherboard?
Logitech: Cordless Desktop Optical
Is the Sun PCI I Coprocessor Card supported ?
How do I access the second serial port?
Keyboard not responding - missing SUNWusb SUNWusbx - how do I fix without re-installing?
Can I use PC network cards in the Sun Blade 100?
How do I remove the heaksink on the IIe?
Which Firewire devices are supported?
How do I use the Iomega USB Zip?
mwells@zeus.com, michael@wells.org.uk, dennis.vanamburgh@Snoopy1.MetLife.Com, geoffrey@deepest.com, stephan@forth.de, mcannon@theriver.com, laurent.bracq@sun.com, p.boven@chello.nl, bongsf@sains.com.my, hans@cyclone.se, jenosch@gmx.de, ltrinh@san.rr.com, rtebeau@yahoo.com, pmatejicek@evektor.cz, claude.hochreutiner@epfl.ch, Heiko.Falk@uni-dortmund.de

Answers in this category:
How do I access OpenBoot without a Sun keyboard (ie. no Stop-A)?
What happened to mkp?
How can I get an Openboot prompt from Solaris?
How do I convert MAC addresses to filenames for TFTP?
Is there are a fix for problems with booting CD devices?
How do I boot in single user mode?
How do I set the screen resolution in Open Boot Prom?
michael@wells.org.uk, arig@my-deja.com, mciaccio@houston.rr.com

        shutdown -i 0 now

						

        shutdown -g 0 -i 0 -y   (using /usr/sbin/shutdown)

        shutdown -h now         (using /usr/ucb/shutdown)

This script will help you convert a MAC address into the filename required by a TFTP server.

#!/bin/sh 
# 
# ident "@(#) conv.sh - ip address conversion" 
# Hanno Schroeder, iXnet GmbH 
# 
# Convert IP address in dot-separated format to hex string 
# 
if [ $# != 1 ] ; then 
  echo "usage: $0 ip-address" ; exit 1 
fi 

echo "$1" | awk 'BEGIN { FS="." } 
  { printf("%2.2x%2.2x%2.2x%2.2x\n", $1, $2, $3, $4) }' | \ 
  sed -e 'y/abcdef/ABCDEF/' 

From Lars Tunkrans:

This new Version:   OBP 4.5
Exists as SUN PATCH   111179-03  on Sunsolve.sun.com

I came across it since I was searching for a soloution
to Why new CDRW drives could not boot from the OS CD's
I found this bug reference

 4462386 unable to boot SB-100 from LG cdrom drive

Included in things fixed in OBP 4.5 and decided to try
if they fixed it for all high speed CD devices.
It seems that they did.  My Yamaha CRW3200E  is able
to Boot from CD now !

When you turn it on, press stop-a.
At the ok prompt, type "boot -s".

****** Warning **************************

 Read the WHOLE text through before doing anything.
 Always Power OFF all equipment before (dis)connecting any signal cables.
 Read the WHOLE text through before doing anything.

*************  END Warning **************

If you have an Older or unusual VGA monitor It migth be nessesary to
change the default resolution/scanrate that the SUNBlade100 uses in Prom mode
and in single user/command line window mode.

Before you can attach your old Monitor you will probably have to borrow a fairly
new standard monitor that supports 1152x900x76  which is what the SUN 17"  
monitor uses for default resolution. Attach the "Standard" monitor to the SB100 
and do the following procedures:

( Another way to do it is ofcourse to attach a NULL-MODEM cable between a 
PC COM1 port and the Serial 1  port on the SUNblade an remove the Sunblades 
keyboard which will make the SUNBLADE use the Serial 1 port as its Console. 
Then set up a Hyperterminal/VT220 emulator session to the SUN from the PC. )

The following command's shows the syntax for changing the default resolution/Scanrate
 into something you VGA monitor can use. This Change is done in the Open Boot Prom mode.
To enter OBP it is nessesary to press the keys  [STOP] and [A]  before UNIX starts
to load when the "ok" prompt show, type the following

        ok setenv output-device screen:r800x600x75
        ok reset-all

the colon between the " screen" and the resolution setting is esential, it does not work 
otherwise,..... I tried without colon too and nothing happened until X started up.

Obviously  you will have to enter a Resoultion/Scanrate triple that the intended
monitor does support and that the VGA driver chip supports.  I can not know
which resolutions your old Monitor works with, that you have to find out yourself. 
To find out which resolutions the VGA chip supports,
boot up UNIX  ( with boot -s ) and type :

        m64config -prconf

This shows a list of about 50  different resolution/scanrate triples that the
ATI chip in the SUNBLADE can be set to.  The oldest and most generic should be:

        640x480x60

******  Caution ****************************

You must be careful not to set the resolution scanrate triple to a value that the 
monitor you are using to configure with cant handle. The SUN 17" does NOT
support 640x480x60.

********** Caution ***********************

Then you should probably switch monitors to the one you intended to use and
verify that you get an image up on the Tube. If you dont, switch monitors again
and try anew.

To continue and boot Solaris in single user mode  give the command
 
        boot -s 
 
while in OBP mode.

The m64config  command actually configures  the Xwindows server.  So to be on the
safe side you sould do a :

  m64config -res  800x600x75  

While doing this procedure it is probably good NOT 
to have the Xwindows environment autostart at each reboot. So you can temporarily
disable the startscript /etc/rc2.d/S99dtlogin  by renaming the file to a name
that does not have a leading capital "S".

Try different resolutions with m64config.  You must Kill Xwindows and restart X
between each change. If you try a resolution that doesnt work with your monitor 
you will loose control of the machine. You will probably have to COld start it to
recover.

Then when you are happy  that the Xwindows resolution works,
renable S99dtlogin  by renaming it again to the original name.

That should be it more or less .......

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?model=Sun+Blade+100+Workstation&x=9&y=9
slj_juan_valdez@hotmail.com

Is it worth trying? The SPARC chip family is not renowned for being overclockable, and it may become unstable (or be destroyed). The idiom of overclocking is a very "Intel" thing. :-) The performance of the machine is readily improved by fitting extra memory, faster drives and graphics chips. If you try overclocking your Sparc IIe and succeed, please let us know.
michael@wells.org.uk

Here are the CPU jumper settings quoted from the Sun FE Handbook


        JP3(1-2)   JP3(3-4)   JP3(5-6)
500MHz  out        out        out
550MHz  in         out        out
600MHz  out        in         out
650MHz  in         out        out

Naturally, by doing this you will void your warantee. I also asume no
liability if you are stupid enough to overclock your CPU!

Here are comparative results from /usr/platform/sun4u/sbin/prtdiag:

==================================== 500MHz ======================
               E$          CPU     CPU       Temperature
CPU  Freq      Size        Impl.   Mask     Die    Ambient
---  --------  ----------  ------  ----  --------  --------
 0    502 MHz  256KB       US-IIe   1.4     50 C     31 C

==================================== 550MHz ======================
               E$          CPU     CPU       Temperature
CPU  Freq      Size        Impl.   Mask     Die    Ambient
---  --------  ----------  ------  ----  --------  --------
 0    550 MHz  256KB       US-IIe   1.4     60 C     33 C

It (seems) ok. I've put the chip back to 500MHz though.

fyi, i overclocked a netra x1 (which has a usIIe, too):

System Configuration:  Sun Microsystems  sun4u Sun Netra X1 (UltraSPARC-IIe 600MHz)

                    Run   Ecache   CPU    CPU
Brd  CPU   Module   MHz     MB    Impl.   Mask
---  ---  -------  -----  ------  ------  ----
 0     0     0      600     0.2   13       1.4

some benchmarks:

dnetc v2.8009-460-CTR-00051910 for Solaris (Ultra)
 * Benchmark for RC5 core #0 (Generic RC5 core)
 * Benchmark for OGR core #0 (GARSP 5.13)

Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 7] 400 MHz
 - RC5 0.00:00:16.77 [797,713.05 keys/sec]
 - OGR 0.00:00:16.17 [2,024,554.48 nodes/sec]

Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 6] 450 MHz
 - RC5 0.00:00:16.21 [896,274.89 keys/sec]
 - OGR 0.00:00:16.19 [2,283,313.34 nodes/sec]

Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 5] 500 MHz
 - RC5 0.00:00:16.82 [994,541.73 keys/sec]
 - OGR 0.00:00:16.23 [2,528,802.77 nodes/sec]

Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 4] 550 MHz
 - RC5 0.00:00:16.24 [1,097,655.66 keys/sec]
 - OGR 0.00:00:16.29 [2,784,867.89 nodes/sec]

Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 3] 600 MHz
 - RC5 0.00:00:16.66 [1,195,864.10 keys/sec]
 - OGR 0.00:00:16.33 [3,037,066.44 nodes/sec]
 
Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 2] 650 MHz
Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 1] 700 MHz
Processor Speed = [Speed Jumper = 0] 750 MHz

note:
 above 650 mhz, the netra goes unstable &
 the speedjumper is a 3 bit jumper near the psu.

Inside, the build quality is very good. There are useful access levers for most of the slots, which eliminate much of the screwdriver madness usually found inside a desktop. :-) The only problem I've had is that the hard drive ribbon cable tends to be a little close to the running line of the right hand side of the lid; when you replace the lid you have to be careful not to snag it.

The SPARC chip runs cool without a fan (it has a heatsink) and the chassis fan is quiet, but not a low-noise version. The PSU is a cheap 200W one, but is not under much load due to the low power consumption of the whole machine.

The CD-ROM unit is a fairly standard Lite-On 48x drive, which is a brand I've seen before and (although it's cheap) it's reliable. I haven't seen the DVD drive so can't comment yet. However, I did notice that the audio connector from the CD isn't connected to the sound card, which is quite a bizarre oversight.

There are internal diagrams of the Blade 100 in the service manual, which is linked on http://sunblade100.wells.org.uk/. There are photos of most of the machine here: http://sunblade100.wells.org.uk/photos.
michael@wells.org.uk

I got mine to work on @home with a "surfing machine 100" cable modem, using 
a simple FreeSCO router, assigning the Blade an IP 192.168.168.6 on the near 
side of the router, the Gateway as the router 192.168.168.1, then getting the 
DNS info off of the FreeSCO system.  No need to enter a domain name.  Detailed 
DHCP and IP info, such as your @Home DNS server IP, can be obtained in Windows 
by typing "winipcfg".  The DNS info gets put into the /etc/resolv.conf file.  
You may need to make this file, I did.  Format:

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver 127.0.0.1

Replace the x's with relevent DNS server info from your service That's it.  
Nothing else in the file.  Make sure you have a switch to run @ 100Mbps across 
your LAN.

Ryan

I looked into this problem, as have Sun, and it's due to signal coupling in the motherboard. The sound chip is right next to the graphics chip, and when you run at 24 bits colour mode the graphics chip operates at a high enough frequency to cause breakthrough. I have found that completely disconnecting the internal speaker from the motherboard (front right on the riser board, under the fan cable) solves the problem. If you use the 8 bit colour mode, this also addresses the problem. This is obviously a serious flaw in the design of the Blade!

Workarounds:

1. Leave or set back the display depth to 8 bit:

% m64config -depth 8

Then exit out of CDE to restart the X server.

2. Unplug the internal speaker, and use external speakers connected to headphone jack (for un-powered) or lineout (for powered speakers).

3. Install alternative graphics PCI card to be used as primary video interface.
michael@wells.org.uk

I have just called in with this bugid and escid, and Sun have promised to sort it out. I will post more information on how they handle it once I've got a replacement (or otherwise!).
michael@wells.org.uk

In summary, to fix the high pitched noise for good, you need an -O6 rev 50 board. The fix involves different capacitors and resistors in the circuit connected to the sound chip.
michael@wells.org.uk

While it does have a PC-standard PCI bus, you won't find many PCI devices designed for Intel machines that can be used in the Blade (thanks to OSS supporting Solaris, soundcards are an exception).
michael@wells.org.uk

I have a Predator CD-RW connected by USB.  It must use
the USB-SCSI adaptor that is currently supported in 
Solaris 8.  Running 'cdrw -l' recognized it, and I
just entered:

'mkisofs -r my_dir 2> /dev/null | cdrw -i -p 1'

Come back in 10 minutes and pop off the CD.

I am currently looking at buying and setting up a CDRW on a Sunblade 100?
CDRecord is the software that comes as default with Solaris 8. Can anybody 
recommend which are the "solaris/sunblade 100 friendly" CDRWs to use and 
which is the best "only" software to use? I am considering a Plextor 401040, 
but most Solaris literature refers to SCSI interfaces and not IDE? Are they 
compatable? What are the pitfalls? Guess there is only one way to find out..?  

Success with SONY CD-RW CRX175E and Sun's SUNWcdrw package on Sol8 10/01.

One odd behaviour:
% cdrw -i
No CD writers found or no media in the drive.

But if you put a disc in the drive:
%cdrw -i

    Node              |    Connected Device            |  Device type
----------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------
 cdrom0               | SONY     CD-RW  CRX175E   1.0j | CD Reader/Writer

I've replaced the original CD-rom drive with a LiteOn DVD 163-D drive. Works like a charm, I can even watch full-screen DVDs thanks to Xine.
Because the original SunBlade CD-Rom is also from LiteOn I could simply take off
the purple front-cover and drawer and snap them on the DVD-drive, so it even
looks nice. Only the volume-knob on the DVD has the 'old' color but that's not
really a problem and something I might change once the warranty expires.

With the LiteON DVD 163D drive, are you able to boot from it?  I would like to get one, but don't want to have to deal with the booting issue mentioned above.
Thanks

Here is a table for comparison of SPECInt and SPECfp figures. Comparing SPEC95
 and SPEC2000 figures directly, using the Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 values (for 
which there are values in both benchmarks), is *not* valid due to the greater 
or lesser significance of chip caches in the test, and the smaller 256Kb cache
 on the 500MHz IIe of the Sun Blade 100.

Workstation SPECint95 SPECfp95

SPARCstation 5/110 1.6 2.0 
SPARCstation 5/170 3.3 2.9 
SPARCstation 20/71 3.1 3.1 
Ultra 1/140 5.4 7.9 
Ultra 1/170E 6.3 9.1 
Ultra 5/270 9.1 10.1 
Ultra 10/300 12.1 12.9 
Ultra 5/360 12.1 15.5 
Ultra 5/333, 10/333 14.1 18.3  
Ultra 5/400 16.5 21.9 
Ultra 10/440 17.9 22.7 
Blade 100 20.0 21.0

Workstation SPECint2000 SPECfp2000
Ultra 10/300 100 100 
Ultra 5/333, 10/333 133 126 
Blade 100 174 181 
Blade 1000 model 1600 313 339 
Blade 1000 model 1750 395 421 
Blade 1000 model 1900 467 482 

Note that the integer (SPECint) performance is generally representative of
 normal use. The Sun Blade 100 is nowhere near as fast as a Pentium system
 costing the same amount at either SPECint or SPECfp - that's not really the
 point in owning a Sun Blade 100, but it's worth mentioning.

Real world performance.

I have a basic spec Sunblade 100 (128M RAM etc.) and an Ultra 10 300MHz with a
creator 3D card and 256M RAM.

I find that the Ultra 10 is faster on graphic intensive apps, both 3D and 2D,
especially games like Quake and Doom. However the Sunblade does to seem to be
quicker on more CPU intensive stuff where there is very little in the way of
graphics activity. This is especially noticable when compiling stuff.

The following is some up-to-date revelant comparison spec numbers for the
Blade 100 and U10.  It comes from the following official url:
http://sun.systemnews.com/system-news/jobdir/submitted/2002.07/6622/6622.htm
l  As you can see, the int performance is just a bit less, and fp somewhat
more.  I am not sure why the 440 U10 does not appear on the spec.org site.

Q. How does the Sun Blade 100 compare in features and performance to
the Ultra 10 workstation ?

A. Below are the specs of the two machines.

                             Sun Blade 100       Ultra 10
                             -------------       --------

        Processor            UltraSPARC-IIe      UltraSPARC-IIi

        Clock Speed          500-MHz             440-MHz

        External Cache       256 KB(on chip)     2 MB

        SPECint_2000         174                 180
        SPECfp_2000          182                 165

        Max Memory           2 GB                1 GB

        Graphics             PGX64,              PGX24,PGX32,PGX64
                             Expert3D-lite       Creator3D, Elite3D m3/m6

        Networking           10/100 BASE-T       10/100 BASE-T

        I/O Expansion        3 PCI               3 PCI
                             4 USB Ports
                             2 IEEE 1394 ports

        Max Internal         2x20GB EIDE         2x20GB EIDE
        storage              CD-ROM              CD-ROM
                             DVD-ROM

        Form Factor          pizza box           mini-towe

From Manwe Sulimo [manwe-sulimo@attbi.com]

xwprint: http://xwtools.automatix.de/startE.htm (commercial)

gimp-print: http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/ (GNU open source)

I have got my Epson Photo 870 to work with Solaris 8 via the parallel port, using xwprint.
michael@wells.org.uk

2) Disconnect the chassis fan. I tried this and was not surprised to find that the machine runs very hot. The temperature rises to an unacceptable level - definitely not recommended. Replace the fan with a quieter one perhaps.

3) Disconnect the PSU fan. Again, the temperature will rise to an unacceptable level. Definitely not recommended. You could fit a 300W PSU or even high spec power supply, which would run cooler due to the higher spec being under-utilised. I still consider this risky.

4) Fit a quieter hard drive. The internal Seagate drive is very noisy - a good Western Digital or IBM drive is substantially less noisy (and may have other benefits like speed and higher capacity).

5) Use quiet components (eg. from www.quietpc.com). You can buy quiet fans, hard drive enclosures (you'll need to find space to fit that - it needs a 5.25" bay) and even quiet CPU fans which could be useful if you're going to try overclocking the SPARC.

Any other ideas would be of interest!
michael@wells.org.uk

See http://www.sun.com/io_technologies/storagesolutions.html. 
This list is far from exhaustive though!

Castlewood ORB 2.2GB External USB Drive 
FlashGate (SmartMedia Reader/Writer USB version) 
FlashGate CF (Compact Flash Reader/Writer USB version) 
Flashgate Dual 
Iomega Zip USB 100 
Iomega Zip USB 250 
Iomega 1GB/2GB Jaz with Jaz USB Adapter 
Iomega USB Clik! PC Card Doc 
Iomega USB Zip CD 
Plexwriter PX-W8432Ti 
Plexwriter PX-W12432Ti 
Plexwriter PX-W12432Te 
plexwriter PX-W8220Ti Plexwriter PX-W8220Te 
SCSI to USB Converter  (SCM Microsystems)
Spressa CRX140 e/ch 
Spressa CRX140 s/c [EOL'ed] 

 thumb and wheel buttons both show up as button 2 and rolling the 
 wheel just exercises my finger muscles, but otherwise it works fine.)

 "An internal speaker is connected to the motherboard through the riser card
  and used by SW to make beep sounds as well as audio sound output"

						

I came up with the following script to whack it completely when ran as root..  (Of course YMMV/etc)

#!/usr/bin/ksh 
echo "$0: Verifying grbeep is loaded"
cnt=`/usr/sbin/modinfo | /usr/bin/grep grbeep | /usr/bin/wc -l`
if [ $cnt != 1 ] 
then
        echo "$0: grbeep appears not to be loaded"
        exit 1
fi

echo "$0: Locating ddi_putb call address" 

addr=`echo "grbeep_on/20I" | /usr/bin/mdb -k | /usr/bin/grep ddi | /usr/bin/grep put | /usr/bin/awk '{ print $1 }'`
addrcnt=`echo $addr | /usr/bin/wc -w`
if [ $addrcnt != 1 ] 
then
        echo "$0: Located incorrect address count: $addrcnt: Aborting..."
        exit 1
fi

echo "$addr/W 01000000" | /usr/bin/mdb -kw
#echo "$addr/W 01000000" 

echo "$0: Beeps are now off.."
/usr/bin/printf "\007"
exit 0

PS: This is a Solaris 8 script, only tested on 4/01, and 7/01

  unix%  xset b off

						

  Note that not all hardware can vary the bell characteristics.

						

See http://www.sun.com/io_technologies/pci/io.html for a list of 
Solaris-ready devices. This list seems hardly ever to be updated, 
though. The most commonly asked question is which SCSI controllers 
can be used:

Ultra SCSI:

Adaptec, Inc. Ultra 160 SCSI Card - 29160 
Adaptec, Inc. Ultra 160 SCSI Card - 39160 
Adaptec, Inc. Ultra 160 SCSI Card - 29160N
Adaptec, Inc. Ultra 160 SCSI Card - 29160PL 

LVD interfaces:

Antares Microsystems P-1059 PCI ConServer-FE/U2WL Fast Ethernet & LVD SCSI-U2WL 
Antares Microsystems P-0068 PCI LVD Ultra-2 SCSI - Single Channel 
Antares Microsystems P-0069 PCI LVD Ultra-2 SCSI - Dual Channel 

These should all work:

        Antares PCI SCSI-U2WL 80 MB/s LVD SCSI 64-bit PCI
        Antares PCI SCSI-2U2WL dual 80 MB/s LVD SCSI 64-bit PCI
        Antares PCI SCSI-2U3WL dual 160 MB/s LVD SCSI 64-bit PCI 
        Asus SC875 40 MB/s UW SCSI 32-bit PCI 

We're using the Asus card ourselves but it's quite hard to get
as it's not produced any more. Some other ncr/sym53c875 based
cards should work too (but not Tekram?).

Also, Intraserver has LVD host adapters that are supported under
SPARC Solaris.