Summary: Solaris 8 and non-existant video drivers

From: Brett Thorson (bthorson@ekosystems.com)
Date: Sun Dec 17 2000 - 18:30:57 CST


Original Question
----------------------
> I am having a hard time finding a motherboard for Solaris, and I was
> wondering if anybody had any assistance they could offer.
> Running Solaris 8 - Intel x86
> Originally I had a motherboard that satisfied my requirements, however,
now
> it is more difficult.
> Requirements:
> Micro ATX form factor
> 2 Serial Ports (An internal connector is fine)
> 2 DIMM sockets
> Slot 370 (For a celeron chip)
> 1280 X 1024 Video Resolution
> at least 2 PCI slots.
> An integrated video card supported by Solaris.
>
> As some of you may have deduced already, my limiting factor is the video
> card. Due to the box it is going into, I require video to be
> embedded/integrated into the motherboard. The board I have now is a Soyo
> chipset, using an ATI Rage video card. This board is no longer in
> production (so I am told).
>
> All the motherboard manufacturers seem to be discontinuing their 440
chipset
> for the Intel 810/815 chipset which has video support in the chipset.
> However, I cannot get Intel or Sun to give me a hint, or a driver for this
> board. Which leaves me with the problem that I have plenty of
motherboards
> to choose from, but none of the integrated video cards are supported by
> Sun/Solaris.
>
> My other quandary is to see if the Intel 810/815 embedded video emulates
> another video card.
>
> Using an add-on card for video is not an option.
>
> Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
>
> --Brett M. Thorson
------------------------------------------
Responses / Replies

Most of them just said to go out to Xi-Graphics and use their stuff. A
little pricey for multiple installations, and I didn't see that they
supported the Intel 810 stuff yet.

Many other people commented that I should use XFree86. This seemed like a
pretty good solution. It took while to wrestle the system to work.

I learned that the mouse it wants is /dev/kdmouse and not the default
/dev/mouse
and that you have to change the keyboard driver in the config file for a Sun
keyboard.

So I finally got it working, and things look pretty good.

Oh, and all my calls to Sun produced:
"We are not allowed to discuss future product specs" - when I asked for a
recent version of the HCL
"We don't perceive Linux as a threat" - when I mentioned that aren't you
worried about people scrapping Solaris for Linux
"We don't have the man power to devote people to making drivers for
Solaris86" - when I asked about drivers being made for the platform.

My take from Sun, I don't think Solaris86 has much of a useful life left in
it (that is just my personal opinion).

Results
------------------
I installed the xfree86 server and ran it. Then I started running some of
my Java stuff. I get a ton of font errors. It looks like the runtime is
looking for Sun fonts, and they just aren't there for XFree86.

I ran the Java under the Solaris X server and it worked like a charm, so
then I went out looking for a font.properties for XFree86 4.0 - no luck, so
I at least have an X server, I just can't run my java code.

--Brett

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