From owner-freebsd-sparc64@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 28 17:55:57 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F25F16A4CE for ; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 17:55:57 -0800 (PST) Received: from blue.calx.nl (gif1.blue.calx.nl [80.69.67.145]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F046943D39 for ; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 17:55:55 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd@walter.transip.nl) Received: from kai.calx.nl (sufiq.8bit.nl [80.69.67.137]) by blue.calx.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 45806A939 for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 02:55:51 +0100 (CET) Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 02:55:52 +0100 From: Walter Hop X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Message-ID: <3844188062.20031229025552@blue.calx.nl> To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Success / New hardware / gem or hme? X-BeenThere: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Sparc List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 01:55:57 -0000 Hi all, this will be my last noisy post, I am mostly done now. :) So far my experience with FreeBSD/sparc64 5.2-RC2 has been wonderful. My congratulations and thanks to the people who have worked on the port! Booting using the ISO and a serial terminal, installation via sysinstall, making FreeBSD, and installing the important ports was a walk in the park. Some more exotic ports segfault or give weird results, but that may also be a 5.2-RC2 issue (have not compared with 5.2-RC2 i386). I also haven't tested the gdb port yet. I also like the Sun Netra T1 AC200 hardware. It has a very good design, and LOM and the drive bays are excellent. Compiling on the UltraSparc IIe/500 is slower than I had expected which is probably due to its small cache, but disk operations are very fast. I especially appreciate the quick reboots! I may consider buying more Sun hardware to run FreeBSD/sparc64. I am looking for a 1U server for a database server where disk I/O is important. Does somebody have any comments on whether the performance of the new Sun Fire machines are worth the price? Last question: the 2nd hand machine I bought has two on-board ethernet ports (gem0, gem1) and a PCI card with 4 hme ports on it. Is there a difference in quality in these adapters, or can I just pick a port at random? Again thanks in advance :) walter