RE: [cobalt-users] Re: Sun Fire V100/V120

["Gavin Nelmes-Crocker" <cobalt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > I know it can be done and the boys to talk to are
> > www.navaho.co.uk... they did an OSRCD for me in the UK that
> > installed redhat 7.0 onto a RaQ well they now have a full OSRCD
> > written from scratch containing no Sun material using 2.4 kernel (it
> > handles the rom flash for you - testing it properly before
> > continuing)
>
> Have they done their own ROM? Or are they using a Sun ROM and tools?
>
No they are using a Sun Rom - I think that would be regarded as part of the
hardware

> > as well as that it includes the lcd panel and has similar menus in
> > fact more.
>
> Adding stuff to the menus is fairly trivial - all menu actions and
> text are in scripts and directories below /etc/lcd.d
>
> > In fact they have even released their lcd panel utils as open source
> > back to redhat and I'm told they are included in the distro
> > somewhere.
>
> Did they do a clean-room implementation of the Cobalt LCD stuff?
> Because that was always a big problem for adding newer kernels and
> stuff to Cobalts, since they were not allowed to redistribute the LCD
> drivers (not GPL, etc from the manufacturer).  They just provided
> binary libraries...

I don't know how clean-room it was or whether there was a bit of reverse
engineering but the end result I'm told is apparently clean no Sun stuff at
all or manufacturer stuff - the end result of their build is a hybrid redhat
box with a working lcd and menu.

Gavin