Re: [cobalt-users] RAQ3 Questions

[Bruce Timberlake <bruce@xxxxxxxxxx>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

> I have an older RAQ3 and the hard drive and memory are gone. I want
> to buy a hard drive and some memory for it, and get the OS cd to
> get it back online. I downloaded the OS CD last year, but it kept
> failing half way through the installation, and I got frustrated,
> robbed it for parts and gave up one it ;-> I have been on the Sun
> website all morning, and it is hopelessly unhelpful. So my RAQ3
> questions are....
>
> 1. What is the largest hard drive the BIOS will support?

By default, with no upgrades, 30GB is "the max"... if you use a newer 
OSRCD, you should be able to do 40GB+ without an issue.  Note that 
the original RaQ 3 has an older ROM that has caused some issues for 
some folks with the newer RaQ 4 payload (which is what I recommend 
installing on the box anyway - you get ASP, PHP, and a bunch of newer 
fixes and stuff...).  You can get a PKG for ROM 2.3.38 (which I run 
on my 4r) at www.cobaltfaqs.com in the download section.

You can check current ROM revision by shelling in as root and doing

cmos -c romrev

(Of course that assumes you already have an OS on the box...)  :)

> 2. What is the max RAM for this box?

512MB is the max "certified" from Cobalt/Sun.  You can put up to 1GB 
(2 512MB DIMMs) in it though.  At the time the box was built, 512MB 
DIMMs were too expensive for people to consider putting them in a 
$2000 appliance, so the need to test wasn't justified...

PC100 is what's "recommended" but many have used PC133 with no 
problems - it automatically "downshifts" to run at the slower 100MHz 
bus speed.

> 3. Are there any "old school" cobalt sites that provide better
> references than the Sun site?

Depends. There are actually some good tidbits in the mailing list 
archives (search link is at the bottom of each message to the list).  
Check cobalt-developers list archive as well.  They are the first 
places I go when something comes up that I don't "know" the answer 
to.

There are a bunch of sites in the CobaltFacts webring - go to 
www.cobaltfacts.com for signups for their mailing list (more 
off-topic-forgiving than cobalt-users is sometimes!), see the sites 
in the ring, etc.

Also check uk2raq.com/raqfaq/, nuonce.net, cobaltfaqs.com, 
pkgmaster.com, solarspeed.net, cobalt-aid2.lindist.dk, raqhowto.com, 
raqware.com, raqateers.com, cobalt.pasture.com...

> 4. Is there a list FAQ I can look to in the future before posting
> to the list?

There's one in the archives (I know it gets posted about once a month 
or so -- it's nothing untypical of other mailings lists though), and 
you should have received one when you signed up for this list.

Rule #1 is "search the archives before asking"  !!  :)

Rule #2 is "See Rule #1"


- -- 
Bruce Timberlake

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE+X9GgvLA2hUZ9kgwRAsAjAJ4xaOTPEH01AFGQXE2+m1RnwD+fjgCfUFki
csqBeTPBYpjnEbtsPEU+rAk=
=b7CC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----