SUSE Linux on Sun X2100

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The Sun Fire X2100 Server is a economical, powerfull, 64bit rack mount server and given that SUSE Linux is certified and supported by both Sun and Novell on this machine it would appear to be perfect. Unfortunately it still has a few compatibility problems.

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Install Conditions

All tests are done with:

  • Current latest BIOS Revision 1.0.9 available from Sun Fire X2100 Server - Downloads (Older BIOS versions are even more flaky)
  • A single 80Gb SATA disk supplied by Sun
  • An external USB DVD drive
  • "Minimal Installation" selected from YaST (If the install got that far)
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Results

Graphical Install with Generic USB Keyboard Graphical Install with IBM USB Keyboard Text Mode Install with Generic USB Keyboard Text Mode Install with IBM USB Keyboard Text Mode Install via Serial Console
SLES 9 X86 FAILS FAILS FAILS FAILS
SLES 9 X86 SP3 FAILS FAILS WORKS WORKS
SLES 9 X86-64 FAILS FAILS FAILS FAILS FAILS
SLES 9 X86-64 SP3 FAILS - After selecting Install from GRUB menu no further prompt is ever display (Only standard SUSE boot graphic) FAILS - After selecting Install from GRUB menu no further prompt is ever display (Only standard SUSE boot graphic) FAILS FAILS - After selecting Install from GRUB menu system hangs at "ramdisk /dev/ram0 freed" FAILS
OES X86 FAILS FAILS FAILS FAILS FAILS
OES X86 SP2 FAILS - After selecting Install from GRUB menu no further prompt is ever display (Only standard SUSE boot graphic) WORKS * FAILS - After selecting Install (and Text Mode) from GRUB menu Yast License Agreement is displayed but keyboard doesn't work FAILS - After selecting Install (and Text Mode) from GRUB menu systems hangs at "Loading Data into RAM disk..." WORKS
SUSE Linux 10.0 X86 WORKS WORKS
SUSE Linux 10.0 X86-64 FAILS - After selecting Install from GRUB menu keyboard stops working and no further prompt is ever display (Only standard SUSE boot graphic) WORKS (Mostly) FAILS - After selecting Install (and Text Mode) from GRUB menu keyboard stops working and systems hangs at "Moving into tmpfs... done." FAILS - After selecting Install (and Text Mode) from GRUB menu keyboard stops working and systems hangs at "Moving into tmpfs... done."


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Footnote

The NV ethernet driver in SUSE 10.0 currently has a "known" problem with the nVidia GigE port on Sun X2100 servers which causes them to magically stop responding to network requests in the middle of the night with the following error (In my case after operating perfectly for almost 1 month): 

kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out

A full power down temporarily solves the problem however a simple reboot does not! A successfull workaround appears to be to use the second GigE port which uses a Broadcomm chipset instead of nVidia . If you need both ports however you are out of luck.

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