[NTLUG:Discuss] Sun Cobalt RaQ 3

[MadHat]

On Mar 13, 2004, at 12:17 PM, Ralph Green, Jr wrote:
> Howdy,
>   Has anyone on the list reinstalled the OS on a Sun Cobalt RaQ 3?  Do
> you have the original CD?  I see used Cobalts pretty cheap. They look
> neat and with a bigger hard disk, I could put one into use.  I expect
> they are pretty reliable, although if you know differently, please let
> me know.  I ask about the CD because the used ones I see come without
> any such disk.  Maybe I could just remove the drive and use dd on
> another system to copy the OS it came with if I can't borrow an install
> disk.

They are decent little machines, but you don't want the OS that came 
with them.  It was a bastardized version of RedHat that is not 
supported anymore and has a LOT of bugs and holes.

If I remember correctly the RAQ3 is an Intel based, so I would say pop 
the top and put a temp CD on it or look up how to do a network boot 
install using bootp.  I am pretty sure they support bootp.
The tricky thing is they have no video, no keyboard and everything has 
to be done via console, as in serial cable console.

I have a RAQ2 I am about to rework once I get everything off of it.  It 
has an uptime of over 400 days.

$ uptime
   6:53pm  up 414 days,  1:18,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
$ uname -a
Linux cobalt.unspecific.com 2.0.34 #1 Thu Feb 25 21:04:19 PST 1999 mips 
unknown