cram@greens.sunpix.East.Sun.COM (Marc W. Howard) (03/15/91)
I've heard that there's a kernel that is booted instead of SunOS on a 3/50 that turns it into an X terminal. Any pointers to this code are greatly appreciated. Marc W. Howard Sun Visualization Products Research Triangle Park, NC cram@sunpix.East.Sun.COM
seth@ctr.columbia.edu (Seth Robertson) (03/16/91)
OK, I'll fess up.
I wrote Xkernel, a set of instructions to turn a Sun into a super-fast
X terminal. It is currently in gamma testing in version 1.2 waiting
for me to find time to do some final testing and packaging, but it has
been installed sucessfully in the current revision. Version 2.0
should be out ``Any Day Now'' but I've been saying that since December
so you shouldn't listen to what I say.
The current version of Xkernel can be gotten via anonymous ftp from
sol.ctr.columbia.edu in /pub/Xkernel.gamma You should get the README
in that directory to see the few things which I mentioned in the
package but are not actually ready yet (Nothing major, just a
debugging statement and a missing pre-digested distribution for lazy
people). You obviously need to get the Xkernel tar file and if you
don't have the X11R4 sources online, you should retreive the
statically linked Xsun binary.
If/when you retrieve it, please return any comments about readability
or clariety to me so that I can think about making the changes to the
2.0 distribution.
-Seth Robertson
seth@ctr.columbia.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.2 (Version 2.0 Gamma)
Xkernel turns a Sun computer into an Xterminal. Currently, the only
machine you might want to do this with is a Sun 3/50, but any computer
should receive a signifigant speedup.
The 3/50 as an Xterminal has many advantages:
1) It is blindingly fast. Quantitative measurements are not available
since the Sun clock is so bad that both before and after the Sun
was able to respond within the clock granularity. However,
qualitativly, on display instensive programs like xmaze and xtank,
a 3/50 running Xkernel was able to outperform a diskfull 4/60 when
the job was running from the same machine. The entire power of the
MC68020 is devoted to only running Xsun and doing kernel
operations. None of the normal overhead present with SunOS is
around.
2) It saves lots of space. You only need a total of 1.7 MB (plus the
X11 font files that you would need for normal X11 operation) for
**ANY** number of machines running the Xkernel. Compaired to >> 20 MB
per normal diskless 3/50s...
WHAT DO I DO?
-------------
After you have the software, read README, README.also, and THEORY.
Then follow the instructions in INSTALL.
RESTRICTIONS
------------
All normal xterminal restrictions apply.
In case you hadn't figured it out, the computer can do NOTHING except
run the X server process.
COPYRIGHT
---------
Xkernel is Copyright (c) 1991 by Seth Robertson. All rights are
reserved.
route.c is Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.
XDM.INSTRUCTIONS is Copyright (c) 1991 by Frank Peters. All
rights reserved.
See COPYRIGHT for more details.
AUTHORS
-------
Seth Robertson, seth@ctr.columbia.edu
Mark Shoulson, shoulson@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu
AVAILABILITY
------------
Xkernel is available for anonymous ftp from sol.ctr.columbia.edu [128.59.64.40]
in /pub/Xkernel/Xkernel.1.2.tar.Z
CHANGES
-------
Changes from version 1.0:
Xlogin replaced with Xdm instructions (thanks to fwp1@Ra.MsState.Edu)
init replaced with a shell script (suggestion from der Mouse)
route.c source included by request for people who want to route
Xsun in a separate file to save space.
SunOS 4.1 fix (/etc/protocols)
Documentation cleaned up.
If you already have a working version of Xkernel, you do not need to
install this new version. The only real improvement is Xlogin being
replaced with XDM.