[comp.sys.sun] Sun CD-ROM

pjg@acsu.buffalo.edu (Paul Graham) (06/05/90)

purtill@bourbaki.mit.edu (Mark Purtill) writes:

|A while back I asked a few questions about the Sparc SLC, and promised a
|summary if there was interest.

|^me> 4. Someone mentioned a CD-ROM drive available, along with a CD-ROM
|^me> containing SunOS.  Can this be mounted as a file system
|Summary: It can be mounted, but it's not clear whether you can use it (the
|  SunOS CD-Rom) as a /usr disk or not (some say yes, some say no).

The Sun CD-Rom is in High Sierra format. Since this implies certain file
system restrictions (or so I've been told) the Sun distribution is in the
form of tar images.

Here's an example:
azure:509 ~> ls /mnt/export/exec/kvm/sun4_sunos_4_1_psr_a
kvm            miniroot_sun4  sys            xdrtoc

Kvm and sys are the tars of what you'd expect.  So, yes you can mount this
but certainly not as /usr.  Perhaps the comment below has to do with
future Sun products.

|From: John.Chadwick@West.Sun.COM (John Chadwick - Sun San Francisco SE)
|| Yes it can be mounted, and it's a good way to save disk space if the data
|| you want is available on CD-ROM.  We're hoping to have SunOS on CD-ROM 
|| "real soon", as they say in Marketing departments.

And of course there's a *bug*, but that's another message.

Andrew.Michael@brunel.ac.uk (Andrew J Michael) (10/08/90)

I've just bought a Sun CD-ROM drive, and used it to install SunOS 4.1 on
several different architectures.

Those of you with Sun-3's might like to know that despite Sun saying that
the CD-ROM drive only works with Sun-4's, it works quite happily with a
Sun-3/80.  Looking at the kernel configuration files I suspect that it
will work with a 3/60 or whatever if you have a reversed SCSI-1 to SCSI-2
adaptor lead.

On a similar subject, does anyone know whether the CD-ROM is designed to
be run continuously - i.e. can I leave a CD in the drive for weeks on end?

Andy Michael (eesrajm@cc.brunel.ac.uk)