Mike RoachI got an itch to install Solaris 10. Nice to see IPv6 working out of the box. And CDE in Solaris colours is just gorgeous.
fergycool@mroach Nice! Real hardware? I'd love a VMS system. Used one quite a bit many years ago, but the default WM there is definitely not โgorgeousโ. :-)
@fergycool Sadly not, although I do have a spare Sun Ultra 27 here that would be about period-accurate for this. Maybe Solaris 11. My VM already died though. Some disk issue. I've seen this before where the OS just doesn't play nice with a virtualised controller and disk.
VMS! I've never used it but I've seen screenshots. I'd love a bit of DEC gear. One time I had my bid in on a Digital Multia and lost out and I've never seen one for remotely as cheap since :[
VMS! I've never used it but I've seen screenshots. I'd love a bit of DEC gear. One time I had my bid in on a Digital Multia and lost out and I've never seen one for remotely as cheap since :[
@mroach I bitterly regret seeing a very small VAX system sat in a second market stall 30 years ago. The guy wanted just ยฃ20 for it but my bag was full and I thought it will still be there next week. It wasnโt!
@fergycool Our big lesson here is that the best time to buy old computers and parts is at the moment of opportunity! It's not like they're making them any more.
A VAX would have been *sweet*. Did you ever run VMS? I haven't used it personally, but at my first job they had one running for years to support a client that just didn't want to upgrade. We even had an LA120 around into the 2000s.
A VAX would have been *sweet*. Did you ever run VMS? I haven't used it personally, but at my first job they had one running for years to support a client that just didn't want to upgrade. We even had an LA120 around into the 2000s.
@mroach Yes. During my Ph.D. (molecular biology) I accessed an old Vax/VMS to run some bioinformatics software (for DNA sequence analysis). Generally just via telnet although every now and again I got access to the single XWindows client in the entire dept! Years later I ended up working for the company that developed that software but they'd dropped VMS support by then (just Linux, Tru64 and IRIX).
Ra (Freyja) (it/its)๐ญ๐น๐ ๐ฉ@mroach oooo nice! what harddware?
@freya Thatโs a VM, but it died almost immediately apparently due to some disk corruption? Not sure. If I have a spare SATA disk around I may install it on my Ultra 27
@mroach oh damn, do it
@mroach oh wow that's an X86 sun box. huh
@mroach I would say run FractalKit but that's only available for SPARC
@freya Sadly I donโt have a SPARC machine any longer. I had a Blade 1000 for a time but I didnโt have space for a 60kg computer any longer. A Blade 150 would be perfect. Or a SPARC laptop!
@mroach I literally have a Blade 150 in my stack of hardware right now
@mroach running what I can rather accurately describe as a ..... modified... Solaris 10
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.10 Generic Patch January 2005
root@nitrogen:~# uname -a
SunOS nitrogen 5.10 Generic_153153-01 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Blade-100
root@nitrogen:~# bash --version
GNU bash, version 5.3.0(1)-release (sparc64-sun-solaris2.10)
Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
root@nitrogen:~# gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 9.5.0 Kaleidoscope GCC 2026-01-01 (FractalC 9.5.0 2026 SunOS SPARC)
Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
root@nitrogen:~# zsh --version
zsh 5.9 (sparc64-sun-solaris2.10)
root@nitrogen:~# nano --version
GNU nano, version 8.7
(C) 2025 the Free Software Foundation and various contributors
Compiled options: --disable-color --disable-formatter --disable-linter --enable-utf8
root@nitrogen:~# ssh -V
OpenSSH_10.2p1, OpenSSL 3.5.5 27 Jan 2026
root@nitrogen:~# nginx -v
nginx version: nginx/1.28.0
root@nitrogen:~# php-fpm --version
PHP 8.5.1+FRACTAL (fpm-fcgi) (built: Jan 2 2026 11:43:40) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.5.1, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.5.1+FRACTAL, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies
root@nitrogen:~#
๐บ๐ฆ haxadecimal ๐ซ๐@mroach
I have an itch to install SunOS 4. Before they rebased to Missed-em V.
I have an itch to install SunOS 4. Before they rebased to Missed-em V.
mr_daemon@mroach I have a soft spot for the Orange-decoration-and-teal-controls colorscheme in CDE. It just makes me happy and I am not sure why.
@mr_daemon I like the sound of that. I'd like to try it out, but his install of Solaris died after one reboot. Some I/O issue. Sounds familiar to the issue I've had with NT 4 with certain emulated disk modes. Oh well, maybe I'll try again later. Installing Solaris is so time consuming...