Hi,

I've run debian and NetBSD on both my SS4 and my SS5.  The SS4 (a 110mhz system) 
was slightly faster on my simple benchmark of

tar cf - . | (cd blah; tar xf -)

where . was a nfs mounted disk and blah was on a local disk when it was running
debian sarge.  1.24meg vs 0.905 meg per sec.  This is, of course, not the
greatest benchmark.  I have switched back to NetBSD even if it is a touch
slower...

Note that SS5/170 systems don't work well on linux.  Not working well
for some folks is don't boot.  For some folks it's hang under high i/o
load (ie me).  For some others it's just odd behavior.  

Did you try taking out the cgsix?  You said it made it past the audio0 
device so the frame buffer might be next.

To the best of my knowledge NetBSD 2.1 runs fine.

Here's the SS5s dmesg:

NetBSD 3.0 (GENERIC) #0: Mon Dec 19 04:01:27 UTC 2005
        builds@b3.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-3-0-RELEASE/sparc/200512182024Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-3-0-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC
total memory = 255 MB
avail memory = 245 MB
bootpath: /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/sd@3,0
mainbus0 (root): SUNW,SPARCstation-5: hostid 80903d54
cpu0 at mainbus0: DVMA coherent : MB86907 @ 170 MHz, on-chip FPU
cpu0: 16K instruction (32 b/l), 16K data (32 b/l), 512K external (32 b/l): cache enabled
obio0 at mainbus0
clock0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x200000: mk48t08
timer0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0xd00000: delay constant 82
zs0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x100000 level 12 softpri 6
zstty0 at zs0 channel 0 (console i/o)
zstty1 at zs0 channel 1
zs1 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x0 level 12 softpri 6
kbd0 at zs1 channel 0: baud rate 1200
ms0 at zs1 channel 1: baud rate 1200
slavioconfig at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x800000 not configured
auxreg0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x900000
power0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x910000 level 2
fdc0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x400000 level 11 softpri 4: chip 82077
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
iommu0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000000: version 0x5/0x0, page-size 4096, range 64MB
sbus0 at iommu0: clock = 21.250 MHz
dma0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0x8400000: DMA rev 2
esp0 at dma0 slot 5 offset 0x8800000 level 4: ESP200, 40MHz, SCSI ID 7
scsibus0 at esp0: 8 targets, 8 luns per target
bpp0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0xc800000 level 2 (ipl 3): DMA rev 2
ledma0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0x8400010: DMA rev 2
le0 at ledma0 slot 5 offset 0x8c00000 level 6: address 08:00:20:90:3d:54
le0: 8 receive buffers, 2 transmit buffers
audiocs0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xc000000 level 9: CS4231A
audio0 at audiocs0: full duplex
power-management at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xa000000 not configured
tcx0 at sbus0 slot 0 offset 0x800000 level 5 (ipl 9): SUNW,tcx, 1152 x 900, id 7, rev 1, sense 0
tcx0: attached to /dev/fb
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
scsibus0: waiting 2 seconds for devices to settle...
sd0 at scsibus0 target 3 lun 0: <IBM, DNES-309170Y, SA30> disk fixed
sd0: 8748 MB, 11474 cyl, 5 head, 312 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 17916240 sectors
sd0: sync (100.00ns offset 15), 8-bit (10.000MB/s) transfers, tagged queueing
cd0 at scsibus0 target 6 lun 0: <TOSHIBA, XM5701TASUN12XCD, 0997> cdrom removable
cd0: sync (100.00ns offset 8), 8-bit (10.000MB/s) transfers
root on sd0a dumps on sd0b
root file system type: ffs


and her's the SS4s:

NetBSD 3.0 (GENERIC) #0: Mon Dec 19 04:01:27 UTC 2005
        builds@b3.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-3-0-RELEASE/sparc/200512182024Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-3-0-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC
total memory = 159 MB
avail memory = 151 MB
bootpath: /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@4,8400000/esp@4,8800000/sd@3,0
mainbus0 (root): SUNW,SPARCstation-4: hostid 807d11ef
cpu0 at mainbus0: MB86904 @ 110 MHz, on-chip FPU
cpu0: 16K instruction (32 b/l), 8K data (16 b/l): cache enabled
obio0 at mainbus0
clock0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x200000: mk48t08
timer0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0xd00000: delay constant 52
zs0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x100000 level 12 softpri 6
zstty0 at zs0 channel 0
zstty1 at zs0 channel 1
zs1 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x0 level 12 softpri 6
kbd0 at zs1 channel 0: baud rate 1200 (console input)
ms0 at zs1 channel 1: baud rate 1200
slavioconfig at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x800000 not configured
auxreg0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x900000
power0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x910000 level 2
fdc0 at obio0 slot 0 offset 0x400000 level 11 softpri 4: chip 82077
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
iommu0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000000: version 0x4/0x0, page-size 4096, range 64MB
sbus0 at iommu0: clock = 22 MHz
dma0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0x8400000: DMA rev 2
esp0 at dma0 slot 4 offset 0x8800000 level 4: ESP200, 40MHz, SCSI ID 7
scsibus0 at esp0: 8 targets, 8 luns per target
bpp0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xc800000 level 2 (ipl 3): DMA rev 2
ledma0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0x8400010: DMA rev 2
le0 at ledma0 slot 4 offset 0x8c00000 level 6: address 08:00:20:7d:11:ef
le0: 8 receive buffers, 2 transmit buffers
hme0 at sbus0 slot 0 offset 0x8c00000 level 4 (ipl 7): Sun Happy Meal Ethernet (SUNW,hme)
hme0: Ethernet address 08:00:20:7d:11:ef
nsphy0 at hme0 phy 1: DP83840 10/100 media interface, rev. 1
nsphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
tcx0 at sbus0 slot 2 offset 0x800000 level 5 (ipl 9): SUNW,tcx, 1152 x 900, id 0, rev 2, sense 0 (console)
tcx0: attached to /dev/fb
power-management at sbus0 slot 3 offset 0xa000000 not configured
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
scsibus0: waiting 2 seconds for devices to settle...
sd0 at scsibus0 target 3 lun 0: <FUJITSU, MAA3182S SUN18G, 1907> disk fixed
sd0: 17274 MB, 7508 cyl, 19 head, 248 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 35378533 sectors
sd0: sync (100.00ns offset 15), 8-bit (10.000MB/s) transfers, tagged queueing
root on sd0a dumps on sd0b
root file system type: ffs


good luck!

cheers

bruce

On Thu, Jun 15, 2006 at 12:05:54PM +1000, Paul (NCC/CS). wrote:
> Bruce O'Neel wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> 
> >>>
> snip snip
> >>>
> 
> >
> > Is there a possiblity you have a hardware problem?
> >
> > cheers
> >
> 
> thanks bruce,
> 
> a few good ideas there.
> 
> that hardware ran 1.6.2 for ages so i think the hardware is ok.
> 
> since i just need the machine as a lisp interpreter i might just
> try netbsd 2.1 or something. i tried debian last night but it's
> as slow as pregnant snail. well the install was anyway.
> 
> my guess is that the generic kernel is broken with some
> piece of my hardware on my ss5.
> 
> paul.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >
> > bruce
> >
> > --
> > edoneel@sdf.lonestar.org
> > SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
> 
> --
> 
> ____________________________________________
> 
> Paul
> Australian Bureau Of Meteorology
> ____________________________________________
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "In a world without walls and fences,
> who needs windows and gates ?"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
edoneel@sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org