I recently obtained a Sun Ultra 1 from the University. Yes, I know, not the most brilliant piece of hardware around, but hey, can you say no to free toys to play around? I can’t.
For obvious security reasons, the hard drives (I even got two SCSI external drives for this baby) have been wiped, so now I am trying to install Linux. I downloaded the ISO image for net install, burned it and booted it, but shortly after selecting the type of installation I get a message saying that the FP is disabled (FP? 
). Everything then stops and I am back to OpenBoot.
I suppose I can hazard a guess that FP is Floating Point, but why should it be disabled? I certainly didn’t. The tech guys in the University have assured me that this machine was doing server duty and was working perfectly, so it should be ok. Unfortunately they are too busy to help me. So I thought, why not ask those wonderful guys, the Dopers?
Any ideas? Should I just keep the Sun box as an overlarge conversation item?
Hi, can you please tell us which Linux version it is (distribution and kernel version)? If it’s Debian, I have seen a bug which causes this error message. The workaround seems to be to use woody 3.0r2 with kernel version 2.4.18. The newer kenrel versions 2.4.27 and 2.6.8 both get the error.
Also, make sure you get the correct Linux port (arch=sparc and NOT i386, i586, or i686). Additionally, since an Ultra1 isn’t exactly new hardware, you might have more luck using an older version, for example Debian “woody” instead of “sarge”. even better might be trying a SPARC port of “potato” (AKA Debian 2.2). You can also find a lot of useful information at Ultralinux. Hope this helps.
By the way, I am a proud owner of SPARCStation 4 running SuSE 7.0. It also has a second use as a doorstop. 
Thanks, I’ll have a look.
Huh? I posted here? Oh, my. Mods, could you please move it in a more appropriate forum?
Yep, moving from Comments on Cecil’s Column to General Info.
Lars, for future ref, you’ll get faster moderator attention if you hit REPORT POST button. We look at email first, and only later cruise through the forum.
Mycroft Holmes, it was in fact the latest Debian Sarge and it is the kernel that makes this error come up. It is the problem described in the page linked by citybadger. So I did just like advised and downloaded an older CD image for Debian Woody, and installation went more or less.
C K Dexter Haven, sorry about that. I see people saying things like “Mods, can you please move this” all the time and thought that was it. :o