Installing Raq550 Software On a Raq4:

Last week I could have sworn that I read a post about this topic, but now it seems to have vanished...

Has anyone done this, and if so, any special things to look out for...

Thanks..
Mark Sr.

The 550 OSRCD has built-in support for installation on RaQ 3, RaQ 4, RaQ XTR, Qube 3, and the RaQ 550. The biggest 'problem' on the other (non-550) platforms has been the ROM flashing to enable 2.4 kernel support, etc.

It _should_ "just work" but the mechanism was never fully tested and QA'd by Sun -- it was a work in progress when resources were yanked from the appliance group -- so there are some unknown scenarios where the ROM upgrade doesn't "take" leaving the RaQ in an unbootable state.

I personally use "boat anchor" as the technical phrase to describe the RaQ at that point.

RaQ 3/4 use a non-socketed ROM, so replacing them in the event of a bad flash is a bear.

Gerald Waugh at www.frontstreetnetworks.com does offer a ROM replacement service for a couple hundred bucks if you need it, though...

It is indeed possible. Using the restore cd you are done....

But you can't reboot the thingy from remote anymore..... how ever considering the fact that the rest of the cobalt are EOL for some people it is an option.

The remote reboot problem appears to only happen the first time you reboot it after the OS Restore, which technically isn't too bad as someone needs to be physically present to rebuild the RaQ in the first place.

Once you select "boot from disk" on the LCD, it sets that as the default boot method in CMOS and the server is ok from then on.

Would you say that the OS for the 550 is much better than the OS for Raq4's

We have been comped on our Raq4's and we are trying to get rid of this jerk, he has not been able to get on our 550's

Mark Sr.

Differences in the 550 OS include: XFS journal file system, 2.4 kernel, built-in JSP support per virtual site, auto port-scan detection and blocking, auto-DNS configuration for new virtual sites, Sausalito-based UI (vs 'old' Perl scripts etc), better internationalization support.

That being said, it's not designed for RaQ 4 hardware, so some stuff won't work exactly the same. But all in all, I'd say it's a "better" OS. Just get past the ROM flashing and you're ok.

What version number are to suppose to choose, when installing 550

Ok, we have the OS on, but we can not get the Updates to install,,,,

Any ideas.... or why?

ASAP

Mark

Are you getting any error messages? Do any PKGs install?

Checkout www.cobaltfaqs.com for the ROM-update-2.9.34-1.pkg ROM package in the download section. Just install it on your RaQ4 and use the RaQ 550 OSRCD.