A request showed up on the Debian Sparc mailing list for help with keeping the port alive and since i have access to an UltraSparc server that's not being used anymore, i decided to set one up and see what i can do.
I'm not sure why the d-i (Debian Installer) seems to have had a reputation for being difficult or limiting. To me, it's a consequence of Debian supporting more architectures than most other Linux distributions and supporting multiple installation methods including installing on systems without a video card
It's probably considered obsolete by today's standards and is a bit of a power hog but it's nice to get away from x86 stuff once in a while.
Sun Fire V240
CPU(s): Sun UltraSparc IIIi 1.33 GHz
RAM: 2048 MiB Registered ECC DDR
Video Graphics Adapter: None
Network: 4 x Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet
Note: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 requires non-free firmware for full-operation
Storage Direct Attached Storage Internal Optical Disc Drive 1 x Slimeline DVD-ROM
Storage Direct Attached Storage Internal 4 x 3.5 in. 9.1 GiB SCSI HDD
Software
OS (Operating System)
Debian GNU/Linux 7 Wheezy Sparc
Initial Install
boot CD Debian GNU/Linux 7.1 Wheezy Sparc netinst
NOTE: There is no video card on this server. Using Serial Console to install.
at OpenBoot "ok" prompt:
boot cdrom
at Debian Installer "boot" prompt:
expert DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text
"Debian installer main menu" > "Choose Language" > "English - English" > "United States" > "United States - en_US.UTF-8" > enter "135 136" to enable additional support for locales "en_US" and "en_US.ISO-8859-15" > "Continue" > set default locale as "en_US.UTF-8"
"Select a keyboard layout" > "2. No keyboard to configure"
"Detect and Mount CD-ROM" >
"Load installer components from CD" >
"Additional Components:" > "1" for" cfdisk"
"Detect network hardware" >
"2. No" for "Load missing firmware from removable media?" >
"1. eth0: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet" for "Primary network interface" >
"Configure the network" > "No" to "Auto-configure network with DHCP" > "x.x.x.x" for "IP adddress" > "x.x.x.x" for "Netmask" > "x.x.x.x" for "Gateway" > "x.x.x.x y.y.y.y" for "Name server addresses" > "Yes" if information is correct > "abcd" for "Hostname" > "example.com" for "Domain name"
"Set up users and passwords" > "Yes" for "Enable shadow passwords" > "Yes" for "Allow login as root" > enter and confirm password for root user > "Yes" for "Create a normal user account now"
created normal user
"Configure the clock" > "Yes" for "Set the clock using NTP" > "ntp.example.com" for "NTP server to use" > "Eastern" for "Select your time zone"
"Detect Disks" >
"Partition disks" > "Manual" for "Partitioning method:" > select "SCSI1 (0,0,0 (sda) > "Yes" to "Create new empty partition table on this device?" > "sun" for "Partition table type:" > do the partition table for other disk "SCSI1 (0,1,0) (sdb)" > etc. etc.
Looks like can't do software raid on /boot due to SILO bootloader, allocated empty partitions on other disks equal to /boot to keep disk alignment the same on all drives, RAID 6 with LVM for root and swap
"Finish partitioning and write changes to disk" > "Yes" if all settings look ok.
"Install the base system"
"linux-image-sparc64" for "Kernel to install" > "generic" for "Drivers to include in the initrd"
"Choose a mirror of the Debian archive" > "http" for "Protocol for file downloads" > "United States" for "Debian archive mirror country" > "ftp.us.debian.org" for "Debian archive mirror" > leave blank "HTTP proxy information"
"Configure the package manager" > "Yes" for "Use non-free software" > check "security updates" and "volatile updates" for "services to use"
"Select and install software" > "No" for "Participate in package usage survey" > "No" for "Should man mandb be installed 'setuid man'?" > check only "SSH server" and "Standard system utilities" for "Choose software to install"
"Install the SILO boot loader on a hard disk" >
"Finish the installation" > "Yes" for "Is the system clock set to UTC?" > "Continue"
Post-Install Configuration
edited /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow after making backup copies to only allow access for local network
edited for clarity /etc/apt/sources.list after making backup copy
a little housekeeping, this clears the screen when you log out as root "cp -p /etc/skel/.bash_logout ~/"
Edited /etc/adduser.conf after making backup copy so new users will get added to supplementary groups
Reconfigure local MTA exim "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" >
firmware
aptitude install firmware-linux-nonfree
filesystem utilities
Support for POSIX ACLs and Extended Attributes
Note: XFS as well as JFS has built-in support for these, so there is no need to edit /etc/fstab options like for ext3 or ext4.
aptitude install acl attr bsdtar
NTP
aptitude install ntp
edit /etc/ntp.conf to add timeserver
SCSI tools
aptitude install lsscsi