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Installing Red Hat Linux on the Cobalt Qube 3 Appliance
The following is a technical recipe or "howto" document for one successful procedure to install the Red Hat Linux distribution onto a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 model internet appliance.
Warning! This procedure voids any and all warranty and support options from Sun/Cobalt. The procedure completely replaces the entire software load for the intended device. Do not call Sun Microsystems for support on an appliance after any of these modifications are attempted. This procedure is offered without warranty and the authors are not liable for damages incurred to any hardware or software through its application.
- Red Hat Linux / Fedora Core on a Qube 3: Introduction
- Using Flashtool to Upgrade Qube 3 Proms
- Inside the Cobalt GenIII Kernel RPM, Part 1: Preparing a Sandbox
- Inside the Cobalt GenIII Kernel RPM, Part 2: Making the Ext3 Patch
- Inside the Cobalt GenIII Kernel RPM, Part 3: Building to Spec
- Installing Red Hat Linux, Part 1: Stock Distribution
- Installing Red Hat Linux, Part 2: Customization for Cobalt
- Installing Red Hat Linux, Part 3: Booting the Qube 3
- Ideas for Managing Red Hat Linux on the Cobalt Qube 3
This document assumes that you have a working Cobalt Qube 3 model internet appliance, that you have Red Hat Linux version 7.2 installation media, and that you are willing to completely replace the entire contents of the hard drive with a completely new installation of Linux on the device.
This document assumes you have access to a desktop machine which is running Red Hat Linux, has RPM and C compiler tools available, which has an IDE device chain from which the desktop machine can be booted, and additionally has a CD-ROM drive from which the desktop machine can be booted. This desktop machine will be used to compile a kernel (optionally), to act as a surrogate machine to install Red Hat Linux on the IDE hard drive to be installed in the Qube 3 appliance, and to fine-tune the configuration of the Qube 3 appliance on its first bootup using Linux.
This document specifically focuses on the Qube 3 device, but some reports indicate that the procedure is fundamentally the same for replacing the operating system load for Cobalt Raq 3 and Raq 4 models as well. A few Raq-specific notes are given, but the author has not tested that scenario as thoroughly.
This recipe was developed by Dax Kelson of Guru Labs. Thanks also to Tim Hockin of the Cobalt team for offering his assistance in this project, even though the procedure is not supported or warranted by Sun Microsystems. These pages were written by Ed Halley, after successfully renovating his own Cobalt Qube 3 to run Red Hat Linux.
Technical questions about this procedure should be directed to Dax Kelson of Guru Labs.
Warning! Use this procedure at your own risk.
Next Section: Using Flashtool to Upgrade Qube 3 Proms
Text and artwork are Copyright © 1996-2002 Ed Halley.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Red Hat, and Red Hat Linux is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.
Sun, Cobalt, and Qube are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Many thanks to Dax Kelson of Guru Labs, and to Tim Hockin of Sun Microsystems for their assistance and tools.
Copying in whole or in part, with author attribution, is expressly allowed.