Looking for PROM 1.x for Sun 4c hardware such as the SPARCstation 1

AstridRedfern

Member
Sep 20, 2022
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Hi all,

As mentioned in my previous post in this part of the forum (https://forums.sgi.sh/index.php?threads/aviator-a-flight-sim-program-for-sun-gx-does-anyone-have-this-installed-can-anyone-run-it-and-get-screenshots-or-video.885/), I've been looking for people who can run the "Aviator" flight sim on Sun hardware.
I also asked on Reddit and the Vintage Computer Federation forums, and a few people on those boards were able to get Aviator 1.5.1 to run.

However, getting 1.2 (the last purely freeware version) to run has proven more difficult. It can run on a Sun 4C machine in theory. But in practice, it won't run on an OS version that isn't 4.0-4.1, and most of these machines were upgraded to PROM 2.X, which means they can't run those OS versions. And there don't seem to be any PROM 1.x files online anywhere.

(My source for all this: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/the-aviator-flight-sim-for-sun-gx-hardware-e-g-sparcstations.1240578/post-1287483)

Here's the exact quote from that URL:

So it looks like 1.2 will only run on sunos 4.0-4.1 on sun3, sun3x, sun4, and early sun4c machines. Most of those machines are pretty rare these days and the p4 cgsix is basically unobtainium. Early sun4c machines are still somewhat common these days however most of them have been updated to the 2.x prom so can't run sunos 4.1 or below. I spent some time looking on the web for a 1.x prom file but I can't find any, it seems people only save the latest version. So if anyone out there has a ss1, ss1+, ipc, slc with a 1.x prom try installing sunos 4.0.3c and running aviator 1.2.
So... does anyone here have PROM 1.x, and if so, could you upload it somewhere? Many thanks if you can.

And if you're lucky enough to have one of the rarer Sun machines from that list... could you try to get Aviator v1.2 running on it? Big thanks if you can.

Cheers,

Astrid.
 

Elf

Storybook / Retired, ex-staff
Feb 4, 2019
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Mountain West (US)
dukenukem2000 from the Discord chat remarked:
dukenukem2000 said:
actually, you don't strictly need a version 1 .X OBP to run SunOS 4.0. There is some documented OBP magic you can use to enable 1.X compatibility on a 2.X OBP version. It is pretty much just an environment variable (that I currently forgot...).
 
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AstridRedfern

Member
Sep 20, 2022
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In case anyone knows... leadedsolder on Reddit may be able to do a dump of version 1.3, but needs to know what kind of ROM IC an SS1+ uses. Can anyone supply the answer?

dukenukem2000 from the Discord chat remarked: actually, you don't strictly need a version 1 .X OBP to run SunOS 4.0. There is some documented OBP magic you can use to enable 1.X compatibility on a 2.X OBP version. It is pretty much just an environment variable (that I currently forgot...).
Interesting. I'll bring this up on Reddit and vcfed. Thanks for that.
 
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Elf

Storybook / Retired, ex-staff
Feb 4, 2019
792
252
63
Mountain West (US)
No problem; more from dukenukem2000 (who should probably just sign up!):
dukenukem2000 said:
also, the solution to the OBP 1.x vs. 2.x problem is most likely to just: setenv version2? false
as copied from the FEH: "The 2.4, 2.6, and 2.9 Boot PROM modes do not support SunOS 4.0.3c or SunOS 4.1. Set the NVRAM parameter version2? to false to enable the 1.7 Boot PROM mode."
 

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