I’ve made bootable disk images available for most of the workstations in my collection. Almost all the workstations use ZuluSCSI SCSI emulators for their primary disk, making it easy to back them up and mount CD images without actually dragging a CD-ROM drive out.
These images are available free for anyone pursuing getting a classic workstation functional again. You can find the download link for each image on the corresponding workstation or pizza box article page.
Compatibility Notes
For the simpler early Sun machines, images from the same architecture may work on other machines of that architecture. For later machines this is less likely to work. When using an SGI image, make sure the processor architecture matches or the image will not work.
The older Sun box images are SunOS 4.1.4 as that OS works much better on the slower machines. The newer Sun boxes use Solaris 2.6 images.
Getting Started
- ZuluSCSI Documentation - How to use these images and get started with ZuluSCSI
- Why is my Disk Image boot so slow? - Diagnosing slow boots — unconfigured network RPC timeouts, defective SD cards, non-contiguous image writes
- ZuluSCSI Troubleshooting Wiki - Upstream firmware troubleshooting reference
Security Information
These images are configured for vintage computing enthusiasts and should only be used on isolated networks or for standalone operation. The operating systems and software are from the 1990s and do not have modern security features.
Do not expose these systems directly to the internet.
Before booting any downloaded image, verify its SHA1 checksum against the value listed next to the download on the machine’s page. See Image Security and Checksums for the verification procedure.