I got coda-4.4.3 rpm and recompiled for Sparc Linux.
vice-setup dies with the following message: 


18:35:52 VGetPartition Couldn't find partition /vicepa
Error getting partition named /vicepa. Check vicetab.
done.
Server directory is set up!


Turns up vicetab is : 

spot   /vicepa   ftree   width=64,depth=3
^^^^^^


while the short session on makeftree with gdb demontrated that
makeftree expects to find spot.uchicago.edu (full name) there.