[SunRescue] 690MP questions

Hatle, Steven J. shatle at vue.com
Fri Mar 31 10:35:09 CST 2000


Eric,

FYI, you wouldn't need to replace the 4 PROM chips- there is an NVRAM on the
board that holds the machine ID, host ID, etc, and that's where the PROM
password is stored. But, you shouldn't have to replace anything at all.

First thing you need to do is find out what the machine is trying to boot
from. If from disk (most likely) find out which SCSI ID. Once you know that,
you have some options.

You want to get a bootable device that you have root access to on that SCSI
ID. With that, you can use the eeprom command to erase the PROM password.
I've done this with both Solaris and Linux- the Linux syntax is different,
but does effectively the same thing.

I think a Deja search on 'sun prom password' will turn up other and/or more
detailed methods, if you can't find anything on Bill's GOOD site, like the
NVRAM FAQ.

Sorry - not enough time to go into more detail now. If you need more help,
let me know and I'll do what I can.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Randall [mailto:randall at csonline.net]
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 12:11 PM
To: rescue at sunhelp.org
Subject: Re: [SunRescue] 690MP questions


Thanks for the suggestions.  I appreciate all the help...and need some more.
Well, I stopped at radio shack on the way home last night and got a null
modem
adapter.  I pulled the main board out of the 690MP, which was at my
brother's
garage because of the 220V requirement, brought it home and stuck it in a 3
slot
4/75GT case that I had gotten last year for no particular reason other than
that
it looked cool.  I connected it to my pc, started a hyperterm session, and
turned on
the 690MP.  The thing came up fine, reported processors 4 x RT625 (a big
suprise

since I didn't know what was in it), 128mb ram and this is where the good
news
ends.  The boot device couldn't be located so the open boot prompt appeared.
Any input resulted in a "PROM Password:" request.  Are there any deep dark
secrets that someone can share with me about ways of getting around this?
If
not then perhaps some suggestions on where to get a set of those 4 prom
chips.
The prom version is 2.10.2.  I greatly appreciate all help.  Thanks.

Eric Randall

"Hatle, Steven J." wrote:

> Not to ask a dumb question, but did you plug in a Sun keyboard as well?
> That's what the systems checks for and decides to use the serial A as
> console (no keyboard in the keyboard port) or the framebuffer/keyboard
> (keyboard plugged in).
>
> Likely that this machine was in a server room somewhere, the PROM might be
> set to specify serial A as the console. You can use a PC with a null modem
> cable to plug into serial A (9600 8N1) and see what happens.
>
> If you get to the point where you get one LED blinking steadily, that
means
> that the machine has passed POST, and is looking for the boot device. If
you
> get to another combo of on/off LED's, I or other folks on the list can
look
> up the combo and tell you where you are stuck.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Steve
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerome R Radcliffe [mailto:jrr1 at sss.eng.wayne.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 9:53 AM
> To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> Subject: Re: [SunRescue] 690MP questions
>
> I've got a working 690MP here with the same configuration. Do any of the
> leds stay on on the back of the mainboard?  Mine seemed to work just fine.
> Also you might want to try connecting to the serial port to see if there
> are errors.....
>
> Jay
>
> Jay Radcliffe
> Unix Administrator
> College of Engineering Wayne State University
> jay at eng.wayne.edu
>
> On Thu, 30 Mar 2000, Eric Randall wrote:
>
> > I picked up a 690MP just the other day.  I stuck a single slot gx
> > framebuffer in one of the SBUS slots on the main board thinking this
> > would automatically be used as
> > the console.  The machine fires up, the roaring of the fans, the wierd
> > blinking/marquee leds are flashing and doing strange things,  etc., but
> > the monitor just blinked once, then nothing.  Can someone tell me what I
> > should be doing (besides pulling my head out)?   I've been having a hard
> > time finding information on this machine as well. The hardware FAQ seems
> > to not have as much on the 4/6xx machines.  The sun docs site has
> > apparently retired any information regarding these.  Thanks for any
> > suggestions.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> >
>
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