[rescue] Ultra 5 NVRAM problems, boot command = bggt

[Ahmed Ewing]

On 9/14/07, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
> >From: John Edwards <john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk>
> >Date: 2007/09/14 Fri PM 01:09:34 CDT
> >To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> >Subject: Re: [rescue] Ultra 5 NVRAM problems, boot command = bggt
>
> <snip>
>
> >Where about is the Openboot held?
> >Can it be upgraded without access to an OS?
>
> OpenBoot needs to function *enough* to get the OpenBoot update started. Typically it is run from the system disk, but I suspect (but do not know) if you could run it off the CD-ROM drive (since all the OpenBoot does is reach out to a bootable device and grab the referenced file and execute it).

I realize this is moot in the current situation because of no network
device being available (unless a Sun-friendly PCI ethernet card can be
had). But as long as the flash patches can be presented via a device
recognized at the OBP level, it will work. As a proof of concept, I
once pushed a flash PROM update down to an Ultra workstation over the
network via Jumpstart, and it did fine--the jumpstart boot to the
patch, that is.

To clarify, the box itself was a Cycle-20 Ultra board, so the U2 PROM
flashed to it killed it. See, the experiment was also to see if it was
close enough in design to accept the same OBP code, which of course it
was not. But the jumpstart process *did* work...  hey, one outta two
aint bad :-)

Regards,

-A