[rescue] Sun Blade 1500 firmware password

[Mr Ian Primus]

--- On Thu, 5/20/10, Brian Ross <brian_665 at internode.on.net> wrote:
> 
> Does anybody have any idea on how to reset the firmware
> password?
> Preferrably something simple and doesn't require pulling
> the nvram chips
> while the beast is running or other seemingly silly ideas
> I've found on
> the web.

Pull the NVRAM out while the machine is on? That's crazy. You're supposed to pull it out with the power off. You plug it *in* with the power on.

I've done this several times on SparcStation 5/10/20 machines. The trick is that since it's powered on with no NVRAM, it loads default values, which includes no password. You plug the chip back in, and then save to it, overwriting the password.

I've also done this on an Alphastation - only in this case the EEPROM was soldered in. I soldered a wire to the enable pin of the EEPROM, and tied it high through a resistor. Powered on the machine with the chip disabled, preventing it from loading settings. Then I removed the resistor and wrote to the chip. That also worked just fine.

-Ian