[SPARCbook] SPARCBook2: TOD clock not initialized

[Joe Schmittlein]

I haven't done this in a while, but...

The battery in your nvram is dead.

The nvram is available.  I've purchased them from mouser within the last
year.  Unlike the SS1, SS2, etc, the hostid, mac address, etc is not
stored in the nvram in sun4m machines.  All you need is a new nvram. 
You don't need to code anything into it.  Install it, and set the
time/date.

It's unlikely you'll be able to salvage an nvram from a ss1 or ss2,
etc... It's the same part as in the sparcbook 2, but the battery has a
life of around 10 years.  I've not seen one of these machines in years
where the nvram wasn't dead.  (Your only hope would be that someone had
replaced it recently.)

Finally, if I recall correctly the nvram problem doesn't prevent the
machine from booting.  If it's on a network you can set the data after
booting with rdate.  In this way, the OS will take a post Y2K date.  If
you try to set the date from the command like, you're limited to pre Y2K
dates with sunos 4.1.3.  However, the machine will forget the time/date
on powerdown.

Joe


biscjohn at locutus.isu.edu wrote:
> 
> SunOS 4.1.3, ROM Monitor 1.4.
> 
> The computer fires up to Monitor, can't find the default OS, so goes into
> the boot menu.  I select "boot default file", which boots SunOS 4.1.3, and
> then I get WARNING: TOD clock not initialized, CHECK AND RESET THE DATE
> 
> Presumably, this is the Y2K issue.  My questions are: 1) is there a
> Monitor patch/workaround to resolve this?  2) if not, can an alternate OS
> resolve this (linux, netbsd, whatever: I'm happy in anything that gets the
> computer up at this point) 3) once the TOD issue gets resolved, is there a
> chance at getting a usable Solaris on it (2.5 or 2.6 if necessary, 7+ is
> ideal)
> _______________________________________________
> Sparcbook mailing list  -  Sparcbook at sunhelp.org
> http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sparcbook

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Joseph Schmittlein             | Applied Micro Circuits Corporation
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