[SunHELP] can't find any boot devices

[Jeffrey J.Nonken]

I don't know Sun IDE stuff but I've a bit of experience with PC IDE. I
presume
this is a Sun because no PC I've heard of has a probe-ide command. :) So
forgive my naivety regarding Sun stuff.

Most obvious is check cables and power connections. I presume you've done
that, but it's always good to double-check. Be extra sure that all connectors
are properly seated, partially seated connectors hidden in the dark confines
of a box have caused me problems more than once.

Next thing to do is unplug the new hard drive and see if the probe-ide
reveals
the CDROM drive. If it does, there's something wrong with the hard drive or
its setup. If it doesn't, there's likely a cable or controller problem. If
the
former, try the hard drive by itself. If they each show alone but not
together, check your Master/Slave/CS settings.




What kind of hard drive? Western Digital drives typically distinguish between
"Master" and "Only drive" settings, and having it wrong might make the whole
IDE bus not respond (at a guess). AFAIK WD is the only mfr that does that,
the
rest are happy with the lone drive as Master. Is it sharing the IDE bus? If
so, make sure both drives aren't set to the same. Or does the Sun use a CS
cable? If so, make sure both drives are set to CS.

Are the IDE connectors keyed? If not, make sure you didn't plug a drive in
backwards. Pin 1 stripe should be closest to the power connector.

Last but not least... I don't know what Sun has in the way of
DMA33/66/100/133
support, but make sure the new drive is compatible. If the controller only
supports DMA33 and you got something that isn't compatible, it won't work.
Though I don't think it'll drag the bus down with it.

I hope that gives you some direction pending a more knowledgable answer.


On Fri, 10 Jan 2003 12:19:36 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

> I am attempting to reinstall Solaris on a machine that
> recently had the hard drive replaced. It refuses to
> boot from the cdrom. I tried "probe-ide" and
> apparently it doesn't think any devices are present
> (hd or cdrom drives). I'm stuck now. Any clues?
> Thanks,
> Tim Miller
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