Re(2): [SunRescue] SS2 Problems

[Dave McGuire]

  See http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html

    -Dave McGuire

On Wed, 04 Aug 1999, Mahesh Babbar wrote:
>Dear Tim,
>
>O.K. Now after replacing the  battery , how would you put the data into the
>NVRAM e.g. Ethernet Address, hostid so on and so forth.
>
>Regards,
>
>Mahesh
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nova!STEV.net!Tim_Hauber (Tim Hauber) <nova!STEV.net!Tim_Hauber (Tim
>Hauber)>
>To: rescue at ohno.mrbill.net <rescue at ohno.mrbill.net>
>Date: Friday, July 23, 1999 11:03 AM
>Subject: Re(2): [SunRescue] SS2 Problems
>
>
>>rescue at sunhelp.org,Internet writes:
>>>Even with the bad IDPROM you can get the system to boot.
>>>By default it is trying to boot off of the net.
>>>Assuming that you have a single hard drive in the unit, that drive will be
>>>either disk0 or disk3.
>>>from the OK prompt type :
>>>boot disk -- if this does not work, try:
>>>boot disk0 -- or
>>>boot disk3 -- one of these should work if you have a bootable drive.
>>>You can type : devalias from the OK prompt to see a list of what the
>>>device
>>>names are.
>>>also the setting that has been lost is:
>>>boot-device    -- so the command to reset this which will probably be lost
>>>(bad IDPROM)
>>>setenv boot-device disk
>>>or disk0 or disk3
>>>this should get you to boot off of the internal hard drive...
>>>jeff///
>>
>>This is a symptom of Sun's philosophy about workstations.  The machines
>>have two boot modes, the normal one (which is usually local disk) and the
>>diagnostic one, which happens when you either boot to diag mode
>>intentionally, or the machine finds errors trying to boot.  The ROM
>>default for diag mode is to netboot, which is what your machine is trying
>>to do.  When you get the NVRAM problem resolved, you can actually set the
>>diag mode boot to be from another local partition (I believe, from playing
>>with NVRAMS  with a friend) so the machine will try to boot from your
>>normal partition, but if it can't it will try from a backup partition you
>>set up.  These things can be extremely resilient if set up properly, as
>>close to unstoppable as a computer can get.
>>
>>The NVRAM problem is most easily solved by replacing, but if you are a
>>cheapskate you can hack the one you have.  Normally all that is wrong is a
>>dead internal battery, and with a hacksaw (no pun intended) and a
>>soldering iron you can substitute an external battery.  I've done this
>>with 4 or 5 IPCs and IPXs, and it really isn't difficult.  The battery is
>>on the end away from pin 1, be careful of the pin 1 end that has the clock
>>crystal on it.  When I did it I even managed to save my first experimental
>>one.
>>
>>Tim Hauber
>>
>>"Proximity to wonder has blunted our perception and appreciation of it"
>>--Tim Hartnell in 'Exploring ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE on your Commodore 64'
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
>>http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
>>
>>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
>http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue