[SPARCbook] Sparcbook experiences from new list member

[Michael]

Hello,

On Jan 28, 2009, at 4:29 AM, guikueppers at t-online.de wrote:

>>> Sparcbook 3GX/3TX:
>>> The 3GX can be promoted to 3TX by exchanging the cpu-board and
>>> firmware,mainboards are otherwise the same.
>> That's good to know. I think I've seen a 3TX CPU board on ebay  
>> recently.( the 3TX was the TurboSPARC one, wasn't it? )

> That's right, however beware that some mainboards have their firmware
> flash-prom soldered in. I had to desolder the chip and put in a  
> socket.

Been there, done that. Pain in the ass but can be done.

> There's a flash routine inside the firmware which reloads software  
> from
> a pcmcia-card but I didn't dig into this.

Yeah, the docs mention something like that, don't go into any detail  
though. The PCMCIA bridge has some sort of special ROM mode for it  
( which we don't have a use for )

> The 3TX board you saw, is that from Blackmore IT?  If so,  it comes  
> off an S3000, it looks the same like mine though.

That's the one.

>> I recently got an Ultrabook I, the whole case seems to be metal - not
>> quite the same level of solidity as the 3GX but still quite nice.
>> There's one problem which you might be able to help with - the  
>> battery
>> charges just fine, both the battery's >built-in indicator and the
>> Ultrabook's LCD report it, and the machine certainly survives for  
>> quite
>> some time on battery. The >problem is that the firmware thinks  
>> battery
>> status is invalid, sets CPU clock to 100MHz and refuses to boot.Any
>> hints or workarounds?

> Maybe the firmware is right after all? I wouldn't trust the gas gauge
> circuitry too much. Have you measured the battery voltage and  
> connected
> one or two 12V light bulbs in series to it?

Well, the gas gauge on the laptop itself works and that's controlled  
by the ebus/psm so half of the microcontroller thinks it can read  
battery status while the other says it's invalid. I've been messing  
around in OF for at least half an hour on battery ( looking for hints  
in the forth words defined on the psm node - lots of interesting stuff  
there but half of it doesn't do anything. 'fan-o[n|ff]', 'fan0-o[n| 
ff]' for instance. That's where I found some commands to give more  
detailed battery status. )
Bottom line is the laptop thinks there's no real battery power and no  
AC power either ( it's right about the latter though, my makeshift  
replacement power supply can charge the battery but it can't power the  
laptop  ), assumes shutdown is imminent, but the battery is doing just  
fine.
I'll probably have to install Solaris somehow ( yay proprietary Wide- 
SCSI connector... ) and update the firmware, at least all that stuff  
is still available from RDI. Got to find out how to netboot the  
Solaris installer.

>>> Sparcbook 2 scsi connector:
>>> it's not pretty and a bit fragile, as I have put it together  
>>> myself, but
>>> it does work and will connect to a 25-pin female D-type connector.  
>>> This
>>> one is for free, because I came across the original pigtail.
>> Isn't that the same funky connector as Apple used in older PowerBooks
>> like the 3400c? Rectangular with 6 x 5 holes?
>>

> No, it's not. What you describe is the S3 (plain) scsi connector.  
> The S2
> has a sort of very high density 36-pin male D-connector, marked "HONDA
> PCS-E36LMD" and made of what they call unobtainium.

Ouch. At least they came to their senses later on and used connectors  
already in use elsewhere.

have fun
Michael

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