How reset NVRAM on SUN Fire V890?

[Dinotech]

Hello.
I have Sun Fire V890 with history story "it should work" and without any HDD. Everithing inside doors looks Ok, but when i try to start it up system started ~2 minutes "disco" with leds and after all that halted with 2 blinking leds - "system emergency" and "ready to swap" (what need to swap?).

I don't have graphic card for that system, and no SUN type-6 keyboard.

In SUN manuals is:

"Once the maintenance LED starts to flash rapidly, immediately press the Power button twice (similar to double-clicking a mouse, but leave a short gap of around 1 second between presses, to have the action reliably registered.) The actual time when you do the double press of the power button is the point in POST when the maintenance LED (wrench light) rapidly flashes."

In all that startup POST "disco" i don't understand, what is moment when to push the button. I tried for an hour, no positive results. But when i receive that system, one time mysticaly i pressed that combination and system "beeped" - looks like started up, but i in can't rememmer how exactly did i achieve it.

Ah, yes - my "monitor" is Thinkpad wth Minicom and RS232 nullmodem cable to SUN service port (not RSC) (Thinkpad port works Ok, 9600/8N1, checked). On SUN startup Minicom shows dot's ".......", and some "trash", but nothing what may be "Ok" from SUN.

So - how i can reset NVRAM?

 

[silcreval]

What is the setup with the V890, does it have CPU modules fitted?

 

[Dinotech]

SUN is with two CPU module and with unknown amount of RAM. Inside led's show green for these 2 modules, no trobleshout.
One time system started with my mystical power button combination. How retry that?

 

[TMG]

Do you have a serial console on the system serial port? If you have it on the system serial port (db25) and turn the key to the service position it should do a test on boot that will give you some more info. I actually didn't get the password for my alom cards in both my v890 and v880 so I pulled them.

The only time i've ever gotten .... and junk was when I have an RJ45 with a sun console adapter plugged into the wrong alom port.

 

[mark0x01]

The Sun Fire™ V890 Dynamic Reconfiguration User’s Guide here (no login needed) might shed some light on what the process steps are.
Full range of docs are here (no login needed).

You can reset the alom password, once booted to solaris, with rscadm.

 

[Dinotech]

Do you have a serial console on the system serial port?

Yes, "terminal" Thinkpad is connected to DB25 connector and RSC card is removed, so all data need go to DB25 serial A/B serial ports. But on Minicom i can see only dots like "...." when i turn on V890. After some seconds dot's stoping and onscreen is just "trash", without any changes in next 10/20... minutes.
With RS232 paramaters everything needs to be Ok, because Thinkpad port testsed - is ok and paramters is 9600 8N1 (same as in SUN manuals for terminal ports).

I have no idea how revive that SUN.

 

[mdog69]

Yes, "terminal" Thinkpad is connected to DB25 connector and RSC card is removed, so all data need go to DB25 serial A/B serial ports. But on Minicom i can see only dots like "...." when i turn on V890. After some seconds dot's stoping and onscreen is just "trash", without any changes in next 10/20... minutes.
With RS232 paramaters everything needs to be Ok, because Thinkpad port testsed - is ok and paramters is 9600 8N1 (same as in SUN manuals for terminal ports).

I have no idea how revive that SUN.

9600 8N1 is the norm for console ports, but I've had the odd Sun box do silly things with the baud rate during boot up. What I saw was the initial bootup at 9600 8N1 and then before the boot command executed, the speed changed to something else resulting in crap on the terminal.

When the dots stop, try switching to 19200 8N1. If that doesn't work, power-cycle and try switching to 57600 8N1 instead and see if you get any sense out of it.

 

[Dinotech]

When the dots stop, try switching to 19200 8N1.

Thanks, i tried many versions of speeds/paramters -only the speed changed for "trash" on Thinkpad screen. I can't understand - why blinking "redy to swap" led.

 

[Dinotech]

Here is example what i get via serial port, when SUN key is on diagnostic position.



In result blinks that 2 LED's and no more any actions.

 

[Dinotech]

Problem solved - there need be used RS-232 straight cable with all signals (DTR, CTS, RTS, etc.) not only RX/TX/GND connecting. I don't now how about USB->RS232 adapters, but with "native" computer RS232 port (with boud 9600), works great.
Thanks for any ideas.