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Unable to stop network boot on Sun Blade 150 after nvram reprogramming

T

tonata

Experienced Member
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Sep 11, 2019
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France
I have replaced the battery for my nvram chip and then I reprogram it. It was not easy!

Here are my resources:

Sun Blade IDPROM Fix | TalOrg

So you have found a nice UltraSparc workstation, the Sun Blade 100 (or 150), but when starting it complains about "The IDPROM contents are invalid". The Ethernet address and Host ID have become invalid as the integrated battery of the NVRAM chip has died.
www.tal.org
github.com

GitHub - MrSparc/idprom-repair: SunBlade100 IDPROM randomizer

SunBlade100 IDPROM randomizer. Contribute to MrSparc/idprom-repair development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

I rebooted with reset-all (after a few reprogramming attempts) and I do not see the message for the invalid idprom, but I am blocked in an endless boot loop! There is no hdd, the cd-rom does not work, so somehow the Sun Blade thinks that I want a network boot. It never gives up! How can this be?
How do I stop it and enter open boot prompt? I have a PC usb keyboard attached to it, so no "stop" button.
 
I ordered a female to female serial adapter because both the Sun and my Serial to USB are male.
I also tried switching off the power to the nvram by removing the new battery. It does not work because the new one has charged the old one (which is still in place). So I could not reset the settings in the nvram.
 

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The default setting is to auto boot either from the net in diag mode or from the hdd in normal mode so messing with the nvram is pointless.
 
If you don't want to use a serial console then setup a netboot or jumpstart server then boot into the solaris installer drop into a shell and run eeprom auto-boot?=false.
 
I got my Female to Female adapter ... and it does not work.
I think it is because I need a serial modem cable and I have a straight serial cable right now. The TX goes to TX now.
Is that correct?
 
In Putty you have a menu where you can select "Special Commands" -> "Break", but of course it does not work.
 
That did it! Thank you. I removed the keyboard and I started getting messages.
I was already thinking that serial port access is a myth and retro computing is just another name of masochism.
Now I can not send the break key or maybe break is not the correct thing to do? I tried sending a "break" command with Putty and TeraTerm and it did not work.
Actually I am not sure I can even type. When I press keys, nothing appears.
 
The break won't do anything until it prints the banner and starts testing / initializing the memory or trying to boot from something. The break is telling it to stop doing that and drop to an interactive prompt. Can you post here what messages you get.

Here's a banner from an ss10 for reference.

screen not found.
Can't open input device.
Keyboard not present. Using tty for input and output.

SPARCstation 10MP (3 X 390Z55), No Keyboard
ROM Rev. 2.9, 512 MB memory installed, Serial #2056808.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:6c:f6:b, Host ID: 721f6268.


Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0 File and args:
SCSI device 3,0 is not responding
Can't open boot device

Type help for more information
<#0> ok
 
tonata said:
I think I see this on screen rapidly:

Code: 
Can't open input device.
Keyboard not present.  Using tty for input and output.

And then I directly start getting the messages for the network boot on the serial console. On the serial console I do not see other messages than those related to not finding the network and trying "anyway" to search for network. It says things like that the network is not up and something about ARP/ASYNC etc.
Click to expand...
If you do not have a full history of everything you received on the serial console you may need to set your scrollback buffer to something higher (set it very much higher). Serial doesn't get erased unless your terminal decides to erase it.

If sending from your terminal isn't working I suspect your serial link isn't working hence the Amazon links I gave. Have you tried ctrl-break (ctrl-pause key)? I believe the Sun is expecting a true serial break and not a ctrl-c. If you just can't get this to work I will try to replicate what you are doing in putty.

I'd just get the right keyboard for the system personally. I have a pile of different types of keyboards and mice at this point, just part of getting retro systems to work properly.
 
Ignore my previous post. I actually get all messages.
Here are some photos of everything.
It is quite possible that my hardware setup does not allow sending.
 

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tonata said:
Ignore my previous post. I actually get all messages.
Here are some photos of everything.
It is quite possible that my hardware setup does not allow sending.
Click to expand...
I believe you've wired your serial port wrong. Please double check
 
In addition to RTS/CTS it might need one or all of DTR/DSR/DCD as well. I would just get a proper null modem adapter. Or you could setup a netbsd netboot server in an hour or two if you have a spare machine.
 
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