28 April 2010

Contents

1. 3/60 processor hangs at power-on with all LEDs lit
2. DIAG mode boot hangs during memory test
3. With keyboard unplugged, console output goes to color display
4. SunOS 3.5 miniroot ignores EEPROM serial console setting
5. SunOS 3.5 install may be converted to single QIC-150 tape
6. QIC-2500 drive writes QIC-150 format unreliably
7. PROM version 1.9 cannot boot from QIC-150
8. Sense key error booting from QIC-150
9. SunOS 3.5 standalone diagnostic does not support SCSI disks
10. SunOS 3.5 install process subject to infinite minutiae

Problem Log

3/60 processor hangs at power-on with all LEDs lit

At power-on, 3/60 processor fails to execute diagnostics. All DIAG LEDs are lit, and do not change state. Board operates normally in alternate chassis, indicating probable PSU fault.

DIAG mode boot hangs during memory test

With boot mode switch set to DIAG, tests hang with the following message on ttya (9600, 7E1):

Memory Test (Testing 0x00000004 MBytes)   Testing.

No other faults are indicated.

The 3/60 memory cycle time is 120ns. Replace 70ns SIMMs with slower (80ns–100ns) parts.

With keyboard unplugged, console output goes to color display

When an optional color framebuffer is installed onto a processor board with a built-in monochrome framebuffer, the console appears on the monochrome display by default. To use the color display as the system console, the EEPROM must be set. This overrides the automatic console reassignment when no keyboard is detected so that the serial terminal is used only for input.

To use the serial terminal for input and output when the color framebuffer is set as the system console, re-set the EEPROM.

1. Set the boot mode switch to DIAG.
2. Send a BREAK character after the terminal displays the Selftest passed message.
3. At the monitor prompt, set EEPROM location 1F to '10'.

   > q 1f
   EEPROM 01F: 10
   EEPROM 020: q
   >
   

SunOS 3.5 miniroot ignores EEPROM serial console setting

When booting the SunOS 3.5 miniroot, the kernel attempts to open the color graphics console if it is present, even if the EEPROM is configured to use the serial console.

console open failed: error 6

It is not possible to interact with the miniroot after this message appears. The only apparent solution is to remove the optional color framebuffer until SunOS is installed.

SunOS 3.5 install may be converted to a single QIC-150 tape

The SunOS 3.5 install media is approximately 60 MB in size, and originally shipped on five QIC-11 tapes. The installation may be written to a single QIC-150 if the XDRTOC (tape file nr. two) is re-written to correctly index the tar files on a single tape cartridge. The modified XDRTOC must be padded with null characters so that it is an even multiple of the QIC blocksize (512 bytes).

dd if=file.2x of=file.2 obs=512

The install may similarly be converted to a single 60 MB QIC-24 tape, if QIC-150 is not possible. The install media may have to be customized slightly to leave out one or more optional packages, before it will fit on a single tape. The omitted packages may be installed later from tape, disk, or NFS, using tar. The installer invokes tar xvfbp to restore the files, specifying blocksize 124. Setting the blocksize this way may not be strictly necessary.

QIC-2500 drive writes QIC-150 format unreliably

The QIC-2500 tape drive can write a QIC-150 format tape much more quickly than a QIC-150 drive—a matter of several minutes versus several hours for the SunOS 3.5 install media. Using the normal tape device /dev/rmt/# under Solaris 2.5.1 results in a tape that can be reliably read by the QIC-2500 drive, but not by a QIC-150 drive. The QIC-150 drive will appear to read the tape, but will experience unpredictable I/O errors.

Use the low-density tape device /dev/rmt/#l to write a QIC-150 tape in the QIC-2500 drive. Tapes written this way will perform reliably in a QIC-150 drive.

PROM version 1.9 cannot boot from QIC-150

When attempting to boot from QIC-150 tape with PROM version 1.9, the boot fails with the following messages:

> b st(0,8,0)
Boot: st(0,8,0)
st: error = 0 sense key = 5
scsi: dma never completed
scsi: bus busy
scsi: bus busy
scsi: bus busy
Boot: load failed
>

Use PROM version 2.8.3 or newer to boot from QIC-150 tape.

Sense key error booting from QIC-150

When attempting to boot from QIC-150 tape with sufficiently recent PROM version, the following messages are displayed:

st: error:
        sense key is 5  error is 0

The boot proceeds normally despite the error.

SunOS 3.5 standalone diagnostic does not support SCSI disks

The SunOS 3.5 install tape includes a standalone drive diagnostic utility as tape file 4. It provides the ability to format and label a new disk, but only supports ST412 or ESDI disks attached to the SCSI bridge.

The following controllers are supported:

• Adaptec ACB 4000 - SCSI/ST506
• Emulex MD21 - SCSI/ESDI
• Interphase SMD-2180
• Xylogics 440 (prom set 926), 450/451

The following drives are supported when attached to the appropriate SCSI bridge:

• Fujitsu M2243AS
• Maxtor XT-1050
• Micropolis 1304, 1325, 1355, 1558
• Toshiba MK 156F
• Vertex V185

Arbitrary disks are supported if the number of cylinders, heads, sectors per track, and interleave are known, but attempts to format a SCSI disk (SUN0424) fail with the following messages, regardless of bridge type specified:

Timeout Bus Error:
  Vaddr: FFFFC016, Paddr: 1FFF0016, Type 2, Write, FC 5, Size 2 at 0x0000DE80.

This can be worked around by using a modern SPARC running Solaris to write an appropriate disklabel to the SCSI disk. To save time and effort, the miniroot can be copied to slice 1 at this time, using dd. This bypasses the need to load the standalone copy utility and restore the miniroot from tape.

# dd if=file.6 of=/dev/dsk/c#t#d#s1

SunOS 3.5 install process subject to infinite minutiae

The process to install SunOS 3.5 from tape is relatively straightforward, but only if you already know how it is supposed to happen.

1. Load the boot block from tape. It is the first file on tape (file 0). Note that the miniroot image only defines tape devices st0 and st1. It may or may not be possible to install from other tape drives. If the machine is reset at any point before the install completes, this boot block must be re-loaded from tape before the installation process may be continued from where it was left.

   Target 4 (st0): >b st(0,0,0)
   shortcut for above: >b st()
   
   Target 5 (st1): >b st(0,28,0)
   Target 6: >b st(0,30,0)
   Target 1: >b st(0,8,0)
   Target 2: >b st(0,10,0)
   Target 3: >b st(0,18,0)
   

2. Load the standalone copy utility from tape. It is the fifth file on tape (file 4). Skip this step and the next if you have already copied the miniroot image to partition 1 (sd0b).

   Target 4 (st0): >b st(0,0,4)
   Target 5 (st1): >b st(0,28,4)
   ...etc.
   

3. Copy the miniroot image to partition 1 (sd0b). The miniroot image is the sixth file on tape (file 5).

   Standalone Copy
   From: st(0,0,5)
   To: sd(0,0,1)
   

4. Load vmunix from the miniroot image. Note the * following the root device name is required!

   Boot: sd(0,0,1)vmunix -as
   Size: 494840+80288+106616 bytes
   Sun UNIX 4.2 Release 3.5EXPORT (GENERIC) #1: Tue Dec 1 19:03:42 PST 1987
   Copyright (c) 1986 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   mem = 24576K (0x1800000)
    [...etc...]
   bwtwo0: resolution 1152 x 900
   root device? sd0*
   

5. Run the setup utility to install SunOS.

   using 95 buffers containing 778240 bytes of main memory
   WARNING: clock gained 7825 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
   Singleuser boot -- fsck not done
   # setup
   

6. Respond to the prompts, to set up the desired installation. A VT100 terminal may be used by selecting "Other" as the terminal type, and typing vt100 at the prompt.

After defining the terminal type, setup enters full-screen mode. The arrow keys may be used to navigate selections. x selects an action or marks a selection field; the different parts of the screen may be navigated through using ctrl n and ctrl p.

Once started, it takes approximately four hours to perform a full installation from QIC-150. At the end of the installation process, the system may be rebooted from sd0a, or the setup utility exited and additional activities performed from the miniroot.

The primary reason the installation takes much longer than necessary, is that the tape is rewound and repositioned after extracting each installation file. This would seem a limitation of the SunOS 3.5 miniroot tape driver, as it is not possible to invoke tar on successive tape files using the nonrewinding device from the miniroot shell. It is unknown at this time if this is a limitation in the tape driver itself, or whether it is a boundary case arising from an interaction with the QIC-150 tape drive.