[Suns-at-Home] Re: SunBlade 2500 questions -- followup

[Paul Keusemann]

Following up on my on post....

On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 09:17:15AM -0500, Paul Keusemann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
<snip>
> So, the first question is, should I be able to get this thing to boot
> on the serial console without a keyboard attached?
> 

Yes.  If the machine is booting.  In my case, it was not (see below).
Once I the machine to boot, I started seeing output on the console.
There is one thing that seems a bit strange or maybe I've never noticed
it before but after a reset or power-on, RTS is not asserted until the
O/S has started to boot.  This is not a problem unless you want to 
interrupt the boot process.  Alternatively, you can let the O/S boot and
then do a normal shutdown to get back to the OpenBoot prompt.

> The second question is, what might the lack of any beeping during POST
> indicate?

In my case, CPU or bus problems.  On suggestion from Andre van Eyssen
I reseated the CPU and removed the frame buffer and then tried to boot
the machine.  This was enough to get past the initial hang to an
OpenBoot prompt.  .  I then reinstalled the frame buffer and booted 
to the OpenBoot prompt again but the O/S install failed with a PCI bus
panic.  After removing the frame buffer again I was able to successfully
install the O/S.

Thanks for the suggestion Andre.

Paul
-- 
Paul Keusemann			                               pkeusem@visi.com
4266 Joppa Court		                               (952) 894-7805
Savage, MN  55378