Date: Sun, 26 Jul 98 20:29:25 EST From: Dwight McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #24 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Sun, 26 Jul 98 Volume 11 : Issue 24 Today's Topics: 4/110 need eproms cdrom for audio applications. Central Data? equiv to STOP-A from a wyse terminal? external cdrom problem IPX failing POST (SAH v11 n23) IPX failing POST. serial port server recommendations? Shoebox Whine SMD Pinouts for sun 3/160 Solaris I.P. Masquerading and Solstice PPP 3.0.1 Some 3/160 Questions... SPARCstation 2 hard drive Sun 3/80 SCSI problem (5 msgs) Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #23 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Submissions: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com | | Requests: suns-at-home-request@net-kitchen.com | | WWW Archive access: http://www.net-kitchen.com/~sah | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 10:22:58 +0200 (MET DST) From: Francesco Messineo Subject: 4/110 need eproms To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com Hi sah-ers, I got a 4/110 cpu board that I'd love to revive. Unfortunately it misses the four eproms and I didn't find images on the net. Can anyone point me out a site where I can download those images? Or better, if you have one of such boards, I'd love to have a dump of the four eproms. The board's serial is 500-1199-11758 (near the VME connector) or 501-1512-03007 Also it has three empty sockets (needed for the FPU maybe?) located at: U201, U202, U200, do it miss something that can prevent it to boot? Thanks in advance. Francesco Messineo - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 22:00:00 +0200 From: Jean Kusters Subject: cdrom for audio applications. To: suns-at-home-request@net-kitchen.com Hello folks, I am looking for a cdrom that is capable of reading the digital audio from the CD and sending it to my IPX. There are a number of drives that can do this: Toshiba-4104, Toshiba-3501, Toshiba-3401 SunCD Plus. The list is probably longer but these are all I know. Anybody who wants to sell this type of drive please contact me. Jean. J.F.Kusters - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jul 98 18:49:57 EDT From: gary@sabot.com (Gary Sabot) Subject: Central Data? To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com I found a company called Central Data, www.cd.com, that makes all 3 serial port approaches (PCI/ethernet/SCSI) for Suns. Anyone have any experience with them? --gary - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 08:40:13 +1000 (EST) From: Craig Dewick Subject: equiv to STOP-A from a wyse terminal? To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 13:49:51 +0100 (BST) > From: Lauren Child (CM05-1) > Subject: equiv to STOP-A from a wyse terminal? > To: db_computers@pobox.com > > David Barber writes: > > HELP! > > > > Is there a way to perform the equivalent to a "STOP-A" on a headless > > Sun386i? (or hopefully, any early Sun box) I'm sure there must be some key > > combo out there that will allow me to drop into monitor mode from a dumb > > tube! (wyse 50 in this case) > > > > Hitting break on my wyse 50 connected to a 3/60 seems to do the trick. > I dont know id its a programmable key or not though (and my 3/60 is > playing up like nobodys business so dont expect usual results :-) I can confirm that this works with most of the Sparcstations I've used with a terminal console as well. Disconnecting the serial lead to the terminal will usually generate a 'pseudo-break', as will turning the terminal off. Regards, Craig. -- Craig Dewick. Send email to 'cdewick@lios.apana.org.au' Point a web browser at 'http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick/sun_shack.html' to access my archive of Sun information and links to other places. For info about Sun Ripened Kernels, go to 'http://www.zeta.org.au/~craig/srk' - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 16:54:27 +0200 From: Klaas Talsma Subject: external cdrom problem To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Hello, I have just installed an external cdrom to my SPARCstation 2 but when i insert a disk, nothing happens, it's supposed to open the filemanager but it doesnt. On boot i did a probe-scsi wich detected the cdromdrive and a boot -r which went fine but it does not seem to mount automatically. Mabye this is an auto mount problem, but i'm not sure, Klaas Talsma Email. kltalsma@xs4all.nl Anarchy is having to put up with things that really piss you off [Do you have volume management installed? --ddm] - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:58:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Jonathan Thornburg Subject: IPX failing POST (SAH v11 n23) To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com In Suns-at-Home v11 n23, Michael Furman describes an IPX reporting POST (power-on self-test) failures: > It goes through the POST. > > The LED's on the keyboard go blinky blinky... then they stop with Scroll > lock and Num Lock lit. > > When the display comes up, it says > > "Power-On SelfTest FAILED ... Replace CPU Board" > > Right after Initializing memory, it hangs, no more. Sometimes the screen > goes blank, sometimes it doesn't. > > i can abort the memory check and go into the monitor and change settings > and stuff, but any attempt at booting fails. > > Is this a memory problem? or is something really wrong with it? For what it's worth, I've found the POSTs to be very finickey on ELCs (which use a fairly similar cpu board to the IPX). On a number of occasions, my ELC has reported a POST failure, but resetting or power cycling would report everything fine, and SunOS 4.1.3 would boot and run perfectly (uptime many months, no console messages). Also, in diagnosing some genuine hardware problems last year, I found that the POSTs' diagnosis isn't always right. If you get POST failures which don't go away when you reset or power-cycle, it's certainly worthwhile swapping around and removing SIMMs to see if the problem goes away. Failing that, you should be able to buy a new motherboard for US$100 to US$150 from any of the used-workstation companies. If our esteemed moderator will permit the commercial note, let me add that I've had consistently good results over several years when dealing with Minicomputer Exchange in Sunnyvale (California), http://www.mce.com, +1 408 733-8009 or (888) 733-4400. Their staff seem competent and knowledgable, and their prices are a bit on the high site, but not unreasonable. (I have no connection with them except as a satisfied repeat customer.) -- -- Jonathan Thornburg (personal E-mail) U of British Columbia / Physics&Astronomy / "Nothing's ever late when it's measured in Programmer's Time: | | | | | | | | | ... start 1/2 2/3 3/4 4/5 5/6 6/7 7/8 8/9 ... " - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 08:47:18 +1000 (EST) From: Craig Dewick Subject: IPX failing POST. To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com > Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 22:59:12 -0700 (PDT) > From: Michael Furman > Subject: IPX failing POST. > To: suns-at-home@net-kitchen.com > > I just bought a IPX from a co-worker at work. He didn't know if it > worked, so i said i'd give it a spin. > > It goes through the POST. > > The LED's on the keyboard go blinky blinky... then they stop with Scroll > lock and Num Lock lit. > > When the display comes up, it says > > "Power-On SelfTest FAILED ... Replace CPU Board" This is a serious failure. If you can attach a terminal and boot the machine in diagnostic mode, you'll see exactly where the failure occurs. More often than not with these older Sparcstations the fault is in the cache RAM, or in the DRAM controller, and since those parts are wave-soldered to the CPU board it's definitely board replacement time. I've got one IPX and three SS2 CPU boards which fail the POST and will not boot. CPU boards for these boxes are getting cheaper by the day now, so ask around some of the Sun surplus places. Or if you want to spend a lot of money (but get a *very* good machine as the end result), buy one of the Sparc-5 clone boards that fit the IPX case. They appear on the second-hand market at odd intervals. Regards, Craig. -- Craig Dewick. Send email to 'cdewick@lios.apana.org.au' Point a web browser at 'http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick/sun_shack.html' to access my archive of Sun information and links to other places. For info about Sun Ripened Kernels, go to 'http://www.zeta.org.au/~craig/srk' - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jul 98 18:38:18 EDT From: gary@sabot.com (Gary Sabot) Subject: serial port server recommendations? To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com I'm having a problem with a serial port on a Sun ultra 60, the message is: "WARNING: se0: Buffer overrun" during both uucp or hylafax receiving. characters get dropped. Sun has it under several bug ids, including 4151491, but no solaris fix is available. I was thinking of avoiding the issue by adding on other non-sun serial ports. Does anyone have any recommendations? The box will take pci cards, but scsi or ethernet based solutions seem easier to me. I just need a port or two, but I'm sure if I was forced to by a multiport terminal server I would find use for the other inputs... How do the ethernet ones interface? How do you tell software that wants to write to, say, /dev/cua/a, that it should be telneting to a serial port server box? --gary - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:29:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Neil McNeight Subject: Shoebox Whine To: Dwight McKay Greetings all. I've been a Sun 3/60 owner for about a year or so, but my box has been down for most of that time because of an annoying high-pitched whine that comes from the shoebox. I've tracked down the source of the noise to the ESDI drive spindle and the grounding strap pressed against it. I am wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem and has a solution for it? I'd rather not rip off the grounding strap, as it was put there for a reason, and I am hesitant to use a lubricant for fear that it will insulate the strap from the spindle. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. -Neil ---------------------------------------------------+------------------- "There is more to life than increasing its speed." | Neil McNeight -Mahatma Gandhi | mcneight@umich.edu ---------------------------------------------------+------------------- - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 10:42:50 +0100 From: Jake Sloan Subject: SMD Pinouts for sun 3/160 To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Does anyone have the Pinouts for a sun 3/160 and external SMD drive array ? It extremely depressing to have this beastie in the garage , but not be able to play *grin* . Jake - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 11:48:53 -0400 From: "Matthew R. Williams" Subject: Solaris I.P. Masquerading and Solstice PPP 3.0.1 To: "'Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com'" Hello all I am new to the list but after going through the archives I never found any reference to this so here goes. 1. Has anyone found an inexpensive way to do I.P masquerading. The only solution that I have been able to find is the Solstice Firewall-1. And that is not really a option at $3,000(this is sun at home not an isp..) So After days/weeks of searching the internet for anything to do I.P masquerading I am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated. [Take a look at Darren Reed's IP FIlter, http://cheops.anu.edu.au/~avalon/.] [It does network address translation as well as filtering. It works well ] [for me here. --ddm ] 2. Also has anyone had any experience with Solstice PPP 3.0.1 using PAP authentication. This seems to be a really good product with normal user executable gui's that initiate the connection unlike the aspppd that comes with Solaris. I can get a connection to establish however I cannot get the Software to go past the CHAP authentication script. It keeps trying to run a chap script every time. I have it configured correctly, heck I even turned this over to a sun warranty call and they said I had it configured correctly. However it still does not connect. To many details to go into here but if any one can help me please email me and I will be happy to post the results at a later time. Hardware/Software: Ultra5,64mb & US Robotics 56k Solaris 2.6 3/98 hardware release Solstice PPP 3.0.1 one user license ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Williams aka Mowat Contact me at mowat22@bigfoot.com My icq UIN is: 18449299 Go to my icq webpager at http://wwp.mirabilis.com/1849299 My AIM address is: Mowat22 My Homepage is at http://www.bigfoot.com/~mowat22/ - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 02:27:30 -0500 From: "Clay Nordquist" Subject: Some 3/160 Questions... To: Hi, I've recently obtained a sun 3/160, and I'm trying to set it up. I have some questions which I would really appreciate answers to. I'll try to keep these questions unique, as I've read the existing Suns-at-Home archives and I don't want to repeat any questions from there... (1) James Birdsall states that "Until the SPARCs came along, basically none of Sun's SCSI devices were actually SCSI." This brings the following question to mind: do devices hooked up to such pre-SPARC suns (like the 3/160) have be 'buffered', running to the SCSI bus via Emulex MD-21, Sysgen SC4000, or other adaptor cards? If not, then can only SCSI-1 devices be connected, or can SCSI-2 and/or SCSI-3 devices be connected? Just FYI, I'm running a 501-1045 SCSI adapter VME card. (2) I'm planning on using a Quantum ProDrive 525S (525Meg) and 210S (210Meg) as my principle hard drives on the 3/160. Can someone suggest a good partitioning/allocation scheme for these drives? I know that partition c should contain the total size of the drive, but after that, I'm uncertain. By the way, what is the "hog partition" mentioned in the SunOS setup? (3) I've downloaded SunOS 4.1.1U1 from the sun3 archive (http://doener.unix-ag.unix-kl.de), and I'm wondering how I'm supposed to install it, after I've installed SunOS 4.1.1. The info at the sun3 site is sketchy, and the single tar file appears to have additional tarfiles within itself... (4) I'd like to install BIND 4.9.7, but I'm unclear if I should also install resolv+. Is resolv+ a seperate library which replaces one of BIND's, or is a piece of source code which replaces some of BIND's code? What order should I install BIND and resolv+? After installing 4.1.1U1 or before? (5) What is the difference between a "standalone" install, a "server" install, and a "client" install under 4.1.1? Does it just result in different startup services getting loaded, or do system libraries change based on the install type? (6) I've noticed that my 3/160 has an aversion to booting from any sd or st device except (0,0,0). Is this normal? Is it possible to force a boot from another sd/st device? Also, can someone please explain the significance of the middle digit in the tuple? Is it the SCSI id, or 8* in hex, or something else? Just FYI, my monitor ROM version is 2.7. Thanks in advance for any help, I *really* appreciate it! PS: Please feel free to e-mail me your responses, in addition to posting them! Clay Nordquist. e-mail: cnmac@sleepy.cc.utexas.edu - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 00:39:16 -0500 From: kk@enteract.com Subject: SPARCstation 2 hard drive To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com I am trying to get a sparcstation 2 running with Redhat linux 4.2. The problem is that the filesystem on the ss2 becomes corrupted right after, and sometimes during the install. I formated/varified the hard drive with an adaptec card on my PC with no problems. So far I've tried two hard drives, a Seagate ST31055N and a Fujitsu M1606SAU. The faq isn't to clear on whether the internal drives are supposed to be terminated (I've tried both). Would it matter which internal connector was used? The faq also mentions a "terminating feedthrough connector". Would this work? I've tried installing several times with different configurations, and the filesystem becomes corrupted each time. Any ideas? Could something be wrong with the motherboard? - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 12:40:46 +0000 From: John Ruschmeyer Subject: Sun 3/80 SCSI problem To: Suns at Home , port-sun3@NetBSD.org I recently obtained a Sun 3/80 which I am trying to set up with NetBSD. It formerly was used as a diskless SunOS system. As can be expected, the NVRAM battery is dead. So, while I wait for the new one to arrive, I thought I'd try to do a tape install. (The ROM revision is 3.03 which, IIRC, can boot a 150mb tape.) I've installed an old HP C2333S drive inside the pizza box and connected up my old Sun Archive 150 tape drive. When I do a "b st()", however, all I get is the response: st: Device not found. No variation of "st()" seems to make a difference. FYI, my tape is at ID 4. On a whim, I decided to try to tell it to boot from the unformatted disk with a "b sd()". This elicited a similar response, even though the disk drive is set for ID 0. So, my questions: 1) Is there any reason that the dead NVRAM might keep me from booting from tape? 2) Any special setup considerations which I might have missed? I believe I have everything terminated correctly. 3) Are the eXtended diags supposed to offer a SCSI test option? Mine do not? 4) Am I, as I fear, looking at a dead SCSI subsystem? Thanks in advance... <<>> - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 18:57:44 -0500 From: David Kelly Subject: Sun 3/80 SCSI problem To: John Ruschmeyer John Ruschmeyer writes: > 2) Any special setup considerations which I might have missed? I believe > I have everything terminated correctly. Do you have internal and external termination? There is no built-in default SCSI termination on the MB. Either an internal device has to have termination or you have to put a terminator on one of the 50 pin headers. Plus the normal terminator on the farthest external SCSI device. If you put a Sun SCSI connector on one of the internal connectors incorrectly you will smoke the termination power traces on your 3/80 MB. I know. I have done it. And haven't revisited the thing to figure out the right way. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 14:39:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeremy Cooper Subject: Sun 3/80 SCSI problem To: John Ruschmeyer On Sat, 18 Jul 1998, John Ruschmeyer wrote: > [ Have 3/80. The NVRAM battery is dead ] > When I do a "b st()", however, all I get is the response: > > st: Device not found. > > No variation of "st()" seems to make a difference. FYI, my tape is at ID > 4. Sun made a mistake when they designed the 3/80 and its boot ROM. The ROM needs the NVRAM in order to establish the identity of the machine. (That is, whether it is a 3/80 or a 3/470). Without the machine identity, the boot ROM can't determine whether to use the 3/80 SCSI chip or the 3/470 SCSI chip. Consequently, it acts as though it has no SCSI devices at all. You will have to wait for your new NVRAM or program a temporary one until then. -J - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 10:08:14 -0400 From: "Ruschmeyer, John" Subject: Sun 3/80 SCSI problem To: sah@net-kitchen.com, port-sun3@NetBSD.org John Ruschmeyer wrote: > > I recently obtained a Sun 3/80 which I am trying to set up with NetBSD. > As can be expected, the NVRAM battery is dead. > > When I do a "b st()", however, all I get is the response: > > st: Device not found. > > 1) Is there any reason that the dead NVRAM might keep me from booting > from tape? Well, as a two responses have pointed out, this is definately the case. As it was explained to me, the Sun 3/80 ROM does not know how to (correctly) boot from a SCSI device unless it can find a valid machine type code in the NVRAM. So, now I have a new NVRAM chip and have gotten to a new point where I am totally stuck. Following the directions in the NVRAM FAQ, I entered the Ethernet address, HOSTID, etc. I then did a "k2" to reset the system. My plan was to then enter the appropriate values for the boot options, etc. (exactly as in the FAQ). The system resets and seems to now believe the NVRAM is valid. It proceeds through the diagnostics, initializes memory, and gives me the prompt to press any key to enter extended diagnostics or press "e" for echo mode. If I enter "e", I get a message that output will be echoed to the screen. Either way, however, the system appears to hang at this point. Interestingly, if I put the original (dead) NVRAM back in, the system fails in exactly the same way. I should point out that I am trying to do all this from a serial console. I have also removed the BWTWO card to keep from confusing the matter further. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what I might have done wrong or how to proceed from here? Thanks again... <<>> - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 12:28:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeremy Cooper Subject: Sun 3/80 SCSI problem To: "Ruschmeyer, John" On Tue, 21 Jul 1998, Ruschmeyer, John wrote: > > 1) Is there any reason that the dead NVRAM might keep me from booting > > from tape? > > [ Yes, a dead NVRAM will prevent the machine from booting. Installed > new NVRAM. ] > > The system resets and seems to now believe the NVRAM is valid. It proceeds > through the diagnostics, initializes memory, and gives me the prompt to > press any key to enter extended diagnostics or press "e" for echo mode. If I > enter "e", I get a message that output will be echoed to the screen. Either > way, however, the system appears to hang at this point. It looks like your machine may be stuck in diagnostic mode. On all Sun3 machines except the 3/80, diagnostic mode is enabled and disabled with a switch on the exterior of the machine. The 3/80, however, reads the diagnostic mode setting from NVRAM location 70b. Use the ''q'' command at the monitor prompt to fix it. > q 70b 70B 12? 06 70C 00? > But, because you can't seem to make it to the monitor prompt you may have a problem. If you are using a serial console, make sure that you remove the frame buffer. The NVRAM directs the monitor whether it should use the serial port or the frame buffer and keyboard as the system console. Just because you see activity on the serial port during diagnostic mode does not imply that the ROM monitor is going to use it as the console once the diagnostics finish. By removing the frame buffer you will force it to, regardless of the NVRAM settings. -J - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 10:02:18 +0100 (BST) From: Alexios Chouchoulas Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V11 #23 To: Suns-at-Home-List@net-kitchen.com On Thu, 9 Jul 1998, Lauren wrote: > Hitting break on my wyse 50 connected to a 3/60 seems to do the trick. > I dont know id its a programmable key or not though (and my 3/60 is > playing up like nobodys business so dont expect usual results :-) Yup, BREAK will force a Sun back to its monitor, same as L1-A (learned this on the Sun3, won't start calling it STOP-A just because they changed the keyboards, heh heh). This works on any terminal, since BREAK isn't an ASCII character (or sequence thereof). It's a long series of zero bits to the other end of the line (I forget my RS-232, so I could be very wrong here). It's a standard feature of RS-232 communications. For instance, some UNIX gettys use it to determing the terminal's comm speed (you keep pressing BREAK until getty comes up with a legible login: prompt). It's useful because it's the same regardless of the actual comm speed, hence the long signal length. Anyway, enough with the EIA lecture today (and who remembers *that*?). Alexios -------------------------- ,o88,o888o,,o888o. -------------------------------- Alexios Chouchoulas '88 ,88' ,88' http://www.vennea.demon.co.uk The Unpronounceable One ,o88oooo88ooooo88oo, alexios@vennea.demon.co.uk - ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************