Re: Sun Fire V215 ALOM troubles

On 25/06/05 04:41PM, Ken Wellsch wrote:
> For what it is worth, I have ended up taking the "install Solaris" path
> which I believe is where you would like to go after doing all the same
> things I too tried to do with this era of sparc64 hardware.


> When ALOM times out and tells you to use #. to return, you should be at
> the host console where you would see output, be it from Solaris or
> the OBP output.  Are you sure it is actually booting?  My experience is
> the fans are rather quiet if it is only in standby and the ALOM is
> booting.  You will get nothing from the host serial console side.

> But if the thing sounds like a jet taking off, then it likely is booting
> the host as ALOM is also booting up.  Of course seeing a drive light
> blinking away may indicate some boot activity too

Yes, it's definitely booting. As a side note, this is by far the loudest
Sun machine I've ever come across (not that I have a broad experience
with 'em tough) 

The OK LED turns from blinking green to firm green as it powers on.
No led indicating a possible faulty component; the yellow, general alert
led was on until I attached the second power supply, which solved it. 

> 
> I presume it does not have a graphics card like an XVR-100 with a VGA
> connector.  This is not common but it depends what the machine was
> used for.  No video card means the host system if booting should
> show up on the maintenance serial port. Also OBP diags should be here
> prior to host booting the OS.

The idea it could have discrete graphics didn't even cross my mind. So
you think it used to be attached to keyboard/monitor, and that the
serial console is not configured?
Anyway, this doesn't seem to be the case, as it doesn't ship with a VGA
port.

Aside from the ALOM login prompt, I see no output on serial console
(either SER MGMT and SER TTYB). 
As I wrote in another reply, I also tried to force it to boot from CD,
by unplugging the hard-disks.

I read that on ALOM the serial console needs to be enabled with the
`console' command: 
https://www.filibeto.org/~aduritz/truetrue/jumpstart/ALOM1.5Help-en/cli/h_console.html 


Thank you for replying,
Paolo