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boywndr101
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 28, 2003 10:20 pm    Post subject: Sun Blade 150 Reply with quote

Anyone have any luck getting the install cdrom or any tftp images to boot on a Blade 150? I constantly get: hda: interrupt lost and when it finally gets to the install menu (On the Debian or Aurora images) it has no keyboard support.

Mike
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Out of curiosity, what is your OpenBOOT PROM Version? I have a Blade 100, and when I flashed to 4.6.5 PROM, I got a ton of hda: dma interrupt errors and such not. I didn't exactly record the errors, as I yanked the power cord before the kernel even got around to mounting my drives, as I was afraid something was really wrong. I then flashed back to 4.5.9 PROM firmware, whcih I have no problems with.

Recently, Sun has released 4.6.9 firmware. I haven't got around to flashing it yet, as this requires installing an old harddrive loaded with solaris 9 to even get the flash files to load.

Here's the link to Sun Blade 100/150 4.6.9 Flash Prom upgrade: http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doc=fpatches%2F111179

If you flash that, and find no problems, let me know by posting here. I'd be interested in finding out how it works.

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit

Also, thought I'd add regarding the keyboard thing, ANY USB keyboard should work fine in the PROM Monitor. Break into the Prom Monitor and see if your keyboard works there, if it does, then it's a kernel issue.

If it is indeed a kernel issue, then when it boots, unplug and plug back in the USB keyboard and try to type a character. Repeat this until you can type a character. If it still refuses to work, then it may be something else.

I say this because I have a Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard, which was designed with Windows users in mind, and linux just plain hates the thing. I'll plug it in, and the kernel driver will either pick up the keyboard, a pointer device in the keyboard, or nothing at all. Thus, the keyboard will refuse to work. ONLY when the kernel picks up both the keyboard AND the pointer device at the same time will the keyboard actually function on the console. Needless to say, this can prove to be highly agitating. On one occassion, I had to unplug and plug back in the USB adapter almost 30 times before the kernel finally detected it correctly. (I had run tail -f /var/log/messages, and watched as the kernel detected the USB device which was my keyboard).

I've not tried this yet with a Sun keyboard. I'm just too lazy to go buy one. Suffice to say, I believe the logitech keyboard is linux-unfriendly when used on a Sun Blade machine. I haven't tested this on my x86 machine yet, so I don't know if this is just a unique combination of Sun Blade + Logitech + Linux, or whatnot.


--Kumba
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"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic


Last edited by Kumba on Wed Jan 29, 2003 6:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
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boywndr101
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 6:41 pm    Post subject: Sun Blade 150 Reply with quote

The machine shipped with 4.6.5 and I upped it to 4.6.9 yesterday hoping it would fix the problem but it didn't. Didn't hurt as 4.6.5 didn't work either :(
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 7:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Sun Blade 150 Reply with quote

boywndr101 wrote:
The machine shipped with 4.6.5 and I upped it to 4.6.9 yesterday hoping it would fix the problem but it didn't. Didn't hurt as 4.6.5 didn't work either :(


Hmm, disturbing. This is probably something that needs to be captured in some form of output and passed on to the kernel gurus to mess with.

You can try to search http://sunsolve.sun.som in the hopes you may find the 4.5.9 flash on there. I can't guarantee it'll work on a 150 though, granted the Blade 150 is just a slightly-souped up Blade 100 with some hardware fixes (motherboard oddities I believe).

I think what I'll do given time is find a spare harddrive, flash to 4.6.9, boot a kernel off the spare just to generate these DMA messages, and capture it all via serial console and then fire off an email to some kernel person who does Linux/Sparc stuff. I think Dave S. Miller is the person dealing with that.

The only other alternative that I can think of is to avoid using the IDE Drives all together, and try to find a scsi card + drives to use. Maybe this would avoid the problem. I still kinda new to sun hardware, but I think the newer proms do something different to the IDE stuff on Blade 100/150 systems, and this is the result.

--Kumba
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boywndr101
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 7:05 pm    Post subject: Openboot 4.5.9 Reply with quote

If you have a copy, can you e-mail me the 4.5.9 flash? Sunsolve only has the 4.6.9 that I can find through searches.

my e-mail is: mmacneil@crosscountry.com

Thanks for the help
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 7:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sure, I'll do that when I get home. I'm sure I have the CD-R with the 4.5.9 files inside my machine's drive, but something b0rked when I built my kernel, and all my kernel modules got unresolved "mcount" symbols, so the iso9660 filesystem module refuses to load, which sucks :P

--Kumba
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--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 9:33 am    Post subject: OpenBoot 4.5.9 Reply with quote

As requested, here's a link to the OpenBOOT 4.5.9 files. I have *no* idea how well they will function with the Blade 150's motherboard. I'd fully read the enclosed documentation and look at the bug fixes, since 4.5.9 was before the Blade 150's time. The document even states "Blade 100 only", so I can't tell you how this might affect your machine. It might work, and let linux work, or it could turn your Sun Blade 150 Computer into a Sun Blade 150 Doorstop.

Good Luck.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kumba12345/obp-459.tar.bz2


--Kumba
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--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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boywndr101
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:10 pm    Post subject: Doh Reply with quote

Note to others, Blade100 only firmware is only for the Blade 100...

Looks like I'll be giving Sun a support call. Hopefully they don't monitor these forums as I may have to fib a bit.
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2003 5:04 pm    Post subject: Re: Doh Reply with quote

boywndr101 wrote:
Note to others, Blade100 only firmware is only for the Blade 100...

Looks like I'll be giving Sun a support call. Hopefully they don't monitor these forums as I may have to fib a bit.


Wound up with a Sun doorstop? :)


--Kumba
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--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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boywndr101
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2003 6:39 pm    Post subject: On the plus side... Reply with quote

It did end up a doorstop but Sun will have me a new board by Monday. Too bad the chip wasn't swappable and they have to replace the whole board.
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mrgalihad
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2003 7:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

heh, woops. The boards aren't that hard to replace fortunately. You just have a lot of screws to take out. ;)
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 4:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually, the Blade 100 boards are easy to remove...just pulling levers. Try swapping an SGI Indigo2 IP-22 board for an IP-28 board. That gets annoying, as they stuck screws all over you have to undo to change them out. Not to mention removing the system speaker, as it gets in the way of the mainboard, and such. By comparison, removing the Blade motherboards is just easy :P

--Kumba
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"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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