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verruckt
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 12:12 am    Post subject: Ultra5 boot problem Reply with quote

I am having trouble booting my U5 from a cd, or from the existing hdd. I had a working linux distro on the hdd, and wanted to try putting a cd-rw in place of the cd rom. 'probe-ide' detected the drive fine, but it would not boot from a cd (trying to re-install Gentoo, which will boot on another sparc). Thinking it was a compatability issue, i re-installed the oem cdrom, and then at OBP ran 'set-default'. Then 'probe-ide' to be sure it was detected, which it was. And now the same thing, cannot boot from cd. Also now, I am unable to boot my existing os. It acts as though it is booting, but just hangs. Nothing but a complete power cycle can bring it out. Anyone have any ideas?

Edit:

Also, i do not remember this during my original os install, but when i type 'boot cdrom' at the obp, the system restarts. Here is the exact message I get when it comes back up:

Rebooting with command: boot cdrom
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/cdrom@2,0:f File and args:
Bad magic number in disk label
Can't open disk label package
Evaluating: boot cdrom

Can't open boot device

Boot device: disk File and args:
SILO boot:

Type 'go' to resume
ok
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ciaranm
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like you've burned a coaster... Try burning a new ISO (check the md5sum of your download first). If possible, burn to CD-R rather than CD-RW, as it's more likely to boot nicely.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I didn't think so, but then I started thinking. I have an old Mandrake 7.1 sparc disk, and tried that. It will load the welcome screen asking you if you want to install, repair, etc. Hitting 'enter' to start the install just freezes it. I also have a Debian cd and it does the same thing, will hang at the welcome screen when you hit enter to start the install. I thought i may have burned a coaster also, but ive used this actual disk before. So Im thinking OBP is somehow goofed, or a hardware issue of sorts. Im stumped.. :(

Trying to boot into the existing os gives me this
Code:
Rebooting with command: boot linux
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0 File and args: linux
SILO
Uncompressing image...
/
Remapping the kernel... done.
Booting Linux...


And that is where it just hangs. Only a hard boot will bring it out of its coma.


Edit:

I started to wonder about the cd in question, so i pitched it in the trash and d/l'd it again and made sure to verify it. Its good. Same problem.
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wheatthin
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you tried writing the disc at 1x? I had issues like these when trying anything more than than 4x. I found that burning at 1x the CD always seems to work correctly. Sounds crazy but maybe worth a try. Good luck.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

wheatthin wrote:
Have you tried writing the disc at 1x? I had issues like these when trying anything more than than 4x. I found that burning at 1x the CD always seems to work correctly. Sounds crazy but maybe worth a try. Good luck.


i wrote it at 4x (have a dvd burner) rather than the full 16x. i usually do write important disks at a slightly slower speed.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2003 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Someone suggested to me that i may have some bad memory. The lockup coming when all the info is loaded into memory. I switched banks of memory and things worked just fine for a few days, but now its back to the same thing. Hopefully I can swap out with a friend in a day or two and confirm this.
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Phy
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had similar problems booting CDs (both gentoo livecds and a solaris 8 install CD) on my ultra5. It turned out that the machine seemed very picky about the CD drives. I had to try three or four different drives before I found one that worked reliably.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 6:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I forgot about this post for a while since I was not in a position time-wise to mess with my U5 for a while.

But now...

Anyway, the problem still persists. I have replaced ALL the memory with known good memory. I am trying to boot with known good cd's. Several different distros, same results. The only peculiarity is this, when booting 'other' distro cd's, I will get this:
Code:
Uncompressing image...
Loading initial ramdisk...

Remapping the kernel... done.
Booting Linux...


And there it locks up. But when booting to a Gentoo cd, the machine never locks up, but instead will not boot the cd. At "boot:" I type Gentoo and it just returns a syntax error, and puts me right back to the boot: prompt. If anyone one has any thoughts, please run them by. I will try just about anything now.

EDIT

Go figure... My friend brought over Solaris 9 cds and they boot up with no probs. I will install Slowaris and see what happens. Jeez... :?
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stonent
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You might try enabling all of the extended tests during boot just to see what happens unfortunately your screen will remain blank for over a minute before it displays the Sun logo. If you want to see what it is doing, connect a null modem cable to the serial port and run it over to another system. You can watch it probing the busses and running the extended "POST" routine.
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stonent
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 4:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

To enable diagnostics do this from the OK prompt:
Code:
setenv diag-switch? true
setenv diag-level max


To return to normal operation change from max to min.

You can also hit v during post to get verbose messages.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stonent wrote:
To enable diagnostics do this from the OK prompt:
Code:
setenv diag-switch? true
setenv diag-level max


To return to normal operation change from max to min.

You can also hit v during post to get verbose messages.


Cool, thanks. I will set that tonight and see. Though I probably won't post back the results until late tomorrow sometime. 8) :lol:
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NewBlackDak
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 12:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not sure about the ultras, but every other sparc machine I've dealt with has to have a ceratin CDROM to be able to boot from it. It needs an odd sector size to be bootable.
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stonent
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 12:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, the SCSI ones are a bit picky. In theory any ATAPI drive should work in an Ultra5/10 but even on my Ultra AXe a TEAC CD532E drive would not finish booting. (Hang/kernel panic/wouldn't start the X based installer for Solaris9) So I stuck in my 32x16x40 Liteon drive and it worked perfectly.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmmm, let me go digging for the original sun cdrom. Right now i have a LiteOn 52x burner in there... But still, why would it boot the Solaris cd and not any of the Linux??? :?
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, apparently I have somewhat of an answer...

Putting the oem cdrom back in did nothing. :( Solaris cd's still boot, and i get the same thing with my gentoo and other linux distros as said previously above.

Man im so tired of this... Anyone wanna buy a cheap U5? :roll:
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erik.crouch
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 5:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

verruckt wrote:
Well, apparently I have somewhat of an answer...

Putting the oem cdrom back in did nothing. :( Solaris cd's still boot, and i get the same thing with my gentoo and other linux distros as said previously above.

Man im so tired of this... Anyone wanna buy a cheap U5? :roll:


Have you tried burning them at a very low speed yet? Like 4x?

Erik
8O
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NewBlackDak
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

verruckt wrote:
Anyone wanna buy a cheap U5? :roll:


:D How much?
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 11:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

erik.crouch wrote:

Have you tried burning them at a very low speed yet? Like 4x?

Erik
8O


Yeah, i burned my last gentoo cd at 2x. God that was agony... :lol:

I am still looking for an answer, so hopefully it'll come soon.
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verruckt
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NewBlackDak wrote:
verruckt wrote:
Anyone wanna buy a cheap U5? :roll:


:D How much?


I would have to have something to replace it first (ultra10, blade100,etc). If you are still interested when i get one, i sure will let you know. The longer this problem persists, the more the price will go down... :lol:
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NewBlackDak
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 4:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

8)
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