Technoid_at_cheta.net wrote:
> The machine boots to a password prompt. If I boot single-user it still
> comes up with a maintainence prompt and asks for the root password.
That's correct. Unlike SunOS, a boot -s to Solaris will still demand
the root password. The only way around this mess is, as you surmised,
to boot from cdrom, run the installation script long enough to exit to
a shell, mount the root disk partition under the /tmp file system (it's
the only one writable when booting from CD) and then hammer the /etc/shadow
entry for root to specify no password.
> I can't seem to get a CDROM working on the machine. The entire scsi
> subsystem does not want to function. The CDROM is unterminated on it's
> own address with parity off. The hard disk which does boot, parity off,
> terminated at end of chain.
Well, it must be working if it's booting from the hard disk. I take it
from your description that you believe you've inserted the CDROM into
the chain between the controller and the hard drive. Is that correct?
Beware the fact that some earlier deskside Sparcs had Bad Weirdness
with their SCSI cabling, in that the internal controller spoke to
internal drives using an external cable...
Is this a Sun cdrom drive? Random SCSI cdrom drives are prone to not working
unless they have a sun-specific hack to make the ID string they return
something identifiable to the boot prom. Differing Suns have differing
ways of refering to CDROM drives, and some insist that the CDROM drive
show up as ID 6. Have you tried using the prom diagnostics to probe
the bus to see who is home?
> Should I just mount this drive under linux and get root access that way?
> Should I install solaris for x86 to gain root? What filesystem is SUNOS
> 5.4 using so I can tell Linux what to use?
I think I'd sort out the hardware issues. Solaris 5.4 (2.4) is incredibly
old, slow, buggy and unsupported. You can get a single machine license for
Solaris 8 (nee 5.8 or 2.8, depending on which numbering scheme you chose to
use -- it's all the same thing) for the cost of media and shipping; unlimited
license is $75 as is the source license. You're better off sorting out
the hardware so you can install a version of the OS that actually works, but
failing that you could pry the drive out and mount it on an x86 Solaris machine.
--
Chris Kennedy
chris_at_mainecoon.com
http://www.mainecoon.com
PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97
Received on Mon Mar 27 2000 - 23:50:25 BST