well this thread has wandered and fragmented before I saw it.
I have a Sun Ultra 5 running in my basement. It took me a little bit of
work to keep it running.
One problem with these platforms is that they have a battery powered NVRAM
chip in them, that will give out after a several years. (Sort of like a
PC's CMOS)
If they die, the boot fails.
Good news is that the replacement parts are available. Here's a FAQ
http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html
I got one from Digikey for about $20.
A tip: I found if I left the system powered up for several days, that the
NVRAM would charge up enough to boot ... sometimes.
wrt: boot process
- Scrounge around on the Sun website in the docs area, you need to find the
detailed documentation on the boot process and commands.
- There is a extended diagnostic mode that you can evoke with the right key
combinations at power-up.
- It will display running POST diagnostics while booting to the screen or a
serial terminal. You can also get it to leave a failure code in the
various lights on the keyboard. (get that keyboard hooked up!) You need
the docs to decode the indication.
Solaris 9 and Companion software CDs are availible from Sun for FREE on
their website. There are also sunfreeware sites out there.
Dave.
On 1/31/2004 10:51 AM -0600, cctech-request_at_classiccmp.org wrote:
>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 20:20:07 -0500
>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
>Subject: Re: new find: Sun Ultra 10
>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
>Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20040130202007.00849530_at_pop-server.cfl.rr.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>At 06:14 PM 1/30/04 -0500, you wrote:
> >> Subject: new find: Sun Ultra 10
> >
> >> Found one of these today. Tried to boot it but it goes into terminal
> >> mode because I don't have a keyboard attached.
> >
> >And won't boot as well? Odd.
>
> It probably is trying to boot but I don't have a keyboard attached so it
>reports that there's no keyboard attached and that it will connect to a
>terminal on COM 1. Then the screen blanks out.
>
> >
> >> No idea of the amount of memory or CPU speed since I can't get to the
> >> OS.
> >
> >Older Suns report their RAM config and at least some info about their
> >CPU in the ROM-generated banner. If it has the "ok " prompt the older
> >machines use, typing "banner" at it might do something useful.
>
> It never gets that far without the keyboard. I have a keyboard in
>storage. I'll go get it tomorrow.
>
> Joe
Received on Sun Feb 01 2004 - 13:29:26 GMT