Re: sparc 5 install, first boot woes semi-solved
> I found that inserting the rescue floppy, typing "boot
> floppy", then "linux root=/dev/sda1" did the trick. How does one set
> this as the default so that a rescue floppy is not necessary?
The Sun prom of the UltraSparcs (and I'm wagering Sparc/UltraSparc II/III
etc) have a basic environment variable system which determines bootup
behaviour. Do "setenv A B" to set a variable and "show env" to see the
environment as currently set up (from memory, may have errors).
One env variable is which device is considered the boot device. I think
"boot-device" which is probably set to some sort of network boot for you.
You can activate this choice by typing "boot" only at the "ok" prompt(?).
In my case, I set the boot device to "disk:1" -- I think that's the SCSI
device #1. Apparently "disk:1:1" is another possible valid syntax, perhaps
meaning first partition on SCSI device 1?
Now however I set up my Debian system, it works for me to type "boot
disk:1" or set "boot-device" to "disk:1" and set auto-booting to true (I'm
working from memory here, and my UltraSparc1 has since stopped auto
booting [if it ever did] so now I have to manually type "boot disk:1" at
the prom prompt again).
I would personally be very happy if some Sun guru sort would reply to this
message and say: "Uh... you're way off base; it works like THIS:..."
because as a Sun newbie, setting up Linux on this box probably took about
three hours longer than it should have, if mail archives (Google-able
resource of any sort) had contained a basic description of the Sun prom.
Hmmm. Odd. First hit on Google for "sun boot prom" gave me this site:
http://wks.uts.ohio-state.edu/sysadm_course/html/sysadm-119.html -- in
retrospect, I don't think I would've thought to search for "sun boot prom"
at the time I was installing.
--
Tim Ellis
Senior Database Architect
Gamet, Inc.
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