Re: IDPRAM problem

[Jean-Paul Blaquiere <japester@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>]

> On Jan 13, Alexander Gilman Carver scratched in indelible ink :

> My Sun IPX was working just fine up until recently.  Now it claims that
> the IDPROM contents are invalid (and I can see this clearly since the
> etherenet address and Host ID are all f's).
> 
> What can I do to recover my system?
> 
grab the Sun NVRAM FAQ :
http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html

You have two choices, buy a new NVRAM chip. ~$20 from your favourite exotic
hardware supplier.
Or, cut into your current chip and attach a battery to it.  I have done the
second on my ELC and it works fine :)
but then again, I'm a stingy bugger and actaully spending money on my Sparc
would have made me cringe.  All it requires is a little skill with a soldering
iron, and about $3 on a battery
You can get around the flat battery temporarily, the FAQ details how to instil
whatever values you want in the EEPROM, then if you do not turn the machine
off that should get you by in the meantime.

HTH,
-- 
Jean-Paul Blaquière             ||   Avatar of Computational 
   japester@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au   ||   Thaumaturgy
	http://japester.ucc.aan.au   ||
     The only thing keeping me from being a serial killer is my distast for
	     manual labour  - dilbert