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Re: [debian-sparc] Re: Still-OT: nvram and firmware passwords



On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:30:22 +0200 (CEST)
Erwann Abalea <erwann.abalea@certplus.com> wrote:

> Bonsoir,
> 
> On Wed, 18 Aug 2004, Martin wrote:
> 
> > > Well, I've googled, googled the list archives and searched the Sun
> > > forums to little avail.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have any tips for bypassing the nvram firmware
> > > password, short of replacing the nvram module?
> > >
> > > I'm learning (the hard way) what I should've looked for before
> > > jumping on a "good" deal. :-)
> >
> > Forgive me if I seem a little cynical but a 'bargin' machine with an
> > NVRAM password that the seller doesn't know sounds a little like
> > something that has been 'borrowed' from it's original owner.
> 
> Not always. Some machine are installed with an OPB password, and since
> these beasts can run continously for several months/years, it is
> possible that the knowledge of the password gets lost if the machine
> gets to be rebooted...

I didn't see Martin's original e-mail. So, I'm replying now.

I can see and agree with both Martin and Erwann. In this case it was one
I bought off ebay. Add to that the fact that the seller obviously didn't
know much about it - they could tell the size of the hard drives and the
ram from opening the case and reading labels, but they had no clue what
speed the processor was. And they said all the testing they had been
able to do was to turn on the power switch and see that the lights came
on. I suspect they were Windows users that didn't know about serial
consoles and all those other fun tricks.

Unfortunately though, I don't have an easy way to know if this item was
'borrowed' from its original owner or not. Fortunately it all seems to
work, though. Oh, the one other fact was that even though the hard
drives were partitioned, they did not appear to be bootable, as if
someone had formatted the partitions. That may or may not indicate
anything.

Jacob

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