Mailing List Archive: Problem with using ttya as input/output on Sparc Ultra 5

Problem with using ttya as input/output on Sparc Ultra 5

Jun 17, 2008, 1:48 AM

Post #1 of 3 (4037 views)

Hi everyone,
2 days ago I've plugged in keyboard to my sparc and nothing happens. So
I've restarted him and hi welcomed me error message like:
"Keyboard not present.
Using ttya for input and output."

I've checked if keyboard is correctly connected but with no result.

So I've started working on connecting with my sparc using ttya. I've
connected him with my laptop. Downloaded minicom. Setup com device, bps,
parity bits everything according to
www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-sparc-faq.xml. After turning on minicom I
can see that his online so it's good I think. But nothing happens. (I
have to admit that's my first time using serial console so I can do
something wrong). I've found
http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Unix/Solaris/SOLARIS_UsingSerialConsoles.shtml
page and according to this I've setup "Init string" to "~^M~". Author of
this page wrote that after saving this and restarting minicom user
should get login prompt but nothing like that happens.

Additional problem is that my gentoo on this sparc isn't starting. After
hot shutdown (by turning off power supply) sometimes SILO wasn't
starting properly... it was somethin like S....(wait) L....... (longer
wait) .. Normally I've get SILO in 0.5 second. I've this problem several
times ago but booting with live-cd ang fsck on harddisk was helpful. Now
I now (because I've checked logs on this disk in another machine) that
gentoo isn't starting...

Any help will be appreciated,
Greetings,
krutny
--
gentoo-sparc@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: Problem with using ttya as input/output on Sparc Ultra 5 [ In reply to ]

gentuxx at gmail

Jun 10, 2006, 8:15 PM

Post #2 of 3 (3923 views)

Permalink

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Hash: SHA1

krutny wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 2 days ago I've plugged in keyboard to my sparc and nothing happens. So
> I've restarted him and hi welcomed me error message like:
> "Keyboard not present.
> Using ttya for input and output."
>
> I've checked if keyboard is correctly connected but with no result.
>
> So I've started working on connecting with my sparc using ttya. I've
> connected him with my laptop. Downloaded minicom. Setup com device, bps,
> parity bits everything according to
> www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-sparc-faq.xml. After turning on minicom I
> can see that his online so it's good I think. But nothing happens. (I
> have to admit that's my first time using serial console so I can do
> something wrong). I've found
> http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Unix/Solaris/SOLARIS_UsingSerialConsoles.shtml
> page and according to this I've setup "Init string" to "~^M~". Author of
> this page wrote that after saving this and restarting minicom user
> should get login prompt but nothing like that happens.
>
> Additional problem is that my gentoo on this sparc isn't starting. After
> hot shutdown (by turning off power supply) sometimes SILO wasn't
> starting properly... it was somethin like S....(wait) L....... (longer
> wait) .. Normally I've get SILO in 0.5 second. I've this problem several
> times ago but booting with live-cd ang fsck on harddisk was helpful. Now
> I now (because I've checked logs on this disk in another machine) that
> gentoo isn't starting...
>
> Any help will be appreciated,
> Greetings,
> krutny
I haven't read through the links you've posted, but I've had to work
with SPARC boxes in the past via serial console (using Solaris, not
gentoo, but the principles should still apply - maybe not). To say
the lest, it's a tedious process. First of all, do you have another
keyboard you can try? It might be something wrong with the keyboard
that it's not being read as present on boot. Also, make sure that the
eeprom configuration is correct (I'd have to check to be sure - it's
been a while - but I think there is a keyboard setting in the eeprom.
Getting to the eeprom can be tough through serial though. IIRC, it's
some funky key combination like CTRL+BRK+A or just CTRL+BRK while
you're getting the "Initializing memory ... " prompt.

The SILO problems you mentioned are usually issues with the disk,
especially the boot sector. You might have to reinstall SILO, or
gentoo altogether.

I know this isn't the complete answer, but it might get you started.

HTH

- --
gentux
echo "hfouvyyAhnbjm/dpn" | perl -pe 's/(.)/chr(ord($1)-1)/ge'

gentux's gpg fingerprint ==> 5495 0388 67FF 0B89 1239 D840 4CF0 39E2
18D3 4A9E
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Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux)

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gentoo-sparc@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: Problem with using ttya as input/output on Sparc Ultra 5 [ In reply to ]

norman at warthmann

Jun 11, 2006, 5:33 AM

Post #3 of 3 (3922 views)

Permalink

press Stop+N when/while you power up the machine
and see what happens (you may also try stop+D)

The reason your sparc takes so long to boot is probably because the
default behavior is to do a complete POST (power-on-self-test) when
powered on. you should get yourself a handbook on "open boot".

cheers

Norman

----
Norman Warthmann
http://www.smartgradstudent.de

On Jun 10, 2006, at 17:44 PM, krutny wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 2 days ago I've plugged in keyboard to my sparc and nothing
> happens. So
> I've restarted him and hi welcomed me error message like:
> "Keyboard not present.
> Using ttya for input and output."
>
> I've checked if keyboard is correctly connected but with no result.
>
> So I've started working on connecting with my sparc using ttya. I've
> connected him with my laptop. Downloaded minicom. Setup com device,
> bps,
> parity bits everything according to
> www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-sparc-faq.xml. After turning on minicom I
> can see that his online so it's good I think. But nothing happens. (I
> have to admit that's my first time using serial console so I can do
> something wrong). I've found
> http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Unix/Solaris/
> SOLARIS_UsingSerialConsoles.shtml
> page and according to this I've setup "Init string" to "~^M~".
> Author of
> this page wrote that after saving this and restarting minicom user
> should get login prompt but nothing like that happens.
>
> Additional problem is that my gentoo on this sparc isn't starting.
> After
> hot shutdown (by turning off power supply) sometimes SILO wasn't
> starting properly... it was somethin like S....(wait) L....... (longer
> wait) .. Normally I've get SILO in 0.5 second. I've this problem
> several
> times ago but booting with live-cd ang fsck on harddisk was
> helpful. Now
> I now (because I've checked logs on this disk in another machine) that
> gentoo isn't starting...
>
> Any help will be appreciated,
> Greetings,
> krutny
> --
> gentoo-sparc@gentoo.org mailing list
>

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