Mailing List Archive

Alex Buell writes:
> Seeing the recent activity on this mailing list, I thought I'd ask.
> I've got an Ultra Enterprise 2 w/ 2GB of RAM and a pair of
> 300MHz blackbird processors.
>
> Sadly, I've just tried to boot the thing up tonight and found
> it's not working. What I can see is the light on the CDROM
> comes on and flash a few times, then the display changes to
> black - that means there is a signal there but there's
> nothing there to see, even after a few minutes. This box has
> both a TurboGX and a Creator3D cards in it, both show the
> same result.

First thing to do is remove the graphics cards and any keyboards,
then hook up a serial connection to TTYA and see if you get any output.

If you can get a prompt that way, theres some extended diagnostics you
can
run after setting the default input/output to the serial port,
overriding
the soon-to-be-reinstalled video adapter.
--
gentoo-sparc@gentoo.org mailing list

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On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:50:08 +0100
Alex Buell <alex.buell@munted.org.uk> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Seeing the recent activity on this mailing list, I thought I'd ask.
> I've got an Ultra Enterprise 2 w/ 2GB of RAM and a pair of 300MHz
> blackbird processors.
>
> Sadly, I've just tried to boot the thing up tonight and found it's not
> working. What I can see is the light on the CDROM comes on and flash
> a few times, then the display changes to black - that means there is
> a signal there but there's nothing there to see, even after a few
> minutes. This box has both a TurboGX and a Creator3D cards in it, both
> show the same result.
>
> Any ideas on how I can get it up and running? It did work before I
> moved house a few months ago.
>

What kind of keyboard? If it's a sparc keyboard you should see the
keyboard lights flash through a sequence during the power up cycle ---
this is Power On Self Test (POST) cycle. Screen will be clear during
this.

What does it sound like when you power it up? Since it is hitting the
CD, it must be probing something. What happens if you type in 'boot'
after a while, even if you can't see anything?

After that, it's hard to guess. If it goes through all of that, it
sees the keyboard. There are some silly things to check for: like,
did you somehow turn the brightness and contrast all the way down on
the monitor? Is everything the system still seated well (you've been
moving it around) --- with a U2 that's easy to check. Or you might
need to replace the boot chip (it has a battery with it, and the
batteries will run down after a few years...)


I'm fumbling here. With luck, someone will pick this up and have
better ideas, or you can ask for ideas on the freenode #gentoo-sparc IRC
channel.
> Thanks for any ideas..
> Alex
> --
> http://www.munted.org.uk
>
> Fearsome grindings.
> --
> gentoo-sparc@gentoo.org mailing list
>

Sorry not to be of more help,
Regards,
- --
Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@gentoo.org>
Developer, Gentoo Linux (Sparc, Devrel)
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On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:30:02 +0000
Ferris McCormick <fmccor@gentoo.org> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:50:08 +0100
> Alex Buell <alex.buell@munted.org.uk> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Seeing the recent activity on this mailing list, I thought I'd ask.
> > I've got an Ultra Enterprise 2 w/ 2GB of RAM and a pair of 300MHz
> > blackbird processors.
> >
> > Sadly, I've just tried to boot the thing up tonight and found it's not
> > working. What I can see is the light on the CDROM comes on and flash
> > a few times, then the display changes to black - that means there is
> > a signal there but there's nothing there to see, even after a few
> > minutes. This box has both a TurboGX and a Creator3D cards in it, both
> > show the same result.
> >
> > Any ideas on how I can get it up and running? It did work before I
> > moved house a few months ago.
> >
>
> What kind of keyboard? If it's a sparc keyboard you should see the
> keyboard lights flash through a sequence during the power up cycle ---
> this is Power On Self Test (POST) cycle. Screen will be clear during
> this.
>

By the way, as I recall, if the boot PROM can't find CPU0, system will
boot exactly as you are describing. Try swapping the CPUs. That's an
easy test and as a side effect will make sure the CPUs are making good
contact.

> What does it sound like when you power it up? Since it is hitting the
> CD, it must be probing something. What happens if you type in 'boot'
> after a while, even if you can't see anything?
>
> After that, it's hard to guess. If it goes through all of that, it
> sees the keyboard. There are some silly things to check for: like,
> did you somehow turn the brightness and contrast all the way down on
> the monitor? Is everything the system still seated well (you've been
> moving it around) --- with a U2 that's easy to check. Or you might
> need to replace the boot chip (it has a battery with it, and the
> batteries will run down after a few years...)
>
>
> I'm fumbling here. With luck, someone will pick this up and have
> better ideas, or you can ask for ideas on the freenode #gentoo-sparc IRC
> channel.
> > Thanks for any ideas..
> > Alex
> > --
> > http://www.munted.org.uk
> >
> > Fearsome grindings.
> > --
> > gentoo-sparc@gentoo.org mailing list
> >
>
> Sorry not to be of more help,
> Regards,
> - --
> Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@gentoo.org>
> Developer, Gentoo Linux (Sparc, Devrel)
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Regards,
- --
Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@gentoo.org>
Developer, Gentoo Linux (Sparc, Devrel)
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On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:09:25 +0000, I waved a wand and this message
magically appears in front of Ferris McCormick:

> By the way, as I recall, if the boot PROM can't find CPU0, system will
> boot exactly as you are describing. Try swapping the CPUs. That's an
> easy test and as a side effect will make sure the CPUs are making good
> contact.

Thank you, that solved it - now I've got the monumental task of
upgrading pretty much everything on the box - it hasn't been booted for
six months!
--
http://www.munted.org.uk

Fearsome grindings.
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