Ultra 2 with nvram problems

Ultra 2 with nvram problems

[Ulrich Teichert]

Hi,

my ultra-2 with two 300 MHZ CPUs has recently developed this (serial log):
...
ttya initialized
SC Control: EWP:0 IAP:0 FATAL:0 WAKEUP:0 BXIR:0 BPOR:0 SXIR:0 SPOR:1 POR:0 
Incorrect configuration checksum; 
Setting NVRAM parameters to default values.
Setting diag-switch? NVRAM parameter to true
....
Sun Ultra 2 UPA/SBus (2 X UltraSPARC-II 296MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.25, 384 MB memory installed, Serial #16777215.
Ethernet address ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, Host ID: ffffffff.
...
{0} ok boot disk
Boot device: /sbus/SUNW,fas@e,8800000/sd@0,0  File and args: 
SILO Version 1.4.13
boot: 
Allocated 8 Megs of memory at 0x40000000 for kernel
Uncompressing image...
Loaded kernel version 2.6.18
Loading initial ramdisk (4682540 bytes at 0x60800000 phys, 0x40C00000 virt)...

IDPROM: Warning, unknown format type!
Remapping the kernel... done.
Booting Linux...
PROMLIB: Sun IEEE Boot Prom 'OBP 3.25.0 1999/12/03 11:35'
PROMLIB: Root node compatible: 
Linux version 2.6.18-4-sparc64-smp (Debian 2.6.18.dfsg.1-12) (waldi@debian.org)
 (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) #1 SMP Mon Mar 26 
13:14:08 UTC 2007
ARCH: SUN4U
Ethernet address: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
...


Etc. Every time I boot up, date is at:

ceteol:~# date
Thu Nov 30 01:06:09 CET 1967

Has anybody seen symptoms like this before? I assume the nvram battery is
empty and replacing it should cure all this, but before I search all ebay
for these precious jewels, I'd like to know if a replacement will get me
anywhere.

Thanks for all responses,
Uli

-- 
Ulrich Teichert
Stormweg 24
24539 Neumünster, Germany


GMX FreeMail: 1 GB Postfach, 5 E-Mail-Adressen, 10 Free SMS.
Alle Infos und kostenlose Anmeldung: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freemail

Re: Ultra 2 with nvram problems

[David Miller]

From: "Ulrich Teichert" <Ulrich.Teichert@gmx.de>
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:03:27 +0200

> Has anybody seen symptoms like this before? I assume the nvram battery is
> empty and replacing it should cure all this, but before I search all ebay
> for these precious jewels, I'd like to know if a replacement will get me
> anywhere.

Yes, that's the problem.  The NVRAM isn't making forward progress
and this jams up the RTC driver.

A replacement will definitely help.

Re: Ultra 2 with nvram problems

[Chris Newport]

Ulrich Teichert wrote:

>Hi,
>
>my ultra-2 with two 300 MHZ CPUs has recently developed this (serial log):
>...
>
>Has anybody seen symptoms like this before? I assume the nvram battery is
>empty and replacing it should cure all this, but before I search all ebay
>for these precious jewels, I'd like to know if a replacement will get me
>anywhere.
>
>  
>
Take a look at http://www.squirrel.com/sun-*nvram*-hostid.*faq*.html

You need to buy a replacement chip and program it as per the FAQ.

Re: Ultra 2 with nvram problems

[Ulrich Teichert]

Hi,

> >Has anybody seen symptoms like this before? I assume the nvram battery is
> >empty and replacing it should cure all this, but before I search all ebay
> >for these precious jewels, I'd like to know if a replacement will get me
> >anywhere.
> >
> Take a look at http://www.squirrel.com/sun-*nvram*-hostid.*faq*.html
> 
> You need to buy a replacement chip and program it as per the FAQ.

Thanks to all, I found (and bought) a replacment chip. That FAQ will surely
help me when I'll have it in hand,

thanks again,
Uli
-- 
Ulrich Teichert
Stormweg 24
24539 Neumünster, Germany


GMX FreeMail: 1 GB Postfach, 5 E-Mail-Adressen, 10 Free SMS.
Alle Infos und kostenlose Anmeldung: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freemail

Re: Ultra 2 with nvram problems

[Ulrich Teichert]

Hi,

>Take a look at http://www.squirrel.com/sun-*nvram*-hostid.*faq*.html
>
>You need to buy a replacement chip and program it as per the FAQ.

Just for reference: it worked beautifully. If anyone ever will get into
the same situation with an Ultra-2, the above FAQ works well, even though
the machine isn't explicitly listed. You don't have to care about the
machine type, that's set during set-defaults or hard-wired.

Oh, and on my old NVRAM chip, the last 3 bytes of the ethernet address
were printed on top of it, just below the barcode. This happens to
be the last three bytes of the hostid as well, I think.

Thanks to all,
Uli
(Anyone need a spare NVRAM chip in Germany? I bought a pair of them, because
this was the only available package size ;-)
-- 
Ulrich Teichert
Stormweg 24
24539 Neumünster, Germany


Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger gehört?
Der kanns mit allen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger