SUMMARY: Open boot-prom w/out Sun Keyboard

On Sun, Jun 08, 2003 at 12:21:39PM -0400, Josh Kuperman wrote:
> I can't seem to get at the Open Boot Prom, to get to the OK command.
> Please suggest the sanest alternatives, I could borrow a keyboard if
> I have to.  Tell me how to get a Stop-A (L1-A) signal to this
> processor. Is there a reset option that can force it to boot to the
> OK prompt? What settings after that? Any suggestion appreciated.

Judging from the disparate recomendations I recieved, there is a
great deal of variety in Open Boot Prom, machines, setups and
versions.  As far as I can tell my sparc 10 came up by default, when
no keyboard or monitor was attached, to using ttya for output, but
I've no idea what for input.  Perhaps I should pull the video card?
I won't be able to tell if it is in fact the break not be carried
through the USB-serial converter until I get something running on
the machine. [Without a break out box, or electronic test equipment
it is hard to say -- I did try a suggestion from Frank Da Cruz on
the kermit newsgroup, to see what lights lit up on an old modem,
which suggested the break signal was being transmitted.] Others with
a seemingly similar configuration where able to trigger the OK
prompt by simply sending a break.


In any case the solution that worked for me was get my hands on a
Sun Keyboard and use Stop-f which flung me into the OK prompt with
input and output set to ttya. I still don't know if the break signal
is going through properly or not, since once I'm at the OK prompt, I
don't need it anymore. The most useful suggestion was to use Stop-n
on startup which resets the nvram to the default values. Since
various people have had no problems to great difficulty with exactly
the same process. Oddly, Stop-a never resulted in an OK prompt when
I tried that with the sun keyboard.

The documentation on the keys you can keep down on a sun keyboard to
manipulate the Open Boot Prom, which I should have found before
asking on the list, was at:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/General/OBP.html#POWERON

-- 
Josh Kuperman
josh@ssimr.com
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