🚀 go-pugleaf

In <6pvqm5$mcf$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> sgszabo@my-dejanews.com writes:

>I just bought a used IPC 24MB RAM/450MB HD and I have a few questions.

>First I should mention that the NVRAM in blown - I plan to replace
>this as soon as I can. However this bad chip may be the source of two
>of my problems...

>1) Why is it that when I try to boot from cdrom I get something like the
>   following

>ok boot cdrom or boot sd(0,6,0)

>openboot wimpers about not being able execute the file.

This happens because early versions of the bootroms on sun-4c machines
don't support the 'cdrom' boot argument. To boot from cdrom manually, you
usually need to type 'boot sd(0,6,2).

If the bootrom is late enough that 'cdrom' is supported as a boot
argument, you need to check your cabling, and make sure the CD-ROM drive
is set to SCSI ID 6, if it doesn't work. Booting from CD is a very fussy
business. I've found an active terminator on the end of the SCSI bus to do
wonders for temporarily 'solving' problems with termination.

>2) I tested the floppy (because it wouldn't boot a redhat sparc boot
>   disk.

>ok test-floppy (I think)

>appears to work

>ok boot fd(0,0,0) or boot floppy

>It says that the boot sector is bad or something.

Booting from a floppy is a very bad idea. I've never had very much success
with floppy drives in early Sparcstations except for loading device drivers
for 3rd party Sbus serial port boards.

>3) How can I connect a serial cable to my PC so I can use
>   telix/procomm to work on this machine until I buy a monitor etc.

You need an adaptor cable. I think, but I'm not certain, that the pinout of
the two 8-pin miniDIN serial ports on the IPC and IPX is the same as on a
Mac. Don't take my word for this though.

A null modem cable is fine if you don't need to worry about handshaking.
Stick to 9600 bps and things should be fine.

Regards,

Craig.

-- 
            Craig Dewick. Send email to 'cdewick@lios.apana.org.au'
  Point a web browser at 'http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick/sun_shack.html' to
    access my archive of Sun information and links to other places. For info 
      about Sun Ripened Kernels, go to 'http://www.zeta.org.au/~craig/srk'