🚀 go-pugleaf

In <59r6m3$t96@news.stealth.net> clyde@stealth.net (Clyde Johnston) writes:

>I have just recently acquired a Sun Sparc 2 (4/75) for which I am trying to 
>install the OS.  I have connected a Sun monitor to the graphics card in SBus 
>slot 1 and powered it on.  16Mb of RAM is installed in the first slot of each 
>of the four banks (4Mb each) and the SCSI and power cables are connected.

>When I turn on the machine, I get no screen output but I get power to the 
>internal disk and transceiver.  Normally I would expect the keyboard lights to 
>flash on startup but this does not happen (keyboard and mouse connections look 
>okay).

>What are the possible causes for such a problem?  And can it be fixed?

If everything is otherwise ok, it could be that the keyboard fuse has blown
on the SS2 CPU board, and because of this, the machine would be sensing that
it doesn't have a keyboard/mouse plugged in (it wouldn't be getting any
power) and is probably defaulting to serial port A for the console. Have you
tried the usual re-plugging of cable connections, etc. in case something
mightn't have been connecting properly?

If you have a serial terminal handy, plug it into port A through a null
modem cable, configure it for 9600 bps, even parity, 7 bits, and power on
your SS2. If you get output there, watch what it says. 

As for the framebuffer not producing any output, this could be related to
the keyboard problem, but it might also be that the NVRAM is set up to use a
serial port for the console anyway regardless of whether a framebuffer and
keyboard are fitted or not. You can check this using the 'setenv' monitor
command if you get console output onto a serial terminal - if it shows
'ttya' as the settings for 'input-device' and 'output-device', the
framebuffer will be ignored completely at power on. To restore them to use
the framebuffer/keyboard, 'input-device' should be set to 'keyboard', and
'output-device' to 'screen'.

If you do this, assuming the framebuffer works ok, you should get at least a
message on your monitor that no keyboard was found after you type 'reset' to
simulate a power cycle.

Regards,

Craig.
-- 
            Craig Dewick. Send email to 'cdewick@lios.apana.org.au'
   Point a web browser at 'http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick/sun_ark.html' to
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