Intro
Nov 2011 - After a hilo storm, the USP-IIi known as hilodog starting freezing.
Requiring manual reboot daily (or whenever I was doing spex coding testing).
Eventually it stop booting and I switch develop to hammer (manoa sparc 5/64).
Dec 2011 - guidedog fail (a 5/64), OBP report NVRAM failed. We were able to get
guidedog going by using the hammer CPU board from manao. Used failed guidedog
to repair the SCSI fuse, and took it's SCSI sbus card to get hammer going.
The manoa 5/64 with old guidedog parts is now guidedog.
Now I have no hilo vme system. And spex has not spare CPU boards.
Disk support is influx (A few old IRTF spare disk didnot work on the VME computers).
These notes document my effort to get a suitable hilodog replacement that
could be used as a spare to bigdog / guidedog.
Jan
Purchased this CPU board from Srtisan Scientific:
artisan_uspIIi_invoice.pdf
This is a bare board: No sbus slots, need to figure how to get console (serial?).
Also purchased SBUS scsi/ethernet cards, disk from various sources:
Look at the ethernet card in magellan (blade 100 in remote room). It indicated
it was a SE fast wide scsi, should be the same SCSI interface in guidedog/bigdog.
I don't understand why disk restored with magellan didn't work at the summit!
Data sheet for board in blade 100: sym22801.pdf
(looks to be a scsi LVD interface).
Test1 - install scsi card in broken_5/64 and see if we can boot a disk.
LW disk work in magellan -> Ultra SCSI interface (uses LW).
W do not. -> need a Fast SCSI?
Need to find a SUN Host with SCSI-2 interface to make backup disk.
guidedog ->
purchasing another PCI SCSI-2 card ->
Ask kevin ->
Test2 - Install the USPII1v and get access to console.
Plugged in USPII1v into VME rack.
Used hyperterm with 9600,8,N,1, No Hardshake - got access to terminal and 'ok' prompt.
Here is boot up text: usp-boot-capture1.html
Maybe battery or nvram is bad
Some info: www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq
Swap the battery with the old hilodog USPIIi
Oh no.. problems booting up now: usp-boot-capture2.html
Do purchase disk work in blade
Bigdog has a ST318275LW.
Guidedog has a ST39173W.
note: list of "W" model numbers:
ST39173W - barracuda 9.5 GB 7200 RPM ultra2 68oin.
ST19171W - barracuda 9.1 FB 7200 RPM ultra2 68pin.
ST39140W - medalist 9.1 FB 7200 RPM ultra2 68pin.
in 18GB models: ST118273W
References:
seagate:
st39173w-manual.pdf Info on N/W/WD/LW/WC/LC types of drives.
suns:
http://www.sunshack.org/data/sh/2.1/infoserver.central/data/syshbk/index.html sun system handbook
http://www.anysystem.com/ has good info on sun parts.
basic scsi info:
http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/scsi_doc.html
"http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/scsi/index.htm
http://www.ramelectronics.net/scsi_connectors.ep
Seagate Interface Char for disk drives part numbers.
DC - Differential, 80-pin Single Connector Attachment (SCA)
LC - Low Voltage Differential, 80-pin SCA
LCV - Same as LC, but with an increased cache size
(Recommended for video applications and applications with large file formats)
LW - Low Voltage Differential, 68-pin Wide SCSI Connector
LWV - Same as LW, but with an increased cache size
(Recommended for video applications and applications with large file formats)
N - SCSI, 50-pin Narrow SCSI Connector
ND - Differential, 50-pin Narrow SCSI Connector
W - SCSI, 68-pin Wide SCSI Connector
WC - SCSI, 80-pin SCA (Hot Swappable)
WD - Differential, 68-pin Wide SCSI Connector
FC - Fibre Channel, 40-pin SCA
FCV - Same as FC, but with an increased cache size
(Recommended for video applications and applications with large file formats)
openboot_notes.html
SunOBP_Quick_Ref.pdf Sun OpenBoot PROM Reference Card.
Feb
Still trying to get a sparcLX running. The netboot exercise didn't work.
Order Sbus SISI card that works withthe "W" series of disk.
Ordered a CDROM, and more "W" disk early Feb. When they computer in let's see if I can get
the SparcLX running and restore a guidedog disk on it.
DW has replace the VME crate.
EW was to check the crate and see if it meet specifications. Tony found these on the web:
http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_VME.html - it say 50mV ripple on power supply (but very hard to meet).
bbcrate_spec.pdf
http://pinouts.ru/Slots/vmebus_pinout.shtml
uspIIi - on mako-spare, use 'minicom -o' to access serial console.
Key setup are: /dev/ttyS0, 9600, 8N1, rtscts off.
Tried artisan-scientific suggestion, to set the mac_address & hostid:
00 80 B6 00 4F 82 80084555 set-ethernet
This did not work - emailed back reqesting RMA (again!).
Was able to research how to configure the PROM so it does boot:
uspIIi_obp_notes.html
Got RMA for artisan USPIIi (00 80 B6 00 4F 82 80084555).
Fedex on 2/16.
Purchase another USPIIi on ebay for $960. This on has sun SBUS and graphic/keyboard interface.
Rec'd on 2/16.
Mar
1. Testing the ebay-USPII. The ebay-USPII arrvie.
Here is the post text from minicom:
(also contains some query commands).
ebay_uspIIi_post.html
probe-scsi-all just says:
ok probe-scsi-all
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/scsi@2,1
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/scsi@2
Target 0
Unit 0 Disk SEAGATE ST39173W 6244
ok
book disk0 does:
ok boot disk0
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/scsi@2/disk@0,0 File and args:
Loading ufs-file-system package 1.4 04 Aug 1995 13:02:54.
FCode UFS Reader 1.10 96/10/15 00:57:29.
Loading: /platform/SUNW,UltraSPARC-IIi-cEngine/ufsboot
Loading: /platform/sun4u/ufsboot
Memory Address not Aligned
ok
2. RMA artisan USPIIi
Manoa (Peter & Co) send a old vme crate (Motorola brand) vme crate from manoa
I say they were going to send a spare power supply, but send over older stuff
that spex, the old tcs upgrade project vmc hardware!
On Mar22, the RMA'ed board from artisan arrived. It it the same board we send back.
I notice they put a new battery on (and return my batter I packed in the RMA box).
artisan USPIIi is MAC:00 80 B6 00 4F 82, HostID=80084555. PCB say 105605
120327-uspIIi-capture.html
Great, the board came back with the PROM working and set with MAC and HOSTID.
Attached disk I make for ebay-USPII.
IT BOOTED INTO SOLARIS 2.6 as HILODOG
TOBOOT
login into mako-spare. Run minicom to get access to console.
At ok prompt, type "boot disk".