SUMMARY: How to press L1-A

From: Araya Pamonprawat - PHST (phabm@mahidol.ac.th)
Date: Tue Jan 23 1996 - 20:08:55 CST


There were 41 responses, most with the information that the L1 key is now
labelled STOP on newer Sun keyboards, and one me-too. Below is

        - thorough reply from David Willard <dwillard@scires.com>
        - other related advice
        - list of people who responded
------------

     The 'L' keys are the function keys on the left-hand side of the Sun
     keyboard. On older models, these keys were actually labelled 'L1',
     'L2', and so on. On newer keyboards, they are labelled with the
     function name (used in OpenWindows, I believe). The numbers still
     apply though, and the order is left-to-right, top-down. The key
     labelled "Stop" is 'L1', "Again" is 'L2', "Props" is 'L3', and so on.
     
     So, to activate the keyboard abort sequence, L1-A (aka, Stop-A), press
     and hold the "Stop" key and then press the 'a' key (doesn't need to be
     capitalized) while still holding down "Stop". This should immediately
     take you to one of the eeprom prompts, '>' or 'ok'. If this sequence
     does not work, then someone may have disactivated or remapped the
     sequence.
     
     Sorry for the long, drawn-out explanation, but I wanted to explain,
     just in case you didn't know.
     
No, I didn't know. Thanks enormously, Andrew.
------------

>From Syed Zaeem Hosain <szh@zcon.com>:

Of course, this is a drastic way to halt the system. And it may lead
to file system problems. *Always* try to find other ways to check to
see if the system is really hung (ping from another network, press
control-Q, etc.). The L1-a is a "last resort" effort that should be
very rarely used on a stable Sun system.

After doing an "L1-a", depending on the boot prompt, you should also
do one of the following:

g 0

if the boot prompt is ">", and

sync

if the boot prompt is "ok". This will make some effort to sync the
disks and write all buffered data.
------------

>From John Cheshire <john@stellarperformance.co.uk>:

If it has "hard hung", then L1-A will not help. A hard hang is a hang from
which only a switch off and on will help. Hard hangs can be due to either
hardware problems or operating system bugs.
------------

>From Jochen Bern <bern@penthesilea.uni-trier.de>:

If everything else fails, pull & replug the Keyboard Cable, which does
the same Thing (but can't be fiddled with by obscure Software, which
*can* remap L1-A to something else).

Regards,
                                                                J. Bern
  /\ /""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""\
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Technical Director
keyboards!
-----------
     
lkopl@ctp.com (Leslie Koplow)
kevin@somemore.more.com (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})
Marco Tonelli <tonelli@picasso.ucsf.EDU>
"Michael (M.A.) Meystel" <MEYSTMA%DUVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
Thang Victor Dinh <tdinh@gatekeeper.irvine-sensors.com>
springer@aitsun500.tcinc.com (Jerry Springer)
mhr@internet.sbi.com (Michael Ringbauer (SysAdm))
Roy Rapoport <rsr@ide.com>
dwillard@scires.com
"B C Hamshere" <B.C.Hamshere@newcastle.ac.uk>
"COLIN MELVILLE" <melvil2c@ditco.disa.mil>
rtrzaska@uk.mdis.com (ray)
anderson@neon.mitre.org (Mark S. Anderson)
"Gregory G. Goldstein (goldsteg@cna.org/goldstein_g@dbug.decus.org)" <GOLDSTEG@cna.org>
John Cheshire <john@stellarperformance.co.uk>
Anderson McCammont <and@morgan.com>
Georg Thimm <thimm@idiap.ch>
Glenn.Satchell@uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services)
Christian Altenschmidt <altensch@harpo.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
mike@trdlnk.com (Michael Sullivan)
barmar@bbnplanet.com
Sahir Siddiqui <sahirns@menger.eecs.stevens-tech.edu>
Randy Grimshaw <rgrimsha@mailbox.syr.edu>
cao@workgroup.com (Chan T. Cao)
Usuario InfoWay <maujos@svr.fundatec.tche.br>
albert@esther.rad.tju.edu (Dr. Micheal Albert)
celeste@celestial.stokely.com (Celeste Stokely)
"Marks, Evan R" <A700102@aetna.com>
perryh@pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison)
Jim McBride <jim@fleshwound.org>
mprice@cch.com.au (Michael Price)
bern@penthesilea.uni-trier.de (Jochen Bern)
Jim Mintha <jim@geog.ubc.ca>
Kevin Martinez <lps@rahul.net>
james mularadelis <jamesm@matrix.newpaltz.edu>
mch@squirrel.com (Mark C. Henderson)
David.E.Macdonald@cdc.com (David MacDonald)
lisa@fci.COM (Lisa Zenobi Paulson)
szh@zcon.com (Syed Zaeem Hosain)
Mary Lou Hinman <maryh@cea.Berkeley.EDU>
John Rosenberg <jcr@bgumby.bwh.harvard.edu>
     



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