SUMMARY: jumpstarting 420R's

From: Kyle, Andrew (Andrew.Kyle@CommerzbankIB.com)
Date: Tue Apr 11 2000 - 03:51:08 CDT


Hi all,

Well once again the list comes back at lightning speed to save the day.

Thanks to the people that replied:
Don Cary Grant [dgrant@ga-network.com]
Mike Allmen (rp1251) [mike.allmen@motorola.com]
Aaron [aaronkr@home.com]
John Malick [john@starinc.com]
Arthur Darren Dunham [add@netcom.com]

Arthur and Aaron hit it on the head explaining that the dodgy SUN 2.6
jumpstart created from the CD doesn't "quite" work for Ultra-80s (420R). It
doesn't make the links under /usr/platform & /platform making the newly
jumpstarted server unbootable (as much use as a fish with a bicycle).

Arthur's reply provided the best solution which I used to hack jumpstart to
work. Below is Arthur's email and my original question.

Regards,
Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Kyle, Andrew [mailto:Andrew.Kyle@CommerzbankIB.com]
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2000 8:31 PM
To: 'Sun Managers'
Subject: jumpstarting 420R's

Hi all,

I seem to be having trouble jumpstarting our 420R (with 4x 450Mhz CPUs) with
Solaris 2.6 (hardware 5/98) and the OEI CD that comes with it.

The server seems to jumpstart okay but when it does the final reboot is
comes up with:

boot: cannot open kernel/unix
Enter filename [kernel/unix]:

I boot off the net and mount the root disk and find that the o/s is not
properly installed, for example its missing the Ultra-80 stuff under
/usr/platform. I'm sure its missing a lot more, but thats the first thing I
looked for.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any luck jumpstarting 2.6 on a 420r.
If so, what PROM version did you do it with. I have OBP 3.23.

And yes, I have executed the modify_install_server script.

TIA,
Andrew

PS. Solaris 2.7 jumpstarts on it fine.

*************Arthur's reply*************
>
> Hi all,
>
> I seem to be having trouble jumpstarting our 420R (with 4x 450Mhz CPUs)
with
> Solaris 2.6 (hardware 5/98) and the OEI CD that comes with it.

The OEI CD contains some scripts to patch your jumpstart server to work
with the new CPUs.

> The server seems to jumpstart okay but when it does the final reboot is
> comes up with:
>
> boot: cannot open kernel/unix
> Enter filename [kernel/unix]:
>
> I boot off the net and mount the root disk and find that the o/s is not
> properly installed, for example its missing the Ultra-80 stuff under
> /usr/platform. I'm sure its missing a lot more, but thats the first thing
I
> looked for.
>
> I was wondering if anyone else has had any luck jumpstarting 2.6 on a
420r.
> If so, what PROM version did you do it with. I have OBP 3.23.
>
> And yes, I have executed the modify_install_server script.

Oh, then no. I've got a whole lab full of 420Rs and 450MHz cpus. No
problems at all since I patched the server.

Ahh, yes. There's this message that was on the list sometime ago. I do
Full +OEM so I never ran into it...

Begin included file-------
network install "known issue";

Enterprise 420R and Ultra 80 systems may be unable to reboot after
performing a network installation (interactive or jumpstart) from a
modified Solaris 2.6 5/98 net install image that was patched via the
modify_install_server script found on the 'Operating Environment
Installation CD September 1999' CD (part number 704-6914-10). After
OS installation, the system doesn't reboot due to the missing
SUNW,Ultra-80 platform link:

Boot device: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@0,0 File and args:
boot: cannot open kernel/unix
Enter filename [kernel/unix]:

This problem is seen if you select any software metacluster other
than Entire Distribution Plus OEM. In the other software
metaclusters (Core/End-user/Programmers/Entire Distribution),
the sun4u platform link packages (SUNWvplr.u, SUNWvplu.u, SUNWvplxw)
aren't dynamically installed because the SUNW,Ultra-80 test is
missing from the SMCCplatformtest dynamic test. Therefore, patch
107497-01 (SUNW,Ultra-80 platform link) doesn't get installed
after the OS installation is done.

This problem only happens on systems that will be running Solaris 2.6.
Systems using Solaris 7 will not experience this problem.

=======================================================
1) To boot the system at this point
=======================================================
>From the "Enter filename [kernel/unix]:" prompt enter
 /platform/sun4u/kernel/unix
 
and from the "Enter default directory for modules..." prompt,
 enter a carrage return <cr>. The kernel should load at this point.
 
EX:

Enter filename [kernel/unix]: /platform/sun4u/kernel/unix
Enter default directory for modules [/platform/sun4u/kernel /kernel
/usr/kernel]:
SunOS Release 5.6 Version Generic_105181-10 [UNIX(R) System V Release 4.0]
Copyright (c) 1983-1997, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

=======================================================
2) When the system boots, create the platform links
=======================================================

# cd /usr/platform
# ln -s sun4u SUNW,Ultra-80

# cd /usr/openwin/platform
# ln -s sun4u SUNW,Ultra-80

# cd /platform
# mkdir SUNW,Ultra-80
# chgrp sys SUNW,Ultra-80

=========================================================
3) Resolve the source of the problem on the Install Image
=========================================================

Modify SMCCplatformtest in the 2.6 5/98 netinstall image to
include the check for SUNW,Ultra-80. The file is located in
<image>/Solaris_2.6/Tools/Boot/usr/sbin/install.d/dynamic_test.

The contents of the file will look like this:

#!/bin/sh
#
# This shell script is to interface with SHWP's parse_dynamic_clustertoc
#
# This test checks if the platform is a SUNW pure-clone
#

#PLATFORM_TOKEN=`/sbin/uname -i`
PLATFORM_TOKEN=`prtconf | sed -n -e '5s:[ /]:_:g' -e 5p -e 6q`

case "$PLATFORM_TOKEN"
in
        SUNW,Ultra-5_10) exit 0;;
        SUNW,Ultra-60) exit 0;;
        SUNW,Ultra-80) exit 0;; <<-- Insert this line
        SUNW,Ultra-250) exit 0;;
esac
exit 1

=======================================================
4) Another workaround
=======================================================
Select the 'Entire Distribution Plus OEM' (SUNWCXall)
software metacluster in the install clients profile.

-- 
Darren Dunham                                           ddunham@taos.com
Unix System Administrator                    Taos - The SysAdmin Company
Got some Dr Pepper?                                      Santa Clara, CA 
      < Please move on, ...nothing to see here,  please disperse >

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