My question was:
> We have a SPARCstation 2 running Solaris 2.1 and last week we got the
> following error repeatedly and eventually the machine crashed. And now it
> wont boot.
>
> zs0: Silo overflow
> zs0: ring buffer overflow
>
> Is this a hardware problem ? What does it mean and how can it be fixed ?
> Any help will be appreciated.
The problem was with the serial ports. Man pages are available for zs
(man zs)i which is what the serial ports are called on Suns. There was
a printer connected to the serial port. I disconnected the printer and
rebooted and then the errors went away. The cable I was using had all
25 pins connected. I replaced that with a cable with only pins 2 3 7 20
connected and the rate at which I get the errors is much less. The errors
still occur. The person who uses the computer has resorted to turning
the printer on only when a printout is required and leaving it off
otherwise. This practically eliminates the errors. The machine was not
covered under warranty or service contract and it was decided that nothing
would be done as far as getting somebody to look at the hardware. Things
work. I am still looking for a better solution, such as putting the printer
on EtherNet.
The Following persons replied (apologies to those who tried to respond
but got nixed because of the incorrect return address - thanks to those
who did respond in spite of this).
Jeff Cummings <jtcommi@sandia.gov>
Luca Polo <jake@record.unipd.it>
Samir Taylor <cadskt@mto.det.cad.gmeds.com>
Dan Jiracek <djiracek@jupiter.fnbc.com>
Derek Terveer <derekt@pwcs.stpaul.gov>
David Fetrow <fetrow@biostat.washington.edu>
Jim Davis <jdavis@cs.arizona.edu>
I also received a message from one person who had compiled other messages
on this subject that had been posted to sun-managers. I unpacked the
message but I dont have the original message and consequently have lost
the address Sorry.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Arun Thomas
deat@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. MD.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:08:01 CDT