Newbie question.
I've been running OpenSolaris on an Intel box for some time with great success.
I have just bought an old Sun Blade workstation with a corrupted version of Solaris 5 something on it.
The plan was to install OpenSolaris on it.
However beyond my skills, I see, as no Live CD (or likely to be in my lifetime)
Plan B, to install Solaris 10.(I have DVD from SUN)
How do I get the box to boot the CD (Intel keyboard, USB, not SUN keyboard),it currently boots to HD which then stops on part install, and asks for root password which I don't have.
How do I access firmware PROM?
I've done a web search, Stop+A or Intel equivalent(of which there are many) doesn't work.
Help appreciated.
Lew Targett:(
For intel box, you have to access the BIOS
this has nothing to do with the question...
@OP
we need to know which sparc box you have. you might need a serial cable to access the console and send a break to the box...
Thanks.
It is a Sun Blade 1500, thus it is a Sparc machine.
To restate the problem I need to be able to boot the CD/DVD to install new OS (Solaris 10) as the existing OS (Solaris 5 is corrupted).
I have, a PC USB, or Intel, keyboard which does not have a 'stop' key, so as to access the PROM.
The various solutions posted on the web seem not to work.
Your advice appreciated.
Please connect through the serial port, via a notebook connected. During the system bootup, eg from putty, you can give a sendbreak signal or use Alt+B sequence to break to ok> prompt. From there you can set your auto-boot? to false , reset-all, then ok> boot cdrom
---------- Post updated at 07:10 PM ---------- Previous update was at 07:08 PM ----------
My apologies... did not read carefully 
Mmm, OK, I'll see how I go.
Thanks.
Couple of tricks you can try:
Try using your keyboard's pause/break key. *may work.
If your Blade has 2 disks, unplug the disk labeled "Primary" (it says so on the IDE ribbon), and boot the Blade. The Blade will not have anything to boot up to and should come to the ok prompt. Then you can install Solaris on the remaining disk.
If only one disk, remove it and use another computer to erase it/reformat it.
Good idea, actually you can pull out all the disk to bring it to OK> prompt. Then re-insert a disk to start the OS installation
The problem with that is that Blades have IDE disks.. I don't know that I want to plug those when the chassis is powered on.
But, he could remove all disks, boot the Blade, get to the ok prompt, then like you said in your previous post set auto-boot to false, poweroff the Blade, replace the disks, and power the Blade back on.
afaik the blade 1500 has fcal disks... should be the same board as a 280r which has fcal disks!
edit:
no, you are right... it's ide:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/validateUser.do?target=Systems/SunBlade1500S/spec
i thought about blade 1000/2000 which indeed have fcal disks...
Then we should poweroff and remove in this case