Hey guys I just inherited a sun netra 210 from an old Avaya system we had setup and I want to use i for studying for my SCSA/OCA exams but I'm running into alot of problems installing SOL 10 on here. I have no experience with SUN hardware at all but familiar with Solaris. It has SOL 9 but no one seems to know/remember the root password because the system has been out of commission for a while and the old sys-admin is no longer here. So when I try to go to openboot prompt using the cntrl-A key combo it just shows a blank screen for about 4 minutes then the OS loads. Is there some key combo that allows the output to display on the screen. Im not able to access the OS at all.
Its normal to see the blank screen for sometime, because the system might be doing POST(poweron self test). Only way to see it is via connecting through the serial. However, you may want to do this for faster bootup:
ok>printenv
ok>setenv diag-switch? flase
ok>setenv diag-level min
ok>setenv auto-boot? false
Thanks for your reply, I have the sun keyboard and mouse connected. I removed both hard drives (2 sas 10k) and waited, but nothing happened so I plugged them back in the system recognized them and booted to the OS.
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Is it possible to use hyper terminal with XP using the 9pin to RJ45 connection. Because when I set this up it shows connected immediately but displays nothing and im not able to get a command prompt in hyper terminal. I have also tried using putty and when I open the connection the black screen comes up then nothing. I wait til the system finally boots to OS.
Remove the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and as Incredible said, connect to the serial port. Whoever had the box before probably redirected console output to the serial connection only, so you will not see it in a monitor.
As for issues connecting to the serial port, again as Incredible said, make sure you set the right baud rate of 9600... the other settings should be 8, 1, n . Also make sure you are connected to the serial mgt port of the aLOM.
If you still do not see anything, you may need to powercycle the box, ie, remove the power cord and plug it back in. However, if you do that, when the box is restarted, you will get the aLOM prompt, and you will need to know the aLOM prompt and log in. If you don't know them, then you will need to reset it through a jumper in the motherboard.
Thanks alot for your replies both System Shock and Incredible. I have not removed the keyboard, mouse and display but I did have the setting correct. I will try without the accessories tomorrow when I get to the datacenter and post back my findings.
I finally got to get back to my project. I disconnected all cables except the serial & power, booted up the box and connected with putty serial connection and the screen remains black until I see a login prompt finally appears.