sun netra t1

so i've grabbed this sun netra t1 for some small dev work. now obviously i need to install sol10. no problem done it a million times except for the fact that i've never actually done it w/o a term server. so i grab a usb to serial and a serial to rj45 (the one you get in every cisco order.. roll over i believe) and plug it up and port it in the serial b connection. power on the server and get nothing from my hyperterminal session.

what the hell have i done wrong here? i feel so noobie for this one but i'm really at a lose here. i get no post messages or ok prompt.

Use the other connection. Labelled management port or something like that. You should be able to talk to the lom processor while the t1 is off as long as it is plugged in. The lom command "console" turns the port into a console and that it where you can get an ok prompt. From console mode, use"
#.
to get back to lom mode.

Have you tried to switch to port A ? What about your hyperterminal session? I use SecureCRT with options: speed (9600), parity (none), bits (8)

right... i've got lom port and serial port (a and b respectively). i have it in the serial and nothing happens. i try to break with #. and nothing happens. it just sits there. so i did the same thing with the lom connection and again... nothing. i've got it on 9600 8 none 1 none as it should be. this is really rather interesting that its this hard to console into a server. i must be missing something here.

Have you been into the computer management area on your PC and checked what com port it is using?

I use a USB to Serial convertor and find that it sometimes comes in on a different port so I have to tell hyperterm to use that com port.

of course... using com3. just can't seem to figure this out. why it would be this hard... who knows.

interestingly enough, i have another sun netra x1 that i tried to console into (again, one i just picked up from the trash) and i can't get that to output as well. therefore, i have to think its my connection from my desktop. at this point, i'm ready to try everything from a null modem to x-over or whatever! hahaha

so there is good and bad news. i switched to tera term and got output. basically saw the lom> prompt and when i powered on it posted with the banner. however, it fails (as expected on loading anything) and goes to the ok prompt. the bad news. i can't issue any input. any ideas on why that might be?

start the console session with the option "-f" to get write access to the console. otherwise you are in "view" mode only...

lom> console -f

answer the next question with "yes" or use

lom> console -f -y

hth,
DN2

duke - i would love to do that but again, i can't give any input.

output as follows from lom:

LOMlite starting up.

CPU type: H8/3437S, mode 3
Ram-test: 2048 bytes OK
Initialising i2c bus: OK
Searching for EEPROMs: 50(cfg)
I2c eeprom @50: OK
i2c bus speed code 01... OK
Probing for lm80s: 28
Initialising lm80 @28: OK
Probing for lm75s: none
System functions: PSUs fans breakers rails gpio temps host CLI ebus clock

LOMlite console
lom>
LOM event: +0h0m0s LOM booted
lom>
LOM event: +0h0m2s host power on
�
Netra T1 200 (UltraSPARC-IIe 500MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 4.0, 1024 MB memory installed, Serial #16687876.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:fe:a3:4, Host ID: 80fea304.



Boot device: disk  File and args:
The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
ok

i know what you are going to say next. what about the below:

Netra T1 200 (UltraSPARC-IIe 500MHz), No Keyboard

well... thats were i'm lost. can't figure out why my keyboard is not registering. i clearly have one. does the netra t1 need a sun keyboard?

I suppose you need to change the cable. for netra t1, I have used the cisco cable(flat , light blue). it will work

you have the keyboard directly attached? i think you use teraterm? pleas describe your setup better... how did you poweron the machine?

you are connected via serial line and can enter the lom? can you type at lom level?

yup.... exactly the one i'm using.

duke - this is what i got

computer to usb to serial. then the serial to rj45 plugged into the lom. i used teraterm and securecrt. running at 9600 8n1n.

keyboard is not directly attached. its attached to the host with the serial conection.

from the previous post, i see output to the screen. i cannot give any input at the ok prompt or the lom prompt.

pupp - o.k. then the "no keyboard" output is right. only if a keyboard is directly attached this message disapear.
i've no other idea why you can not type... but maybe you've to check the cable as mentioned above. usb -> serial -> lom is sometimes pain in the ...!
what happens if you use the serial port b on the netra? maybe it's worth a try...

good luck,
DN2

duke - exactly what i thought with the no keyboard thing. however, i've got a ps/2 keyboard i'm going to bring it into work and give it a go there. i've got term servers up the @#$ and a million cables. hahaha.

the serial connection gives me nothing. no output. seems lom is the only choice at the moment.

jesus... for such a small server, its a real pain to get into. i can get into a m9000 a million different ways. no problems. o well... gotta love sun!

Check that the hardware flow control is set to "off" in your terminal emulator.

ok well it's figured out. i grab another solaris 10 server and hooked up a console cable from term port to lom port. issued a tip hardwire and got in with no problems. everything was already good in /etc/remote.

I know I'm a little late to the party, but the "no keyboard" message just indicates that there isn't a Sun keyboard plugged into the server. It doesn't have anything to do with your PC's keyboard.

This is how the Sun server decides whether to use a graphical console or the serial port. No keyboard = serial console.

This might have changed with LOM. I'm not 100% sure about that, but it's true for older hardware.

exactly. i just didn't have the ability to hook up a keyboard to the server. but still... i'm really curious as why a term connection from my xp desktop won't push input to the server? i even tried another laptop and same thing. all were connected to the LOM.

now i just got to look into figuring out why the serial port on the t1 won't work. not sure what someone did to this server but it seems beat up to me! hahaha.

Somebody could have mucked with the console settings or there could be a connection problem with the cable or console port itself.

I seem to remember having this exact same problem once. Could read from, but not write to the console. I think it was a broken pin or wire in the cable.