Sun V445 hangs before {0} ok prompt

I am having a problem when booting my Sun V445 machine with Solaris 10 installed on it. Machine hangs at boot at following step :

0>Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved
0>OBP->POST Call with %o0=00000800.01014000.
0>Diag level set to MAX.
0>Verbosity level set to NORMAL.
0>Start Selftest.....
0>CPUs present in system: 0 1 2 3
0>Test CPU(s)....Done
0>Interrupt Crosscall....Done
0>Init Memory....|
SC Alert: Host System has Reset
'Done
0>PLL Reset....Done
0>Init Memory....Done
0>Test Memory....Done
0>Test CPU Caches....Done
0>Functional CPU Tests....Done
0>IO-Bridge Tests....Done
0>INFO:
0>      POST Passed all devices.
0>
0>POST: Return to OBP.
SC Alert: Host System has Reset
Configuring system memory & CPU(s)
Probing system devices
Probing memory
Probing I/O buses
Starting RTC ..

I am just stuck here, have tried to break and enter into "ok Prompt" for new installation but unable to get there as well. Thanks in advance though.

The main part of the output that you posted is from the system controller (a Linux based appliance that underlies and controls the SPARC machine). The boot up from the SC that you posted finds no hardware errors and says "POST Passed all devices".

My thoughts are that:

  1. It could still be a hardware fault but I think that unlikely given the "POST Passed all devices" message.
  2. The "Host System has reset" message indicates the start of the SPARC boot process but it's possible that shortly after that console output is switched elsewhere due to a configuration setting on the ALOM.

Suggest that you check that out first and post back any progress or lack of.

See page 59 of attached document

How do you access the console output? You might have a "lock" on the console from another terminal... If you are on the ALOM try to start the console with console -f and hit enter after the output stops.

I do not agree with hicksd8 that the output you see is (mainly) from the ALOM... So if you connecting to the console over serial port, you might want to try the ALOM and vice versa.

@DukeNuke2......What do you mean by "try the ALOM"? Enter "#." and see if it drops to the ALOM?

The OP says that he's tried to "break" but it doesn't work.

@hicksd8:

if he is connecting to the console via serial line or via ALOM and the input-/output-device in OBP is pointing to the wrong device, he might see output but can not generate input...

1 Like

@DukeNuke2......Yea right. That's quite possible. Thanks.

thanks for the reply though, "#." takes me to ALom login but its an old machine and doesn't have ALom password (i have tried default passwords and they aren't working obviously).
I have my backups for applications installed, so installing a new solaris wont be an issue if the machine lets me get into "ok prompt" atleast.
I am connecting my machine via a windows laptop using teraterm.. and sending break via tera term's default break command,and ctrl+p, Ctrl+pause, ctrl+b etc etc, plus i have tried break command using sun keyboard "stop+A", all i get in return is

SC Alert: SC Request to send Break to host.

But em still nowhere near "OK prompt"

You say that you have tried default passwords but there is only one default password AFAIK. "changeme"

Please confirm you have tried userid/passwd combinations admin/changeme and root/changeme.

Is there still a Solaris installed which is accessible for you? If so, you can use the scadm utility to reset the ALOM password.

@hicksd8: "changeme" is only default password for newer servers (with ILOM) not for the servers with ALOM (I would although try admin/admin on an ALOM).

Also a thing to try would be to remove the ALOM card from the server and access the server over the serial port (TTYB) and install Solaris. If access to Solaris is possible over network (SSH) you can re-insert (powerdown server; remove power cords!) the ALOM card and configure it with the scadm utility.

@DukeNuke2.......AFAIK (and in my experience) newer servers shipped with ILOM are root/changeme and older servers shipped with ALOM are admin/changeme. But that's just my own experience. Personally, I've not seen any server shipped with something other than "changeme" as the password. That doesn't mean I think that you're wrong.

PS. Having said that the very V445 manual I supplied as an attachment seems to say that the ALOM user is Admin but, as shipped, there is no password set. I stand corrected. Pg 155/156

@hicksd8 : not actually through some website I came to know the last 8 digits of chasis no. are also used as default password sometimes, so that is why I mentioned default password"s". and yes I tried it all. and after your advice I tried "Admin" as login with no password ("") and got rejected again.

@DukeNuke2 : Yeah solaris was installed and working perfect before I rebooted the machine coz it became inaccessible remotely (a very big mistake though :P), and now em stuck at this "starting RTC".

Well my point was that all hardware tests have been passed in POST as shown in output, so whats making the machine hung at "starting RTC", and now what shoud I do, as I am unable to get access to any prompt...

You can still try my second tip in the last post...

Hmmmmmmm!!!!!

I've not come across this before so I can only say what I would do in that situation.

Have you completely disconnected all power?

The reason I ask is that the System Controller (SC, the Linux appliance I mentioned earlier) boots up as soon as power is applied. AFAIK the SC contains the Real Time Clock (RTC). If something on the SC is broken then that might have caused the whole system to stop communicating.

I would power down and disconnect all volts.

Leave the console device on and connected, and reconnect the volts. Watch carefully the SC booting and any errors in the output. See if that leads anywhere different. Or have you already tried that?

Just thinking out loud.

@Dukenuke : I ll surely try that removing ALOM thing and will update on that, but I doubt removing the ALOM card would help me break the boot sequence into "ok prompt" from where I can proceed for Solaris installation (just a newbies opinion but will update as soon as I ll try that).

@hicksd : I disconnected all the power, the moment I power on the machine it takes me to ALOM login, then in some time, timer expires for character input but nothing moves on, unless I press the front button on the machine (which is very normal I guess) and the moment I press that power button on front ... : output is posted in my first message.

Well thanks anyways uptil now, and lemme know if anything comes in mind.

You can also try this one:

Which won't fix your boot problem but will give you access to ALOM and from there on we can go on further...

@Dukenuke : This is what options em getting ALOM escape menu.
Btw ALOM is 1.6.4

ALOM <ESC> Menu
f - Wait for flash download from host.
C - Copy Boot Monitor from FLASHBOAT.
j - Jump to main code (at 0x01010000).
m - Run POST Menu.
(Do not try this after a flash update of the boot monitor!)
d - play DOOM
s - Set clock speed
e - Set external and internal console serial ports baud rate
i - Set internal control serial port baud rate
t - Toggle 'OK' flag
R - Reset SC
b,h,w - Read byte/halfword/word
B,H,W - Write byte/halfword/word
r - Return to bootmon

So you have to try without the ALOM...

I just found a message when booting my machine :

BASIC TOD TEST
Read the TOD Clock:
SC Alert: Preceding SC reset due to watchdog
SAT JAN 01 02:13:36 2000
Wait, 1 - 3 seconds
Read the TOD Clock: SAT JAN 01 02:13:38 2000
BASIC TOD TEST, PASSED

Can it be something that's making my machine stuck at "starting RTC", or is it a regular SC Alert.

This is looking like a System Controller (SC) problem. Why is the clock saying year 2000? Perhaps the CMOS battery has died??

Certainly, if the SPARC box asks the SC for the date/time and the result is way prior to the date/time that it's running with that will surely confuse the hell out of the system!!

A P P E N D I X B - ALOM CMT Event Messages

Is the system under an Oracle hardware support contract?

---------- Post updated at 04:48 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:21 PM ----------

You said that you had tried a STOP-A on the Sun keyboard with no result.

STOP-N should reset the OBP parameters (if they are corrupted). Maybe worth a shot.