On Sun, 30 Jul 2000, Chris Collins wrote:

> It appears my RC3230 is the same :(
> 
> To make matters worse, I have no way of actually booting my RC3230 as the
> disks in the system appear to have either been corrupted or erased, and I
> have no RISCOS tapes. [The machine was a gift from an ex-hacker who got it
> through unknown means].  This prevents me from actually using the machine.
> Anybody willing to send me a QIC150 cartridge with an appropriate install
> image, and basic install instructructions, would be greatly appreciated at
> this point :)

Chris,

I am thinking about making a "miniroot" which includes a sash
compatible disk partition.  All you need to do is put a hard disk on
another UNIX machine and "dd" the contents to it.  The procedure should
also work for a CDROM.

> 
> > If you have access to anything that takes a 6116 then you will hopefully
> > be able to reprogram it on that machine.   I would like to see the
> > datasheet first to ensure it is in fact able to be done that way.
> 
> Do any of the Sparcs use this nvram chip?  I fortunately have access to a
> large number of SparcStations.

Yes they do.  Thanks to Tohru Nishimura for pointing out that Suns use the
same nvram chip.  There is tons of information concerning this in the Sun
community.

The NetBSD FAQ at http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/sparc/faq.html describes the
problem and points you to a useful FAQ on the subject at:

  http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html

Given that I have a number of IPX's that are surplus to requirments I
decided to reprogram a MK48T02 and use it in my Mips 3230 machine.

The procedure I used is as follows (from a serial console):

1. Boot Sun IPX and send a <BREAK> character to interrupt boot sequence
2. Enter new command mode by entering n
3. Type the following commands in sequence:

     02000000 obio 0 map-page
     0 7f8 ff fill
     0 0 c!
     0 1 c!
     6b 2 c!
     82 3 c!
     52 4 c!
     44 5 c!
     0a 6 c!
     10 7 c!
     44 8 c!
     38 9 c!
     32 a c!
     34 b c!
     34 c c!

   This sets the MAC Address to 0:0:6b:82:52:44 which is one of my
   machines.  You will probably want to chose a slightly different MAC
   address for your machine 

4. Power down the machine immediately and transplant the MK48T02 chip
   into your Mips machine.

5. The machine should (hopefully) beep and power up on serial 1.  If you
   don't get any output try using serial 0

This procedure will no doubt become a FAQ item, so I suggest you give
feedback about any differences in the above procedure (ie. it might be
slightly different for other sun machines)

Wayne
--
  _____	   	Wayne Knowles,  Systems Manager
 / o   \/   	National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd
 \/  v /\   	P.O. Box 14-901 Kilbirnie, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
  `---'     	Email:   w.knowles@niwa.cri.nz