Subject: Re: Forcing ethernet address
To: Frederick Quointeau <gouarfig@wsc.fr>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
List: port-sparc
Date: 12/16/1997 13:28:51
On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Frederick Quointeau wrote:

: I have an old sparcstation SLC which have losen his internal
: configuration.
: 
: When booting, it says that ethernet address is ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff.

There is a detailed description of what I am about to describe at:

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

This is the "short, short version".

First, make sure from the PROM monitor prompt that you are running in ``new
command mode''.  If you have an "ok" prompt, you are already there.  If you
have '>', type 'n' to go to new command mode.  Then type the following
commands (leaving out the 'ok' prompt, of course): 

ok setenv diag-switch? false
ok 0 f mkp
ok 8 0 20 AA BB CC AABCC mkpl
^D^R
ok

For AA, BB, and CC, choose three hexadecimal octets to use for the
workstation.  I use 'c0ffee', 'abc123', and '13dead' myself.  ;)  The first
6 bytes in the 'mkpl' line -- 08 00 20 AA BB CC -- becomes your Ethernet
address.  Make sure when pressing ^D^R (that's Ctrl-D Ctrl-R) that you do
*not* see a Sun Microsystems copyright message; if you do, replace the "0 f
mkp" line with "1 f mkp" and do the steps again.

Once this is all finished, a boot command will get you into NetBSD.
Typically the nonvolatile RAM should save this, but it is likely that the
battery in your NVRAM is dead, causing the loss of configuration.

=====
===== Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Business tv@lucent.com) =====
== "There's a myth that there is a scarcity of justice to go around, so
== that if we extend justice to 'those people,' it will somehow erode the
== quality of justice everyone else receives."  -- Maria Price