>Ladies/Gents:
> I have received a Sparc IPC that I'd like to make into a router using
>NetBSD. The machine has one hard drive with SunOS 4 on it. The CMOS battery
is
>dead (as witnessed by the Mac address being FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF on bootup).
The
>floppy drive doesn't work.
> SunOS 4 has /usr mounted from a second drive (which is inconspiciously
>missing from the machine) -- therefore there is no way to boot into the OS
>normally. I suppose I could get it to boot single-user mode, but I don't
know
>enough about SunOS 4 to do so (boot -s doesn't seem to have any effect).
> My question is: Is there any hope of getting NetBSD (or a similarly
>advanced OS) onto the box or am I stuck with it? Thanks for the help!


I built 3 IPC boxes with NetBSD given exactly these same problems.

To "fix" the floppy, open the case and remove the floppy
from it's bracket.  Blow out any dust that may have accumulated
(compressed air is a godsend here -- but a good set of lungs
comes in handy as well!).

With the drive upside down, the "hub" for the disk motor
is visible as a brass (?) colored ring in the center of the
shield covering the coils for the brushless motor.  Without
any media in the drive (!), you want to get this spining
a bit to loosen up the bearing.  Using your finger tip
is just too tedious.

I found the easiest way to do this is to use an electric
drill with the ERASER END of a pencil in the chuck -- so
the eraser is sticking out.  A *better* way is to use an
electric eraser but I suspect you don't have one of those
handy... :>

Hold the eraser against the brass hub *gently* at a 45
degree angle to the axis of the motor.  Turn on the
drill/electric eraser for a few seconds.  Recall the
nominal speed of the drive is about 300 RPM so don't
go crazy!!  :>

While you have the drive out, you can flip it rightside up.
Carefully remove the cover (it just clips on using small
"catches" on eaither side of the case -- don't mangle
it trying to get it apart!).  Remove any lint/dust caught
inside.

If you can (!), gently rotate the head actuator motor.
This will cause the sled carrying the head to move in/out.
You just want to break any "stiction" that dried grease
may be causing.  If you can't rotate the motor (my fingers
were too big to do so!), **GENTLY** slide the sled 1/8"
or so in or out.  The screw drive has enough play in it
that it will reengage itself at the next "groove" of the
spiral on the drive screw.

Reassemble drive.

That should now work.  (crossed fingers)  Note that it
isn't a long term solution -- just enough to get the OS
installed.  A more thorough cleaning is needed if you
intend to use the drive frequently.

As for the NVRAM, you can use the OFW monitor to patch
a bogus hardware address into the machine -- just enough
to get the network interface to be addressable for your
FTP transfers.

The NVRAM itself can be purchased from folks like Mouser
(USA) for about $15.  Or, you can spend 15 minutes scraping
the plastic off the chip to expose the leads to the "tophat"
battery and solder on a replacement (advantage to this
approach is you can do it *today* instead of waiting
for express delivery of some obsolete timekeeping chips
that will end up needing to be replaced again in the future!)

Drop me a line if you have further questions on any of these
techniques.

--don