---In message <20020827173622.6686211D1D1@mail.bullers.net>
>A few quick questions for the experts on the list...

[smip]

>So last night, I put all the stuff together (except for the speaker
>box) and tried to get it to talk to my pc532 (since it has some
>free serial ports).  Headless, and with no keyboard, I figured I'd
>see something come out of the serial port at 9600 N81.  I didn't.
>My breakout box tells me the lines are correct, but no data that
>I can see.

 If the CPU was dead or not properly seated, that would fit the symptoms
you describe. I believe i have seen improper (or bad) RAM configurations
also cause this sort of failure.  The idea being if you don't have one
good CPU, or a legal and functional RAM config, you are not even going to
see the OpenBoot PROM (OBP) banner.

 Do you have another SPARC-10 or 20 to test the CPU in? (Some CPUs work in
both machines, but not all.  If in doubt, check the part number.) Or do
you have another CPU to test? 50 MHz SuperSPARCs are pretty cheap now.

 L1-N (Stop-N) should reset NVRAM to defaults, although i would expect you
to have seen something on ttya when you did L1-D. However, i do not
remember what version of the OBP L1-D and L1-N were introduced (or if they
were there as long as L1-A), and it's possible they are disabled because
OBP security has been turned on.  If OBP security is enabled, i believe
your only two choices are:

 - Boot the machine (with NetBSD or SunOS (4 or 5)) and use the "eeprom"
program to reset the value

 - Remove the NVRAMRC chip, and then power the machine on.

 Be advised that lots of things can go wrong when you start pulling chips
off the motherboard, such as bent pins and ESD.  So if you aren't ready to
buy a new motherboard or NVRAM chip, you probably don't want to do this.
(FWIW, a bare SPARC-10 motherboard or the NVRAM chip should each cost
about the same now: ~$20)

>I'll probably be getting it a drive real soon, but seeing something
>come out of the serial port or network would be nice.  And I haven't
>tried the TP-Enet port yet, didn't have a cable last night.
>Otherwise I'd be sniffing for a network packet as well, but I doubt
>it would be doing that by default at power-up.

 It really depends on what the OBP settings are.  I believe that by
default, a PROM of that vintage would try to boot off of the network after
failing to find a valid SCSI device. So you might actually be able to tell
if it was completing POST and OBP by sniffing for an ARP request.

 However, if the OBP "boot-device" variable has been set to just "disk,"
it will simply drop to the OK prompt after not finding a suitable disk.


 --johan