Re: No surprise with the boot process on the SPARC S7-2

[Dennis Clarke <dclarke%blastwave.org@localhost>]

On 10/23/26 10:47, Martin Husemann wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2026 at 10:00:30AM -0400, Dennis Clarke wrote:
> > Looks like the bootcode is not really soemthing the S7 can grok :
> [..]
> > {0} ok devalias
> > cdrom                    /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@1
> [..]
> > {0} ok boot cdrom
> > Boot device: /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@1  File and args:
> > WARNING: Unsupported bootblk image, can not extract fcode
>
> I would expect you'd need something like
>
> 	boot cdrom:f
>
> for this.
>
> Martin

Thank you for that tid bit. Yup.... it gets a bit further and then
seems confused :

{0} ok boot cdrom:f
NOTICE: Entering OpenBoot.
NOTICE: Fetching Guest MD.
NOTICE: Starting slave cpus.
NOTICE: Initializing LDCs.
NOTICE: Probing PCI devices.
NOTICE: Finished PCI probing.

SPARC S7-2, No Keyboard
Copyright (c) 1998, 2025, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.43.14, 32.0000 GB memory installed, Serial #83499978.
Ethernet address 0:14:4f:fa:1b:ca, Host ID: 84fa1bca.



Boot device: /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@1:f  File and 
args:
WARNING: Unsupported bootblk image, can not extract fcode

WARNING: Bootblk fcode extraction failed
NetBSD IEEE 1275 Multi-FS Bootblock
Version $NetBSD: bootblk.fth,v 1.18 2025/02/28 09:07:12 andvar Exp $
>> NetBSD/sparc64 OpenFirmware Boot, Revision 1.20 (Fri Oct 23 05:07:17 
UTC 2026)
=0xd4f6f8
Loading netbsd: 13956792+516584+330992 [773448+507649]=0x1308500
[   1.0000000] sun4v_interrupt_init: hv interrupt api major is now: 3
[   1.0000000] Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
[   1.0000000]     2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 
2013,
[   1.0000000]     2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 
2023,
[   1.0000000]     2024, 2025, 2026
[   1.0000000]     The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
[   1.0000000] Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
[   1.0000000]     The Regents of the University of California.  All 
rights reserved.

[   1.0000000] NetBSD 11.99.9 (GENERIC) #0: Fri Oct 23 05:07:17 UTC 2026
[   1.0000000] 
mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc64/compile/GENERIC
[   1.0000000] total memory = 32768 MB
[   1.0000000] avail memory = 32155 MB
[   1.0000000] mainbus0 (root): ORCL,SPARC-S7-2 (SPARC S7-2): hostid 
84fa1bca
[   1.0000000] cpu0 at mainbus0: cpu @ 4266.560 MHz, CPU id 0
[   1.0000000] cpu0: system tick frequency 1000 MHz
[   1.0000000] cpu0: 16K instruction (64 b/l), 16K data (32 b/l), 256K 
external (64 b/l)
[   1.0000000] cpu at mainbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] reboot-memory at mainbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] vbus0 at mainbus0
[   1.0000000] "flashprom" at vbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] "random-number-generator" at vbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] "dax" at vbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] "console" at vbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] cbus0 at vbus0
[   1.0000000] vnet0 at cbus0 chan 0x0: ivec 0x0, 0x1, address 
00:14:4f:fb:7c:96
[   1.0000000] vdsk0 at cbus0 chan 0x1: ivec 0x2, 0x3
[   1.0000000] scsibus0 at vdsk0: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
[   1.0000000] vdsk1 at cbus0 chan 0x2: ivec 0x4, 0x5
[   1.0000000] scsibus1 at vdsk1: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
[   1.0000000] "pciv-communication" at cbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] "virtual-domain-service" at cbus0 not configured
[   1.0000000] vrtc0 at vbus0
[   1.0000000] pcons0 at mainbus0
[   1.0000000] WARNING: system needs entropy for security; see entropy(7)
[   1.0000075] No counter-timer -- using %stick at 1000MHz as system clock.
[   1.0003940] sd0 at scsibus0 target 1 lun 0: <SUN, Virtual Disk, 1.1> 
disk fixed
[   1.0003940] sd0: fabricating a geometry
[   1.0003940] sd0: 256 GB, 262144 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sect 
x 536870912 sectors
[   1.0003940] sd0: fabricating a geometry
[   1.0003940] cd0 at scsibus1 target 1 lun 0: <SUN, Virtual CDROM, 1.1> 
cdrom removable
[   1.0003940] swwdog0: software watchdog initialized
[   1.0003940] root on cd0a dumps on cd0b
[   1.0003940] Supported file systems: mfs lfs ffs ext2fs nfs umap 
procfs overlay null kernfs fdesc union tmpfs puffs ptyfs ntfs msdos efs 
cd9660 coda
[   1.0003940] no file system for cd0 (dev 0x1200)
[   1.0003940] cannot mount root, error = 79
[   1.0003940] root device (default cd0a):
[   1.9556129] dump device (default cd0b):
[   2.5554788] file system (default generic):
[   2.7954195] root on cd0a dumps on cd0b
[   2.7954195] Supported file systems: mfs lfs ffs ext2fs nfs umap 
procfs overlay null kernfs fdesc union tmpfs puffs ptyfs ntfs msdos efs 
cd9660 coda
[   2.7954195] no file system for cd0 (dev 0x1200)
[   2.7954195] cannot mount root, error = 79
[   2.7954195] root device (default cd0a):
telnet> close
Connection to localhost closed.

Snazzy. I see the DAX there and it is proprietary stuff that is 
supposedly designed to do logical AND, OR, NOT on bitmaps or some
sort of database stuff. I am sure Larry wwill kick out something to
the open source world. real soon now :P

That error 79 is EFTYPE? Bad filesystem stuff? Maybe that iso file is
not a run of the mill ISO9660. No clue.

So here I just shutdown the LDOM and try to figure out what
the problem is. At least it boots something.

I probably have to ponder netboot to get past some specific sun4u type
stuff or who knows. I surely do not. However this is progress.




--
--
Dennis Clarke
RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC
UNIX and Linux spoken