Part 2

FAQ


    ROM Monitors
    ------------

   Sun-2's sported a rather primitive monitor; with each succeeding
model line, it has become more powerful. In all models, the machine
enters the ROM monitor upon power up. The monitor tries to boot from a
default device, which may be determined by a simple priority-ordered
search for boot devices (Sun-2) or by EEPROM settings (Sun-3 and later).
If it cannot find a boot device or the boot device is offline, it enters
command-line mode. Command-line mode may be manually invoked at any
time, including while the OS is running, by holding down L1 and then
pressing A on a Sun console, or sending BREAK if you are using a
terminal as the console. On all models, the "c" (continue) command
resumes execution at the point where the monitor was entered, so you can
recover from accidentally halting the OS. Note that if you are using a
terminal as the console, turning it off or disconnecting it is usually
interpreted as BREAK and halts the machine.

   Note that the ROM monitor in a machine may or may not know about any
particular color framebuffer, depending on the revision of the ROM and
the age of the framebuffer standard. If the ROM does not know how to
detect and display on the particular color framebuffer you have
installed, it will be unable to display the normal ROM boot messages.
This does not affect OS support for the framebuffer; if you are willing
to boot blind, SunOS should find the framebuffer and start displaying on
it normally. The alternative is to get a more recent ROM or a different
framebuffer.

SUN-1

   No information. The 100U used a Sun-2 CPU (the same one used in early
2/120 units), so it had a Sun-2 ROM monitor.

SUN-2

   The ROM monitor in at least the 2/120 and 2/170 (and probably all
other Sun-2 models) is capable of booting and performing some memory and
register operations, but not much more. There is no online help or
diagnostics.

   The boot command is of the form "b dd(x,y,z) args" where "dd" is a
device string, "x" is the controller number, "y" is the unit number (?),
"z" is the partition number, and "args" are optional arguments to the
kernel. "dd" may be sd (SCSI disk), st (SCSI tape), xy (Xylogics SMD
controller), ie (Sun Ethernet board), or ec (3Com Ethernet board), and
probably others (mt?). For example, to boot from the first partition on
the first SCSI disk on the first SCSI controller (a common
configuration), the command would be "b sd(0,0,0)". To boot from the
first partition on the second SMD disk on the first SMD controller (a
configuration I have), the command would be "b xy(0,1,0)". To boot from
the fourth file on the first SCSI tape drive on the first SCSI
controller (booting from the n'th file may be required during OS
installation), the command would be "b st(0,0,3)".

   Note that the ROM monitor makes certain assumptions about SCSI IDs --
the tape drive is actually at SCSI ID 4, but is referred to as tape unit
0. By default ("b"), the ROM monitor tries to boot from (0,0,0) on the
highest-priority bootable device that it can find in the machine's
slots; the priority order is xy, sd, and ie/ec (don't know which has
priority over the other). It never boots from tape by default. There may
be other bootable devices, but I have never seen them.

   Also note that for at least some versions of SunOS, "args" is not
actually passed to the kernel. The "b" command reads a tiny bootstrap
from the indicated device. The bootstrap then automatically continues
the boot from the same device, ignoring "args". The only way I have
found to actually pass arguments such as the single-user flag (-s) to
the kernel is to use the bootstrap program on the OS tapes, which gives
a prompt rather than continuing automatically. At that prompt, entering
the device information followed by the arguments (e.g. "xy(0,1,0) -s")
will actually get the arguments passed to the kernel.

SUN-3

   The Sun-3 ROM monitor is much more sophisticated. Entering "?" will
produce a list of commands with brief explanations and syntax. The ROM
contains diagnostics sufficient for a preliminary checkout of a machine
for which you do not have a boot device. Syntax of the boot command is
largely the same as for Sun-2's, with a few differences: the default
boot device is determined by the EEPROM settings rather than a hardware
search; on machines with a Lance Ethernet chip rather than Intel, the
Ethernet device is le rather than ie; and "args" is passed to the kernel
correctly.

SUN-386i

   No information.

SUN-4

   The Sun-4 ROM monitor is vastly more sophisticated than even the
Sun-3 version. It has two different command-line modes. The old mode, in
the style of earlier monitors, can do exactly three things: boot (using
the old-style syntax), continue execution, or switch to new command-line
mode.

   New mode uses "ok" for a prompt. Help may be obtained by typing
"help". It has a built-in command-line editor. You can boot either using
the old-style syntax or by specifying a type of device ("boot disk",
"boot tape", etc.). EEPROM configuration is through "printenv" and
"setenv", which use names rather than addresses. Good help is available
for most commands, and there are a lot of commands, encompassing all the
functionality available in earlier monitors and adding helpful new
features, such as "probe-scsi", which searches the SCSI bus and prints
out the ID, LUN, device type, and identification string for anything it
finds.


    Using a Terminal as Console
    ---------------------------

   Every Sun model has the ability to use a serial terminal as a
console, instead of a Sun framebuffer and keyboard. In general, machines
which have a removeable framebuffer (on a separate board rather than
built into the CPU board/motherboard) require that the framebuffer be
removed; the ROM monitor notes the absence of a framebuffer and sends
output to the first serial port on the CPU board (usually labelled
ttya), and the OS does the same when booted. Machines which do not have
a removeable framebuffer may switch to terminal mode when the keyboard
is not connected, or may require that the console designator in the
EEPROM be changed.

   The Sun 2/120 and 2/170 have an unusual configuration: the keyboard
and mouse connect to the framebuffer board rather than the CPU. If the
framebuffer board is removed, all input and output goes to ttya, as
might be expected. If a framebuffer is present but no keyboard is
connected, output goes to the framebuffer, but input comes from ttya.

   Terminals should be set for 9600 bps, 8 data bits, one stop bit, and
no parity. The Sun 3/260 and 3/280 support the usual connection on ttya,
but can also support a console terminal at 1200 bps on the second serial
port on the CPU board, ttyb.

   The equivalent of L1-A (halt machine, drop to ROM monitor) from a
terminal console is BREAK. Unfortunately, turning off the terminal or
disconnecting it is usually interpreted as a BREAK and halts the
machine. Thus, it is not easily possible to use one terminal with many
machines via a switchbox.


    Memory Display On Startup
    -------------------------

   One of the points which causes much confusion is the startup display
of how much memory is installed versus how much is being tested.

   As with most subjects, little is known about what the Sun-1's
displayed, except the 100U which used a Sun-2 CPU.

   The Sun 2/120, 2/170, and probably all other Sun-2 models simply
display the amount of memory installed. If the ROM monitor sees the
memory, SunOS should see it as well, and if the ROM monitor does not see
it, SunOS is most unlikely to see it either. All memory is tested, but
there are no displays to that effect unless an error is found. (Note
that installing memory boards set to overlapping address ranges causes
errors.)

   With the Sun-3's, the ability to set how much memory would be tested
on startup was added; it is stored in the EEPROM along with a variety of
other settings. The total amount of memory installed is displayed, on
one of the first lines printed (in the same area as ROM revision, serial
number, etc.), but the line stating how much memory is being tested is
much more conspicuous. The amount of memory tested is not automatically
increased when more memory is installed, which frequently leads to dismay
by the installer when the machine apparently does not recognize the
memory just installed. Sun-4's behave the same way.

   SunOS does not care how much memory was tested. It will use however
much is installed. As with the Sun-2's, if the ROM monitor sees the
memory, SunOS should see it as well, and if the ROM monitor does not see
it, SunOS is most unlikely to see it either.


    Miscellaneous Questions and Answers
    -----------------------------------

1)  I can't get anything out of the onboard SX video port on my
    SPARCstation 20.
2)  Why doesn't my old SBus card fit the slot in my newer machine, or
    vice versa?
3)  My IDPROM just died. What can I do?
4)  Where can I get information about the IDPROM/NVRAM?
5)  Why doesn't my new monochrome monitor work with older monochrome
    framebuffers (especially the GX), or vice versa?
5a) My machine won't boot with the monochrome monitor connected. What?
6)  There is a battery on my VME SCSI host adapter board. What's it for?
7)  Can I run my old, slow SCSI drives on a SS1000?
8)  Can I use a type-4 keyboard on a Sun-3 that normally takes a type-3
    keyboard?
9)  I have a VME-based CPU but not the matching chassis. Can I put it in
    some other Sun VME chassis?
10) What's the situation with the 4/6xx and Solaris 1.x/2.x?
11) Can I use a non-Sun CD-ROM drive? Will I be able to boot from it?
12) Can I use a Sun CD-ROM drive on some other computer?
13) What's the maximum DVMA burst size for various SBus machines?
14) How do I put SIMMs into a 3/80? SPARCstation 1/1+/2? IPX? 4/110? SLC?
15) Can I put 4M SIMMs in my 3/80?
16) Can I put two 36MHz MBus modules in my SPARCstation 10/30?
16a)What are the limitations on mixing MBus modules in a single machine?
17) My Sun doesn't like 3-chip SIMMs.
18) How do I switch between the built-in thin Ethernet (BNC) transceiver
    and the AUI port on a 4/110?
19) My SPARCstation 1+ says "The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external
    device is turned off." when I try to boot. What do I do?
20) My SPARCstation IPC chokes with "panic: mmp_getpmg" when booting.
    What do I do?
21) I have some old SMD drives and controllers and/or a 9-track tape
    drive. Can I still use them with newer machines and OS versions?
22) My Sun-3 won't boot from a SCSI disk, but when I hook the disk up
    to another machine or boot from another disk, it works fine. What?
23) I'm getting "timeout" and "disk not responding to selection" errors
    with a brand-new SCSI disk.
24) I have a SunOS CD-ROM with sun3 and/or sun3x versions of the OS on
    it. Can I boot my Sun-3 from this CD-ROM?
25) Can I move a HOSTID ROM between machines?
26) I have a SunPC Accelerator card with an Intel 486DX on it. Can I use
    one of the DX2/DX4 replacement chips?
27) Can I set the stock serial ports to rates higher than 38400?
28) Can I get an ergonomic keyboard for my Sun? A trackball?
29) What's this 80-pin SCSI connector?


1)  I can't get anything out of the onboard SX video port on my
    SPARCstation 20.

        To use the onboard SX video, you need a VSIMM. This is an
        extra-long SIMM that sits in one of the two dual-ported memory
        slots. If you do not have a VSIMM, the onboard SX video will not
        work. If you did not buy the machine in an SX configuration, it
        did not come with a VSIMM. You can order one separately to
        enable the onboard SX video.

2)  Why doesn't my old SBus card fit the slot in my newer machine, or
    vice versa?

        From Chuck Narad:

        In SBus rev A, the cards were designed to snap into place in the
        SS1 enclosure. Later, before the spec went big time (before the
        IEEE standard), we decided to make SBus fit into other
        environments such as VME card spacing (as was done on the
        600MP). For reasons of card pitch and RFI compliance the
        backplate needed to be shorter, since the originators of the
        spec hadn't thought about how to do this; for SS1/SS2
        compatibility the snap-in 'ears' needed to be maintained. We
        ended up with a 2-piece backplate where the 'ears' were a
        removable part, and the screw-holes could be used to mount the
        card in systems that did not use the ears.

        This decision took over a year and cost thousands of lives :-)

        This two-piece backplate was finalized quite a while ago, and
        made it into SBus rev B.0. Unfortunately many third-party
        vendors continued to make older, rev-A backplates for a couple
        years after the change was announced and broadcast in such
        places as the SBus spec, the SBus bulletin, newsgroups, etc.
        Also unfortunately, there was a significant number of old-style
        cards shipped by Sun by that time; the hope was that few
        customers actually moved cards from one system to another, and
        the volumes of new cards swamped the volumes of old cards
        quickly. The theory was that all bus standards go through a
        'shake-down cruise' in their first incarnations, and repairs to
        early decisions sometimes leave incompatibilities with older
        parts (examples include VME, SCSI, Multibus... you get the
        picture). SBus ended up being used in a much wider range of
        machines than it was originally intended for.

        Later, the mechanical team on the SS10 decided to take advantage
        of the removable ears for various reasons, so in that enclosure
        also the older cards won't fit.

        Now the good news; as long as you don't care about minor RFI
        leakeage, you can just cut off the ears on the old card with a
        pair of diagonal cutters, and the card will fit into the slot
        fine, you just can't use screws to secure it.

3)  My IDPROM just died. What can I do?
4)  Where can I get information about the IDPROM/NVRAM?

        Get eeprom-nvram.faq and nvram.faq from
        ftp.netcom.com:/pub/henderso.

5)  Why doesn't my new monochrome monitor work with older monochrome
    framebuffers (especially the GX), or vice versa?
5a) My machine won't boot with the monochrome monitor connected. What?

        Older monochrome framebuffers and monitors used a 66Hz vertical
        refresh rate. Newer units use a 76Hz vertical refresh rate. The
        GX framebuffers straddle the two: the dual-slot version does not
        support 76Hz vertical refresh, but the single-slot version does
        (except possibly for very early versions). The most common
        problem is that the machine won't boot with the monitor
        connected, but boots and displays properly if the monitor is
        connected about sixty seconds after power-up.

6)  There is a battery on my VME SCSI host adapter board. What's it for?

        It powers a time-of-day clock chip which is not used by Suns.

7)  Can I run my old, slow SCSI drives on a SS1000?

        Yes. You may get a lot of SCSI errors. One individual, after a
        lot of talking to Sun, solved the problem with patch 101378-09.
        Related Sun bug ids are 1132229, 1173973, 1162452, and patch
        102002-01.

8)  Can I use a type-4 or type-5 keyboard on a Sun-3 that normally takes
    a type-3 keyboard?

        Yes. The 4-to-3 adapter is sold by Sun refurbisher Apex and
        possibly others; Sun-3's manufactured toward the end came new
        with type-4 keyboards and the appropriate adapter. It is also
        reported that a type-5 can be connected to a machine expecting a
        type-3 with an appropriate adapter (possibly the same one?).

9)  I have a VME-based CPU but not the matching chassis. Can I put it in
    some other Sun VME chassis?

        In general, yes. CPU boards which have onboard memory can be put
        in just about any chassis, including the 3/50 and 3/60 chassis,
        which don't have a full set of VME connectors -- they only have
        the power connector! CPU boards which require external memory
        boards (such as the 3/2xx) obviously require a chassis with at
        least two slots and a full set of VME connectors.

        With some chassis, there may be problems with lacking voltages.
        One individual reports that a 4/3xx CPU works in a 3/60 chassis,
        except the lack of -12VDC means "we can't use a console on it."

        It is also possible to make multiple CPUs share a VME chassis.
        This is trickier. It requires isolating sections of the bus, and
        being sure not to stomp on specialized slots used for memory or
        SCSI boards.

10) What's the situation with the 4/6xx and Solaris 1.x/2.x?

        From Greg Elkinbard:

        SuperSPARC Rev 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 require patches:
                Solaris 1.1 - 101508, 101509
                Solaris 1.1.1_U1 - 101726, 101408
                Solaris 2.3 - 101318, 101406

        If you have Rev 3.5 or Rev 5.x then you should disable 101509,
        101408, 101406

        Rev 3.5 is compatible with Solaris 1.1, 1.1.1B, 2.3 do not use
        it with 1.1.1A (4.1.3_U1)

        Rev 5.x is compatible with Solaris 1.1, 1.1.1A, 1.1.1B, 2.3

        Galaxy (4/6xx) compatible processors and rev:
                SM41 - 501-2258, 501-2270, 501-2359 - Rev 2.x
                SM51 - 501-2352, 501-2360, 501-2361, 501-2387 - rev 3.x
                SM51 - 501-2607, 501-2562-01, 501-2562-02, - rev 3.5
                SM51 - 501-2617, 501-2707 - rev 5.x
                SM520 - 501-2444 - rev 3.x
                SM521 - 501-2445 - rev 3.x

        Field service manual states that minimum OS for SM520 and SM521
        is 2.3, this leads me to believe that 1.x will not support
        Viking MP reliably (i.e use it at your own risk)

        Boot prom 2.8v2 or greater is required for SM41.
        Boot prom 2.10 or greater is required for SM51.

11) Can I use a non-Sun CD-ROM drive? Will I be able to boot from it?
12) Can I use a Sun CD-ROM drive on some other computer?

        The "CD-ROMs on Sun Hardware FAQ" is posted periodically to
        comp.sys.sun.hardware and alt.cdrom by Kyle Downey
        ([email protected]). It may also be archived at rtfm.mit.edu.
        In general, the answer is "maybe, and possibly only after
        modifying the drive or the kernel."

13) What's the maximum DVMA burst size for various SBus machines?

        This is a very complicated question. The SBus controller is
        probably capable of handling any burst size; the limiting factor is
        usually the slave interface to main memory. The SPARCstation 2
        and microSPARC-based machines were supposedly limited to 16-byte
        bursts (one individual reports that, using an SBus card with
        programmable burst sizes, he was able to successfully use
        64-byte bursts to main memory). MicroSPARC II-based machines and
        MBus machines supposedly could do 32-byte bursts, and the
        SPARCserver 1000 and SPARCcenter 2000 supposedly can do full
        64-byte bursts. The SPARCstation 20 models with 64-bit SBuses
        can do 128-byte bursts, although there are not many 64-bit SBus
        cards to take advantage of it yet.

14) How do I put SIMMs into a 3/80? SPARCstation 1/1+/2? IPX? 4/110?

    SPARCstation 1/1+:

        Nearest disk connectors
                 _______     _______
                |       |   |       |
                |   0   |   |   1   |
                |       |   |       |
                |_______|   |_______|

                 _______     _______
                |       |   |       |
                |   2   |   |   3   |
                |       |   |       |
                |_______|   |_______|

        Nearest SBus connectors

    3/80, SPARCstation 2:

        The sixteen SIMM slots are arranged in four groups of four.
        Electrically, there are four "banks," each of which is composed
        of one slot from each group:

                Back of machine (nearest SBus connectors)

                ------------------ 0   0 --------------------
                ------------------ 1   1 --------------------
                ------------------ 2   2 --------------------
                ------------------ 3   3 --------------------

                -----------------  0   0 --------------------
                -----------------  1   1 --------------------
                -----------------  2   2 --------------------
                -----------------  3   3 --------------------

                Front of machine (nearest disk connectors)

        Banks must be filled in order (0 through 3), and SIMM sizes (1M
        or 4M) must not be mixed with in a bank.

    IPX:

                ------------------ 0
                ------------------ 1
                ------------------ 2
                ------------------ 3

        Nearest SBus connectors

    SLC:

        The SIMM slots are labelled 1 through 4, and must be filled in
        the order 1, 3, 2, 4.

    4/110:

        From the original pseudo-FAQ:

        Nearest VME connectors

             _______     _______
            |       |   |       |
            |   3   |   |   4   |             Banks have eight SIMM slots
            |       |   |       |             each.
            |_______|   |_______|   J400

             _______     _______              Note: when using mixed SIMMs
            |       |   |       | J1300       to get 20M, the 1M SIMMs must
            |   1   |   |   2   |             go in banks 2 and 4 or the
            |       |   |       | J1400       machine won't boot.
            |_______|   |_______|

             J101 1-2
             J100 1-2
                  3-4

        Total memory:           8M      16M     20M     32M
        SIMM size:              256K    1M      256K/1M 1M

        J100
          1-2                   JU      UN      JU      UN
          3-4                   UN      JU      UN      JU

        J400
          1-2                   UN      JU      UN      JU
          3-4                   JU      UN      UN      JU
          5-6                   JU      JU      JU      Un

        J1300
          same                  JU      UN      UN      JU
          different             UN      JU      JU      UN
          256K                  JU      UN      JU      UN
          1M                    UN      JU      UN      JU
          2M                    UN      UN      UN      UN
          <32M                  JU      JU      JU      UN
          32M                   UN      UN      UN      JU
          unused                UN      UN      UN      UN

        J1400
          same                  JU      UN      UN      JU
          different             UN      JU      JU      UN
          256K                  JU      UN      UN      UN
          1M                    UN      JU      JU      JU
          2M                    UN      UN      UN      UN
          <32M                  JU      JU      JU      UN
          32M                   UN      UN      UN      JU
          unused                UN      UN      UN      UN

15) Can I put 4M SIMMs in my 3/80?

        If you have version 3.0.2 or better of the boot ROMs, yes. The
        version is displayed in the startup messages immediately after
        powering the machine on. You can install up to 40M of memory by
        putting 4M 80ns SIMMs in banks 0 and 1 or 2 (sorry, not clear
        which it should be), and filling the remaining two banks with 1M
        80ns SIMMs.

        Note that ROM version 3.0.2 has known problems with booting from
        QIC-150 tape drives.

16) Can I put two 36MHz MBus modules in my SPARCstation 10/30?
16a)What are the limitations on mixing MBus modules in a single machine?

        From John DiMarco:

         There is no intrinsic technical reason why a 36MHz Mbus can't
         support two modules. While it is true that you cannot normally
         configure a system to support two M30 modules, the reason for
         this is that early revisions of the SuperSPARC processor
         contained bugs that prevented MP configurations from working
         properly without the 1M external cache. Most if not all M20
         (33MHz) and M30 (36MHz) modules, and many M40 (40MHz) modules
         had this problem.

        In general, if you want to mix and match modules (which is
        unsupported but probably works for a number of configurations),
        you'll need to make sure that the interface speeds of all
        modules are matched.

        The modules without SuperCACHE run at the MBus speed (or the
        MBus runs at their speed?), so modules without SuperCACHE cannot
        be mixed. Nor can they be mixed with modules with SuperCACHE.

        Modules with SuperCACHE can be mixed, but may not be advisable.
        The 41 and 51 modules both require a 40MHz MBus (SS10 or SS20
        switched to slow board speed), but the 61 can use a 50MHz MBus
        as well. Mixing a 61 with slower modules may slow down the 61 as
        well.

        Another consideration is that slower modules are usually older
        SuperSPARC steppings that may require more drastic workarounds
        and hence slow down newer, faster processors -- assuming it
        works at all.

17) My Sun doesn't like 3-chip SIMMs.

        From John O'Connor:

        3-chip SIMMs have two 4Mbit chips (organised as 1M * 4bits) plus
        one 1Mbit chip as opposed to the nine 1Mbit chips on the 9-chip
        SIMMS. The difference arises from the fact that the 4Mbit chips
        require more addresses to be read in the refresh cycles, so you
        get unreliable operation of 3-chip SIMMs in systems that don't
        provide enough refresh cycles.

18) How do I switch between the built-in thin Ethernet (BNC) transceiver
    and the AUI port on a 4/110?

        Jumper J1800 on the motherboard controls this. Jump it to use
        the AUI port.

19) My SPARCstation 1+ says "The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external
    device is turned off." when I try to boot. What do I do?

        Check the SCSI termination fuse, located on the motherboard near
        the external SCSI connector. The fuse looks like a small
        cylinder that is usually clear or totally black with a black top
        and white writing. It is in a socket and is easy to remove.

        It may also be necessary to change the settings on the disk
        drive, to spin up on command only and not by default.

20) My SPARCstation IPC chokes with "panic: mmp_getpmg" when booting.
    What do I do?

        This may have to do with mixed 1M and 4M SIMMs. Make sure the 4M
        SIMMs are in the first memory bank. This problem was supposed to
        be solved after SunOS 4.1.1.

        Alain Brossard reports that a few very old IPC's experience the
        this failure when booting over the network, and the following
        incantation at the ROM monitor prompt fixed the problem:

                ok 7f fff0.0000 smap!
                ok boot net

21) I have some old SMD drives and controllers and/or a 9-track tape
    drive. Can I still use them with newer machines and OS versions?

        I have never heard of an SBus SMD controller, so SMD support is
        limited to VME-based machines, of which the 4/6xx is probably
        the most recent. There are conflicting rumors about OS support;
        some claim that SunOS 4.1.1 was the last version to include
        stock support for the xy (451) and xd (7053) devices (and the xt
        9-track tape controller), and that for later versions support is
        available only through buying a special driver package, while
        others claim that Solaris still supports all three of these
        devices.

22) My Sun-3 won't boot from a SCSI disk, but when I hook the disk up
    to another machine or boot from another disk, it works fine. What?

        SunOS can use SCSI disks with SCSI parity turned on. The boot
        ROMs can't boot from them, however -- SCSI parity must be turned
        off to boot. Check the jumpers on the drive or the SCSI
        converter card (Emulex MD-21, Adaptec ACB4000, etc.).

23) I'm getting "timeout" and "disk not responding to selection" errors
    with a brand-new SCSI disk.

        Check the temperature in the disk enclosure! Many newer SCSI
        drives (especially Seagate, apparently) have the ability to spin
        down and otherwise quiesce when the drive gets too hot. When the
        drive it accessed, it will spin up again, but this takes some
        time and the Sun usually complains before the disk can respond.

24) I have a SunOS CD-ROM with sun3 and/or sun3x versions of the OS on
    it. Can I boot my Sun-3 from this CD-ROM?

        Supposedly ROM versions 3.0.1 and above can boot from a CD-ROM.
        Make sure that you're trying to boot from the correct partition
        (these CD-ROMs usually have bootable partitions for a variety of
        architectures). Try booting from "sd(0,30,x)" where 'x' is a
        partition number.

25) Can I move a HOSTID ROM between machines?

        Only if the machines are the same model, since part of the
        hostid identifies the machine type. Also note that installing
        one backwards will generally destroy it.

26) I have a SunPC Accelerator card with an Intel 486DX on it. Can I use
    one of the DX2/DX4 replacement chips?

        Only 5V chips can be used. The SBus provides sufficient power,
        but cooling may be a problem. Adding a heat sink and microfan to
        the new chip will probably solve that problem, but may interfere
        with the next SBus slot.

27) Can I set the stock serial ports to rates higher than 38400?

        Yes, but you have to hack the kernel in order to do it.
        Furthermore, the standard ZS hardware is not capable of
        supporting the normal bit rates (57600 and 115200) unless you
        can supply an external clock and run them in synchronous mode.
        The only higher internally-generated rates are 51200 (pretty
        useless) and 76800, which a few modems can be set to handle.
        Also, the 76800 rate will result in frequent overruns unless it
        is being used for pure output, such as to a printer.

28) Can I get an ergonomic keyboard for my Sun? A trackball?

        Ashok Desai ([email protected]) maintains an ergonomic keyboard
        FAQ. Ren Tescher ([email protected]) maintains an unofficial
        trackball FAQ. See also the "Alternatives" section under MICE in
        this reference.

29) What's this 80-pin SCSI connector?

        It is an SCA connector, as defined by the Small Form Factor
        Committee, which provides a wide single-ended SCSI connection
        and power (+12V, +5V). The standard number is SFF8015 23A.


    Facts in Search of a Home
    -------------------------

+ Sun 3/50's and 3/60's often used the Matsushita ETX-593C101M power
  supply, capable of supplying 100W (15A @ 5V, 2A @ -5V, and 1.3A @
  12V). The 3/75 had a 150W power supply. See pinouts below.

+ Sun 4/1xx CPU boards require 69.5W (13.8A @ 5V, and 0.1A @ -5V).

+ Mbus modules for the SPARCstation 10/514 (two 50MHz CPUs and
  corresponding 1M caches) are physically so large that they each cover
  two SBus slots. The SBus slots are not actually used, just
  inaccessible.

+ The Adaptec 5500 card was "similar in function to the 4000", which was
  a SCSI-MFM converter used for disks, mostly in Sun-2's. It had a
  number of jumpers:

        A-B     hard reset
          SCSI bus reset initiates hard reset of card when jumped.

        C-D     reserved

        E-F     hard-sectored drive on LUN0

        G-H     hard-sectored drive on LUN1

        J-K     reserved

        DIAG    diagnostics
          Continuously repeat selftest when jumped.

        Par     SCSI parity
          Enable SCSI bus parity checking when jumped. Parity is always
          generated.

        A4      SCSI ID MSB

        A2      SCSI ID

        A1      SCSI ID LSB

+ The internal SCSI hard drive in a SPARCstation IPC should NOT be
  terminated.

+ The Sun HSI/S interface board (501-1725) has four high-speed
  synchronous serial ports with an aggregate bandwidth of 4-5Mbits per
  second. If only two ports are used, full T1 speeds can be used on
  both. SunExpress says it supports X.25, SNA, Frame Relay, PPP, T1, and
  CEPT.

+ The Adaptec ACB4000 MFM-SCSI adapter board and the Emulex MD21
  ESDI-SCSI adapter board may not coexist well on the same SCSI bus. One
  individual reports getting SCSI disconnect errors from the MD21 when
  attempting to run both on the SCSI bus of a 3/60 running SunOS 3.5.

+ Shorting the J900 jumper on a 4/110 motherboard erases the EEPROM.

+ The last version of the boot ROM for the 3/60 was 3.0.1. It supports
  cg6 color framebuffers, and is supposed to support cg8 color
  framebuffers as well.


    Miscellaneous Pinouts
    ---------------------

+ DB9 serial ports on 3/80, 4/3xx, others?

        1  DCD          4  DTR          7  RTS
        2  RxD          5  GND          8  CTS
        3  TxD          6  DSR          9  unused

+ parallel port on 3/80

        1  STBN         9  D7           17 SLCN
        2  D0 (data 0)  10 ACK          18 GND
        3  D1           11 BUSY         19 GND
        4  D2           12 PAPE         20 GND
        5  D3           13 SLCT         21 GND
        6  D4           14 AFXN         22 GND
        7  D5           15 ERRN         23 GND
        8  D6           16 ININ         24 GND
                                        25 GND

+ DIN-8 serial port on SPARCstation IPC, others?

                 -------
                /  ===  \
               /         \
              /  6  7  8  \
              |           |
              |  3  4  5  |
              \           /
               \   1  2  /
                \_______/

        1  DTR          4  GND          7  DCD
        2  CTS          5  RxD          8  RxC (receive clock)
        3  TxD          6  RTS

+ DB25 A/B serial ports on SPARCstation SLC, ELC, others?

        1  unused       9  unused       17 A-RxC (receive clock)
        2  A-TxD        10 unused       18 unused
        3  A-RxD        11 unused       19 B-RTS
        4  A-RTS        12 B-DCD        20 A-DTR
        5  A-CTS        13 B-CTS        21 unused
        6  A-DSR        14 B-TxD        22 unused
        7  A&B-GND      15 A-TxC in (?) 23 unused
        8  A-DCD        16 B-RxD        24 A-TxC out (transmit clock out)
                                        25 unused

   Note that only port A has full modem control.

+ DB25 A/B serial ports on SPARCstation LX, SPARCclassic, and
  SPARCstation 10, others?

   As for the SLC/ELC, but with additional signals for the B port:

        11 B-DTR        18 B-TxC in     25 B-TxC out

+ 50-pin motherboard card-edge test connector on sun4c's

        1  eject        18 direction    35 unused
        2  unused       19 GND          36 VCC (+5V)
        3  GND          20 step         37 ledout-
        4  unused       21 GND          38 VCC (+5V)
        5  GND          22 wrdata       39 unused
        6  unused       23 GND          40 VCC (+5V)
        7  GND          24 wrgate       41 por-
        8  index        25 GND          42 VCC (+5V)
        9  GND          26 trk00        43 VDD (+12V)
        10 ds0          27 GND          44 VCC (+5V)
        11 GND          28 wrprot       45 VBB (-12V)
        12 unused       29 GND          46 VCC (+5V)
        13 GND          30 rddata       47 unused
        14 unused       31 GND          48 VCC (+5V)
        15 GND          32 hdsel        49 VCC (+5V)
        16 motor_on     33 GND          50 VCC (+5V)
        17 GND          34 unused

   Pins 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, and 48-50 (VCC, +5V) are the same as
   pins 1, 2, 7, and 8 on the power connector.

   Pin 37 (ledout-) is the same as pin 2 on the speaker connector.

   Pin 41 (por-) is Power-On Reset, like the Power Good signal on PC
   power supplies, and the same as pin 6 on the power connector.

   Pin 43 (VDD, +12V) is the same as pins 5 and 11 on the power
   connector.

   Pin 45 (VBB, -12V) is the same as pin 12 on the power connector.

+ Power supply connector on (PS?) chassis for 3/50, 3/60, 3/75

        1   -5V     white       7   GND     black
        2   Pwr OK  brown       8   GND     black
        3   +12V    blue        9   +5V     red
        4   GND     black       10  +5V     red
        5   GND     black       11  +5V     red
        6   GND     black       12  +5V     red


    SIMM Compatibility Chart
    ------------------------

+ SPARCstation 1, 1+, 2, and IPC

   1M x 9 30-pin IBM-compatible SIMMs. The IPC can also take 4M SIMMs;
   possibly the others as well.

+ SPARCstation IPX, ELC (and SLC?)

   4M or 16M x 33 72-pin SIMMs. (The 4M SIMMs are probably compatible
   with the SLC as well.)

+ SPARCclassic; SPARCstation LX, ZX

   4M or 16M 60ns SIMMS, installed in pairs only.

+ SPARCstation 10, 20

   SS10: 16M or 64M 70ns SIMMs. Can also use SIMMs of appropriate sizes
         from SS20.

   SS20: 16M, 32M, or 64M 60ns SIMMs. The 16M and 64M SIMMs can also be
         used in SS10s, but not the 32M SIMMs.

+ SPARCstation 5

   8M or 32M SIMMs.

+ SPARCserver 1000, SPARCcenter 2000

              END OF PART II OF THE SUN HARDWARE REFERENCE