Anyone happen to know if it is possible to install Solaris 8 from scratch on a Sun Blade 1000 without a working CD/DVD-ROM? I have a Blade 1000 that I'm trying to install Solaris 8 and another software on where the dvd-rom isn't working. It justs sends the tray in and out several times and then says Can't open boot device. I found a SCSI cd-rom which I tried and I still get Can't open boot device. The cd-rom didn't go in and out, in fact I had to force it open to install and remove the cd... I also tried using the external SCSI-interface without any more luck.

I tried some Googling and it looks like I can install it over the network, but it looked like I had to set up some kind of image on a webserver to do it.

Stig

You can install over the network, but it is annoying to do so. You have to put a jumpstart server (another solaris box with a remote boot image installed on it) on the same physical network as the target machine, and use a boot network from the firmware prompt.

http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_private/Systems/SunBlade1000/SunBlade1000.html

Might need PROM patch 118323, and/or stuff as documented here: http://sunsolve.sun.com/data/816/816-1712/pdf/816-1712-10.pdf

You should be able to do a net boot/nfs install, if you have a working jumpstart server.

What release of Sol8 are you trying to install?

Yep, it's a pain to get the jumpstart server up and running, but once you do, operating system installs are so much easier and faster.

When you type "boot cdrom" at the 'ok' prompt, 'cdrom' refers to a device alias. Make sure that 'cdrom' is pointing to the correct device by typing 'devalias'. It's probably set right for you internal drive, but if you hook up an external one, you need to tell it explicitly where to boot from, either by specifying the device to the 'boot' command or creating or redefining a devalias and giving that as the argument to 'boot'.

On the other hand, are you sure that the Sun Blade 1000 is supported by Solaris 8?

Edit: Yup. Support was added in Solaris 8 10/00. That system is older than I remembered.

With modern Sun systems (I'm guessing Ultra 1 and later with appropriate PROM updates), they no longer need to be on the same network. You can netboot via DHCP instead of rarp+bootparams, which means that it can have a default route. It also solves problems with classless network addressing.

I tried to do a boot specifying the device address when it was connected to the external scsi-port and then I got 'Fast Data Access MMU Miss', which it seems is a kind of catch-all errormessage for hardware failures. I saw references about it could be bad CPU, bad memory, bad media, etc. I guess it could be a bad SCSI-adapter...

Stig

In my experience, that's a bad CPU. You can run SunVTS to be sure, but, as I recall, you actually have to have an OS installed in order to get the hardware test to run.

I managed to get the system working. Since the Fast Data errormessage could be a bad CPU, I tried reseating the CPU, which took care of that errormessage. Still didn't boot, though. Another guy here tried the cd-rom drive again and when he did a probe-scsi-all, he noticed that it was showing an ID of 3 instead of 6. So it seems like the ID-jumpers were swapped between the cd-rom and the dvd-rom... So in the end it turned out to be a bad dvd-rom drive and possibly a CPU that needed to be reseated. Thanks for all the help!

Stig

I'd still run SunVTS when I got a chance.

Right, will do. Things have been a bit hectic here for a while, but they seem to calm down some now. I downloaded a version for an earlier version of Solaris 8, so I'll probably wait till I get home and download the version for the Solaris version I installed, since Internet here is very slow. And is it any point in upgrading the OBP? I downloaded a newer version than what is installed, but the included OBPDiag was older than what's installed.

Stig

Generally I don't bother upgrading the OBP unless there's a problem I need fixed, a feature I need added, or some other software requires a higher version.