Christopher Sean Hilton <chilton@vindaloo.com> wrote:
> Good evening,
> 
> I'm trying to install netbsd 3.0 on an E450 that I recently acquired
> from a dot.com which had to downsize it's server room. The problem that
> I'm having is that once the sparc64 cd boots up to NetBSD I can no
> longer send keystrokes to the machine. In other words, I have:
> 
>      booted the machine
>      pressed Stop-A to get to an ok prompt
>      done setenv auto-boot? false
>      done setenv boot-device cdrom
> 
> On boot the keyboard works. I can type boot after the system comes up
> to the ok prompt and it will read the NetBSD CD-ROM. On 3.0 When it
> comes up to the install prompt where it is asking what kind of
> terminal I have pressing Enter (I have a Sun-6 keyboard and a VGA
> adapter) does nothing. Pressing Stop-A at this point brings me to a
> kernel debugger prompt.
> 
> I've had worse luck trying to get this to go from a serial console
> (xterm/kermit on my FreeBSD laptop in case anyone cares) In this case
> I cannot seem to send a break to the sun.
> 
> Any ideas? I'm hoping that this is just something silly that I don't
> understand about E450s.


 Check the input and output devices in the Openboot PROM, like so from the
 "ok" prompt:

printenv input-device
printenv output-device

 For the Sun keyboard port on the machine, input-device should be
 "keyboard".  For the graphical frame buffer, it should be "screen".

other useful options are "ttya" and "ttyb" for the two serial ports.


 Is this a third party video card?  I'm not sure, but that could be the
cause of some display problems.

  You obviously already know how to set variables.  If you are going to
use the serial ports, you want both the input and output devices to be
either "ttya" or "ttyb", depending on which port you are using.

 I haven't worked with an E450 in about 6 years, but i don't recall
anything funky with their serial ports.

 You may also want to check the ttya and ttyb port settings.  The Openboot
 PROM variables begin with "ttya" or "ttyb" and look like this by default, usually:

ttyb-rts-dtr-off=false
ttyb-ignore-cd=true
ttya-rts-dtr-off=false
ttya-ignore-cd=true
ttyb-mode=9600,8,n,1,-
ttya-mode=9600,8,n,1,-


 You probably know this, but if you are connecting over the serial ports,
you will need a null modem adapter, not just a "straight" serial cable.
(RX and TX need to be crossed so that signal gets to the correct pins on
either end.)  You can also do this with a cable built to cross these,
rather than putting a null modem adapter in the series.

 It's possible that someone changed them and they are causing the problems
on the serial ports.

 -johan