[ROM Help] [Commands] [POST Checkpoints] [POST LEDs] [Other Stuff] [back]
When configured properly, the NVRAM will instruct the firmware to automatically boot the OS, and the user never sees the boot prompt. In this case, if you want to get to the boot prompt, upon powerup wait until it starts to load the OS image. Then press Control-C once. The machine should now drop to the boot prompt. Shutting down most operating systems to "halt" mode will also get you to the boot prompt.
This is from my personal DECstation 3100.
Some somewhat useful commands.
7..6..5..4..3..2..1..0
24M..........0
KN01 V7.0
08-00-2b-XX-XX-XX
0x01800000
>> help
CMD:
auto
boot [-f FILE] [-n] [ARG...]
cat FILE...
ctrs
d [-(b|h|w)] ADDR VAL
disable DEV
dump [-(b|h|w)] [-(o|d|u|x|c|B)] RNG
e [-(b|h|w)] ADDR
enable DEV
fill [-(b|h|w)] [-v VAL] RNG
go [PC]
help [CMD]
? [CMD]
init
printenv [EVAR...]
setenv EVAR STR
test [ARG...]
unsetenv EVAR
warm
RNG:
ADDR=CNT
ADDR:ADDR
>>
Boot ROM
auto
|
starts the automatic boot process(Multiuser)
|
test -c
|
shows some important stats about your DECstation, such as connected SCSI
devices. Keith Huff [kshuff@fast.net]
has provided some more (undocumented?)
test commands.
|
setenv bootmode a
|
sets your machine to autoboot on reset
|
setenv bootdev rz(0,1,0)vmunix
|
sets the default boot device to SCSI ID 1 and the kernel image to
vmunix
|
setenv bootdev rz(0,1,0)netbsd
|
sets the default boot device to SCSI ID 1 and the kernel image to
netbsd
|
printenv
|
shows your current NVRAM contents
|
boot -f rz(0,1,0)vmunix single
|
boots vmunix on SCSI disk ID 1, and starts single-user mode. Ultrix
4.4's single user mode gives you user access 'bin' and can only fsck and
mount drives via suid root. Can't do much else...
|
I finally got to test the NetBSD 1.6.2 CDROM. It does not seem to boot
the DECstation with my Yamaha CRW8424S, but works fine with my Pioneer DR-U24X.
They were both jumperred to 512-byte sectors. Note neither drive will run at
full speed, this computer is too slow to keep up with these "fast" CDROM
drives. Use
boot -f rz(0,x,0)
(where x is the device number
of your CDROM drive)
to boot the NetBSD 1.6.2 CDROM. It should be pretty self explanatory from
there.
The Yamaha CDRW failing boot sequence on NetBSD 1.6.2
looks like the following on my DECstation:
>> boot -f rz(0,2,0) NetBSD/pmax 1.6.2 ISO 9660 Primary Bootstrap Can't load 'rz(0,2,0)/boot.pmax' 7449 scsi stp open failed open rz(0,2,0)/boot: 6 Can't load 'rz(0,2,0)/boot' 7449 scsi stp open failed open rz(0,2,0)/boot.pma: 6 Can't load 'rz(0,2,0)/boot.pma' Excptn: <vtr=NRML> Excptn pc: 0x80700070 Creg: 0x30000010<CE=3,EXC=RADE> Sreg: 0x30000000<CU1,CU0,IPL=8> Vaddr: 0x9d Sp: 0x806fffe8 exit(-1) KN01 v7.0
The machine will print out numbers in sequence as it performs each test. If the machine
prints out this number and either says FAILURE or ??, that means
that particular subsystem failed or didn't respond.
For instance, this excerpt means you should check your SCSI chain or turn on
all your SCSI devices:
The Rear LED POST code is the 8 LEDs on the back of the machine. You can
monitor them while the machine is booting to get more information if the
monitor failed.
Power On Self Test
7..6..5..4..3..2..1..
??
Console Code | Rear LED POST Code (0=off, 1=on) | Meaning |
---|---|---|
7 | - | Video SIMM. Reseat it and try again. |
6 | - | vdac and / or pcc (video digital analog converter?
PCC programmable cursor chip?) |
5 | - | dz11 serial chip failure (used for kbd/mouse/modem/printer) |
4 | 01111111 (7f) | system module (Check scsi subsystem too) |
3 | 11011111 (df) 11110111 (f7) | keyboard, mouse respectively. Keyboard/Mouse installed or at least a 'mouse terminator'? |
2 | - | AMD Local Area Network Controller for Ethernet
(LANCE). Is the coaxial
cable in good shape and properly terminated on both ends of the chain,
or a transceiver installed plus connected properly into the destination
network? A 10baseT transceiver not
attached to the network will bring this error too. Also make sure the media
selector pushbutton switch marked # is enabling to the correct connector.
A LED is lit next to the connector that's enabled for communications.
If running without a network, the easiest way is to select the internal
transceiver and hook up a T with two terminators on it to the BNC connector.
Otherwise, it will fail boot with this error code. You can try ^C'ing and
see if it will continue (most firmware revisions won't, but won't hurt to
try.) You should still try to "fix" it so it will autoboot.
|
1 | 10111111 (bf) | SCSI Disk Subsystem. Drives powered
up? All terminators in place? |
0 | 00000000 (00) | All tests done - no failures found, boot or memory test will commence shortly. |
- | 11101111 (ef) | Memory Failure. This does not have a video display shorthand code as it's done after the initial segment of the POST. |
None | 11111111 (ff) | No response, no CPU cycles are working (machine is dead) |