Hi.

I'm trying to reinstall AIX 4.3.3 (ML9) on an IBM PC 850 PowerPC machine but I have trouble getting an SMS diskette that will let me set the CD as bootable.

The SMS diskette I have is 1.26 and it either crashes or lists Hard Disk 0 some 20 + times (and nothing else) on the screen you choose the boot drive from.

Is there a newer (or older?), less buggy, version of SMS for PC 850? There is, to the best of my knowledge no problem with the hardware in the machine. I can use both CD-ROM and diskette from AIX on the machine right now.

Just in case someone else runs into this, the SMS I was using (1.26) is for 440 hardware, not PC 830/850. Latest SMS for 830/850 is 1.10 as far as I can figure out.

The links to IBMs old ftp server listed at:
IBM PowerPC updates directory list
DO NOT WORK.

The files are still available at:
OS/2 Site - Hardware - PPC

I don't think you need the SMS diskette at all if you can access the installed AIX (as it seems to be the case). Use either the "diag" utility to change the boot list or use the "bootlist" command directly.

Right now i have no AIX machine at hand so you will have to consult the manpage for details, AFAIR it is something like "bootlist -k <n|m> <device> <device> ..." where "-k n" is the boot list for normal mode boot and "-k m" is the boot list in maintenance mode. These two lists are managed separately.

You might have to really shutdown and restart the system (not just a "shutdown -Fr", but a "shutdown -Fh", then turn the key to "maint" and then power on again) to boot the machine in maintenance mode.

I hope this helps.

bakunin