Solaris

Hello,

I have a sun v880 that i got from ebay for cheap as a way to to learn Solaris and sun hardware in general.

The machine currently has OBP 4.7.0 2002/10/25 and i was wondering if there was a way to update the prom with out and active solaris install, as currently when i proceed with the solaris 10 is gets stuck at 50% when it says "Loading install media, please wait... "This occurs after the initial parameter setup (like language and hostname) but before the actually slected what packages and other instal settings are chosen.

I believe this may be related to the obp being out of date but im not sure.
And a follow up question would be if updating the obp doesn't solve the 50% loading problem, than where should i look next?

Thanks for your help

Can you boot to single user mode from CD/DVD? If so, you will also be able to update the OBP.

I can boot into single user mode but how do I move the update utility tool onto the live system. I tired switiching the disks but machine wont allow the ejection of the disk.

Thanks.

---------- Post updated at 11:20 PM ---------- Previous update was at 08:22 PM ----------

ok so i booted into single user mode and tried running the update utility from a flash drive but the single user mode makes the file system read only, thus it does not update

Then i moved the file (lash-update-SunFire880-latest) to the root of disk i mounted and then i set it chmod 755 as recommended in the readme however when i type "boot disk /flash-update-SunFire880-latest" at the ok prom it says "file just loaded does not seem executable" any idead what is going on, or if could make the single user mode read and write since it running in memory

As far as I remember, you don not need to boot the update file anymore. There should be a script to install the update without rebooting the server. Please check the patch readme for further instructions.
Another thing you might want to check is the software version of your ALOM/RSC card in the server. Sometimes a missmatch between firmware levels of OBP and ALOM/RSC can create problems...

You have Solaris 10 media but which revision? Is it an older version which uses "boot archive"? (That's prior to 10u3).

There are two ways to update firmware; from the system processor SC> prompt without Solaris running, or from Solaris # prompt with Solaris running. Booting into single user means that Solaris is running.

One really handy utility is "sysfwdownload" introduced in latter years (Google that). That is a Solaris utility that will download the new firmware file directly inot the Service Processor and "park" it there in reserved space. When you reboot the SC it notices the new file and asks whether you want it flashed in. If you say yes, everything is done for you.

With the SC only method you can download the new firmware from a tftp server. Do you have one of those or can you quickly build one?

Reading your post and the specific error message that you posted, take a look at this link near the bottom. If the Solaris 10 is prior 10u3 there's other steps needed.
Upgrading OBP and ALOM on a SunFire v210/v240 « Weblog for Thomas S. Iversen

Good luck. Let us all know how you get on. Continue to post your questions.

---------- Post updated at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:12 PM ----------

And also..............

When you talk about the file "flash-update-SunFire880-latest" where did you get that? I seem to remember that when you download (from the internet) a firmware upgrade it comes in zip form and you need to unpack it and then set permissions on the file(s) to 755. I think that often there is more than one file unpacked from the zip and you need to set any/all to 755.

Can anybody confirm that please?

@hicksd8 i am using Solaris 10 update 8 on dvd
the firmware patch upgrade # is 119231-01 (dated Apr/29/2005), which i found searching on the web, as i dont have a Oracle support id or contract as I am a hobbyist (however if you or you know anyone that does have access, maybe you could get the most recent patches or tools to update, or id be willing to pay oracle like 200-300$ just for acces to the v880 eol stuff, but im not sure who to talk to)

@DukeNuke2 the zip file contains both a file that you can run when your at unix prompt and the other file you run from boot at the ok prompt.

When i boot into the single user mode (from the dvd, I dont have Solaris installed on any disk) it creates a ramdisk file system that is read only, thus when i run the shell scrip to update the machine it complain that it cant modify certain directories "could not find a writable driver location" maybe i actually wasn't as root and made an error?

Also im not sure the v880 has a service processor, it has a rsc card (which i can remove, but ive read that its configured from Solaris and really only does power control and ttyb emulation, not prom upgrading and such altough im not an expert) so im not sure if the sysfwdownload will work.

I still think running the update from Solaris is the best way. Just to double check and see if i was wrong last night when i run something as root do i type su [enter] and then all commands after that are executed with root permissions, or is su {command} [enter]?

Because if its the second one then that would explain why it may not have worked, il double check tonight when i try again

Thanks for your help

Let's clarify please..........

You want to upgrade firmware because you can't install Solaris on a hard disk in the system?

You ask for confirmation about root access (su) but if you boot into single user:

Code:

boot cdrom -s

then you are root (# prompt). In single user you can't be anything else.

With regards to the install hanging at 50%, where did you get the media from? Is it a DVD that you burned yourself? If so, have you tried another one?