UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I'm getting a error on a old SPARC Station 5 system. The HDD I am using in internal 18GB. Everything use to work, and well wont now.

The error I am getting is in bootup. The error is 'Timeout waiting for ARP?RARP packet error'.

Anyone got any idea how I can fix this? I'm not sure looked around but couldn't find anything in text for how to fix it.

Thanks in advanced if anyone can help me.

This problem can occur while booting from the net, and indicates a network connection problem. I have facen this problem very well before. Follow this steps. Im sure you could overcome this problem. Make sure the Ethernet cable is connected to the network. Check that this system has an entry in the NIS ethers map or locally on the boot server. Then check the IP address of the server and the client to make sure they are on the same subnet. Local /etc/hosts files must agree with one another and with the NIS hosts map.

If those conditions are not causing the problem, go to the system's PROM monitor ok prompt and run test net to test the network connection. (On older PROM monitors, use test-net instead.) If the network test fails, check the Ethernet port, card, fuse, and cable, replacing them if necessary. Also check the twisted pair port to make sure it is patched to the correct subnet.

Thanks for the advice but it's a standalone system. HDD has a old O/S on it, did a install of the O/S I want on it now (Solaris 7 11/99). Go for a reboot and that's when the error comes up. It doesn't need a server to boot.

It certainly seems to think it needs a server to boot. I'm not really a OBP expert, so I can't tell you exactly how to fix this. I need to "feel my way" as I go.., But from the ok prompt, type "printenv" and look for "boot device". It typically will have the value "disk net". This means the the box will try to boot from disk first, and it it can't do that, then it tries net. Could that be happening? And I hope you haven't set your boot-device to be just "net"! From the ok prompt, "devalias" will show you the defined device aliases. You can try the commands:
boot disk
boot disk1
and so on if you have multiple disks defined. Try some of this stuff and let us know what you find.

Perderabo - for a non-OBP expert you do pretty good.

Merlin - the system is definitely attempting to boot from the net. Perderabo's explaination is correct. The install may have changed the default boot device.

SUNSolve OBP commands

You can also do a reset of the OBP back to factory default by turning off power, turn on power while holding down the Stop and N key.