Re-Installing a T5220 - not booting off CD/DVD

[Dirk Taggesell]

Hello all,

I wanted to re-install our T5220 with the latest Solaris. It is
currently not in service so I can play with it as i like.
One reason for re-installing is to get more familiar with the
OS/Hardware the other is, that now ZFS can be used for the OS as well.

I am not really a Sun/Solaris expert (yet), I have rather a Linux
background.

Anyway, I just wanted to boot the machine from the freshly burned DVD,
(sol-10-u6-ga1-sparc-dvd.iso) and that doesn't work.

What I did:
First I went into ILOM and switched off autoboot:

set /HOST/bootmode script="setenv auto-boot? false"

Now when I reboot the machine, it stops at the prompt: {0} ok
as intended and when I type "boot" it boots normally off harddisk.

Then I try booting off the DVD ("boot cdrom") and I get this:

--- snip ---

{0} ok boot cdrom
Boot device:
/***@0/***@0/***@1/***@0/***@1/***@0/***@0,2/***@2/***@0:f File
and args:

Can't mount root

The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.

--- snap ---

I also tried "boot cdrom - install" and "boot cdrom -s" - to no avail.
I downloaded the CD set as well and tried booting off the first CD -
same result.

What am I missing here?

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Post by Dirk Taggesell
Hello all,
I wanted to re-install our T5220 with the latest Solaris. It is
currently not in service so I can play with it as i like.
One reason for re-installing is to get more familiar with the
OS/Hardware the other is, that now ZFS can be used for the OS as well.
I am not really a Sun/Solaris expert (yet), I have rather a Linux
background.
Anyway, I just wanted to boot the machine from the freshly burned DVD,
(sol-10-u6-ga1-sparc-dvd.iso) and that doesn't work.
set /HOST/bootmode script="setenv auto-boot? false"
Now when I reboot the machine, it stops at the prompt: {0} ok
as intended and when I type "boot" it boots normally off harddisk.
--- snip ---
{0} ok boot cdrom
Can't mount root
The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
--- snap ---
I also tried "boot cdrom - install" and "boot cdrom -s" - to no avail.
I downloaded the CD set as well and tried booting off the first CD -
same result.
What am I missing here?

Did you burn your DVD as an image? If you simply burn a file, as a
file, to CD or DVD, you get a CD/DVD with a file-system, directory, etc,
etc. Failure to burn as an image rather than as a file is one of the
most common problems.

Next most common is that some CD and/or DVD drives just don't like home
made disks. The only solutions for that are a new drive or a "real" DVD.

[Dirk Taggesell]

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Did you burn your DVD as an image? If you simply burn a file, as a
file, to CD or DVD, you get a CD/DVD with a file-system, directory, etc,
etc. Failure to burn as an image rather than as a file is one of the
most common problems.

I burned it as an image and there's a directory like one would expect
structure on the CD/DVD when I read it on my Mac. The CD's volume name
is "SOL10_1008_SPARC" hence I didn't inadvertedly download and burn a
x86 version of Solaris.

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Next most common is that some CD and/or DVD drives just don't like home
made disks. The only solutions for that are a new drive or a "real" DVD.

As the entire machine is quite new (early 2008) and was running in a
air-conditioned server room, I expected the DVD drive to be ok. And
because I suspected hardware incompatibilities between self-burned DVD
and the drive, I burned the first CD of the five-disk set as well.

It is still possible that the drive is damaged, which would explain a lot.

BTW: how do I mount the DVD / CD from within the installed OS? (to test
readability) I cannot find a /dev/cdrom or /dev/dvd (I know that's
linux-ish).

---
kind regards
Dirk Taggesell

[John Oliver]

Post by Dirk Taggesell

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Did you burn your DVD as an image? If you simply burn a file, as a
file, to CD or DVD, you get a CD/DVD with a file-system, directory, etc,
etc. Failure to burn as an image rather than as a file is one of the
most common problems.

I burned it as an image and there's a directory like one would expect
structure on the CD/DVD when I read it on my Mac. The CD's volume name
is "SOL10_1008_SPARC" hence I didn't inadvertedly download and burn a
x86 version of Solaris.

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Next most common is that some CD and/or DVD drives just don't like home
made disks. The only solutions for that are a new drive or a "real" DVD.

As the entire machine is quite new (early 2008) and was running in a
air-conditioned server room, I expected the DVD drive to be ok. And
because I suspected hardware incompatibilities between self-burned DVD
and the drive, I burned the first CD of the five-disk set as well.
It is still possible that the drive is damaged, which would explain a lot.

FWIW: I've had several issues with booting from a burned DVD. Most of
the time, using CDs instead works like a charm. And since I set up a
jumpstart server, I've pretty much stopped worrying about it :-)

[Dirk Taggesell]

Post by John Oliver
FWIW: I've had several issues with booting from a burned DVD. Most of
the time, using CDs instead works like a charm.

I know, DVD drives are sometimes a bit picky about self-burned DVDs.
That's why I tried a CD as well.

Post by John Oliver
And since I set up a
jumpstart server, I've pretty much stopped worrying about it :-)

Maybe I'll do this, but in general this is a bit overdone for only one
SPARC machine in the entire infrastructure.

Anyway, how can I mount a CD/DVD on the Sun? To check the general
function of the DVD drive which I never used before ...

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Post by Dirk Taggesell

Post by John Oliver
FWIW: I've had several issues with booting from a burned DVD. Most of
the time, using CDs instead works like a charm.

I know, DVD drives are sometimes a bit picky about self-burned DVDs.
That's why I tried a CD as well.

Post by John Oliver
And since I set up a
jumpstart server, I've pretty much stopped worrying about it :-)

Maybe I'll do this, but in general this is a bit overdone for only one
SPARC machine in the entire infrastructure.
Anyway, how can I mount a CD/DVD on the Sun? To check the general
function of the DVD drive which I never used before ...

I believe that vold is supposed to mount the disk when you insert it in
the drive. If that fails, you can mount it with the mount command. See
man mount. If mount also fails, it MAY tell you something useful about
WHY it failed. Then again, maybe not; there is a sort of Unix tradition
that you're supposed to figure it out with little or no assistance from
the O/S!

Of course, if you have to do all the hard thinking yourself, what's the
point of having a computer?

[Dirk Taggesell]

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
(mounting cd/dvd)

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Then again, maybe not; there is a sort of Unix tradition
that you're supposed to figure it out with little or no assistance from
the O/S!
Of course, if you have to do all the hard thinking yourself, what's
the point of having a computer?

No need to be arrogant here, I'm neither lazy nor stupid as you could
have easily guessed by actually reading my first mentioning of mounting
the DVD under Solaris. I'll just assume you had a bad day and I catched
you at a bad time ...

There doesn't seem an automounter working, and I do not know which
device I should mount. There's nothing mentioned in /etc/vfstab either.
And I am not too much familiar with Solaris to just know which device a
DVD-ROM is usual assigned to for using the mount command. How the
concept of mounting works under UNIX is no secret to me. Only the
peculiarities of Solaris.

And a simple "mount /cdrom" tells me:
mount: Mount point cannot be determined

So I obviously was naive enough to simply think someone who already
knows which device nodes are usually connected to a DVD-ROM on a T5220
could just tell me. OK, I was wrong ...

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Post by Dirk Taggesell
(mounting cd/dvd)

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Then again, maybe not; there is a sort of Unix tradition
that you're supposed to figure it out with little or no assistance from
the O/S!
Of course, if you have to do all the hard thinking yourself, what's
the point of having a computer?

No need to be arrogant here, I'm neither lazy nor stupid as you could
have easily guessed by actually reading my first mentioning of mounting
the DVD under Solaris. I'll just assume you had a bad day and I catched
you at a bad time ...

No arrogance intended! I was commenting on things such as the lack of
useful error messages, the lack of any reference to "CDROM" or "cdrom"
in the man pages (man -k CDROM (or cdrom)) produces no result), etc.
It seems to be a Unix tradition that there is NO way to find much of
what you need to know short of asking a "guru"!

Post by Dirk Taggesell
There doesn't seem an automounter working, and I do not know which
device I should mount. There's nothing mentioned in /etc/vfstab either.
And I am not too much familiar with Solaris to just know which device a
DVD-ROM is usual assigned to for using the mount command. How the
concept of mounting works under UNIX is no secret to me. Only the
peculiarities of Solaris.
mount: Mount point cannot be determined
So I obviously was naive enough to simply think someone who already
knows which device nodes are usually connected to a DVD-ROM on a T5220
could just tell me. OK, I was wrong ...

ISTR that I have simply put a disk in the drive and found the drive
under /cdrom. It's not something I need to do very often. . . . Sorry,
I don't recall any details. I do note that I have "vold" running. If
you don't, that's probably an important clue.

[John Oliver]

Post by Richard B. Gilbert

Post by Dirk Taggesell
(mounting cd/dvd)

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Then again, maybe not; there is a sort of Unix tradition
that you're supposed to figure it out with little or no assistance from
the O/S!
Of course, if you have to do all the hard thinking yourself, what's
the point of having a computer?

No need to be arrogant here, I'm neither lazy nor stupid as you could
have easily guessed by actually reading my first mentioning of mounting
the DVD under Solaris. I'll just assume you had a bad day and I catched
you at a bad time ...

No arrogance intended! I was commenting on things such as the lack of
useful error messages, the lack of any reference to "CDROM" or "cdrom"
in the man pages (man -k CDROM (or cdrom)) produces no result), etc.
It seems to be a Unix tradition that there is NO way to find much of
what you need to know short of asking a "guru"!

And the price of the "guru"s assistance is commonly to accept his
tongue-lashing for being so incredibly stupid as to not understand
what's patently obvious to him before getting any help. Hence Dirk's
reply... :-)

I'm guilty of this myself. I don't know something, and I beat myself up
to figure it out, swearing I'm going to document it. When i finally
figure it out, it's so frickin' obvious, I figure, "Bah, I don't need to
write this down... it wasn't that hard to figure out!" Six months
later, either I've forgotten, or someone's asking me, and I can't
believe they have the temerity to ask about something that is so
trivial... :-)

[c***@gmail.com]

Post by John Oliver

Post by Dirk Taggesell

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Did you burn your DVD as an image? If you simply burn a file, as a
file, to CD or DVD, you get a CD/DVD with a file-system, directory, etc,
etc. Failure to burn as an image rather than as a file is one of the
most common problems.

I burned it as an image and there's a directory like one would expect
structure on the CD/DVD when I read it on my Mac. The CD's volume name
is "SOL10_1008_SPARC" hence I didn't inadvertedly download and burn a
x86 version of Solaris.

Post by Richard B. Gilbert
Next most common is that some CD and/or DVD drives just don't like home
made disks. The only solutions for that are a new drive or a "real" DVD.

As the entire machine is quite new (early 2008) and was running in a
air-conditioned server room, I expected the DVD drive to be ok. And
because I suspected hardware incompatibilities between self-burned DVD
and the drive, I burned the first CD of the five-disk set as well.
It is still possible that the drive is damaged, which would explain a lot.

FWIW: I've had several issues with booting from a burned DVD. Most of
the time, using CDs instead works like a charm. And since I set up a
jumpstart server, I've pretty much stopped worrying about it :-)
--
* John Oliver http://www.john-oliver.net/ *

I got a t5220, and it's not reading burned dvd of solaris 10 sparc. the iso is a 2 gig file size, so burning onto a cd is not an alternate option.

customer insists using this version, any options? how you get it on to a cd if file size is so big, is there a cd download avail as iso?

[Ian Collins]

Post by c***@gmail.com
I got a t5220, and it's not reading burned dvd of solaris 10 sparc.
the iso is a 2 gig file size, so burning onto a cd is not an
alternate option.
customer insists using this version, any options? how you get it on
to a cd if file size is so big, is there a cd download avail as iso?

Try burning a DVD on a different system and/or using different media.

[Casper H.S. Dik]

Post by c***@gmail.com
I got a t5220, and it's not reading burned dvd of solaris 10 sparc. the iso is a 2 gig file size, so burning onto a cd is not an alternate option.

What type of media did you use and which sofware did you use? Can you
boot other SPARCs from that DVD rom?

I would assume it has a DVD as I think we stopped CDROM drive a long
time ago (If only for the reason that CDROM drives weren't being made);
the manual also lists a "DVD" (as in the "DVD/USB assembly).

Post by c***@gmail.com
customer insists using this version, any options? how you get it on to a
cd if file size is so big, is there a cd download avail as iso?

A DVD should work and the typical DVD drive should support
all DVD types (Typically it has a Toshiba TS-T632A)

Casper

[Dirk Taggesell]

Just for the records:

after having a phone call with Sun support it turned out that a chip on
the Power Distribution Board has a too old firmware which can prevent
the DVD drive from working properly.

The bummer is: while one generally can flash a new firmware into the
chip, it can only be done under Windows -- which is somewhat difficult
on a SPARC machine. Hence I receive a replacement Motherboard and a Sun
technician will change the boards tomorrow.

I am just wondering why nobody at Sun bothered to write a patch program
for flashing the chip. Maybe there's not enough machines shipped with
the stale firmware to make it worthwile ...

[Dirk Taggesell]

Post by Dirk Taggesell
after having a phone call with Sun support it turned out that a chip on
the Power Distribution Board has a too old firmware which can prevent
the DVD drive from working properly.

The Sun maintenance guys were here and changed the board. Now reading
CD/DVD works as intended.

[s***@gmail.com]

Post by Dirk Taggesell
Hello all,
I wanted to re-install our T5220 with the latest Solaris. It is
currently not in service so I can play with it as i like.
One reason for re-installing is to get more familiar with the
OS/Hardware the other is, that now ZFS can be used for the OS as well.
I am not really a Sun/Solaris expert (yet), I have rather a Linux
background.
Anyway, I just wanted to boot the machine from the freshly burned DVD,
(sol-10-u6-ga1-sparc-dvd.iso) and that doesn't work.
set /HOST/bootmode script="setenv auto-boot? false"
Now when I reboot the machine, it stops at the prompt: {0} ok
as intended and when I type "boot" it boots normally off harddisk.
--- snip ---
{0} ok boot cdrom
Can't mount root
The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
--- snap ---
I also tried "boot cdrom - install" and "boot cdrom -s" - to no avail.
I downloaded the CD set as well and tried booting off the first CD -
same result.
What am I missing here?
--
kind regards
Dirk Taggesell

Hello, If anyone is still reading this thread let me know, I do not have a service contract, I am able to mount the cd/dvd and read the cd/dvd when mounted , were you not able to do even that ?

My issue is that i am not able to boot from the cdrom , do an install
boot cdrom or boot cdrom - install just stops after the banner announcing that is the following :

Boot device: /***@0/***@0/***@1/***@0/***@1/***@0/***@0,2/***@2/***@0:f File and args: - install
SunOS Release 5.11 Version 11.1 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

\ <<===== the twirling stick is stuck !

Is the anyone that knows what to do with this , I cannot believe this required a replacing of a board, and i do not have a service contract!

[s***@gmail.com]

Post by Dirk Taggesell
Hello all,
I wanted to re-install our T5220 with the latest Solaris. It is
currently not in service so I can play with it as i like.
One reason for re-installing is to get more familiar with the
OS/Hardware the other is, that now ZFS can be used for the OS as well.
I am not really a Sun/Solaris expert (yet), I have rather a Linux
background.
Anyway, I just wanted to boot the machine from the freshly burned DVD,
(sol-10-u6-ga1-sparc-dvd.iso) and that doesn't work.
set /HOST/bootmode script="setenv auto-boot? false"
Now when I reboot the machine, it stops at the prompt: {0} ok
as intended and when I type "boot" it boots normally off harddisk.
--- snip ---
{0} ok boot cdrom
Can't mount root
The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
--- snap ---
I also tried "boot cdrom - install" and "boot cdrom -s" - to no avail.
I downloaded the CD set as well and tried booting off the first CD -
same result.
What am I missing here?
--
kind regards
Dirk Taggesell

Hello Dirk, Can we talk about this problem off line? let me know if you are favorable to that and i will work something out

[p***@gmail.com]