Coach Thrasher
Linux installer on a Sun Netra X1
These are my notes on getting the Gentoo Linux boot CD to startup on a Sun Netra X1. It turns out that many of the online "how-to" posts didn't help because they were either full of errors, incomplete, or configured differently. I also discovered a bunch of commands that weren't required to install things, but did help with diagnosing problems encountered in the install.
Links that helped me figure this out are:
Nabble Netra X1
FreeBSD Netra device config
Installing Debian Linux on Sun Netra X1
Sun Netra X1 and Linux
Debian on Netra
Why install Gentoo on a Netra X1? To support small little apps that I write with a free OS like proxies, filters, logging, and batch reporting. I don't have any Solaris support access, and am only vaguely familiar with Solaris as it is. While I am familiar with the support channels for Gentoo.
The machine:
Background on this box: the Sun Netra X1 is a nice little SPARC machine that comes in different, similar, speeds. Mine is 400MHz, with 512MB of PC133 RAM. I'm replacing the original 20GB disk with a 250GB IDE disk. The case is 1U rack mountable and will hold 2 IDE drives, max.
The Netra X1 doesn't have a CDROM drive, so this is the challenge with any install. There are two ways to setup the OS: us a Sun network install (which requires setting up another machine as an OS server), or forcing a CDROM install by temporarily installing a CDROM drive. I chose the later.
Since there's no video card, the box must be accessed via the serial port. I went to Fry's and got a DB9-to-RJ45 connector ($2.50) and soldered it with this wiring pattern:
| DB9 | RJ45 |
|---|---|
| 1 (DCD) | NC |
| 2 (RX) | 3 (TX) |
| 3 (TX) | 6 (RX) |
| 4 (DTR) | 7 (DSR) |
| 5 (GND) | 4 and 5 (GND) |
| 6 (DSR) | 2 (DTR) |
| 7 (RTS) | 8 (CTS) |
| 8 (CTS) | 1 (RTS) |
| 9 (RI) | NC |
This serial connector connects to the LOM (Lights Out Management) RJ45 port on the Netra. The DB9 end can be plugged into a PC's serial port, or a USB-to-DB9 serial converter. The advantage of this setup is that you can string long serial cables with ethernet cables. It seems fairly non standard though.
I opened the Netra, used the secondary IDE cable to connect a DVD/CDROM drive with jumper set to "Master". The primary IDE cable is connected to my 250GB Maxtor IDE HD with the jumper also set to "Master". These two drives will hang out of the case until the installation is complete, and the DVD/CDROM can be removed and the case is closed.
With power connected to the Netra and the RJ45-to-DB9 connected to a laptop, everything gets powered on. The Gentoo boot CDROM (CD-R) is installed into the DVD/CDROM drive.
The laptop is using Windows 2000, which ships with HyperTerminal, and will talk to the LOM over the RJ45-to-DB9 interface. Run Start/Programs/Accessories/Communications/HyperTerminal to start it up. It may ask for a phone number, just click "Cancel", it will warn you about dialing a number, but that's not needed, so click "Yes" to cancel. Let it choose an icon, give the connection a name, and then cancel the auto-dial again. Configure the "Connect To" dialog to use the "COM1" port, or whatever you have the DB9 connected to. Set the port to 9600/8/N/1/Hardware.
At this point, you should have HyperTerminal up with a LOM prompt that looks like this: lom>. If not, try power-cycling the Netra.
Enter the LOM commands:
lom>shutdown
lom>break
System in standby
lom>
If you are powered up and the Netra is trying to net-boot, you'll need to drop to the LOM propt by typing #. (don't forget the period "."), then type poweroff to shut down and drop to the LOM prompt.
LOM event: +0h0m13s host power onSun Netra X1 (UltraSPARC-IIe 400MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 4.0, 512 MB memory installed, Serial #50652816.
Ethernet address 0:3:ba:4:e6:90, Host ID: 8304e690.Boot device: net File and args:
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
#.lom>poweroff
lom>break
System in standby
lom>
At this point, we're ready to boot into the CDROM, but we need to know what it's address is. The alias of "cdrom" didn't work for me because it pointed to the wrong IDE address. To find the correct CDROM address the shell needs to drop into OpenBoot. Follow these commands:
Enter the LOM commands:
lom>poweron
LOM event: +0h0m13s host power onSun Netra X1 (UltraSPARC-IIe 400MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 4.0, 512 MB memory installed, Serial #50652816.
Ethernet address 0:3:ba:4:e6:90, Host ID: 8304e690.Boot device: net File and args:
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
#.lom>reset -x
LOM event: +0h1m37s host abort
Watchdog Reset
Externally Initiated Reset
ok
Now the prompt should read "ok". Try typing probe-ide to see the connected IDE devices and verify where they live.
ok probe-ide
Device 0 ( Primary Master )
ATA Model: Maxtor 6B250R0Device 1 ( Primary Slave )
Not PresentDevice 2 ( Secondary Master )
Removable ATAPI Model: HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-7500Device 3 ( Secondary Slave )
Not Presentok
There are two IDE channels, devices 0 and 1 are on channel 0 and devices 2 and 3 are on channel 1. Now let's query the actual address of these devices:
ok devalias
disk /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@0,0
rtc /pci@1f,0/isa@7/rtc@0,70
usb /pci@1f,0/usb@a
flash /pci@1f,0/isa@7/flashprom@1f,0
lom /pci@1f,0/isa@7/SUNW,lomh@0,8010
i2c-nvram /pci@1f,0/pmu@3/i2c@0,0/i2c-nvram@0,aa
net1 /pci@1f,0/ethernet@5
dload1 /pci@1f,0/ethernet@5:,
dload /pci@1f,0/ethernet@c:,
net0 /pci@1f,0/ethernet@c
net /pci@1f,0/ethernet@c
cdrom /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@3,0:f
disk3 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@3,0
disk2 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@2,0
disk1 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@1,0
disk0 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@0,0
ide /pci@1f,0/ide@d
floppy /pci@1f,0/isa@7/dma/floppy
ttyb /pci@1f,0/isa@7/serial@0,2e8
ttya /pci@1f,0/isa@7/serial@0,3f8
ok
The "disk0" through "disk3" corresponds to IDE channel 0 master, and "disk3" corresponds to IDE channel 1 slave. Also note that the "cdrom" alias is different, and appears to point to disk3, with the ":f" appended to the end. The CDROM should actually be disk2, so we can now take note from disk2's address and the cdrom's address to create a new address for booting: /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f. The command must be entered twice because it will time out with "Fast Data Access MMU Miss" on the first run because the CDROM hasn't spun up. Boot the Gentoo installation CD:
ok boot /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f File and args:
Fast Data Access MMU Miss
ok boot /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:fLOM event: +0h20m33s host reset
Resetting ...Sun Netra X1 (UltraSPARC-IIe 400MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 4.0, 512 MB memory installed, Serial #50652816.
Ethernet address 0:3:ba:4:e6:90, Host ID: 8304e690.Executing last command: boot /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f File and args:
SILO Version 1.4.13
\----------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Gentoo/Linux SPARC64 InstallCD 2006.1
----------------------------------------------------boot:
That's it, this is the Gentoo boot prompt. Gentoo installation can now begin. Many other OSs could be installed the same way.
Posted at 01:18PM Jan 19, 2007 by jason in Hardware |