[weblacky]

I'm not a SUN user, nor have direction knowledge...but I'm good at GOOGLE:

PROM password for your station isn't stored in PROM OR NVRAM, replacing either won't help you at all. This page claims to tell you how to hack to reset the password, I'M not responsible if this advice bricks your system!

URL:
https://jmtd.net/hardware/sparcstation/

Content:
I was given my sparcstation 5 by Durham University by way of the Durham University Computer Society (thanks!). Unfortunately, the boot PROM was passworded, making it impossible to interfere with the boot process, e.g. to boot from a CD-ROM rather than hard disk.

I googled around and most advice suggested you needed to buy a new boot PROM chip. I didn't fancy that much. I found a single usenet post describing a method of clearing the boot PROM but no supporting posts saying it worked.

The technique
boot the machine and enter the boot PROM. Get a password prompt.
Crack open the case and remove the PROM chip whilst the machine is on.
Hit enter on the password prompt: since it can't confirm the password against the PROM, it lets you through.
Re-sit the PROM chip in the machine, whilst turned on.
You now need to clear or disable the PROM password. Either:
setenv security-mode none to disable the password, or
password to be prompted for a new one.