[jan-jaap]

Discovering local IO ......................            WARNING: xbow_base: 0x9200000000000000 link: 12 Widget present, but link not alive!
WARNING: xbow_base: 0x9200000000000000 link: 12 Widget present, but link not alive!

I've seen this happen and it turned out to be bad / dirty compression connectors.

What you need to do to resolve this depends a bit on what you did before this started happening. There are two sides to a compression connection: the backplane and the compression connector. Both can get dirty and if either one gets dirty or damaged, the connection will be bad and you get this message.

• If you have e.g. an Octane and you find yourself an interesting XIO option to put in an unused slot, and then get this error: after 20+ years a layer of fine dust accumulated on the backplane and you should have cleaned the backplane contact surface before installing the XIO option. Unfortunately this usually means tearing the entire system apart. Clean mating surfaces with pure alcohol and something that doesn't leave lint behind. I've seen this when I added a PCI shoebox to my Octane2
  
• If you tear a system apart, put it back together, and then this happens: you probably damaged the compression connector on the XIO option -- the GE card in this case. Don't worry, there are only two types around, the big one (O2K/Onyx2 nodeboards) and the small one (everything else). Find an el-cheapo known good XIO option card (an unloved SCSI board, SI gfx, ...) and transplant the compression connector to your GE board. Never touch the business end of the XIO connector. I think you need a 2mm hex (inbus) tool to replace an XIO connector.
  

***WARNING: Console has moved from /hw/module/1/slot/io4/kona to /hw/module/1/slot/io1

Having failed to connect to the IR pipe, the system switches consoles to the serial port.