[weblacky]

Hi All,
In hopes of getting closer to a “working” state on my Fuel repair I was wondering about L1 upgrading. I know Tezro has a minimum jumping sequence through firmware revisions.  

Is that order and flasher versioning requirement the same on Fuel?   

My fuel is currently on v1.28.3, can I jump right to the last v1.48.1 or do I need to start at v1.30.11 -> v1.32.6 -> 1.44.0 to patch 1.48.1, like Tezro?

Just making sure I know the score!

Thanks

[Raion]

I did it using the leapfrog method. I didn't wanna take any chances. I didn't brick any fuels thankfully

[jwhat]

Hi Weblacky,

I have done a lot of L1 flash updates over the years (using flashsc).

I have never had a flash actually fail, rather if the jump from the version you are on is not possible it just reports that the flash cannot proceed.

Also the Fuel (like other O350 machines) has the two L1 versions so you are safe guarded against failed update.

Back when I first got my Fuel it had a failing L1 and I just flashed it straight to 1.48.1 (using the PATCH SG0007149).

Glad that you are still making progress.

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John

[vvuk]

weblacky do let me know how this goes, once you get things going.  I was going to leapfrog and update, but reading this https://wiki.preterhuman.net/Restore_Fue...ken_update gave me pause (not the recovery mechanism, but more that version 1.44.0 renders it un-power-on able).  From reading through https://wiki.preterhuman.net/L1_Controller_Updates and from what jwhat said here, we both seem to have very old L1 versions (me: 1.20.6, you: 1.28.3).  My version isn't even listed in the table!  (Maybe it's from 6.5.20 which is missing?)

It sounds like a 1.22.2 -> 1.32.6 -> (1.44.0, but I'll skip that due to the mentioned bug and just go to...) 1.48.1 leapfrog should work.  I'm guessing I'll be able to jump straight to 1.22.2 from 1.20.6, and you should be able to skip that and jump to 1.32.6 and from there to 1.48.1.

(I'm mainly doing this because I _assume_ env monitoring, and thus the fans, are under L1 control.  And I think my Fuel is just revving fans fairly high unnecessarily.)

I can't find a link to patch SG0007149 -- does anyone have that handy?  Is it part of 6.5.30 dist?

Also, something that might help you with your Fuel diagnosis -- while poking around in the l1 firmware file, there's a variety of hidden commands ("help list hidden" shows them).    One that might be useful for you is "l1dbg":

Code:

[sgugshell vladimir@tezro sgi]$ sudo l1cmd help l1dbg
l1dbg
        get L1 debugging settings
l1dbg syscom <exp>
        select L1 <-> system debugging (mask)
l1dbg syscom <exp> <exp>
        select L1 <-> system debugging (slab & mask)
l1dbg irtr <exp>
        sets L1 irouter debugging mode
l1dbg env <exp>
        turn L1 environmental debugging on (1=pwr,2=fan,4=tmp,8=setup)
l1dbg env off
        turn L1 environmental debugging off
l1dbg port on|off
        turn L1 port interrupt debugging on/off
l1dbg i2c on|off
        turn L1 i2c interrupt debugging on/off
l1dbg margin|mgn on|off
        turn L1 voltage margin debugging on/off
l1dbg console on|off
        enable/disable console tracking messages
l1dbg mempanic on|off
        enable/disable L1 PANIC on malloc failures
l1dbg pppdump on|off
        enable/disable data dump on junkbus PPP errors
l1dbg pppdelay <exp>
        set length of JunkBus PPP read delay (debug)
l1dbg promreq|req on|off
        turn PROM request debugging on/off
l1dbg qsusp <exp> <exp>
        set queue suspend time for req/rsp and evt
l1dbg printf on|off
        enables/disables generating events on printf calls
l1dbg flashignore <exp> <exp>
        ignore next <exp> flash pkts, test timeout handling in flashsc

specifically the environmental debugging, maybe voltage margin debugging etc. Not sure what it'll do, but could provide some helpful data.

[jwhat]

Hi vvuk,

the problem with 1.44.0 is not with the L1, it is with L2.

Installing 1.44.0 L2 (6.5.30) update is guaranteed to brick the L2.

There is a workaround which is to build a temporary in-memory file system with the missing file included and create a valid L2 by mounting this on top of the default file system.

Then you use this to update the L2 to 1.48.1 (patch), but agree to be safe just jump to 1.48.1

Patches are available here: http://ftp.irixnet.org/sgi-irix/patches/6.5.30/

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John

[vvuk]

Hmm -- I was referring to the info on this page: https://wiki.preterhuman.net/Restore_Fue...ken_update which seems to say that Fuel can't boot after 1.44.0 is installed on its internal L1 (seems to lose the ability to talk to the power supply!). But it sounds like 1.44.0 is just bad in general, if it's also missing a shared library for the L2 version! So we should just avoid 1.44.0 entirely

[jwhat]

Hi vvuk,

as you have an old L1, could you help by seeing if you can do jump from your current L1 straight to 1.48.1 ...

I have a collection of L1/L2 and flashsc tools across various IRIX releases, so if you need alternate versions I can try to find this on a disk somewhere... but if the simplest method works then best to do this.

I found that you need to use the version of the flashsc tool that is consistent with the L1/L2 software to avoid not being able to do jump update.

ie do not try to flash to 1.48.1 with the older flashsc, use the flashsc that comes with the patch.

My collection has L1/flashsc for 6.5.21 (1.22.2), 6.5.22 (1.24.8), 6.5.25 (1.30.6), 6.5.29 (1.40.5), 6.5.30 (1.44.0), patch SG0007149 (1.48.1)

I have documented version details in my Chimera blog.

EDIT: blog "IRIX / L1 Version" summary as very slow link to sw

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John.

[weblacky]

Hi vvuk,

as you have an old L1, could you help by seeing if you can do jump from your current L1 straight to 1.48.1 ...

I have a collection of L1/L2 and flashsc tools across various IRIX releases, so if you need alternate versions I can try to did that on a disk somewhere... but if the simplest method works then best to do this.

I found that you need to use the version of the flashsc tool that is consistent with the L1/L2 software to avoid not being able to do jump update.

ie do not try to flash to 1.48.1 with the older flashsc, use the flashsc that comes with the patch.

My collection has L1/flashsc for 6.5.21 (1.22.2), 6.5.22 (1.24.8), 6.5.25 (1.30.6), 6.5.29 (1.40.5), 6.5.30 (1.44.0), patch SG0007149 (1.48.1)

I have documented version details in my Chimera blog.

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John.

jwhat,
Would you mind either PMing me a link or posting on your site the L1 images?  I'm in the same boat with my Tezros anyway.  Knowing which L1s to jump and what irix distro to use would be great.

I thought I read somewhere you can use Irix 6.5.24 to flash up to v1.30.6, then you can switch to irix 6.5.30 for the last hop?

[Raion]

jwhat, weblacky, we have Silicon Image you know?

Jwhat if you need help getting on send me an email -- i ask this only because anything shared from your AU domain takes forever to load stateside.

[vvuk]

Hi jwhat, your blog page is fantastic, thank you; haven't seen that before and there's a lot of good info. One note, in case it hasn't been already sorted -- the discussion about finding the Fuel/O350 nvram chip. It's the snaphat nvram chip, and unfortunately it's soldered to the board. I suppose in a pinch it should be possible to wire up a jig to the pins directly on the board in order to program it externally, but I don't know if anyone's tried this.

I'm reorganizing my office today; once I get the Fuel in the new spot, I'll try the flash up to 1.48.1.