[commodorejohn]

Also, for the sake of due diligence, are you sure the video card is detected and working? What does <B>devalias</B> list under <B>screen</B>?

[Irinikus]

It registers "ZULU", which is the correct name for the XVR-4000:


<ATTACHMENT filename="IMG_3835.JPG" index="1">     </ATTACHMENT>


I'm going to get hold of WildeFire Sytems today and ask them to send me absolutely all of the peripherals required to run this machine:

A SUN type 6 USB keyboard and mouse, SUN13w3 to VGA cable, etc.... (The 13w3 to VGA cable that I have may also be a problem, as it works with my Octane and Onyx2, and I'm aware that there are differences between SGI and SUN in this regard.)

According to WildFire System's, Solaris doesn't need to be installed in order to get an output from the XVR-4000.

When running the extended tests, this is where it get's to when I have the keyboard attached:


<ATTACHMENT filename="IMG_3834.JPG" index="0">     </ATTACHMENT>

[commodorejohn]

Ah, yes. The 13w3 adapter is most likely your problem here - SGI and Sun 13w3 are different and the adapters are not compatible.

I've yet to encounter a problem with my Blade not having a specifically Sun-brand USB keyboard, so I don't imagine that's the issue.

[Irinikus]

The USB keyboard that I have is a USB2, and the PS/2 to USB converter that I have is also not specifically for SUN, could this also be a problem?

I will get the correct SUN type 6 keyboard and mouse.

[commodorejohn]

I don't think USB 1.1 vs. USB 2 should even make a difference for keyboards; they hardly even need the full throughput of 1.1. That said, I suppose getting the Official Correct peripherals at least eliminates some variables from the equation.

PS/2-to-USB converters you need to be wary of, though - a lot of them are actually just simple rewiring jobs that re-route the PS/2 serial signals to the USB serial signals on the assumption that PC BIOSes of the late '90s/early '00s knew this was a thing and would treat them as a PS/2 keyboard regardless.

[Irinikus]

I've put in an order to WildFire Systems for a Sun type 6 USB Keyboard and mouse, a Sun 13w3 to DVI cable and a proper DB9 to DB25 cable fo the machine.

I will only receive these in the middle of next month, so I suppose I will just have to go back to playing with the Tezro for now.

I can't wait to get this beast up and running, but I will just have to wait it out for now!

This saga will continue once I have the necessary peripherals. The Solaris 10 DVD is waiting in the drive!

<B><U>EDIT:</U></B>

Just for info, I managed to reduce the initialisation time for this machine from 20 minutes to a few minutes by typing in "setenv drag min" in the console. The test that gets cut out in this case is the full memory test, which takes for ever with 48GB of memory installed, and isn't necessary as far as I'm concerned. (Not a normal boot anyway, as waiting around for 20+ minutes is just ridiculous in my opinion!)

If I want the machine to carry out the full extended tests in a verbose format, then all I need to do is turn the key to the diagnostic position.

[commodorejohn]

I'll be curious to hear about your experiences with the install process - for some reason, the Solaris 10 install DVD alternately doesn't work or takes a million years to even load the boot kernel on my Blade 2000. I managed to get it installed once, but I've since forgotten whatever magic incantation was required, and when I reinstalled from scratch the other day I ended up just going with 9 instead.

[necron2600]

This saga will continue once I have the necessary peripherals. The Solaris 10 DVD is waiting in the drive!

Dont wait! Its Solaris.. doesnt need an X interface and X is always there when you get your peripherals in.

I took my v880 today.. fresh hard disk and installed Solaris 10 via serial console (vt100) only:
Install Solaris 10 using the console/terminal. (ensure you use ZFS and not UFS during the install)
Install, as new as you can find, Solaris 10_Recommended.zip patches and install them
reboot

Mucked with IP and interfaces as needed:
(note: you need to be able to ping your hostname and have it resolve correctly for X to work right)
/etc/defaultrouter
/etc/nodename
/etc/hostname.<interface> (eri0 is the onboard NIC.. find interfaces with "dladm show-link"
/etc/inet/netmasks
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf (add dns on the hosts: line)
/etc/inet/hosts (/etc/hosts .. ensure your hostname is not stuffed into the localhost entries)
reboot # if needed

Of course, no X.. even if I had a USB keyboard and video (console is ONLY ttya).
I have to make it work manually as you will have to do so:

Find and setup your framebuffer:
fbconfig -list
fbconfig -prconf
fbconfig -dev jfb0 -defdepth 24
fbconfig -dev jfb0 -res /?
fbconfig -dev jfb0 -res 1920x1080x60
fbconfig -dev jfb0 -propt

Set X windows to use your framebuffer:
mkdir -p /etc/dt/config
cp /usr/dt/config/Xservers /etc/dt/config/
vi /etc/dt/config/Xservers
comment out the current last entry :0
put in this one (changing to your framebuffer of course):
:0 Local local_uid@console root /usr/X11/bin/Xserver :0 -nobanner -dev /dev/fbs/jfb0
restart X: svcadm restart cde-login (or reboot)

# you may find that you may want to run 'bash' then 'export TERM=vt100' or some other terminal emulation setting...

Errors for X should show up here:
/var/dt/Xerrors

Start installing OpenCSW packages. This will take you ages! May as well do it now while waiting for your new USB keyboard.
Setup zpool RAID with more disks.
I suggest to zfs set compression=on zpoolname to turn on compression to some places where you may plan to dump lots of stuff to (dont do it on your root filesystem though, only set it on fresh/newly created zfs filesystems). ZFS compression can actually speed data read access up as well as give you more disk storage.

Play around with Solaris, ZFS, zones, OpenCSW packages, etc.. before you get into its X windows interface.

Just my suggestion
Have fun, the v880 really has a substantial presence when using it.

[necron2600]

Solaris 10 install DVD alternately doesn't work or takes a million years to even load the boot kernel on my Blade 2000

boot cdrom - text (note the spaces)
You need to install via text mode anyway if you want your root filesystem to be ZFS based vs UFS. (unless newer Sol10 resolved that, I forget)
At least you may be able to see more of what is going on during boot.

You can also boot cdrom -v (verbose). There are other arguments to use as well.

If your SB2000 has a bunch of PCI ethernet cards.. each one can take several minutes before they timeout during the initial install process as it waits for DHCP responses.

Bad media?

[commodorejohn]

I think I'll probably just stick with 9 for now, but as long as we're on the subject: I don't think verbose/text mode will help and I don't imagine it has anything to do with card initialization. It simply doesn't get any farther than the little text spinner it displays while loading the kernel, which plods along at one tick every couple of seconds for minutes on end, briefly spins at a normal rate, then goes back to plodding along, and will do this for hours on end if I let it. As far as media issues go, I burned two copies which both display the same problem, on the same media I used for the 9 DVD which booted without issue.

Like I said, I know I got it to boot once, because I had Solaris 10 installed and running, but I can't for the life of me remember what black magic was required to get it to do so.