topic Re: Cannot load IPL in Operating System - HP-UX

Cannot load IPL

Witold Kotowski — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 06:03:42 GMT

Hi,
I have problem with HP 9000/715/64 machine and HPUX 10.20.
My HP machine with two 2GB HDD's cannot boot, I got message :

vuseg=c13000
inet_clts:ok inet_cost:ok
System Console is on the ITE.

and HP is stopped.

Before, HP was working without any problems. After last weekend (machine was on) I have found message like above.
I was trying to boot machine from the tape (I have checked it with two tapes) with HPUX 10.20 and it failed. When HP was trying to boot from the tape (boot scsi.3.0) I had got message:

ERROR: cannot load IPL
error detected

Maybe anybody has any ideas abuot a reason of my problem?
Why during startup from HDD it gives mesasage "vueseg=c1300..." and stops.
Why cannot boot from tape (both tapes are OK)?

Thank You for help in advance.
Witold

Re: Cannot load IPL

Ravi_8 — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 06:45:32 GMT

Hi
check the connection to harddisk. seems to be loose connection to the harddisk

Re: Cannot load IPL

Witold Kotowski — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 07:06:56 GMT

It is the same error message (cannot load IPL.. )if I try to boot from the tape with connected or disconnected HDD. If HDD is connected BIOS can see it ('search' function can find bootable devices: DDS drive and HDD).
I think HP machine with HPUX 10.20 does not need HDD to be connected when it boots from the tape (it loads minimal operating system somewhere into memory? ).

Witek

Re: Cannot load IPL

Vincenzo Restuccia — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 07:19:45 GMT

The IPL (Initial Program Loader) is a piece of code that is ON the disk,
so probably it either got corrupted, or the disk itself failed (hardware),
so that it cannot read that code anymore.
Which means that the system is NOT bootable anymore, as the IPL is the code
that searches for and then loads the HP-UX code (often referred to as the
"secondary loader").
The boot is a three step process: the "prom" loader searches for media (disks,
tapes, CDrom's) with bootable media (that is, with some form of IPL ON them),
and then tries to load and start THAT code. The IPL on disk is a socalled
LIF file (Logical Interchange Format), that is, the code is INdependant of
the exact operating system that installed it (mkboot command).
The IPL then has an "autoboot string" with the name of the file IT has
to find and load (which in HP-UX will normally be the kernel:
/stand/vmunix). But to do so the IPL has to be loaded FROM the disk, and
the primary loader is informing you that it canNOT find a valid secondary
loader on any of the disks it was searching for it.

If the disk is still OK, reinstalling the IPL (from another medium, so you
either have to boot from (recovery) tape or CDrom, or move the disk TO
another system (that does boot) and use IT to reinstall the IPL) will work,
but the most likely cause is that the disk is just plain bad and will have
to be replaced (and your data restored ON the new disk from the backups).

Re: Cannot load IPL

Witold Kotowski — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 07:38:39 GMT

I tried to boot from tape and I got "ERROR cannot load IPL..."
I'm sure that booting tape is OK. I have not another HP machine to check HDD's, at the moment.
So, I Think that probably SCSI controller is faulty?

Witold

Re: Cannot load IPL

Vincenzo Restuccia — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 08:06:22 GMT

In PDC prompt try sea (search for all SCSI).

Re: Cannot load IPL

Witold Kotowski — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 08:15:28 GMT

With 'sea' (search) i can see my SCSI devives (tape drive, HDD).
Then when I start 'boot scsi.3.0' to boot from the tape (tape drive is SCSI id 3), I get 'ERROR cannot load IPL'.

Witold

Re: Cannot load IPL

KapilRaj — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 08:25:05 GMT

hi,

do you have a CDROM Drive with the machine ? If yes , please try to boot through that.

or

at ISL prompt
boot scsi.3.0 isl
it should come to the IPL prompt. From their try,
hpux -lm (if you have lvm ) or hpux -is
can you update me ?

kaps

Re: Cannot load IPL

Bill McNAMARA_1 — Fri, 01 Jun 2001 12:56:13 GMT

ipl is the initial program loader, which is located on your boot disk.
Just to see if the default boot path is incorrect, try the SEA option to see if there are any potentially bootable devices attached to the system, ie disks, cdrom, tapes or lan.

If the search completes, try to boot from the paths resembling that of your disk with the
BO
command.

You'll then get top ISL, from where the kernel bootstrap is loaded.

Make sure too that your disks are working, you want to see leds blinking, and not in a solid green indicating some kind of scsi/ selftest problem.

Later,
Bill

Re: Cannot load IPL

Jeroen_D — Wed, 02 Oct 2002 06:10:07 GMT

Hi,

I also can't get to my ISL prompt anymore.

Vincenzo : how can I recreate IPL ? I now have access to my disk using another system.
What are the commands and parameters ?

TIA,
Jeroen.

Re: Cannot load IPL

Pete Randall — Wed, 02 Oct 2002 10:07:30 GMT

Jeroen,

Open a new thread. Click on "New Message" on the home page. You'll get a better response and be able to indicate (by assigning points to replies) which answers were most helpful.

Pete

Re: Cannot load IPL

Pete Randall — Wed, 02 Oct 2002 10:11:50 GMT

Disregard.

Jeroen did open a new thread:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x826f402f24d5d61190050090279cd0f9,00.html

Pete