ES47 not booting

[Adrian Graham_1]

Folks,

Got a 2x2P ES47 here configured as 1 partition and showing everything as correct (show cable, show grid, show power etc all fine), I get an SRM console with a P00 prompt, all fine there too.

But! It doesn't boot. If I boot from CD it gets as far as 'jumping to bootstrap code' then hangs, ditto if I boot from a drive containing VMS 8.2. If I boot from a drive containing VMS 7.1-2 it falls over as expected, complaining about missing things from SYS$CPU_ROUTINES. It won't even boot the ES47 7.3 firmware CD.

Anyone seen this before?

[The Brit]

How long did you wait, when booting from CD, before concluding that the system was hung. (CD boots are notoriously slow.)

From the information you provide, the boot-from-disk appears to work, i.e. gets to the bootstrap code, but fails subsequently because of the CPU type, is that true?

It is very strange that the firmware CD wont boot!, and coincidentally booting the CD distribution fails!

Issue with the CD drive??

Dave.

[Adrian Graham_1]

Hi Dave,

I left it all afternoon the other day :) Since the CDROM is a standard laptop drive I swapped it for a known good one, still nothing. It's interesting that 7.1-2 does actually fail and returns to the P00 prompt, I know the minimum is 7.3-1 plus patches. 8.2 just won't boot, it's odd.

[Hoff]

"Standard laptop drive"? In all seriousness, there is no such thing. Vendor to vendor and even drive to drive differences can be substantial.

Please purge the concept of "standard laptop drive" from your ken.

Best: get a different drive.

And on a related note, also check the firmware involved here. I've seen both media-level compatibility issues and device-level compatibility issues addressed with newer firmware for the drive, or newer firmware for various of the SRM console implementations.

You're going to need to try a few different CD or DVD drives here, if you don't have the correct drive with the particular correct set of drive-level functions and responses; an HP Enterprise (BCS) CD or DVD drive, or an HP consumer-targeted CD drive or a third-party CD drive that's very close to what the SRM console expects here.

As for compatibility, I watched the USB-level I/O traffic on a "standard laptop drive" a while back, and most of the bus traffic was error recovery. It was amazing the drive even worked at all, what with the numbers of bus-level errors Windows was encountering with it. But Windows was also quiet about reporting those errors, so the user never knew the drive wasn't working all that well, and was a whole lot slower than it should have been.

And interestingly, even revision-level differences within a particular model within in details like the USB bridge chip can be massive...

This stuff is a whole lot more variable than might be obvious.

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] 'jumping to bootstrap code' then
> hangs, [...]

Does it hang, or is it just trying to talk to
a console terminal different from the one
you're using? I've never touched an ES47,
but if it has more than one serial port, ...

[Steve Reece_3]

Has it ever booted?
What are you using as the console keyboard? Is it a standard cheap PC keyboard or is it the HP LK464? If it's not the LK464 then the system is not likely to boot and will exhibit the behaviour that you're seeing.
How do I know?
I have been bitten by the characteristic on the ES47 of connecting up a ten pound keyboard from the local PC shop and finding that the system just will not boot. It looks like it's trying (by getting to jumping to bootstrap code) then hangs.

The system will boot from v7.3-1 upwards but I would not expect it to boot 7.1-2 as that is too early for ES47 support. Booting from v7.3-1 will require patches to get a graphics console working but should be accessible from a serial line or using the graphics as a dumb terminal.

[BrianC]

As mentioned previously , this is a common symptom with AlphaServers when the console port/variable is configured incorrectly, For example , The variable "CONSOLE" at the P00> prompt can be set to "SERIAL" or "GRAPHICS".

Check this setting

P00> SHOW CONSOLE

and if you are using the 9 pin COM Port it should be set to SERIAL.

If you are using USB KB and MOUSE and VGA then set it to GRAPHICS>

P00> SET CONSOLE SERIAL
or
P00> SET CONSOLE GRAPHICS


Brian

[Steven Schweda]

In any case, some description of the console
being used and/or how it's connected might be
useful.

A better description of "hangs" would be
good, too. For example, is there any
non-console I/O activity (CD-ROM or hard disk
drive) after the last console message?

[Adrian Graham_1]

Well that's ridiculous. Steve, you were spot on, I WAS using a £10 keyboard as it was the only USB spare we had. Now I've got a 'proper' HP keyboard and it boots fine! Currently sat running VMS 8.2.

Thanks :) Fancy something as expensive as that being brought down by a cheap keyboard!

[Steve Reece_3]

>>>Well that's ridiculous. Steve, you were spot on, I WAS using a à £10 keyboard as it was the only USB spare we had. Now I've got a 'proper' HP keyboard and it boots fine! Currently sat running VMS 8.2.

Thanks :) Fancy something as expensive as that being brought down by a cheap keyboard!


That's more or less exactly what I said! Difference was mine was a loan ES47 model 4 and it had been loaned without the HP keyboard.
Glad to be of help.
Steve