SUMMARY: ES40 AlphaBIOS problem

From: Bill Sadvary (sadvary_at_dickinson.edu)
Date: 03/25/04

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To: Tru64-UNIX-Managers <tru64-unix-managers@ornl.gov>

    Original post is at the bottom.

    Some suggested ideas/thoughts:

    1.) Are the CPU revs up-to-date?
        <Yes>

    2.) When you flashed the SRM firmware, did you also flash the ARC
        firmware?
        <Yes>

    3.) Was serial console configured?
        <The console mode was set to "graphics" but as it turned out, when
        I attached a serial terminal, the arc was displayed there on the
        terminal.>

    4.) If two graphics cards, remove one. I only have one, but good idea.

    5.) Dr. Tom wrote:
        One thing that AlphaBIOS is probably trying to do is run all of the
        IOS extensions on the adapter cards in the system.

        If one of them doesn't work, that might well hang the AlphaBIOS.

        I'd start pulling out options and putting them back one at a time
        until I found what's hanging the AlphaBIOS -- but then, it's not
        my system and I've never actually had to do that myself..

        <I never did get around to trying the above.>

    6.) Dr. Tom wrote:
        That suggests to me that the ARC console (AlphaBIOS) can't find a
        compatible graphics interface. If you have a generic SVGA type
        of card (something compatible with the graphics screen on the
        system), try plugging that in.

        Remember, the SRM console's environment variables mean nothing to
        the ARC/AlphaBIOS code -- it is doing the equivalent of a power on
        self test, probing for hardware; if it can't recognize a graphics
        card, it's going to use the serial console instead if it can find
        that..

        <Tom was getting close...>

    Solution: The graphics card was installed in one of the PCI-1 slots and
               not PCI-0, where is should have been. IT WASN'T ME, I SWEAR!
               All is well now!

    A "Thanks!" goes out to:

            Russ Schaefer
            Iain Barker
            Alan Davis
            Dr Thomas Blinn
            John Farmer
            Annette

    -Bill Sadvary
     Carlisle, PA

    ---------- Original message ----------
    Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 12:11:03 -0500 (EST)
    From: Bill Sadvary <sadvary@dickinson.edu>
    To: Tru64-UNIX-Managers <tru64-unix-managers@ornl.gov>
    Followup-To: poster
    Subject: ES40 AlphaBIOS problem

    I run 'arc' or 'alphabios' at the console and it prints "loading ARC
    firmware" and then it hangs. The LED display goes through the following
    sequence...

            AlphaBIOS - 0x04

    then

            AlphaBIOS - 0x06

    then after several minutes..

            AlphaBIOS v5.71

    and no change at the console, still says "loading ARC Firmware"

    The system was originally on SRM v6.6-19 and I even backed down to v6.5-19
    and it does the same thing.

    This is a refurb system and I'm going through the initial setup. So it's
    my first attempt at running arc on this system.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks,
    -Bill Sadvary
     Carlisle, PA

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