Sun

The gist: my SS20 is running CD-less, needs to be booted into single user mode for a password reset and I don't really have any drives available for the task. are there any ways to accomplish this using just the floppy drive, with a boot disk or just do all of the password resetting with a mini-linux disk?

The first thing that comes to my mind is network boot, which is really easy to set up in a Solaris-VM on x86.

Can't you just get into OBP and do



?

Solaris might ask for root-pw in order to invoke a shell in single user mode. I'm not entirely sure about this, but mounting the fs from another instance definately works.

Here's a guide on how to set up Solaris as a install server (this also works for other versions than 8)

What he/she said.

My advice is to setup a jumpstart server anyways. Making a Solaris 10 VM for this is crazy easy using the docs provided. Spool up your solaris of choice (9 should work on the 20) and away you go. Anytime you need it, fire up the VM and then you can do rescues and installs over boot net.

excuse my, uh, new ness if it's seeping through a little. I have 4 SPARC boxes, but all of them (but this damn one) have dead NVRAM batteries that I haven't been able to fix. I'm hoping to get this one up and running to get some real learning in.

I might dust off my x3250 and set up a couple solaris VMs for jumpstarting, that sounds like a great idea.



it appears I can, thanks for the help. deleted root's pass entry in /etc/passwd and I'm in, figured I'd need those vi refs sooner or later.

So far so good, can log into root fine now BUT I can't get X to start. It's running SunOS 4.1.4 with (looks to be) OpenWindows. Is the command different from "startx" on other *nix variants I've dealt with in passing or is something messed up/root can't use X?

4.1.4 doesn't do XDM, at least by default. Log in and then run "openwin". Make sure that /usr/openwin/bin is in your PATH, or specify /usr/openwin/bin/openwin.

Would PATH have anything to do with this? It returned this before and after I set it, although I could be doing the latter incorrectly.

EDIT: It's probably because I'm logged in as root, other users seem to work fine.

See the bold bit. You're trying to run /etc/openwin, you want /usr/openwin/bin/openwin.

Thanks for all the replies, guys. One less boat anchor under my desk, and I finally have a functioning RISC system.


I tried setting that, although I apparently did it wrong. After logging into other accounts it starts up just fine but my mouse is acting up and barely moves the cursor (I am using a Sun optical mouse pad, so I have no idea) so it is for the moment unusable, and I'm using a serial console instead to save desk space.

On a semi-related note, now that this thing is up and running, are there any sites with freeware (text-based or otherwise) for 4.x? Google isn't turning up any meaningful results, but perhaps I'm not searching for the right thing...

You could have the wrong pad for the mouse. I forget the cutoffs, but the pad/grid density for the Sun optical mice changed in the Sun 3/Sun 4 era. Having the wrong pad acts much as you describe. If you can find any Sun ball mouse that uses the DIN connector you should be fine.

Also, search the 'net for PDF's of the different Sun mouse pad grids. You can print them on shiny paper and they work pretty well. You should be able to find the two different kinds and see what works.

4.x is going to be tuff. 5.x you will have a much better time. If you actually want to use the machine, I would look at putting Solaris 9 on it (SunOS 5.9). Besides, 4.x is BSD and not UNIX! Who wants that!?

There are those who would say that BSD is UNIX and are unsure what this whole "System V" thing is. I used to be completely in that camp, and I still do like some bits of SunOS 4 over Solaris.

Look at your path expression carefully - for some reason it's searching in /etc before /usr/openwin/bin.

Re: the mouse: Old IR optical mice often have LEDs that suffer from reduced emission - soldering in a new LED of the proper type can revive them. That or get a later mechanical bearpaw mouse.

gonna upgrade for sure when I can get a hold of a CDROM drive, but for now I'm stuck with 4.x until I can shell the cash for one. Need to get my SS2 fixed up with a new NVRAM chip as well.



I'll have to keep an eye out for a mechanical, they don't turn up often locally though.