Damon Getsman wrote:
> A Sun Enterprise 3500 server has been sitting in our server room for
> some time where I work, and I'm starting to think that it may well
> have the best solution for a problem that we're currently having
> employing a few Sun packages. I won't get into that here, I already
> posted on comp.sys.sun.misc about that. I'm thinking that installing
> them on native Solaris instead of different Linux variants might be a
> bit easier, though, especially with a machine custom configured just
> to run the apps that I need.
>
> What I need to find out is how this headless beast can be communicated
> with. It has 4 ethernet ports and a serial port. I have no idea what
> sort of system or configuration was previously on this machine, so I'm
> thinking that it might be best to start with using the serial port as
> a terminal interface, provided the machine has a working OS installed
> on it right now.
>
> I'm not sure of what kinds of settings I'll need to put on the comm
> port to attempt this from a ubuntu linux workstation. Also not sure
> if I should try doing this with a null modem cable or if straight
> serial will give what I need.
>
I'd try 9600 8/n/1 for the comm settings and a null modem cable. It
might be something else but that's a reasonable first guess. If it
doesn't work, try 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 19,200. . . .

> Also, any information about what I can do if this machine does not
> have a valid OS installed would be much appreciated; I'm at a loss due
> to the headlessness of this machine. It does have a CD drive for
> media, so it has that much at least. :P
>

It should have firmware (OBP or Open Boot PROM) that should talk to you
through the serial port. Sun has a couple of manuals in PDF format that
discuss the OBP, commands, etc.

You can't get Solaris media on CDROM any longer. Either find whatever
was installed on your machine if some busybody hasn't thrown it away or
download Solaris 10 from Sun and burn your own CDs. Some CD drives
don't like home made CDs; all you can do is to burn your CDs at the
slowest available speed which will sometimes work. If you are very
lucky, you might find a media kit on e-Bay. Or, you might be able to
install a DVD drive if the existing CD drive is EIDE. If it's SCSI
you're probably out of luck; SCSI DVD drives may be available but I
suspect that they are both rare and expensive!

You can "break in" by booting from the install CD; ISTR you want to say
"boot -s CDROM" at the OBP prompt. Mount the root partition at "/a".
Then vi /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow to clear the root password.

Now you can boot from disk and log in as root with no password.

You can execute /usr/sbin/sys-unconfig to wipe the current network
config, reboot and be prompted for a new root password, networking
configuration, time zone, etc. Note that once you do this, the old
config is gone! You can, if you wish, use passwd to set a new root
password without wiping the network configuration.

Where you go from here depends on your intentions, knowledge, and abilities!