hi all

i was given a couple sparc 10's and a sparc 5 but no password and no cd
drive so getting into the machine is impossible.

anyone have a spare drive to sell/barter/give?

thanks,
peter

peter <pm3e@juno.com> writes:
>i was given a couple sparc 10's and a sparc 5 but no password and no cd
>drive so getting into the machine is impossible.

>anyone have a spare drive to sell/barter/give?

What kind of Sparc10? They've used that designation for a few systems.
If its an Ultrasparc 10 and an Ultrasparc 5, both of those take IDE
CD-ROM drives, same as a PC. Those are a dime a dozen now?

If its a Sparcstation 10, then yes you'd need a SCSI sun bootable
CD-ROM, or another one to netboot off of. But even so, thats like a $1
on eBay. Go for Pioneer or Plextor. Both of them typically had a
jumper to select 512 byte block mode. I found a few Sun external ones
for $5 on eBay. Searching for SCSI CD-ROM gave 477 hits?

HI,

peter wrote:
> hi all
>
> i was given a couple sparc 10's and a sparc 5 but no password and no cd
> drive so getting into the machine is impossible.
>
> anyone have a spare drive to sell/barter/give?
>
> thanks,
> peter

You can get a internal in the sparc5.

/michael

Doug McIntyre wrote:
>
> If its a Sparcstation 10, then yes you'd need a SCSI sun bootable
> CD-ROM, or another one to netboot off of. But even so, thats like a $1
> on eBay. Go for Pioneer or Plextor. Both of them typically had a
> jumper to select 512 byte block mode. I found a few Sun external ones
> for $5 on eBay. Searching for SCSI CD-ROM gave 477 hits?

they are sparc stations...~1993 vintage, at least for the 10's
ebay has toshiba and hitachi but they appear to be internals...
i'll let you know.
peter

peter wrote:
> hi all
>
> i was given a couple sparc 10's and a sparc 5 but no password and no cd
> drive so getting into the machine is impossible.
>
> anyone have a spare drive to sell/barter/give?
>
> thanks,
> peter

If it is a SPARC 10, you might want to ask yourself if it is worth the
hassle of actually getting a CD and using it. The machine is very old,
it will not take the latest release of Solaris. It recally is not a good
introduction to Suns. They might be more useful if you know about Suns
and want a firewall or similar.

You can get on eBay an Ultra machine with CD for $50 or so. It might be
worth taking that route.
--
Dave K

Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert (MCSE).

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.

According to peter <pm3e@juno.com>:
> Doug McIntyre wrote:
> >
> > If its a Sparcstation 10, then yes you'd need a SCSI sun bootable
> > CD-ROM, or another one to netboot off of. But even so, thats like a $1
> > on eBay. Go for Pioneer or Plextor. Both of them typically had a
> > jumper to select 512 byte block mode. I found a few Sun external ones
> > for $5 on eBay. Searching for SCSI CD-ROM gave 477 hits?
>
> they are sparc stations...~1993 vintage, at least for the 10's
> ebay has toshiba and hitachi but they appear to be internals...

I'm going to go into quite a bit more detail, since you state
that you are a newbie (though you spell it a bit differently.).

You can connect an *internal* drive in the SS-10. The
connectors are there. As to which drive will fit in the closed case,
that appears to depend on the version of the SS-10 box. IIRC, some
wanted a thinner drive and special mount hardware. But, you can run
with the case lid off, and the drive just resting in place after
connecting it. This should be sufficient for installing the OS, and
then you can close up the system after removing the CD-ROM drive.

The skinny drive which will fit in all systems is the Toshiba
model XM-4101B, and for at least some systems, the mounting brackets are
'L'-shaped angle pieces with a pair of holes on the bottom for screws to
attach to the drive, and a pair of soft "wheels" whose axles are almost
in line with the top edge of the drive. The numbers stamped on the
examples which I have on a drive are "06-0070-B". The system *may* have
a floppy drive mounted below where the CD-ROM drive mounts.

My drive also has on its label "Ver. No. 203A" and
"ROM Ver. EA40418", though others will probably work well enough.

Or -- you can put one of the drives in an external case, with a
50-pin SCSI connector and a terminator. The "sandwich box" case will
use the high-density 50-pin connector like that on the back of the CPU
box. Others, from other vendors, may have different connectors, so you
will need an adaptor cable, and a different format of terminator.

Note that the default SCSI address for a CD-ROM on a SS-10 or
SS-20 is SCSI ID 6 -- and this applies for internal or external. The
box for the external is likely to have a switch on the back to allow you
to select the SCSI ID. For internal, you will need to jumper blocks.

Tape drives were typically set to SCSI-ID 4 and SCSI-ID 5. Disk
drives were SCSI-ID 0 through SCSI-ID 3, with SCSI-ID 3 being the
default boot drive.

You don't mention which password you are having problems with.
If it is the password for the booted system, then installing a fresh OS
from CD-ROM is the way to go. However, if the EEPROM security mode and
password are set, you will have problems getting to where you can
install the OS at all. If "printenv" at the OK prompt (hit "STOP-A"
(hold down the "STOP" key at the left, and while holding it hit the "A"
key before the system has booted to get to the "OK" prompt), show the
following (among lots of other things):

================================================== ====================
security-mode=none
security-password: data not available.
================================================== ====================

You are fine to install. If the "security-mode" is set to "command" it
will require a password to boot from the CD-ROM. If it is set to
"full", it will even require a password to boot from the internal disk.
These can be changed from a booted system while logged in as root.
You may not be able to change it from the OK prompt.

There may be a key combination during boot for overriding the
lack of a password, but I don't remember it, if so. I simply build a
boot disk on another system and swap it in to turn off the
"security-mode" setting. But that presupposes having a compatible
system on which you *can* build an OS, and a spare disk.

To boot from the install CD-ROM, you simply give the command (at
the "ok" prompt) "boot cdrom", and sit back and wait.

Best of luck,
DoN.

--
Email: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

In article <1ef88$43f66cea$48f4e632$30080@msgid.meganewsserve rs.com>,
DoN. Nichols <dnichols@d-and-d.com> wrote:
:According to peter <pm3e@juno.com>:
:> Doug McIntyre wrote:
:> >
:> > If its a Sparcstation 10, then yes you'd need a SCSI sun bootable
:> > CD-ROM, or another one to netboot off of. But even so, thats like a $1
:> > on eBay. Go for Pioneer or Plextor. Both of them typically had a
:> > jumper to select 512 byte block mode. I found a few Sun external ones
:> > for $5 on eBay. Searching for SCSI CD-ROM gave 477 hits?
:>
:> they are sparc stations...~1993 vintage, at least for the 10's
:> ebay has toshiba and hitachi but they appear to be internals...
:
: I'm going to go into quite a bit more detail, since you state
:that you are a newbie (though you spell it a bit differently.).
:
: You can connect an *internal* drive in the SS-10. The
:connectors are there. As to which drive will fit in the closed case,
:that appears to depend on the version of the SS-10 box. IIRC, some
:wanted a thinner drive and special mount hardware. But, you can run
:with the case lid off, and the drive just resting in place after
:connecting it. This should be sufficient for installing the OS, and
:then you can close up the system after removing the CD-ROM drive.
:
: The skinny drive which will fit in all systems is the Toshiba
:model XM-4101B, and for at least some systems, the mounting brackets are
:'L'-shaped angle pieces with a pair of holes on the bottom for screws to
:attach to the drive, and a pair of soft "wheels" whose axles are almost
:in line with the top edge of the drive. The numbers stamped on the
:examples which I have on a drive are "06-0070-B". The system *may* have
:a floppy drive mounted below where the CD-ROM drive mounts.
:
: My drive also has on its label "Ver. No. 203A" and
:"ROM Ver. EA40418", though others will probably work well enough.
:
: Or -- you can put one of the drives in an external case, with a
:50-pin SCSI connector and a terminator. The "sandwich box" case will
:use the high-density 50-pin connector like that on the back of the CPU
:box. Others, from other vendors, may have different connectors, so you
:will need an adaptor cable, and a different format of terminator.
:

did you cut a hole in the sparcstation 10 case to have access to the
cdrom? i have had over five sparc 10s, and NONE of them had a cdrom i
it. you are probably thinking of the sparc20.

for the sparc10 you need an external cdrom.

--

getting out of bed in the morning is an act of false confidence
- jules feifer
to email me, delete blackhole. from my return address

According to arthur wouk <awouk@blackhole.nyx.net>:
> In article <1ef88$43f66cea$48f4e632$30080@msgid.meganewsserve rs.com>,
> DoN. Nichols <dnichols@d-and-d.com> wrote:

[ ... ]

> : You can connect an *internal* drive in the SS-10. The
> :connectors are there. As to which drive will fit in the closed case,

[ ... ]

> did you cut a hole in the sparcstation 10 case to have access to the
> cdrom? i have had over five sparc 10s, and NONE of them had a cdrom i
> it. you are probably thinking of the sparc20.

The SS20 and the SS5 both have provisions for an internal CD
ROM. But, you are right, the SS10 needs an external one. (Or, if you
have only disk drive in the SS10, *maybe* you could get away with
connecting a very short extension between a CD-ROM drive and the
internal SCSI cable -- and putting some insulating material (like
cardboard) on top of the SIMMs and other things to protect them from
shorting into the CD-ROM case.

> for the sparc10 you need an external cdrom.

Agreed. I was wrong above.

Thanks for calling my attention to that.
DoN.

--
Email: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---