[COLUG] Solaris boot question

[Rob Stampfli]

On Tue, Oct 03, 2006 at 06:33:15PM -0400, Scott Merrill wrote:
> At work we have a SunBlade 1000 server that needs a new hard drive.  The
> drive has been installed, and now needs to be partitioned and have the
> operating system installed.
> 
> This machine has no optical media drives.  We have an external SCSI
> CD-ROM drive ("model 411" as labeled on the bottom of the unit), which I
> attached.  At the "ok" prompt, I can execute "probe-scsi-all" and see
> that the drive is recognized.
> 
> Executing `boot cdrom` and `boot cdrom -r` always return "Failed to open
> boot device".  The CD drive shows no sign of activity -- no spin up, no
> flashing indicator light -- so I'm not sure if the drive is actually
> being accessed in any way.  I've tried both Solaris 10 and Solaris 8 media.
> 
> Are there any other commands I can try to boot from CD?  I don't have
> another external drive with which to test.  We can purchase one, if
> that's the requirement, but I'd like confirmation that I'm not
> overlooking something.

Here are some of my notes scribbled down while trying to do the same thing.
 Hope they help:

+ To boot off a non-standard device:

        1. probe-scsi-all       - lists "address" of each scsi bus found
                                  along with devices
                Example output:
                /sbus at 1f,0/SUNW,fas at e,8800000
                        devices ...
                /sbus at 1f,0/dma at 1,81000/esp at 1,80000
                        devices ...
        2. boot cdrom           - will show complete "address" of standard
                                  cdrom boot
                Example:
                /sbus/SUNW,fas at e,8800000/sd at 6,0:f

        3. /* Make changes to boot "address" to change device */
           /* (CD-ROM on alternate SCSI bus with device ID set to 5) */
           Example: boot /sbus/dma at 1,81000/esp at 1,80000/sd at 5,0:f

        4. If this will be a normal occurrance, put in an alias for the device:
           nvalias alt-disk /sbus/dma at 1,81000/esp at 1,80000/sd at 5,0:a

Rob