SUMMARY : /usr/ucb/reset problem

From: nicky@davinci.concordia.ca
Date: Wed Jun 05 1991 - 15:26:59 CDT


My original posting...
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I have noticed what I consider to be strange behavior on a
> Sparc Server 370. I have installed SunOS 4.1.1 on the machine.
> Everytime someone logged into the console uses the /usr/ucb/reset
> command, the system panics and reboots. I have tried "reset" on
> the consoles of sparc1+'s and sparc2's without any trouble. It seems
> to be a problem on the server only. I copied /usr/ucb/reset from a
> sparc1+ running 4.1.1 and diff'ed it against the one on the server.
> No difference was displayed. I then executed the copied program and
> the server crashed for the same reason. It seems that "reset" is to
> blame as far as I can tell.
>
> Is this a known problem with ( hopefully ) a patch to it?
>
> [ dmesg stuff deleted ]
>

------------------------------

Don Hooper <hoop@khonshu.Colorado.EDU> came up with the right answer. He stated
] The solution is to fix the eeprom to know exactly
] the kind of monitor/framebuffer you are using (see eeprom(8)). In our
] case, we added GX boards to some machines, and reset did this same thing
] to us until we change a couple of eeprom locations to tell it about the
] new framebuffer situation.

This was the case I was faced with. The fix I put in place was provided by
Mr. Hooper.

] Here are the two
] eeprom tweaks I've used to fix this problem; I forget which is which, so if one
] of them prompts you with the value you would be setting, you can just enter a
] SPACE, and then a RETURN:
] q16
] xy? 13
] q1F
] zq? 20
] Where xy and zq are the hex values already in those locations as the
monitor reports
] to you before asking for possible replacement values.

In my case 1F had to be changed from 12 to 20. eeprom -i reflects the change as
"console=b&w" even though it is color! "reset" does not cause a crash anymore.

Thanks to all that gave assistance. Most of whom suggested ROM revision upgrades.
This may be another avenue to consider. ( But, it's working now! )

Bob Smith <honeywl@redwood.cray.com>
Bill Eggers <d3e101@simpsons.pnl.gov>
G. Roderick Singleton <gerry@jts.com>
Gordon -v Galligher <oconnor!gorpong@oddjob.uchicago.edu>
Shankar Ishwar (shankar@ulysses.att.com)
Mike Raffety <oconnor!miker@oddjob.uchicago.edu> [sorry, no time for
symbolic traceback]
John Valdes <valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu>

Thanks again. This is a great list!

Nicky
-----------------------+---------------------------
Nicky Ayoub nicky@davinci.concordia.ca
Dept. of E&CE Concordia University
Montreal QC. H3G 1M8 Voice : (514) 848-3107
                         Fax : (514) 848-2802



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