SUMMARY: Cannot open /kernel/unix

From: Gwynne, Alun P (Alun.Gwynne@capgemini.co.uk)
Date: Fri Oct 15 1999 - 04:40:19 CDT


The problem arises either when the unix file can't be found or
when the unix file is "in bad shape" (corrupt/incorrect config).
There seems to be a number of things to watch out for here,
most of which I had tried, but for the sake of the summaries
I'll list them. Thanks to the following for their advice, and
anyone whose advice hasn't arrived yet:-
(original posting attached at the end)

Carsten B. Knudsen cbk@terma.dk
Drexx Laggui <drexx@pacific.net.sg>
Petersen, Dwight [dpeters@nswc.navy.mil]
Daniel Luechtefeld [wolucky@yahoo.com]
Anit AnitGL@ilx.com
Scott Woods sfw@adc.idt.com
David Robillard drobilla@matrox.com
Mike Mehran Salehi mrs@cadem.mc.xerox.com
Kulp, Scott (Scott)** CTR ** [skulp@lucent.com]

1. I thought I'd already RTFM'ed as well as RTFFAQ, but this is
actually mentioned in the installation troubleshooting for
Solaris 2.6. - reset the boot file in the PROM to " " (blank).
Of course, it's already been spotted in the sun-managers archives.
At least I think this cured it, but I did do a complete re-install
at the same time (duh!).

2. If you can, then use Solaris 7 there are none of these problems
  (we couldn't due to software dependencies)

3. You have to use the "environment" CD supplied with the box

4. You MUST have an up to date Solaris (2.6 3/98 or higher, 5/98 preferred)

5. use printenv/setenv to check the boot settings are normal.

6. use probe-scsi & devalias to make sure that the boot disk paths
   actually point to the correct device.

7. Try boot /pci@1f..... etc. (the full hardware path)

8. use boot -v to see what is hanging

AND FROM cdrom boot.....

9. mount/umount the boot disk filesystems and fsck them.

10. Use installboot to make sure your boot block is OK

11. Try replacing the "unix" file from CD and doing a boot -a -r to rebuild.

12. Some U60/450's apparently need a patch installed specially
   (Scott's experience)

Thanks and Regards,
        Alun
=================ORIGINAL POSTING===============
To: sun-managers@sunmanagers.ececs.uc.edu
Subject: Booting an Ultra-60

Hi managers,

I've just built a brand new Ultra 60, single 9Gb drive 1Gb RAM + internal
cdrom.

I've installed Solaris 2.6 5/98 using the "environment" boot disk that comes
with the U60. Everything looked good - report logs good, software installed
OK.

When I rebooted the box, I got a few lines of confirmation then
"Boot cannot open kernel/unix"
"Enter filename [kernel/unix]:"
I can boot to cdrom OK.

So far I have done/checked the following : -
fsck'ed the hard drive partitions
used "format" to see the disk structure OK (root 2Gb,swap 1.5Gb,usr 4Gb,var
1Gb)
installed boot block using sun4u bootblk to c0t0d0s0
checked devaliases - "disk" and "disk0" point to the same device path
boot from this device path (/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@0,0)
probe-scsi - shows the hard drive as target 0 and cdrom as target 6
tried copying the sun4u "unix" to a /test directory and boot -a using this

STILL the same old prompt.
Any ideas ?

The only useful thing I've found was that when I did a boot -a and it hung I
did a stop-A and then "go" and for some reason it started prompting me as
usual. When it asked me for "physical name of root device" it gave me
[pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@0,0:a] as the default , then when I accepted it it
hung around and then repeated:-
"WARNING /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3 (glm0):
           Connectec command timeout for target 0.0"



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