Original question:
> May be someone can help me out. I am trying to upgrade our 1000A 4/266
> server. We have a 500 MHz CPU board (54-24799-03 -- according to the
> Dec web pages, this is the correct one). When I install the board,
> and switch on the machine, it starts displaying messages on the
> LCD, it gets to 'srom ... cb', I get a beep and than it just sits
> there. The video card never activates.
> Can someone tell me:
>
> 1. if this CPU board swap should work
> 2. where can I find some info about the board? Like jumpers, etc. I looked at
> the dec website, the search revealed lots of pages related to this, but
> the pages are no longer there.
> 3. what this message is?
>
> I assume once I get to the console, I just boot genvmunix, rebuild the
> kernel and boot the new kernel. Is this correct?
Thanks to:
Alan Rollow
Tim Winders
Alan Davis
The procedure:
1. Read and print the firmware upgrade manual on the firmware CD.
2. Make sure you have the right motherboard (i.e. it has the correct version
-- see firmware upgrade manual, 'cpu upgrade' section, section 2.3.3
in my case) and the right CPU board. You must have '54-23499-01', not
-02!
3. Find the ECU diskette, a smallish philips screwdriver and a grounding
strap.
4. Make sure you have an O/S that supports EV-5 (I was running 4.0, which
apparently does not).
5. Set 'AUTO_ACTION' to 'HALT' to simplyfy things.
6. Upgrade the firmware (boot dka400, 'update', than 'exit').
7. Power cycle the machine.
8. Boot the firmware CD again, and invoke 'cpu_upgrade'.
9. 'exit' from the firmware upgrade program. As after about 5 minutes or
so the machine did NOT go back to the console (probably because it
had an EV-4 CPU and an EV-5 firmware) I switched off the machine.
10. Replace the CPU (usual things about grounding, etc.).
11. Switch on the machine (after puting it together) and run the EISA
config utility (type 'ecu' with the floppy in the drive -- see
owners manual for the 1000A). In my case the configuration DID
get corrupted, so for me this step was not optional. Make sure the
utility picks the right configuration (mine disabled the video card
-- I have no idea why).
12. Power cycle.
13. Fix the O/S. I think you just have to boot genvmunix in single user
mode ('boot -fi "genvmunix" -fl "S"'), build a new kernel (bcheckrc,
doconfig), move the kernel in place and reboot. I am not 100% sure about
this step as my machine had 4.0 on it, and I decided to install 4.0E
from scratch.
14. Restore AUTO_ACTION to whatever you want.
The whole process should take less than an hour. I spent about 5 on
it as I had to install a new O/S (my fault -- should have checked before).
As a firmware upgrade is always risky, always use a UPS that works, make
sure that you have the right firmware, motherboard, CPU card, etc. otherwise
you can get into deep deep trouble. As I understand after the 'cpu_upgrade'
you MUST install an EV-5 CPU -- the new firmware will NOT pass the boot
sequence checks with an EV-4, so you will not be able to 'downgrade'
the firmware to an EV-4 friendly one as you do NOT get a console prompt.
So be very very careful.
This procedure is only valid for a 1000A, others may need different steps.
Gyula
Received on Sun Apr 11 1999 - 20:39:50 NZST