Interim SUMMARY: Accessing console on PWS500au

From: Rodent of Unusual Size <Ken.Coar_at_Golux.Com>
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:43:12 -0400

My thanks to all who have replied so far. Here is my original
post, followed by the summary so far:

----
I've disinterred a PWS500au (Digital Personal Workstation 500au,
an Alpha processor I think was called 'Miata') from a pile of
systems, and I want to get it running again.  (It used to run,
anyway.)  Unfortunately, I'm having trouble getting to the
console >>> (SRM?) prompt.
On power-up I get a couple of blurbs about BIOS, and then it goes
to a solid blue screen with the cursor blinking in the upper left
corner.  It stays like that indefinitely.  Nothing on the keyboard
seems to have any effect.  If I unplug the keyboard, I'll get some
'kbd test 6 failed' messages but that's it.  If I try powering up
without the keyboard, I get some 'kbd test 4 failed' messages after
the blue screen, and then part of the countdown and then the >>>
prompt.  Which I can't use, since I can't persuade the system to
acknowledge the [re]connexion of the keyboard.
Now perhaps the fact that I'm going through a ConnectGear 8-port
KVM might have something to do with it, although I don't think
so.  It's clearly seeing the keyboard through the KVM, since it
gritches when I disconnect it.
It's like it's in some endless keyboard-test loop.
----
The consensus is that the system is probably set to use the
serial console, and that I should hook up a terminal to it,
figure out the speed, interrupt the boot with CTRL/C, and
'set console graphics'.
Unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to verify this.  One
of my respondents suggested disconnecting the disks so that
the boot will definitely not continue out of console mode;
I'm doing that now.  The 'terminal' I'm using is the serial
port on my Linux laptop.  Trying to figure out the speed using
minicom or any other standard tool has been a right bugger,
requiring lots of repetitive typing, so I wrote a Perl script
to cycle through most of the possible speeds, setting the
Linux serial port to them, sending a string to it, and listening
for a response.  If no response, then move on to the next speed.
Since this hasn't turned up anything yet, I'm not sure it's
working; if/when I get it working, anyone can have it if they
like.
I'll post a true summary when I've got a successful answer to
this.  In the meantime, I'm *still* trying to find out if
there's a 'reset to factory defaults' mechanism.. and what
those defaults would be if so. :-)
-- 
#ken	P-)}
Ken Coar, Sanagendamgagwedweinini  http://Ken.Coar.Org/
Author, developer, opinionist      http://Apache-Server.Com/
"Millennium hand and shrimp!"

Received on Tue Oct 23 2007 - 13:44:53 NZDT