7044-170/AIX 5.1 install problem

[directxl]

Ok...It give me headache to get this up.

I bought a used 7044-170 (BOS level sh000808), no OS, no hard drive. So I bught a Quantum 18.4 Ultra3 SCSI drive and AIX 5.1

After power up and 'F1' I can see the following lines in SMS:

Integrated SCSI cntlr id=7(p1/z1)
18210 MB harddisk id, lun=0,0
Integrated SCSI cntlr id=7(p1/z2)

Not sure why the second line on the same SCSI id? I assume the SCSI id and drive is OK with the machine.

Anyway, it does not boot from AIX 5.1 CD1 at all. I downloaded the system microcode updates and made two floppys on a windows machine and one CDROM update disk. Update thru SMS's update utility did not go thru (show a red ! code after 2 minutes with the first disk, 44x70_B1).

Now, someone nice enough to tell me exactly how to proceed this. Do I have to buy a AIX 4.3.3 ? Would that CD directly bootable? I really need to compile some c++ code in AIX.

yes, I am new to rs6000/AIX game.

Appreciate any helps.

Mike

 

[directxl]

I have a graphics card came with the box(3000 something). I use a graphics monitor(WINDOWS) which boots up like 1600x1200 (or more) in SMS. mouse/keyboard are PC type.

From this site '

http://www.bigredradio.com/firmware.html',

I download the spflash.img, copy to a floppy and did a boot from '0>'. I have a cursor spin for little while then nothing. However, after I powered off/on, I can see the firmware level is now 'SPH00221'.

Anyway, still cannot boot from the grx mode. Looking for a null modem cable(no luck with local stores so far) to to plug in 's1' port (is it the one next to the fan?).

Just maybe it is getting closer. So is there a way to boot into aix 5.1 without serial terminal in this animal?

thanks all

 

[directxl]

Just ebayed a cable like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64047&item=5782607820&rd=1

Hope it would do the trick.

so far is just pain and no fun.

Hope my non-ibm ultra3(U160) 18G scsi drive would not give me problem after the boot.

 

[p5wizard]

Don't give up yet.

On our 170:

# lscfg -vp|grep 704
Name: IBM,7044-170
Model: IBM,7044-170
Machine Type and Model......7044-170
# lscfg -vp|grep sh
ROM Level.(alterable).......sh000808
# oslevel -r
5200-05

Your box should run 5.1 and 5.2 without any trouble... I think your (non-standard) monitor is having trouble with the graphics mode that is coming out of the gfx adapter at '0c45' time... So ascii console is your best bet for now.

as for downloading microcode site, I prefer the original IBM site:

http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload

but there is no need for that at the moment...

The cable you ebayed is probably right. The S1 and S2 ports are 9pin male at the back of the 170. Between the two fans at the back (1 thick ethernet connector and 2 9pin male serial ports - labeled with block waveform and numbers). Your laptop/PC's serial port is probably the same type 9pin male.

One other thought: hit F1 blind at 0c45 on your PC-type keyboard and see what happens on the gfx screen. If nothing -> ascii console after you get the nullmodem...

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[directxl]

p5wizard,

Looks like there's hope

The f1 (...f10) did nothing as I hit often.

So I will see if the hyperterm would work, then harddrive & grx display.

Thanks a lot. I will post back any progress soon.

Dont know why 18G would not work from the empty tape drive bay. I read 9G may work there.

 

[DukeSSD]

The 1600 X 1200 screen resolution is the default for AIX, you can change it once you manage to get access to AIX but not before.
I don't think you can change it from diagnostics, but you may want to try booting a diagnostic CD just to check the system can actually boot and display on your console:

http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload/diags/download

The GXT3000P graphics adapter is supported in the 7044-170 since AIX 4.3.2 so you should be OK as long as your monitor can handle the default resolution and refresh rate.
I don't think you will have any problems with your 18G drive, although is will show as something like "other scsi disk drive" because it is not a recognised RS6000 feature, otherwise it should work fine.

 

[directxl]

Thanks Duuuuuke ;-)

1600x1200 looks fine with the dell monitor except very small font. Dont know why it wont pass the boot process, then it probabaly wont boot to 'diagnostic CD' either.

So for now, I will try again with the serial cable once I receive it.

Nothin is easy.

 

[DukeSSD]

For it to work both during the boot stage and in AIX you'll need a fully wired cable. The ebay one does not say if it is wired for both hardware and software flow controll, so check it out with a circuit tester or multi-meter if you still have problems.
You are after:
3-----2
2-----3
7-----8
8-----7
4-----6
|
-1
6-----4
|
1-
5-----5

So that's 2-3, 3-2, 7-8, 8-7, 4-1 and 6, 6 and 1-4 and 5-5 if the above is not clear.
The default is 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (9600, 8, n, 1)
This is fixed for the system prior to boot and default for AIX but can be changed for AIX only once AIX is up and running.

 

[directxl]

Cool Duke!

Will post my progress once received the cable.

 

[directxl]

Finally got the cable tonight. It didnt come with any pin diagram chart. It's a female-female 9 pin.

Anyway after I connected the cable to a windows desktop, opened the HyperTerminal application with 9600 8-N-1, I booted the aix, I see a message showed "System Powering on.".

But....that's all I get even after I heard the start-up tone/music. After some waiting, I powered the AIX off...strangly enough, right away I got a menu showed up in the Hyperterminal as following (would be nice before the power is off ;-):

Service Processor Firmware
Firmware level: sh000808
Copyright 2000, IBM Corporation


MAIN MENU

1. Service Processor Setup Menu
2. System Power Control Menu
3. System Information Menu
4. Language Selection Menu
5. Call-In/Call-Out Setup Menu
6. Set System Name
99. Exit from Menus

1>


What did I do wrong?? I tried flow control with hardware, xon/xoff and none. I also pressed F1-F10 and 1-10 on both the keyboard connected to the aix and the PC/windows keyboard.

The status LED shows 'e1f7'

Help please.

 

[directxl]

PS.

One COM port on AIX does not even do anything for the serial connection.

Most of the time, I get 'ef1' on LED

It got to be the cable ??!!

 

[p5wizard]

When the system is powered off, the service processor takes control of serial port 1, and you see the service processor menu. I.e. your cable seems to be in good working order.

I would disconnect the AIX keyboard and mouse, and restart.

Note that E1F7 suggest then the server is trying bootp to find a boot image, but it should find one on the loaded CDROM... I'm guessing that your boot list is not coreectly set up...

After starting, the screen should show RS6000 logo and you have to type 3 on the laptop keyboard before you hear the final sound to get to SMS menu.

From there you can go into multiboot and select (CDROM) device to boot/install from.



HTH,

p5wizard

 

[p5wizard]

Uh, it should be 'type 1 on the laptop keyboard'


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[DukeSSD]

1 or F1 for SMS menu (not the Main Menu you saw, which is the service processor main menu, which you can get to by hitting any key on the setial terminal while the system is powered off). From SMS you can select the boot device.
5 or F5 for the default service mode boot list, which is something like: floppy, tape, cd, hdisk0.
I agree with p5, remove the kbd and mouse and it will think you have a serial console.
From the amount you see on the serial terminal I think you may not have enough wires in youe serial cable. The LED progress codes should also appear on the console, as well as the whole boot process, the IBM / RS6000 banner screen, keyboard etc. icons and the boot of AIX.
E1F7 = No boot image located
Set your hyperterm emulation to vt100 and then hit Esc 1 or Esc 5. For the function keys (F1 - F10) hit Esc then the number 1 to 0 as soon after hitting Esc as you can.
In theory the number keys (on the qwerty keyboard only, the num pad is never going to work at this stage)should be used on the direct attached keyboard and the function keys must be used on the serial terminal. Now to explain the Esc bit....
The vt100 emulation does not support the function keys on the PC keyboard so you need to use the Esc key...
All good fun isn't it.
Stick with it, once you get AIX installed it will all get much easier.....
Then again, if you install AIX through a serial terminal, you will have even more trouble when you try to use the LFT (low function terminal / graphics terminal) because it won't be installed..... we'll face that bit when you get to it....
The reason I thought you should cut and try a Diag CD-ROM is just in case your AIX media is bad.

 

[directxl]

Here's my current status...I think the cable may be ok. After taking keyboard/mouse off, I got further on the HyperTerminal:

/pci@fef00000/scsi@c/sd@0

RS/6000 Firmware
Version SPH00221
(c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Multiboot

1 Select Software
2 Software Default
3 Select Install Device
4 Select Boot Devices
5 OK Prompt
6 Multiboot Startup <ON>



Welcome to AIX.
boot image timestamp: 23:39 04/15
The current time and date: 00:00:44 06/23/2005
number of processors: 1 size of memory: 512Mb
boot device: /pci@fef00000/scsi@c/sd@1:\ppc\chrp\bootfile.exe
closing stdin and stdout...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AIX Version 5.1

It stays there with 0826,0511,0c45 in that order.

Then I googled this link '

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?threadid=159640'

I think the guy used aix 4.3.3 to update the CD-ROM firmware. I have the img file on a floppy downloaded from IBM site, but dont know how to update it.

What to do now? Maybe AIX 4.3.3 CD as that guy had no problem?


I tried ESC-1, it only took me to '0>'. Not sure why I couldnt see the SMS menu as I could from the grx monitor after 'F1', then 'exit'.

Thanks again!

 

[directxl]

btw, tried many times with combo of key presses and long waittings. At some point, I got this line:

Preserving 25152 bytes of symbol table [lft_loadpin32]

Without seeing that first, I powered off ;-)

So now, I will leave it overnight to see if it will turn itself into a windows or .net or perhaps ppc linux!

 

[p5wizard]

lft_loadpin32? lft is low-function-terminal (GFX console...)

Here's what I would do:
- power off
- take out power cord
- disconnect GFX console, keyboard, mouse
- open the box and remove the gfx adapter and keep it in a safe place.
- locate the battery (connected to the main board) and remove the connector for at least 30 seconds, this will clear your NVRAM
- reconnect battery.
- close box
- connect power cord and S1 cable to laptop
- boot to SMS menu (type 1) after keyboard test, before final sound
- go to multiboot / install from / choose CDROM and try to get to an install menu from there...

Once you get AIX installed, you can try and reinstall the GFX adapter and install the necessary drivers for it.

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[p5wizard]

download and print this PDF, it might prove helpful.

http://publib16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/infocenter/base/hardware_docs/pdf/380559.pdf

There is also a procedure described in it for an emergency reload of firmware using a specially prepared DOS-formatted diskette.


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[directxl]

p5,

I tried to follow your steps. I could only get the small laptop sized grx card 90% out of the PCI lot, the other side seems bolted to the fan that I am not ready to break the whole motherboard apart, yet. Didnt take the battery out. I have a small metal uncover sometime ago, dont even remember where to put back

anyway, 90% grx card did not change anything.

I got an email back from ibm for an inqiure I sent two weeks ago:

-------------------------
Sorry for the delay on your response. Development informs us, that when trying to load microcode on a 7044-170, you will need to have an operating system. You can boot from AIX 4.3.3, and then apply the microcode update, that will not be a problem. After this you can proceed on updating you OS. Hope this helps.
-------------------------

Sounds like my only choice may be to get a copy of aix 4.3.3. Not sure this would work for all 44p models/firmware thou.

Anyone cares to spare an old set of aix 4.3.3 for me to update the microcode??

No wonder most people stick with PCs.

Thanks!

 

[p5wizard]

Removing gfx card is not really necessary (wasn't aware that it is bolted to the mainboard)

But clearing nvram by disconnecting battery for 30 sec may help solve your problem. You don't have to take the battery out - I'm assuming there is a connector you can disconnect.

If I have time I will open our 170 today an try to see what's what on the battery setup...



HTH,

p5wizard

 

[directxl]

p5,

Appreciate your effort.

I will do the battery thing. Meanwhile, I think I will download and make that diag CD...maybe I could update microcode from there.

Will post my result later,