AIX 4.2.0.0 7013 box broken - Final call for help.

[szewczykm]

This is my last SOS flare. If you read this all I greatly appreciate your attention. None of the sugestions given to me in past posts have helped me. I can only assume that the suggestions were based on newer versions of AIX or that they don't take into account that the only access I have to the OS is through a maintenance boot using a mksysb tape.

Here's the chronology:

I have an IBM 7013 with an external SSA cabinet using AIX 4.2.0.0 and 2 6214 SSA cards. My documentation and disks were all lost. I have limited knowledge of AIX and RS-6000 systems.

- System would boot fine, but the SSA drives would not come online

- The SSA cards would no activate.

- I searched for the same drivers online (SSA drivers 4.2.0.0) so I could reinstall them. I figured 2 bad cards seemed odd so it should be software.

- I called IBM because the 4.2.0.0 drivers were not availiable. I was directed to find the 4.2.1.0 drivers and I followed the instructions to install them.

- After following the instructions on installing the drivers, reboots of the system gave me an 888 700 102 0c8 error during the {299}.

- Assuming that the drivers must have messed something up I booted the system in maintenance mode. I ran installp -ug on the driver fileset but only part of the fileset could be removed.

- I found a CD with SSA drivers on it and a mksysb tape from 1996. This system is a legacy system and has not been changed since 1998 but is used for reading old data.

- In maintenance mode, the /dev/cd0 is missing. I have tried about 10 different commands (mkdev, cfgmgr, etc) based on many old newsgroup suggestions and nothing has brought back the /dev/cd0. So I cannot mount the CD to read the older drivers off of it.

- The mksysb tape is old and management is currently leary about restoring the OS with this tape. They want me to continue my search.

- I tried to turn on the sysdump with a -K and that is not working on bootup (the 0c8 means that sysdump has been disabled, I don't know how to enable it) I figured I could get a better clue as to why the system wont boot -exactly- if I had this data.

- In the mean time, I was able to pick up two new replacement SSA cards. The system now sees them, but 1) I can't boot normally and 2) Loading the drivres in maintenance mode doesn't work because I screwed up the drivers.

Through this process, I have not been able to use SMIT in maintenance mode. This has made it very difficult. I have a ibm3151 but no matter how I change TERM setting, etc, the SMIT screen comes up in dumb terminal mode (I'm guessing) and I cannot navigate ony of the screens. I can hit enter and select the top of each menu, or I can use escape-3 to go back a screen and exit. I have tried using a laptop hooked to the serial port and no matter what emulation I try, I get the same results. SMIT is currently unusable. I can't use it to help me.

I have read two manuals on the 7013. I have read at least a hundred newsgroup articles. I have gone to tek-tips.com. I have called IBM. I have tried just about every venue I could to get past my problems and have dead-ended each time.

I'm planning on declaring failure on all fronts except for restore from the 1996 backup. But I figured I'd send this last SOS flare and hope that someone can give me new avenues to go down. These are the things I feel I need to get my problem solved:

1) Make my CDROM work in maintenance mode.
2) Get me drivers. 4.2.0.0 drivers for the IBM 6214 controller - on a floppy or downloaded.
3) Help me get SMIT to work in maintenance mode.
4) Help me understand how loading the driver would have made my system unbootable and help me to undo my changes. Or at least get the system booting normally so I can use my CDROM, SMIT, and other tools that work best when the system is running on a normal boot.

If I can't get past any of these 4, then I have no more avenues to go down except for A) Call IBM and get an RS-6000 specialist out here for $250 an hour or B) Attempt the OS restore from the old mksysb tape.

Any help you give me will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Mike

 

[AIXSPadmin]

bosboot -ad /dev/hdiskX where X is the first disk listed in lslv -l hd5

 

[szewczykm]

I did that. I'm rebooting now, but I don't have much faith in this. Doesn't this happen every time you do an installp?

When I did it, I got this message during the process:

strip: illegal option --K

any idea what that may be about?

 

[AIXSPadmin]

No idea what the illegal option is, because no "k" was passed. When you do an installp it depends on what is installed if you need to create a new boot image, a lot of times you do and the message may appear at the end of the install and will also be in the smit.log.

 

[szewczykm]

OK, no dice on the boot image. It looks like it worked, but I don't know about that strip thing.

That may be what got me hosed in the first place. I installed the drivers and something about bosboot messed me up.

Thanks for your help. I think I've exhausted everything but a restore. Hopefully they'll let me do it.

If you have any other ideas I'd like to hear them.

 

[Yegolev]

My two cents... if you are only worried about losing data on your SSA drawer, personally I would reload the machine. Saves a lot of time and effort, however I understand too well how management can be. AIX 4.2.0 is not a recommended level anyway, too many bugs. Reload from tape if you need to, but if it were me, I'd install 4.3.3, set up SSA and importvg. At the moment we seem to be unsure if we have a hardware issue or not, so loading a good OS is a way to isolate the problem.

I agree the 4.2.1 driver load was not good. That .1 is a big delta from 4.2.0, from what I understand.

Also, booting from a 4.3.3 image will only break your NVRAM if you are using a PCI machine, yours is uchannel. But if it does break, just take the battery out and short the connections with a paperclip, then reload.

hth IBM Certified -- AIX 4.3 Obfuscation

 

[szewczykm]

OK, I'd like to see the core dump that it's trying to make. BOSBOOT got me no where.

The 0c8 that I get on the LED tells me that core dump is not enabled. I used the command above and according to the OS it's enabled.

Is it possible that since it's not geting to the OS it doesn't know if coredump is enabled? Is there something in the boot rom that I can change to make it write out a core dump?

 

[AIXSPadmin]

As stated in my earlier posting, at 299 is trying to load the BLV, and if you are getting an 888-102-700-0c8 (as in your original post) then you are most likely getting a kernel panic. If you are getting a kernel panic then you will have no way to correct this without a re-install or a restore from a mksysb.

Not sure what would happen if you was in maint mode and then pulled off just the kernel image /unix off the mksysb and restored that. Just a thought, have never restored just the /unix file from a mksysb, but maybe you can try it because I really don't see any way other than a restore or a fresh install.