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BIOS flash failure

Created by dave. Last edited by dave, 14 years and 121 days ago. Viewed 13,799 times. #10
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Problem

I have a small pile of Sun V20z computers. I was trying to update the SP and BIOS flash in order to bring them all up to the same standard -- mostly to get the updated (ie actually useful) SP functionality, and figured that I would just do the BIOS while I was at it.

For three of the four computers, it worked perfectly. However after the BIOS update, the fourth system won't boot.

I did this:

batch05-mgmt $ sp get mounts
Local Remote
/mnt  10.16.0.8:/export/v20z
batch05-mgmt $ platform set os state update-bios /mnt/sw_images/platform/firmware/bios/V1.35.3.2/bios.sp
This command may take several minutes.  Please be patient.
Bios started
Bios Flash Transmit Started
Bios Flash Transmit Complete
Bios Flash update Progress: 7
Bios Flash update Progress: 6
Bios Flash update Progress: 5
Bios Flash update Progress: 4
Bios Flash update Progress: 3
Bios Flash update Progress: 2
Bios Flash update Progress: 1
Bios Flash update complete
batch05-mgmt $ platform set power state on
This command may take several minutes.  Please be patient.
After an hour of waiting, it still won't start. The chassis powers on, but beyond the fans spinning up and the hardware POST of the drives, nothing appears to happen.

So if I try to re-flash the BIOS (on the theory that maybe something went wrong):

batch05-mgmt $ platform set os state update-bios /mnt/sw_images/platform/firmware/bios/V1.35.3.2/bios.sp
This command may take several minutes.  Please be patient.
Bios started
Error. The operation timed out.

Boot output for "get port80":

localhost $ sp get port80 -m
0x80
0x81
0x83
0x84
0x85
0x86
0x87
0x80
0x81
0x83
0x84
0x85
0x86
0x87
0xc3
0xc2
0x02
0xc8
0xc9
0xc4
0x24
0x04
0x06
0x18
0x07
0x08
0x11
0x0e
0x0c
0x16
0x17
0x28
0xcb
0x2a
0x2c
0x2e
0x0a
0x3a
0x2f
0x38

...at which point it gets stuck.

SO: have I bricked it?

First Suggestion:

Procedure how to go back to the factory settings of the operating system of the Service Processor.

(This didn't work for me, because this procedure resets the configuration values of the SP, not the firmware of the SP, and not the version of the BIOS.)

Open the Sun Fire[TM] V20z chassis and connect the pins 1 and 2 at jumper 19. This will send the console output of the service processor to the serial port.

Connect a PC or a laptop with a communication program like "CU" or "Minicom" for Linux or "Hyperterm" for MS Windows with a null-modem serial cable to the serial port on the V20z at the back (how to use/install Minicom).

Important: The baud rate of the communication program must be set to 115200.

Boot the service processor by using the [//] button on the back. Immediately look onto the serial port session of your communication program, because the interrupt of the boot process is only 4 sec.

A prompt will be displayed on the console output. At the prompt type the command "spfactory" and hit [Enter]. Then reset the service processor by typing "reset" at the prompt and hit [Enter].

Look at the operator panel/LCD panel and follow the steps described in document 817-5246 Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z Servers Installation Guide.

Finally remove the Connector from Jumper 19 to get the output of the system to the serial port instead of the service processor which is the default.

This was the original question/answer: >>http://fixunix.com/sun/113979-problem-updating-bios-v20z-sp-went-ok-bios-wont-go-machines-wont-start-anymore.html

Possible Lead

>>This Page describes a "Crisis Recovery Diskette" for the v40z, which is related to (yet different from) the v20z. Maybe there exists such a disk image for the v20z.

Ooh, >>there is. According to that page, I need the file v20-cr.img from >>http://systems-tsc/twiki/bin/view/Products/ProdTroubleshootingV20z -- although that appears to be an internal system at Sun, so I can't get at it.

A hint on Twitter promptet me to send an email to Bill Bradford at >>sunhelp.org, who had this to say:

The only thing I can suggest is to try to find someone at Newisys (or what's left of it after they got bought by Sanmina-SCI), as the v20z and v40z were actually Sun-rebadged/branded Newisys Opteron servers (the v20z is the same system as a Newisys 2100). I just looked on their web page, but the "Support" section requires a login (can't get it to let me register) and they stopped making servers in '07. An email might turn up good results though.
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