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Resetting ALOM password

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Whirled.Peas

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Sep 13, 2010, 4:33:15 PM9/13/10
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Greetings,
This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system has
hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is it
possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?

Thank you for any assistance.

--
If you try, you can envision peas on earth.

Doug McIntyre

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Sep 13, 2010, 7:17:56 PM9/13/10
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"Whirled.Peas" <pe...@earth.org> writes:
>Greetings,
>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system has
>hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is it
>possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?

Yes, from within Solaris itself.

Of course, if you don't have a working Solaris system, then its sorta
a chicken and the egg problem.. :(

I find it easiest to have several V210's, and hopefully one has a
working system on it, you can move that disk over and reset the
password.

You can find the procedure in the ALOM docs.

Barry OGrady

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Sep 13, 2010, 9:11:33 PM9/13/10
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On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:33:15 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
<pe...@earth.org> wrote:

>Greetings,
>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system has
>hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is it
>possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?
>
>Thank you for any assistance.

You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris.
In fact, you can easily reset the alom password once you have Solaris
running.

Use
/usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/scadm userpassword admin

See http://www.softpanorama.org/Hardware/Sun/ALOM/alom_setup.shtml

>--
>If you try, you can envision peas on earth.

It seems the peas are always just out of reach.

Barry OGrady

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Sep 13, 2010, 9:13:45 PM9/13/10
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Alom access is not needed to install Solaris.

Doug McIntyre

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Sep 14, 2010, 5:07:33 AM9/14/10
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I guess every time I have had a V210 locked down that I couldn't get
into the ALOM, it was set to only boot hard drive, and nothing else.
Made it "secure".. Of course until I popped in a working hard drive
from another V210...

Barry OGrady

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Sep 14, 2010, 6:30:14 AM9/14/10
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I have a V210 on which I installed Solaris without knowing the ALOM
password.
Just connect to the direct serial port.

Barry OGrady

unread,
Sep 14, 2010, 6:31:45 AM9/14/10
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You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris.

Whirled.Peas

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Sep 14, 2010, 8:31:49 PM9/14/10
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On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:11:33 +1000, Barry OGrady wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:33:15 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
> <pe...@earth.org> wrote:
>
>>Greetings,
>>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system
>>has hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is
>>it possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?
>>
>>Thank you for any assistance.
>
> You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris. In fact,
> you can easily reset the alom password once you have Solaris running.
>
> Use
> /usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/scadm userpassword admin
>
> See http://www.softpanorama.org/Hardware/Sun/ALOM/alom_setup.shtml

Cool, thanks! I was just recently able to get a DVD module for the
machine, so I will do a fresh install.

>
>>--
>>If you try, you can envision peas on earth.
>
> It seems the peas are always just out of reach.

Sadly, yes.

Whirled.Peas

unread,
Sep 14, 2010, 8:31:19 PM9/14/10
to
On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:11:33 +1000, Barry OGrady wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:33:15 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
> <pe...@earth.org> wrote:
>
>>Greetings,
>>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system
>>has hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is
>>it possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?
>>
>>Thank you for any assistance.
>
> You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris. In fact,
> you can easily reset the alom password once you have Solaris running.
>
> Use
> /usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/scadm userpassword admin
>
> See http://www.softpanorama.org/Hardware/Sun/ALOM/alom_setup.shtml

Cool, thanks! I was just recently able to get a DVD module for the

machine, so I will do a fresh install.

>

>>--
>>If you try, you can envision peas on earth.
>
> It seems the peas are always just out of reach.

Sadly, yes.

Whirled.Peas

unread,
Sep 14, 2010, 8:30:49 PM9/14/10
to
On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:11:33 +1000, Barry OGrady wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:33:15 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
> <pe...@earth.org> wrote:
>
>>Greetings,
>>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system
>>has hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is
>>it possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?
>>
>>Thank you for any assistance.
>
> You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris. In fact,
> you can easily reset the alom password once you have Solaris running.
>
> Use
> /usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/scadm userpassword admin
>
> See http://www.softpanorama.org/Hardware/Sun/ALOM/alom_setup.shtml

Cool, thanks! I was just recently able to get a DVD module for the

machine, so I will do a fresh install.

>

>>--
>>If you try, you can envision peas on earth.
>
> It seems the peas are always just out of reach.

Sadly, yes.

Whirled.Peas

unread,
Sep 14, 2010, 8:32:19 PM9/14/10
to
On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:11:33 +1000, Barry OGrady wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:33:15 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
> <pe...@earth.org> wrote:
>
>>Greetings,
>>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system
>>has hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is
>>it possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?
>>
>>Thank you for any assistance.
>
> You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris. In fact,
> you can easily reset the alom password once you have Solaris running.
>
> Use
> /usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/scadm userpassword admin
>
> See http://www.softpanorama.org/Hardware/Sun/ALOM/alom_setup.shtml

Cool, thanks! I was just recently able to get a DVD module for the

machine, so I will do a fresh install.

>

>>--
>>If you try, you can envision peas on earth.
>
> It seems the peas are always just out of reach.

Sadly, yes.

Whirled.Peas

unread,
Sep 14, 2010, 9:09:51 PM9/14/10
to
On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:32:19 +0000, Whirled.Peas wrote:

Apparently I stutter.

Barry OGrady

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Sep 14, 2010, 11:10:28 PM9/14/10
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On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:30:49 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
<pe...@earth.org> wrote:

>On Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:11:33 +1000, Barry OGrady wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:33:15 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
>> <pe...@earth.org> wrote:
>>
>>>Greetings,
>>>This is probably a common question. I have a Sunfire V210. the system
>>>has hard drives and a dvd-rom, but I do not have the ALOM password. Is
>>>it possible to reset the password so that I can reinstall the OS?
>>>
>>>Thank you for any assistance.
>>
>> You don't need to know the alom password to install Solaris. In fact,
>> you can easily reset the alom password once you have Solaris running.
>>
>> Use
>> /usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/scadm userpassword admin
>>
>> See http://www.softpanorama.org/Hardware/Sun/ALOM/alom_setup.shtml
>
>Cool, thanks! I was just recently able to get a DVD module for the
>machine, so I will do a fresh install.

I was able to install Solaris 10 on my V210 without knowing the ALOM
password. I then used scadm to set the ALOM admin password.

I found scadm at /usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V210/sbin/scadm .

I'm curious to know what you have in mind to use the V210 for.
I use mine in a hobby setup.

I have several Sun Sparc machines including a Netra 100.
The Netra 100 has an internal CDROM drive but I wanted to install
the latest Solaris which is only on DVD.
I found a Sun SCSI DVDROM drive on eBay and installed in a
Sun 610 external drive housing.
I was able to boot from and install from the external DVDROM drive.

>>>--

Whirled.Peas

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Sep 15, 2010, 5:00:12 PM9/15/10
to
On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:10:28 +1000, Barry OGrady wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:30:49 +0000 (UTC), "Whirled.Peas"
> <pe...@earth.org> wrote:

>>Cool, thanks! I was just recently able to get a DVD module for the
>>machine, so I will do a fresh install.
>
> I was able to install Solaris 10 on my V210 without knowing the ALOM
> password. I then used scadm to set the ALOM admin password.
>
> I found scadm at /usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V210/sbin/scadm .
>
> I'm curious to know what you have in mind to use the V210 for. I use
> mine in a hobby setup.

Initially it was going to be a webserver on which I'd be maintaining a
family website, but that is probably not going to happen. It may simply
now serve as an NFS on our home network. My wife recently lost her hard
drive to a crash and I have been unsuccessful in retrieving any data from
the disc (freezing does not work, mild shock does not help), and she
wants her photos. I am likely going to end up mailing the drive to a
clean room recovery company to get a quote for data retrieval. I don't
wish to have to do this again, so this server will likely end up being a
backup resource.

Richard B. Gilbert

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Sep 21, 2010, 10:36:50 PM9/21/10
to

I don't know the current rates for recovering data from a crashed disk,
but it has never been cheap!

For what it will probably cost you, you could have purchased several
backup devices and media to use with them.

Check out a "Buffalo LinkStation", a disk drive that you plug into power
and Ethernet and can be used for disk backups.

I wish you good luck in the recovery effort!


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