magic switch to ARC console?
der Mouse
from what I can tell. It appears to have decided to switch itself from
SRM, which I've been using for as long as I've had it, to ARC: I get a
pseudo-graphics display rendered with X3.64 cursor motion and the like,
it calls itself "AlphaBIOS Version 5.67", and it offers to boot Windows
NT and nothing else. (Which of course it couldn't do even if I told it
to, because Windows isn't there to be booted. I haven't tried telling
it to boot anyway, because I fear what could happen when NetBSD tries
to make SRM calls and gets ARC semantics instead. At best I would
expect it to error out; at worst it could do something relatively
irreversible like wipe the drive.)
Presumably the machine has both, or it would not even have been
possible for it to switch on me like this. So, my questions are, (1)
how could this have happened, and (2) how do I switch it back?
As for the former, I can only speculate.
As for the latter, it says things like "Press F2 to enter SETUP", but I
have no idea what octet sequence it's expecting to see on the serial
line for such things. Actually pressing F2 gives me ESC-[-1-2-~, but
that doesn't seem to do it; all that really means, though, is that the
terminal emulator doesn't agree with the ARC on this matter.
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Michael L. Hitch
> As for the latter, it says things like "Press F2 to enter SETUP", but I
> have no idea what octet sequence it's expecting to see on the serial
> line for such things. Actually pressing F2 gives me ESC-[-1-2-~, but
> that doesn't seem to do it; all that really means, though, is that the
> terminal emulator doesn't agree with the ARC on this matter.
[Taken from the OpenVMS FAQ: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/faq/vmsfaq_016.html]
The full list of AlphaBIOS key sequences -- these sequences are needed
when using an LK-series keyboard with AlphaBIOS, as AlphaBIOS expects a
PC-style keyboard:
F1 Ctrl/A
F2 Ctrl/B
F3 Ctrl/C
F4 Ctrl/D
F5 Ctrl/E
F6 Ctrl/F
F7 Ctrl/P
F8 Ctrl/R
F9 Ctrl/T
F10 Ctrl/U
Insert Ctrl/V
Delete Ctrl/W
Backspace Ctrl/H
Escape Ctrl/[
Return Ctrl/M
LineFeed Ctrl/J
(Plus) + upselect (some systems)
(Minus) - downselect (some systems)
TAB down arrow
SHIFT+TAB up arrow
Mike
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Michael L. Hitch mhi...@montana.edu
Computer Consultant
Information Technology Center
Montana State University Bozeman, MT USA
der Mouse
> motherboard battery died.
I was afraid it would be something like that. Is it an easily
repaclable coin cell or some such, or is it something more difficult
(such as what SBus-era SPARCs used)? I had a quick look and didn't see
anything that looked like a battery to me, but therre was quite a lot
of the board I couldn't see without more disassembly than I wanted to
get into right now. I'll give it a closer look when I have more time.
der Mouse
Hm, that bounces through a couple of redirects and goes 404 (with a
totally blank page, no less) for me. Dunno whether it's gone dead or
it just doesn't like me or what....
But I've saved the list. Thank you very much.
> The full list of AlphaBIOS key sequences -- [...]
Hm, I think I found the right path through the menus, but the setting
didn't stick when I cycled power. Is there a way to reboot from ARC?
I didn't see any. (Based on dhop's post, I'll try to find a battery to
replace, but probably won't have the leisure for that for some days.)
I also see shift-tab listed on that keystroke list. As far as I know
there is no standard for what octet(s) that generates on the wire; do
you know, or can someone try it?
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Michael L. Hitch
>> [Taken from the OpenVMS FAQ: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/faq/vmsfaq_016.html]
>
> Hm, that bounces through a couple of redirects and goes 404 (with a
> totally blank page, no less) for me. Dunno whether it's gone dead or
> it just doesn't like me or what....
>
> But I've saved the list. Thank you very much.
It's a copy I saved a while back; I also saw the same information on a
different site from a Google search.
> Hm, I think I found the right path through the menus, but the setting
> didn't stick when I cycled power. Is there a way to reboot from ARC?
> I didn't see any. (Based on dhop's post, I'll try to find a battery to
> replace, but probably won't have the leisure for that for some days.)
I think I've been able to get by with just a reset, but it's been a
while.
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Computer Consultant
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Montana State University Bozeman, MT USA
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David Hopper
> I just turned on my PWS600au for the first time since...January 18th,
> from what I can tell. It appears to have decided to switch itself from
> SRM, which I've been using for as long as I've had it, to ARC:
[...]
> (1)
> how could this have happened, and (2) how do I switch it back?
This began happening to my PWS600au several years ago, when the motherboard battery died. If this is the cause for your troubles, then on every cold boot, you'll face this default NT boot ARC (and a clock reset).
I don't have the machine in front of me, but to reboot into SRM you'll need to go into the ARC Advanced menu, I believe. Fish around a bit, apologies for not being precise. In there is a setting for the default console, I usually set it to UNIX or "Other"; either of these will reboot into SRM. On poweroff, you'll have to do this over again until the battery is replaced.
>
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Dave
David Hopper
>>> Hm, I think I found the right path through the menus, but the
>>> setting didn't stick when I cycled power. Is there a way to reboot
>>> from ARC? I didn't see any. (Based on dhop's post, I'll try to
>>> find a battery to replace, but probably won't have the leisure for
>>> that for some days.)
>> I think I've been able to get by with just a reset, but it's been a
>> while.
>
> How do you do that? I didn't see anything in the menus and none of my
> other experiments (like a break) did it. Is it something (like a
> front-panel button) that requires physical access? I may have to
> shelve this until I have both leisure and physical proximity again.
Yup, physical access. I set the SRM in the ARC menu, and hit the physical reset button on the front panel. The CMOS retains enough juice in the reset to recall the settings. I do sometimes wonder at the engineering prowess of the DEC/Microsoft ARC engineers to omit a soft reset in ARC (now watch someone identify it and make me feel like a heel...).
Though I haven't sourced a replacement battery all these years, I believe at one point I did identify the thing on the board.
>
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Dave
David Hopper
> I do sometimes wonder at the engineering prowess of the DEC/Microsoft ARC engineers[...]
This was an unacceptably glib thing to say. My apologies.
I fired up my own PWS600au to confirm. The ARC selection is CMOS Setup --> F6 (Advanced) --> Console selection: (UNIX) SRM. You may only power down the machine from ARC (F10), but using the soft reset on the front panel retains the CMOS.
The battery is located on the top CPU/cache/RAM daughterboard, so you don't have to pull the I/O motherboard at all (nice). The battery is a standard lithium socketed BR2032, not exotic at all. I have no idea why I didn't replace this earlier. :)
Best,
David
der Mouse
> This was an unacceptably glib thing to say. My apologies.
Not _totally_ unwarranted; even if it's buried behind a couple of
"expert mode" selections, I really think there should be a way to reset
the machine from ARC (and SRM too; I haven't looked for it there, so it
might be that SRM doesn't have it either for all I know).
> I fired up my own PWS600au to confirm. The ARC selection is CMOS
> Setup --> F6 (Advanced) --> Console selection: (UNIX) SRM.
That's what I found.
> You may only power down the machine from ARC (F10), but using the
> soft reset on the front panel retains the CMOS.
Then I guess I need to replace the battery. Needing physical access to
bring the machine back from a power-cycle is..a problem, in my setup.
> The battery is [...]
Oh, that's good news. Thank you!
der Mouse
>> You may only power down the machine from ARC (F10), but using the
>> soft reset on the front panel retains the CMOS.
> Then I guess I need to replace the battery. Needing physical access
> to bring the machine back from a power-cycle is..a problem, in my
> setup.
Okay, today I pulled the machine apart, popped out the CPU/memory/etc
board, and replaced the battery.
Now it won't enter _either_ console. On power-up, the console gets a
NUL, then, after a pause, a capital A. Nothing further.
There are eight LEDs on the board, near the accessible edge, next to
the memory sockets. They are arranged in two rows of four, with the
columns marked 8, 4, 2, and 1; the row nearer the edge of the board
(the top one, with the case in its usual upright orientation) is marked
"MSB". These go through various codes. Many of them are displayed too
briefly for me to identify them; the ones that remain long enough for
me to identify are (in hex, based on the MSB and 8/4/2/1 markings) are:
Powerup, dd, flicker, dd, flicker, d0, flicker, cd, flicker, 04.
It stays there as long as I've been willing to wait (certainly well
past the time when ARC or SRM would previously have printed something).
The first and third "flicker"s are accompanied by two ticks from the
machine's built-in speaker. The NUL is printed very early, roughly at
about the time the first dd is displayed; the A is printed at
approximately the time of the last flicker (changing from cd to 04).
I assume there once existed a document describing these codes. I even
found a Debian mailing list archive with a message saying that it was
the field service manuals, but, of course, no indication of the meaning
of most codes, nor of where one might find either the manuals or a list
of codes' meanings extracted from said manuals. Not even a part number
for the manual. I wandered around bitsavers some but didn't see
anything that looked promising.
I tried reseating the removable board (the one I took out to get to the
battery) in its socket. I also tried reseating the RAM in its sockets
on that board. Neither one made any apparent difference.
Anyone got any pointers?
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der Mouse
> Okay, today I pulled the machine apart, popped out the CPU/memory/etc
> board, and replaced the battery.
> Now it won't enter _either_ console. [...]
Boy, do I feel stupid now.
I must have had the serial line plugged into the wrong serial port. It
came up in ARC very nicely on the correct port (and, yes, plugged into
the wrong port I still see the behaviour I described).
And, the new battery does its job. I switched from ARC to SRM and the
setting survived a power-cycle just fine. The machine is once again
happily running NetBSD.
My thanks to everyone who replied and my apologies for the noise on the
list when it was really me being boneheaded.
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