torda@igc.ethz.ch (Andrew Torda) (01/16/91)
Original question was.. >On a 4/65 with OS 4.1, (eeprom rev 1.3) mine says > eeprom: /dev/eeprom: Error 0 >On a 4/490 server, it says, > eeprom: software area checksum wrong > >Furthermore, the manual entry lists eeprom variables which are not even >really in the eeprom, e.g. memsize. > >Looking inside /usr/bin/eeprom with strings shows a bunch of strings which >correspond to those in the manual entry, not those of the actual eeprom. > >Finally, it seems that the eeprom could also live in > /dev/openprom >but > eeprom -f /dev/openprom >says > eeprom: /dev/openprom: No such device > >Does this command work for anyone else ? I had just over 20 replies. /usr/bin/eeprom works on machines from 75% of people (of this statistically insignificant sample). It does not work on other peoples machines. Reading the list, there is no obvious correlation between model of Sparc, OS version and whether or not the command works. Most amusing were the people who had a number of machines, with the eeprom command working on some, but not others. Of the people who said the command doesn't work, nobody knew why. Of the people who have a functioning /usr/bin/eeprom, the best suggestion was to check the device. Comparing my /dev/eeprom against the /dev listing mailed by someone, that is not the problem (major, minor dev numbers, owner, group) The device is, in fact, made under the group of std devices. Furthermore, removing the device and putting it back with appropriate mknod, chmod and chgrp commands does not help. A number of the people who have a functioning eeprom command suggested the -i flag. This tells it to ignore the checksum errors. It does not help any people for whom the command does not function at all. Some people pointed towards the known eeprom bug on 4/4xx machines, but there were no real comments on Sparcstations of any sort. For me, the dysfunctional /usr/bin/eeprom remains a mystery. -Andrew Torda
jon@robots.oxford.ac.uk (Jon Tombs) (01/21/91)
The message eeprom: software area checksum wrong comes from the fact the checksum _is_ wrong, probably because memory size has changed and the eeprom not updated correctly. eeprom -c fixes this. I suspect the reason eeprom doesn't work on most your machines is because you never put it in the kernal! from the GENERIC sun4c config file: # # The "open EEPROM" pseudo-device is required to support the # eeprom command. # pseudo-device openeepr # onboard configuration NVRAM Jon
bob@omni.com (Bob Weissman) (01/25/91)
In article <1349@brchh104.bnr.ca> jon@robots.oxford.ac.uk (Jon Tombs) writes: >I suspect the reason eeprom doesn't work on most your machines is because >you never put it in the kernal! from the GENERIC sun4c config file: ># ># The "open EEPROM" pseudo-device is required to support the ># eeprom command. ># >pseudo-device openeepr # onboard configuration NVRAM Unfortunately, this doesn't fix eeprom(8S) on non-4c architectures. I have a 4/470 whose eeprom(8S) * claims the checksum is wrong * will print the eeprom contents when given "-i" * fails to do anything when given "-c", with or without "-i". * will not allow changing eeprom contents, with or without "-c" and/or "-i" Any ideas on this one? Bob Weissman Internet: bob@omni.com UUCP: ...!{apple,decwrl,pyramid,sgi,uunet}!omni!bob