[comp.sys.next] Technical Alert 90-1: Upgrade2.0, Boot Block, 040 Upgrade

lacsap@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Pascal Chesnais) (12/14/90)

I got this in the mail:

pasc

Following is NeXT Technical Alert 90-1, describing a small bug in
the Upgrade2.0 application which affects 68040 upgrades.

We will be mailing a printed copy of this Alert to all Support
Centers of record shortly.  If you can receive NeXT Mail
attachments and want the WriteNow document, please send mail to
ask_next@NeXT.COM and let us know.

Alan M. Marcum
NeXT Technical Support

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NeXT Technical Alert 90-1

Summary

Cannot boot after upgrading a 68030-based 2.0 machine to a 68040:
Upgrade2.0 doesn't install the 2.0 boot block

Description

The Upgrade2.0 application in Release 2.0 does not write the 2.0
boot block to the disk being upgraded.  The boot block is the first
piece of code that's loaded from the disk after you turn on the
computer; it handles the reading of the Mach kernel from the disk
and the initial execution of Mach.

The 2.0 boot block supports 68040-based NeXT computers, as well as
68030-based NeXT computers; the 1.0 and 1.0a boot blocks support
only 68030-based NeXT computers.  If after running Upgrade2.0 you
then install a 68040 upgrade CPU board, the machine will not boot.
The symptoms of this are the following message:

Exception 5 (0x14) 0xaddress

You will see this during system start-up (address will be replaced
by a PROM address).  The message may be preceded by other error
messages, including SCSI errors; these other messages may be ignored
until after implementing the workaround, described below.  After
the Exception message is displayed, the system halts.

Workaround

After running Upgrade2.0, and before you reboot, run the Terminal
application.  If..
	disk type: fixed_rw_scsi

We recommend implementing this workaround even if you aren't
upgrading to a 68040 now.  That way, if upgrade later, your system
will boot correctly after you install your new CPU board.

If you have already tried to reboot, anabove
steps.

For More Information

Contact NeXT Technical Support.

====================-- 
Pascal Chesnais, Research Specialist, Electronic Publishing Group
Media Laboratory, E15-348, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Ma, 02139 (617) 253-0311
email: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (NeXT)