[rescue] SPARCstation 1 boot woes

Mon Oct 20 18:19:53 UTC 2025

Ah, that DOES sound like a v7 vs v8 problem.

If you have a NetBSD/sparc system running in qemu or something, you should be able to edit sys/arch/sparc/stand/boot/Makefile in order to add -mcpu=v7 to CFLAGS and see if the new boot.net changes behavior.

Unfortunately it has been many years since I last typed 'make world' so I cannot write more specific instructions for you.   Maybe the mouse can be more helpful.

On Monday, October 20th, 2025 at 18:05, David McMackins II <contact at mcmackins.org> wrote:

> 
> 
> It was technically mentioned in my last message but perhaps wasn't
> obvious: I have already attempted netbooting NetBSD.
> 
> When I issue the command to boot from network, I can see it counting
> the size of the boot program, and then I get the same "Illegal
> instruction" once it's finished transferring.
> 
> I did suspect that it could be a SPARC ISA version compatibility issue
> with NetBSD, and that's why I was seeking known good media for SunOS
> which is certainly compatible (or at least the right versions are),
> including a netboot program/tree.
> 
> The failed POST (or at least that's all we can assume) on OBP 1.0 is
> also concerning as others have mentioned. Is there any good starting
> point for diagnosing that issue? I have a 70MHz oscilloscope if I need
> to go that far. No logic analyzer though.
> 
> --
> Regards,
> 
> David E. McMackins II
> www.mcmackins.org
> 
> On Mon, 2025-10-20 at 16:30 +0000, Andrew Jones wrote:
> 
> > I would not count on a 30 year old floppy drive to work properly
> > unless extensively tested. They're fiddly beasts, and decades on
> > the shelf is unkind to rubber, lubricants, etc
> > 
> > Knowing this is an attempt at a floppy boot, "Illegal instruction"
> > sure sounds like corruption to me.
> > 
> > (My only other thought: those early SPARCs don't have hardware
> > multiply/divide, but NetBSD is pretty careful about that to retain
> > compatibility. I really doubt this is a v7 vs v8 problem.)
> > 
> > I have always netbooted old SPARC systems. It is very easy to do,
> > with one proviso: systems with the old AMD Lance ethernet sometimes
> > have trouble with modern micro-switched networks. It works fine
> > after the OS boots, but the firmware does not consistently behave
> > well.
> > 
> > On Saturday, October 18th, 2025 at 23:46, David McMackins II via
> > rescue rescue at sunhelp.org wrote:
> > 
> > > Hey, thanks for the info!
> > > 
> > > I realize that not all the original context was included from
> > > earlier
> > > in this thread. The short version is that I was originally on OBP
> > > 2.9
> > > which got a lot further, up to the point of attempting to boot, but
> > > I
> > > always got "Illegal instruction" after the boot program is loaded
> > > from
> > > any medium (including network).
> > > 
> > > My test OS has been NetBSD, but I did try booting SunOS 3 from
> > > floppy
> > > created using dd on Linux.
> > > 
> > > If it's a hardware issue, I'm really at a loss as to what I could
> > > check
> > > next.
> > > 
> > > --
> > > Regards,
> > > 
> > > David E. McMackins II
> > > www.mcmackins.org
> > > 
> > > On Sat, 2025-10-18 at 16:32 -0700, Steve Rikli wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Do you have a known-good floppy img file for the SunOS boot
> > > > diskette?
> > > > 
> > > > If yes, then you should just be able to use 'dd' to do the job
> > > > afaik,
> > > > from Linux, BSD, etc.
> > > > 
> > > > Way back in 2001 I archived some notes about Solaris floppies
> > > > from
> > > > this page:
> > > > http://soldc.sun.com/support/drivers/copytodisk.html
> > > > 
> > > > maybe you can find the original on wayback machine or something,
> > > > but
> > > > in
> > > > a nutshell, the instructions amount to:
> > > > 
> > > > dd if=<floppy image filename> of=<floppy drive device name>
> > > > 
> > > > The Solaris-specific notes also mentioned using "bs=1440k" as an
> > > > additional arg to 'dd' command, running 'volcheck', 'eject
> > > > floppy0'
> > > > etc., but if you're doing it on Linux then that stuff doesn't
> > > > apply.
> > > > 
> > > > IIRC the last time I installed SunOS (not Solaris) it was 4.1.3
> > > > from
> > > > CD,
> > > > so I'm not much help with netbooting it -- sorry.
> > > > 
> > > > Nowdays if I still had SPARC gear I'd try NetBSD, at least as a
> > > > troubleshooting step. There are install ISO images, and netboot
> > > > notes
> > > > if
> > > > you can setup your own server for DHCP, tftpd, etc. ISO is
> > > > simpler
> > > > but
> > > > obviously you need a SCSI CD player on your SPARC for that
> > > > method.
> > > > :-)
> > > > 
> > > > https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/sparc/
> > > > 
> > > > From you symptoms description though, I'd be inclined to suspect
> > > > the
> > > > hardware like you were earlier. That is, if the system goes
> > > > unresponsive
> > > > shortly after the power on banner, it doesn't sound like it's
> > > > getting
> > > > as
> > > > far as running any OS bits (whether SunOS or other).
> > > > 
> > > > Still, trying other (net)boot media is worth a shot; if nothing
> > > > else
> > > > it
> > > > may point you in the direction of what else is wrong.
> > > > 
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > sr.
> > > > 
> > > > On Sat, Oct 18, 2025 at 05:25:01PM -0500, David McMackins II via
> > > > rescue wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Resurrecting this thread as I've done just a bit more looking
> > > > > today. I
> > > > > remembered that the OBP has diagnostics to run, so I tried that
> > > > > and
> > > > > found that all tests passed (except ones I expected to fail
> > > > > like
> > > > > the
> > > > > keyboard and network which weren't connected at the time).
> > > > > 
> > > > > I'm beginning to wonder if this system actually is fine and all
> > > > > my
> > > > > woes
> > > > > are on the software side. My trouble is I don't have a known
> > > > > good
> > > > > SunOS
> > > > > boot diskette, so I can't tell if I'm doing anything wrong when
> > > > > making
> > > > > one.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Does anyone have a good source of info for creating a boot
> > > > > diskette
> > > > > from Linux? I would also accept instructions for setting up
> > > > > SunOS
> > > > > netboot if there were also directions for acquiring the
> > > > > necessary
> > > > > files.
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Wed, 2025-06-04 at 08:48 -0500, David McMackins II wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Update: the flicker of video signal got me thinking that
> > > > > > maybe
> > > > > > there
> > > > > > was some sort of issue initializing the video card, so I
> > > > > > tried
> > > > > > removing it. This granted some progress: the 1.0 ROM now
> > > > > > prints
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > machine info header over the serial line (which it was not
> > > > > > doing
> > > > > > before). However, after a couple of seconds, I see "Testi"
> > > > > > before
> > > > > > the system becomes unresponsive.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I thought this might be a RAM issue, so I tried swapping out
> > > > > > some
> > > > > > SIMMs to no avail. For science I also tried reinstalling the
> > > > > > 2.9
> > > > > > ROM
> > > > > > in case that too was having issues with the video card, but
> > > > > > it
> > > > > > behaved the same as before.
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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