[Info-vax] DEC 3000/900 bootup problem

[John Santos]

In article <Qy07l.16522$ZP4.1997 at nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com>, 
vance at toyvax.Glendale.CA.US says...> 
> SMS wrote:
> 
> > Vance Haemmerle wrote:
> > 
> >>Today my DEC 3000/900 developed a problem.
> >>It was in a cluster with a VAXstation and was
> >>booted out of the cluster, both had been up for
> >>42 days, it appeared to have hung.  Now the DEC 3000/900
> >>cannot boot.  [...]
> > 
> > 
> >    Sounds bad.
> > 
> > 
> >>Whether booting from the system disk, an internal
> >>RRD45 or a newly connected RRD43 (just in case it was
> >>a disk or cd-rom problem) after all the inits and
> >>book checks pass and the
> >>
> >>OpenVMS (TM) Alpha Operating System, Version 7.1-2
> >>
> >>message appears and a few more disk activities occur
> >>(drive or CD-ROM) the bootup appears to hang.
> >>
> >>
> >>Details and things I've tried:
> >>
> >>All power-on tests are OK
> >>All console tests pass
> >>The number on the console display is normal ("90").
> >>A boot from the V7.1-2 and V7.2-2 CD-ROMs hang
> >>soon after the OS version string.
> >>Conversational boots with "MIN", USE DEFAULT and SET/STARTUP OPA0:
> >>all hang.
> >>The system also has a drive with Tru64 Unix V4.0F on it
> >>but it boots all the way up and runs!
> >>
> >>Any ideas of what to try or what it might be and why it only
> >>affects VMS bootup?  I assume something in the autoconfigure
> >>is going bad.
> > 
> > 
> >    Is it using the same console as you are?  (And what is
> > that?)  In some cases the early messages get sent to
> > multiple ports, but then it narrows its scope to one, and
> > if you're using the wrong one, it looks dead.
> > 
> >    If it's trying to cluster, does a REPLY /ENABLE
> > terminal on another system show any OPCOM messages?
> 
>    By console, I just mean the attached keyboard, and local
> ">>>" display (I'm using it as a Alphastation).  OPA0: on
> the VAXstation is the cluster console.  No messages appear there
> during boot attempts of the Alpha, I do NOT get to the message
> on the Alpha: "waiting to form or join a VMScluster system".
> The boot hangs before that message ever appears.
> 
>    Booting from a CD-ROM should not have it try to cluster.
> I've also done a boot -fl 0,1 and when the SYSBOOT> prompt
> comes up I've SET VAXCLUSTER 0.  That does not boot either.

I think Steve's point is the console variable may be set
incorrectly, but you might not notice this until too late...

It sounds like you're using the graphics console (VGA screen
plus keyboard and mouse plugged directly into the Alpha.  If
the console variable has gotten set to serial (VT or LA terminal
plugged into an RS232 DB25 port, an RS232 DB9 port or an MMJ
port on the Alpha depending on the model, I forget what a
3000-900 has), it might look normal until VMS decides it needs
to ask a question and is prompting for input on the wrong console.

At the >>>, do

  >>> show console

and

  >>> set console graphics

if it shows as serial (not sure if it can be anything else.)

If the CMOS battery has died, it might have lost some or all
the console configuration, causing this.  It may have also
lost the time, so it may be specifically be asking you to
enter the date and time on the serial port.  If so, all you
need to do is wait 1,000,000 microfortnights and it will
continue with its best guess about the current time :-)

Or the console setting might always have been wrong, but
you never noticed before because it never before needed
the answer to a question during the boot.

-- 
John