Forcing Solaris into OK prompt

Open Boot User Interface

How to get to the OK Prompt You can shutdown the system using init 0
Reboot the system and press the STOP + A keys together as the boot time messages appear on the screen
 

Press the STOP and A keys together (use as a last resort)
 

when you are not on the console (video + keyboard) and use some terminal emulator to via serial port or other similar solution you can use special command to send BREAK signal. For example on TeraTerm Pro use Control->Send Break or press Alt-B

Emergency STOP Commands

Aborts OS boot or Halts machine Pressing STOP and A Keys
Sets diagnostic mode ( diag-switch? True ) Pressing STOP and D Keys
Sets configuration variables to default value Pressing STOP and N Keys

OpenBoot PROM Features

Reaching the ok Prompt

There are several ways to reach the ok prompt, depending on the state of the system and the means by which you are accessing the system console. In decreasing order of desirability, the list is as follows:

• Graceful shutdown
• Graceful reset of the control domain using the ILOM reset command
• Manual system reset
• The Break key or the equivalent ALOM system controller command pair:
  -> set /HOST send_break_action=break
  -> start /SP/console -force

A discussion of each method follows. For step-by-step instructions, see Procedures for Obtaining the ok Prompt.

1. Decide which method you need to use to reach the ok prompt.

1. Graceful shutdown of the Solaris OS

   From a shell or command tool window, type an appropriate command (for example, the init 0 or uadmin 2 0 commands) as described in Solaris system administration documentation.

2. Graceful reset of the control domain using the ILOM

   reset command

   From the -> prompt in the control domain, type:

   set /HOST/domain/control auto-boot=disable

   reset /HOST/domain/control

3. Manual system reset

   From the -> prompt, type:

   -> set /HOST/bootmode script="setenv auto-boot? false"
   

   Press Enter.

   Then type:

   -> reset /SYS

   -> start /SP/console

4. Break key or equivalent ILOM break commands

   From an alphanumeric terminal configured to access the system console, press the Break key.

   After the break, if a debugger is present the domain breaks to KMDB debugger

   prompt, which allows access to the c)continue, s)ync, r)eset? prompt. If

   a debugger is not present, the c)continue, s)ync, r)eset? prompt occurs:

   • c - returns to the Solaris OS
   • s - forces synchronization (sync) of the filesystem, resulting in a core dump
   • r - resets the domain and reboots to the Solaris OS if the auto-boot? option is

   set to true, or stops at the ok prompt if the auto-boot? option is set to

   false.

eeprom:
eeprom displays or changes the values of parameters in the EEPROM (OPen Boot configuration settings).

 # eeprom
 tpe-link-test?=true
 scsi-initiator-id=7
 keyboard-click?=false
 keymap: data not available.
 ttyb-rts-dtr-off=false
 ttyb-ignore-cd=true
 ttya-rts-dtr-off=false
 ttya-ignore-cd=true
 ttyb-mode=9600,8,n,1,-
 ttya-mode=9600,8,n,1,-
 pcia-probe-list=1,2,3 
 .......
 ........

To set the auto-boot? Parameter to true

 # eeprom auto-boot?=true

To set the devalias for disks

  # eeprom "nvramrc=devalias rootdisk /sbus@2,0/SUNW,socal@d,10000/sf@0,0/ssd@w220000203714f2ee,0:a devalias mirrordisk /sbus@6,0/SUNW,socal@d,10000/sf@1,0/ssd@w2200002037093df0,0:a"

 Make sure to also set use-nvramrc? to true. These device aliases will be stored after a system reset.
  # eeprom "use-nvramrc?=true"

Some useful OK prompt commands

 OK showdevs
 OK show-disks

To temporarily create a device alias'''

 OK devalias  <alias> <path>

To search the scsi devices attached to the primary scsi controller

 OK probe-scsi

To search all the scsi devices

 OK probe-scsi-all

To view the current NVRAM settings

 OK printenv

To set the evvironment variables

 setenv <env> <value>

To set the Open Boot prompt settings to the factory default

 OK set-defaults

To set the device alias permanently to NVRAM

 OK nvalias  <alias>  <path>

To start nvramrc line editor using a temporary edit buffer

  OK nvedit

To save the contents of the nvedit buffer into NVRAM

  OK nvsave 

To remove the nvalias 'cdrom1' from NVRAMRC

 OK nvunalias  cdrom1

To find out the Open boot prompt version

 OK .version

To find out the ethernet MAC address

 OK .enet_addr

To find out the CPU and PCI bus speeds

 OK .speed

To display the Model, Architecture, processor, openboot version, ethernet address, host id and etc...

 OK banner

To reset variable values to the factory defaults

 OK set-defaults  

To reboot the system from OK Prompt

 OK reset-all

NEWS CONTENTS

• 210210 : Getting to ok prompt - Google Groups ( Getting to ok prompt - Google Groups, )

Old News ;-)

Getting to ok prompt - Google Groups

8/26/08

Michael Tosch

John Oliver wrote:
> How do you get to the OK prompt when the system is powering up?
>
> If the OS is up and I issue an init 0, I can get to the ok prompt. But
> I'm trying to get there when the system is booting. I've sent break
> after break, both via PuTTY's "Special Command" and by typing "break" at
> the sc> prompt. No joy :-(
>

At the sc> prompt after the "break" do "console -f"

--
echo imhcea\.lophc.tcs.hmo |
sed 's2\(....\)\(.\{5\}\)2\2\122;s1\(.\)\(.\)1\2\11g;1s;\.;::;2'

Nirav

On Aug 26, 10:48 pm, Michael Tosch

- show quoted text -

<[email protected].PLS.se> wrote:
> John Oliver wrote:
> > How do you get to the OK prompt when the system is powering up?
>
> > If the OS is up and I issue an init 0, I can get to the ok prompt. But
> > I'm trying to get there when the system is booting. I've sent break
> > after break, both via PuTTY's "Special Command" and by typing "break" at
> > the sc> prompt. No joy :-(
>
> At the sc> prompt after the "break" do "console -f"
>
> --
> echo imhcea\.lophc.tcs.hmo |
> sed 's2\(....\)\(.\{5\}\)2\2\122;s1\(.\)\(.\)1\2\11g;1s;\.;::;2'

Hi,

while the server is booting at that time when it displays message as
"Initializing memory" at that moment send break signal.It will come to
OK prompt

[email protected]

> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
> The computer is hung.

If STOP-A isn't working, and you can't get to a command line, then I
believe you must resort to turning the machine off and then on again.

Just cross your fingers and hope your filesystems don't turn to shit.

Greg Andrews

[email][email protected][/email] (TingChong) writes:>
>Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
>Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
>The computer is hung.
> If the connector where your keyboard plugs into the Sun is
a round one, then try unplugging the keyboard and plugging
it back in again.

If the connector for your keyboard is a USB connector, then
you'll have to power the computer off.

-Greg

Grog

> In article <[email protected] >, ma7777772
> @hotmail.com says...

>> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
>> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
>> The computer is hung.

>
> If STOP-A isn't working, and you can't get to a command line, then I
> believe you must resort to turning the machine off and then on again.
>
> Just cross your fingers and hope your filesystems don't turn to shit.

The alternate sequence may have been set: Tilde Control-B

If a local keyboard is normally attached, you might be
able to get an OK prompt by unplugging it then plugging
in again.

Otherwise, power cycle.

Greg Andrews

[email][email protected][/email] writes:

>
> The alternate sequence may have been set: Tilde Control-B
>

That's "Return Tilde Control-B", but only on serial consoles,
not on Sun keyboards.

-Greg
--
Do NOT reply via e-mail.
Reply in the newsgroup.

Greg Andrews

In article <[email protected] >,
[email][email protected][/email] says...

> Grog wrote:
> > In article <[email protected] >, ma7777772
> > @hotmail.com says...

> >> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
> >> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
> >> The computer is hung.

> >
> > If STOP-A isn't working, and you can't get to a command line, then I
> > believe you must resort to turning the machine off and then on again.
> >
> > Just cross your fingers and hope your filesystems don't turn to shit.

>
>
> The alternate sequence may have been set: Tilde Control-B

Or the feature may have been disabled altogether.

> If a local keyboard is normally attached, you might be
> able to get an OK prompt by unplugging it then plugging
> in again.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I rarely move keyboards around.

> Otherwise, power cycle.

Grog Guest

TingChong wrote:

> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
> The computer is hung.

If the box is hung and "stop a" doesn't work, you're screwed. Power cycle.
Removing the keyboard won't work because all it does is send a "break" to
the console which is what the "stop a" does.

Chris

Chris Greenman Guest

Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
The computer is hung.

TingChong Guest

In article <[email protected] >, ma7777772
@hotmail.com says...

> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
> The computer is hung.

If STOP-A isn't working, and you can't get to a command line, then I
believe you must resort to turning the machine off and then on again.

Just cross your fingers and hope your filesystems don't turn to shit.

Grog Guest

[email][email protected][/email] (TingChong) writes:

>
>Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
>Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
>The computer is hung.
>

If the connector where your keyboard plugs into the Sun is
a round one, then try unplugging the keyboard and plugging
it back in again.

If the connector for your keyboard is a USB connector, then
you'll have to power the computer off.

-Greg
--
Do NOT reply via e-mail.
Reply in the newsgroup.

Lon Stowell

Grog wrote:

> In article <[email protected] >, ma7777772
> @hotmail.com says...

>> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
>> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
>> The computer is hung.

>
> If STOP-A isn't working, and you can't get to a command line, then I
> believe you must resort to turning the machine off and then on again.
>
> Just cross your fingers and hope your filesystems don't turn to shit.

The alternate sequence may have been set: Tilde Control-B

If a local keyboard is normally attached, you might be
able to get an OK prompt by unplugging it then plugging
in again.

Otherwise, power cycle.

Lon Stowell Guest

[email][email protected][/email] writes:

>
> The alternate sequence may have been set: Tilde Control-B
>

That's "Return Tilde Control-B", but only on serial consoles,
not on Sun keyboards.

-Greg
--
Do NOT reply via e-mail.
Reply in the newsgroup.

Greg Andrews Guest

In article <[email protected] >,
[email][email protected][/email] says...

> Grog wrote:
>

> > In article <[email protected] >, ma7777772
> > @hotmail.com says...

> >> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
> >> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
> >> The computer is hung.

> >
> > If STOP-A isn't working, and you can't get to a command line, then I
> > believe you must resort to turning the machine off and then on again.
> >
> > Just cross your fingers and hope your filesystems don't turn to shit.

>
>
> The alternate sequence may have been set: Tilde Control-B

Or the feature may have been disabled altogether.

> If a local keyboard is normally attached, you might be
> able to get an OK prompt by unplugging it then plugging
> in again.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I rarely move keyboards around.

> Otherwise, power cycle.

Grog Guest

TingChong wrote:

> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
> The computer is hung.

If the box is hung and "stop a" doesn't work, you're screwed. Power cycle.
Removing the keyboard won't work because all it does is send a "break" to
the console which is what the "stop a" does.

Chris

Chris Greenman Guest

Chris Greenman <[email protected]> writes:

>TingChong wrote:
>

>> Is there a way to force the sun box into ok prompt?
>> Pressing <Stop> <a> does not work.
>> The computer is hung.

>
>If the box is hung and "stop a" doesn't work, you're screwed. Power cycle.
>Removing the keyboard won't work because all it does is send a "break" to
>the console which is what the "stop a" does.
>

No, that's not what Stop-A does. Stop-A sends the keydown and keyup
messages through the cable to the computer. Unplugging and re-plugging
the keyboard generates a break signal through the cable.

The keyboard port hardware handles the unplug/replug even very differently
than the press of the Stop and the A keys, so unplug/replug can work in
situations where keypresses don't.

-Greg
--
Do NOT reply via e-mail.
Reply in the newsgroup.

Recommended Links

Softpanorama Recommended

Top articles

Sites

Open Boot PROM - OK Prompt

OpenBoot PROM Features

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

Last modified: March 29, 2020