Hi Don!

After "googling" on ip_rput_dlpi, I saw this web page: http://www.sunmanagers.org/pipermail...er/007582.html

Here was his summary: Solaris 8 doesn't support 802.1q on bge
interfaces. Work around was editing /etc/path_to_install to change the
instance numbers from 0 to 2000, 1 to 2001, and so on.

On my system, the closest thing I have to that filename are these two
files:

<<>>
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 2244 Aug 19 08:12 path_to_inst
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 2244 Aug 19 08:12 path_to_inst.old
<<>>

(Not path_to_install but path_to_inst.)

That *might have* been when I booted the Sun system this morning.

As to the ".old", that is a possible indication of me. I often
rename files with an extension of something. (I do use old, although I
more often use other things. For example, on my Linux system, I copied
/etc/hosts to /etc/hosts.canaan before editing it, for which there is a
copy "hosts.dlink".)

I really haven't done much -- right now, recently, as in, since the
lightning strike, about copying/renaming any Sun files. However, I cannot
say that it wasn't done back when I was initially setting up the Sun.

However, the last modified date is definitely not a date/time where I
did anything to the file.

The beginning of the file is:

<<>>
#
# Caution! This file contains critical kernel state
#
<<>>

I am not editing it right now, and at this moment, I don't really
know about changing instance numbers from 0 to 2001, etc.

(Where there are many numbers, I have no idea which are "instance
numbers", but I'll keep this in mind as I continue my endeavour!) :-)

But, that's what I've found, early in my "googling" and searching
with this new QFE card in the Ultra 30.

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

An update...

After doing a search for "instance" in my PDF Solaris System Admin
manuals, I found under "Improved Device Configuration" on page 280 (of
666) of Volume 1 a mention of a "path_to_inst" instance database!

That led me to a "man path_to_inst" on the Sun, and I now know which
are the instance numbers. :-)

I am NOT editing this yet. I am going to continue looking through
what the last boot gave me and try to get a better understanding of
everything. But, this looks like a possibility...

I may wait to hear your advice/opinions, too! :-)

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

After noticing that what appears in the parenthesis after the
ip_rput_dlpi was also important, and searching for hme as well, I see this
web page:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....0492bb8428472e

I do have two lines in my current path_to_inst containing hme:

<<>>
"/pci@1f,4000/network@1,1" 0 "hme"
"/pci@1f,4000/SUNW,hme@2,1" 1 "hme"
<<>>

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

An update...

After a little interruption, here is what I've done, by now. I've
"mv'ed" the hostname.hme1 to hostname.hme2, and the hostname.hme0 to
hostname.hme1. I've verified little things in numerous files (hosts,
defaultrouter, nodename, services, networks, netmasks, etc.).

I did another "touch /reconfigure" and rebooted, just now.

Here's what I got:

<<>>
Sun Ultra 3 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-II 248MHz), Keyboard Present
OpenBoot 3.9, 128 MB memory installed, Serial #XXXXXXX.
Ethernet address X:X:XX:XX:XX:XX, Host ID: XXXXXXX.

Rebooting with command: boot
Boot device: disk File and args:
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic_108528-07 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Can't find driver for console framebufferip_rput_dlpi(hme1): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_ATTACH_REQ(11), errno 8, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme1): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_BIND_REQ(1), errno 3, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme1): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_PHYS_ADDR_REQ(49), errno 3, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme1): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_UNBIND_REQ(2), errno 3, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme1): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_DETACH_REQ(12), errno 3, unix 0
ifconfig: SIOCSLIFNAME for ip: hme1: no such interface
ifconfig: SIOCGLIFNETMASK: hme1: no such interface
hme1.ip_rput_dlpi(hme2): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_ATTACH_REQ(11), errno 8, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme2): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_BIND_REQ(1), errno 3, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme2): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_PHYS_ADDR_REQ(49), errno 3, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme2): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_UNBIND_REQ(2), errno 3, unix 0
ip_rput_dlpi(hme2): DL_ERROR_ACK for DL_DETACH_REQ(12), errno 3, unix 0
ifconfig: SIOCSLIFNAME for ip: hme2: no such interface
ifconfig: SIOCGLIFNETMASK: hme2: no such interface
hme2.
Hostname: canaan
Configuring /dev and /devices
IP Filter: not attached to any interfaces
IP Filter: v3.4.20, attaching complete.
Configuring the /dev directory (compatibility devices)
The system is coming up. Please wait.
checking ufs filesystems
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7: is clean.
IP Filter: not attached to any interfaces
IP Filter: v3.4.20 detached
IP Filter: not attached to any interfaces
IP Filter: v3.4.20 attaching complete.
Set 0 now inactive
filter sync'd
0 entries flushed from NAT table
0 entries flushed from NAT list
NIS domainname is cfl.rr.com
starting rpc services: rpcbind keyserv done.
Setting default IPv4 interface for multicast: add net 224.0/4: gateway canaan
syslog service starting.
Print services started.
Starting apcupsd power management ... Done.
Aug 19 15:16:09 canaan fetchmail[251]: couldn't find canonical DNS name of pop-server.cfl.rr.com
Aug 19 15:16:09 canaan fetchmail[251]: POP3 connection to pop-server.cfl.rr.com failed: unknown DNS error -1.
The system is ready.

canaan console login:
Aug 19 15:17:09 canaan sendmail[250]: m7JJBoV00316: forward /home/barry/.forward.canaan+: transient error: Timeout on file open
Aug 19 15:17:09 canaan automound[183]: server canaan not responding
Aug 19 15:17:09 canaan last message repeated 2 times
Aug 19 15:18:09 canaan apcupsd[240]: Master not responding.
Aug 19 15:19:09 canaan automount[183]: server canaan not responding
open timeout on /home/barry/.forward.canaan+
<<>>

Very similar to before, though before with hostname.hme0 and hme1,
and hme0 not being a port on this new bus card, I only got one "set" of
DL_ERROR_ACK's.

I've turned off apcupsd and fetchmail, so I'm not getting any
messages about those. (I know how to do that!) :-)

In fact, this time, I've been logged about ten minutes, and I haven't
received any messages on the monitor where I'm logged in as root.

Oh well, just as I typed that, I got a repeat of the automount,
server canaan not responding... :-D

(That makes sense to me. If the network ports are not currently
"accessible" or whatever word I should use, I can see that the NFS mount
isn't working.)

I have the files the way I want them, subject to changes only after I
see what is working or isn't. However, it seems that perhaps that
something needs to be done, since this is Solaris 8, on that web page I
included in this first message, today.

The path_to_inst file now has this, excerpted from down around where
the hme appears:

<<>>
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@2,1" 2 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@3,1" 3 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@0,1" 0 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@1,1" 1 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/network@1,1" 0 "hme"
"/pci@1f,4000/SUNW,hme@2,1" 1 "hme"
<<>>

The "network@1,1"is still in there, and it is, since it's part of the
motherboard. Should I just leave it? (I'm not getting any messages about
hme0 now, since I'm not trying to use it anywhere.)

The "SUNW,hme@2,1" I believe is the Ethernet card I had in there,
though it isn't in there at all any more. If it is the card that is no
longer in the computer and still appearing, should I remove that?

"Messing with" this file makes me VERY nervous!

I'll make a decision, soon, about trying to modify the instance
numbers (now that I know what they are, the number in the middle between
the two quotation-marked items on each line), making the 0 2000, making
each 1 2001, etc.

Then try rebooting.

I hope that I will either see that fixes it (or appears to) and I'm
able to proceed, or if things get worse, I hope I am able to put a copy of
this file (which I've just made) back and reboot again, to at least be
back to how I am at this moment.

(Our power was out for about half a minute, a little over a half hour
ago, but it's back on, at the moment.) :-)

I'll keep you appraised!

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

Okay, my last update for today! :-)

Well, I tried it, and boy did it fail! :-)

I may have misread Ketan's "change the instance numbers from 0 to
2000..."... I changed EVERY INSTANCE NUMBER IN THE FILE, adding 2000 to
it! :-O

Then, it failed to boot. (Well, actually, it "kind of" booted, but
the disk check failed, and it said to enter root password or type ^D, but
no typing "got through".

Then, AFTER that (:-O), I thought... "oh well, maybe he meant just
the instance numbers of this card..." :-)

Well, after the lightning strike, when you were helping me try
things, I wound up using - and setting the original value of all
the environment variables back to their default. This meant I was booting
off my smaller disk that I had originally!

So, I changed boot-device to disk1 and booted just fine. I then
mounted the smaller disk on an "old_disk" directory. I went in and
restored the file to the way it was, and made just the four entries 2000
through 2003.

A "touch /reconfigure" and reboot did reboot, just fine.

However, I get pretty well the EXACT error in the last message, with
hme1 and hme2 showing up.

(And, I realize [now] that he said Solaris 8 doesn't support 802.1q
on BGE interfaces, and mine isn't the same kind of interface, but hey, I
was wanting it to work!) :-D

I will be doing some things with my mother. I probably am about
finished, for today.

I actually like this. I may experiment on the smaller disk. Once I
get it working, I'll do the same thing on the larger disk, which is the
one I have actually been booting from since I put it in until when I reset
the default environment variable values regarding what you were helping me
with after the lightning strike. Then, if I do something else "really
stupid", I can (hopefully/probably?) get it booted, and fixed, and
continue trying to figure things out! :-D

I'm out of ideas, at the moment. That's my status. I anxiously
await your advice and opinions, and the kind way you have of not
"deriding" me for stupid things like what I just did! :-D

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

On 2008-08-19, Barry L. Bond wrote:
>
> Hi Don!
>
> After "googling" on ip_rput_dlpi, I saw this web page:
> http://www.sunmanagers.org/pipermail...er/007582.html
>
> Here was his summary: Solaris 8 doesn't support 802.1q on bge
> interfaces. Work around was editing /etc/path_to_install to change the
> instance numbers from 0 to 2000, 1 to 2001, and so on.
>
> On my system, the closest thing I have to that filename are these two
> files:
>
><<>>
> -r--r--r-- 1 root root 2244 Aug 19 08:12 path_to_inst
> -r--r--r-- 1 root root 2244 Aug 19 08:12 path_to_inst.old
><<>>
>
> (Not path_to_install but path_to_inst.)

Path to *instance*. He may have mis-typed it in the web page.
Presumably, he got it right on the actual system. :-)



> That *might have* been when I booted the Sun system this morning.
>
> As to the ".old", that is a possible indication of me. I often
> rename files with an extension of something. (I do use old, although I
> more often use other things. For example, on my Linux system, I copied
> /etc/hosts to /etc/hosts.canaan before editing it, for which there is a
> copy "hosts.dlink".)

Nope -- it is a standard result of a reconfigure boot. I've got
the same pair, dated 27 July -- last time I changed the hardware
(changed framebuffer in my SB-1000 which became an SB-2000 recently.)

I also tend to use extensions -- but I usually go for all
uppercase extensions, so I can easily see them as my work. Examples are
things like the /etc/.login script, which I replaced with a much
expanded one moved from an earlier system, so the old one becomes
/etc/.login.ORIG

> I really haven't done much -- right now, recently, as in, since the
> lightning strike, about copying/renaming any Sun files. However, I cannot
> say that it wasn't done back when I was initially setting up the Sun.
>
> However, the last modified date is definitely not a date/time where I
> did anything to the file.
>
> The beginning of the file is:
>
><<>>
> #
> # Caution! This file contains critical kernel state
> #
><<>>
>
> I am not editing it right now, and at this moment, I don't really
> know about changing instance numbers from 0 to 2001, etc.
>
> (Where there are many numbers, I have no idea which are "instance
> numbers", but I'll keep this in mind as I continue my endeavour!) :-)

Well ... looking into mine on the SB-2000, I find:

"/pci@8,700000/network@5,1" 0 "eri"

so you should look for lines including "hme" and "network" in that file.
(Start by looking for "network", then veryfy that it has "hme" at the
end. The instance numbers should be the number between the
"pci&8,700000/network@5,1" and the "eri". And based on his web site, he
changed the '0' to "2000", the '1' to "2001", etc.

You can try it, then look for a "/dev/qfe" entry, and check the
"ifconfig" to see what you get. I would expect "hme1" to become
"hme2001" and so forth, requiring changes in the names of the
/etc/hostname.hme? files.

> But, that's what I've found, early in my "googling" and searching
> with this new QFE card in the Ultra 30.

It sounds like a start -- and I see a chain of replies which I
now have to look at.

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2008-08-19, Barry L. Bond wrote:
> Okay, my last update for today! :-)
>
> Well, I tried it, and boy did it fail! :-)
>
> I may have misread Ketan's "change the instance numbers from 0 to
> 2000..."... I changed EVERY INSTANCE NUMBER IN THE FILE, adding 2000 to
> it! :-O
>
> Then, it failed to boot. (Well, actually, it "kind of" booted, but
> the disk check failed, and it said to enter root password or type ^D, but
> no typing "got through".

Get back to the OBP "ok" prompt, and type:

boot -r

which does the same thing as the touch /reconfigure and reboot, but
doesn't require access to the OS at all.

> Then, AFTER that (:-O), I thought... "oh well, maybe he meant just
> the instance numbers of this card..." :-)

Yes -- just those numbers.

[ ... ]

> A "touch /reconfigure" and reboot did reboot, just fine.
>
> However, I get pretty well the EXACT error in the last message, with
> hme1 and hme2 showing up.
>
> (And, I realize [now] that he said Solaris 8 doesn't support 802.1q
> on BGE interfaces, and mine isn't the same kind of interface, but hey, I
> was wanting it to work!) :-D

I was wondering about that -- but presumed that you found it
with a search for "qfe" among other parameters.

> I will be doing some things with my mother. I probably am about
> finished, for today.

O.K.

> I actually like this. I may experiment on the smaller disk. Once I
> get it working, I'll do the same thing on the larger disk, which is the
> one I have actually been booting from since I put it in until when I reset
> the default environment variable values regarding what you were helping me
> with after the lightning strike. Then, if I do something else "really
> stupid", I can (hopefully/probably?) get it booted, and fixed, and
> continue trying to figure things out! :-D

If all else fails, you may want to pick up either another of the
single hme cards like what you already have, or a new system board to
swap in place of the one with the fried hme0 port.

> I'm out of ideas, at the moment. That's my status. I anxiously
> await your advice and opinions, and the kind way you have of not
> "deriding" me for stupid things like what I just did! :-D

Well -- I've got lots queued up for you. :-)

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

(This is the fourth time I've tried to post this article! It was written
this late morning.)

Hi Don!

> Hmm ... since these posts are covering a lot beyond the Sun
>hardware, perhaps you should try moving this to e-mail. My email
>address is valid -- but I don't know whether you fall into the IP ranges
>in Road Runner which I have blocked because of spam.

I just sent you an email. You can see whether you can receive my
email.

>> Can't find driver for console framebuffer
>
>Hmm ... do you use a console framebuffer at all?

Not so far as I know! :-O

Having looked at the Sun FAQ involving framebuffers, I really don't
know whether this hardware has some (older?) framebuffer card.

I really am not using the Sun for any kind of graphics specialties.
It works on the keyboard and monitor attached to the Sun, so I'm happy!

(And, NORMALLY, I seldom have the monitor attached to the Sun
even on, but I daily logged onto it from the Linux [rlogin].)

I don't remember whether I "used to" (in 2003, when I was turning it
into my mail host and router) get the error... I would think not...
because back then (I was laid off then and between jobs), I had time to
look into errors. I did, since I've been at ITT (since May of 2005) have
to purchase a different monitor for the Sun. I don't know whether it
started showing up then or not... (The Sun is rebooted so seldom! :-D)

Frankly, I couldn't care less about a "driver for console
framebuffer", because the Sun does (or at least used to do) everything I
want and need! :-)

>3) The Ultra 30 requires DC21153 Revision C. See BugID 4094903
>
> Going to the Sun site, I did a search on "bug 4094903" and came
>up with:
>
>
>
>but when I try to follow the links, it says that I need to be registered
>to read those. But the description says:
>
>
> ================================================== ====================
> Ultra 30 and Netra T1 200 don't power up with PCI_QFE cards
> ================================================== ====================
>
>and your system does power up, which suggests that it is not the problem
>that the BugID speaks about.

Yes, I get that, too. And, I also can't see the content.

But, I agree that the description indicates I likely don't have that
problem. And, presumably, there are PCI_QFE cards that work with the
Ultra 30.

> Did you change the names of the /etc/hostsname.hme? to point to
>hme1 and hme2?

As you probably figured out, as you read my additional replies, I had
not as of then, but I have now. (And, now hme1 and hme2 show up in those
error messages.)

> Try the following from a booted system:
>
># prtdiag -v | grep 'hme'

I had to type: /usr/platform/sun4u/sbin/prtdiag -v | grep 'hme', and
I get:

<<>>
0 PCI 33 1 network-SUNW,hme
<<>>

>So you should see five of these -- one for the hme0 in the system board,
>and the other four from the qfe card.

Nope. Only one!

(The path_to_inst file had entries for them all, but not that
command.)

> Also -- there is this other line from the FEH:
>
>3) Quad FastEthernet hardware uses the SUNWqfed device driver
>
> Does your system show something to a "man qfe"? Solaris 10
>does, and perhaps your Solaris 8 (IRRC) man page can show you something
>to enable it again.

Yes. A "man qfe" shows a man page with "qfe - SUNW,qfe Quad
Fast-Ethernet device driver" under NAME.

> And there should be a /dev/qfe entry if the system recognized it
>and installed it. (Hmm ... is it possible that you'll have to go back
>to the install CD-ROMs to find the driver for it?

If I type "ls -l /dev/qfe", I see:

<<>>
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Jul 29 2003 /dev/qfe -> ../devices/pseudo/clone@0:qfe
<<>>

> And try:
>
> ifconfig -a
>
>and see what it lists.

I got:

<<>>
lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
<<>>

> Hmm ... does it have a captive power cord, or one of the
>plug-into-a-receptacle-on-the-back style? if the latter, look closely
>at that. If it is more than just barely big enough for the connector,
>you may see a pair of edge lines which hint that with the cord unplugged
>you can get a small screwdriver or a knife blade under it and pull out a
>fuse holder.

It does have a plug-into-a-receptacle-on-the-back style! Let me go
see...

It's out in the garage. I don't believe it does.

There is a female-style receptacle with two connectors into which the
power cord attached. And, just above that, in the same single "plastic
piece", is an outlet into which you could plug a 110-volt electrical cord,
that says "Switched". (And, above that, but it's another "plastic piece",
is where you can connect a 110-volt electrical cord, that says
"Unswitched".)

However, using a small screwdriver, I didn't see anyway to get under
it and pull anything out.

> As long as that tower is well grounded, it will probably pull
>the lightning away from the house

Both masts that go to the ground are metal, and there is *at least* a
2-foot hole. And, both have concrete around the mast within the hole in
the ground. (My father helped me with these, before he passed away.
Anything he does in this department is done good!) :-)

And, since the mast right at the back of the house has been done, I
have had a large concrete slab poured which also surrounds it, a couple of
inches above where it was grass/ground level, before.

> GC-1000? A general communications receiver? I'm trying to
>remember when Heathkit folded.

For 5, 10 and 15 MHz.

> Early 80's? Then solid state, not tube based I guess?

Correct.

> But you should have good documentation for it, if you kept all
>of the kit instructions.

And, I do. Actually, I have had it repaired, once, in the mid
1990's. I called around, and found someone who would repair it, even
though "Heathkit" no longer existed. (As of then, I didn't have any other
atomic clock monitor available for my computer.)

>> The scanner antenna is attached to the edge of my roof, about five or
>> six FEET from the entertainment center. On top of that is the mast that
>> had the wind anemometer on top of it.
>
> And how well grounded is that?

The scanner antenna itself is what is stuck into the ground, at least
2 feet and with concrete around it, as I described above. However, the
additional mast that had the wind anemometer is NOT connected directly
into the top of the lower mast. The scanner antenna is what is attached
on the top of that mast. It is actually metal-clamped to that mast on a
side where there was enough room between spokes of the scanner antenna to
go up through it without touching the spokes. It is metal clamped to the
lower mast, and I have a ground cable attached to it, although this just
connects to the mast that is "in the ground".

Where the wind anemometer is may not be quite as well grounded...

>> I have a ground cable attached to a ground rod beside my house which
>> is run up into the attic. The TV and another, though smaller, wire from
>> the inside connection of the wind anemometer where it connects to the
>> junction box is attached to it.
>
> How heavy a ground wire? With lightning, I'm not *really*
>comfortable even with the solid 8 gauge copper wire.

I'm afraid things like "8 gauge" doesn't tell me much. I purchased
it from Radio Shack in the first half of the 1990's, when I had this house
built. (They called it a ground cable.) I just measured the width, it is
about 1/8" of an inch thick. And, I don't think it's copper...

>> Yes. I'm east of Orlando, and about 40 miles from the eastern coast
>> of Florida.
>
> The projected paths mostly pass North of you -- except for one.
>:-(

It wound up going far further east than the forecasted track when it
came ashore over Florida. It's been fine, where I live. We got 3.40" of
rain yesterday (from a rain gauge that you stick in the ground and I can't
be as *precise* as my weather station rain gauge). :-)

It's on the eastern coast of Florida right now, roughly due east of
where I live. And, it is very close to Patrick AFB, which probably
explains why at this moment we're not working! (I heard that there are
power lines down on A1A right in front of Patrick AFB.)

A call around 8:00 PM last night indicated that we would NOT be
working this morning, and we needed to be alert to hearing whether we
would be working this afternoon.

Fay is moving a fast 3 MPH to the north, and it's not very far from
Patrick. I'm thinking we likely won't be working today.

> I was wondering about that -- but presumed that you found it
>with a search for "qfe" among other parameters.

Nope. I didn't have qfe in the search. I realized it wasn't talking
about the exact same type of interface, but I was just hoping! :-)

> You can try it, then look for a "/dev/qfe" entry, and check the
>"ifconfig" to see what you get. I would expect "hme1" to become
>"hme2001" and so forth, requiring changes in the names of the
>/etc/hostname.hme? files.

Ah! After I get back to this (probably in about another hour, unless
I'm called and told we can go to work), I'll look into that. (Right now
the path_to_inst is the only place where I see qfe stuff. But, I'll see
whether it looks like a change to my hostname.hme files is appropriate; I
hadn't thought of that...

Thank you, Don!

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

On 2008-08-20, Barry L. Bond wrote:
>
> (This is the fourth time I've tried to post this article! It was written
> this late morning.)

Hmm ... where was the problem?

> Hi Don!
>
>> Hmm ... since these posts are covering a lot beyond the Sun
>>hardware, perhaps you should try moving this to e-mail. My email
>>address is valid -- but I don't know whether you fall into the IP ranges
>>in Road Runner which I have blocked because of spam.
>
> I just sent you an email. You can see whether you can receive my
> email.

I did, and we've exchanged e-mails since. Also, since you
asked, this article was about 10K in size -- well within my e-mail
limits.

>>> Can't find driver for console framebuffer
>>
>>Hmm ... do you use a console framebuffer at all?
>
> Not so far as I know! :-O

Look on the back. You would either have a 13W3 connector (DB-25
size, but thee coax pins, and ten single conductor pins) in the first or
second slot under the audio slot, or a card with a VGA style 15-pin D
series connector in one of the bottom four slots. Whatever your monitor
plugs into. Sun calls these "framebuffers", while other just call them
"graphics cards". If you *have* one, and you're getting the error
message, it may have been damaged. You might try pulling it, as long as
you are using a plain ASCII terminal for the console instead of the Sun
keyboard and monitor. As long as you don't have a Sun keyboard plugged
in, you don't need the monitor anyway. :-)

> Having looked at the Sun FAQ involving framebuffers, I really don't
> know whether this hardware has some (older?) framebuffer card.

You said something below about the monitor -- so you probably
do. As long as it works to display the system's status on boot with a
keyboard connected, you can perhaps ignore the error message.

> I really am not using the Sun for any kind of graphics specialties.
> It works on the keyboard and monitor attached to the Sun, so I'm happy!

Then you *do* have a framebuffer -- unless you are calling an
ASCII terminal a "monitor and keyboard". :-)

> (And, NORMALLY, I seldom have the monitor attached to the Sun
> even on, but I daily logged onto it from the Linux [rlogin].)

Of course. I have four systems in a rack with a switch to move
a monitor from one to the other, and each system has a keyboard.

[ ... ]

> Frankly, I couldn't care less about a "driver for console
> framebuffer", because the Sun does (or at least used to do) everything I
> want and need! :-)

O.K.

>>3) The Ultra 30 requires DC21153 Revision C. See BugID 4094903

[ ... ]

>> ================================================== ====================
>> Ultra 30 and Netra T1 200 don't power up with PCI_QFE cards
>> ================================================== ====================
>>
>>and your system does power up, which suggests that it is not the problem
>>that the BugID speaks about.
>
> Yes, I get that, too. And, I also can't see the content.
>
> But, I agree that the description indicates I likely don't have that
> problem. And, presumably, there are PCI_QFE cards that work with the
> Ultra 30.

[ ... ]

>> Did you change the names of the /etc/hostsname.hme? to point to
>>hme1 and hme2?
>
> As you probably figured out, as you read my additional replies, I had
> not as of then, but I have now. (And, now hme1 and hme2 show up in those
> error messages.)
>
>> Try the following from a booted system:
>>
>># prtdiag -v | grep 'hme'
>
> I had to type: /usr/platform/sun4u/sbin/prtdiag -v | grep 'hme', and

O.K. Solaris 10 has it as: /usr/sbin/prtdiag

> I get:
>
><<>>
> 0 PCI 33 1 network-SUNW,hme
><<>>

What about any qfe possible entries?

>>So you should see five of these -- one for the hme0 in the system board,
>>and the other four from the qfe card.
>
> Nope. Only one!
>
> (The path_to_inst file had entries for them all, but not that
> command.)

Interesting. What numbers did the path_to_inst file have? (It
is made more difficult by my not having a system running Solaris 8, or a
system with both Solaris and a QFE card installed to compare.)

>> Also -- there is this other line from the FEH:
>>
>>3) Quad FastEthernet hardware uses the SUNWqfed device driver
>>
>> Does your system show something to a "man qfe"? Solaris 10
>>does, and perhaps your Solaris 8 (IRRC) man page can show you something
>>to enable it again.
>
> Yes. A "man qfe" shows a man page with "qfe - SUNW,qfe Quad
> Fast-Ethernet device driver" under NAME.

Read through it, and see if it mentions anything special needed.
Perhaps it is something which should be in /opt/SUNWqfe which is only
installed if the card is detected during installation, just like the
/opt/SUNWleo for a particular framebuffer in the SPARCstation 5 which I
am still running.

Do you still have the install CDs or DVDs?

>> And there should be a /dev/qfe entry if the system recognized it
>>and installed it. (Hmm ... is it possible that you'll have to go back
>>to the install CD-ROMs to find the driver for it?
>
> If I type "ls -l /dev/qfe", I see:
>
><<>>
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Jul 29 2003 /dev/qfe -> ../devices/pseudo/clone@0:qfe
><<>>

O.K. Reasonable looking.

>> And try:
>>
>> ifconfig -a
>>
>>and see what it lists.
>
> I got:
>
><<>>
> lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
><<>>

So *nothing* is working other than the loopback pseudo-device.
Are the entries in /etc/path_to_inst still edited to different numbers?

Add the original ethernet card back into the system (leaving the
QFE installed and finding another slot for the original card) and do
the:

touch /reconfigure
reboot

cycle and see what happens. In particular, look at the output from

ifconfig -a

to see whether the card is added back.

Hmm ... another thing to check -- *which* slot is the QFE in?
according to the FEH the topmost PCI slot is a 3.3V 33/66 MHz slot,
while the other three are 5.0V 33 MHz and the QFE cards are 3.3/5V 33
MHz so I *think* that it should work in any slot, but try it in a
different slot anyway. Especially if it is in the topmost slot.

Is your original card one of 501-4359, 501-5019, or 540-3981? If
so, it should work in the same slots -- but who knows. Hmm ... is the
card's connector fully seated along the length of the system board's
connector?

Or -- could the PCI bus have been damaged by the lighting?
Consider getting a replacement system board as the safer (and surer) way
to go.

================================================== ====================

Beyond this is what should have been in the e-mail instead. It
is well off topic for the newsgroup, and will probably chase off others
who might help.

>> Hmm ... does it have a captive power cord, or one of the
>>plug-into-a-receptacle-on-the-back style? if the latter, look closely

[ ... ]

> It does have a plug-into-a-receptacle-on-the-back style! Let me go
> see...
>
> It's out in the garage. I don't believe it does.
>
> There is a female-style receptacle with two connectors into which the
> power cord attached. And, just above that, in the same single "plastic
> piece", is an outlet into which you could plug a 110-volt electrical cord,
> that says "Switched". (And, above that, but it's another "plastic piece",
> is where you can connect a 110-volt electrical cord, that says
> "Unswitched".)

This sounds different from what I was talking about. I was
talking about the device's own power cord plugging into a socket on the
back -- male pins recessed in a D-shaped hole -- just like the power
cord for your Ultra-30. (Except that the Ultra-30 doesn't have the fuse
in the socket kind of connector.)

What it sounds as though you have is still a captive power cord,
but a pair of outlets for accessories -- things like a turntable and
such.)

> However, using a small screwdriver, I didn't see anyway to get under
> it and pull anything out.

If you can't unplug the power cord from the equipment, you would
not see a removable fuse holder.

>> As long as that tower is well grounded, it will probably pull
>>the lightning away from the house
>
> Both masts that go to the ground are metal, and there is *at least* a
> 2-foot hole. And, both have concrete around the mast within the hole in
> the ground. (My father helped me with these, before he passed away.
> Anything he does in this department is done good!) :-)

O.K. I wonder whether there are buried ground rods under the
concrete? In any case, it sounds pretty well grounded.

[ ... ]

>> GC-1000? A general communications receiver? I'm trying to
>>remember when Heathkit folded.
>
> For 5, 10 and 15 MHz.
>
>> Early 80's? Then solid state, not tube based I guess?
>
> Correct.
>
>> But you should have good documentation for it, if you kept all
>>of the kit instructions.
>
> And, I do. Actually, I have had it repaired, once, in the mid
> 1990's. I called around, and found someone who would repair it, even
> though "Heathkit" no longer existed. (As of then, I didn't have any other
> atomic clock monitor available for my computer.)

O.K. I wonder whether any of the chips used are no longer
available.

[ ... ]

>>> I have a ground cable attached to a ground rod beside my house which
>>> is run up into the attic. The TV and another, though smaller, wire from
>>> the inside connection of the wind anemometer where it connects to the
>>> junction box is attached to it.
>>
>> How heavy a ground wire? With lightning, I'm not *really*
>>comfortable even with the solid 8 gauge copper wire.
>
> I'm afraid things like "8 gauge" doesn't tell me much. I purchased
> it from Radio Shack in the first half of the 1990's, when I had this house
> built. (They called it a ground cable.) I just measured the width, it is
> about 1/8" of an inch thick. And, I don't think it's copper...

8 Gauge is about 1/4" diameter round wire (say I without going
out into the dark to measure it. :-)

Could it be flat braid? That would be copper wire which was
tinned so it will look silvery, and it is woven and then squished flat.
If wide enough, it could still be serious. 1/8" thick and 1" wide would
be reasonable.

[ ... ]

>> I was wondering about that -- but presumed that you found it
>>with a search for "qfe" among other parameters.
>
> Nope. I didn't have qfe in the search. I realized it wasn't talking
> about the exact same type of interface, but I was just hoping! :-)
>
>> You can try it, then look for a "/dev/qfe" entry, and check the
>>"ifconfig" to see what you get. I would expect "hme1" to become
>>"hme2001" and so forth, requiring changes in the names of the
>>/etc/hostname.hme? files.
>
> Ah! After I get back to this (probably in about another hour, unless
> I'm called and told we can go to work), I'll look into that. (Right now
> the path_to_inst is the only place where I see qfe stuff. But, I'll see
> whether it looks like a change to my hostname.hme files is appropriate; I
> hadn't thought of that...

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Hi DoN!

>> (This is the fourth time I've tried to post this article! It was written
>> this late morning.)
>
> Hmm ... where was the problem?

I believe it was where my USENET is hosted.

I use trn as my newsreader. And, I currently have my NNTPSERVER
environment variable set to isp5.newshosting.com. (RoadRunner a couple of
months ago stopped hosting USENET, but Bright House then provided a
service. I have always used NNTP news.)

Anyway, after about a minute (or more) delay, it said Remote Error.

The fourth time I tried posting it, it worked.

> Look on the back. You would either have a 13W3 connector (DB-25
>size, but thee coax pins, and ten single conductor pins) in the first or
>second slot under the audio slot, or a card with a VGA style 15-pin D
>series connector in one of the bottom four slots. Whatever your monitor
>plugs into. Sun calls these "framebuffers", while other just call them
>"graphics cards". If you *have* one, and you're getting the error
>message, it may have been damaged. You might try pulling it, as long as
>you are using a plain ASCII terminal for the console instead of the Sun
>keyboard and monitor. As long as you don't have a Sun keyboard plugged
>in, you don't need the monitor anyway. :-)

Yes. I have a 13W3 connector, in the "0" slot near the bottom with
what looks like a monitor symbol next to it. And, I have an adapter that
allows use of a VGA (a "regular" PC) monitor), which is what I'm using.

I do have a monitor and a keyboard plugged into appropriate slots on
the back of the Ultra 30. In fact, I had never connected a terminal to
TTYA or TTYB until I did so, responding to one of your early replies to me
after the lightning strike.

> You said something below about the monitor -- so you probably
>do. As long as it works to display the system's status on boot with a
>keyboard connected, you can perhaps ignore the error message.

It displays the systems status on boot, and then provides a login.
With the "disk" drive I'm using now, it is an ASCII-style login prompt. I
can type root or barry and log into it, normally. (With my "disk1", the
larger hard drive, after it boots it displays the Common Desktop graphical
login. I didn't install the graphical stuff the first time I installed
Solaris, because it was only a 4.2G disk.)

I am ignoring it -- at least right now! :-)

>> I get:
>>
>><<>>
>> 0 PCI 33 1 network-SUNW,hme
>><<>>
>
> What about any qfe possible entries?

Good question! :-D

>>>So you should see five of these -- one for the hme0 in the system board,
>>>and the other four from the qfe card.
>>
>> Nope. Only one!
>>
>> (The path_to_inst file had entries for them all, but not that
>> command.)
>
> Interesting. What numbers did the path_to_inst file have? (It
>is made more difficult by my not having a system running Solaris 8, or a
>system with both Solaris and a QFE card installed to compare.)

Here is an excerpt of six lines from my path_to_inst file:

<<>>
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@2,1" 2 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@3,1" 3 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@0,1" 0 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@1,1" 1 "qfe"
"/pci@1f,4000/network1,1" 0 "hme"
"/pci@1f,4000/SUNW,hme@2,1" 1 "hme"
<<>>

>> Yes. A "man qfe" shows a man page with "qfe - SUNW,qfe Quad
>> Fast-Ethernet device driver" under NAME.
>
> Read through it, and see if it mentions anything special needed.
>Perhaps it is something which should be in /opt/SUNWqfe which is only
>installed if the card is detected during installation, just like the
>/opt/SUNWleo for a particular framebuffer in the SPARCstation 5 which I
>am still running.

Reading through it...

I see:

<<>>
The qfe driver is a "style 2" data link service provider. All M_PROTO and
M_PCPROTO type messages are interpreted as DLPI primitives. Valid DLPI
primitives are defined in . Refer to dlpi(7P) for more
information. An explicit DL_ATTACH_REQ message by the user is required to
associate the opened stream with a particular device (ppa). The ppa ID is
interpreted as an unsigned long data type and indicates the corresponding
device instance (unit) number.

Devices

The driver returns an error (DL_ERROR_ACK) if the ppa field value does not
correspond to a valid device instance number for this system. The device
is initialized on first attach and de-initialized (stopped) at last
detach.
<<>>

I can't say that I see anything like "this is needed". I excerpted
the above because the DL_ERROR_ACK are the errors I am getting.

It mentions the /dev/qfe "file", which I have.

I do NOT have a "SUNWqfe" under /opt. The only things I have under
/opt that starts with SUNW are:

<<>>
SUNWconn
SUNWebnfs
SUNWits
SUNWrtvc
SUNWste
<<>>

Do you still have the install CDs or DVDs?

Yes.

So, look on it/them for SUNWqfe? I'm checking, now...



At first, when I inserted the Solaris 8 Documentation CD, the drive
drawer stayed closed. But, I couldn't see anything that happened. I
checked "mount" and I couldn't see anything different.

I googled, and tried various things (seeing stuff like volcheck,
which didn't seem to be for CDs, to me).

I then touched the button on the CD drive, and removed that CD, and
inserted the Solaris 8 Installation CD. (What I'm looking for is a way to
see whether something [such as SUNWqfe] is among what is to install, and I
want to install that only, instead of installing all of Solaris. I've
ONLY used it, twice, to install Solaris from scratch at this point.)

But, when I place any CD in the drive now, and close the drawer (by
either touching the button again or gently pushing on the open drawer
until it closes), after a few seconds, the drawer opens again.

I have a vague memory of when I got the larger hard drive, I
installed Solaris from scratch using these CDs. (And, I had installed
Solaris from these CDs when I first installed it, in 2003.)

I seem to recall that the last time, I had to allow the air
compressor to pump full of air, and I gave a good "air squirt" around the
CD drive. Then, it worked!

But, I did it, this time, and the drawer does NOT stay closed.

Is there any way I can get the SUNWqfe that I guess may have been put
in the /opt directory if I had had the QFE card installed when I last
installed Solaris, other than on the CD?

The ONLY THING I need at this point is something else to delay me
if I have to replace the CD drive!

The light blinks, as normal, when the drawer is closed. But, it
opens again. (Perhaps the CD is not actually "spinning up?")

Now, the drawer is even opening again even if I close it with NO CD
in the drive!

Doing a find looking for qfe in file names, though, I see these:

<<>>
/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfed
/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfedx
/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfedu
<<>>

Might that be them, just not in /opt?

>> I got:
>>
>><<>>
>> lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
>> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
>><<>>
>
> So *nothing* is working other than the loopback pseudo-device.
>Are the entries in /etc/path_to_inst still edited to different numbers?

No. I put it back EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS before I edited anything!
What I have excerpted above is how they currently look.

> Add the original ethernet card back into the system (leaving the
>QFE installed and finding another slot for the original card) and do
>the:
>
> touch /reconfigure
> reboot
>
>cycle and see what happens. In particular, look at the output from
>
> ifconfig -a
>
>to see whether the card is added back.

Okay. The QFE card is in PCI slot 2. (Nothing was in 1, 3 or 4.)

I just put the original ethernet card I had in slot 4. (This was to
leave more room between the cards, for cleaning or whatever occasionally,
if by some wonderful chance they remain this way...)

I did a "boot -r".

An "ifconfig -a" shows:

<<>>
lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
hme2: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 3
inet 192.168.2.2 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
ether 8:0:20:8f:d3:67
<<>>

> Hmm ... another thing to check -- *which* slot is the QFE in?
>according to the FEH the topmost PCI slot is a 3.3V 33/66 MHz slot,
>while the other three are 5.0V 33 MHz and the QFE cards are 3.3/5V 33
>MHz so I *think* that it should work in any slot, but try it in a
>different slot anyway. Especially if it is in the topmost slot.

It was and still is in PCI slot 2. It is not in the topmost slot.

I'll wait on this and see whether you still want me to try this, in
light of what I've included in this article.

> Is your original card one of 501-4359, 501-5019, or 540-3981? If
>so, it should work in the same slots -- but who knows. Hmm ... is the
>card's connector fully seated along the length of the system board's
>connector?

I don't know. Can I tell by looking at the card? (Hmmm... looking
at the "top" of the circuit board, I see a number 3697 on a little white
sticker. That's the only thing I see, on the side I can see, other than
"Sun, Assembled in USA" on another little white sticker.)

Let me guess, there is something on the other side that indicates it?
(Now that I have in the computer!) :-D (I should have "read ahead"
before I put it in the computer, on the bottom PCI slot!) :-D

And, yes, it is fully seated. I did verify this when I put it in the
system, before I booted the first time afterward. And, it's nice. If it
IS fully seated, that screw on the end is just for a little "hold", but it
is already fully against the metal frame where the screw goes in -- if it
is "in" fully in the motherboard slot.

> Or -- could the PCI bus have been damaged by the lighting?
>Consider getting a replacement system board as the safer (and surer) way
>to go.

I don't *think* so. At least, when I got home on Tuesday, July 22
(it will be ONE MONTH tomorrow!), the Linux was still connected to the
Sun's port via the card I just placed back in. And, mutt was working.
And, I had 27 new emails, which I read, deleted, switched folders, etc.

At least, the PCI slot that contained this card (which was in PCI
slot 2, where the QFE is now) still appeared to be working.

I'll put what you had at this point in a "Non-Sun-Stuff" email. :-)

However, I'm going to go out, before it gets darker, even though it
is currently raining hard, and remove the hurricane shutters. Fay is
FINALLY moving again! And, none of the computer models show her getting
too close to where I live. And, now that she is finally heading westward
over Florida, she surely is not likely to strengthen. So, it may be up to
60-mph winds, but that's okay, and just continued lots of rain.

My mother HATES the hurricane shutters up, because they block her
ability to see out! :-D I am not confident that we're not going to need
them, so I'm going out to take them down.

Tomorrow morning, I take my mother to the Filutowski Cataract and
Laser Institute. They'll check her eye (just over one week since the
surgery) and confirm for us that Wednesday of next week, she'll have her
right eye done. (This was not "in stone" until they saw her again, this
week.)

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Corporation | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

On 2008-08-21, Barry L. Bond wrote:
>
> Hi DoN!

[ ... ]

>> Look on the back. You would either have a 13W3 connector (DB-25
>>size, but thee coax pins, and ten single conductor pins) in the first or
>>second slot under the audio slot, or a card with a VGA style 15-pin D
>>series connector in one of the bottom four slots. Whatever your monitor
>>plugs into. Sun calls these "framebuffers", while other just call them
>>"graphics cards". If you *have* one, and you're getting the error
>>message, it may have been damaged. You might try pulling it, as long as
>>you are using a plain ASCII terminal for the console instead of the Sun
>>keyboard and monitor. As long as you don't have a Sun keyboard plugged
>>in, you don't need the monitor anyway. :-)
>
> Yes. I have a 13W3 connector, in the "0" slot near the bottom with
> what looks like a monitor symbol next to it.

O.K. That is likely to be one of the Creator series or perhaps
an Elite-3D. Does it have a small DIN connector down close to the tab
of the card bracket? (Not that this is important for what we are
dealing with.)

> And, I have an adapter that
> allows use of a VGA (a "regular" PC) monitor), which is what I'm using.

O.K.

> I do have a monitor and a keyboard plugged into appropriate slots on
> the back of the Ultra 30. In fact, I had never connected a terminal to
> TTYA or TTYB until I did so, responding to one of your early replies to me
> after the lightning strike.

O.K. With a serial terminal, you don't need the monitor or
keyboard at all. The terminal's "break" key takes the place of the
"Stop-A" pair on the keyboard.

But that depends on the serial port working, and IIRC that also
is zapped.

>> You said something below about the monitor -- so you probably
>>do. As long as it works to display the system's status on boot with a
>>keyboard connected, you can perhaps ignore the error message.
>
> It displays the systems status on boot, and then provides a login.
> With the "disk" drive I'm using now, it is an ASCII-style login prompt. I
> can type root or barry and log into it, normally. (With my "disk1", the
> larger hard drive, after it boots it displays the Common Desktop graphical
> login. I didn't install the graphical stuff the first time I installed
> Solaris, because it was only a 4.2G disk.)

O.K.

> I am ignoring it -- at least right now! :-)
>
>>> I get:
>>>
>>><<>>
>>> 0 PCI 33 1 network-SUNW,hme
>>><<>>
>>
>> What about any qfe possible entries?
>
> Good question! :-D
>
>>>>So you should see five of these -- one for the hme0 in the system board,
>>>>and the other four from the qfe card.
>>>
>>> Nope. Only one!
>>>
>>> (The path_to_inst file had entries for them all, but not that
>>> command.)
>>
>> Interesting. What numbers did the path_to_inst file have? (It
>>is made more difficult by my not having a system running Solaris 8, or a
>>system with both Solaris and a QFE card installed to compare.)
>
> Here is an excerpt of six lines from my path_to_inst file:
>
><<>>
> "/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@2,1" 2 "qfe"
> "/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@3,1" 3 "qfe"
> "/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@0,1" 0 "qfe"
> "/pci@1f,4000/pci@2/SUNW,qfe@1,1" 1 "qfe"
> "/pci@1f,4000/network1,1" 0 "hme"
> "/pci@1f,4000/SUNW,hme@2,1" 1 "hme"
><<>>

O.K. Interesting the order that these are in, but the instance
number matches the port number in the card's name.

So -- perhaps it should have hostname.qfe0 and hostname.qfe1 in
place of the hme versions? Remember that I'm using the qfe on an
OpenBSD system, which calls them *all* "hme?".

I tried to spot the spare qfe card which I have somewhere to
stuff it into the spare Sun Blade 1000 which I am currently
experimenting with to see what it shows up as.

>>> Yes. A "man qfe" shows a man page with "qfe - SUNW,qfe Quad
>>> Fast-Ethernet device driver" under NAME.
>>
>> Read through it, and see if it mentions anything special needed.
>>Perhaps it is something which should be in /opt/SUNWqfe which is only
>>installed if the card is detected during installation, just like the
>>/opt/SUNWleo for a particular framebuffer in the SPARCstation 5 which I
>>am still running.
>
> Reading through it...
>
> I see:
>
><<>>
> The qfe driver is a "style 2" data link service provider. All M_PROTO and
> M_PCPROTO type messages are interpreted as DLPI primitives. Valid DLPI
> primitives are defined in . Refer to dlpi(7P) for more
> information. An explicit DL_ATTACH_REQ message by the user is required to
> associate the opened stream with a particular device (ppa). The ppa ID is
> interpreted as an unsigned long data type and indicates the corresponding
> device instance (unit) number.
>
> Devices
>
> The driver returns an error (DL_ERROR_ACK) if the ppa field value does not
> correspond to a valid device instance number for this system. The device
> is initialized on first attach and de-initialized (stopped) at last
> detach.
><<>>
>
> I can't say that I see anything like "this is needed". I excerpted
> the above because the DL_ERROR_ACK are the errors I am getting.

O.K.

> It mentions the /dev/qfe "file", which I have.

Good.

[ ... ]

> Do you still have the install CDs or DVDs?
>
> Yes.
>
> So, look on it/them for SUNWqfe? I'm checking, now...
>
>
>
> At first, when I inserted the Solaris 8 Documentation CD, the drive
> drawer stayed closed. But, I couldn't see anything that happened. I
> checked "mount" and I couldn't see anything different.

[ ... lots of problems with CD-ROM drive (or is it really the
SCSI DVD-ROM which is in some Ultra-60 machines? ]

Anyway -- is vold running? Try:

ps -ae | grep 'vold'

If so, it is trying to mount the CD-ROM where it thinks it
belongs (and you need to have the proper mount point present). To turn
to off, try:

sh /etc/init.d/volmgt stop

and once that is done, edit the /etc/vfstab file to add the line:

================================================== ====================
/dev/sr0 /dev/rsr0 /cdrom hsfs - no ro
================================================== ====================

to the file, then make sure to create the directory /cdrom.

Then (as long as "vold" is not running you can mount the CD
using "mount /cdrom" and get rid of it using "umount /cdrom".

> Is there any way I can get the SUNWqfe that I guess may have been put
> in the /opt directory if I had had the QFE card installed when I last
> installed Solaris, other than on the CD?

Well ... not sure whether it should be there or not.

> The ONLY THING I need at this point is something else to delay me
> if I have to replace the CD drive!
>
> The light blinks, as normal, when the drawer is closed. But, it
> opens again. (Perhaps the CD is not actually "spinning up?")
>
> Now, the drawer is even opening again even if I close it with NO CD
> in the drive!
>
> Doing a find looking for qfe in file names, though, I see these:
>
><<>>
> /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfed
> /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfedx
> /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfedu
><<>>

O.K. Solaris 10 has only /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfed and
/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWqfedu. Not sure what the 'x' suffix version does. It
is also not present in the Solaris 2.6 version on a SS-5.

> Might that be them, just not in /opt?

That probably says that they have already been installed.

Look in: /kernel/drv/sparcv9/qfe

if it is there, it is installed -- for the 64-bit mode of the CPUs only.
In the Solaris 2.6, it is only:

/kernel/drv/qfe

BTW While testing these, have you had ethernet cables connecting
two of the QFE ports to the hub or router which you have? If so
do you see leds lit on both the hub and the QFE card?

I wonder whether the QFE card is bad?

>>> I got:
>>>
>>><<>>
>>> lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
>>> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
>>><<>>
>>
>> So *nothing* is working other than the loopback pseudo-device.
>>Are the entries in /etc/path_to_inst still edited to different numbers?
>
> No. I put it back EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS before I edited anything!
> What I have excerpted above is how they currently look.

O.K. BTW -- before you change *any* file like this -- make a
copy (e.g. /etc/path_to_inst.ORIG) to make it easier to restore. But I
think that it is built fresh by a reconfigure boot.

Hmm ... does your system have a man page for path_to_inst? In
particular, does it say this?


================================================== ====================
Note that it is generally not necessary for the system
administrator to change this file, as the system will main-
tain it.

The system administrator can change the assignment of
instance numbers by editing this file and doing a reconfi-
guration reboot. However, any changes made in this file will
be lost if add_drv(1M) or devfsadm(1M) is run before the
system is rebooted.
================================================== ====================

And does Solaris 8 even *have* devfsadm? I know that it is not
in Solaris 2.6, and I thought that it originated in Solaris 9.

This suggests that maybe you want to totally rename the
path_to_inst file (perhaps to "PATH_TO_INST") and then do a shutdown and
issue a "boot -r" from the OBP prompt, since the system probably can't
see the "/reconfigure" file if you try that way to reboot. This should
recreate the path-to-inst file, using only what it finds in the system
at that time. And you can still use the other drive to recover with the
renamed file if that becomes necessary.)

>> Add the original ethernet card back into the system (leaving the
>>QFE installed and finding another slot for the original card) and do
>>the:
>>
>> touch /reconfigure
>> reboot
>>
>>cycle and see what happens. In particular, look at the output from
>>
>> ifconfig -a
>>
>>to see whether the card is added back.
>
> Okay. The QFE card is in PCI slot 2. (Nothing was in 1, 3 or 4.)
>
> I just put the original ethernet card I had in slot 4. (This was to
> leave more room between the cards, for cleaning or whatever occasionally,
> if by some wonderful chance they remain this way...)
>
> I did a "boot -r".
>
> An "ifconfig -a" shows:
>
><<>>
> lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
> hme2: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 3
> inet 192.168.2.2 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
> ether 8:0:20:8f:d3:67
><<>>

Interesting -- it does not see hme0 (in the system board) or
hme1 (which supposedly is in the QFE). Another reason to get the system
to create a new path_to_inst file by doing a "boot -r" after the file
has been renamed.

But -- it *does* like that card -- in any slot.

>> Hmm ... another thing to check -- *which* slot is the QFE in?
>>according to the FEH the topmost PCI slot is a 3.3V 33/66 MHz slot,
>>while the other three are 5.0V 33 MHz and the QFE cards are 3.3/5V 33
>>MHz so I *think* that it should work in any slot, but try it in a
>>different slot anyway. Especially if it is in the topmost slot.
>
> It was and still is in PCI slot 2. It is not in the topmost slot.

O.K. Just for the fun of it -- move the QFE card to the topmost
slot and repeat your reconfigure boot -- then your "ifconfig -a" to see
whether it sees the ports again.

> I'll wait on this and see whether you still want me to try this, in
> light of what I've included in this article.
>
>> Is your original card one of 501-4359, 501-5019, or 540-3981? If
>>so, it should work in the same slots -- but who knows. Hmm ... is the
>>card's connector fully seated along the length of the system board's
>>connector?
>
> I don't know. Can I tell by looking at the card?

Yes -- usually a white or orange colored barcode label starting
with the five digits of one of those, without the '-'. The number will
be longer, with the rest of it making up the card's serial number.

On one of my Creator-3D cards, the barcode label is along the
back edge on the component (down) side of the card.

Again -- the number probably does not matter, because it works.
But you probably want to look on eBay for a match for the one you have,
so your search should be for the number both with and without the '-'.

> (Hmmm... looking
> at the "top" of the circuit board, I see a number 3697 on a little white
> sticker. That's the only thing I see, on the side I can see, other than
> "Sun, Assembled in USA" on another little white sticker.)

Nope -- too short. And the barcode label will probably be on
the bottom (component) side of the board.

> Let me guess, there is something on the other side that indicates it?
> (Now that I have in the computer!) :-D (I should have "read ahead"
> before I put it in the computer, on the bottom PCI slot!) :-D

:-)

> And, yes, it is fully seated. I did verify this when I put it in the
> system, before I booted the first time afterward. And, it's nice. If it
> IS fully seated, that screw on the end is just for a little "hold", but it
> is already fully against the metal frame where the screw goes in -- if it
> is "in" fully in the motherboard slot.
>
>> Or -- could the PCI bus have been damaged by the lighting?
>>Consider getting a replacement system board as the safer (and surer) way
>>to go.
>
> I don't *think* so. At least, when I got home on Tuesday, July 22
> (it will be ONE MONTH tomorrow!),

That hurts.

> the Linux was still connected to the
> Sun's port via the card I just placed back in. And, mutt was working.
> And, I had 27 new emails, which I read, deleted, switched folders, etc.
>
> At least, the PCI slot that contained this card (which was in PCI
> slot 2, where the QFE is now) still appeared to be working.

O.K. But maybe the QFE will work better in the top slot (slot
1). It is worth a try.

> I'll put what you had at this point in a "Non-Sun-Stuff" email. :-)

Good. It does not belong here.

> However, I'm going to go out, before it gets darker, even though it
> is currently raining hard, and remove the hurricane shutters. Fay is
> FINALLY moving again! And, none of the computer models show her getting
> too close to where I live. And, now that she is finally heading westward
> over Florida, she surely is not likely to strengthen. So, it may be up to
> 60-mph winds, but that's okay, and just continued lots of rain.
>
> My mother HATES the hurricane shutters up, because they block her
> ability to see out! :-D

Well -- she wants to *use* her fixed eye.

> I am not confident that we're not going to need
> them, so I'm going out to take them down.

That does not sound right. Didn't you mean to say that you
*were* confident that you would not need them?

> Tomorrow morning, I take my mother to the Filutowski Cataract and
> Laser Institute. They'll check her eye (just over one week since the
> surgery) and confirm for us that Wednesday of next week, she'll have her
> right eye done. (This was not "in stone" until they saw her again, this
> week.)

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Hi DoN!

> O.K. That is likely to be one of the Creator series or perhaps
>an Elite-3D. Does it have a small DIN connector down close to the tab
>of the card bracket? (Not that this is important for what we are
>dealing with.)

Yes, a circular jack next to the adapter connector.

> So -- perhaps it should have hostname.qfe0 and hostname.qfe1 in
>place of the hme versions? Remember that I'm using the qfe on an
>OpenBSD system, which calls them *all* "hme?".

DoN! :-O

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

That was it!!!

I now have a hostname.qfe0 and hostname.qfe1. My D-Link router
is on
the qfe0 and the Linux computer is on the qfe1.

It is after 2:00 AM Saturday morning, and I am so tired I can't
see
straight! I have to get to bed...

But, the Linux sendmail sends to the Sun sendmail, and the Sun
sendmail is getting the Linux AND the Internet mail, and putting it in
my
"mutt" mailbox! :-D

The reason I have to still manually intervene to send this is the
Sun
is not playing the role of a router, even though both network ports
are in
use.

On either system, I can ping the Linux network port and both of
the
Sun network ports (currently in use, qfe0 and qfe1). But, I can't
ping
the D-Link router or any Internet address. Even on the Sun, I can't
ping
Internet addresses, even though the fetchmail on the Sun is
communicating
and has transferred all of my email to the Sun's hard drive. And,
every
five minutes, if there's another email, it's here again!

I can't use Netscape on the Sun or Firefox or any Internet
connections on the Linux system.

I have defaults/gateways set up on both systems...

Here's the Linux:

<<>>
[root@barrycon ~]# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:F4:6F8:01
inet addr:192.168.2.1 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:
255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::240:f4ff:fe6f:d801/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:358600 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:192742 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:507185982 (483.6 MiB) TX bytes:16459497 (15.6 MiB)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x6000

[root@barrycon ~]# netstat -r
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window
irtt Iface
192.168.224.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0
0 vmnet8
192.168.2.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0
0 eth0
172.16.40.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0
0 vmnet1
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0
0 eth0
default canaan-2 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0
0 eth0
<<>>

And here's the Sun:

<<>>
bash-2.03# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index
1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
qfe0: flags=1000843 mtu 1500
index 2
inet 192.168.0.201 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
ether 8:0:20:8f:d3:67
qfe1: flags=1000843 mtu 1500
index 3
inet 192.168.2.2 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
ether 8:0:20:8f:d3:67
bash-2.03# netstat -nr

Routing Table: IPv4
Destination Gateway Flags Ref Use Interface
-------------------- -------------------- ----- ----- ------ ---------
192.168.0.0 192.168.0.201 U 1 1 qfe0
192.168.2.0 192.168.2.2 U 1 1 qfe1
224.0.0.0 192.168.0.201 U 1 0 qfe0
default 192.168.0.1 UG 1 8
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 3 2929 lo0
<<>>

(And, it's not typed, this time! I rlogin'd to the Sun, and cut
and
pasted it into my vi!) :-) :-) :-)

At this moment, my USB backup to the SimpleTech drive (and this
one
is the one that is working, the Tuesday morning Western Digital is
what
isn't working) is running. And, I'm getting email! I am getting
email
from the Linux system, and I'm getting email from the Internet, so
fetchmail on the Sun is back and doing wonderful for me!!!

But, I can't send email or connect to Usenet yet from the Linux
system. I will temporary change the Linux networking to DHCP and
connect
it to the D-Link router to send this to you, and then put it back!

I will hopefully have a chance, tomorrow (Saturday) -- though I
have
a very busy day -- to figure out what I'm missing. But, I sure do
like
getting my Linux email again!

Before, there was one file, it may have been gateways, that I had
to
have in place, or else something (similar to this, if I recall) didn't
work right. And, it was DIFFERENT than what I would have thought
should
have been used, by reading the Solaris System Admin Manual 3,
regarding
networking.

But, I've experimented with gateways and defaultrouter and this
isn't working, yet.

But, I will go to bed incredibly happy that I am SO MUCH CLOSER
than
I've been since the lightning strike! :-D

> [ ... lots of problems with CD-ROM drive (or is it really the
> SCSI DVD-ROM which is in some Ultra-60 machines? ]

I'm not sure. The drawer says "compact disc" on it. However,
last
night, when I tried to boot from the cdrom, I am 95% sure it had
"scsi" in
what output on the monitor!

> Anyway -- is vold running? Try:
>
> ps -ae | grep 'vold'
>
> If so, it is trying to mount the CD-ROM where it thinks it
>belongs (and you need to have the proper mount point present). To turn
>to off, try:
>
> sh /etc/init.d/volmgt stop
>
>and once that is done, edit the /etc/vfstab file to add the line:
>
> ================================================== ====================
>/dev/sr0 /dev/rsr0 /cdrom hsfs - no ro
> ================================================== ====================
>
>to the file, then make sure to create the directory /cdrom.
>
> Then (as long as "vold" is not running you can mount the CD
>using "mount /cdrom" and get rid of it using "umount /cdrom".

vold does NOT seem to be running.

At the moment, the drawer comes back out whether I have a CD in
it or
not. And, even if I put a CD in it, and pay attention to exactly the
"orientation" of the label and text on the CD, the drawer goes in, and
there is a delay of a few seconds, and the drawer opens again. The
orientation is EXACTLY the same. (And, I've tried this several times,
now.)

It *may* be whatever the "nub" that spins should be called is not
"spinning up", and that could be why it is ejecting/opening the
drawer...
again, whether there is a CD or not!

But, I am just ignoring this for the moment! I am finally
getting
closer again! :-D

Type to you some time! :-)

Barry

On 2008-08-23, Barry wrote:
> Hi DoN!
>
>> O.K. That is likely to be one of the Creator series or perhaps
>>an Elite-3D. Does it have a small DIN connector down close to the tab
>>of the card bracket? (Not that this is important for what we are
>>dealing with.)
>
> Yes, a circular jack next to the adapter connector.

So -- probably a Creator-3D. That one can be used in a Sun
Blade 1000 or 2000 -- I've got one in my SB-2000 at present.

>> So -- perhaps it should have hostname.qfe0 and hostname.qfe1 in
>>place of the hme versions? Remember that I'm using the qfe on an
>>OpenBSD system, which calls them *all* "hme?".
>
> DoN! :-O
>
> THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
> THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
> THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
>
> That was it!!!
>
> I now have a hostname.qfe0 and hostname.qfe1. My D-Link router
> is on
> the qfe0 and the Linux computer is on the qfe1.

Great! The qfe entries did not show up on the "ifconfig -a"
before, and do now?

> It is after 2:00 AM Saturday morning, and I am so tired I can't
> see
> straight! I have to get to bed...

:-)

> But, the Linux sendmail sends to the Sun sendmail, and the Sun
> sendmail is getting the Linux AND the Internet mail, and putting it in
> my
> "mutt" mailbox! :-D
>
> The reason I have to still manually intervene to send this is the
> Sun
> is not playing the role of a router, even though both network ports
> are in
> use.

Read through /etc/init.d/inetinit -- especially near the end.
Solaris 2.6 has (in part):


================================================== ====================
#
# Determine how many active interfaces there are and how many pt-pt
# interfaces. Act as a router if there are more than 2 interfaces
# (including the loopback interface) or one or more point-point
# interface. Also act as a router if /etc/gateways exists.
#
# Do NOT act as a router if /etc/notrouter exists.
# Do NOT act as a router if DHCP was used to configure interface(s)
#

numifs=`ifconfig -au | grep inet | wc -l`
numptptifs=`ifconfig -au | grep inet | egrep -e '-->' | wc -l`
numdhcp=`ifconfig -a | grep DHCP | wc -l`
if [ ! -f /etc/notrouter -a $numdhcp -eq 0 -a \
\( $numifs -gt 2 -o $numptptifs -gt 0 -o -f /etc/gateways \) ]
then
# Machine is a router: turn on ip_forwarding, run routed,
# and advertise ourselves as a router using router discovery.
================================================== ====================

That file is not present at all on Solaris 10, which has a very
different way to do things. I don't know what Solaris 8 does, but I
suspect that it is closer to what Solaris 2.6 does.

> On either system, I can ping the Linux network port and both of
> the
> Sun network ports (currently in use, qfe0 and qfe1). But, I can't
> ping
> the D-Link router or any Internet address. Even on the Sun, I can't
> ping
> Internet addresses, even though the fetchmail on the Sun is
> communicating
> and has transferred all of my email to the Sun's hard drive. And,
> every
> five minutes, if there's another email, it's here again!
>
> I can't use Netscape on the Sun or Firefox or any Internet
> connections on the Linux system.
>
> I have defaults/gateways set up on both systems...

[ ... ]

>
> And here's the Sun:
>
><<>>
> bash-2.03# ifconfig -a
> lo0: flags=1000849 mtu 8232 index 1
> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
> qfe0: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2
> inet 192.168.0.201 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
> ether 8:0:20:8f:d3:67
> qfe1: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 3
> inet 192.168.2.2 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
> ether 8:0:20:8f:d3:67
> bash-2.03# netstat -nr

O.K. It only sees the qfe entries which are referenced in the
/etc/hostsname.qfe? files.

> Routing Table: IPv4
> Destination Gateway Flags Ref Use Interface
> -------------------- -------------------- ----- ----- ------ ---------
> 192.168.0.0 192.168.0.201 U 1 1 qfe0
> 192.168.2.0 192.168.2.2 U 1 1 qfe1
> 224.0.0.0 192.168.0.201 U 1 0 qfe0
> default 192.168.0.1 UG 1 8
> 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 3 2929 lo0
><<>>

Default is the router box -- reasonable.

Do you have an /etc/resolv.conf file? Where is it set to look
for DNS information?

> (And, it's not typed, this time! I rlogin'd to the Sun, and cut
> and
> pasted it into my vi!) :-) :-) :-)

:-)

> At this moment, my USB backup to the SimpleTech drive (and this
> one
> is the one that is working, the Tuesday morning Western Digital is
> what
> isn't working) is running. And, I'm getting email! I am getting
> email
> from the Linux system, and I'm getting email from the Internet, so
> fetchmail on the Sun is back and doing wonderful for me!!!

:-)

Still plan to get a new system board -- or better move up to an
Ultra-60 and Solaris 10. (Even better is a Sun Blade 1000 or 2000 and
Solaris 10.

> But, I can't send email or connect to Usenet yet from the Linux
> system. I will temporary change the Linux networking to DHCP and
> connect
> it to the D-Link router to send this to you, and then put it back!
>
> I will hopefully have a chance, tomorrow (Saturday) -- though I
> have
> a very busy day -- to figure out what I'm missing.

Good luck.

You might try traceroute looking both for a system by name and a
system by raw IP address to see where it gets lost. If you want a known
pairing, try this:

ftp.uu.net 192.48.96.9

but don't use it too much -- I'm sure that it will annoy them. Just a
quick check to see whether an attempt to get out will work.

Have you re-enabled all the things which you disabled to keep
the console clear of error messages? Maybe your problem is one of those
is still turned off.

> But, I sure do
> like
> getting my Linux email again!

:-)

> Before, there was one file, it may have been gateways, that I had
> to
> have in place, or else something (similar to this, if I recall) didn't
> work right. And, it was DIFFERENT than what I would have thought
> should
> have been used, by reading the Solaris System Admin Manual 3,
> regarding
> networking.

O.K. I find that /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/defaultrouter are the
ones which I need.

> But, I've experimented with gateways and defaultrouter and this
> isn't working, yet.

Do you have the hme0 and hme1 names in any of those files? You
might try this to find where they are lurking:


================================================== ====================
find /etc -type f -print | xargs grep 'hme'
================================================== ====================

so if you still have things pointing to the hme ports which need to be
changed, that could keep things from working.

[ ... ]

>> [ ... lots of problems with CD-ROM drive (or is it really the
>> SCSI DVD-ROM which is in some Ultra-60 machines? ]
>
> I'm not sure. The drawer says "compact disc" on it. However,
> last
> night, when I tried to boot from the cdrom, I am 95% sure it had
> "scsi" in
> what output on the monitor!

O.K. If it said "Compact Disc" on the drawer, and does not say
"DVD" somewhere it is just a CD reader, not a DVD reader. But of course
it will be a SCSI one, not an IDE one, which you would only find on the
Ultra-5, Ultra-10, and Sun Blade 100 (*not* 1000). They also have IDE
disks in them instead of SCSI.

The ones which I have from Ultra-2, Ultra-60, and Sun Blade
1000/2000 say "Compact Disc" on the left hand end of the drawer, and
"DVD rom" in the center. Dark gray. Toshiba M1401.

>> Anyway -- is vold running? Try:

[ ... ]

> vold does NOT seem to be running.

O.K.

> At the moment, the drawer comes back out whether I have a CD in
> it or
> not. And, even if I put a CD in it, and pay attention to exactly the
> "orientation" of the label and text on the CD, the drawer goes in, and
> there is a delay of a few seconds, and the drawer opens again. The
> orientation is EXACTLY the same. (And, I've tried this several times,
> now.)

Perhaps time to replace the drive -- go for the Toshiba M1401
from above and you can read DVDs as well.

> It *may* be whatever the "nub" that spins should be called is not
> "spinning up", and that could be why it is ejecting/opening the
> drawer...
> again, whether there is a CD or not!

Perhaps. I wonder whether your drive has a belt which has died
of old age?

> But, I am just ignoring this for the moment! I am finally
> getting
> closer again! :-D

Great.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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