[geeks] E450 - continuing Solaris install saga

[JP Hindin]

Greetings;

I thought I'd update the list after a week of fiddling about with my E450.
After intense negotiations with the optical media device, I have stumbled
upon the incantation required to make it accept the Solaris boot CD and
successfully booted off it.
I foolishly assumed that Solaris 10 was not, in fact, still stuck in 1979
and the installer could format/partition/label a disk as it went. After
discovering I was nothing but a hopeless romantic regarding this notion, I
figured out to 'format' when the installer puked back to a term and have
completed the disc one install and had the E450 reboot and boot off its
internal disk to complete the installation.

I am now struggling with a new problem. Upon boot, Solaris attempts to
continue the OS install and is asking for "Solaris 10 2" (or something
worded similarly vaguely), which I am assuming means it is referring to
disc two of the set of five...  unfortunately it refuses to acknowledge
that ANY of the five discs are, in fact, whichever disc it is looking for.
Keeping in mind this is my SECOND Solaris install ever (the first being a
single-disc SunOS 4.1.4), I don't suppose someone could suggest to me what
I should be giving it... or telling it?

In reference to the optical device, and my first eMail regarding it
complaining about a bad magic number and it's unwillingness to eject, I've
discovered several oddities. While it won't boot off the DVD I have, it
WILL boot off the CD... this suggests my burned Solaris DVD is not kosher.
However, the 'ejectathon' issue continues to boggle me. It will not eject
the tray when in OpenBoot - however, if I use the force-eject tool and
pull the tray fully out, it WILL retract the tray when the button is
pressed. The drive will spin the disc up, and then within a few seconds,
eject the tray again on its own. It will do this regardless of what disc
is inserted. The only way to convince it not to do this is to told my hand
against the tray to stop it ejecting the tray - but with not so much force
that I misalign things, or else the drive decides its failed and powers
down. If held with appropriate force, for appropriate time, it will spin
the disc up and read.

Ah, 'so the DVD drive is clinically insane' you say. I popped the CD drive
I had used successfully and flawlessly to do my SunOS 4.1.4 into the E450.
And it suddenly exhibits identical behaviour! Amazing.

Well. There it is. Oh, and while I was waiting for the E450 to install, I
pulled a pair of E4000s out. One of them I can't break out of its
incessant 'boot from net' to talk to OBP, the other has a firmware
password. Anyone know the local RAM locations of the password set flag in
the NVRAM so I can clear it with an Arduino? :P

 - JP