[geeks] NVRAMs for Suns

[Arno Kletzander]

On Sat, 12 Apr 2014 08:23:14 +0200, Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
> Am 11.04.14 21:15, schrieb Sandwich Maker:
> > " > Well. Those machines run happily with dead NVRAMs. You just have to
> > " > reprogramm them after every power down. Given that reprogramming are
> > " > only two or three lines of Forth...
> > (...)
> Well. The boot environement setup and eeprom commands are stored in the
> NVRAM. So if it can be done, it will not survive the next power down...
> -- 

But you can always store the stuff as a macro in the terminal emulation you use to boot the machine,
and have it executed at a keypress.
I've seen elaborate scripting systems integrated in such software to allow for unattended login,
data retrieval and whatnot on remote machines, which should well be capable to detect the startup
blurb of a Sun, give it a few seconds to settle, set up the NVRAM environment and initiate the boot.
What will not work is booting the machine totally unattended, or without manual intervention if a
screen and keyboard are connected (it will want to use those instead of a serial console), IIRC.

I don't have experience with newer (ALOM) machines so I don't know what those do when subject
to loss of memory.

So Long,
Arno