[rescue] IBM RS/6000 3CT

[Carl R. Friend]

   Mike Johnson writes:

> It's a little past tomorrow.  Oops.  Had a vacation in there.

   Grin.

> > There is one problem, however.  AIX < 4 will not support a PS/2 keyboard.
> > AIX >= 4 has no problem with a PS/2 keyboard.
> 
> Dang.  The system reports AIX Version 3.

   What's an RS/6000 3CT?  I have an RS/6000 220 (7011-220) that
runs AIX 3.2.5 that happily accepts a PS/2 keyboard with a couple
of caveats.  One caveat is that you'll get no sound.  The other
is that you'll have to use the internal diagnostics to remap the
keys every time you boot.  I believe the program (on the 220) is
"dkbdsal".

> I finnally had a chance to fire the thing up, so here come the
> questions. :)

   Whee!

> I pulled the frame buffer and plugged in a null modem cable to port S1
> and booted.  There's nothing on the terminal for quite a while, and then
> is suddenly pops up with 'Saving Base Customize Data to boot disk', and
> then it looks to go through the boot process, and I get a login prompt:
> 	AIX Version 3
> 	(C) Copyrights by IBM and by others 1982, 1993.
> 	Console login:

   AIX has a pretty complex boot process that reflects in the little
three LED display as it progresses.  Long before you ever get the
login: prompt the thing has gone through its POSTs, booted from the
boot partition, run some more diags, configured all the hardware,
fired up the Logical Volume Manager (LVM), and started a few more
goodies.

> Hmm, great, I have no clue what the password is for this thing.  I try a
> few, nothing.  After some poking around to find some information on
> reseting root's password and/or getting single-use mode up, I power
> down, set the key to the little wrench icon, and then reboot.  Expecting
> this to get me into single-user mode seemed to be a bit much.

   That's "service" mode.  You use that when you need to run thorough
diags or use an alternate bootlist.  You do the latter to (re)load
software or boot into diagnostic mode (which you machine doesn't
seem to have loaded).

> And then it proceeds to do a normal shutdown (I think).

   Yup.

> So, my first question (this go around) is wondering if there is the
> equvalent of a BIOS on the box.  I'd also like to know how to get more
> output to the serial (as I don't seem to get any low-level-info before
> the OS is well into booting)?

   That's what the LEDs are for, silly.  ;-)

> And, how do I change root's password (if it matters, I do not have
> install

   Bummer.  You're going to have to find either a backup (a special
bootable one created by a "mksysb") or a distro (and appropriate
iron to read it) and boot into a "limited function maintenance
shell" (the closest AIX has to "single-user mode").  From there,
you can import the root volume-group (getrootvg), mount the root
on the internal disk and edit /etc/security/passwd to reset the
root word.

   Contact me off-list for the gory details - unless everyone else
is interested, that is.

> "Would you like to take advantage of wiretap Wednesdays?" 

   Yes, please.

   Cheers.

+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin)            | West Boylston       |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast            | Massachusetts, USA  |
| mailto:crfriend at rcn.com                        +---------------------+
| http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum           | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+