[rescue] do i really need an NVRAM?

[David Holland]

On Sat, 2003-02-22 at 06:07, Frank Van Damme wrote:
> On Saturday 22 February 2003 05:49, Scott Newell wrote:
> > Nope.  I've brought several of my machines up multiple times with dead
> > nvrams.  One trick I learned: make a file with the forth commands to set
> > the environment variables, hostid, checksum, and boot settings.  Then when
> > you do cold boot the machine, simply cut-n-paste the saved commands into
> > your terminal window and away you go.
> >
> > Or just replace the nvram battery...
> >
> > Hmmm...I've never tried running _without_ a nvram...wonder what happens.
> 
> My ss2 doesn't boot from hd since the nvram died.

That's the biggest reason why you need the NVRAM.  The system won't boot
from the HD, it'll try the default diag device, which (usually) is the
onboard ethernet. 

If you don't mind attending your booting process, I suppose Scott
Newell's forth suggestions are about your only other (reasonable)
alternative. 

David