[rescue] Sparcstation 10 woes during boot

[Mouse]

> I've got an SS10 with a 501-2352 (50MHz) MBUS module, 4x16Mb memory,
> which fails to boot.  [...]

> Mapping RAM
> Mapping ROM
> 
> ---- CUT HERE ----

How long did you wait?  On my SS20s, if the TOD clock is stopped, it
freezes at one point during POST for long enough that, if I weren't
accustomed to it, I would think it had wedged.  (I forget how long.
Thirty seconds?  A minute?)  I don't recall whether the SS10 is the
same; it's been a while since I used a 10.

> Originally it had a cgsix in it, but I've taken that outB  - assuming
> the old knowledge that it's the keyboard check which decides where
> the output should go.  Or is it possible that some nvram setting
> forces the output to go to the framebuffer?

There are nvram settings for input-device and output-device.  The usual
settings are "screen" and "keyboard", and in that case booting with no
keyboard redirects those to ttya.  But it's possible to set things so
output goes to the framebuffer even with no keyboard; the simplest such
example is input-device ttya and output-device screen.  I don't know
what it does if there's no framebuffer in the machine and output-device
is set to screen.

Also, are you familiar enough with the SS10 to recognize a cg14 if
present?  That could give the machine a framebuffer without it looking
like it if all you know to look at is the sbus.  (I _think_ the SS10
supported the cg14.  The 20 does, but I don't have a 10 to check closer
than my off-site storage unit.  The cg14 takes the form of a so-called
VSIMM, something like a stick of memory (it occupies a RAM slot with an
extension that connects to an additional socket in-line with the RAM
socket).

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