[rescue] First posting & seeking a Sparc 10 w. updated Dallas RTC/NvRam

[Romain Dolbeau]

Le mar. 3 janv. 2023 à 01:49, Robert Klein via rescue
<rescue at sunhelp.org> a écrit :
> (...) I knew it was one power failure away form
> being bricked.
> I would like to keep it going by securing, somehow, an
> unused Sparc10 with a happy more recent Dallas chip to keep
> it going by just moving my HDD to the new box.

This reads to me as if you thought that a dead NVRAM chip would
'brick' the SS10 and render it unusable.
If so, then I'm happy to report you're mistaken - a dead NVRAM is
anything but fatal. It's just a nuisance. The machine will keep going
just fine.

A dead NVRAM simply means that the system becomes 'amnesiac' and
forgets its own name and address (hostid, MAC address, boot
parameters).
However, those can be set manually at power-on, details are in the Sun
NVRAM / Host ID FAQ.
If unknown, the MAC address/hostid might be recoverable from some
logs, configuration files, license files, etc.
Even if not recoverable, it doesn't really matter - any value unique
to the local network will do just fine. Only licensed software would
fail with an improper hostid, and those will often display the
expected hostid in the license files, thus offering a solution for
recovery.

Compatible NVRAM chips were available fairly recently (got some for my
SS20s in 2015 or 2016), but tend to be a bit expensive.
Alternatively, you can open up an existing dead chip to remove the
battery and connect a new battery to maintain the restored information
for a few more years.

Cordially,

-- 
Romain Dolbeau