dnl $OpenBSD: prep,v 1.22 2008/03/10 22:00:12 miod Exp $ If your UltraSPARC machine is somewhat old, it might need a firmware update before it can be used under OpenBSD. You are advised to try to install OpenBSD first; if it can't boot or fails mysteriously, you might need to update your firmware. To do so, check the ``Updating your firmware'' section later in this document. Your OpenBOOT ROM may need some setup. You cannot use the security modes of the OpenBOOT ROM. Make sure that the ROM security modes are disabled: ok setenv security-mode none Please note that while OpenBSD and Solaris have a reasonable degree of compatibility between disk labels and filesystems there are some problems to watch out for during initial installation or when trying to maintain both OpenBSD and Solaris environments on the same system. If the OpenBSD fsck(8) utility is used on a Solaris filesystem, it will set OpenBSD "clean flags" and BSD4.4 summary fields in the superblock. Solaris does *not* like this and you will have to do a "fsck -b 32" under Solaris to access an alternate superblock to repair the filesystem. You should always specify Solaris filesystems with a "pass number" of 0 in their /etc/fstab entry to prevent this, and preferably mount them "RO". If Solaris fsck is used on an OpenBSD filesystem in the default OpenBSD (4.4BSD) format, it will first complain about the superblock and then about missing . and .. entries. Do *not* try to "correct" these problems, as attempting to do so will completely trash the filesystem. You should avoid using soft updates (option softdep in /etc/fstab) on your shared filesystems. Although untested, it is likely that Solaris would be confused by a filesystem with soft update flags enabled. The OpenBSD "Sun Compatible" disklabel has been extended to support 16 partitions, which may be compatible with Solaris, but Solaris only sees the first 8 partitions and may "lose" information about the extended partitions. OpenBSD and Sun bootblocks are similar in concept, though implemented differently. The OpenBSD bootblocks are architecture independent and also understand the extended disk labels with 16 partitions. You can use Solaris bootblocks, but remember that OpenBSD bootblocks must be installed with OpenBSD installboot and Solaris bootblocks with Solaris installboot. Most of the new Ultras shipped by Sun with a preinstalled Solaris have an initial specific factory setup of the boot ROM, in order to start up Solaris WebStart at the first boot; the boot-device variable is set to disk:f. Make sure you reset the boot device to its default value: ok set-default boot-device will work for most systems. This can be adapted if you've multiple systems installed and know what you're doing. To disable automatic boot use the following command: ok setenv auto-boot? false and then to enable it later use: ok setenv auto-boot? true or on an installed system use the eeprom(8) command: # eeprom 'auto-boot?=true' Updating your firmware: ----------------------- If OpenBSD does not boot or install properly on your machine, it might need a firmware update. Updating your firmware is a dangerous operation which may damage your hardware. Be sure to carefully follow these instructions and, if in doubt, please don't do this. You will need to have a working operating system installed on your machine, in order to perform the update. If this is not the case, you might be able to boot the flash updater software via network, but this has not been tested and is not supported by Sun. The firmware update is delivered as a specific patch, depending on your machine: Machine Patch number dnl XXX uncomment machine entries as they become supported Blade 100/150 111179 Enterprise 220R 106455 Enterprise 250 106503 Enterprise 420R 109082 Enterprise 450 106122 Enterprise 3x00/4x00/5x00/6x00 103346 Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 112883 Sun Fire V480 113034 Sun Fire V880 112186 Netra T1 200 111991 Netra X1 111952 Ultra 1 104881 Ultra 1E 104288 Ultra 2 104169 Ultra 5/10 106121 Ultra 30 105930 Ultra 60 106455 Ultra 80 109082 Ultra 450 106122 Get the patch installation notes from Sun's FTP site, as ftp://ftp.sun.com/patchroot/all_unsigned/104169-08.README (replace 104169 with the correct patch number). Check the Patch-ID# line in this readme file to get the patch filename, for example 104169-08. The patch filename will then be either ftp://ftp.sun.com/patchroot/all_unsigned/104169-08.tar.Z or ftp://ftp.sun.com/patchroot/all_unsigned/104169-08.zip You can also use SunSolve to get the patches by entering the correct Patch-ID# to the corresponding field at http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/show.pl?target=patchpage Follow the patch installation notes very carefully. You will need to open your machine in order to apply this patch.