Nekochan Net

Hi,

I just picked up a two-brick Prism and have some trouble getting it to work.
It's a standard configuration where one brick has an I/O board and the other brick has two FireGL cards.

There are several problems:
First, I can't get an answer from the main bricks serial port. I do get to the L1 on the brick with the graphics cards. config shows both bricks:

first, when it boots up it says:


however it seems to work.




when it boots up it disables 4GB of memory:



How can I find out why it's disabled?

I also can't get an output on the serial port of the main brick with the I/O board. Is this normal behavior?
I can only access the L1 on the brick with the graphics cards.

The systems seems to detect only two of its four SATA disks:



Is it true that disk drives can only be used when a PCI I/O module is installed?
In that case, I wonder why this Prism has four disks installed.

I don't have a proper monitor at hand right now. If possible I would like to install the original SuSE Linux on the system. Does anybody know if it can be installed with serial console, but still later use the graphics?

thanks,
Dennis

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I know nothing about prisms but in older IP53 machines when it disables memory there is something it doesn't like about the RAM, dust on connectors or not seated properly or the like . I solved this on my systems several times by reseating the RAM and inspecting for any dust on connectors. Failing that shuffle the RAM between bricks to make sure its not the board but the RAM itself. If bad RAM throw out or put in a anti-static bag with the label "suspect".

R.

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Are you using the serial port or the USB connector? I would see if you can get into the L1 from the working brick. If you can, there is an option in there for setting the L1 communications behavior (options are something like AUTO, SERIAL, USB, etc.) Unfortunately I can't remember for the life of me what the command is but I know this setting can be a PITA if set incorrectly and you're trying to use the USB port.


That's going to be the power pod on the CPU, which is a bummer. However, there is a slim chance a reseat will clear things up. The power pod utilizes an edge connector on the IA CPU board - maybe it's just loose, or better yet maybe the cable is disconnected It's been awhile since I've replaced one, but I think you can remove the 2 (or 4..I forget) screws from the pod and slide it back away from the CPU. Otherwise just uncam the CPU, remove all the screws and pull the whole works out.

If that doesn't work, start looking for a new power pod (probably easier to find a CPU w/power pod) or just disable the CPU from the L1 and ignore the warning.


As previously suggested, reseat the memory. What's the memory config? 4GB in each brick? If so and the disabled 4GB is all in one brick something is fishy. Remember the memory is in banks, so one bad DIMM and you'll drop the whole bank.

Not normal behavior, but as I mentioned earlier I believe there is an L1 option that can cause some grief. I'll try to dig that info up and post it later.


Correct, the SCSI (IO9) or SATA (IO10) controller is located on the IO9 or IO10 respectivly. No IO, no drives. 4 drives in a two brick/dual pipe config would be odd, not to mention impossible with the graphics options that take two PCI slots. The reason it would be odd in a two brick/two pipe config is that the IO9/10 runs at 66MHz, so PCI bus 0 will be limited to 66MHz, thus slowing down the graphics card on bus 0 (wait, now my memory is failing...did the ATI graphics options run at 66 or 133?). Regardless, this was not a standard config and


Yes, in fact you have to install via console because the graphics won't be initialized until you install Pro Pack on it.

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I did use the serial port CONSOLE where the L1 should normally answer.
Now, I have tried attaching a monitor and a USB keyboard and I actually get a picture. The box boots up normally into EFI.
Still, there is nothing on the CONSOLE of the main brick. I wonder maybe it's disabling that port because of the graphics?



Well, it works, so I will keep it there, right now.



Can the firmware tell me which bank of memory it has disabled?



Maybe someone placed the two disks in there as quick spare parts.
The graphics cards seem to be AGP cards.

Dennis

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Another problem:
When I try to boot the SLES 9 CD1, I can choose the type of installation and then it only says this:



after this, the system just silently reboots.
The odd thing is that it has a Debian 6.0 installed, which seems to work fine.

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never mind, the SLES 9 service pack 3 CD1 boots fine. The plain SLES 9 CD1 doesn't boot.

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I just found out that the Prism specific drivers are on a third CD of the SGI Propack. I do have Propack 4 SP 4, but only CD 1 and 2.

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Wait, I thought you said the XG2N brick was the one you COULD get a console on? I suppose it doesn't really matter because you can install via keyboard/mouse + graphics (note that you'll get console only until disk 3 is installed). Which, could mean you're on to something about the console being disabled due to graphics. Perhaps they redirect the console to AGP?

Not that I know of. POD will tell you which node the disabled DIMM's are in. Serial dimm -v might as well, I can't remember. I'd also watch your console during boot, or look at the log on the l1. It just takes a couple minutes to reseat the DIMM's...as another poster noted, this is a common problem, especially with systems rattled by shipping.

Doh! You're right, I forgot they put an dual port AGP riser in there. Even more reason why it would be impossible for there to be an IO option in a XG2N, there are no PCI slots!

Correct, you will need the SGI ProPack Graphics & SGI ProPack Kernel Modules-rtgfx off disk 3 to get graphics in SLES

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