Sun Fire E2900 Server
 
Sun Fire V1280 Server
 

GCS>Sun Microsystems>Sun FAB>Standard>Reactive
 

Installation or booting Solaris 9 9/05 from DVD or CD will fail on E2900/V1280 systems that have a PCI+ IB_SSC/PCI-X IB_SSC IO Assembly installed. Since no version of Solaris 9 prior to Solaris 9 9/05 supports the PCI+ IB_SSC/PCI-X IB_SSC Assembly, customers cannot install or boot Solaris 9 on systems with the PCI+ IB_SSC/PCI-X IB_SSC Assembly via DVD or CD.

Products:

• Sun Fire V1280 Server
• Sun Fire E2900 Server

X-Options:

• X2765A  PCI+ I/O Board and System Controller (IB_SSC)
• X2766A-Z  PCI-X I/O Assembly, RoHS:YL

Parts:

• 541-0382-xx  PCI+ I/O Board and System Controller (IB_SSC)
• 541-1486-xx  PCI-X I/O Assembly, RoHS:YL

All E2900/V1280 systems with PCI+ IB_SSC Assemblies, P/N 541-0382-xx and PCI-X IB_SSC, P/N 541-1486 attempting to boot or install Solaris 9 9/05 via DVD or CD media are affected. This issue does not affect booting or installation of Solaris 10.

Support for Solaris 8 will require Solaris 8 HW 2/04 and additional patches. Installation from the DVD-ROM will require an alternate Solaris 8 DVD0. The part number for Solaris 8 DVD0 is 708-0124-10. This is documented in Field Action Bulletin 102133.

Solaris 8 is not supported with the PCI-X IB_SSC IO Assembly.

While booting Solaris 9 9/05 from the CD or DVD, the boot sequence terminates with the following error messages:

   ok boot cdrom -s
   SunOS Release 5.9 Version Generic_118558-11 64-bit
   Copyright 1983-2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
   Use is subject to license terms.
   Cannot assemble drivers for root
   /ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/pci@4/ide@2/cdrom@0,0:b
   Cannot mount root on /ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/pci@4/ide@2/cdrom@0,0:b fstype ufs
   panic[cpu0]/thread=140a000: vfs_mountroot: cannot mount root
   0000000001409970 genunix:vfs_mountroot+70 (0, 0, 0, 200, 14a82f0, 0)
 %l0-3: 000000000149bc00 000000000149bc00 0000000000002000 00000000014e5f40
 %l4-7: 00000000014ebc00 0000000001422568 000000000149c400 000000000149f400
   0000000001409a20 genunix:main+90 (1409ba0, f000d348, 1409ec0, 39b5ab,2000, 500)
 %l0-3: 0000000000000001 000000000140a000 0000000001423728 0000000000000000
 %l4-7: 0000000078002000 000000000039e000 00000000014fdf58 0000000001069ef0

The DVD/CD image has a missing entry for the IDE controller in the "driver_aliases" file.  This entry is required for the mini-root to load the appropriate driver for the IDE controller during the initial boot sequence while booting from DVD or CD.  While patch 112954-12 does have the correct entries, the DVD build process accidently over-wrote the values.  Installing the subsequent version of the patch, 112954-13, puts the correct entries back into the configuration.

  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris/overview/releases-jsp-140987.html 

    ftp://figaro.us.oracle.com/pub/dvd0_special 

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