Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide

Watchdog Reset

Cause

This fatal error usually indicates some kind of hardware problem. Data corruption on the system is possible.

Action

Look for some other message that might help diagnose the problem. By itself, a watchdog reset does not provide enough information; because traps are disabled, all information has been lost. If all that appears on the console is an ok prompt, issue the following PROM command to view the final messages that occurred just before system failure:


ok f8002010 wector p
Yes, that word is wector, not vector.

The result is a display of messages similar to those produced by the dmesg(1M) command. These messages can be useful in finding the cause of system failure.

Technical Notes

This message does not come from the kernel, but from the OpenBoot PROM monitor, a piece of Forth software that gives you the ok prompt before you boot UNIX. If the CPU detects a trap when traps are disabled (an unrecoverable error), it signals a watchdog. The OpenBoot PROM monitor detects the watchdog, issues this message, and shuts down the system.