Chapter 5 Setting Up an Option Card

This chapter describes how to configure a option card using the Solaris^TM software environment.

This chapter contains the following information:

• "Option Cards"

• "Requirements"

• "To Add an Option Card"

Option Cards

Many different kinds of cards are supported in Sun systems. Option cards provide the means to add options to your system with the ease of plug and play.

The kinds of options that you can add to a system are too numerous to list here, but some of the common options include:

• Peripheral interfaces such as SCSI, IDE, and Fibre Channel Host Adapters

• Frame Buffers for video and graphics support

• Communication and network interfaces

• Bus extension cards

The type of option card that you add to your system depends on the bus in your system. The systems sold today have SBus or PCI busses and require a corresponding option card. Also some frame buffer option cards connect directly to the UPA bus.

Requirements

Before you start to configure the operating environment for a new card, you must:

• Install the Solaris software

• Shut down the system and peripherals that are already connected, as described in "Shut Down the System"

If you did not follow the procedures in "Shut Down the System", the operating system may not recognize the new card.

To Add an Option Card

1. Shut down your system.

   See "Shut Down the System"

2. Determine the address selection scheme of card.

   In most cases, the card becomes addressed when you plug it in. The address will be based on the connector that it is plugged in to.

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   Note -

   For more information, refer to the documentation that accompanies your hardware.

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3. Set any jumpers or switches that require different settings.

   For example, if your system has an SBus and if you are adding an Ethernet card, you may need to change one jumper on that card related to the Link Integrity Test.

4. Install the card.

   For installation information, refer to the documentation that accompanies your hardware.

5. Turn the power on to the system and all the peripheral devices.

   In most cases, this will cause the system to boot. If the /reconfigure file is present (as described in "To Prepare the System"" in Chapter 1), then the operating system will automatically initialize the appropriate device drivers for the new card. If the /reconfigure file does not exist, you can achieve the same effect by performing a boot -r. See Appendix B, Booting Your System" in the appendix for more information.

6. If you want to display a list of all the devices on your system, use the prtconf command as shown:

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   example# prtconf | grep -v not
   System Configuration:  Sun Microsystems  sun4u
   Memory size: 128 Megabytes
   System Peripherals (Software Nodes):
   SUNW,Ultra-5_10
       options, instance #0
       pci, instance #0
           pci, instance #0
               ebus, instance #0
                   power, instance #0
                   se, instance #0
                   su, instance #0
                   su, instance #1
                   fdthree, instance #0
               network, instance #0
               ide, instance #0
                   dad, instance #0
                   sd, instance #2
           pci, instance #1
       SUNW,ffb, instance #0 (card installed here)
   pseudo, instance #0
   

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