This chapter describes how to use Solaris 7 Intel Platform Edition Device Configuration Assistant software, manufacturers' device configuration media, and documentation to solve configuration problems. The next chapter contains Device Reference Pages and describes how to use them to configure your x86 based system to run in the Solaris operating environment.
Use the Solaris 7 Intel Platform Edition Configuration Assistant program to identify devices and the resources each device uses. If there is a problem, you must provide device names and resource parameters so the Configuration Assistant can pass this information to the Solaris kernel.
If your system hangs or resets when you scan for ISA devices, perform these tasks (in order, as explained in the next three sections) until you can successfully complete the scan.
Identify a problem with an existing device.
Find and resolve resource conflicts.
Provide information about the device manually.
Consult the manufacturer's documentation and Device Reference Page, if there is one. Ensure the device is properly configured and does not conflict with other devices in the system.
Reboot the system with Solaris 7 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant Boot Diskette.
Select Specific Scan to identify the devices that are automatically detected.
Select the device that you think caused the hang, and start the scan.
If the scan doesn't hang, the problem may be due to the order in which the devices were scanned. Go to Step 5.
If the scan hangs, there is probably a hardware conflict. Verify that the device is in your machine. Double check for conflicts by consulting the manufacturer's documentation for all installed hardware. Proceed to "Finding and Resolving Resource Conflicts."
Scan for each remaining device in the system.
If the hang is caused by a "software probe conflict," you may be able to prevent the hang by scanning for each device in a different order from the one used to scan for all devices.
When the scan is successful, go to the Boot Solaris menu and select a device to boot from.
If you plan to boot or install from a CD-ROM, select CD.
If you plan to boot or install using the network and your machine is registered as a netinstall client, select NET.
If you plan to boot from the machine's installed hard disk, select DISK.
Boot and install the Solaris software.
Reboot the system with Solaris 7 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant Boot Diskette.
Select Specific Scan to identify only the automatically detected devices.
Select each device in the system that did not cause the initial hang.
Go to the Device Tasks menu, select View/Edit Devices, and examine the list of devices provided to determine if the problem device conflicts with another device.
This method may not work if a hardware conflict interferes with the ability of the device scan to correctly determine the configuration of a device.
If a conflict is found for a device that requires setting jumpers and switches, turn the system off, manually change settings for the problem device, turn the system on, boot the Configuration Assistant diskette, and go to Step 5.
If a conflict is found for a device that requires a manufacturer's configuration utility, do the following:
Remove the Configuration Assistant diskette.
Insert the manufacturer's configuration utility diskette.
Change device settings.
Remove the configuration utility diskette.
Insert the Configuration Assistant diskette, and go to Step 5.
If a conflict is not found, go to Step 2 in "Providing Information About the Device Manually." You don't have to reboot.
Select Specific Scan.
When the scan is successful, go to the Boot Solaris menu and select a device to boot from.
If you plan to boot or install from a CD-ROM, select CD.
If you plan to boot or install using the network and your machine is registered as a netinstall client, select NET.
If you plan to boot from the machine's installed hard disk, select DISK.
Boot and install the Solaris software.
Reboot the system with Solaris 7 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant Boot Diskette.
If all other devices have been found by selective scanning, select View/Edit Devices from the Device Tasks menu and manually add the name of the problem device.
The program should warn you if there is a conflict.
When the scan is successful, go to the Boot Solaris menu and select a device to boot from.
If you plan to boot or install from a CD-ROM, select CD.
If you plan to boot or install using the network and your machine is registered as a netinstall client, select NET.
If you plan to boot from the machine's installed hard disk, select DISK.
If the device hangs again when attempting to go the Boot Solaris menu or the device does not function, contact your support provider.
PC Card devices can be inserted at any time during the boot process or after the Solaris operating environment is running because PC Card peripherals are hot-pluggable and configured automatically by the software.
Issue |
What to Do |
How to know if there are enough IRQs available to run a two-socket adapter. |
Three IRQs must be available to use devices in both of the sockets. One IRQ is required for the adapter itself, and one is needed for each device inserted in a socket. |
Boot with the Configuration Assistant diskette so you can review the resource usage.
Select View/Edit Devices from the Device Tasks menu, and review the list of devices to see how many IRQs are being used.
There are 16 IRQs, from 0-15. Several IRQs are already assigned. For example, IRQ 3 is reserved for the second serial port, COM2.
If your system has a COM2 port but it is not being used, delete the port to free the IRQ resource for a PC Card.
Boot the Solaris software.
Issue |
What to Do |
How a known ISA or EISA device can be recognized by the Configuration Assistant software. |
The address chosen for the unrecognized device may have been allocated to some other system device. Manually provide nonconflicting address information for the unrecognized device using the EISA configuration utility (ECU). The Configuration Assistant uses that information to identify that device for the Solaris environment. |
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To set the configuration parameters for an ISA or EISA adapter, run the manufacturer's ECU. This utility must be run every time an ISA or EISA board is added, removed, or moved to a different bus slot. Although the function of this utility is standardized, implementations vary among manufacturers, each providing unique user interface screens or menus.
Back up the board manufacturer's EISA configuration diskette before using it to configure your hardware.
For each ISA or EISA add-in adapter to be configured, copy the EISA .cfg and .ovl configuration files from the board manufacturer's configuration diskette to the system EISA configuration diskette.
Run the ECU.
The program is called CF.EXE or CFG.EXE.
For each device, set the appropriate configuration parameters.
Some adapters have special operating modes that can be set using the ECU.
Check the Device Reference Pages to see if your board has special configuration requirements.
Issue |
What to Do |
How to recover if your machine fails to autoboot. |
If you have a loopback serial cable between COM1 and COM2 with autobooting enabled, use the eeprom command to set one of the following properties: eeprom com1-noprobe=true or eeprom com2-noprobe=true |
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Issue |
What to Do |
How to add an ISA device to an EISA machine. |
Run the machine's EISA configuration utility (ECU) so the system knows about the new ISA card and the resources it uses. |
Issue |
What to Do |
How to activate Plug and Play mode. |
Set the switch to Plug and Play mode, and plug the device into the system. The software will configure it automatically. |
Issue |
What to Do |
How to control the assignments of IRQs to PCI devices. |
In the chipset configuration of the system, verify that an IRQ is enabled for PCI bus use. After checking IRQs used by ISA devices, assign as many available IRQs to PCI devices as possible so the PCI bus can resolve device conflicts. |
How to recover if a Compaq ProLiant 5000 PCI network card fails to netboot due to spurious interrupts occurring during realmode operation. To date, failure has been observed only when the PCI network card uses IRQ 5. |
Use the Compaq System Configuration utility to change the assigned IRQ of the PCI network card to another free IRQ, and save the configuration. |
Issue |
What to Do |
How to use the system BIOS to change device settings. |
Refer to the manufacturer's documentation for the method of accessing the BIOS setup for your system and the features it provides. |
How to set up a cachable region in system memory for American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) BIOS. |
For the best performance, make the cachable region equal to the total memory installed in the system.
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Use the kdmconfig program to identify video display devices, monitors, keyboards, and pointing devices required for running the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) or other windowing system.
Issue |
What to Do |
How to configure an unrecognized video display device manually. |
If hardware limitations or inadequate information from the BIOS prevent proper identification of a video display device, manually configure the device using the kdmconfig software interface. |
How to verify the configuration of video display devices. |
Check the sample display provided after configuration and click to accept the configuration. If the display looks wrong or you can't click on the button, use the kdmconfig software to change the device parameters, and accept the configuration when the sample display looks correct. |
An Ethernet adapter and its link partner (such as a hub, switch, or another network adapter connected via a crossover cable) must operate at the same duplex settings.
If the adapter and link partner support NWay media autonegotiation, both devices should automatically select optimal speed and duplex mode.
If NWay autonegotiation is not supported or is not configured on either the adapter or its link partner, both devices must be explicitly set to run at the same duplex mode. A device usually defaults to half-duplex operation if it can't determine the link partner's duplex capabilities.
A hub or switch that supports full-duplex operation usually has a mechanism that sets duplex mode on a per-device or per-port basis. Setting speed, duplex mode, or both in this manner usually disables NWay autonegotiation for the device or port.
A network adapter supported by the elxl, iprb, or dnet device driver must have its duplex mode set in the driver's .conf file. See the device driver man page for details.
Operating speed can sometimes be set in the driver's .conf file, but NWay autonegotiation may be disabled when using this method.
A device is usually able to detect the speed (but not the duplex mode) of its link partner, even without NWay autonegotiation.
Device Reference Pages specify the supported connector type where appropriate. All network devices are assumed to work at 10 Mbps only, unless otherwise specified in the Device Reference Pages. Following are network connectors and the media they support.
Connector |
Supported Media |
Comments |
Speed |
---|---|---|---|
RJ-45 |
10BASE-T |
Category-3 Twisted Pair cable |
10 Mbps |
RJ-45 |
100BASE-TX |
Category-5 Twisted Pair cable |
100 Mbps |
BNC |
10BASE2 |
Coax cable ("Thin" Ethernet cable) |
10 Mbps |
AUI |
10BASE5 |
Shielded Twisted Pair ("Thick" Ethernet cable) |
10 Mbps |
Some PCI motherboards contain DMA chipsets that are unable to support 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet. The Solaris environment does not support 100-Mbps PCI network operation on systems containing the slow chipsets. This problem affects PCI cards only.
These chipsets are known to exhibit this problem:
82430LX (Mercury)
82450GX (Orion) (A and B steppings only)
These chipsets do not exhibit this problem:
82430NX (Neptune)
82430FX (Triton)
82430HX (Triton II)
82440FX (Natoma)
82450GX (Orion) (C0 stepping and later)
In particular, PCI cards supported by the dnet, iprb, and elx drivers don't perform well on machines with the problem chipsets. If 100-Mbps operation is required on such a machine, it is best to use a non-PCI Ethernet controller. It is also possible that PCI cards supported by the ieef driver, which have larger FIFOs, may function adequately. You must decide whether the performance on a particular machine is adequate for the intended purpose.
If you replace your network card with one that uses a different network driver (for example, changing a 3Com EtherLink III (elx) to an SMC WD8013 (smc)), before rebooting the second time, rename the /etc/hostname.olddriver0 file to /etc/hostname.newdriver0.
Any time you add, remove, or replace hardware, run the Configuration Assistant utility.
For example, to replace a 3Com EtherLink III card with an SMC WD8013 card, run the following command as root:
# mv /etc/hostname.elx0 /etc/hostname.smc0 |
and then perform a reconfiguration boot for your changes to take effect:
# touch /reconfigure # reboot |