[parisc-linux] Trouble accessing BOOT_ADMIN

[Peter Teunissen]

On 3-sep-2006, at 1:04, Thibaut VARENE wrote:

> On 9/1/06, Peter Teunissen <oneman at onemanifest.net> wrote:
>> I've just obtained a nice B132L+, and want to reinstall debian HPPA
>> on it. But I can't access BOOT_ADMIN; I can't see the message saying
>> 'To terminate search, press and hold the ESCAPE key'. The screen
>> stays black until it boots into the existing linux install and i can
>> see the little penguin. I tried holding or tapping the ESC key at
>> several stages but I can't stop the boot sequence.
>
> hmm. Unless I'm confused, the penguin only appears on the linux
> console. Unless somebody made a rather twisted setup (firmware console
> on serial and then forced linux console on VGA), I take it your
> monitor is just too slow to display the initial messages. As it's
> explained in the howto, watch your keyboard for led blinks and press
> tab when that happens. This will break the autoboot sequence and if
> you hit "tab" more, the resolution will be switched.

I get the following sequence when booting:
1. push power button
2. short flash of keyboard lights
3. few seconds of silence and flashing system led's
4. loud HD rattling
5. penguin appears
6. numlock keyboard led lights up.
7. linux boots etc. until gnome login

When I press either tab, esc or any other key after either point 2 or  
6, the boot sequence is not interrupted and nothing new appears on  
screen and the system simply boots. Neither does the screen  
resolution seem to change when I tap the tab key several times at  
point 2 or 6. Maybe I'm still not tapping the key at the right  
moment? Does the boot_admin require extra key presses after the first  
one?


>
> with a recent kernel you can change the console using the pdc_stable
> driver in /sys/firmware/stable/paths/, see
> http://wiki.parisc-linux.org/PdcStableStorage

Mmh, looks promising. The current install isn't mine, so I don't have  
a userid/login for it. I'll try to get one from the former owner and  
try this tool.

thanx

Peter