SUN Ultra 5 help!

[emunoodle]

I just got an old Sun Ultra 5, but it didn't come with a keyboard. I'm trying to see if the box made it through shipping without damage. I got the power switch on in the back but the standby led up front won't light up when i push the button. And i don't get any post beep or anything ... just the fans are going and the heat sink on the proc gets warm.

Will a Sun Ultra 5 workstation go into post without a keyboard attached??


I've worked with many regular PC's but I have no experience with Sun's hardware. I would assume it would get to post an give me a keyboard error, but noth is happening....

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[bandwidth_pig]

I have a fairly old Sun Ultra Sparc. So results may not be the same, but I just unplugged my keyboard and it went through post fine. I would think if anything, the older Ultra (Ultra II) would not pass post with the keyboard unplugged before a newer one would. But I could be wrong.

[bastard23]

emunoodle,
More than likely, the system is trying to boot. Do you have a monitor attached? If not, every Sun I've played with will boot with the console on the serial port. Try hooking up a null modem serial cable to the sun and another computer (I have an old Wyse terminal for this). Serial port A is a 25 pin port, but I don't know if they will use port B (9 pin) or not. You should then be able to get to the PROM, which allows you to set the boot device among other things. Think of the PROM as a BIOS, just bigger and better.

Hope that helps,
chris

P.S.
Check http://docs.sun.com/ for some official documentation. Try google for more. Workstations are fun to get to know.

[emunoodle]

Thanks guys. I'll try that tonight. I couldn't find a keyboard locally. I guesss I'll just order one online Monday.:D

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Sun keyboards are getting kind of cheap. Just beware, though-- If you opt to get an optical mouse with it, you need the special Sun mousepad for it to work...