eeprom command on Sparcs

[Andrew Torda D31 5503]

>>On a 4/65 with OS 4.1, (eeprom rev 1.3) mine says
>>    eeprom: /dev/eeprom: Error 0
>  Never seen this.  Is this info accurate?  (Especially the major/minor
>  device number.)

Yes, it is accurate. It is pasted from another window.

>>On a 4/490 server, it says,
>>    eeprom: software area checksum wrong
>  RTFM!  Try eeprom -i (which ignores the checksum), or even better
>  eeprom -i -c (which fixes it).

Thank for your considerate advice. I know that -i allows it to ignore
checksum errors. I did read the manual; however, the point is that one has
a command which does not work on 10 diskless Sparcs and gives a checksum
error on the server.

>  Don't know about this, but if you are dealing with openprom machines,
>  try (from the PROM monitor in new mode):
>
>	   ok printenv

Obviously. The point is that you should not need to take a machine down to
the prom level to look at prom contents.

>>Finally, it seems that the eeprom could also live in
>>  /dev/openprom
>>but
>>  eeprom -f /dev/openprom
>>says
>>  eeprom: /dev/openprom: No such device
>  Where did you get this idea?

Dear me. I think you should RTFM. The following lines are from the manual
entry. Look also at second last paragraph.

FILES
     /dev/eeprom

FILES - SPARCstation 1 SYSTEMS
     /dev/openprom

Some last remarks. I actually think it is worth posting a summary, but let
me give you a preview.  It (/usr/bin/eeprom) works on machines from about
75% of people who sent messages. Not enough people sent ROM revisions to
be able to check if there is any correlation between eeprom working and
the ROM revision.  Of those people possessing a functional eeprom, the
command worked with no arguments and worked when invoked as 'eeprom -f
/dev/openprom'. The command does not work on about a quarter of machines
from people who mailed. Some of those people had taken the same steps as
me and checked minor and major device numbers.

Andrew Torda, ETH, Zurich