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Conference kaosws::mipsco

Title:Digital's MIPS processors, etc.-DECstation,DECsystem 3100 et al
Notice:I feel the need... the need for speed
Moderator:DECWIN::DUNAISKY
Created:Tue Feb 07 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:999
Total number of notes:2964

999.0. "?IO: LANCE sts 0xa6b3 - on 5000 /133" by YORIC::BENBROOK (Brisbane ruLes) Tue Jun 03 1997 02:38

	  A customer has a PM32B-MY (DECstation 5000/150) which has been
	downgraded to a /133.   He is seeing the "?IO: LANCE sts xxx" errors
	alluded to in Note 908.

	  I gather from Blitz TD 1376 (5000/240 and 5900) that the LANCE
	errors are Informational - telling status of Ethernet.   However the
	customer has several of these DECstations (mostly /133's) which are
	NOT displaying this, and are working fine - so he wants to know just
	why these errors are not errors.

	  For my part, I have fitted a /150 CPU and it exhibits NONE of the
	"LANCE sts xxx"messages, while their /133, and a replacement /133
	both take FOREVER to load over the Ethernet, meanwhile flooding the
	screen with these status messages.   Note 908.2 in KAOSWS::MIPSCO
	also says "eventually the system would hang even if a boot was finally
	successful" or words to that effect.   Is this true?

So, my questions:

   1.	  Are there compatibility issues with /133 and system board revision
	levels.    I have the following:  
		/133 CPU Rev E05 (KN02-BA V5.8f)
		/150 CPU Rev B04 (KN04-?? V2.1k)
	Both in system board 70-28336-01 Rev F17 (also fitted another just in
	case - same revision, same symptom).

   2.	  Is there somewhere that has the "decode" of those status messages?
	In particular,  0xa2b3, 0xa9b3, and 0xa6b3 - mwhich are the ones I
	am seeing.   

   3.	  Re TD# 1376 - does 5000/133 have a flag that can be set to remove
	those messages?   I can't see a "TERSE" parameter in printenv.


Anything else that can be helpful, please include it ...... and thanks !!!


Les Benbrook,
MCS Brisbane
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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999.1One answer - another question....YORIC::BENBROOKBrisbane ruLesWed Jun 04 1997 04:4921
  I have found an answer to one of the questions:

>>   3.	  Re TD# 1376 - does 5000/133 have a flag that can be set to remove
>>	those messages?   I can't see a "TERSE" parameter in printenv.

ANSWER: 
	It IS there - and it worked for me.   Purely to exhaust all possibil
   -ities I typed 
	>> setenv TERSE 1 <cr>

	A "printenv" following showed TERSE=1, and the system then booted
	MUCH quicker, with NO LANCE errors showing. 

	The Blitz (TD 001376) says it is a volatile parameter that won't
	survive a powerfail.   My findings with the /133 are that it won't
	even survive a system shutdown !!!!

	In other words, it must be entered EACH TIME the system is booted.
	Hopefully, there may be a f/w upgrade to fix this - yes?

LB