Re: [Fwd: NOTE: Solaris 7 gotcha for some ultras]

[twells () SHORE NET (Tabor J. Wells)]

On Wed, Nov 11, 1998 at 07:59:54PM +0000,
Alan Cox <alan () LXORGUK UKUU ORG UK> is thought to have said:

> > advice was that if you were at all worried about this, you should run the 32-
> > bit kernel for peace of mind.  Later processors are unaffected.
> >
> > If they'd put the 64-bit kernel in by default, you'd criticise them for leaving
> > a security hole in the system.....
>
> If they worked around it I'd be more impressed, if they shipped replacement
> CPU's I'd be even more impressed still. The ultrasparc was advertised as
> a 64bit CPU, people did buy them on that basis.
>
> Does anyone who has an actual maintenance contract (ie more than 1 leg
> to stand on in this issue) know if they are replacing faulty CPU's ?

By my reading of http://sunsolve.Sun.COM/articles/article4.html it says:

Flash Prom Update Multimedia Answer Book CD

To enable 64-bit operation, certain UltraSPARC platforms may need a
firmware or Flash PROM upgrade, as indicated in this chart:


 Platform
                    Minimum Firmware
                    (Flash PROM)
                    Upgrade Required

 SunW, Ultra (tm)-1
                    3.11.1 or higher
 Sun W, Ultra-2
                    3.11.2
 SunW, Ultra-450
                    3.11.107
 SunW, Ultra-Enterprise
 (tm)
                    3.2.15

The Solaris CD includes information on how to implement the Flash prom
upgrade. For detailed step-by-step update instructions, go to the Flash
PROM Update Multimedia Answer Book CD. If you require personal assistance
with the Flash PROM update, please contact Sun support. For more
information on the Flash PROM upgrade, refer to the Solaris 7 Sun Hardware
Platform Guide (PN# 805-4456-10) located in the Solaris 7 media kit.


I'm not sure if the firmware patches are available via the public FTP
site, though.

Tabor
Shore.Net
--
________________________________________________________________________
Tabor J. Wells                                          twells () shore net
Shore.Net Systems Admin.     Just another victim of the ambient morality