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Problem in booting x86 Solaris 10 into 32-bit Mode

Hi,

We currently have the i86 Solaris 10 installed onto a Sun Ultra 24 platform. The following command verifies this:-

[bash-3.00# uname -a
SunOS unknown 5.10 Generic_127112-10 i86pc i386 i86pc]

The default operating mode is 64 bit  based on the following isainfo -v output:-

bash-3.00# isainfo -v
64-bit amd64 applications
        cx16 mon sse3 sse2 sse fxsr mmx cmov amd_sysc cx8 tsc fpu
32-bit i386 applications
        cx16 mon sse3 sse2 sse fxsr mmx cmov sep cx8 tsc fpu

I attempted to use the eeprom boot-file=kernel/unix command to boot into 32-bit mode but on boot up I get the following errors displayed:-

/kernel/drv/nvidia
undefinied symbol '_nv013847rm'
WARNING mod_load : Cannot find module 'nvidia'
WARNING consconfig : No Screen found
Can't Find Driver for Console framebuffer

The system then reboots it self to the GRUB (0.95) loader and then when you attempt to load it up again it fails with the same error. I've had to manually change the /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc file to put it back to 64-bit so that the system willl at least boot up proerly.

Can anyone advise as to what the above errors mean - they seem to relate to the video drivers as far as I can tell but I'm not sure on how to go about resolving this....

Is there something I'm doing anything wrong or if there's another method that I could try. We need to boot the system into 32-bit mode to run 32-bit only code.

Many Thanks

Michael
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Brian Utterback
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Sounds to me like the 32bit version of the nvidia driver is corrupted. The symbol in question is not dynamic and it is pretty difficult for it not to be found. The first thought I have is that you have the 64 bit driver installed where the 32 bit driver should be, but that is just a wild guess. Beyond that, I would suggest reiinstalling the nvidia driver.
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mikesung99

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Thanks for the quick post to this matter. I've had a check on the system, specifically in /kernel/drv and I've found the 32-bit nvidia and 64-bit drivers:-

bash-3.00# cd /kernel/drv
bash-3.00# ls -lrt nvidia
-rw-r--r-x   1 root     sys      8643504 Dec 12  2007 nvidia
bash-3.00# file nvidia
nvidia:         ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable 80386 Version 1

bash-3.00# cd /kernel/drv/amd64
bash-3.00# ls -lrt nvidia
-rw-r--r--   1 root     sys      11220560 Dec 12  2007 nvidia
bash-3.00# file nvidia
nvidia:         ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable AMD64 Version 1

Do the drivers appear to be in the correct place? Besides a re-install of the driver - is there some way to temporarily disable the attempted load up of the nvidia driver at bootup? for this intial phase, I'm not too concerned if it doesn't boot up into the Solaris Java Desktop interface as we'll be remotely accessing the system via telnet for most of the time.

Thanks

Michael
You could try booting into the failsafe mode, and then run kdmconfig. If you configure to use Xsun instead of Xorg, you should be able to choose the VGA driver and complete the normal boot up.
Not to sidestep the question, but you do not need to boot in 32-bit mode to run 32-bit programs. When in 64-bit mode, you can run both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.

I believe you can completely disable the graphical mode login and fall back to the text console by running this commands as root:

svcadm disable cde-login:default

Hope this helps,
Christophe
Hi,

I've booted  into failsafe mode (via GRUB) andit asks if I want to mount solaris 10 8/07 s10x_u4wos_12b X86 (/dev/dsk/c1d0s0) - "y" was selected and this is mounted to /a.

I've not used kdmconfig before - but I've found that it's in /usr/sbin - I've tried to run it from this directory but I think it's just a symbolic link to the /openwin/bin/kdmconfig and as such comes up with "not Afound". Sorry for the newbie question but how would I initiate kdmconfig

Thanks

Michael
Thanks for the input Christophe,
I was under the impression that you could run both 32-bit and 64-bit apps in 64-bit mode but came across some issues when attempting to install some 3rd party software which claims is only supported on x86 32-bit solaris. It was suggested that we boot into 32-bit mode to see if this makes a difference.

I've used svcadm to disable cde-login but when I reboot (into 32-bit mode) I still get that same problem with the nvidia and it then reboot itself. I just typed in the scvcadm command - do i need to somehow save it befoer I reboot in solaris 10?

Thanks

Michael

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Brian Utterback
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Hi,

We've managed to disablethe CDE so that now when we boot up (in 64-bit mode), we just get the command prompt. Whilst in 64-bit mode, I ran kdmconfig and specified that XSun should be used,we then changed the video device to use "XF86-VGA VGA-Compatible video cards". This was then tested (in KDMConfig and the driver seemed to be ok). I then ran eeprom boot-file=kernel/unix to set 32-bit mode and then resrarted the system.

when the system came back up again, it still reported the same issue with the nvidia driver and then rebooted itself. I was just wondering if I need to take any other steps after making the changes in kdmconfig or should I have selectd a different VGA driver? Alternatively, are there any files tat I can edit to explicitly disbale the loading o the nvida driver?

Thanks

Michael
Thanks for your help on this issue blu - Still not able to boot sucessfully into 32-bit mode but think we've isolated it now as an issue with the nvida driver