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ugh, new to Solaris keyboard mapping problems and BIOS. 3 questions in 1.

Hello,

I'm new to Solaris 9, never used a Sun Blade 100 and am going to smash the Sun Type 7 keyboard. Yes, my tolerance is low today.

My goal is to use the Type 7 keyboard with the Sun Blade 100 running Solaris 9.

I was only able to install Solaris 9 by swapping keyboards with a Dell PC because when I had Sun's own Model Type 7 Keyboard plugged in to the Blade 100 the key mappings were messed up.

For example, when I'm using Solaris 9 with the Blade 100 and the Model 7 keyboard and press the letter:
"f" I get "4f"
"g" I get "^[[13~g"
"i" I get "^[[18~i"
and so on...

When I press the "Enter" key I get

#^[[2~
^[[2~: not found

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Question 1: What is it I don't know about Solaris 9, the Sun Blade 100 and Sun's Model 7 keyboard? How do I fix the keyboard mapping? I am new to Solaris 9 and keyboard problems.

Question 2: How do I use a non Sun keyboard, in other words a keyboard without the "Stop" key, to tell Solaris to boot from the friggin CD?

Question 3: How do I access the BIOS of the Blade 100 and tell it to boot from the CD/DVD?

Thank you.

Amol

1) Which type of terminal emulator are you using. Try selecting VT100 terminal when you install the OS
2) For stop key alternative on non-sun keyboard, try,

SHIFT-PAUSE-A
ALT-BREAK
ALT-SHIFT-A
OR Try,
Ctrl+Break to get to the single user mode
After you press Ctrl+Brk, it gives ok prompt.

3) For boot from CD/DVD, type "boot cdrom" from OK prompt.

bz43

ASKER

Hi amolg,

1. I'm connected directly to the machine. It's a test box. So, the keyboard is plugged into it and the monitor is attached and still the Sun keyboard doesn't type correctly.
2. Thanks for the info.
3. Does the Blade 100 have a BIOS that we can access like a regular IBM PC? Or is the OK prompt the only way to do it?

Amol

1) Yes. It depends on which terminal emulator you selected while installing OS. Which one did you selected?
3) You dont have as such BIOS on a sun SPARC machine. OK prompt is the only way to do it.

bz43

ASKER

Hi amolg, you wrote, "Yes. It depends on which terminal emulator you selected while installing OS. Which one did you select?"

I didn't select a terminal emulator. Maybe I'm so new to Solaris that I don't understand the question. But, I didn't select a terminal emulator because I am physically sitting in front of the machine (CPU, monitor, keyboard). So, the monitor is right in front of me. I'm not connecting remotely. I'm doing a regular fresh install in front of the workstation itself.

That's why I don't understand why the keyboard is acting so weird. I figured a fresh install using a Sun Blade 100 with a Sun keyboard would be painless. But, ouch, the keyboards driving me nuts. If I don't figure out how to fix the keyboard I'm going to have to use an IBM PC keyboard without at "Stop" button.

Amol

Check the below step by step installation guide,

http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Unix/Solaris/SOLARIS_Installing_Solaris_2.9.shtml

I was talking about this section,

Language : English
Locale : English
What type of terminal are you using? : 3) DEC VT100

Amol

You didn't answer my last question. After getting step by step guide, you are closing the question without awarding any point.

Member_2_231077

I don't think they are using the serial port so terminal emulation doesn't get involved. Sun Blade 100 was a workstation with onboard graphics and USB keyboard.

bz43

ASKER

Hi, Like I said earlier this is a complete workstation: monitor, keyboard and CPU. So, no terminal emulation required.

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Member_2_231077

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bz43

ASKER

Hi andyalder,

Thanks. I will try this tomorrow morning.

I didn't even think of trying the sun type 7 keyboard on a pc. Will try that, too just to see and respond by 6PM tomorrow 4/8 night.

If what that person wrote works (To access OpenBoot in this situation, you can press the power button twice during the power on sequence) then I'll request this question not be deleted and will award points accordingly.

bz43

ASKER

andyalder: I tested the Sun 7 keyboard on a PC and although the keyboard was recognized and installed without a problem on Windows XP the keymapping was still incorrect. For example, if I typed the letter "Y" the PC would interpret this as the "F5" key.

I went to the website (http://people.spacelabs.nl/~admar/usb100faq/14.html ) and was able to access the Stop-A function by pressing the power button twice during the power on sequence. The full text of the website with the answer is: "You can always access OpenBoot using Stop-A on a Sun keyboard. However, if like me you started out with a standard PC USB keyboard, you might be unable to send Stop-A because the Stop key doesn't exist in PC land. To access OpenBoot in this situation, you can press the power button twice during the power on sequence, just after the power on beep has sounded. A little experimentation might be required to get the timing right!"

I wasn't able to get to the "OK" prompt using the keyboard shortcut CTRL-BREAK.