Failure to set console on 5.x install
 

I recently purchased a used 44P-170 that came preloaded with AIX 4.3.3. This is a relatively recent box, with the 64-bit POWER3-2 chip.

When I try to install 5.2 (or 5.1 for that matter) I can't seem to set the console and the install hangs. The system boots from the CD, but a couple of minutes later the LED reads P1/S2 for a very long time and then switches to 0c45. This does NOT happen with 4.3.3. I was able to reinstall that no problem.

This behavior happens right about the point that it should be asking me to choose the lft as the console. The white sms screen is still up and it never kicks over to the black screen that usually first prompts you to press a key to set the lft as the console. I've never had this difficulty before and am stumped.

I've verified that the gxt3000p graphics adapter is most definitely compatible with 5.x, and I'm using an IBM G94 monitor as the lft.

My next step will be to use a laptop with HyperTerminal to try to see if I can get a terminal going, but I'm puzzled as to why. I've done several 5.x installs and the lft was always able to be set as the console.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

The solution here turned out to be updating the microcode (firmware) for the CD-ROM. Note that this is not the firmware for the machine itself. I had already updated that first thing.

For whatever reason, the 40X CD-ROM drive in my machine would boot from the 4.3.3 media, but not from the 5.x media. This was a known (but not well-documented) issue and much Googling led me to try updating the microcode on the CD-ROM drive. This worked and I can now boot from 5.x media.

The microcode download site is:

https://techsupport.services.ibm.com.../download.html

In the last section (Other Code) you have to download software called Genucode. This software + the microcode for your device lets you update the code from 4.x. You can then install 5.x.

Word to the wise: when you run the Genucode binary, it will ask for a password. It states that it is contained in the license agreement. It is, in fact, at the top of the downloads page in red, NOT in the actual license agreement page for the fixes.

Hope this helps someone else. I wasted many hours looking for this solution.

Hi,

I too have the same problem of setting terminal on 5.x install on a 44P-170 machine. I tried the solution of upgrading the firmware by visiting the IBM site. But even after this, the problem persists. Is there anything else that needs to be done??

There shouldn't be. I had a system that hung on this (and wouldn't even boot from 4.3.3 CDs afterwards). I knew firmware wasn't the issue as I had previously booted from AIX 5 and AIX 4.3.3 CDs. The problem came about because an AIX 5 upgrade hung near the end of the install process. After hitting the power switch it wouldn't boot from disk (not surprising) but also got this CD problem. Booting from tape was OK, though.

Restoring 4.3.3 from a tape backup and then retrying the upgrade to AIX 5 did the trick. No idea what the problem was - just one of those "keep on hitting it until it works" problems I think.

I think this problem il only on the graphic console. If you plogin an tty console and startup the installation from there,you will have no problem.

That could be right. I had no dumb terminal available to me at the time so I wasn't able to test.

@ianr, if you happen having no dumb terminal, simply use your PC as a dumb terminal. Plug a null-modem (or "crossed") cable between the first asyncchronous output of or AIX box (the one labelled "1") and the COM1 input of your PC. Use Microsoft Windows Hyperterm, it will emulate a dumb terminal. Chose vt100 as a configuration, 8bit+no_parity or 7bit_Parity_even, 9600 baud.

by the way, Abyss, "0C45" means "Cannot configure the console"...