Testing with a Terminal Emulator

You can use the serial port(s) on the system that you are testing to connect to a second system which will act as a file server. This file server may or may not be the same type of system provided that:

By connecting two systems in this way, you can use the terminal emulator on the file server as a terminal into the system that you are testing. (For UNIX systems, see the on-line tip manpage for detailed information about terminal connection to a remote host. For Windows systems, see the documentation for the Terminal accessory. For Macintosh® systems, see the documentation for MacTerminal®.)

This terminal emulation method is recommended (over simply connecting to a dumb terminal), since it lets you use your normal editor and operating system features when working with the boot ROM.

Note - In the following pages, system refers to the system that you are testing, and server refers to the file server system that you are connecting to the system being tested.

The procedures given in this chapter assume the use of the UNIX tip terminal emulator. Other terminal emulators will use similar procedures.

1. Connect a serial port from the server to a serial port on your system with a 3-wire "null modem" cable (i.e. a cable that connects Pin 3 to Pin 2, Pin 2 to Pin 3, and Pin 7 to Pin 7). For the following examples, we will assume the use of Port A on the system and Port B on the server.

2. To set up the tip session on the server, type:

hostname% tip -9600 /dev/ttyb

Note - On Sun workstations, use a Shell Tool window, not a Command Tool window; some tip commands may not work properly in a Command Tool window.

3. At your system, enter the User Interface so that the ok prompt is displayed.

If you do not have a video monitor attached to your system, connect the system's TTYA to the server's TTYB and turn on the power to your system. Wait for a few seconds, and press Stop-A to interrupt the power-on sequence and start the User Interface. Type n to get to the ok prompt. Unless the system is completely inoperable, the User Interface is enabled, and you can continue with the next step in this procedure.

4. If you need to redirect the standard input and output to TTYA, type:

ok ttya io

There will be no echoed response.

5. Press Return on the Sun workstation keyboard. The ok prompt appears in the TIP window.

Typing ~# in the TIP window is equivalent to typing Stop-A at the SPARC system.

Note - Do not type Stop-A from a Sun workstation being used as a server to your system. Doing so will abort the operating system on the server. (If you accidentally type Stop-A, you can recover by immediately typing either c at the > prompt or go at the ok prompt.)

6. When you are finished using the tip window, end your tip session and exit the window:

    a. Redirect the input and output to the screen and keyboard, if needed.

    b. In the tip window, type:

    ok ~. 

    Note - When entering ~ (tilde) commands in the tip window,
    ~ must be the first character entered on the line. To ensure that you are at the start of a new line, press Return first.

Common Problems with tip

This section describes solutions for tip problems occurring in pre-Solaris 2.0 operating environments.

Problems with tip may occur if:

There should be a directory named /usr/spool/uucp . The owner should be uucp and the mode should be drwxr-sr-x .

The status field for TTYB (or the serial port you are using) must be set to off in /etc/ttytab . Be sure to execute kill -HUP 1 (see init(8) ) as root if you have to change this entry.

Sometimes, a program will have changed the protection of /dev/ttyb (or the serial port you are using) so that it is no longer accessible. Make sure that /dev/ttyb has the mode set to crw-rw-rw-.

If the tip connection is in tandem mode, the operating system sometimes sends XON (^S) characters (particularly when programs in other windows are generating lots of output). The XON characters are detected by the Forth word key? , and can cause confusion. The solution is to turn off tandem mode with the ~s !tandem tip command.

tip opens a sub-shell to run cat , thus causing text to be attached to the beginning of your loaded file. If you use dl and see any unexpected output, check your .cshrc file.
