Trouble booting UP2000+

[Alan Young]

Matt Turner wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've got a UP2000+ that I can't get to boot. When powered on, I get
> nothing on the monitor or serial console. All LEDs on the board are
> green (Table 5-1 in the manual [0]). Speaker is connected, but I get
> no beep codes. Video card is installed in PCI Bus 0.
> 
> The previous owner said (ignore DP264, he meant UP2000+)
> 
>> The 264DP in the large black enclosure has a firmware problem. I always had
>> to boot it into the debug monitor (firmware, enabled via switch on the
>> motherboard), load the SRM firmware and then I was able to boot VMS. IIRC I
>> set the console to RS--232 (check). Maybe you find out how to fix the SRM
>> firmware. It's a great machine.
> 
> I looked in the UP2000+ manual to find out what jumpers he was talking
> about, and evidently they are some combination of pins 1-2 and 15-16
> of J29. Jumpering 15-16 is supposed to "invoke the fail-safe boot
> recovery," and jumpering 1-2 is supposed to recover firmware. I've
> tried 1-2 set, 15-16 set, both set, I still get nothing on monitor or
> serial console. Is the RS-232 comment of any significance?
> 
> I also read about the debug port (J43/J42) but I can't find any other
> information about how to use it. I checked the technical reference
> manual as well. [1]
> 
> I'm pretty stumped. What should I try next?
> 
> Matt Turner
> 
> [0] http://www.alphalinux.org/firmware/api/UP2000plus/UP2000plus_user_manual.pdf
> [1] http://www.alphalinux.org/firmware/api/UP2000plus/UP2000plus_technical_reference_manual.pdf

Hi,

The docs don't appear to be very clear to me at a first look, but it 
does reference a SROM connection.  AFAIK, SROM connectors are used on 
many (all?) alpha systems to provide low level system diagnosis.  I have 
a port on three on my systems of varying generations.

The SROM connector is a female MMJ connector and it looks similar to a 
ethernet or phone jack. It should be on the motherboard or each of the 
CPU card(s).  To use it, you'll need build a cable to connect it to a 
PC-style serial port.  For parts, you'll need a MMJ straight through 
cable and a MMJ to DB9 or DB25 connector (depending on the serial port 
that you have available on the other computer).  The pinout mapping I 
found on the web, but I don't have my notes handy.  If you need them, 
let me know and I'll dig them up.  Then when you connect it to a PC and 
boot, you'll be able to access the SROM mini debugger via the PC serial 
port and terminal emulation program.  You should be able to find some 
documentation on the debugger with a search of "alpha srom debugger".

HTH,
Alan