sparc 20 workstation time

[cljlk]

Hi,
I have Sparc20 with Solaris 2.5 operating system. This workstation was in
storage for years.
The time stay at year 1970. I have try to change the time by using a command
"clock", but failed.

Is the time caused by "battery is too old"? If I have to replace a new
battery, would

You please provide me some tip, such as where and how.

Thanks in advance.

[Rich Teer]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, cljlk wrote:

> Hi,
> I have Sparc20 with Solaris 2.5 operating system. This workstation was in
> storage for years.
> The time stay at year 1970. I have try to change the time by using a command
> "clock", but failed.

There's no such command; try date (as root).

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: [url]http://www.rite-online.net[/url]

[cljlk]

I did try the date xxxxxxxxxxx
but the year is still at 1970. Please shed a light.
If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I don't
want to.


"Rich Teer" <rich.teer@rite-group.com> wrote in message
news:Pine.SOL.4.58.0406120944410.1080@zaphod.rite-group.com...

> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, cljlk wrote:
>

> > Hi,
> > I have Sparc20 with Solaris 2.5 operating system. This workstation was

in

> > storage for years.
> > The time stay at year 1970. I have try to change the time by using a

command

> > "clock", but failed.

>
> There's no such command; try date (as root).
>
> --
> Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA
>
> President,
> Rite Online Inc.
>
> Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
> URL: [url]http://www.rite-online.net[/url]

[S. Anthony Sequeira]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 14:20:00 -0400, cljlk penned:

> I did try the date xxxxxxxxxxx
> but the year is still at 1970. Please shed a light.
> If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I don't
> want to.

What *exactly* did you try. Tell us and give us the output too.
--
Tony

Experience is directly proportional to the cost of the equipment ruined.

[Rich Teer]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, cljlk wrote:

Please don't top post.

> I did try the date xxxxxxxxxxx
> but the year is still at 1970. Please shed a light.
> If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I don't
> want to.

Try getting a new NVRAM chip (google is your friend).
Oh, and if you get it working, installer a newer OS.
Solaris 2.5 is YEARS out of date!

Thinking about it, I'm not sure if 2.5 is Y2K compliant.
Have you installed the Y2K patches? Better, get an S9
media kit and install that.

HTH,

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: [url]http://www.rite-online.net[/url]

[Ian Wilson]

<Top posting reorganised>
<followups to comp.unix.misc>

Dear cljlk, I think these are worth reading ...

[url]http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?toppost[/url]
[url]http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html[/url]

cljlk wrote:

>
> "Rich Teer" <rich.teer@rite-group.com> wrote in message
> news:Pine.SOL.4.58.0406120944410.1080@zaphod.rite-group.com...
>

>> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, cljlk wrote:
>>
>>

>>> Hi, I have Sparc20 with Solaris 2.5 operating system. This
>>> workstation was in
>>> storage for years. The time stay at year 1970. I have try to
>>> change the time by using a command "clock", but failed.

>>
>> There's no such command; try date (as root).
>>

> I did try the date xxxxxxxxxxx but the year is still at 1970. Please
> shed a light.

Are you logged in as root?
What did you type in place of xxxxxxxxx?
What does "man date" say on this subject?

Could you post the *exact* commands you used and the *exact* messages
you got back in response to those commands?

> If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the
> Sparc20 which I don't want to.

"gimme what I want, or the computer gets it!".
:-(

[cljlk]

I did exactely what manual page as below



man date

For example:


date 10080045



sets the date to Oct 8, 12:45 a.m. The current





"S. Anthony Sequeira" <tony@sequeira.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.06.12.18.44.16.125227@sequeira.com.. .

> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 14:20:00 -0400, cljlk penned:
>

> > I did try the date xxxxxxxxxxx
> > but the year is still at 1970. Please shed a light.
> > If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I

don't

> > want to.

>
> What *exactly* did you try. Tell us and give us the output too.
> --
> Tony
>
> Experience is directly proportional to the cost of the equipment ruined.
>

[Juhan Leemet]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 15:19:14 -0400, cljlk wrote:

> I did exactely what manual page as below
>
> man date
>
> For example:
>
> date 10080045
>
> sets the date to Oct 8, 12:45 a.m. The current

Well, it's doing EXACTLY what you told it to do! Look at the man page
again (from one of my Solaris8 systems), esp. the line:

/usr/bin/date [ -u ] [ [ mmdd ] HHMM | mmddHHMM [ cc ] yy ] [.SS ]

(and read the explanations down below, for each of the fields). In your
case, you can leave out the optional "-u". You did put in the mmddHHMM,
which is good! However, you left off the "cc" and "yy"! Those fields are
for the (optional?) century and year. How was "date" supposed to guess
which ones you wanted? So, putting it all together:

date 100800452004

would have done what you wanted to do (the famous DWIM: do what I mean?).
You'll get the knack of reading man pages. Don't be too impatient.

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

[Juhan Leemet]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 14:20:00 -0400, cljlk wrote:

> If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I don't
> want to.

BTW, If you're gonna trash it, I'll take it! Beautiful machines (nicer
than 10s, 4s, 5s, etc., but maybe not as "cute" as the LX?)! A bit dated,
but one could have lots of fun with a cluster of 20s, learning about
networking, clustering, HA, etc. I think current "best bang" (for the
smallest buck) is Ultra2, if you don't mind the SBUS peripheral cards.

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

[cljlk]

I issue the command as man page, the problem is the year is still in 1970.
So, I would like to know it is battery problem, should I change the clock
battery and how to change it
if I have to.


"Juhan Leemet" <juhan@logicognosis.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.06.12.19.53.05.912658@logicognosis.c om...

> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 15:19:14 -0400, cljlk wrote:

> > I did exactely what manual page as below
> >
> > man date
> >
> > For example:
> >
> > date 10080045
> >
> > sets the date to Oct 8, 12:45 a.m. The current

>
> Well, it's doing EXACTLY what you told it to do! Look at the man page
> again (from one of my Solaris8 systems), esp. the line:
>
> /usr/bin/date [ -u ] [ [ mmdd ] HHMM | mmddHHMM [ cc ] yy ] [.SS ]
>
> (and read the explanations down below, for each of the fields). In your
> case, you can leave out the optional "-u". You did put in the mmddHHMM,
> which is good! However, you left off the "cc" and "yy"! Those fields are
> for the (optional?) century and year. How was "date" supposed to guess
> which ones you wanted? So, putting it all together:
>
> date 100800452004
>
> would have done what you wanted to do (the famous DWIM: do what I mean?).
> You'll get the knack of reading man pages. Don't be too impatient.
>
> --
> Juhan Leemet
> Logicognosis, Inc.
>
>

[Juhan Leemet]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 16:23:28 -0400, cljlk wrote:

> I issue the command as man page, the problem is the year is still in 1970.
> So, I would like to know it is battery problem, should I change the clock
> battery and how to change it
> if I have to.

We seem not to be communicating very effectively...? How about you type
(into your email message) a transcript of exactly what you type and what
you see? For example, on one of my test systems (LX running Solaris8):

bash-2.03# uname -a
SunOS lexx.logicognosis.com 5.8 Generic_108528-29 sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCstation-LX

bash-2.03# date
Sat Jun 12 17:33:46 NDT 2004
bash-2.03# date 0612173504
Sat Jun 12 17:35:00 NDT 2004

or

bash-2.03# date
Sat Jun 12 17:40:41 NDT 2004
bash-2.03# date 061217452004
Sat Jun 12 17:45:00 NDT 2004

I've "bumped ahead" the time just a little bit, but could set it to
anything. I don't think Solaris or "date" (after boot) rely on the
hardware clock... er, unless you're rebooting the machine? Then (of
course) you'll see the time set back to 1970! I don't have Solaris 2.5.

So, if you just want to run the machine to test it for a while:
1) boot the system
2) set the date
3) run the system (it should have the new date)

For the system to retain the date over shutdown/(re)boot, you have to get
a new NVRAM/clock chip. See my other post for pointers (Memoryx, Mouser).

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

[Juhan Leemet]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 16:23:28 -0400, cljlk wrote:

> I issue the command as man page, the problem is the year is still in 1970.
> So, I would like to know it is battery problem, should I change the clock
> battery and how to change it
> if I have to.

On second thought... if "date" never changes the date/time at all... (I
personally have never experienced situations that bad...)

Buy a new NVRAM chip (with internal battery). I would buy from MemoryX. It
is pretty unique in size and appearance. Just open up your system (with
power off) and remove the old one, replacing it with a new one. I can't
remember exactly what happens when you power it up again, I believe the
OBP recognizes invalid NVRAM contents (and clears/resets them?). Then you
can use OBP commands and/or "eeprom" Solaris command to change values.

Sorry for wasting everyone's time and bandwidth.

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

[Alan Coopersmith]

"cljlk" <cljlk@hotmail.com> writes in comp.unix.solaris:
|I did try the date xxxxxxxxxxx
|but the year is still at 1970. Please shed a light.
|If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I don't
|want to.
|> > I have Sparc20 with Solaris 2.5 operating system. This workstation was
|in
|> > storage for years.

If it's been in storage so long, maybe it never got the Y2K patch set.
Without them, the Solaris 2.5 date command won't work for dates past
2000 unless you fully specify it as 2004 - just 04 won't work - see
[url]http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/findPatch.pl?patchId=104466&rev=02[/url]

--
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Alan Coopersmith * [email]alanc@alum.calberkeley.org[/email] * [email]Alan.Coopersmith@Sun.COM[/email]
[url]http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~alanc/[/url] * [url]http://blogs.sun.com/alanc/[/url]
Working for, but definitely not speaking for, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

[L$s Hayward]

Hear Hear to this,
I am still using Sparc 20's in anger - great machines, and have a shed
full of the older IPX,IPC and Classics. Keep the real gear and throw out
the PeeCees!

Les.

Juhan Leemet wrote:

> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 14:20:00 -0400, cljlk wrote:
>

>>If I could not solve the problem, I have to trash the Sparc20 which I don't
>>want to.

>
>
> BTW, If you're gonna trash it, I'll take it! Beautiful machines (nicer
> than 10s, 4s, 5s, etc., but maybe not as "cute" as the LX?)! A bit dated,
> but one could have lots of fun with a cluster of 20s, learning about
> networking, clustering, HA, etc. I think current "best bang" (for the
> smallest buck) is Ultra2, if you don't mind the SBUS peripheral cards.
>