Unix administration - sparc 20 workstation's clock

Author

sparc 20 workstation's clock

cljlk

2004-06-12, 11:52 pm

sorry, if you receive this message twice. I send message out earlier, it
seems that there is problem in my system.

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.

Juhan Leemet

2004-06-12, 11:53 pm

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 09:46:16 -0400, cljlk wrote:
> 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.

There was a recent post in comp.sys.sun.hardware (you seem to have missed
that?) which pointed to some general information on NVRAM/clock chips:

"Dave Mitton" <dmitton@comcast.net> wrote:
>"Mike" <mvore@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>Info at: http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/su...hostid.faq.html
>
>Using the info there, I was able to buy one at Mouser for about $20 a few
>years ago.
>
>Also, I found if you leave the system powered on, after a day or so, the
>battery may acquire enough charge to boot.

BTW, that was not my experience, that the battery "recovered". I don't
think there is any charging circuitry in there. They are just "embedded"
batteries (like on PC mobos, or digital watches?) that are built into the
NVRAM/clock chip. Someone/somewhere even explained how to do surgery?

I did once have a Sparc1 that seemed to work with a semi-bad battery: it
would reboot with 00:00:...:00 and ff:ff:...:ff field values and time at
the beginning of the epoch (year 1970). I was able to set the (software)
time and the system would run. Jumpstart probably wouldn't work, though.

I bought my replacement NVRAM/clock chip (and other parts) from MemoryX
(www.memoryx.net), but many people have reported buying them from Mouser.

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

cljlk

2004-06-12, 11:53 pm

Thanks for the input. I will try the Mouser.

I did miss the hardware post message site.

"Juhan Leemet" <juhan@logicognosis.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.06.12.19.33.12.172962@logicognosis.com...
> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 09:46:16 -0400, cljlk wrote:
in[vbcol=seagreen]
command[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> There was a recent post in comp.sys.sun.hardware (you seem to have missed
> that?) which pointed to some general information on NVRAM/clock chips:
>
> "Dave Mitton" <dmitton@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> BTW, that was not my experience, that the battery "recovered". I don't
> think there is any charging circuitry in there. They are just "embedded"
> batteries (like on PC mobos, or digital watches?) that are built into the
> NVRAM/clock chip. Someone/somewhere even explained how to do surgery?
>
> I did once have a Sparc1 that seemed to work with a semi-bad battery: it
> would reboot with 00:00:...:00 and ff:ff:...:ff field values and time at
> the beginning of the epoch (year 1970). I was able to set the (software)
> time and the system would run. Jumpstart probably wouldn't work, though.
>
> I bought my replacement NVRAM/clock chip (and other parts) from MemoryX
> (www.memoryx.net), but many people have reported buying them from Mouser.
>
> --
> Juhan Leemet
> Logicognosis, Inc.
>
>

dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu

2004-06-13, 5:52 pm

In comp.sys.sun.misc Juhan Leemet <juhan@logicognosis.com> wrote:
[snip]
> I bought my replacement NVRAM/clock chip (and other parts) from MemoryX
> (www.memoryx.net), but many people have reported buying them from Mouser.

If you don't want to go that route, you can replace the battery. This
website details one approach: http://www.belgers.com/computers/nvram/.
I've done this surgery several times with excellent results. Instead of
directly soldering a battery or using AA batteries, I epoxy a CR2032
button cell holder on top. I then dab epoxy over the gouges I make and
solder connections.

--
David Griffith
dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu <-- Switch the 'b' and 'u'

Dr. David Kirkby

2004-06-15, 5:56 pm

dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu wrote in message news:<cagjtb$7e1rq$1@hades.csu.net>...
> In comp.sys.sun.misc Juhan Leemet <juhan@logicognosis.com> wrote:
> [snip]
>
> If you don't want to go that route, you can replace the battery. This
> website details one approach: http://www.belgers.com/computers/nvram/.
> I've done this surgery several times with excellent results. Instead of
> directly soldering a battery or using AA batteries, I epoxy a CR2032
> button cell holder on top. I then dab epoxy over the gouges I make and
> solder connections.

With refence to the 'date' command mentioned in other posts (sorry I
can't post direclty below them), I know what can sometimes be a
problem:

If you have some GNU utils, they have a 'date' command too. Make sure
you are looking at the Solaris man page for date, and not the GNU one.
Then try

% which date

and see that you are not finding a GNU one. I've done a similar
mistake (with 'find', not date) before. The syntax can be different.

dave k