Why can't I boot tape on 3B2/600?

[Steve Friedl]

Hi folks,

     I have been having the damndest time getting a customer
machine back up after a crash this weekend, and I am baffled as
to why it is not cooperating with me.  They have a 3B2/600
running SVR3.2, and they have a 60MB cartridge tape and a pair of
internal hard drives (all of this is SCSI).

     The root drive has a corrupted VTOC (probably my own damn
fault), so I figured I would just boot from the OS tape and fix
it right up.  Fat chance.

     When I try to boot the machine, it does the SELF TEST and
then hangs, presumably trying to filledt or run diagnostics off
the hard disk.  If I hit the reset, I get the traditional SYSTEM
FAILURE HAS OCCURRED, but the only boot device it allows me is
FD5 -- no SCSI choice.  This is not a case of simply a missing
name for an existing slot that would happen if filledt failed:
the choices just aren't there.

     When I try to boot the essential utilities floppy to run
filledt, it fills a few slots and then powers down the machine:
great!  I can't boot dgmon or /unix either.  None of this changes
if I reset the NVRAM first.

     What is happening here?  I understand that maybe it can't
boot from the hard disk, but why in the world won't it let me
boot from tape?  I really gotta get this machine working when I
go out there on Monday morning at 6AM :-(

     Any help would be really appreciated.

     Steve

-- 
Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / Software Consultant / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy
+1 714 544 6561  / friedl at mtndew.Tustin.CA.US  / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl

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