ANSWER: Sparc won't boot w/ serial devs?

[David Mostardi]

In article <1990Aug23.225050.9705 at rice.edu> I wrote:
>
>Is it *really* true that a Sparcstation 1 won't boot if there are any
>devices (say, modems) attached to the serial ports?  The techie at Sun
>believes this is true.  Is there any way around this incredible problem?

Boy, o boy!  You wouldn't believe the amount of mail I got in response to
this.  Most people said I was crazy, some said "you bet". Well, I have
just received official confirmation of my problem from the Sun Field
Service Center in Alameda, CA.

In the early SparcStation 1 CPU boards, there is a hardware bug which
prevents the machine from booting if a device is attached to either serial
port.  The only way to fix it is to get a CPU upgrade.  This is only a
problem with boot proms 1.2 and earlier.

David Mostardi			      "Where the coffee is strong,
MSRI, Berkeley                            the cat is good-looking,
david at msri.org       	   and all the theorems are above-average."