Flashing the L1 controller firmware on a Tezro

[Irinikus]

This post is to help someone who wants to upgrade their quad 700MHz Tezro to a Quad 1GHz machine.

When I upgraded my Tezro from a quad 700MHz machine to a Quad 1GHz machine there were initially problems because the L1 controller's firmware wasn't recent enough to recognise the IP59 (Quad 1GHz) node board.

The problem presented itself in the form of a VRM failure (low voltage limit reached) on startup, and the fact that the extra fans on the IP59 were not recognised and were running at full speed when the machine was powered up. The machine would not even get to the PROM booting phase of the startup and powered down automatically.

jan jaap alerted me to the fact that the problem might be due to the fact that the L1 firmware wasn't recent enough.

There is an intricacy in that you can't just update an early version of the L1 firmware to a much later version without having issues, so you have to go through a process of installing about three versions of IRIX 6.5 and flashing the L1 controller each time you have a newer version of IRIX installed.

I placed the quad 700MHz node board back in the machine to carry out this process.

The process of flashing the L1 controller is as follows:

Firstly you have to find the location of the l1.bin file:

It should be in the following location: /usr/cpu/firmware/sysco/

To flash the L1 controller, the command is the following: flashsc --sc usr/cpu/firmware/sysco/l1.bin 1.1

It takes a few minutes for the process to complete and it's rather nail biting stuff!

To confirm the contents of the L1 flash, type the following command line: l1cmd --scdev hw/module/001c01/L1/controller flash status

Repeat this process until your L1 controller's firmware revision is high enough. (version 1.38.4 is high enough to support the IP59)

I personally had to go form version 1.30.11 to 1.32.6 to 1.38.4

The .bin files are in the directory: "/usr/cpu/firmware/sysco/" Regardless of the version of IRIX 6.5 that's installed, they are all called l1.bin and the 1.1 is part of the command.

IRIX 6.5.26 gives you L1 firmware revision: 1.32.6
IRIX 6.5.28 gives you L1 firmware revision: 1.38.4
IRIX 6.5.30 gives you L1 firmware revision: 1.44.0
SGI Patch_SGI0007149 gives you L1 firmware revision: 1.48.1

 

[weblacky]

Just to be clear, 1.1 = Slot A, 1.2 = Slot B for L1 firmware slots.

Correction: Syntax refers to rack # and slot # for clustered systems. Using something like 1.1 vs 1.2 means rack 1. system 1 vs system 2. Both refer to the "A" firmware image on either system. On a local system, system address is rack 1, slot 1.

 

[Irinikus]

These are two alternate flashes using the command: "flashsc --sc usr/cpu/firmware/sysco/l1.bin 1.1"

Take note of the fact that it always flashes the image that's not booted, so it alternates automatically for your protection.

 

[weblacky]

It is true, that always works on the opposite slot regardless of which image you're on:

flashsc - IRIX

IRIX Manual Page for: flashsc (1) -- FLASH update utility for SGI Server L1/L2 Controllers

nixdoc.net

I believe my previous statement was in error, examples of the syntax are slot.rack for cluster systems, that I've misread. It's likely system.controller syntax, I'll edit my previous statement.

Regardless, I'd advise not gong through 1.44.0 firmware, if you plan on ever upgrading to a later-model IP board. Rumor was the Quad 1Ghz crashes on 1.44.0 and that's why 1.48.1 was released., you don't want that firmware A as your backup being a firmware that crashes on your new board. If possible it would be nice to either upgrade or downgrade a major version on firmware image A. There are some reasons the system may switch to the other firmware bank (booting issues that affect your L1), best to make sure that firmware works with your processor board.

 

[Irinikus]

I ran the machine for about 3 months on 1.44.0 without issue before upgrading to 1.48.1. I only flashed it to 1.48.1 when I flashed the PROM to 6.211.

So it won't be an issue if the system has to fall back on 1.44.0, giving me the option to at least refresh the L1 with 1.48.1.

If worst comes to absolute worst, I have a standby Quad 700 MHz node board that I could swap in, allowing me to sort things out.

Thanks for the info concerning 1.44.0 though!