Taken from forums: AIX on IBM RS/6000 hangs on boot, any ideas ?

my system hangs on boot just after dpid2 subsystem is loaded. Propably something wrong with the firmware. Somehow I can’t even boot from cd or floppy.

system is:
IBM RS/6000 43P-240
os: AIX v_4.2.1

thanks,
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If the book sequence gets as far as starting up dpid2, it isn’t a firmware problem. You need to get into single user mode and fix it. (I assume you have a good reason for running such an old, unsupported, version of AIX; but if not, upgrading to AIX 5.1 or 5.2 would be a Good Thing(TM) when you can – if memory serves, 4.2.1 is about 8 years old now).

The most likely reason not to be able to boot from CD is that the bootlist sees the hard disk first. If you haven’t checked this, it’s worth a look. When you boot up, you get words coming up : keyboard…mouse…SCSI…speaker (something like that, anyway). After keyboard comes up, you have a few seconds (until the second beep) to hit a function key and either enter the SMS menu or use the default bootlist, either of which should help. I can’t remember which key it is for than model of RS/6000.

If you have a graphical console, try f1, f4 or f5. If an ascii console, try 1, 4 or 5.

If you get into the SMS menu, go to multiboot and change the boot device order by putting cd0 first. The default bootlist should have cd0 before hdisk0 in the bootlist.

if you want to boot from CD, just hit f5 after the keyboard icon. That will boot from the CD drive, regardless of what’s in the normal mode bootlist. F1 goes to the SMS menu, if that’s what you want.
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Code 581 does mean internet.

If it has a graphics card, attach a VGA terminal and a regular keyboard. When you see the IBM logo on the screen, press F1 (i usually press several times, just to be sure).

This should bring you into the SMS menu.

If the box does not repond to this, then the console had been redefined to the serial port. Default speed is 9600,N,8,1. Instead of F1, press 1 (ascii char ‘1’ (one)).

If you have been able to get an AIX bootable disk:
* go to maintaince mode, (“Start System Maintaince Mode for System Recovery, generally option 3)
* choose “Access Root Volumn Group”
* verify you want this
* determine which disk you want to boot
* the list of partitions will probably contain “hd1 hd2 hd3 hd4 hd5 hd6 hd8 hd9var hd10opt”
* choose to activate that disk mounting filesystems before starting ksh
* remove the root password
# passwd
* remove the internet definitions
# lsdev -Cc adapter
* for each of the ethernet adapters (assuming you have two : ent0 ent1)
# for i in 1 2; do; rmdev -dl en${i}; rmdev -dl et${i}; rmdev -dl ent${i}; done
# rmdev -dl inet0
# sync; sleep 3; reboot -q
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system should go into reboot quickly, and no 581 code anymore, and no need to guess root password. It is what you set it to, or blank if you just entered “return”.