Asset ID:	1-77-1019564.1
Update Date:	2011-03-22
Keywords:

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Solution Type  Sun Alert Sure

Solution  1019564.1 :   Installing Patches 136936-04/-05 on SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 systems may lead to Regression and Booting Issues  


PreviouslyPublishedAs
241246

Bug Id
<SUNBUG: 6739968>, <SUNBUG: 6739970>

Product
Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 Server
Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 Server

Date of Resolved Release
28-Aug-2008

Installing Patches 136936-04/-05 on SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 systems may lead to Regression and Booting Issues

1. Impact

Installing patches 136936-04 and 136936-05 on Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 and Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 servers delivers incorrect system firmware binaries/images.

Patch 136936-04 will cause the system to be unable to boot.

Patch 136936-05 will cause a functional regression back to unreleased firmware revision 7.1.3.c. This version of firmware introduces a Security issue as described by Bug 6710098. Please refer to Sun Alert 239930 for details of the impact of this Security issue.

Patches 136936-04 and 136936-05 have been WITHDRAWN from SunSolve.

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform:

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140/T5240 with patch 136936-04 or 136936-05 and without patch 136936-06

Note: No other Sun systems are affected by this issue.

Note each patch 136936-04, 136936-05, and 136936-06 says that it delivers Sun System Firmware version 7.1.3.e but only 136936-06 delivers the correct "Sun_System_Firmware-7_1_3_e-SPARC_Enterprise_T514 +T5240.pkg" file.

Run the following command (what(1)) to determine which patch the file comes from:


This generates the following result for 136936-04:


This generates the following result for 136936-05:


This generates the following result for 136936-06:


3. Symptoms

After flash updating to the binary in 136936-04 and doing a "resetsc", the system will become unavailable.

The following will be seen:

sc> resetsc
Are you sure you want to reset the SC (y/n)? y
INIT: Switching to runlevel: 6
INIT: Sending processes the KILL signal
Stopping portmap daemon: portmap.
Stopping OpenBSD Secure Shell server: sshd.
Stopping Servicetags discoverer: stdiscoverer.
Stopping Servicetags listener: stlistener.
Saving the System Clock time to the Hardware Clock...
Hardware Clock updated to Wed Aug 20 03:29:53 GMT 2008.
Stopping periodic command scheduler: cron.
.
Sending all processes the TERM signal...done.
Sending all processes the KILL signal...done.
Unmounting remote and non-toplevel virtual filesystems...done.
Deactivating swap...done.
Unmounting local filesystems...umount: /store: device is busy
done.

Swapping BootFlash Hi/Low Regions
************************************************************
U-Boot 1.1.1 (Jul 29 2008 - 13:09:56)
CPU:   MPC885ZPnn at 50 MHz: 8 kB I-Cache 8 kB D-Cache FEC present
Board: SPARC885
       Watchdog enabled
I2C:   ready
DRAM:
trying 128 MBytes
trying 64 MBytes
*** failed ***
************************************************************

Once a system has reached this point, it will remain in a continuous loop. The system will not be able to determine the size of memory and so will not boot.

4. Workaround

There is no workaround for this issue.

The recovery process from having flash-updated the 136936-04 image (which results in the system being unbootable) is for an authorized service person to manually switch the "high/low" flash ROM jumper (J10501 - located on the motherboard between the SCC chip and the Riser card) and reset the system which causes the system to boot from the other half of the FLASH which should contain a recovery firmware image.

Immediately download and flash-update to the 136936-06 version of the firmware and re-boot again.  At that point, the correct firmware will be in use and no further action is required.  In particular, the J10501 jumper does not have to be switched again.

5. Resolution

This issue is addressed on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform:

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140/T5240 with patch 136936-06 or later
  

This Sun Alert notification is being provided to you on an "AS IS" basis. This Sun Alert notification may contain information provided by third parties. The issues described in this Sun Alert notification may or may not impact your system(s). Sun makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees as to the information contained herein. ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. BY ACCESSING THIS DOCUMENT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SUN SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT ARISE OUT OF YOUR USE OR FAILURE TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. This Sun Alert notification contains Sun proprietary and confidential information. It is being provided to you pursuant to the provisions of your agreement to purchase services from Sun, or, if you do not have such an agreement, the Sun.com Terms of Use. This Sun Alert notification may only be used for the purposes contemplated by these agreements.

Copyright 2000-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 U.S.A. All rights reserved.

References

<SUNPATCH: 136936-06>

Internal Comments
Please send technical questions to the following email:
[email protected]
and CC the following persons:
Internal Contributor/Submitter
Internal Eng Responsible Engineer
Internal Services Knowledge Engineer

This regression was not introduced by a putback, but by incorrect patch
construction.


a) Installing patch 136936-04 will cause the system to be unable to
boot.



136936-04 delivers an image which is versioned correctly at 7.1.3.e,
but is configured incorrectly for the intended system, and therefore
causes the system to be unable to boot.



b) Installing patch 136936-05 will cause a functional regression back
to unreleased revision 7.1.3.c.



7.1.3.c is an earlier revision relative to the prior released version
7.1.3.d as delivered in 136936-03.  The difference between 7.1.3.c
and
7.1.3.d is the delivery of a fix for bug 6710098 "Panic on CPU thread;
BAD TRAP type=33 and type=34 reported".  The reason 7.1.3.c did
not
complete qualification was due to a susceptibility to an LDOMs
configuration problem.  But, the system would otherwise boot
correctly
and therefore leave the machine in a state to be re-flashed with
136936-06 with no complications.

Internal Contributor/submitter
[email protected]

Internal Eng Responsible Engineer
[email protected]

Internal Services Knowledge Engineer
[email protected]

Internal Eng Business Unit Group
SSG SW (Platform Software)

Internal Resolution Patches
136936-06

Internal Sun Alert & FAB Admin Info
26-Aug-2008, david m: draft created, send for 24hr review
28-Aug-2008, david m: review completed, send to publish

References

SUNPATCH:136936-06

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