IBM RS/6000 - Manual (Page 204)

the system does not restart after a few minutes, the system planar may have to be
replaced. There are no other means of recovery other than the recovery diskette.
10.1.1.2 Firmware Language Problems
The E20 and F30's firmware have the ability to change the language in which the
System Management Services menus and options (ASCII interface) are displayed.
There is a serious bug with this, however, and the only language options which
work with current firmware level, from January 26, 1996, are:
English
French
If you select any of the other options, your system will hang during the firmware
boot process. A small blue triangle will appear in the top left corner of the screen
together with the code
1 A . The only way to recover from this situation is by
powering-off the system, disconnecting the power cord and removing the battery for
approximately 30 seconds.
Note: Removing the battery from the system will reset any information in the
NVRAM (including the Boot Device Order List). When you replace the battery, you
will have to use System Management Services to restore the correct information.
10.2 Booting Problems
After the firmware has passed control of the system to AIX, problems which occur
are, in most cases, the same as for any other RS/6000. The current limiting factor
is the lack of LED support by AIX Version 4.1.4 on the PCI-based RS/6000. In
addition to other booting problems shown in this section, we discuss possible ways
to overcome this limitation should problems arise.
10.2.1 Booting From CD-ROM
While AIX supports installation from external CD-ROM, the CD-ROM drive
7210-001 cannot be used as a boot device.
10.2.2 System Hangs During AIX Boot Process
The AIX booting process on the PCI-based RS/6000 is similar to the
microchannel-based RS/6000 systems. This means that the boot process can
experience all the problems which can occur with the microchannel-based RS/6000
systems. On the microchannel-based RS/6000 systems, the LEDs show the
progress of the boot process. Currently, AIX Version 4.1.4 on the PCI-based
RS/6000 systems does not show LED codes other than the dump codes. (It is
expected that support for LEDs on the PCI-based RS/6000 servers will be provided
in the next version of AIX). This means, that before the display is configured, and
information is sent the to screen, you cannot determine how far the AIX boot
process has progressed. If the system hangs, you will have to perform system
maintenance and try to determine the cause of the problem by using the standard
AIX LED recovery procedures. As you will be unaware of the point where the
system has hung, you will have to go through all the recovery procedures.
Typically, the procedure to follow is:
1. Boot the system into Maintenance mode by using either a CD-ROM or bootable
tape.
180 Introduction to PCI-Based RS/6000 Servers