Tadpole SPARCbook 3000ST, SPARCbook 3000XT, SPARCbook 3GX, SPARCbook 3TX User Manual

SPARCbook

Portable Workstation

User Guide

SPARCbook 3000 and SPARCbook 3 Families

Copyright and Trademark Information

Copyright and Trademark Information

Copyright © 1997 by Tadpole Technology Inc
Copyright©

1995 by Sun Microsystems, Inc. 2550 Garcia Avenue, Mountain View, California 94043-1100 U.S.A.

All rights reserved. This product

or

document is protected by copyright and distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying,

distribution and decompilation. No part

of

this product

or

document may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior

written authorization

of

Sun and its licensors,

if

any.

Portions

of

this product may

be

derived from the UNIX®, licensed from UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc., a wholly owned

subsidiary

of

Novell, Inc., and from the Berkeley 4.3 BSD system, licensed from the University

of

California. Third-party software,

incuding font technology in this product, is protected by copyright and licensed from Sun's Suppliers.
RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND: Use, duplication,

or

disclosure by the government is subject to restrictions

as

set forth in

subparagraph (c) (1) (ii)

of

the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 and FAR 52.227-19.

This product

or

the products depicted herein may be protected by one

or

more U.S.

or

international patents

or

pending patents.
TRADEMARKS
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Open Windows, Sun View and Sun OS are trademarks

or

registered trademarks

of

Sun

Microsystems, Inc. UNIX and OPEN

LOOK

are registered trademarks

of

UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc. All other product names

mentioned herein are the trademarks

of

their respective owners.

All SPARC trademarks, including the SCD Compliant logo, are trademarks

or

registered trademarks

of

SPARC International, Inc.

SPARCbook is a trademark

of

SPARC International Inc, licensed exclusively to Tadpole Technology Inc. Products bearing SPARC

trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
The OPEN LOOK® and Sun™ Graphical User Interfaces were developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. for its users and licensees. Sun

acknowledges the pioneering efforts

of

Xerox in researching and developing the concept

of

visual

or

graphical user interfaces for the
computer industry. Sun holds a non-exclusive license from Xerox to the Xerox Graphical User Interface, which license also covers
Sun's licensees who implement OPEN

LOOK

GUI's and otherwise comply with Sun's written License agreements.

The X Window System is a trademark

of

X Consortium, Inc.

Notebook Computing Environment and NCE are trademraks

of

Tadpole Technology, Inc.

All other products

or

services mentioned herein are identified by the trademarks, service marks

or

product names

of

their respective

companies

or

organizations.

Issue 1.0 of

12

June 1997

Part Number: 980380

ii SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

© by Tadpole Technology plc

Printed in United Kingdom

FCC Class B Notice

FCC Class B Notice

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to
Part

15

of

the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful

interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy

and,

if

not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio

communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation.

If

this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio

or

television reception, which can be determined by

turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one

or

more

of

the

following measures:

Reorient

or

relocate the receiving antenna.
Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
Consult your supplier

or

an experienced radio

or

television technician for help.

Properly shielded and grounded cables and connectors must be used in order to meet FCC emission limits.
Proper cables and connectors are available from your supplier. Tadpole Technology is not responsible for any
radio

or

television interference caused by using other than recommended cables and connectors

or

by

unauthorized changes

or

modifications to this equipment. Unauthorized changes

or

modifications to the

equipment could void the authority granted by the FCC to operate the equipment.

This device complies with Part

15

of

the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1)

this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received,
including interference that may cause undesired operation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To ensure compliance with the Class B limit, when this equipment is operated with an
external video monitor, the cable used to connect between this equipment and the external monitor must be

of

a

ferrite loaded type.

If

the cable used is not already fitted with ferrite cores, the user must install a split ferrite

core on the cable.

Canadian Department

of

Communications Compliance Statement

This equipment does not exceed Class B limits per radio noise emissions for digital apparatus set out in the
Radio Interference Regulations

of

the Canadian Department

of

Communications.

Avis de conformite aux normes du ministere des Communications du Canada

Cet equipment ne depasse pas les limites de Classe B d'emission de bruits radioelectroniques pour les appareils
numeriques, telles que prescrites par le Reglement sur le brouillage radioelectrique

etabli par le ministere des

Communications du Canada.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide iii

FCC Part 68 Modem Information

FCC Part 68 Modem Information

This information applies ONLY to SPARCbook

3,

SPARCbook 3 LC, SPARCbook 3XP, SPARCbook 3

TX and SP ARCbook Server models which are equipped with an internal modem.

This equipment complies with Part 68

of

the FCC rules. On the underside

of

this equipment is a label that
contains, among other information, the FCC registration number and ringer equivalence number (REN) for this
equipment.

If

requested, this information must be provided to the telephone company.

This equipment uses the following USOC jacks: RJ12.

The REN is used to determine the quantity

of

devices which may be connected to the telephone line. Excessive
REN s on the telephone line may result in the devices not ringing in response to an incoming call. In most, but
not all areas, the sum

of

the RENs should not exceed five (5.0).

To

be certain

of

the number

of

devices that may

be connected to the line,

as

determined by the total RENs, contact the telephone company to determine the

maximum REN for the calling area.

If

this equipment causes harm to the telephone network, the telephone company will notify you in advance that

temporary discontinuance

of

service may be required.

If

advance notice is not practical, the telephone company

will notify the customer

as

soon as possible. Also, you will be advised

of

your right to file a complaint with the

FCC

if

you believe it is necessary.

The telephone company may make changes in its facilities, equipment, operations

or

procedures that could

affect the operation

of

the equipment.

If

this happens, the telephone company will provide advance notice in

order for you to make the necessary modifications in order to maintain uninterrupted service.

If

trouble is experienced with this equipment, please contact Tadpole Technology Inc., 12012 Technology

Boulevard, Suite 100, Austin, Texas 78727 Tel: [phone] for repair and/or warranty information.

If

the
trouble is causing harm to the telephone network, the telephone company may request you remove the
equipment from the network until the problem is resolved.

The following repairs may be done by the customer: None.

This equipment cannot be used on telephone company-provided coin service. Connection to Party Line Service
is subject to state tariffs.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act

of

1991 makes it unlawful for any person to use a computer

or

any
other electronic device to send messages via a telephone fax machine unless such a message contains in a
margin at the top

or

bottom

of

each transmitted page

or

on the first page

of

the transmission, the date and time

it is sent and an identification

of

the business

or

other entity,

or

other individual sending the message and the

telephone number

of

the sending machine

or

such business, other entity

or

individual.

In order to program this information into this machine, you should follow the steps described in "FAXtool" on
page 9-22.

iv SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Electrical Safety Notice

Electrical Safety Notice

WARNING!

WARNING!

THE

AC

ADAPTER

SUPPLIED

WITH

YOUR

COMPUTER CONTAINS

DANGEROUS

VOLTAGES.

IT

CONTAINS

NO

USER

SERVICEABLE

PARTS.

DO

NOT

REMOVE

THE

COVER.

The following message applies to SPARCbook 3 models with built-in
modem.

ELECTRICAL

CURRENT

FROM

POWER,

TELEPHONE AND

COMMUNICATION

CABLES

IS

HAZARDOUS.

TO

AVOID

SHOCK

HAZARD,

CONNECT

AND DISCONNECT

CABLES

AS

DESCRIBED

BELOW

WHEN

INSTALLING,

MOVING

OR

OPENING

THE

COVERS

OF

THIS PRODUCT

OR

ATTACHED

DEVICES.

To

connect your computer:

1.

Turn your computer and peripherals OFF.

2.

Connect all cables between your computer and any peripherals.

3. Connect all signal cables; for example, modem cable to a telephone
receptacle.

4. Connect the power cord to the outlet.

5. Turn the peripherals ON and then turn your computer ON.

To

disconnect your computer:

1.

Turn everything OFF.

2.

Disconnect the power cord.

3. Disconnect the signal cables.

4. Disconnect all cables between your computer and peripherals.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide V

Environmental Notice

Lithium battery

WARNING!

THIS

UNIT

CONTAINS AN INTEGRATED LITHIUM BATTERY WHICH

IS

NOT

A CUSTOMER SERVICEABLE PART

AND

MUST

NOT BE REPLACED BY THE

CUSTOMER/

END

USER. IF THE LITHIUM BATTERY REQUIRES

REPLACEMENT, THE

UNIT

MUST

BE

RETURNED TO THE FACTORY OF
MANUFACTUREASTHEREISADANGEROFEXPLOSIONIFTHEBATTERYIS
INCORRECTLY REPLACED.

Environmental Notice

Note

The fluorescent lamp located in the liquid crystal display (LCD) contains a small amount
of

mercury. Dispose

of

it in accordance with your company's safety procedures, local

procedures

or

return it to your supplier for safe disposal.

vi SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Contents

Copyright and Trademark Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11

FCC Class B Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111

FCC Part 68 Modem Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

IV

Electrical Safety Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

To connect your computer: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

To disconnect your computer: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Lithium battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VI

Environmental Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VI

About th is Guide

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Document Summary

...............................................

.

Models Covered by this Guide

.......................................

.

Associated Documents

.............................................

.

Typographical Conventions

Getting Started

XVI
XIX
XIX
XIX

xx

Caring for your SPARCbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Installing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Connecting the AC Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Powering

On

for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Powering

Off

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Powering off using a system shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-

7

Powering off using Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-

7

Using Full System Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8

Using Different Screen Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9

Starting NCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9

Using an External Keyboard and Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

Initial System Configuration

What System Configuration Entails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Initial Configuration - Worked Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Collecting the required system information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Network information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Time zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Setting a superuser password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Setting up a user account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Restarting the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide vii

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Main System Components

Front Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Rear Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4

Underside Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6

1/0

Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Model differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Connector descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

The Built-In Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10

Viewing angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11

Display brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11

The Built-In Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11

Function keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11

Microcontroller function keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12

Delete and interrupt keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13

Numeric keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13

Adjusting the keyboard angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-14

The Pointing Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15

Status Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16

Battery status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16

Machine and OS status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16

Power Management

Power Management System Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Battery charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Battery status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Battery warning LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Maximizing battery life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

The Internal Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Operating on internal battery power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Replacing the internal battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Battery behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Battery conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

The Internal Battery Pack Charger Unit (IBPC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

Connecting the charger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

Using the charger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7

Storing the charger's cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7

Using an External Battery Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

Identifying the main components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

Attaching the external battery pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Working with the external battery pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10

Charging your external battery pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10

Stand-alone charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

Detaching your external battery pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

viii

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Storing the extension cord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

Using A 12V Car

Adapter............................................

4-12

Important safety information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Connecting your car adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Using your car adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13

Disconnecting your car adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14

Operation during engine starts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14

Chapter 5 Save and Resume

How Save and Resume Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Powering Off Using Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

How to ensure Save and Resume operates successfully . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

What to do

if

Resume Fails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4

Automatic Save Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Save on battery low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Save on system inactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Sleep mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Save and Resume and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6

Enabling and Disabling Save and Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7

Chapter 6 Using the Removable Hard Disk

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Fitting and Removing the Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

Caring for Removable Hard Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

Boot Disk Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5

Model differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5

Using Additional Removable Hard Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7

Configuring a boot disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

Configuring a hard disk for additional storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

RHDD Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12

Chapter 7 Using SCSI Devices

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

Connecting SCSI Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Maximum number

of

devices supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

SPARCbook positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

SCSI Terminators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4

SCSI IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4

Configuring an External Hard Disk - Worked Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Using a Tadpole SCSI Floppy Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-11

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

ix

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Using the Network Interface

Network Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Connecting Your SPARCbook to a

Network.............................

8-3

An Overview

of

TCP/IP Networking and the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4

Internet addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4

Addresses used by systems not connected to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-6

Network names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-6

Accessing the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Registering Internet addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-8

Configuring Your SPARCbook for a TCP/IP Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Assigning a hostname and IP address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10

Configuring your SPARCbook to use a name server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Setting up a default router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12

Testing Your network connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12

Sharing Filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-13

Exporting local filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-14

Mounting filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-15

Automatic file mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-16

Unmounting a remote filesystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-17

Executing Remote Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-18

Copying files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-18

Remote program execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-19

SLIP and PPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-19

Remote Computing

Getting Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Configuring the modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Checking the modem is alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Simple Terminal Login Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Remote Network Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Setting up PPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Loading the PPP packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Editing the system files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-7

Editing the UUCP database files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9

Editing the passwd file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-11

Editing the asppp.cf file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-11

Starting and stopping PPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12

Testing the link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13

Using a SLIP Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13

Electronic Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-14

Setting up email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-14

AT

Command Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-15

AT command set description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-17

X SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Class 2 Fax Command Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-21

FAXtool..........................................................

9-22

Sending a fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-22

Chapter 10 PCMCIA Interface

Introduction to

PCMCIA..

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

The PCMCIA

Port..................................................

10-4

Removing the PCMCIA flap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4

Installing a PCMCIA Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5

Removing a PCM CIA Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6

Using PCM CIA Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Modem cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Network interface cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Memory cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8

Hard disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8

Chapter

11

Using Displays

SPARCbook Display Interface Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

Display Interface Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-3

Native mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-3

Emulated mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-3

Pan and Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

Display panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

Display zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

Color Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Setting the color mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Resolution limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-7

Simultaneous Display Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-7

Connecting an External Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-8

Configuring the Display Interface Using NCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-9

Using the NCE Display Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-9

Configuring the Display Interface at the Command Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-11

Setting the Xserver resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-11

Setting up the display interface hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-12

Adding to the Display Types List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-14

Display Timing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-16

Chapter 12 Serial, Parallel and Audio 1/0

Using Serial Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2

Configuring serial connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2

Using Parallel Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3

Configuring parallel devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3

Using Audio Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

xi

Adjusting the audio input and outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4

Using the built-in microphone and speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4

External audio sources and outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5

Chapter 13 Installing and Using Applications

Third-party Application Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

Methods

of

Installing Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3

Applications and Graphics Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3

Legibility of Text on a Small Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-4

Customizing the Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-5

Installing Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-5

Displaying Package Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Removing Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Memory Usage and Swap Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-8

Using swap space efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-8

Checking swap space usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-10

Adding swap space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-10

Chapter 14 Backup and Restore

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

Backup strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

Further information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3

File Backup Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3

Backing Up Filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-4

Backing up partitions to tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-5

Making a complete tape backup - worked example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-5

Backing up onto an external hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-6

Restoring Filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-6

Re-installing the Operating System from CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-8

Chapter 15 System Upgrades

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

Upgrading the Hard Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

Upgrading the Main

Memory.........................................

15-3

Fitting new SIMMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-3

Repartitioning the hard disk drive - worked example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-7

Repartitioning the drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-11

Chapter 16 Problem Solving and Support

Getting Further Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

Problem Solving Checklists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-3

Startup problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-3

Save and Resume problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-4

xii SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Network problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-6

Other hardware problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-7

Using the OpenBoot Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-8

Displaying the OpenBoot user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-8

Checking SCSI devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-8

Checking the network interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-9

Full system hardware selftest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-10

Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-11

Stopping processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-11

Killing a program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-12

Operating system panic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-12

Failing program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-12

Warning messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-13

Resetting Your SPARCbook

..........................................

16-14

Appendix A Technical Specifications

Appendix B Connector Reference

DC

In............................................................

B-2

Parallel Port Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2

Ethernet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-3

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-3

SCSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-4

Keyboard/Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-5

Serial Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-5

ISDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-5

Modem (SPARCbook 3 Models Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-6

Appendix C Customer Support Information

What to do

if

You Suspect a Fault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-2

Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-2

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3

System details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3

Fault details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

xiii

About this Guide

This Guide describes how to use the SP ARCbook 3 and SP ARCbook 3000
Series Notebook Workstations.

It describes how to start up and shutdown, how

to add accessories and how to use the mobility features. To get the most from
your SPARCbook

as

quickly

as

possible, please take the time to read the first

five chapters

of

this guide. These provide the most essential information to get

your system up and running quickly.

This section provides the following information:

• Document Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

XVI

• Models Covered by this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIX

• Associated Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIX

• Typographical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx

Document Summary

Document Summary

The SP ARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide contains the
following chapters:

• Chapter I "Getting Started"

This chapter describes how to get your SP ARCbook operational.

It

describes how to install and charge the battery for the first
time, how to connect your system to an AC supply and how to
start up and shut down.

• Chapter 2 "Initial System Configuration"

This chapter describes how to carry out the initial system
configuration

of

your SP ARCbook, including how to create your
own user account, how to configure an Internet Protocol (IP)
address and host name, and how to set the timezone.

• Chapter 3 "Main System Components"

This chapter identifies the main components

of

your

SP ARCbook and briefly describes the function

of

each. Read

this chapter to familiarize yourself with the main components.

• Chapter 4 "Power Management"

This chapter describes your SP ARCbook' s power management
system.

It

discusses how to use internal and external batteries

and a 12V car adapter.

• Chapter 5 "Save

and

Resume"

This chapter discusses how to use Save and Resume. The Save
and Resume feature provides an easy way to start and stop your
SP ARCbook without having to perform lengthy shutdown and
startup procedures.

• Chapter 6 "Using

the

Removable Hard Disk"

This chapter discusses how to use your SP ARCbook' s
removable hard disk drive (RHDD).

It

describes how to fit and
remove the drive, how to use additional hard disks and how to
ensure a basic level

of

security for your RHDD.

xvi SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Document Summary

• Chapter 7 "Using

SCSI

Devices"

This chapter describes how to connect and use external SCSI
devices.

It describes how to set the SCSI ID and termination

correctly and provides an example

of

how to configure an

external hard disk.

• Chapter 8 "Using

the

Network Interface"

This chapter provides an introduction to networking concepts,
with particular regard to portable computing and describes how
to connect your SP ARCbook to a network and configure the
network interface.

• Chapter 9 "Remote Computing"

This chapter discusses how to use your SP ARCbook for remote
communications via a modem.

It discusses how to set up the

internal modem on the SP ARCbook 3 Series models, how to set
up PCMCIA modems on SPARCbook 3000 models, and how to
use remote communications.

• Chapter 10

"PCMCIA

Interface"

This chapter discusses how to use the PCMCIA interface to add

memory or

1/0

facilities to your SPARCbook using industry-

standard credit card-sized PCMCIA cards.

• Chapter

11

"Using Displays"

This chapter describes how to use your SP ARCbook' s

sophisticated display interface to drive the built-in display and
external high resolution CRT displays.

• Chapter 12 "Serial, Parallel

and

Audio 1/0"

This chapter describes how to use the serial, parallel and audio

interfaces.

• Chapter 13 "Installing

and

Using

Applications"

This chapter provides details about running third-party

applications, and outlines any limitations that may apply.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide xvii

Document Summary

• Chapter 14 "Backup

and

Restore"

This chapter describes the backup and restore facilities provided
as

part

of

the SPARCbook implementation

of

Solaris. In

particular it provides an example

of

how to use ufsdump and

ufsrestore to backup and restore filesystems.

• Chapter 15 "System Upgrades"

This chapter discusses how to carry out upgrades to your
SP ARCbook. The user installed upgrades covered allow you to
add larger hard disk drives and more DRAM to your
SPARCbook.

• Chapter 16 "Problem Solving

and

Support"

This chapter provides information about solving common
problems that may arise with your SP ARCbook.

It describes

how to obtain technical assistance, provides a problem solving
checklist, describes how to use the OpenBoot diagnostics
software, and how to solve some common software problems.

• Appendix A "Technical Specifications"

This appendix provides detailed technical specifications for the
SPARCbook 3 GX and TX (S3GX and S3TX) and SPARCbook
3000 ST and XT models (S3000ST and S3000XT).

• Appendix B "Connector Reference"

This appendix provides details

of

the connector pin assignments

for the interfaces on the

1/0

panel.

• Appendix C "Customer Support Information"

All Tadpole products are rigorously tested before dispatch to the
customer. However,

if

your system develops a serious fault it
may need to be returned to the factory for repair. This appendix
tells you what to do in this event.

xviii

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Models Covered by this Guide

Models Covered by this Guide

This guide covers the following models

• SP ARCbook 3000ST

• SP ARCbook 3000XT

• SP ARCbook 3GX

• SPARCbook 3TX

Procedures and described m this guide can be applied to any
SP ARCbook 3 model using the same operating system although
specific details, such as built-in display resolution, may differ.

Associated Documents

Publication Topics

Read

Me

First Release notes for the version

of

Solaris currently offered for SPARCbook 3

and 3000.

SPARCbook NCE User Guide Describes how to use the Notebook Computing Environment. refered to in

this manual

as

the

NCE

User Guide.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide xix

Typographical Conventions

Typographical Conventions

A number

of

typographical conventions are used in this publication to

aid your understanding. These are summarized as follows:

Typeface

Mono

space

Monospace

Bold

Sans-serif Bold

Italics

Meaning

Used to indicate text displayed on screen
and OS file names.

Used to indicate commands you type in.

Used to indicate particular keys

or

key
sequences that you press on the keyboard,
and buttons displayed in windows

Used to emphasize important terms when
they are first used and for titles

of

other

publications.

XX

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Example

...

the device file

/dev/rdiskette.

#

more / etc/hotsts

To power off, press the Pause-0 keys.

The term

domain is often applied to a

group

of

networked computers within an

organization.

Getting Started

This chapter describes how to get your SP ARCbook operational.

It

describes
how to install and charge the battery for the first time, how to connect your
system to an AC supply and how to start up and shut down.

It

provides the following sections:

Caring for your SPARCbook

1 - 2

• Installing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 3

• Connecting the AC Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 - 5

• Powering On for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 - 6

• Powering Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 - 7

• Using

Full System Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 8

• Using Different Screen Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 - 9

• Starting NCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 - 9

• Using an External Keyboard and Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 -

10

11

Getting Started

Caring

for

your SPARCbook

Caring for your SPARCbook

Your SP ARCbook is a robust mobile computer system but does require
careful handling. To prevent any damage and ensure prolonged
reliability, please observe the following precautions:

• Do not place heavy objects on top

of

your SP ARCbook.

• Do not scratch or hit the surface

of

the display.

• Keep your SPARCbook at least

13

cm

(5

in) away from
electrical appliances that generate strong magnetic fields, such
as

motors, televisions, refrigerators or powerful audio speakers.

• Do not disassemble your SP ARCbook.

• Do not move your SPARCbook while it is operating.

Cleaning the exterior surface

of

your SP ARCbook and the liquid crystal

display (LCD) require different methods.

It is recommended that you

clean your SPARCbook as follows:

• On the exterior surface, wipe with a soft cloth moistened with a
mild detergent.

• On the LCD, use a soft cloth dampened with lens cleaner,
antistatic fluid or VDU screen cleaner.

1-2

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Installing the Battery

Getting Started

Installing the Battery

When a battery is supplied with your SP ARCbook, it is packed
separately to protect the battery and SPARCbook contacts while the
system is in transit.

Figure

1-1

Installing the Battery (SPARCbook 3000 Shown)

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

1-3

Getting Started

Installing the

Battery

Install the battery as follows (refer to Figure 1-1):

1.

Tum

your SP ARCbook upside down.

2. Remove the battery cover by pressing the catch with your

thumbnail towards the side

of

the SP ARCbook. The cover

springs open slightly allowing you to lift it off.

3.

Insert the battery, ensuring correct orientation. The battery is
shaped to make this easier.

4. Replace the cover.

Now go to "Connecting the AC Adapter" on page 1-5.

Battery Charging

:)

Your SPARCbook charges the internal battery automatically when it is

connected to an AC adapter

or

optional car adapter. The AC adapter

or

car

adapter supplies power to your SPARCbook whether your SPARCbook

is

operating

or

not.

:)

The internal battery takes between 1.5 and 4 hours to charge the first

time, depending on SP ARCbook model and whether it is operating

or

not.

:)

The internal battery uses nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cells. One

characteristic

of

this type

of

cell is that it takes several full charge and

discharge cycles for them to yield their full storage capacity (to become

conditioned). Once the cells are conditioned, the charge percentage

of

the

battery pack is accurately indicated on the status display.

:)

The internal battery provides around 45 minutes operating time from a
full charge, depending upon SP ARCbook model and the power
management options in operation. See Chapter 4, "Power Management" .

1-4 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Connecting the

AC

Adapter

Getting Started

Connecting the

AC

Adapter

The AC adapter supplied with your SP ARCbook operates at any AC
voltage in the range

of

100 to 240 Volts at 50 or 60Hz. This means that
you can use the supplied AC adapter anywhere in the world where there
is a suitable supply. You may need to use different AC cords, however.

Connect the AC adapter to your SP ARCbook as follows:

1.

Connect the DC cord from the AC adapter to the DC-In
connector on your SP ARCbook.

2. Connect the AC cord from the AC adapter into a wall socket or

distribution panel.

Figure 1-2 Connecting the

AC

Adapter

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 1-5

Getting Started

Powering On

for

the First Time

Powering On for the First Time

Note

To power your SPARCbook on, press the Power On button, as
illustrated in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3 Powering

On

As your SP ARCbook powers on, a number

of

codes are displayed in the
status display and then, after some delay, the system configuration
screen is displayed.

Configuring your system is described in Chapter 2, "Initial System
Configuration" .

On a new

system,

the

Power

On

button

is only configured to power your

SPARCbook on.

It

has

no

effect while

the

SPARCbook is running. However, it

can

be

configured as a Save

button

using

the

NCE Save

and

Resume panel. See

Chapter

5,

"Save

and

Resume"

in

this guide

and

"Save

and

Resume Panel"

in

your NCE User Guide.

1-6 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Powering Off

Getting Started

Powering

Off

Your SP ARCbook provides you with two methods

of

shutting down

and powering off:

• Conventional system shutdown

• Save

Powering off using a system shutdown

To shut your SP ARCbook down, log in as root and enter the command:

#

init

0

This takes the system down to the OpenBoot prompt and a safe state for
power-off. Power off by pressing

Pause-0. The next time you power

on your SP ARCbook carries out a full system startup and not a Resume.

Powering off using Save

The Save facility allows you to power

off

quickly without having to

perform lengthy shutdown procedures. To power off with Save, press

Pause-0 on the keyboard. The built-in display,

if

it is in use, goes blank

and your SP ARCbook system beeps before it powers off.

It takes

between 30 and 90 seconds for the Save to complete.

Save and Resume

:)

The Save and Resume feature makes it easy to

start and stop your SP ARCbook without having to
perform the lengthy Solaris shutdown and startup
procedures

of

a conventional UNIX system. The

system's complete operational state

is

saved onto

specially assigned partition on the hard disk and is
completely restored when you next power on. You do
not have to close applications before performing a
Save because they are completely unaffected by Save
and Resume, allowing you to take up exactly where
you left off.

V Use Save and Resume only

if

your SPARCbook is
going to be used in the same way when you next
power-on.

X Use a system shutdown and reboot

if

you change

or

remove disks, change displays

or

change the
system's network environment while it is powered
off.

Your SP ARCbook provides several ways to initiate a
Save. These are described in Chapter 5, "Save and
Resume".

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 1-7

Getting Started

Using Full System Startup

Using Full System Startup

Your SP ARCbook can be booted in the same way as any conventional

desktop SP ARC workstation running Solaris.

• Use a full system startup

if

you have reconfigured your system's
hardware in any way while it has been powered off. Save and
Resume may fail in cases where the system hardware has been
reconfigured.

• Use a full system restart if, for any reason, you do not wish to use
the Save and Resume facility.

In cases where you have previously used Save to power off or

if

Resume

fails, a full system startup can be carried out as follows:

1.

If

your system is powered on, press Pause-0 to power off.

2. Press the power on button or,

if

your system already has power

but is failing to Resume, press

Pause-R.

3.

When the OpenBoot start-up screen is displayed, press Pause-A.

Tadpole

S3

SPARCbook,

keyboard

present

ROM

Rev

2.15

Vl.00

32

MB

memory

installed,

Serial

#10683270

Ethernet

address

0:0:83:a3:3:86,

Host

ID:

Host

ID:

80a30386

Initializing

memory

-

Type

help

for

more

information

ok

4. At the OpenBoot prompt, type in the following commands:

ok

create

no-resume?

ok

boot

1-8 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Getting Started

Using Different Screen Environments

Using Different Screen Environments

Note

Starting NCE

Your SPARCbook's built-in display operates in two modes: terminal
mode and X windows mode. The default mode is X windows mode.
When your system starts up, the Solaris login window allows you to
select the display mode from the

Option menu.

Session Allows you to select between the CDE or the

Open Windows desktop environments, both

of

which

operate in X windows mode.

Command Line Login

Allows you to select the terminal mode. In this mode,
your display operates as a simple ASCII terminal and
displays the Solaris command line.

If

your

SPARCbook starts

at

the

command

prompt,

you

can

enter

Open

Windows

by

typing

the

command

openwin.

The factory installed Solaris 2.5.1

may

not

have CDE installed.

If

you

wish

to

use

CDE it

must

be

installed from

the

supplied

SunSoft CD-ROM.

The Notebook Computing Environment (NCE) provides a suite

of
graphical tools that make mobile system administration easier. For
example:

• The Display Panel allows you to configure your system to
operate at different display resolutions.

• The Save and Resume Panel allows you to configure the
operation

of

the Save and Resume feature.

For information about using NCE, refer to your

NCE User Guide.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 1-9

Getting Started

Using an External Keyboard and Mouse

Using an External Keyboard and Mouse

Note

Although the built-in keyboard and pointing stick provide full
functionality, you may find it convenient when using your SP ARCbook

as a desktop machine to use a Sun-compatible keyboard and mouse with

your SP ARCbook.

The external keyboard and mouse interface is combined, and can be
used to connect a type 4 or 5 Sun keyboard and mouse.

Your

SP

ARCbook supports the connection

of

a Sun-compatible keyboard and

Sun-compatible optical

or

mechanical mouse. Other types

of

mouse

or

keyboard should

not be connected.

The pinout

of

the combined keyboard and mouse interface is standard,
allowing you to connect any Sun-compatible external mouse and
keyboard with their standard cables. The combined keyboard and
mouse interface allows you to connect an external mouse and keyboard.
The mouse can be connected directly to the SPARCbook or indirectly
via a connector provided on the external keyboard. The internal
pointing stick and keyboard remain active while an external keyboard
and mouse are connected.

Your keyboard is enabled

as

soon as it

1s

connected to your

SP ARCbook. You can alter the operation

of

your keyboard and change

the keyboard layout

if

you wish by using the Keyboard panel

of

the

Notebook Computing Environment. See "Keyboard Panel" in your

NCE User Guide.

1-10 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Initial

System

Configuration

This chapter describes how to carry out the initial system configuration

of

your
SP ARCbook, including how to create your own user account, how to configure
an Internet Protocol (IP) address and host name, and how to set the timezone.

Your SP ARCbook notebook workstation is shipped from the factory with the
Solaris operating environment ready installed for you on the removable hard
disk. However, before using your SPARCbook for the first time, configure the
operating system following the instructions in this chapter. You may require
the assistance

of

a system administrator to carry out the configuration or to

provide you with essential information.

This chapter contains the following sections:

What System Configuration Entails

2-2

• Initial Configuration - Worked Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 2

• Setting up a user account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 5

• Restarting the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 7

Initial System Configuration

What System Configuration Entails

What System Configuration Entails

Note

Basic configuration

of

you SP ARCbook involves the following basic

steps:

• Assigning a host name and Internet Protocol (IP) address to your
SPARCbook

• Setting your time zone

• Setting a password for the super user (root) account

• Setting up user accounts

The remainder

of

this chapter provides you with a worked example.

The initial configuration process

may

differ slightly

between

Solaris versions so

that

the

order

in

which steps are carried

out

may

differ from

the

worked

example below.

As

a general rule, you

should

carry

out

any

steps following

any

instructions displayed

on

the

screen.

For full details

of

how

to configure Solaris, refer

the

SunSoft Solaris

documentation.

Initial Configuration - Worked Example

Collecting the required system information

Before configuring your SP ARCbook, assemble the information you
will require by filling in the following table. You may need to consult
your system administrator for the correct information for your system.

2-2

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Category

Host Name
IP Address
Subnet Mask
Name Service
Name Server Hostname
Time Zone
User Name

Network information

Initial System Configuration

Initial Configuration - Worked Example

Worked Example Your Configuration

chianti

195.5.2.15

255.255.255.0

None
None
No example given
Betty Small

Table 2-1 Configuration Worksheet

:)

Host Name

The host name

of

your SP ARCbook is the name by which it is known

to other computers connected to the network. For example:

Host

name:

chianti

The name must be unique to your SP ARCbook system as duplicated
names will disrupt the operation

of

the network.

:)

Internet Address

The IP address

of

your SP ARCbook consists

of

four groups

of

decimal

numbers separated by periods. For example:

Internet

(IP)

Address:

195.5.2.15

The IP address must be unique to your SPARCbook system as
duplicated addresses will disrupt the network.

:)

Name Service

After you have entered your SP ARCbook' s host name and IP address,
you are prompted to select the name service you require. Using NIS and
NIS+ can cause start-up problems

if

you later try to use your

SP ARCbook without a network connection.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 2-3

Initial System Configuration

Initial Configuration - Worked Example

Time zone

If

your SP ARCbook is going to be used as a mobile computer, it may

be advisable to select

None

from this screen and configure your
SPARCbook later to use the domain name service (DNS). See Section
"Configuring your SP ARCbook to use a name server" on page 8-11.

:)

Subnets

This screen prompts you to specify whether or not your SP ARCbook is

going to be attached to a subnet. Larger corporate networks are often
divided into smaller segments called subnets.

If

your SPARCbook is

going to be used as standalone system, enter

No.

If

your SP ARCbook is going to be connected to a large network, you
will need to consult your system administrator for the correct choice for
this screen.

When prompted, enter your time zone information following the

on-screen instructions.

If

your time zone does not correspond with any

of

those listed, you can

set a time zone relative to Greenwich Mean Time

(GMT), also known

as Coordinated Universal Time (CUT), or specify a timezone file to be
used.

Setting a superuser password

Enter a password for the super user ( or root) account. The super user
account has special privileges and is used mainly for system
administration tasks. Inadvertent or unauthorized use

of

some

of

the
commands available to super user can damage the operating system and
render your SPARCbook unusable. For this reason you are advised to

set a password for the super user account.

The password should consist

of

a minimum

of

six characters. Any
printable characters can be used including letters, numbers and
punctuation marks.

2-4 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Initial System Configuration

Initial Configuration - Worked Example

After you have entered your root password, a Solaris 2 system displays
the Solaris login prompt. You should create a user account

as

described

in the next section.

Setting up a user account

Moving Between User and the Root Accounts

:)

Many

of

the operations described in this guide require you to be logged

in

as

root. The root account gives you the privileges required to carry out

system administration tasks such

as

disk maintenance. However, using the

root account for day to day purposes is very risky

as

you can easily cause

damage to the operating system.

:)

As a rule, you should log in to your normal user account for every day

purposes. Then, when you need to carry out particular task

as

root, enter the

su

command and the root password to log in to the root account:

%

SU

Password:

#

:)

The hash

prompt(#)

indicates that you have root privileges.

:)

When you have completed the task requiring root privilege, close the

root account by pressing

Ctrl-D on the keyboard.

:)

Starting the User Account Manager

For day-to-day use, you should set up a user account by using the
Open Windows admintool. This provides an easy-to-use way to create
a user account. To open an admintool window carry out the following
steps:

1.

At the Solaris prompt, log in as root and then start
Open Windows with the following commands:

login:

root

password:

#

openwin

The Open Windows desktop is displayed.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 2-5

Initial System Configuration

Initial Configuration - Worked Example

2. Move the cursor to a clear area

of

the desktop background and
press and hold the menu (center) mouse button. The
Open Windows desktop menu is displayed.

3.

From the menu, select Programs and then Command Tool.
A cmdtool window is displayed.

4. In the command tool window, enter the command:

#

adrnintool

The Admintool window is displayed.

If

necessary, select the

User from the Browse menu to display a list

of

users.

5.

From the Edit menu, select Add. The Add User window is
displayed.

ID

Figure 2-1

Admintool

2-6 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

:)

UserName

Initial System Configuration

Restarting the System

This is the login name

of

the user. This is often an abbreviation or your

initials. For example, for the user Betty Small might use

betty.

The
comment field is commonly used to describe the user. In this case, the
user Betty Small's full name.

:)

User ID

The user ID is a unique number by which the network identifies a user
account. Numbers 1 through

10

are reserved. You should consult the

network administrator for your site for a valid number.

If

you are using

your system

as

a stand-alone unit, use 100 for the first account,

101

for

the next and so on.

:)

Account Security

This section is used to specify how the password for the account is to be
administered. Use this section to specify such the required change
frequency, expiration date and number

of

days warnings are issued

advising that the password should be changed.

:)

Home Directory

This section creates a home directory for your new user account. You
must enter a directory path in the text field. User accounts are normally
located in /

opt.

In this example, Betty Small would enter the path

/opt/bs.

After you have entered your account details, click on

OK

and Solaris

creates a user account based to your specifications.

Restarting the System

When you have completed system configuration, carry out a complete
system reboot by entering the command:

#

init

0

This takes the system down to the OpenBoot prompt and a safe state for
power-off without using the Save and Resume feature. Power off by
pressing

Pause-0.

Power on again by pressing the power-on button.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 2-7

Main System Components

This chapter identifies the main components of your SP ARCbook and briefly
describes the function

of

each. Read this chapter to familiarize yourself with

the main components.

This chapter contains the following information:

• Front Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 - 2

• Rear Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 - 4

• Underside Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 - 6

•

1/0

Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 - 7

• The Built-In Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 -

10

• The Built-In Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 -

11

• The Pointing Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 -

15

• Status Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 -

16

Main System Components

Front Detail

Front Detail

The front detail

of

your SPARCbook 3000 is illustrated in Figure 3-1.

2~

Figure 3-1 Front View

of

SPARCbook 3000

3-2

SPARCbook

Portable Workstation User Guide

Feature

(1) Latches

(2) Built-in display

(3) Power ON LED

(4) BatteryWarning

LED

(5) Power On

Button

(6) Pointing Stick

and Mouse
Buttons

(7) PCMCIA Port

(8) Status Display

Function

Main System Components

Front Detail

The latches are used to open the lid

of

your
SPARCbook. Slide both latches towards the outer
edges

of

the unit to release the lid.

The built-in display, often referred to as the

TFT
display, displays the system output. You can also
use an external display connected at the rear

of

the
unit (see "Connecting an External Display" on
page 11-8), in which case this display may be blank.

The power-ON LED (green) lights when your

SPARCbook is powered on.
The battery warning LED (orange) signals when the

charge level

of

the internal battery is low. See

"Power Management System Operation" on

page 4-2.

Your SPARCbook performs an automatic Save
when the battery is nearly discharged, allowing you
to Resume work when the battery has been replaced
or

your system has been connected to an AC supply.

The Power On button is used to power your

SPARCbook on. On a new system, it is only

configured

as

a power-on button; the unit is

powered

off

by pressing Pause-0 on the keyboard.

See "Powering off using Save" on page

1-

7.

However, the button can be configured to function

as

a power off button in the NCE Save and Resume

panel.
The Pointing Stick is a built-in pointing device that

simulates a mouse.

It is used in conjunction with

three buttons located at the front

of

the keyboard

which function

as

mouse buttons.

The PCMCIA port provides two PCMCIA slots.
You can install up to two Type I

or

II devices,

or

one

Type III device in your SPARCbook. See Chapter

10 "PCMCIA Interface".

The status display provides low-level system status
information, such as battery charge level and
interface operation. See "Status Display" on
page 3-16.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-3

Main System Components

Rear

Detail

Rear Detail

The rear detail

of

your SPARCbook is illustrated in Figure 3-2.

Figure 3-2 Your SPARCbook 3000 Viewed

from

the

Rear

3-4

SPARCbook

Portable Workstation User Guide

Feature

(1) ExternalBattery

Connector

(2) DC-In

Connector

(3)

1/0

Panel

( 4) ExternalB attery

Release

(5) Removable

Hard Disk

Main System Components

Rear Detail

Function

The external battery connector is used by an
optional clip-on external battery pack to supply
power to a SPARCbook. See "Using an External
Battery Pack" on page 4-8.

This option in not

available on SPARCbook 3000 models.

The DC-In connector is used to connect the AC
adapter

or

optional vehicle adapter to your

SPARCbook.
The

1/0

panel provides interface connections used
for connecting peripherals and for communications.
See

"1/0

Panel" on page 3-7.

The external battery release is used to release a
clip-on external battery pack when one is attached

to your SPARCbook

3.

Slide the release towards the

front

of

your SPARCbook 3to release the battery.

The hard disk in your SPARCbook is sealed within

a removable module. The module can be removed
and replaced easily. See "Fitting and Removing the
Hard Disk" on page 6-3

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-5

Main System Components

Underside Detail

Underside Detail

The underside

of

the SPARCbook 3000 is illustrated in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3-3 The Underside

of

Your SPARCbook 3000

Feature Function

(1) Legs These can be used to tilt the system for a more

comfortable typing angle and to cool the system by
allowing air to circulate beneath the base casting.

(2) Machine

The machine identification label contains the serial

Identification number

of

your SPARCbook and information about

Label the machine type. This information is required to

obtain repair service.

(3) Battery Cover This is used to release the battery cover.

Catch

( 4) Battery Cover

This covers the battery compartment. Before you
can use your SPARCbook you need to insert the
internal battery. See "Installing the Battery" on
page 1-3

3-6

SPARCbook

Portable Workstation User Guide

1/0 Panel

Model differences

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,~

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~

(aaa>

(aaa>

Main System Components

1/0

Panel

The

1/0

panel at the rear

of

the SP ARCbook provides connectors for all

of

the expansion and communications interfaces except for the

PCMCIA.

The following figures illustrate the

1/0

panels

of

the SP ARCbook

models.

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l.:o:O))){/o

4(~]•

@)

@

~

@)

@)

@)

@)

[Q]

IOI

0-

ODD

j

j,A

jj,B

~~

0

~

Figure 3-4

1/0

Panel, SPARCbook 3000 Models

IOI

Figure 3-5

1/0

Panel, SPARCbook 3 Models

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

3-7

Main System Components

1/0

Panel

Connector descriptions

Icon Name

(ooo)

Ethernet Interface

"

u

Parallel Port

,..

IOI

Video Port

0-

SCSI Port

The function

of

each connector on the

1/0

panel is described in the

following table.

Description

The Ethernet interface allows connection to a wide variety

of

local area
networks via an external transceiver. Using the Ethernet interface is
discussed in Chapter 8 "Using the Network Interface".

The parallel port allows for the connection

of

devices such

as

printers

and scanners. See "Using Parallel Devices" on page 12-3.

The video port allows you to connect external displays. A wide variety
of

displays can be driven directly from this port. Using the display

interface is discussed in Chapter

11

"Using Displays".

The SCSI port allows you to connect external hard disks, tape drives,
and CD-ROM drives to your SPARCbook. See Chapter 7 "Using SCSI
Devices".

The combined keyboard and mouse port allows you to connect a
Sun-compatible keyboard and mouse. The external keyboard operates

ODD

Keyboard/Mouse Port simultaneously with the built-in keyboard. The external mouse operates

simultaneously with the Pointing Stick.
See "Using Serial Devices" on page 12-2.

The serial (

or

TTY) ports allow the connection

of

devices such

as

serial

t~

Serial Ports A and B

printers, terminals, and external modems. See "Using Serial Devices"
on page 12-2.

r,..

0

Headphones

Stereo headphone socket provided for personal listening. See "Using
Audio Equipment" on page 12-4.

V

3-8 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Icon

r,,...

~

,,

~

~

"'

~

,,.,

~

~

Name

Audio In

Audio Out

ISDN Interface

Internal Modem

Main System Components

1/0

Panel

Description

The audio interface provides stereo line-in and line-out connections. It
allows stereo sound input from an external sound source, such

as

a

microphone

or

CD player, to be recorded and stored by your
SPARCbook and then played out to external audio equipment. See
"Using Audio Equipment" on page 12-4

The ISDN interface allows connection to the Integrated Services Digital
Network services provided by telephone companies.

The Internal modem interface is used to connect your SPARCbook's

(SPARCbook 3 models

internal fax modem to the telephone system.

only)

Note

SPARCbook models with a built-in modem are approved for connection to
telephone systems in the United States

of

America (in accordance with FCC Part
68 rules, as written on page iv) and Canada. You are not permitted to connect
the internal modem to public telephone systems in any other country.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-9

Main System Components

The Built-In Display

The Built-In Display

The built-in display is used by your SPARCbook to display information
when an external high-resolution display is not being used. To use the
internal display, open the lid and adjust the viewing angle to suit your
needs.

Figure 3-6

Adjusting

the Display Viewing Angle

3-10 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Viewing angle

Display brightness

Main System Components

The Built-In Keyboard

To open your SP ARCbook, slide the two latches on the front

of

the unit
outwards while simultaneously lifting the lid upwards. To obtain the
best viewing angle, adjust the position

of

the lid.

The display incorporates a fluorescent backlight to provide full-display
legibility under a range

of

lighting conditions. You can adjust the

brightness

of

the built-in display from the keyboard with the following

key combinations:

• Screen brightness is increased by pressing

Pause- +

• Screen brightness is decreased by pressing Pause- +

The Built-In Keyboard

Function keys

The built-in keyboard provides full-size keys laid out in a conventional
manner. However, the number

of

keys provided is limited by the

compact size

of

the SP ARCbook which means that some

of

keys
normally found on a full-sized keyboard must be simulated using key
combinations.

The functions

of

the twelve function keys

(F1

- F12) are controlled by

the operating environment and some applications. In addition the keys
emulate two further banks

of

function keys, normally called Left and

Right function keys, when the

Alt and Ctrl keys are pressed

as

well.

• Pressing the

Alt key positioned to the right

of

the space bar and

a function key provides the Left function.

• Pressing the

Ctrl key positioned to the right

of

the space bar and

a function key provides the Right function.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-11

Main System Components

The Built-In Keyboard

The Right functions

of

F13, F14 and F15 are provided by pressing the

Ctrl key (positioned to the right

of

the space bar), plus either the

Delete, End

or

Page Down key respectively. For example, F14 is

emulated by pressing

Ctrl-End.

Microcontroller function keys

Your SP ARCbook system provides software control over a number

of

special features, such as increasing or decreasing the brightness

of

the
TFT display. These features are controlled by a dedicated
microcontroller and several key combinations are predefined to operate
them, as shown below.

Operation Key Combination

Start Openboot (after power-on

or

reset) Pause-A
System reset Pause-R
System shutdown (using Save) Pause-0
Cancel Save Pause-P
Increase TFT display brightness

Pause-+

Decrease

TFT

display brightness

Pause-+

Move cursor to center

of

display Pause-Home

Calibrate Mouse Pause-Home (hold down for

3 seconds)

Zoom in

Pause-Page Up

Zoom out Pause-Page Down
Increase volume

Pause-+

Decrease volume

Pause-+

Quit Open Windows F1-Alt-Delete
Compose Ctrl (right

of

the space

bar)-J

Right function keys Ctrl (right

of

the space

bar)-Fn

Left function keys Alt (right

of

the space

bar)-Fn

Enable/Disable numeric keypad mode

Shift-Numlk

3-12 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Main System Components

The Built-In Keyboard

Delete and interrupt keys

Numeric keypad

The Solaris Operating System can be configured to use different keys
for different functions. By default, the delete key is the

Del key. The

interrupt key, used to quit an application, is the

Ctrl-C sequence.

Some

of

the keys also function

as

a numeric keypad. Numeric-keypad

mode can be enabled and disabled by pressing

Shift-Numlk.

• Pressing Shift-Numlk enables numeric-keypad mode.

• Pressing

Shift-Numlk again disables numeric-keypad mode.

The character for each key while in numeric-keypad mode is screen
printed on the top surface next to the (larger) typewriter character, as
shown in Figure 3-

7.

Figure 3- 7

Numeric

Keypad

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-13

Main System Components

The Built-In Keyboard

Figure 3-8 Numeric Keys with Shift Pressed

While the numeric-keyboard mode is active, pressing and holding the

Shift key causes some

of

the keypad keys to function as cursor and

screen control keys. The character for each key, while in keypad mode

with the

Shift key pressed, is printed on the

key's

front surface,

as

shown in Figure 3-8

Adjusting the keyboard angle

Note

The keyboard angle is adjusted by releasing the legs on the underside

of

your SPARCbook which are illustrated in Figure 3-3 on page 3-6.

Releasing the legs aids system cooling by allowing air to circulate beneath the
base casting.This ensures more reliabl operation in warmer climates.

• Release the legs by pressing them towards the outside

of

the

case. They pop out

of

their recesses into position.

• To return the legs to their storage position, press them back into
the recesses where they click into place.

3-14

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

The Pointing Stick

Note

Main System Components

The Pointing Stick

Your SPARCbook keyboard incorporates a Pointing Stick. This is used,
together with three buttons in front

of

the spacebar, to emulate a

3-button mouse.

Pointing stick

Mouse keys

Figure 3-9 The Pointing Stick

The Pointing Stick can be operated with the index finger

of

the left or
right hand while your hands are in the normal typing position. The
Pointing Stick is pressure-sensitive and the cursor moves in the
direction in which it is pressed at a speed corresponding to the pressure
applied.

Under some operating conditions, the cursor may drift down

or

across the

display without the pointing stick being pressed,

or

may move in one direction

more effectively than it does in the other.

If

this happens press Pause-Home

and hold the keys down for 3 seconds. The microcontroller will recalibrate the
pointing stick.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-15

Main System Components

Status Display

Status Display

Note

Battery status

Machine and OS status

The status display, located on the front

of

the unit below the main
display, provides you with information about your SP ARCbook
operating status.

It

provides two lines

of

sixteen characters.

The upper line is the battery status line and provides information about
the batteries. The lower line is the machine and OS status line and
provides information about interface activity, external DC supply and

operating system status.

.....

.

. .

. .

....

....

. . .

. . .

. . . .

..

.

.....

. .

...

.

....

. .

. . . .

. .

... ... ...

...

.

..

. .

....

. . . . .

..

. . .

. .

....

. .

.....

. .

...

. . . . . . . . . . .

.... ....

.. ..

...

. .

..

. .

. .

.

.. ..

.

. .

. .

...

...

.... . ...

. . . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . .

....

.

..

.

.....

. .

. . . . . .

...

. . . .

...

Figure 3-10 The Status Display

...

.

....

. . . .

..

. . .

..

. .

...

. . . .

.....

. .

..

. . .

. . . . .

..

.

...

...

..

... ...

.

..

. . . . . .

.........

.

.......

.

.........

. . . . . .

... ...

.

..

The battery status line on some earlier S3 models does not show a percentage
number until the battery has been fully charged.

On a SPARCbook 3, the battery status line indicates whether you are

running on the internal battery (Int) or an external battery pack (Ext).

It

also indicates the level

of

charge

of

the battery being monitored as a

percentage

of

a full charge. The plus sign ( +) indicates that the battery
being monitored is receiving a charge from the AC adapter connected
to the DC-In connector.

The machine and OS status line displays a row

of

symbols to indicate

interface activity or availability.

3-16 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Symbol

•••••

• • •

••• •••

•

•• • ••

• •

•

• • • • •

• •

••• • ••

•••

•

••

• •

• •

•

••••

•

• •

• •

•

• •

• • •

•

• •

• • •

•••

•

....

(sequence)

Name

DC-In Active

WAN Active

LAN Active

PCM CIA Active

Disk Activity Spinner

Meaning

Main System Components

Status Display

Indicates that your SPARCbook is receiving DC
power from the external AC adapter

or

from a car

adapter.
Indicates that a wide area network connection has

been established, either via the internal modem

or

ISDN interface .
Indicates that the Ethernet interface is active and

connected to a viable network.

Indicates the active presence

of

a PCMCIA card in

the PCMCIA port.

Indicates that hard disk activity is in progress.

The three characters at the extreme right

of

the machine and OS status

line display a hexadecimal code to indicate the status

of

the operating

system software.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 3-17

Power Management

This chapter describes your SPARCbook' s power management system. It
discusses how to use internal and external batteries and a 12V car adapter.

It contains the following sections:

Power Management System Operation

4-2

• The Internal Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 - 4

• The Internal Battery Pack Charger Unit (IBPC) . . . . . . . . . 4 - 6

• Using an External Battery Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 - 8

• Using A 12V Car Adapter

..........................

4 -

12

Power Management

Power

Management System Operation

Power Management System Operation

Battery charging

Battery status

The power management system monitors the DC-In connector, external
battery connector and the internal battery.

Your SPARCbook detects when it is powered from the AC adapter or
car adapter, automatically charges the battery and displays a DC symbol
in the lower line

of

the status display. The charging current is adjusted

according to the battery's existing level

of

charge and according to
system temperature. The battery is charged at a faster rate until it is
almost fully charged, and then the system automatically switches to a

trickle charge to maintain the battery in good condition. You can use
your SPARCbook as normal while the battery is being charged.

Battery status information is shown on the upper line

of

the status

display. This provides an indication

of

the battery's level

of

charge,

expressed as a percentage, with a plus (

+) sign to indicate that it

receiving a charge or with a minus sign (-) to indicate that it is being

drained. See Figure 4-1.

.....

.

. .

. .

....

....

. . .

. . .

. . . .

..

.

.....

. .

...

.

....

.

. . .

. .

.....

.

....

. .

. .

.....

. . . .

..

.... ....

..

.

.

...

...

.

..

. .

. . .

..

. . .

.

.....

. .

...

. . . . .

..

...

. .

..

Figure 4-1 The Status Display

...

.

....

. . . .

..

. . .

..

. .

...

. . . .

.....

. .

..

. . .

. . . . .

..

.

...

...

..

... ...

.

..

. . . . . .

.........

. . . . . . . . .

.. . .. . ..

.

. . . . . .

... ...

.

..

The power management system detects when the system is being
powered from the internal battery or from an external battery pack

(SPARCbook 3 models only). These conditions are shown in the status
display

as

follows:

Int.

Battery

Indicates that the internal battery's status

1s

being

displayed.

4-2 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Battery warning LED

Ext.

Battery

Power Management

Power Management System Operation

Indicates that the external battery's status is being
displayed (only applies to SPARCbook 3 models).

When your SP ARCbook unit has no external DC power connected, the
orange-colored battery warning LED provides a visual warning when
the battery is nearing exhaustion.

Battery
Warning
LED

Figure 4-2 The Battery Warning LED

The battery warning LED provides two warning levels:

• First, the LED flashes to indicate that there are 3 to 5 minutes

of
battery power remaining. The LED flashes faster as this time
runs down.

• Second, the LED illuminates continuously to indicate that the
battery is almost completely discharged.

At the second warning, you can take one

of

the following actions:

• Connect the AC adapter or car adapter to charge the battery and

continue working.

• Connect an external battery pack and continue working

(SPARCbook 3 models only).

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 4-3

Power Management

The Internal Battery

Maximizing battery life

The Internal Battery

• Power your SPARCbook off using Save (by pressing Pause-0),

replace the battery with an already fully charged battery and then
press the power on button to Resume where you left off.

• Save any files you may be working on and continue working
until your SP ARCbook performs an automatic Save.

The Battery and Power tools provided by the Notebook Computing
Environment offer several ways for you to extend battery life, such as
reducing the screen brightness when using battery power or using a

slower CPU clock speed. For information about how to use these

facilities, see the

NCE User Guide.

The internal battery is specially designed for use with your
SP ARCbook.

It

incorporates a number

of

safety features.

•

It

is shaped to aid correct insertion.

•

It

contains electrical protection against damage by short circuit.

•

It

is physically protected against chemical leakage or rupture.

Operating on internal battery power

The internal battery typically powers your SP ARCbook for around 45
minutes ( or longer depending upon model and power saving options

selected). Using any

of

the interfaces, particularly the Ethernet and
SCSI, or an external mouse or keyboard, causes a greater drain on the
battery and may shorten this period.

4-4 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Power Management

The Internal Battery

Replacing the internal battery

Before removing the battery, first ensure the system is powered off and
that the external power supply is disconnected. See "Installing the
Battery" on page 1-3.

Caution

Battery behavior

Battery conditioning

Do

not

remove

the

battery while your SP ARCbook is running or data files

may

be

corrupted and,

in

extreme cases,

you

may

be

unable to restart your

SPARCbook.

Your computer contains a sophisticated battery management system to
ensure optimal performance from your batteries. However, for a new
system or a system that has been in storage for an extended period

of

time, you should note the points below.

:)

Self Discharge

An inherent characteristic

of

the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) internal

battery supplied with your computer is

self

discharge. This causes the

battery to become exhausted after several weeks

of

storage even

if

it is

not fitted into your computer.
Also, when it is installed in your system, the internal battery will

discharge while your computer is not in use. This may take up to 3
weeks depending on the level

of

charge when the system was last used.

:)

System behavior with an Exhausted Battery

The charge percentage may not be shown on the status display

if

the
battery is completely exhausted. However, the percentage appears when
the battery has been

characterized by the battery management system

after it has been fully charged.

A new battery, or one that has not been used for a long time, will store
less charge than expected for the first few charge and discharge cycles.
This is normal. Over the course

of

five charge and discharge cycles, the

capacity

of

the battery will rise to its correct value.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 4-5

Power Management

The Internal Battery Pack Charger Unit ( IBPC)

The Internal Battery Pack Charger Unit (IBPC)

Connecting the charger

You can recharge spare batteries using the Tadpole Series 2 Internal
Battery Charger/Storage unit (T2IBPCHRG).

Figure 4-3 Using the

Battery Charger and Storage Unit

Connect your battery IBPC

as

follows (see Figure 4-3):

1.

Connect the AC adapter to either DC connector on the IPBC

2. Connect the supplied DC connector cable between the remaining

DC connector on your IPBC and the DC-In socket on your
SPARCbook.

4-6 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using the charger

Power Management

The Internal Battery Pack Charger Unit (/BPC)

Connecting the charger in this manner allows you to power your
SP ARCbook at the same time

as

charging a spare battery.

To charge a battery, insert the battery, contacts first, into the battery
cavity (the battery can only be inserted into the charger one way round)
and close the charger door. Switch on the power from AC adapter.

The green LED on your charger illuminates when the AC adapter is
connected and switched on.

The amber LED on the charger illuminates constantly when the battery
is being fast charged and flashes rapidly when the battery becomes fully
charged.

If

the battery is too hot or too cold to charge, the amber LED

flashes slowly.
The charger keeps the battery in a fully charged state until it is removed.
The battery can be removed at any time by opening the door at the end

of

the charger and withdrawing the battery.

Storing the charger's cable

The cable supplied with the charger may be stored in the cable storage
area on the underside

of

the unit.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

4-7

Power Management

Using an External Battery Pack

Using an External Battery Pack

Note

This section applies to SPARCbook 3

models

only.

To run your SP ARCbook for a longer period away from an AC power

supply, you can use the optional external battery pack (available from
your SP ARCbook dealer) which will power your SP ARCbook for up to
6 hours

of

use from a single charge. The external battery pack allows

you to use all

of

the interfaces, an external RHDD or floppy disk drive

while away from an AC supply, although this drains the battery faster.

Identifying the main components

1

[f

A

4

C

D

~

@

Figure 4-4 External Battery Pack

4-8 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Power Management

Using an External Battery Pack

View A shows the connector side

of

the external battery pack, and view

8 shows the connector side

of

the external battery pack with the cord

holder attached. Refer to views

A, B and E in Figure 4-4 to identify the

following components:

1.

Catch

2. Battery plug

3.

DC-in connector

4.

Extension cord holder

5.

Release lever

6.

Extension cord

7. Extension plug

8.

Stowage for extension plug

9.

Battery release

Attaching the external battery pack

The external battery pack can be operated with your computer in one

of

two ways:

• By direct attachment to the rear

of

your computer.

• By connection with the extension cord.

:)

Direct Attachment

Attach the external battery pack to your computer as follows:

1.

Separate the cord holder [ 4] from the external battery pack by

pressing the release lever

[5]

and sliding the cord holder off the

external battery pack.

2. Remove the two blanking plugs, shown in views C and D from

your computer.

3.

Attach the external battery pack to your computer by locating the
catch

[2]

and battery plug

[3]

in the corresponding receptacles on

your computer and sliding, as shown in view

E.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 4-9

Power Management

Using an External Battery Pack

:)

Attaching the Extension Cord

It

is not essential to remove the cord holder from the external battery

pack. You can also connect the battery pack as follow:

1.

Release the extension plug

[6]

from its stowage

[7]

and remove

the blanking plug, shown in view

C,

from your computer.

2. Connect the extension plug by sliding it into the battery-in

socket on your computer.

Working with the external battery pack

With the external battery pack fitted, your SPARCbook operates
normaly.

It

can be powered from an AC supply, from the internal
battery or from the external battery pack. The Notebook Computing
Environment (NCE) software, preloaded on your computer, allows you
to specify which power source is used at any time and also which
battery (internal or external) is discharged first. This is described in the

NCE Guide User Guide.

Charging your external battery pack

Note

Note

To charge your external battery pack, connect the AC adapter to the
DC-in connector on the

external battery pack.

It is possible to plug

the

DC-in

connector

into

the

computer

when

your external

battery

pack

is operating

on

the

extension cord. However, this will

not

charge

the

external

battery

pack.

The external battery pack charges automatically and is charged before
the internal battery.

It

takes 3-4 hours to completely charge a discharged
battery. When the external battery pack is fully charged, it is kept
topped-up with a trickle charge. The battery can still be used while it is
charging, but charging takes longer.

The external

battery

pack

suspends

charging if it is too

hot

or too cold. Charging

automatically

resumes

as

soon

as

the

battery

returns

to a suitable

temperature.

4-10 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Stand-alone charging

Power Management

Using an External Battery Pack

The charge status and condition

of

the external battery pack is shown on

your computer's status display.

It can also be monitored using NCE.

The main NCE window provides a graphical representation

of

the

charge state

of

both the internal and external batteries. This is described

in the

NCE Guide User Guide.

The external battery pack can be charged while it is not connected to
your computer. To do this, connect the AC adapter to the DC-in
connector

of

the external battery pack. The external battery pack

charges automatically.

Detaching your external battery pack

Note

Removal

of

the external battery pack is a reversal

of

the attachment

procedure:

1.

Power your computer off.

2. Slide the release catch on your computer [9], then slide the

external battery pack

off

your computer.

3.

Replace the two blanking plugs in your computer to protect the

battery-in contacts from damage.

4.

If

required, attach the cable holder to the external battery pack.

If

the

external

battery

pack

is being

used

on

the

extension cord,

detach

the

cord

by

sliding

the

extension plug

out

ofthe

connector

recess

on

your computer.

Storing the extension cord

The extension cord [6] can be stored in the cable holder [ 4], and the
extension plug

[7]

can be stored in the stowage provided [8].

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 4-11

Power Management

Using A

12V

Car Adapter

Using A 12V Car Adapter

The Tadpole Series 2 12V car adapter enables you to power your
SPARCbook from a 12V vehicle cigarette lighter socket.

It has power

handling capabilities similar to those

of

the AC adapter supplied with

your SPARCbook and enables you to power your computer with any

of

the optional accessories.

Important safety information

WARNING!

WARNING!

DO

NOT OPERATE YOUR COMPUTER WHILE YOU ARE

DRMNG

A

VEHICLE.

DISCONNECT YOUR CAR ADAPTER FROM THE VEHICLE POWER SUPPLY
BEFORE CHANGING THE INTERNAL 5A FUSE.

Connecting your car adapter

Caution

Connect your car adapter as follows (see Figure 4-5):

The car adapter is suitable for 12 volt negative earth vehicles only. Operation
under

any

other conditions

may

cause damage to your car adapter or to your

computer.

1.

Insert the large plug

of

your car adapter into your

car's

cigarette

lighter socket.

The green LED on your car adapter illuminates when the power
from your car is connected correctly.

2. Connect the DC cord from your car adapter to the DC-in socket

of

your computer.

4-12

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using your car adapter

Power Management

Using A

12V

Car Adapter

Figure 4-5 Conecting the Car Adapter

Your SP ARCbook can be operated normally while powered from your
car adapter.

It charges the internal battery in the same way as the AC

adapter.
Your car adapter is

of

a high-efficiency design. However, to conserve
your vehicle's battery life, you should disconnect the adapter from the
cigarette lighter socket when your SP ARCbook is not in use.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 4-13

Power Management

Using A

12V

Car Adapter

Disconnecting your car adapter

The car adapter can be disconnected from your computer at any time,
even while your computer is operating. However,

if

you do disconnect

your car adapter while your computer is running, observe the following:

• Disconnect at the DC-in connector before disconnecting from
the cigarette lighter socket.

• Ensure that your computer has an internal battery installed.

Operation during engine starts

Voltage variations and spikes from your vehicle's power supply during
engine starts can disrupt the operation

of

your SP ARCbook. As a

precaution, disconnect your car adapter from your SP ARCbook before

starting the engine, following the instructions in the previous section,
and reconnect once the vehicle's engine is running.

4-14

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Save and Resume

This chapter discusses how to use Save and Resume. The Save and Resume
feature provides an easy way to start and stop your SP ARCbook without
having to perform lengthy shutdown and startup procedures.

This chapter the following sections:

How Save and Resume Functions

5-2

• Powering Off Using Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 3

• Automatic Save Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 5

• Sleep mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 5

• Save and Resume and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 6

• Enabling and Disabling Save and Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 7

Save and Resume

How Save and Resume Functions

How Save and Resume Functions

The operation

of

Save and Resume can be summarized as follows:

:)

Save

• Your SPARCbook copies the contents

of

the system's DRAM

and system operating parameters onto the

save

partition on the

boot disk.

• An OpenBoot status flag is set that causes your SP ARCbook to
look for valid Save data on the disk when you next power on.

:)

Resume

•

If

the OpenBoot save flag is set when you power on, your

SP ARCbook attempts to read any stored information in the

save

partition.

If

it finds valid Save data, it Resumes to exactly the

same state in operation when the Save was initiated for

that disk.

If

there is no valid save data available, your SP ARCbook carries

out a conventional Solaris system startup.

The Save Partition

:)

A partition is reserved on your SPARCbook's boot disk to support the
Save and Resume feature. The Save partition's size is equivalent to the
main memory capacity

of

your SPARCbook. For example,

if

you have a

SPARCbook with 64MB

of

main memory (DRAM) your SPARCbook

reserves a Save partition

of

64MB. See "Boot Disk Partitions" on page 6-5.

:)

SPARCbook only stores Save information to the save partition on the

boot disk.

It does not store this information anywhere else.

:)

Because your SPARCbook Resumes from the Save partition on the boot
disk, your SP ARCbook will Resume to a different session

if

you boot a

different disk.

:)

Unexpected operations may occur

if

you try to Resume with a disk Saved

on a SP ARCbook with a different hardware configuration, such

as

larger

main memory.

5-2 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Powering Off Using Save

You can initiate a Save in several ways:

Save and Resume

Powering

Off

Using Save

• By pressing Pause-0 on the keyboard.

• By selecting

Save Now in the NCE Save panel.

• By selecting

Save at the top

of

the main NCE window.

• By selecting

Save from the OpenWindows desktop Utilities

menu.

• By typing

save

at the Solaris root prompt.

• By closing the lid ( SPARCbook 3 models only).

The lid closed function can be enabled or disabled via the Save and
Resume panel

of

the Notebook Computing Environment. See "Save and

Resume Panel" in your

NCE User Guide.

You do not have to close applications because they remain completely
unaffected by Save and Resume, allowing you to take up work exactly
where you left off.

How to ensure Save and Resume operates successfully

Your SP ARCbook Resumes most reliably

if

the hardware facilities are

the same before and after the Save is performed.
To ensure the Save and Resume facility operates correctly, it is

important that you avoid making hardware configuration changes while
your system is powered off. This applies particularly to hard disks, tape
drives, CD-RO Ms and PCM CIA memory cards that are mounted as part
of

your file system, and to network connections that may change.

Your SPARCbook cannot Resume successfully to a file tree that is no
longer there. To prevent problems, observe the following precautions:

• Always unmount file systems on external drives that are likely
to be disconnected before you power on again.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 5-3

Save and Resume

Powering

Off

Using Save

• Always unmount network file systems

if

your SP ARCbook' s
network connection is likely to change before you power on
again.

• Always disable an external display and switch to the internal
display

if

you intend to change displays before you power-on

again.

In many instances, your SP ARCbook will recover from these situations
but this cannot always be guaranteed.

What to do

if

Resume Fails

If

your system fails to Resume, carry out a full system reboot with the

following procedure:

1.

Power off again,

if

necessary, by pressing Pause-0.

2. Press the power on button.

3.

When the OpenBoot greeting is displayed, press Pause-A. The
OpenBoot

ok

prompt is displayed.

4. Enter the following commands:

ok

create

no-resume?

ok

boot

disk

Your SP ARCbook carries out a full system boot.

5-4 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Save and Resume

Automatic Save Features

Automatic Save Features

Save on battery low

There are two automatic Save mechanisms which you can enable or
disable through the Notebook Computing Environment. These are:

When the power management software on your SP ARCbook detects
that the battery is low, it is able to initiate an automatic Save. You can
choose whether the Save occurs after the first or second warning, or you
can disable the Save on low battery function altogether. See "Save and
Resume Panel" in your

NCE User Guide.

Save on system inactivity

Sleep mode

When your SPARCbook is unused for a specified period (that is, there
is no mouse, keyboard or interface activity), it is able to perform an
automatic Save. See "Power Manager Panel" in your

NCE User Guide.

In addition to the Save and Resume feature, your SP ARCbook provides
a

Sleep mode. The Sleep mode can be enabled via the Notebook

Computing Environment. See "Save and Resume Panel" in your

NCE

User Guide.

Sleep saves the current state

of

your SP ARCbook to the hard disk,and

turns

off

the display and

1/0

devices. Unlike Save, however, Sleep does

not power your SPARCbook off completely but reduces the level

of

battery consumption during periods

of

inactivity. Your SPARCbook
returns to operation instantly when any key is pressed. Sleep is initiated
automatically by the period

of

inactivity you have specified. See

"Power Manager Panel" in your

NCE User Guide.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

5-5

Save and Resume

Save and Resume and Security

Your SP ARCbook can be moved while in the Sleep mode and operates
for typically 5 hours from a fully charged internal battery.

If

the battery
nears discharge while it is in the Sleep mode, your SP ARCbook
performs a Save on low battery as described in the previous section.

Save and Resume and Security

The Save and Resume feature makes your SP ARCbook vulnerable to
unauthorized use. This is because Resume will take the system back
into your last desktop session, effectively bypassing the normal login
prompts.

One way to protect your SP ARCbook against unauthorized use is to
remove the hard disk while it is without power. Refit it again when you
next wish to use your SP ARCbook, before you power on.

If

this level

of

protection is not sufficient, you have the following

options:

• Power

off

using a conventional Solaris system shutdown. To do

this, log in

as

root and enter the

ini

t O command.

This takes the system down to the OpenBoot prompt and a safe
state for power-off. Power off by pressing

Pause-0. The next

time you power on your SP ARCbook carries out a full system
startup and not a Resume. See "Using Full System Startup" on
page 1-8

• Disable Save and Resume altogether, see below.

5-6 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Save and Resume

Enabling and Disabling Save and Resume

Enabling and Disabling Save and Resume

Although the Save and Resume feature provides an extremely
convenient method

of

powering down and powering on again, it does

present two drawbacks.

• It may compromise the security

of

the system,

as

described

above.

• It requires the existence

of

the

save

partition on the boot disk
which is the same size as the system's main memory. For
example, a SPARCbook with 128MB

of

main memory requires

a 128MB

save

partition. See "Boot Disk Partitions" on

page 6-5.

If

either

of

these issues poses a serious problem, the Save and Resume
facility can be disabled. Save and Resume can be disabled with a
reversible command,

as

described below, or can be disabled

permanently by assigning the

save

partition for general data storage.

:)

Disabling Save

and

Resume

Note

To disable Save and Resume, enter the following command:

#

saveresume

-n

SAVE

Partition

was

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s4

This example shows

the

save

partition

for a SPARCbook 3000 model. For a

SPARCbook

3

the

save

partition

is /

dev / rdsk/

c0t3d0

s4.

Make a

note

of

the

correct

partition

to use if

you

intend

to

re-enable

Save

and

Resume later. See

"Boot Disk Partitions"

on

page 6-5.

This command disables the Save commands (such as Pause-0) and
unmounts the save partition. To power the system down, you can use
the normal Solaris shutdown commands. For example:

#

shutdown

-iO

When the ok (OpenBoot) prompt is displayed, press Pause-0 to power
off. Restart the system in the conventional way for a desktop Solaris
system.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 5-7

Save and Resume

Enabling and Disabling Save and Resume

:)

Enabling Save

and

Resume

Note

To enable Save and Resume, enter the following command:

#

saveresume

-y

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s4

#

saveresume

SAVE

Partition

is

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s4

This example shows

the

save

partition

for a SPARCbook 3000 model. For a

SPARCbook 3

the

save

partition

is

/dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s4.

The save

partition

is

created

when

the

Operating System is installed from

the

Tadpole

distribution CD.

5-8 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using the Removable Hard Disk

This chapter discusses how to use your SP ARCbook' s removable hard disk
drive (RHDD).

It

describes how to fit and remove the drive, how to use

additional hard disks and how to ensure a basic level

of

security for your

RHDD.

It

contains the following sections:

• Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 2

• Fitting and Removing the Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 3

• Caring for Removable Hard Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 4

• Boot Disk Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 5

• Using Additional Removable Hard Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 7

• Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 9

• RHDD Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 -

12

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Overview

Overview

Note

Your SP ARCbook' s hard disk can be removed easily when your system
is not in use and can be stored or carried separately. The removable hard

disk provides you with effective data security for your SPARCbook
when it is not in use and allows you to upgrade your hard disk very
easily

as

larger capacity disk drives become available.

It is possible for you to have several boot disks for several different

projects, or for different people who share a SPARCbook workstation
to each have their own boot disk.

For example, you may have a disk for use in your office and another

disk for use at home. Each could be stored securely when not in use and
each could contain the appropriate operating system configuration for
its designated location, with networking setup on your office disk and

dial-up client services set up on your home disk.

Using the Save and Resume feature, each disk can store a different
machine state that your SP ARCbook Resumes when you next power on.
This means, for example, that when you power on with your home disk
fitted, your SP ARCbook Resumes to the state Saved onto your home

disk.

Your SPARCbook only stores Save data onto the

save

partiton on your hard
disk. When you initiate a Save, an OpenBoot flag is set in your SPARCbook' s
NVRAM that causes it to look for valid Save data

on the disk when you next

power up.

6-2 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Fitting and Removing the Hard Disk

Fitting and Removing the Hard Disk

Caution

Your SP ARCbook is shipped from the factory with the hard disk
already fitted and ready for you to use. The disk can be removed as
follows:

Ensure that your SPARCbook is powered

OFF

before removing the hard disk.

Removing the hard disk while

your

SPARCbook is running

may

damage

the

disk and destroy important data.

1.

Place your SP ARCbook on a firm surface, such as a desk, with
its left side tilted upwards slightly.

2. Slide the hard disk's catch downwards,

as

shown in Figure 6-1.

3.

Pull on the catch to remove the disk from your SP ARCbook.

Figure

6-1

Removing the Hard Disk

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 6-3

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Caring

for

Removable Hard Disks

Caring for Removable Hard Disks

The removable hard disk is designed to be robust but should be handled
with care. Follow these precautions in its use.

• Physical shock and vibration
Protect the hard disk from knocks and excessive vibration. You
should never remove the hard disk while your SP ARCbook is
running; always power off first.

• Condensation

If

your hard disk is carried separately from your SPARCbook
and is subjected to much lower temperatures, bringing it into a
warm room may cause condensation. This will not cause
damage, but you should allow your hard disk time to acclimatize
before using it.

• Static electricity
In common with most electronic components, the removable
hard disk is prone to damage due to static electric shock. To
prevent such damage, avoid touching any electrical contacts on
the hard disk.

6-4 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Boot Disk Partitions

Boot Disk Partitions

The hard disk supplied with your SP ARCbook is preloaded to order
with the Solaris 2 operating system; the version is dependent upon
availability and customer order. The removable disk is preconfigured as
a boot disk and is "factory" partitioned as shown in Table 6-1.

Partition

Mount Point Approx. Size (MB)

SPARCbook 3 SPARCbook 3000

dsk/c0t3d0s0

dsk/cOtOdOsO

I

25

dsk/c0t3d0sl

dsk/cOtOdOsl

swap

>=DRAM

dsk/c0t3d0s2 dsk/c0t0d0s2

All disk

dsk/c0t3d0s3 dsk/c0t0d0s3

/var

72-96

dsk/c0t3d0s4 dsk/c0t0d0s4

save

Same size

as

DRAM

dsk/c0t3d0s5 dsk/c0t0d0s5

/opt

Remainder

of

disk

dsk/c0t3d0s6 dsk/c0t0d0s6

/usr

120

Table

6-1

Removable Hard Disk Drive Factory Configured Partitions

Note

Model differences

The partition map may differ

if

the hard disk has been reloaded with the Solaris

operating system from the supplied

CD-ROM. See "Re-installing the Operating

System from

CD-ROM" on page 14-8.

The

save

partition is essential to support your SP ARCbook' s Save and
Resume feature (see Chapter 5, "Save and Resume") and must be the
same size

as

the memory capacity

of

your SP ARCbook.

The

swap

partition is used by the operating system to store applications
that are running in the background. Its size, therefore, is affected by the
size

of

the main memory

of

your SP ARCbook.

The SP ARCbook 3 and SP ARCbook 3000 models use different types
of

removable hard disks, which is why different device files are used by

default for the two model ranges.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 6-5

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Boot Disk Partitions

SPARCbook 3 models use a SCSI removable hard disk drive which is
labeled "Series 2" and has switches that set the target ID. SPARCbook
3000 models use an IDE removable hard disk drive which is labeled
"IDE" and has no switches. The two types have different connectors so
that it is not possible to connect the wrong type

of

drive to the wrong

SP ARCbook model.

:)

SPARCbook 3

The SP ARCbook 3 Series use a removable SCSI hard disk with a

switchable SCSI target ID, which is factory set to 3. This means that

device files for the disk slices are at

/dev/c0t3d0sn,

as shown in

Table 6-1. A different SCSI ID can be used for the boot disk,

if

required.

For example,

if

the disk ID were set to O and partitioned as shown in the

table, then the device files would be at /

dev / cot

OdO

sn.

:)

SPARCbook 3000

The SPARCbook 3000 Series use a removable IDE hard disk drive
which has a fixed ID. The factory installed operating system assigns this
drive as target O with the result that the device files for the disk slices
appear at /

dev / rdsk/

cot

OdO

sn

as

shown in Table 6-1.

Main Memory Upgrades and Disk Partitions

c::>

The sizes

of

save

and

swap

partitions on the boot disk are related to the

main memory capacity

of

your SPARCbook.

c::>

The main memory is provided by two single in-line memory modules

(SIMMs) which are accessible through the battery compartment. This

makes it easy for the

end

user to perform memory upgrades without using

special tools

or

equipment. However,

if

the capacity

of

the main memory is
increased then the disk's partition map must be changed to increase the
sizes

of

the swap and save partitions. See "Upgrading the Main Memory"

on page 15-3.

6-6 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Using Additional Removable Hard Disks

Using Additional Removable Hard Disks

Note

Additional removable hard disks are available from your SP ARCbook
supplier. These can be supplied preloaded with the Solaris operating
system for use

as

an alternative boot disk, or can be supplied blank for

use

as

additional data storage in conjunction with a removable hard disk
drive adapter (RHDDA). See "Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive
Adapter" on page 6-9.

Each new hard disk must be configured for your SPARCbook when it
is first used. This involves:

• Setting the SCSI ID for the RHDD

• Carrying out disk configuration

You can only use SCSI removable hard disk drives with SPARCbook 3000
models

if

they are installed in a removable hard disk drive adapter. See "Using

a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter" on page 6-9.

:)

Setting the SCSI ID for the RHDD

Before you use the RHDD, you should check and,

if

necessary, set its

SCSI ID. The SCSI ID is set with three switches located on the rear

of

the Series 2 RHDD

as

illustrated in Figure 6-2.

IB~=Q=Qj

I j

SCSI 2 (most significant bit)
SCSI

1

SCSI 0

Example shows binary

001

=

101

Figure 6-2 The SCSI

ID

Switch (Series 2 Drives only)

The three switches on the rear

of

the Series 2 RHDD are binary coded

as shown in Table 6-2.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 6-7

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Using Additional Removable Hard Disks

Configuring a boot disk

Switch

Selected ID

Switch

Selected ID

Setting Setting

~

0

~

4

~

1

~

5

~

2

~

6

~

3a

~

7b

Table 6-2 SCSI ID Switch Settings

a.

It is recommended that you reserve ID3 for the boot disk in SPARCbook 3
models.

b.

Do not use ID7, this is permanently assigned to the SPARCbook itself.

This procedure can be used for an RHDD that has been preloaded with
Solaris 2 operating system. The SP ARCbook uses the shell script

/Factory-config

to configure an RHDD as a boot disk. This creates
the disk partitions described in Table 6-1 optimized for your
SP ARCbook' s memory capacity.

Configure a boot disk as follows:

1.

Ensure that your SP ARCbook is powered off and fit your new
RHDD.

2. Press the power on button.

3.

When the OpenBoot greeting is displayed, press Pause-A. Your
SP ARCbook displays the OpenBoot monitor prompt.

4. At the OpenBoot prompt, type the following command:

ok.

boot

disk:h

5.

Your SP ARCbook boots to single user mode and displays the #
prompt. Enter the following command:

#

/Factory-config

6.

Press the Return key for the process to begin and follow the
displayed instructions.

6-8 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter

Configuring a hard disk for additional storage

The procedure for doing this is described in "Configuring an External
Hard Disk - Worked Example" on page 7-6.

Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter

Note

The removable hard disk drive adapter (RHDDA) can be used to
connect an additional Series 2 removable hard disk drives to the SCSI
port

of

your SPARCbook. The RHDDA is connected to the SCSI port

on the

1/0

panel

of

your SP ARCbook and draws power from the

SP ARCbook' s SCSI port.

It does not require a separate power supply.

Only Series 2 removable hard disk drives can be used with the RHDDA. The
removable hard disk drive supplied with SPARCbook 3000 models is a different
type and can only be used internally.

:)

Connecting the RHODA

Connect the RHDDA to your SPARCbook as follows:

1.

Ensure your SP ARCbook is powered off.

2. Connect the RHDDA to the SCSI port on your SPARCbook

using the cable supplied with the RHDDA.

3.

If

necessary, use the remaining SCSI connector on the rear

of

the

RHDDA to connect to other SCSI devices. Because it takes

power from the SPARCbook, the RHDDA should be connected

nearest to the SP ARCbook.

4. Install and configure an RHDD as described below.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 6-9

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter

Figure 6-3 Connecting

an

RHDDA

:)

Inserting an RHDD

1.

Before inserting the drive, set the drive's SCSI ID, as described
in "Setting the SCSI ID for the RHDD" on page 6-7. The
RHDDA does not have a SCSI ID

of

its own but takes its ID

from the RHDD installed in it.

2. Slide the drive's integral catch/cover downwards; see Figure

6-4.

3.

Tilt the front

of

the RHDDA upwards slightly and slide the drive

into place until you feel the connectors engage.

4. Slide the drive's catch/cover upwards to lock the drive in place.

5.

Configure the drive as described in "Using Additional
Removable Hard Disks" on page 6-7.

6-10 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

:)

Removing an RHDD

Using the Removable Hard Disk

Using a Removable Hard Disk Drive Adapter

Before removing the RHDD from an adapter, ensure that there are no
disk operations in progress and unmount any file systems on the drive.

Figure 6-4 Removing

an

RHDD

From

an

Adapter

Remove the drive by sliding the catch/cover downwards and sliding the
drive out

of

the adapter.

:)

Setting the SCSI Terminator

The RHODA contains a switchable terminator. The terminator must be
active

if

the RHDDA is the only SCSI device connected to the

SPARCbook.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 6-11

Using the Removable Hard Disk

RHDD Security

Note

RHDD Security

The terminator is set by setting the terminator switch, shown in Figure
6-5, to the

down position. The other three switches have no function.

----~

1

Terminator Switch (Down=ON)

~~

[ DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ]

~

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Figure 6-5 The RHDDA Terminator Switch

Correctly set SCSI terminators are essential to the reliable operation

of

devices

connected via SCSI chain. See "SCSI Terminators" on page 7-4.

The RHDD provides your system a basic level

of

security by allowing

you to remove it from your SPARCbook when it is not in use and

storing it separately. However, it is equally possible for the RHDD to be
removed by an unauthorized person. The RHDD can be removed and
installed into a similar SP ARCbook allowing your files and

applications to be accessed.

Unauthorized access can be prevented by using the Security panel
provided by NCE. This allows you to specify the serial numbers

of

up

to six SPARCbooks that are permitted to access your RHDD. Any other

systems are denied access.

For details about using the NCE Security panel, see the

NCE User

Guide.

6-12 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using

SCSI

Devices

This chapter describes how to connect and use external SCSI devices. It
describes how to set the SCSI ID and termination correctly and provides an
example

of

how to configure an external hard disk.

It provides the following information:

• Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 - 2

• Connecting SCSI Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 - 3

• SCSI Terminators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 - 4

• SCSI IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 - 4

• Configuring an External Hard Disk - Worked Example . . . 7 - 6

• Using a Tadpole SCSI Floppy Disk Drive

..............

7 -

11

Using SCSI Devices

Overview

Overview

Your SP ARCbook provides a single-ended small computer system
interface (SCSI) via the

1/0

panel at the rear

of

the unit. An
industry-standard 50-pin high density SCSI-2 connector is provided.
See

"1/0

Panel" on page 3-

7.

How to Ensure Reliable SCSI Operation

----------------------------

:)

To

ensure reliable operation

of

SCSI devices with your SPARCbook,

always follow these hints:

)<

Do not connect too many devices to your SPARCbook.

You can connect six external devices to SPARCbook 3 models

or

seven to

SPARCbook 3000 models.

)<

Do not exceed the maximum recommended SCSI cable lengths. See the

documentation for your SCSI devices.

V Select a different SCSI ID (or target ID) for each device on the chain.

The default SCSI ID

of

the removable hard disk supplied in SPARCbook 3

models is ID3.

V Ensure that the SCSI chain

is

correctly terminated. The chain must be
terminated at each physical end, but there must be no other terminators in
the chain.

V Always connect your SPARCbook at one physical end

of

the SCSI chain

because your SPARCbook has permanently fixed terminators.

V Power on the SCSI devices before powering on your SPARCbook.

7-2 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using SCSI Devices

Connecting SCSI Devices

Connecting SCSI Devices

SCSI devices are connected to the SP ARCbook in a daisy chain
arrangement,

as

illustrated in Figure 7-1.

SPARCbook SCSI Device

Plug-in

Terminator

SCSI Device

Figure

7-1

A SCSI

Daisy

Chain

Maximum number of devices supported

SPARCbook positioning

A SCSI chain supports up to eight devices connected along its length.
The SP ARCbook itself counts as one device and the internal hard disk
of

SP ARCbook 3 models counts

as

another. This means that up to six
external SCSI devices can be connected to SP ARCbook 3 models, and
up to seven external devices can be connected to SP ARCbook 3000
models (which have an IDE internal hard disk).

Some SCSI devices provide two connectors so that they can be located
in any position along the chain. The SP ARCbook has only one
connector because it should be located at the end

of

the chain.

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 7-3

Using SCSI Devices

SCSI Terminators

SCSI Terminators

Note

SCSI IDs

Note

To ensure reliable operation

of

your SP ARCbook and external SCSI

devices, you must use an

active terminator at the end

of

the SCSI chain.

The SP ARCbook unit contains permanently fixed terminators and

should, therefore, be positioned at one end

of

the SCSI chain while the

device at the far end

of

the chain will need terminators fitted or enabled.

Some SCSI devices, such as the Tadpole Removable Hard Disk Adapter

(RHDDA), contain built-in switchable terminators (see "Setting the

SCSI Terminator" on page 6-11) which can be enabled or disabled as

appropriate. Where this is not the case, you can obtain plug-in

terminators that can be installed on the vacant connector on the device

at the end

of

the chain, as illustrated in Figure 7-1.

A SCSI terminator is a type

of

resistor network which prevents interference occurring
between conductors within the interconnecting cables, and so improve reliability.
However, terminators must not be fitted to other devices in the chain as this will cause
unreliable operation.

To allow data on individual drives to be accessed, each device
connected to the chain must have a unique address, or SCSI

target ID.

A device's target ID is not related to its physical position within the
daisy chain. IDs are usually assigned in keeping to operating system
convention to devices according to type. For example, under Solaris

2.x, a CD-ROM is assigned to SCSI ID 6 and the SPARCbook system

is assigned to ID 7.

The boot disks in the SP ARCbook 3 and SPARCbook 3000 models are

of

different types

and therefore have different identities. The SPARCbook

3's

removable hard disk is a

SCSI disk and the

SP

ARCbook 3000' s hard disk is an IDE device.

7-4 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

SCSIID

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Using SCSI Devices

SCSI IDs

Every drive has one or more special files associated with it, according
to its type function. For example, a hard disk has a block data file and
raw data file associated with each partition in the form:

/dev/dsk/c0t2d0sn
/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0sn

block data special file
raw data special file

Table 7-1 summarizes the assignment

of

drive IDs for Solaris 2.x on
SP ARCbook 3 and SP ARCbook 3000 models and the special files
associated with those IDs.

Special Files

Function

SPARCbook 3 SPARCbook 3000

/dev/cOtOdOs[0-7]

/dev/c4t0d0s[0-7]

External Hard Disk Drive

/dev/cOtldOs[0-7]

/dev/c4tld0s[0-7]

External Hard Disk Drive

/dev/c0t2d0s[0-7]

/dev/c4t2d0s[0-7]

External Hard Disk Drive
SPARCbook

3:

Removable Hard Disk Drive

/dev/c0t3d0s[0-7]

/dev/c4t3d0s[0-7]

(with root partition)

SPARCbook 3000: External Hard Disk Drive

/dev/c0t4d0s[0-7]

/dev/c4t4d0s[0-7]

Exrernal Hard Disk Drive/Second CD-ROM
Drive

/dev/diskette

Tadpole External Floppy Disk Drive

/dev/rmt/0

Tape Drive

/dev/c0t6d0s[0-7]

/dev/c4t6d0s[0-7]

First CD-ROM Drive

-

System Unit

Table

7-1

SCSI Device Assignments

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 7-5

Using SCSI Devices

Configuring an External Hard

Disk-

Worked Example

Configuring an External Hard Disk - Worked Example

The basic procedure for installing an external hard disk drive with a
SPARCbook is as follows:

• Connect the drive with termination and SCSI ID correctly set.

• Power the system up and enter a command so that the necessary
special files are created.

• Format (if necessary) and partition the hard disk.

• Create and check a file system on each disk partition ( or slice).

• Create a mount point and mount the filesystem(s).

These steps are described in a worked example below. The example
uses a preformatted drive with a SCSI ID

of

2 which is connected to the

SCSI port

of

the SP ARCbook. The disk has one partition.

:)

Connecting the drive

The SCSI ID for a hard disk can be set to O (zero), 1 or 2 (see Table 7-1).
The removable hard disk on SP ARCbook 3 models has its ID set to 3
by default so this ID should not normally be used for an external drive.

If

the external drive is the only external device or

if

it is connected to

the end

of

the SCSI chain, it should have the terminator enabled.

:)

Creating special files - boot time

Before filesystems can be created on the new hard disk, special files for
the new partitions must exist. To create the special files during the boot
process the following procedure is used:

1.

Press the power on button.

2. When the OpenBoot start-up screen is displayed, press Pause-A.

7-6 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Note

Using SCSI Devices

Configuring an External Hard

Disk-

Worked Example

Tadpole

S3

SPARCbook,

keyboard

present

ROM

Rev

2.15

Vl.00

32

MB

memory

installed,

Serial

#10683270

Ethernet

address

0:0:83:a3:3:86,

Host

ID:

Host

ID:

80a30386

Initializing

memory

-

Type

help

for

more

information

ok

3.

Enter the following command:

ok

create

no-resume?

ok

boot

-r

The - r option causes the SP ARCbook to carry out hardware
reconfiguration. In this example, the SP ARCbook detects the external
hard disk and creates the necessary special files to allow the
filesystem(s) on the new hard disk to be accessed.

The SP ARCbook creates both block and raw device files in the

/dev/dsk

and

/dev/rdsk

directories, respectively, for each

of

eight

possible slices (partitions). Thus, in the case

of

the example drive with

a SCSI ID

of

2,

the following special files are created:

Where:

/dev/dsk/c0t2d0sn
/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0sn

co

defines the SPARCbook system's internal SCSI controller, in
this case

O (zero). In the case

of

a SPARCbook 3000, this would

be

1.

t 2 defines the SCSI target address, in this case

2.

cto

defines the drive number, which is normally O (zero) in the case
of

a drive with an embedded SCSI controller.

sn

defines the disk slice, where n is a number between O and 7.

Historically the target ID identified a SCSI controller card to which there might

be

connected one

or

more disk drives

or

tape drives. The current tendency is for drives to

have a built-in (or

embedded) SCSI controller in which case the drive ID is most often 0

(zero).

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 7-7

Using SCSI Devices

Configuring an External Hard

Disk-

Worked Example

:)

Creating special files - on a live system

It may be necessary to add an external disk drive to a SPARCbook

without powering the system down in order to allow uninterrupted
access to available SPARCbook filesystems.

In this case, the block and raw device files, described above, can be
created

as

follows:

1.

Become superuser

2. Enter the following commands:

#

drvconfig

-i

sd

#

disks

:)

Creating disk partitions

The next step is to create the required disk partitions ( or slices). The disk
can be organized into up to eight partitions numbered O to 7. In this
example, one partition is created on slice 2, which occupies the entire

disk.

The disk is partitioned

as

follows:

1.

Become superuser

2. Enter the following command:

#

format

Searching

for

disks

...

done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:

0.

c0t2d0

<IBM-DVAS-2810

cyl

6183

alt 2 hd 8 sec

32>

/iommu@O,

10000000/sbsus@l0001000/espdma@8400000/esp@4,88000000/sd@2,0

1.

c0t3d0

<TOSHIBA-MK2428FB

cyl

4000

alt 2 hd 8 sec

32>

/iommu@O,

10000000/sbsus@l0001000/espdma@8400000/esp@4,88000000/sd@2,0

Specify a disk

(enter

its

number)

: 0

The information displayed for the disks will vary from system to system
but should provide information about the drive vendor, drive model and

drive characteristics. In this example, a note is made

of

the number

of

cylinders that the new drive has, in this case 6183, which is required for

disk partitioning.

7-8

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Caution

Using SCSI Devices

Configuring an External Hard

Disk-

Worked Example

Take care

to

enter the correct drive number. Errors made during this
process could damage the filesystem on the boot disk with consequent data
loss.

selecting

c0t2d0:

[disk

formatted]

FORMAT

MENU:

disk

-

select a disk

-

select

(define) a disk

type type
partition
current
format
repair
label
defect
back.up
verify
save
inquiry
volname
quit

-

select

(define) a partition

table

-

describe

the

current

disk

-

format

an

analyze

the

disk

-

repair a defective

sector

-

write

label

to

disk

-

defect

list

management

-

search

for

back.up

labels

-

read

and

display

labels

-

save

new

disk/partition

definitions

-

show

vendor,

product

and

revision

-

set

8-character

volume

name

format>

partition

PARTITION

MENU:

0 -

change'O'

partition

1 -

change'l'

partition

2 -

change'2'

partition

3 -

change'3'

partition

4 -

change'4'

partition

5 -

change'S'

partition

6

-

change'6'

partition

-

change'7'

partition

-

select a predefined

table

7

select
modify
name
display
label
quit

-

modify a predefined

partition

table

-

name

the

current

table

-

display

the

current

table

-

write

partition

map

and

label

to

the

disk

In

this example, partition 6 is being defined

and

is going

to

occupy the

entire disk. The disk in this case has 6183 available cylinders,

as

displayed

at

the

specify

a

disk

prompt.

partition>

6

Part

Tag

2

unassigned

Flag

wm

Cylinders 0 Size

0

Enter

partition

id

tag[unassigned]

:<RETURN>

Enter

partition

permission

flag

[wm]

:<RETURN>

Enter

new

starting

cyl[OJ

:<RETURN>

Enter

partition

size

[Ob,

Oc,

O.OOmb]

:6183c

Blocks

(0/0/0)

0

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 7-9

Using SCSI Devices

Configuring an External Hard

Disk-

Worked Example

Once the partitions have been defined, the resulting partition table looks

like this:

partition>

print

Part

Tag

Flag

Cylinders

Size

Blocks

0

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

1

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

2

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

3

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

4

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

5

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

6

unassigned

wm

0 -

6179

772.

50

(6180/0/0)

1582080

7

unassigned

wm

0 0

(0/0/0)

0

Having defined the required partitions, the partition map is written and
the disk labeled with the following commands:

partition>label
Ready

to

label

disk,

continue?

y

partition>quit
format>quit

#

:)

Create

and

then check a filesystem on the new disk

1.

Become superuser.

2. At the Solaris prompt, enter the following commands:

#

newfs

/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s6

#

fsck

/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s6

:)

Create a mount point

and

mount the filesystem

In this example, a new directory is created in the root directory to
provide the mount point, and then the new filesystem is mounted. This
is carried out at the Solaris prompt with the following commands:

#

cd

#

mkdir

/external

#

mount

/dev/dsk/c0t2d0s6

/external

Filesystems can be mounted automatically at boot time by creating an
entry in the

/etc/vfstab

file for each filesystem to be mounted. The
file can be edited by the superuser. The new entry contains information
about the filesystem' s special files, intended mount point, filesystem
type and filesystem checking option.

7-10 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using SCSI Devices

Using a Tadpole SCSI Floppy Disk Drive

Using a Tadpole SCSI Floppy Disk Drive

Caution

The SPARCbook SCSI floppy disk drive (SFDD) is designed for use
with all SPARCbook and SPARCbook 3000 models.

It draws power

from your SPARCbook's SCSI port so does not require a separate
power cable. Any additional SCSI devices must, however, be powered
separate I

y.

The floppy drive

is

powered from the SCSI port

of

your computer.
Powering more than one floppy drive, or a floppy drive and a removable
hard disk drive adapter at the same time may cause damage

to

your

SPARCbook.

The procedure for installing and using the SFDD is as follows:

• Connect the drive.

• Set the SCSI ID and terminator switches.

• Power up the system and enter a command to create the
necessary special files so that data on floppy disks can be
accessed.

• Format floppy disks (to prepare blank disks for data storage).

• Create a mount point

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 7-11

Using SCSI Devices

Using a Tadpole SCSI Floppy Disk Drive

:)

Connecting The Floppy Disk Drive

Connect the SCSI floppy disk drive to the SCSI port

of

your

SP ARCbook. You can use the remaining (female) connector on the rear

of

the floppy drive to connect another SCSI device,

if

required.

Figure 7-2 Connecting the SCSI Floppy Disk Drive

:)

Setting the SCSI ID Switches

Note

Like all SCSI devices, your floppy drive must have a unique SCSI ID.
You set the SCSI ID for your floppy drive using the three SCSI ID

switches shown in Figure 7-3. In order to avoid conflicts with other

devices, it is recommended that you set the SCSI ID to

5.

[

000000000000000

]

000000000000000

000000000000000
000000000000000

SCSI

ID

2 (MSB)

~SCSIID1

Active Term

d-l-~

SCSI ID o (LSB)

oN,,nRn

Up=O

l_:~u~

Down=l

Figure 7-3 SCSI Floppy Disk Drive DIP Switches

The switches on the floppy drive are wired internally for "active low" operation. This
results in the position labeled

on

the switch as

"ON"

corresponding to binary O (zero).

7-12 SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide

Using SCSI Devices

Using a Tadpole

SCSI

Floppy Disk Drive

:)

Setting the SCSI Terminator Switch

Note

If

the floppy drive is the only external SCSI device connected to your

SPARCbook or is at the end

of

the SCSI chain, enable the built-in

terminator by moving the

ACTIVE TERM switch to the Down position.

(Ignore the

ON

legend printed on the switch.)

Down(On)Q

LJ

Q E

Figure 7-4 Terminator Switch

If

your floppy drive is not connected at the end

of

the SCSI chain,

disable the terminators by moving the

ACTIVE TERM switch to the

Up

position.

Only the device at the physical end

of

the SCSI chain should be terminated. All other

devices should have their terminators removed

or

switched off.

:)

Creating the Special Files -

at

Boot Time

Before filesystems can be created or accessed on a floppy disk, special
files must exist. To create the special files during the boot process the
following procedure is used:

1.

Press the power on button.

2. When the OpenBoot start-up screen is displayed, press Pause-A.

The OpenBoot ok prompt is displayed.

3.

Enter the following command:

ok

boot

-r

The - r option causes the SP ARCbook to carry out hardware
reconfiguration. In this example, the SP ARCbook detects the floppy
disk drive and creates the following raw and block special device files
to allow the data on a floppy to be accessed:

/dev/diskette
/dev/rdiskette

SPARCbook Portable Workstation User Guide 7-13