NVRAM contents, Save some Suns, and a question

[Ethan Dicks]

On Apr 8, 2005 4:37 PM, Arno1983 <Arno_1983 at gmx.de> wrote:
> Not quite. In some guide, I remember there was a "quick-and-dirty" way of
> assembling some bogus NVRAM info for Suns. Basically you only have to get
> the machine class designation right (there is a table for this) and you must
> set the manufacturer part of the MAC ID to 8:0:20, or you'll get complaints
> about a broken main board. The rest is totally free, so one usually winds up
> with host parts and serial no.s that read de:ad or c0:ff:ee or anything like
> that...

Yes... One can replace the battery and synthesize any 24-bit-portion
of the MAC address one wants to get the machine back up and running,
as long as there aren't two machines with the same (fake) MAC address
on the same wire.  I did not mean to suggest that the machine was a
worthless doorstop if the battery died.  I probably should have said
that work would be required to bring it back to useful status.  If one
writes down the MAC address before the battery dies, one can, of
course, put it back in later.

> On the other hand, Sun still maintains a complete database of the NVRAM
> infos programmed into any machine that was delivered. If you want to get it
> historically correct, you want to put those values back; in order to get
> them, you have to read the four (later: six) character NVRAM ID off the
> white or yellow bar-code sticker on the NVRAM. Then, the guys at sunopsis
> (The Sun Museum) can help you. My contact person there is ruediger (dot)
> frenk (at) sun (dot) com, he'll sure help you too. That is, if you don't
> flood him all at once now.

I was unaware there was a free way to get that info from the yellow
tag.  I need to shoot these guys a small stack of ID numbers from a
wad of dead ones I have.
 
-ethan