Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request From: legato!!mojo@uunet.uu.net (Joseph Moran) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: xy: cannot exec first read Keywords: SunOS Message-ID: <616@brazos.Rice.edu> Date: 27 Jul 89 04:21:07 GMT Sender: root@rice.edu Organization: Sun-Spots Lines: 30 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 88, message 16 of 16 Our system some times fails to boot and prints out: "xy: cannot exec first read" and returns to the monitor prompt. After this happens, typing "b" to the monitor sometimes will reboot the system. However, other times, this error is persistent and you continue getting the same "xy: cannot exec first read" message from the monitor each time you try and boot from the disk. In these cases, powering cycling the CPU doesn't clear the error condition. The only way to recover from this condition is to power cycle the *disks*. From this I conclude that the disks are sometimes left in some funny state during a clean shutdown that the boot PROM may not be able to clear during its reboot sequence. We have a Sun-3/160 with PROM revision level 2.7 and a Xylogics 451 controller connected to 2 850 Mb CDC Saber drives. Our support people have replaced the 451 controller, but the problem did not go away. This seems to leave the disk, the cabling, or the boot PROM as the most likely suspects. I would prefer not to change the disks unless I have more evidence that this could really be the problem. Does anyone know what types of things can cause this error message? Does anyone with monitor sources know what is happening when the monitor prints the "xy: cannot exec first read" diagnostic? Has anyone else out there seen this problem? Joseph Moran Legato Systems, Inc. 260 Sheridan Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94306 (415) 329-7886 mojo@Legato.COM or {sun,uunet}!legato!mojo