Chapter 2. General Operating Procedures
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Chapter 2. General Operating Procedures

This chapter describes general VME option operating procedures. It contains the following sections:

Powering the System On and Off

Power on the host Silicon Graphics system only after the VME chassis is installed, configured, properly connected, and powered on.

To power the system on, complete the following instructions:

  1. Power on the VME chassis by turning the power switch to the On position.

  2. Set the Silicon Graphics host system circuit breaker to the On position.

  3. Power on the host system by turning the key in the module's System Controller to the On position.

  4. Log on after the system boots.

    Note: Depending on the IRIX release on the host system, you may be required to install patches to the operating system. (For more information, contact your Silicon Graphics representative.)

  5. If you have not installed the software and configured the system on IRIX 6.4, complete this operation now. The new VME interface board will not function correctly until the software has been properly installed on IRIX 6.4.

    Note: After the software is configured, run the autoconfig command to build a new operating system (kernel) that includes the new drivers. Then reboot the host to start running the new operating system.

  6. To power the system off, complete steps 1-3 in reverse order.

Basic Troubleshooting

The following information provides basic VME troubleshooting procedures if the system is not functioning properly. Possible problems are described first, followed by corrective action.

Problem

  • The VME interface board LEDs are not functioning correctly. The eight LEDs should be lit according to the following information. (See the “VME LED Functionality” section in Chapter 4 for more details.)

    • LED0 (yellow)-On

    • LED1 (yellow)-On

    • LED3 (yellow)-Off

    • LED4 (yellow)-Off

    • 1.7 V OK (green)-On

    • 2.4 V OK (green)-On

    • 3.3 V OK (green)-On

    • Link OK (green)-On

  • The VME interface is not recognized by the system. After IRIX is booted and you have logged in, type the following hardware inventory command:

    hinv -m

    If the system XIO-VME interface is properly installed, this command should produce a line similar to the following examples:

    • 9U VME Interface:

      VME_XTOWN_9U Board: barcode xxxxxx     part 030-1213-xxx rev x

    • 6U VME Interface:

      VME_XTOWN_6U Board: barcode xxxxxx     part 030-1221-xxx rev x

    (The letter x indicates numbers that could change with each interface.)

    Note: Individual, user-supplied VME cards do not appear as output to hinv. Cards can be identified only through probing of VME address space via user supplied software.

Corrective Action

  • In some cases (for example, an XIO card relocated to different slot), it is possible that multiple hwgraph structures will be created for the VME interface board and a device will not be recognized upon power-on. If you suspect this is the case, try removing the /etc/ioconfig.conf file and then reboot the system.

  • Power off and on both the Silicon Graphics host system and the VME chassis. (For detailed information, see “Powering the System On and Off”.)

  • Power off both the Silicon Graphics host system and the VME chassis. Disconnect, inspect, and reconnect both ends of the Xtown VME cable that connects the XIO board to the VME interface board. Then, power on the VME chassis and the Silicon Graphics host system.

  • If problems persist, contact Silicon Graphics technical support or your local service provider.

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Chapter 1. Introduction  Chapter 3. VME Chassis Information