[Debootloaders-silo] Bug#688521: SILO first boot after power-on or reset fails on Netra T1 200

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

Package: silo
Version: 1.4.14+git20120819-1
Severity: normal

On a Netra T1 200 with default installation (no desktop packages etc.) 
and with a serial terminal attached to the LOM port as console, the 
first boot command after power-on, reset or reboot fails with a watchdog 
timeout before SILO presents its boot prompt:

lom>
lom>version
LOM version:            v3.10
LOM checksum:           a068
LOM firmware part#      258-7871-16
Microcontroller:        H8/3437S
LOM firmware build      Apr  3 2001 13:04:44
lom>poweron
lom>
LOM event: +4h4m40s host power on
Netra T1 200 (UltraSPARC-IIe 500MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 4.0, 1024 MB memory installed, Serial #51358633.
Ethernet address 0:3:ba:f:ab:a9, Host ID: 830faba9.

ok boot
000000000000001500000000f000000000000000000000000000000000000000fffffffff5bffff8
000000000000000d00000000009730a10000000000d61b8ffffffffffffffe9d0005001000000000
f000420000000000f00042040004001000000000f000420000000000f00042040003001000000000
f000420000000000f000420400020010000000000070800000000000007080040001013e00000000
f000a86000000000f000a864
Watchdog Reset
Externally Initiated Reset
ok boot
Boot device: /pci at 1f,0/pci at 1/scsi at 8/disk at 0,0:a  File and args:
SILO Version 1.4.14
boot:
Allocated 64 Megs of memory at 0x40000000 for kernel
Uncompressing image...
[Successful boot here.]


Lomlite2 firmware is at 3.10, there are no watchdog entries in its log. 
LOM firmware can't be upgraded without using a non-free Solaris package.

This affects SILO on Wheezy and Lenny, but Squeeze boots despite having 
the same version as Wheezy:

Lenny:   1.4.13
Squeeze: 1.4.14
Wheezy:  1.4.14

Kernel and configuration as shipped on CD. Behavior is predictable, and 
the same over several computers of the same model. I have not tried 
building any custom kernels, so can't say whether it depends crucially 
on e.g. the size or number of the kernels in silo.conf.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
   APT prefers testing
   APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: sparc (sparc64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-3-sparc64
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages silo depends on:
ii  libc6  2.13-35

silo recommends no packages.

silo suggests no packages.

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/silo.conf changed:
root=/dev/sda2
partition=1
default=Linux
read-only
timeout=100
image=/vmlinuz
         label=Linux
         initrd=/initrd.img
image=/vmlinuz.old
         label=LinuxOLD
         initrd=/initrd.img.old


-- no debconf information