From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 09:24:52 -0500
From: forsyth@plan9.cs.york.ac.uk forsyth@plan9.cs.york.ac.uk
Subject: CPU authentication...
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 4197007e-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025
Message-ID: <19960327142452.6Ft5pB9m1vKniaqm3ZgB5KjzXnz-8tdjlQl9MER1WC4@z>

> The cpu server comes up with
> boot: can't read nvram: unknown device in # filename
> boot: bad nvram key:
> 
> It then comes out and asks for the password... I provide the password
> (The same as the server) - it prompts for the authid, and the domain
> I provide it. - And it seems to work.  
> It then prompts:
> boot: can't write key to nvram: fd out of range or not open.

most PCs haven't got any usable NVRAM, so the CPU server
uses a special disc partition instead.  if that doesn't exist, or
(as in this case) the appropriate SCSI or IDE device isn't configured,
you'll get the diagnostics you show above.  in other words,
they are `normal' on a PC.

when it's convenient, you should apply the updates to auth/wrkey and /sys/src/9/boot,
if you haven't done already.