> Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 11:00:38 -0500
> From: Ron Parise <parise@gelato.gsfc.nasa.gov>

> I have been having a tremendous amount of trouble trying to install NetBSD
> on a Sun 3/50 or 3/60. I have a couple of different drives I have tried. One
> is a SCSI/ESDI bridge interface and one is a regular SCSI. I am using the 
> Patch_1.1 install distribution.
> 
> With the SCSI/ESDI:
> 
> ramdisk kernel loads from tape OK
> edlabel edits the disklabel OK
> miniroot seems to copy to the b partition OK
> miniroot boots from the b partition but then I get that wonderful
> error message  "panic: can't mount root" and get I dumped into the debugger.

What PROM monitor command did you use to boot the miniroot?

> With the SCSI drive:
> 
> Same as above but root fs mounts OK
> run install OK
> when I am asked if I want the root fs on sd0a a say yes.
> the system responds with "skipped" and then continues.
> later when it tries to write to sd0a it says it can't due to
> "INCORRECT SUPERBLOCK" and I am bounced out to the miniroot prompt.

When booting the miniroot, you should answer the "root:" prompt
with sd0b (the swap area) rather than accepting the sd0a default.
The sd0a partition will not yet contain a filesystem at that point.

> I have tried formatting and reformatting both drives (with Sun OS since
> NetBSD doesn't seem to have format in the ramdisk fs). I have messed with
> the partition sizes etc. And to no avail.

That does not make filesystems, which is what you need.  The low-level
format is not strictly necessary, unless there are disk errors to be
remapped, or parameters to change.

Gordon