Subject: Need help with Sparc20 install using the ELF & 1.4 miniroots
To: 'current-users@netbsd.org' <current-users@netbsd.org>
From: Jonathan Buller <buller@nortelnetworks.com>
List: current-users
Date: 06/14/1999 09:44:49
OK,  The situation is as follows:

I have a Sparcstation LX at home that I recently unloaded Solaris 2.5.1 and
it now runs NetBSD-1.4 (Yea!) I had a few problems, but nothing I couldn't
figure out or work around.  Now, here at work I thought I'd do the same with
a Sparcstation 20. However there are some significant problems that have
gotten me stuck. I'm now soliciting suggestions, opinions, advice, and
comments.

The machine reports:
     SPARCStation 20 (1 X 390Z55), Keyboard Present
     Rom Rev. 2.22, 128 MB memory installed, Serial #7769526.
     Ethernet address 8:0:20:76:8d:b6, Host ID: 72768db6

I'll type in the boot messages if it would help, but I don't have a serial
cable right now and everything looks fine. Once I get the miniroot running
however, I get messages about Bus Errors and Segmentation Violations all
over the place. By killing the install script, I have found that it appears
to happen about 50% of the time when a process exits.  It's not random, as
disklabel always does it, so the install script can't figure out what disks
it can work with. I've ended up with an ls.core file once or twice, but that
is uncommon. This happens with both the 1.4 miniroot and the 19990605.ELF
miniroot. It did NOT happen with the 1.4 miniroot on my LX.

I manually waded through the process enough to get everything installed,
except for the boot blocks. I've done what appears to be correct, but the
boot blocks autoload the miniroot out of the swap partition, instead of the
kernel from the root partition. (If you go through the port-sparc archive
the last couple of weeks, you can find the exact installboot command I used.
I didn't get any response from port-sparc, so I'm writing here.)

Help!  (I'm not subscribed to current-users any more due to volume 8-( so
please CC: me on replies.)

Jon Buller
MGC Base & Platform Development
+1 972 684 2593 (ESN 444-2593)
buller@nortelnetworks.com