> > Most probably you forgot to copy /usr/mdec/biosboot to /boot
> 
> Shouldn't installboot do that?

Unfortunately It doesn't have write access to the boot filesystem.
(because you don't know if, or where, it is mounted)

> I'm pretty sure I did it at least one of the times I tried it. And the ONLY
> error it displayed was "CANNOT RUN RESIDENT BASIC"This machine is not fast
> enough at booting that its easy to miss an error message. I see the video
> card BIOS, a lengthy ram test (for only 8MB), a beep, a blank screen for ~
> 60 seconds, then the BASIC message.

Even on a slow machine it is quite possible there isn't time between
the error message and a screen blank for the message to be read.
(There is an option in the code to add a delay after every message...)

> > > What is the proper method for making an i386 machine boot serial console
> > > now? (without reverting to bootblocks that, from all i can tell, are no
> > > longer built)
> > 
> > installboot -o console=com0 -o speed=9600 /dev/rwd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
> 
> Ok, assuming that is what I did, I still wonder why it doesn't copy biosboot
> to /boot, or at least say "Don't forget to copy biosboot to /boot" a-la
> config's "don't forget to make depend" message.

It was too hard to always get right....

> FWIW, the old installboot did that for you. I never touched /boot myself,
> yet the date on is is sept. 6, which is the date I got the machine back up
> and running with the old /usr/mdec/installboot.

The old version had different semantics....

	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk