On Nov 24,  9:28am, smb@research.att.com ("Steven M. Bellovin") wrote:
-- Subject: Re: unbootable new disk?

| In message <I7o3H2.L1o@tac.nyc.ny.us>, Christos Zoulas writes:
| >In article <20041124042917.6C3481AE9A@berkshire.research.att.com>,
| >Steve Bellovin <smb@research.att.com> wrote:
| >>I just tried installing -current (i386, as of today) to a new disk.  The
| >>resulting system wasn't bootable.
| >>
| >>On my first attempt, I said "use the whole disk for NetBSD"; the BIOS 
| >>told me "no operating system".  I had accepted the defaults on most 
| >>things, except that I said to use a serial console.  I redid the 
| >>installation, this time saying that it should create an FDISK label, 
| >>but with NetBSD the only partition.  I got the first-level boot prompt; 
| >>I hit '1' for NetBSD.  It said "Err 3".  Rerunning installboot didn't 
| >>fix it; when I tried running 'disklabel -B wd0' (from the installation 
| >>CD's shell), I got a usage error for disklabel.
| >>
| >>My error?  Or do I need to send-pr?
| >
| >Send-pr... Even if it was your fault, the default settings should just
| >work or provide a more helpful error message.
| 
| I'll poke at it again and send-pr tonight, when I next have access to 
| the machine in question.  Any suggestions on what I should do to get it 
| working?

According to the mbr.S in sys/arch/i386/stand:

#define ERR_NOOS        '3'             /* Magic no. check failed for part. */

Which means that the fdisk partition has the wrong magic? I am just guessing.

I would escape to shell and:

1. Run fdisk -u and make sure you write in the partition in question
   so that the magic gets fixed [in case that was broken].
2. Run fdisk -i to update the mbr; this will use the standard console. You
   can change it later.
3. Run disklabel -r wd0 to see if the label is there. If not, you can use
   disklabel -I -ir wd0 to create it interactively. If it is there, you
   can use disklabel -ir wd0 to edit it.

christos