Re: install/43954: 5.1 RC4 Installation CD doesn't work on IBM R31 - exec /sbin/init: error 2

[David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR port-i386/43954; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: install/43954: 5.1 RC4 Installation CD doesn't work on IBM R31
 - exec /sbin/init: error 2
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 20:01:02 +0000

 On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 08:30:06AM +0000, Matto Fransen wrote:
  >  >  Hrm. Does the same CD work in other machines? One possibility is that
  >  >  it's corrupted somehow, although that admittedly seems unlikely if you
  >  >  see the same behavior from 5.1RC4 and 5.0.2.
  >  
  >  Indeed.
  >  I just tried the CD on a Toshiba Satelitte A200-237, there it works fine.
  >  
  >  >  The message should certainly not be garble.
  >  >  Does the file /boot.cfg on the CD contain garble? I think you can
  >  >  print (text) files from the bootloader but I don't remember how...
  >
  >  I mounted it on the IBM R31 (running NetBSD 4) with mount /dev/cd0d=20
  >  and /boot.cfg is flawless. So that seems not to be the problem.
 
 That does narrow it down quite a bit; the problem must be in the
 bootloader and it must be related to that specific machine, so it's
 probably some weird BIOS compatibility thing.
 
 If the bootloader is getting garble back when trying to read the disk,
 I'm surprised it can load a kernel image that's uncorrupted enough to
 finish booting, but maybe it has to do with reading specific areas of
 the CD or something.
 
 I don't know enough about the details to pursue this any farther
 myself, but hopefully someone else will step in.
 
 Can you try having the bootloader print /boot.cfg to the console? I
 believe this is possible but I forget how to do it, and I don't really
 want to reboot my desktop right now to go check. :-/  If it comes out
 as garble that'd be highly suggestive. But more likely it won't;
 mysterious problems are rarely cooperative.
 
 Generic advice (like check for a BIOS update and so on) also applies,
 and if you have BIOS setup options that affect how the BIOS handles
 the cdrom, compatibility modes or whatever, tinkering with them might
 let you bypass the issue.
 
 -- 
 David A. Holland
 dholland%netbsd.org@localhost