Subject: Problem booting NetBSD
To: None <netbsd-help@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Kirk Corey <kcorey@mail.dsp.uiowa.edu>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 03/29/1997 14:41:19
Hello.  I'm having problems booting NetBSD 1.2 on various Pentium machines
using IDE drives.  Here are some details:

1.  Works fine on an HP Vectra XM Series 3 (Pentium 75 MHz) machine, using
either of two Quantum IDE drives (each about 1 gig).  NetBSD is the only
thing on either disk; each disk has one main partition and one swap
partition.

2.  Won't boot from either of these disks in either an HP Vectra VL Series
4 (Pentium 100 MHz) or HP Vectra VA (Pentium Pro 200 MHz).  When I try to
boot, I get a message ("read error") and the machine hangs.  

3.  As far as I can tell, it's a problem with the master boot record.  If
I boot either of the problem machines from floppy and then mount either of
the hard disks manually (using mount), everything works fine. 

4.  Tried os-bs; it doesn't help.  

Does anyone have any ideas about this?  I couldn't find anything in the
FAQ about this.

Thanks in advance,

Kirk Corey
kcorey@mail.dsp.uiowa.edu

P.S.  Feel free to flame away if I'm posting in the wrong place.  :)