Re: "cannot mount root, error = 79"

["David Lord" <netbsd%lordynet.org@localhost>]

On 23 Sep 2009 at 3:36, Kentaro KAWAMOTO wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:57 AM, Jukka Ruohonen <jruohonen%iki.fi@localhost> 
> wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:54:50AM +0900, Kentaro KAWAMOTO wrote:
> >>
> >> I copied kernel and modules (/stand/i386/5.99.18/*).
> >> But it doesn't work anyway.
> >>
> >
> > AFAIR, you need to also copy the boot program, /usr/mdec/boot, to the new
> > system.[1]
> 
> I'm sorry, I didn't mention that I am using GRUB, not boot(8) as bootloader.
> (Because I have Linux system in the same i386 machine, too.)
> When using GRUB, /usr/mdec/boot has nothing to do with boot process, doesn't 
> it?

I thought it did

> Anyway, I tried copying /usr/mdec/* to the i386 machine.
> As expected, it didn't work...

I have a mix on different systems of Lilo, Grub or
NetBSD as main bootloader.

Whatever, you still need to ensure your NetBSD partition
is bootable and just copying the required file to / isn't
enough, and of course I've not had to do this for ages and 
forgotten the magic.

from "man installboot"

copy /usr/mdec/boot.MACHINE or /usr/mdec/boot to root 
directory

use installboot to install primary bootstrap program 
/usr/mdec/bootxx_fstype into filesystem

There are some examples for various MACHINE types.

eg NetBSD/i386 and NetBSD/amd64:
cp /usr/mdec/boot /boot
installboot -v -o timeout=5 /dev/rwd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1


David