ERLITE-3 boot problems

[Brook Milligan <brook%nmsu.edu@localhost>]

I am trying to install NetBSD-9 on an ERLITE-3.  I have the NetBSD ERLITE kernel and md5 file in the MSDOS partition of the USB drive.  I have a second partition (type 169/NetBSD) that contains a whole NetBSD system.  The boot loader finds the kernel, loads it, and transfers control.  The kernel probes all the devices, but fails to find the root device.  All this is in the console output below, which is the same regardless of whether or not the NetBSD partition is marked active.

I fear I set this up wrong somehow and would appreciate any guidance.  How is the kernel supposed to find a root device different from the boot device?  Does the partition need to be marked somehow?  Must there be a boot loader?  Are there size constraints on the root partition?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,
Brook



reading vmlinux.64
..............................

6075760 bytes read
reading vmlinux.64.md5
argv[2]: coremask=0x3
argv[3]: root=/dev/sda2
argv[4]: rootdelay=15
argv[5]: rw
argv[6]: rootsqimg=squashfs.img
argv[7]: rootsqwdir=w
argv[8]: mtdparts=phys_mapped_flash:512k(boot0),512k(boot1),64k@1024k(eeprom)
ELF file is 64 bit
Allocating memory for ELF segment: addr: 0xffffffff80200000 (adjusted to: 0x200000), size 0x5058c0
Allocated memory for ELF segment: addr: 0xffffffff80200000, size 0x5058c0
Processing PHDR 1
 Loading 4de010 bytes at ffffffff80200000
 Clearing 278b0 bytes at ffffffff806de010
## Loading Linux kernel with entry point: 0xffffffff80200000 ...
Bootloader: Done loading app on coremask: 0x3
[   1.0000000] phys segment: 0x10000000 @ 0
[   1.0000000] adding 0x1fe000 @ 0x2000 to freelist 3
[   1.0000000] adding 0xf8fa000 @ 0x706000 to freelist 3
[   1.0000000] phys segment: 0x10000000 @ 0x410000000
[   1.0000000] adding 0x10000000 @ 0x410000000 to freelist 0
[   1.0000000] Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
[   1.0000000]     2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017,
[   1.0000000]     2018, 2019, 2020 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
[   1.0000000] Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
[   1.0000000]     The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

[   1.0000000] NetBSD 9.0 (ERLITE) #0: Fri Feb 14 00:06:28 UTC 2020
[   1.0000000]  mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/evbmips/compile/ERLITE
[   1.0000000] Cavium Octeon CN50XX
[   1.0000000] total memory = 512 MB
[   1.0000000] avail memory = 498 MB
[   1.0000000] timecounter: Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
[   1.0000000] mainbus0 (root)
[   1.0000000] cpunode0 at mainbus0: 2 cores, crypto+kasumi, 64bit-mul, unaligned-access ok
[   1.0000000] cpu0 at cpunode0 core 0: 500.00MHz (hz cycles = 5000000, delay divisor = 500)
[   1.0000000] cpu0: Cavium CN50xx (0xd0601) Rev. 1 with software emulated floating point
[   1.0000000] cpu0: 64 TLB entries, 512TB (49-bit) VAs, 512TB (49-bit) PAs, 256MB max page size
[   1.0000000] cpu0: 32KB/128B 4-way set-associative L1 instruction cache
[   1.0000000] cpu0: 16KB/128B 64-way set-associative write-through coherent L1 data cache
[   1.0000000] cpu0: 128KB/128B 8-way set-associative write-back L2 unified cache
[   1.0000000] cpu1 at cpunode0 core 1: disabled (uniprocessor kernel)
[   1.0000000] wdog0 at cpunode0: default period is 4 seconds
[   1.0000000] iobus0 at mainbus0
[   1.0000000] iobus0: initializing POW
[   1.0000000] iobus0: initializing FPA
[   1.0000000] com0 at iobus0 address 0x0001180000000800: ns16650, no ERS, working fifo
[   1.0000000] com0: console
[   1.0000000] com at iobus0 address 0x0001180000000c00 not configured
[   1.0000000] octeon_rnm0 at iobus0 address 0x0001180040000000
[   1.0000000] octeon_rnm0: random number generator enabled: 1hz
[   1.0000000] octeon_twsi at iobus0 address 0x0001180000001000 not configured
[   1.0000000] octeon_mpi at iobus0 address 0x0001070000001000 not configured
[   1.0000000] octeon_gmx0 at iobus0 address 0x0001180008000000
[   1.0000000] cnmac0 at octeon_gmx0: address=0x0001180008000000: RGMII
[   1.0000000] cnmac0: Ethernet address 18:e8:29:b5:7a:7b
[   1.0000000] atphy0 at cnmac0 phy 7: Atheros AR8035 10/100/1000 PHY, rev. 2
[   1.0000000] atphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseSX-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX, auto
[   1.0000000] cnmac1 at octeon_gmx0: address=0x0001180008000000: RGMII
[   1.0000000] cnmac1: Ethernet address 18:e8:29:b5:7a:7c
[   1.0000000] atphy1 at cnmac1 phy 6: Atheros AR8035 10/100/1000 PHY, rev. 2
[   1.0000000] atphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseSX-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX, auto
[   1.0000000] cnmac2 at octeon_gmx0: address=0x0001180008000000: RGMII
[   1.0000000] cnmac2: Ethernet address 18:e8:29:b5:7a:7d
[   1.0000000] atphy2 at cnmac2 phy 5: Atheros AR8035 10/100/1000 PHY, rev. 2
[   1.0000000] atphy2: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseSX-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX, auto
[   1.0000000] dwctwo0 at iobus0 address 0x0001180068000000
[   1.0000000] dwctwo0: Core Release: 2.65a (snpsid=4f54265a)
[   1.0000000] usb0 at dwctwo0: USB revision 2.0
[   1.0000000] bootbus0 at mainbus0
[   1.0000000] timecounter: Timecounter "clockinterrupt" frequency 100 Hz quality 0
[   1.0000030] timecounter: Timecounter "mips3_cp0_counter" frequency 500000000 Hz quality 100
[   1.0416867] uhub0 at usb0: NetBSD (0000) DWC2 root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
[   1.0541573] uhub0: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered
[   2.8816854] umass0 at uhub0 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
[   2.8816854] umass0: vendor 13fe (0x13fe) USB DISK 3.0 (0x6300), rev 2.10/1.10, addr 2
[   2.8968516] umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only
[   2.8968516] scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
[   2.9042487] uhub0: illegal enable change, port 1
[   2.9117073] sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0: <, USB DISK 3.0, PMAP> disk removable
[   2.9117073] sd0: fabricating a geometry
[   2.9237855] sd0: 115 GB, 118152 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 241975296 sectors
[   2.9318462] WARNING: 1 error while detecting hardware; check system log.
[   2.9318462] boot device: sd0
[   2.9432813] sd0: fabricating a geometry
[   3.5616886] root on sd0a dumps on sd0b
[   3.5616886] vfs_mountroot: can't open root device
[   3.5752088] cannot mount root, error = 6
[   3.5752088] root device (default sd0a):