On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Ross Harvey wrote:

> > Creating the boot floppy, well...  I'd imagine that it is something
> > like:
> >
> > disklabel it, newfs it, then:
> > mount it to ${MOUNT_POINT}
> > cp /usr/mdec/boot to it
> > installboot -v ${MOUNT_POINT}/boot /usr/mdec/bootxx <the raw dev>
> 
> It's easier than that:
> 
> 	cd /usr/src/distrib/alpha/floppy-GENERIC
> 	make
> 
> You should build GENERIC first and do this as root. Then, obviously,
> 
> 	dd bs=18k conv=sync if=GENERIC.fs of=/dev/rfd0a
> 
> Actually, I half-way intended this to go into distributions, but didn't
> actually build it for 1.4 or 1.4.1.   I guess there is no harm in adding
> a late build of a vanilla 1.4.1 optional component, so just grab:
> 
> 	/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4.1/alpha/misc/GENERIC.fs
> 
> ...off the ftp server. You will want to boot with >>>b -fl an, until you
> can build a hardwired root like in elric's example.
> 	
> 	ross.harvey@computer.org
> 

Thanks for the quick help!  I have just a couple more questions:

1.  I downloaded the kernel source (syssrc.tgz) and untarred it, but there
was no directory /usr/src/distrib.  Am I missing something?

I have downloaded the prebuilt kernel you built, and i will try that.  I
am just trying to understand what is going on.

2.  When I try to use the find and man commands, I get strange error
messages like 

find: 84: Syntax error: ")" unexpected

My command was 

find . -name distrib

Do I need to change an environment variable or something?

Thanks again!

Andy Seila