In article <200403291119.i2TBJLuJ023443@pc960.cambridge.arm.com>
rearnsha@arm.com wrote:

> > netbsd.INSTALL.gz of 1.6.1 and 1.6.2 fails during boot with
> > "Data Abort" message from OFW prompt on my Funai's DNARD terminal.
> > On the other hand, netbsd.INSTALL.gz of 1.6 works fine.
> 
> How early on is this?  Before the first NetBSD copyright message?

At least before consinit():
---
DNARD Rev. 3, 00:e0:a9:xx:xx:xx , 64 MB memory
Open Firmware  Built March 06, 1998 11:33:17
Copyright 1997 FirmWorks  All Rights Reserved

Type any key to interrupt automatic startup
Boot device: /isa/ethernet  Arguments:
Data Abort
ok 
---

> On cat's machines you sometimes get something like that (dies before doing 
> anything at all) because objcopy has corrupted the a.out version of the 
> kernel.  Take a close look at the objdump -h output for both netbsd and 
> netbsd.aout: pay particular attention to where the bss segment is placed.

Hmm, but it seems no particular difference:
(note no ELF install kernel in release distribution)
---
% /usr/tools/arm/bin/arm--netbsdelf-objdump -h netbsd.INSTALL-1.6*

netbsd.INSTALL-1.6:     file format a.out-arm-netbsd

Sections:
Idx Name          Size      VMA       LMA       File off  Algn
  0 .text         00110fe0  f0000020  f0000020  00000020  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, CODE
  1 .data         00379000  f0111000  f0111000  00111000  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, DATA
  2 .bss          0001dea0  f048a000  f048a000  00000000  2**4
                  ALLOC

netbsd.INSTALL-1.6.1:     file format a.out-arm-netbsd

Sections:
Idx Name          Size      VMA       LMA       File off  Algn
  0 .text         00112fe0  f0000020  f0000020  00000020  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, CODE
  1 .data         00379000  f0113000  f0113000  00113000  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, DATA
  2 .bss          0001dfe0  f048c000  f048c000  00000000  2**4
                  ALLOC

netbsd.INSTALL-1.6.2:     file format a.out-arm-netbsd

Sections:
Idx Name          Size      VMA       LMA       File off  Algn
  0 .text         00113fe0  f0000020  f0000020  00000020  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, CODE
  1 .data         00379000  f0114000  f0114000  00114000  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, DATA
  2 .bss          0001e000  f048d000  f048d000  00000000  2**4
                  ALLOC
---
Izumi Tsutsui
tsutsui@ceres.dti.ne.jp