Re: BeagleBone can't find boot/root device w/netbsd-9?

["John D. Baker" <jdbaker%consolidated.net@localhost>]

On Thu, 24 Oct 2019, John D. Baker wrote:

> I finally got around to booting NetBSD/evbarm-earmv7hf-9.0_BETA on my
> BeagleBone Green (like BeagleBone Black but w/o video hardware).
> 
> The kernel cannot figure out the boot/root device, even if "bootargs"
> is set in U-boot before booting.  It therefore prompts for root/swap/init.
> 
> This worked fine in netbsd-8.

To be more specific, to netboot, I issue the following at the U-boot prompt:

  dhcp
  setenv bootargs root=cpsw0
  bootm

This does fetch the "*.ub" kernel from my tftp server and boot its, but
then the kernel asserts:

  boot device: <unknown>
  root device:

I then have to give the device name "cpsw0".  I have it use the swap
partition on the on-board eMMC as dump, so I give it ld1b.  It then
prompts for init.  The default is good, so I just hit return.

Similarly for booting from the uSD card, U-boot reads my "uEnv.txt" file
and sets "bootargs" accordingly (root=ld0a) and then loads the kernel
and boots it.  As above, the kernel claims the boot device is unknown
and prompts for the root device.  The default for dump is correct at
this point, but I have to confirm by hitting <Return>.

Booting from on-board eMMC with the uSD card installed is a bit more
manual up front, but the kernel still ignores the bootargs "root=ld1a"
and promps for the root device.

> I haven't really kept up with changes to NetBSD/arm support, so if this
> has been discussed before, please point me to the appropriate thread.

Maybe my U-boot is too old now?  I seem to recall something about
an efi bootloader, but maybe I'm thinking of OpenBSD.

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