I have tried to install the 1.2-beta release from scratch and has been
unsuccessful.

I would like to start this report by asking the following question:

How can I possibly contribute to making RiscBSD better when I can't get
it installed (in a proper way)?

I really want to contribute, but the lack of documentation and a 
clean, well thought out system for installing it keeps preventing 
me from doing that.

I have now wasted two whole days getting nowhere.

I understand that the kernel team are busy fixing problems, but
I think that they should start in the right end.

The most important thing is to make sure that all people who wants
to use it can install it. Performance issues and the like are a lower
priority when there still are people like me having problems
installing it.

Also, it is very important that equipment can be replaced, added
and removed without having to re-install RiscBSD. I just have to
refer you to the problems that Kim Øyhus has had with 1.1 after
he removed his SCSI drive. He just can't boot RiscBSD any more.

If I had been able to install RiscBSD, I would have had a really nice
configuration for re-compiling new sets for the 1.2 beta. I have
48 MB memory, 1 GB free disk space (estimated) and Internet
connection via Ethernet. Also, I have experience in porting and
compiling software on different platforms (different UNIX's and others).

Also, the installation issue seems to be a major problems for a lot
of people. I know people who have given up due to all the problems,
people who would definitely have been able to contribute a great
deal if they had been given the chance.

Also, I just scanned the W3 pages, and they do not seem to have
been updated for ages. If the pages are to be there, they need
to be updated when some of the information in them changes.
E.g. the 1.2 beta release page does not state that there is
an install floppy available. This page seems to me to be very
similar to the first email that Mark Brinicombe sent out.

My opion is that when a release reaches the beta stage, then
there should be no more development on it other than bug-fixes.
Also, the documentation should also be at the beta stage, i.e.
finished and complete.

I have committed myself to contribute to the RiscBSD project,
and I hope that all the time I have spent so far has been
worthwhile and that the core-team are listening.

I have also included in the report a set of visions for how
I intend/want to use my Acorn computers in the future. RiscBSD
(or any other Unix-like operating system) plays a major role
in those visions. I hope that this outline of my visions is
interesting to people.

I think that I have said enough about this now, but please
scrutinize the report I have included at the end of this email.

Kjetil B.

------------ Report from second attempt at RiscBSD -------------

This is a report that comments on my second attempt to install RiscBSD.
This time I installed the RiscBSD 1.2-beta from scratch using the
files in the 1.2-beta directory on the ftp server.

I tried to use my Acorn SCSI card with my HP C3325A SCSI drive.
This drive was formatted 400 MB to RISC OS.

I am very persistant, and I this refuse to install it to an IDE drive
first as I did the first time I installed RiscBSD. As a matter of 
fact, I do not even have a suitable IDE drive for RiscBSD. The
210 MB I have is my boot disc, and too small for RiscBSD anyway.

When I tried to boot RiscBSD the first time, I had unsaved files
and StrongED asked me if I wanted to quit. That I did, and RISC OS
booted up normally, but RiscBSD did not boot.

When RISC OS had been restarted, I booted RiscBSD with my saved setting.

I got the following error messages:
kbd0 at mainbus0 bas 0xf6000000: Cannot enable keyboard
kbd:resend enable keyboard

This appeared twice.

Further down I got the following error message:
swap dev 1801 sd0: no disk label
-> device not configured for swap

This should be quite normal, as this filesystem does not yet exist.

Then I got:
rd0: allocated 1440K (2880 blocks)
panic: Failed to load ramdisc

f0110b58 : ???g : e7ffffff : Undefined instruction
Stopped at      _Debugger+0x10: ldmdb r11, {r11, r13, r16}
db>

I then typed continue and the discs were sync'ed and I ended up
in the monitor (kshell> prompt). I then typed reboot to return to
RISC OS

This panic happens every time I try to boot.

So, then I switched too booting from floppy (/dev/fd0a), and
that boots ok.

But, now another problem turned out. It seems that the filecore
partition has been formatted with 64 sectors/track and
8 tracks/cylinder, but the disc is physically 127/9.

Unfortunately, bb_riscbsd is using the logical data that filecore
reports, and RiscBSD itself is using the physical.

How can I possibly find a number of cylinders that gives the
same number of blocks for these two different ways of splitting
the cylinders in the area between 400 and 500 MB?

In my opion there is only one way of fixing this problem.
That is to drop the use of filecore and go directly on the
disk.

I tried to boot from floppy and install anyway, but that does
not work due to the lack of a writeable filesystem.


So, this second attempt was completely unsuccessful as I do not have
an IDE drive that I want to use for RiscBSD.

During this process, I have seen a lot of things that could be
improved upon in the documentation.

These are the things that I think should be documented:
1) The boot process from the install floppy.
	- What does the kernal do and how does it go about that?
	- After the scrutiny of devices, how is the rest of the
	sequence?
	- How is the ram disk created and mounted?
2) All the manual pages for the commands that are used during
the install process should be provided as text files in the
distribution directory.
3) What should one do if there is an error message during boot
and the debugger is entered?
4) Which information is needed for fixing problems in the boot
kernel, i.e. which information should be collected?
5) Is there a special boot kernal that has to be used for installing
RiscBSD?
	- Why?
	- What are the differences between this and a normal kernel?
6) How can I create my own install-floppy?
7) The documentation has not been updated for the new bootloader.
8) How can I install RiscBSD without using the RAM Disc?
9) How can I set up a larger RAM disk than 1440K?
10) Where is the kshell (should be renamed as it may be confused
with the Korn Shell, ksh) documented?
11) Where is the debugger documented?
12) The FAQ in the distribution directory for 1.2-beta is very old.
13) A trouble-shooting guide.
14) Add information about unixfs in the install-guide, and explain
the importance of the FileCore limitations.

Other questions that have sprang to my mind:
1) How can I boot directly from RiscBSD to RiscBSD without going
through RiscBSD? Can this be done?
2) My HP drive is larger than 2GB, how will that work with RiscBSD
on a RISC OS 3.6 computer? What about 4GB drives?



My configuration is
-------------------
- Acorn Risc PC 600 (old model)
- ARM610 rev 5
- RISC OS 3 v. 3.5
- 48 MB DRAM (16+32)
- 2 MB VRAM
- Acorn Mk. III iss. 1 SCSI card (AKA-32) with WD33C93A SCSI controller
- I-Cubed Etherlan 600 network slot interface (EhterH), 10base-T, 10base-2
- HP C3325A 2GB SCSI disk
- Conner "CFS210A" IDE disk
- Acorn 16-bit Sound Upgrade ("Minnie")

On my A310/RiscPC:
- ANT Internet Suite
- Acorn TCP/IP Protocol Suite (Release 2)
- Acorn Issue 3 16-bit Ethernet card (Ether3) 10base-2.



My future visions for use of RiscBSD.
-------------------------------------

I also have an A310 that I will be using in parallel with my Risc PC.
One very good reason for this is to be able to run RiscBSD and
RISC OS at the same time.

These two computers will be networked with Acorn Access and/or
TCP/IP at home.

I intend to get the following equipment to my Risc PC in
addition to what I have now:
1) ISDN Terminal Adapter/"Modem".
	- This will probably be a Zyxel 2864I modem.
2) Atomwide fast serial expansion card, 3 ports up to 460 Kbits/s each.
3) 16 MB more memory (remove 16, add 32)
4) PC card
5) Alsystems PowerTec SCSI II card
6) SA-110

My intention is to use the Risc PC as (RiscBSD/RISC OS):
1) Internet gateway over ISDN to work (all computers there on Internet).
	- Real ISDN
	- V34 over ISDN (the Zyxel handles this)
	- Use for my PC
		- Serial from PC, i.e. gateway between serial and serial
	- Use for my A310
		- Ethernet to Serial, ANT Internet Suite etc.
2) NFS server for my A310
3) Printer server for my A310
	- RiscBSD, lpd
	- TurboDriver for RISC OS, Acorn Access
4) Development of RISC OS Internet server software if time permits
	- NFS server
	- Time server
	- FTP server
	- W3 server
	- Internet Gateway software
5) Telephone answering machine (RISC OS, ArcFax)
6) Fax Gateway?
7) Image processing 24MB 32-bit images
8) X-terminal over ISDN (RiscBSD/RISC OS)
9) Contributing to making RiscBSD better.

	This is perhaps the most important thing. I do not know
	how may RiscBSD users that will have my configuration when
	I am up and running.

	I believe that my configuration may be pretty unique already.

10) Have "UNIX" at home (UNIX is defined as System V Release 4.0).

And probably a whole lot I haven't thought about yet.