Subject: Installation assistance
To: None <port-acorn32@netbsd.org, port-arm32@netbsd.org>
From: Peter Bell <peter@bellfamily.org.uk>
List: port-arm32
Date: 03/26/2002 22:39:16
I'm attempting to get BSD up and running on the following
configuration:

RiscPC 600 with SA revT
RISC OS 3.7
16MB RAM
1MB VRAM
EtherLan 500 (EtherH), [with adsl gateway on lan]
ideA (Arcin V6) IDE interface with empty IBM 44GB master drive
205GB Conner on ADFS::4 (totally dedicated to RO)

Firstly, I'm unclear whether I should be using arm32 or acorn32
distributions - any advice?

Secondly, as I read through INSTALL.txt files they advise me to
'perform the instructions in arm32/platform/prep that are specific to
your platform'.  Where do I find 'arm32/platform/prep'?  Is this
somewhere on ftp.netbsd.org?  Am I meant to start of in
/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.5.2, or somewhere in /pub/NetBSD/arch?  I cannot
find any directories called 'platform' - is this supposed to be
substituted by 'riscos'?

Thirdly, if I ignore the fact that I haven't been able to find the
platform-specific instructions and go ahead to try to get something
running, I run bb_(net/risc)bsd - I want to dedicate the whole of the
44GB disc on IDEFS - so I specify a starting cylinder of 0 on IDEFS
drive 4.  That's fine but I can't get mountufs to mount the partition.
Should the command be 'mountufs IDEFS 4' or 'mountufs IDEFS wd0a'.
There seems to be some confusion over this in the files which I have
fetched from the ftp site.  In any case, both commands fail, wd0a
produces 'Disc drive not known', 4 produces 'Bad disklabel'.

If I ignore mounting the ufs partition, and attempt to load a kernel
from the RISC OS drive, after reporting memory configuration, BtNetBSD
produces a message about 825 pages needing relocation and then bombs
out with a 'Can't use array reference here at line 2580'.

If I attempt to run !BtRiscBSD, after ignoring the mountufs failure, I
get to a situation where the kernel actually starts up, reports lots
of info about the machine config, including finding the Conner 205MB
drive (as wd0), and reports of the EtherLan at podule0 and the IDE &
CDFS expansion card at podule1, but doesn't appear to find the 44GB
drive on podule1.  Obvioulsy, since there is no accessible unix
partition, the kernel then loops around asking for root and dump
devices and reports invalid partition format on wd0, ending with an
'error = 79'.

Am I being stupid?  What do I need to do to get BSD going?

TIA for any helpful suggestions.

-- 
Peter Bell - peter@bellfamily.org.uk