> 
> Hi all
> (Hi Leo I'm back on trying NetBSD on my Falcon :-)
Hello Helmar, Welcome! 
It's unfortunate that you've been hit by a new bug though :-( You
deserved a flawless install since all the Falcon SCSI misery you've
gone through some months ago... I'm counting on Waldi to solve this
one (read ahead).
> 
> I have some question and an problem while installing the current
> NetBSD/atari on my Falcon from ftp.netbsd.org (very good connection now,
> new nets and lines in USA ?)

> 
> First the positive hints, I recognize:
> 	- it supports my new Falcon FX memory extension card
> 	  (message 8 MB RAM after starting BOOT-kernel)
> 	- it supports my high resolutions (only monochrom ?)  
> 	  (896x608 or 1024x768 with BlowUP)
> 
> Some negative hints (not important):
> 	-  the TOS-tools: chg_pid, rawwrite, and loadbsd are not "user-friendly"
> 	   i.e. they don't wait for RETURN after finished work, 
> 	   so one couldn't recognize status or error msg on GEM, because
> 	   the output screen dissapeared at once
> 	    (Hmm Leo, we 'd discussed that once ago, and you have corrected it 
> 	     for a long while, don't you remember ?)
Yes we did. Loadbsd.ttp _should_ wait when it is about to exit to TOS,
not when it starts NetBSD. If this is not the case the 'getchar()' call
fails mysteriously. I've never had the time to fix chg_pid/rawwrite, 
every time something else showed up :-(
> 
> 	-  chg_pid has "strange" counting: 
> 	   the drives start from 0 (told in text)
> 	   the partitions start from 1 (NOT told in text)
Another point to my todo-list.
> 
> 	-  the distribution files (sets) are - NOT according to guide INSTALL -
> 	   in the name format <set>.?? (?? = aa, ab, ...), i.e. have NOT
> 	   GEMDOS-filenames. So how can I install from GEMDOS ? Only with
> 	   renaming (e.g. base.tar.gz to base.aa) ?
Unfortunately, yes.
> 	   Is there a way to mount MINIX-filesystems (from MiNT-KGMD, with
> 	   normal UNIX-filenames) ?
No, Minix filesystems are not (yet) supported. You are the second one
who mentions it. I'll put it on my todo-list. 
I consider the above 'problems' important. The install procedure is the
first think a new user is going to see. From a marketing point of view,
the current install is weak, to say the least. I planned to do some
work on it before 1.1, but I just didn't have the time. There were
some other items that I considered were 'musts' for the 1.1 release
and they took a _lot_ of time. These items were:
     - Getting Falcon SCSI running
         We did a reasonable good job. I should say thanks to both
         Thomas and you. The story is not yet completely over however.
         Currently, the Falcon driver polls for DMA ready. Thomas and
         I tried to fix this, but as Daniel reported problems, it's
         not good enough for 1.1.
     - Getting the FPU emulator at work
         Currently it's workable but not complete.
     - Offering real NetBSD disklabels
         Waldi has done a great job on this. They currently work but
         unfortunately, you can only create them from an installed
         system. I need to do some work on the install functions
         to get this right.
There were also nummerous other fixes. I will post my updated todo
list to port-atari after the 1.1 release. So the items can be discussed
and every body knows what the volunteer vacancies are ;-)

> 
> Now the problem stopping my actual installation try 
> (no luck for me, Leo ;-)
> After starting BOOT-kernel (from loadbsd as normal way),
> after loading the two BSD-fs floppies 
> I got the message 
> 	sd0: Illegal TOS partition table
> ... some lines with dma_ready ...
> 	sd1: Illegal TOS partition table
> ... some lines with dma_ready ...
> 	WARNING: No SWAP space found 
> and later the install script mentioned not finding any NetBSD partions.
> Also I'm not able to mount_msdos my GEMDOS partitions.
> Interesting is that I have exactly the same disks and with the same
> programm partitioned as in the test-phase half a year ago:
> NetBSD-disk:  sd0: <QUANTUM 270MB>
> GEMDOS-disk:  sd1: <CDC 580 MB>
> driver and partition program: HDDRIVER
> (exact dates follows, when I'm back at home)
> Also I have put the correct NetBSD partition ID's (NBR, NBS, NBU)
> on the disk sd0 with 'chg_pid'
> 
> Any ideas ?
> At that time of the old test-phase I did exact the same and got no such error
> message, i.e. the kernel recognized my partition tables on my disks
The disklabel recognition code has been significantly changed (improved)
by Waldi to allow for NetBSD labels. We decided on strong checking in
the AHDI-label code. The idea was that at (nearly) any cost, we should
avoid messing up existing partitions. It turns out that not all partition
programs follow the rules exactly and there is - of course - the possibility
of bugs and/or thinko's on the NetBSD side. To analyze the AHDI-partitioning,
Waldi has written a small program to check things. I'll send this to
you by private e-mail. If people on the list are interested, I'm willing
to put it on the list too. In time it will be available from the ftp
server.
> 
> Thank you for help
You're welcome,

Leo.