I believe The standard kernel asks for the root device etc at the console 
prompt. 

It is best you plug in the serial console at first because it will give you an 
idea where things are going wrong.

To boot without the loader asking for the boot device via the console you need 
to change the following line in the kernel config and rebuild it .

config          netbsd  root on ? type ?
to 
config  netbsd root on wd0a type ffs 

this assumes that wd0a is your boot disk/partition


remember to run config <mykernel config name>  in the config dir 
(/sys/arch/hpcarm/conf/) before build.sh -m hpcarm kernel=<mykernel config 
name>

This is what I did to get it working.


On Wednesday 12 January 2005 02:14, you wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> ** NEWBIE ALERT **
>
> Hope you don't mind if I ask some stupid questions, but I am new to
> NetBSD and I'm having some problems getting it to run on a Jornada 720.
>
> I have installed NetBSD 2 on an old i386 (P-II) laptop successfully
> using a CD created from an ISO image I downloaded from the FTP site.
> That was relatively easy (I think!) and it looks like everything has
> worked so far. I have networking up and have installed pkgsrc and used
> it to download, compile and install a couple of shells (tcsh and bash).
>
> This probably gave me too much confidence...
>
> So now I would like to get NetBSD on my Jornada too. I have a 512MB
> compact flash card and a Netgear MA401 wireless ethernet card. What I
> don't have is a serial cable and this may be part of my problems, please
> read on...
>
> I am using a CD created from the ISO image on the FTP server for the
> rest of this except where noted.
>
> I have created a msdos partition of 8MB on the flash disk and the
> remainder is formatter as ffs.
>
> On the dos partition I have copied the hpcboot.exe (Build 9 which I
> found a reference to in the archives) and the kern-JORNADA720.tgz (which
> I have unpacked and called netbsd).
>
> On the ffs partition I have unpacked most of the sets (base.tgz,
> comp.tgz, etc.tgz, games.tgz, man.tgz and misc.tgz) and created the /dev
> entried by running 'MAKEDEV all'.
>
> When I boot I see the kernel is loaded and lots of stuff appears on the
> screen, the last thing is a line saying "console =1 " which is just
> after some stuff about frame buffer. I get the "Last chance, Push YES to
> boot" message and hit Yes. Everything seems to hang, though I do notice
> the light on my network card flash a couple of times. I do not see
> anything on the screen and the only way to recover is to hit the reset
> button.
>
> Could it be that the kernel is trying to use the serial port for a
> console? If so then this is a problem as I don't have a serial cable. Is
> there a way to change this without rebuilding the kernel?? I'm not sure
> I am ready to start cross-compiling yet!
>
> I guess I thought this would be as easy as installing the laptop, should
> have known better!
>
> Can anyone offer some help/advice?
>
> Thanks
> Rich