On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Mike Matz wrote:

> Hello.
> 
> I wrote this list recently (4 days ago?) about problems installing/booting
> NetBSD on my LC520.  I received suggestions to use the SBC kernel, use
> 1.3_BETA, and many other things.  Since then I completely erased the
> partition and reinstalled NetBSD 1.3_BETA on it in hopes that it would run
> aoko.  However, it is still freezing on startup.  The files I put on were
> kern_sbc.tgz and base.tgz, and also some of the other ones (comp, man,
> text, etc).  I installed all of these from the installer (I have yet to
> even see a NetBSD interface :) and then "Built Devices."  I ran the Booter,
> set the SCSI ID, single user mode, etc etc, and tried it out.  It froze
> again, but this time it didn't keep on repeating itself.  This is almost
> all the text on the screen (hand-copied)
>  <start copy>

[Copy of what is on the screen]

> sbc0 at obio0: options=1 <PDMA>
> 
>  <end copy>
> That's it.  I am desperately seeking help.  I gather from the last line
> that it may be the GENERICSBC that is wrong, perhaps I need GENERIC.  I'll
> try that, but people told me that it would only work w/ the GENERICSBC.
> Also: In the FTP directory containing kernel/ and bin/, there was a
> NETBSD-SBC.gz file and a kern_sbc.tgz file, both of which were the exact
> same size.  I took both, but the installer would not recognize the .gz
> format.  I decided to try it w/ the kern_sbc.tgz file, because they look
> pretty similar. (same size, both seem to have the kernel (??))  You can see
> above what happens.
> 

There is currently a problem that is causing SBC kernels to hang during 
boot (like you describe), on some machines. Scott is working on this and 
hopefully will have a fix soon.

If you can use an regular GENERIC kernel I'd suggest you do so. If you 
need the sbc, you can either wait and keep reading this list for news or 
I can arrange to send you the kernel I am using which has a patch that 
allows it to work. This should be temporary since the kernel I am running 
does not contain a proper fix to the problem but just happens to work. 
The proper fix, as I said above should come from Scott as soon as he gets 
it working (My guess is this should not be too long).

Good luck and let me know if you need this sbc temporary workaround 
kernel.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Because user errors often produce unpredictable results, the user
should try to avoid them."

IBM MVS/XA System Programming Library.