Subject: Re: Booter fails to find kernel
To: None <rimsky@teleport.com>
From: Ken Nakata <kenn@synap.ne.jp>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 06/02/1998 08:33:58
> On Mon, 1 Jun 1998, SamMaEl wrote:
> > 	I have also noticed a similar problem. I am using a drive with a
> > root /home and /usr, all 3 being Mkfs'd, not newfs'd. I've not noticed
> > anything to do with inodes, but (seemingly) at random some kernels will
> > boot and others will. For instance, I will try to test a new kernel named
> > netbsd.BRAHMS-6, and when I try to boot it from the booter... the booter
> > says it's not there. ;-) Incidentally, it has never failed to boot a

I suspect there are `holes' in the root directory before the kernel
file you want to boot.  By a directory `hole', I mean a previously-
but-no-longer-used directory entry whose inode field is 0.  The
current Booters prematurely stops searching for kernel file if it
encounters a `hole' even if it hasn't scanned all the directory
entries.

I sent Nigel a fix for this problem, so it'll be fixed in the Booter
1.11.3, I hope.  In the mean time, you can arrange the files in / so
that there's no `hole' before the kernel file to be used...

Ken