At 7:09 PM +1000 11/14/00, you wrote:

:)Since I haven't even managed to boot a kernel yet, so take these with a
:)grain of salt - then again they might be useful coming from somebody who
:)doesn't know what thye're doing. Any comments?

Thanks for the comments.  Typically, since I did the latest overhaul of
INSTALL, I'd be responsible for fixing it.  Unfortunately, I just moved and
started a new job, so I won't have free time for a few weeks (after 1.5 is
out the door).

Someone else, please step up and deal with his comments.

:)the netbsd.ram.gz kernel is mentioned in several places without saying what
:)it is. My guess is it creates and populates a ramdisk so you can run
:)sysinst - even when you've booted of a disk you're about to format. This is
:)not unique to macppc install notes, but I've never had to think about it
:)before - I've just booted the i386 floppy disks.

Correct, and good point.

:)SUGGESTION trivial
:)==========
:)could mention that ofwboot.xcf & ofwboot.elf are identical and differ only
:)in being XCOFF/ELF format respectively. Can you use ELF with all versions
:)of OF?

This is why all references to ofwboot.elf have been removed from INSTALL.
OF 3 can load XCOFF files just fine.

:)TYPO
:)====
:)p26 has under "The Quick Installation": 'desribed'

Page numbers are meaningless in the file that generates the INSTALL notes.
But yes, that typo should be fixed.

:)INCONSISTENCY?
:)==============
:)p16 under HFS or HFS+ file system" (OF2.4, OF3) says "you will not be able
:)to load the kernel from HFS or HFS+"
:)
:)yet p18 under "Boot off an HFS or HFS+ partition (OF3)" tells you "Boot the
:)kernel directly (ie without the use of a bootloader)"

The first mention is for when you start by loading ofwboot.xcf.  If you
load ofwboot.xcf, it cannot load a kernel from HFS.  If you load the kernel
directly in OF 3, then it works.

Unfortunately, INSTALL is a flat file.  This means that you really should
not be reading it straight-through, as most of the details do not apply to
any particular installation.

:)FWIW I got a "CLAIM failed" trying this under OF3.0.f2 on an iMac (FW
:)upgraded from 3.0.f3)
:)still happened when this was first OF command after a boot

It doesn't say CLAIM failed has only one particular cause.  Just
suggestions as to what *might* be causing it.  No one really knows.

:)NEEDS QUALIFYING
:)================
:)There's no description of what either the OF boot command really does, nor
:)what the ofwboot bootloader does - even the draft manpage doesn't really
:)describe why the bootloader is needed. An example where this description

"Available Boot Media

Each version of Open Firmware is capable of booting from a variety of
media. To boot the NetBSD kernel, Open Firmware must first open a
`bootloader' which knows how to load the NetBSD kernel. There are two
approaches, the ofwboot.xcf bootloader and the `partition zero' bootloader.
In the former case, the user tells Open Firmware to load ofwboot.xcf and it
will load the kernel."

Is there something wrong with this description?

:)might help is near bottom of p15. It says "OF3 systems can load the kernel
:)without the use of a bootloader". I suspect this will not work with gzipped
:)kernels - at least I got some msg about wrong format. I'm guessing one
:)feature of the NetBSD bootloader not in the OF 'boot' command is
:)recognizing and unzipping binaries before loading them

Why do you think it says, "Use a MacOS utility such as Stuffit Expander to
uncompress the kernel"?

Please, before griping about why it doesn't work, follow the directions.  I
tried to make the doc as short as possible without leaving anything
important out.  This means that I had to skip over quite a few details,
most of which I thought were unimportant for the user who would be
intsalling.

You're right, however, that it should explain why you need to gunzip it.

:)it says the HFS{+} partition could be as high as 9. If you're quick, you
:)can actually see the partition number when doing a 'mac-boot' - assuming
:)you want to run the bootloader off the startup MacOS volume. You see the
:)one line command need middle of screen ending something like "...disk@0:5
:)\tlxi"

Actually, it's hd,\\:tbxi

That's why it's not in the instructions, because it's too fast (and too
annoying to keep rebooting until you see it).

:)I suspect its not available, but is there an 'ls' under OF or the bootloader?
:)It would really help when your attempts to boot off a CDROM fail - "file
:)not found".  There's just too many variables - have I got the device spec
:)right? have I guessed the ISO9660 mangled name properly? did I burn CD
:)right?

Nope.  No help.  Apple's OF isn't very good.  The INSTALL instructions are
"best effort" we can provide.  In 1.5 final, the CD should have the files
that the INSTALL notes says it should have (i.e. netbsd.ram.gz).  You could
always put the CD into another system and look at its contents if you're
not sure.

  -- MW