On Tue, Jun 26, 2001 at 11:33:08PM -0500, Donald Lee wrote:
> I have been trying to find a combination that will boot my Beige
> G3 w/ OF 2.4.
> 
> I have set up netboot far enough that I can load ofwboot.xcf, but I don't
> want to actually netboot, I just want to get the kernel from the SCSI
> or IDE disk.  I have tried various combinations of netboot syntax:
> 
> boot enet -a
> boot enet enet: -a
> boot enet: -a
> 
> etc.  It never gets to asking me where the kernel is, or where / is.
> After claiming to load the data, text and bss sections, and then "clearing"
> them, it dies with a CLAIM Failed.

First double check that the copy of ofwboot.xcf copied over to the
tftp server is good (ie, if you used ftp, that it was transferred in
binary mode, etc).  If you're sure ofwboot.xcf is fine and netloading
it still doesn't work, then try explicitly specifying ofwboot.xcf in
the boot command.  Assuming ofwboot.xcf is in the root of the tftp
server's tftp directory, something like this should work:

  0 > boot enet:0,ofwboot.xcf -a

If it does, then you should be left at ofwboot's "Boot: " prompt.
Here, respond w/ the OpenFirmware device path or alias of the SCSI
drive, the partition number of the partition holding the kernel and
the Unix path to your kernel.  Eg, if OF has a device alias called
"sd0" (SCSI drive at SCSI ID 0) for your drive (at the OF prompt, type
"devalias" to see a list of defined device aliases), and if your root
partition (presumedly where your kernel resides) is partition 9, then
the following should work at the "Boot: " prompt:

  Boot: sd0:9,/netbsd

(also assuming your kernel is called netbsd).  If you want the kernel
to prompt you for the root & swap partitions, add a "-a" to the above:

  Boot: sd0:9,/netbsd -a

You can do this all in one step from the OF prompt with:

  0 > boot enet:0,ofwboot.xcf sd0:9,/netbsd

Note that if OF doesn't define a device alias for your SCSI drive,
you'll instead need to specify the full device path, eg:

  /pci/mac-io/scsi/disk@0:9,/netbsd

(this is the path on a PowerBook; your Beige G3 may be different.)
You can define a device alias yourself at the OF prompt with, eg:

  0 > devalias sd1 /pci/mac-io/scsi/disk@1

although it won't persist across cold-boots.  For it to persist,
you'll need to add this command to an "nvramrc" (I'll skip the details
of this for now).

I tried the above, and it works for me, although my system has OF 3.

HTH,

John