Subject: Re: Install on a Beige G3 / OF 2.4
To: None <port-macppc@netbsd.org>
From: Donald Lee <MacPPC@caution.icompute.com>
List: port-macppc
Date: 06/08/2003 00:59:04
Let me add some data points to this discussion.

I saw the post that someone actually got an OF 2.4 machine working, and I
said COOL! COOL! COOL!

I spent last night trying to get one of my OF 2.4 machines working,though,
and I still have limited joy.  (The notes you sent below about the comma
vs. the colon might help.  I will have to try again.)

I was too lazy to set up netbooting.  I do have an OF 2.0 ROM stick though, and
if I put that in the machine, and re-run System Disk 2.3.1, I can boot the
machine from the boot floppy, and install.  I figured that once I did that,
I could put back the REAL ROM, and boot from the HD.

Not so fast....

Boot floppies: I don't have a full set of boot floppies.  I had a 1.5.2
boot floppy lying around, and I tried that, and it worked.  However, I
wanted to install 1.6.1, and the name of the kernel has changed, so
the 1.5.2 sysinst didn't work to install the 1.6.1 distro.
The addition of a copy of the distro on my local server, and
a symlink did the trick.

Once I had the install working, every time I got to the part where it tried
to set the time zone, the machine would hang, and i had to hard-reset it.
The result, each time was a corrupted root FS.  I had to start over.

OK.

Install the 2.0 ROM stick in the G3.  Hook up the serial console.
Boot OS 9 and run SystemDisk 2.3.1.

Boot from the 1.5.2 floppy, install the local slightly modified 1.6.1 distro.
Select UTC immediately on time zone.  Note: I'm installing on a SCSI disk
hooked up to the MESH SCSI, not the IDE drive....

Success.  Machine runs, and auto-boots reasonably well.  I still get about 
one out of 4 times it won't boot, but most of the time it just comes up.


I'm still not satisfied.

I'm wanting to boot a 1.6.x floppy, and I can't do it.  I tried three versions.
The first is the stock 1.6 floppy.  (I built all these with suntar BTW)

The stock 1.6 floppy loads part way, then gets timeouts and fails.

The floppy image in the NetBSD/arch/macppc/(snap) area also does not work.

The 1.6.1 floppy adds another wrinkle.  There are two of them - apparently
part 1 and 2.  When trying to work with this one, it kept stopping
at various times and saying "boot: ".  This appears to be a prompt.

What is it asking for here?


The other thing I played with is putting the the OF 2.4 ROM stick back in the
machine and booting from the disk (SCSI) that has the known good 1.6.1 on
it  and boots fine with the 2.0 ROM stick.  So far, I have not been able to get
this to work.

I have to try the comma thing mentioned below.

I have to try doing this on the IDE drive.


I'll report again when/if I have more info.

Thank you all for being a great resource.

-dgl-

>At 7:50 AM +0200 6/6/03, Fabrice Delambre wrote:
>
>:)No I really mean ",".
>:)Be sure I double-checked the things I've posted. I typed it so many
>:)times that week ... When i list my device tree (dev / ls), I get this
>:)kind of entry : dev@n,p . I never get ":". Strange that on every
>:)doc/mail I read, it's always ":".
>
>Not that strange since that's the synatx on all the other Open Firmware
>versions.  They use the comma to delimit the filename from the device.  The
>OF 2.4 syntax is atypical, but that might explain why so many others have
>failed to get NetBSD working.  That and the requirement to use '0 bootr'.
>
>:)Yep, I tried every possible method before netbooting. All led to "CLAIM
>:)FAILED".
>
>OK.  I'll chop it down to netboot and `partition zero' being the only
>supported boot devices for OF 2.4.
>
>Thanks,
>
>  -- MW