Just want to make this a little louder: I tried installing the snopshot 
(announced by Jochen yesterday) on my 43p-140 last night and experienced 
the _exact_ problem Tim had.

Rongsheng

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 01:20:21AM -0500, Tim Gallagher wrote:
> Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 01:20:21 -0500
> From: Tim Gallagher <tim.gallagher@earthlink.net>
> To: Jochen Kunz <jkunz@unixag-kl.fh-kl.de>,
>    NetBSD Prep Users <port-prep@netbsd.org>
> Subject: Re: netbsd 2.0 on rs6000 43p, what I've been able to do so far, and
>  where i got stuck
> 
> The sysinst.fs does work, and I can indeed boot from floppy.  For 
> reference, hit 8 on serial console of F8 on graphics console during 
> initial boot screen (check out 
> http://www.solinno.co.uk/7043-140/walkthrough/firstboot/).  The 
> sysinst.fs may be too big for a floppy, but the sysinst_com0.fs will 
> fit, and as I'm using a null-modem cable hooked to my IBM Netfinity, it 
> suits me just fine.
> Warning!  Partitioning from the sysinst.fs floppy proved to be very 
> nasty!  The partition table it wrote extended beyond the physical disk.  
> I had to fix it using Leigh Brown's Linux boot disk 
> (ttp://www.solinno.co.uk/7043-140/files/) and the debian "woody" root fs 
> disk.  I created a 5MB partition for PPC Prep boot (0x41 or 65) and the 
> rest as a NetBSD partition.
> I rebooted with sysinst_com0.fs disk, and took the default sizes for fs 
> slices.  706+ (works out to 17,366 of total 17,500) for root fs, 131MB 
> for swap.  Partition c is whole disk (is this a SunOS holdover?).
> This is where things took a turn for the worse.  disklabel -w -r -f 
> /tmp/disktab sd0 'mydisk' <- Command failed; returned:  disklabel: 
> partition b: partition extends past end of unit
> I shrunk down root fs to 17,000, swap at 256MB to give some wiggle 
> room.  disklabel popped up with question: Write outside MBR partition 
> [n]: to which i just hit enter to take default (assuming no).  Disklabel 
> seemed to run okay, status was finished at top, so i hit enter to continue.
> Next command: failed.  /sbin/newfs -O 1 -b 8192 -f 1024 /dev/rsd0a.  
> returned:
> newfs: /dev/rsd0a: open for read: Device not configured
> 
> I hit enter, and it goes back to the beginning menu.
> 
> At this point I'm stuck, any help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> 
> timbo
> mailto:tim.gallagher@earthlink.net
> 
> Jochen Kunz wrote:
> 
> >On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:02:20 -0500
> >Tim Gallagher <tim.gallagher@earthlink.net> wrote:
> >
> > 
> >
> >>I do indeed have a 43p-140, maybe that's why it can't boot either the 
> >>1.6 or 2.0 sysinst.fs image. 
> >>   
> >>
> >Yes. It's broken. See my mail to the port-prep mailing list.
> >
> > 
> >
> >>Maybe you could help me, as I am making some assumptions from loading
> >>Linux.  I downloaded the sysinst_com0.fs and generic_com0.fs from the
> >>installation/floppy directory.  I booted from open firmware using boot
> >>floppy: command, is that correct? 
> >>   
> >>
> >Maybe. I always boot the machines from the network to install them.
> >I don't know how to boot them from floppy. Given the very unreliable
> >nature of floppies I will not even think about useing a boot floppy.
> >
> > 
> >
> >>I have 2.0 burned to cd, I am hoping at some point it will ask where
> >>to download it's files.  What is generic.fs for?  If you could point
> >>me to some prep install docs, I'd greatly appreciate it.
> >>   
> >>
> >
> >Unfortunately installing NetBSD/prep is a bit cumbersome. There are not
> >many users so the installation tools are not widely tested. There are
> >some workarounds needed.
> >
> >The *.fs files are disk / floppy and netboot images. You can dd(1) them
> >to a disk / floppy and just boot from it. To netboot you have to setup
> >dhcp / bootp and tftp. See
> >http://www.de.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/netboot/
> >for instructions. 
> >
> >generic.fs is a generic kernel useing VGA console.
> >
> >generic_com0.fs is a generic kernel useing serial console on com0.
> >
> >sysinst.fs is an installation kernel with installation programm build in
> >useing VGA console.
> >
> >sysinst_com0.fs is an installation kernel with installation programm
> >build in useing serial console on com0.
> >
> >Unfortunately the sysinst images are just a few bytes to big to fit on a
> >1.4 MB floppy. So you have to dd(1) it to the raw partition (/dev/sda on
> >Linux, /dev/sd0c on *BSD) of a SCSI disk with a helper machine or
> >netboot your machine. 
> >
> >Once the installation system has booted exit to a shell. Best is to
> >ifconfig the network and mount a NFS volume containing the NetBSD/prep
> >files by hand. Then do somthing like 
> >"dd if=/.../prep/installation/floppy/generic_com0.fs of=/dev/sd0c"
> >This will make your disk bootable and initialize the fdisk / MBR
> >partition table.
> >
> >Execute "/sysinst" to start the instalation programm and follow the on
> >screen instructions... Edit the MBR partition table. You should see one
> >partition of type "Unknown (65)", size appr. 1.5 MB at the beginning of
> >the disk. This is the boot partition. Don't touch it. Create an
> >additional partition of type "NetBSD". This Partition should start at
> >about 5 to 10 MB from the beginning of the disk and it should occupy the
> >entire remainding disk space. NetBSD will place its own partitions,
> >called slices, into this MBR partition. Then you have to edit the
> >disklabel(5). This is the NetBSD partition table that resides inside the
> >MBR NetBSD partition. Slice it up as you like and continue the
> >instalation as usual. 
> >
> >When the instalation is done your machine should be able to boot from
> >its own disk. It will ask for its root device. Enter "sd0" for root and
> >dump device and "ffs" for file system type. (You can use "pcn0" and
> >"nfs" to continue booting via NFS instead of disk.) You will have to
> >enter this every time the machine boots. This is because NetBSD has no
> >way to ask the firmware where the kernel was booted from. AIX as some
> >undocumented ways to retrive this information, but NetBSD has not
> >unfortunately.
> >
> >To get the machine to boot without interaction you have to recompile the
> >kernel and hard code the root file system location. To do this change
> >the line:
> >config          netbsd  root on ? type ?
> >to
> >config          netbsd  root on sd0a type ffs
> >in the kernel configuration file.
> >
> >Once you have the "netbsd" binary do
> >gzip -c netbsd > netbsd.gz
> >/usr/mdec/mkbootimage /usr/mdec/boot_com0 netbsd.fs netbsd.gz
> >fdisk sd0 > /root/fdisk.sd0
> >disklabel sd0
> >Ensure that slice "c" starts at the first sector and coveres the entire
> >disk. Use "disklabel -i sd0" to edit the disklabel(5) when needed. (Type
> >"?" inside disklabel(8) to get help.)
> >
> >disklabel sd0 > /root/disklabel.sd0
> >dd if=netbsd.fs of=/dev/sd0c
> >cat /root/fdisk.sd0
> >fdisk -u sd0
> >reboot
> >Note that the dd(1) overwrites your MBR partition table. Therefore make
> >a backup of it and then use "fdisk -u" to restore it to the old values.
> >Do not reboot before you restored the MBR partition table! If you do
> >without restoration your disk will be unbootable! It is wise to copy
> >/root/fdisk.sd0 and /root/disklabel.sd0 to an other machine before
> >rebooting. If the partitions get messed up you can restore them with
> >this information.
> >
> >You may use "boot" instaed "boot_com0" if you wane use VGA console.
> >
> >Note that you need to patch the kernel source to get it running on the
> >-140.
> > 
> >
> 
> 
> !DSPAM:41f5e60226631378632080!