Subject: Re: Kernel boot 'inappropriate file type'
To: None <port-sparc@netbsd.org, UberTechnoid@Home.com>
From: None <eeh@netbsd.org>
List: port-sparc
Date: 10/13/2001 23:03:36
| Help!  This is driving me crazy!
|
| I'm running netbsd 1.5 on a Sparcstation 4/330 (sun4). Please refer to
| previous message for more detail.

This machine probably has the old PROM.  If I remember correctly, the 
boot process reads an a.out format boot block which has the blocks for
the second stage bootloader in it.  The second stage bootloader then
loads the kernel.  The first thing to check is that the bootblock you
have is loading the second stage bootloader and not the kernel.  That
would be a problem since the bootblock actually has a set of disk blocks
to load that were set by installboot.

Next, you should check to make sure that the kernels are a.out and not
ELF files.  You may need to replace your 2nd level bootloader to read
an ELF binary, but I'm not sure that the current bootloader supports
that.

Finally, the bootloaders use the PROM to read bits off the disk.  I 
think certain PROM versions are limited to 6-byte SCSI commands for 
reads.  These commands have limited addressing, so if your kernel image
is too far on the disk platter the PROM can't read it.  If that is your
problem then I'm afraid your only solution is to reformat your root 
partition to make it smaller.

Eduardo