I'm having a problem installing NetBSD 1.5.2 on a SparcStation10 that
I can't work around. It is running PROM version 2.9, & when I boot I
see a MAC address, & I believe the processor is the SM20 (the jumpers
are set for a 33Mhz speed).

I've downloaded the iso image for this release from the NetBSD ftp site,
burned the iso file to a cdrom with cdrecord, verified that the cdrom
is readable, then using a i86 Linux box dd'd the disk1 & disk2 images
onto some floppies, & tried to start the floppy install process.

Disk1 boots successfully. The SparcStation ejects that floppy, &
the install script prompts me for the second floppy. I specify
the default setting for the floppy drive -- /dev/rfd0a. When I insert
it, it appears that it doesn't know how to read disk2, asks for
another tar archive, & with a flurry of error messages stops, forcing
me to go into the OpenProm to abort the install. The floppy ends
up locked in the floppy drive, & I am forced to insert a paper clip
to eject the floppy disk.

The error messages I see are the same each time I've tried this.
As the first floppy is loaded, I get the following warnings:

fd0c: hard error reading fsbn0
fd0: controller status: state 17 (st0 70<abnormal, seek-cmplt, drv_chck> cyl 0)

However, from everything I can tell, the kernel is loaded: at one point
I did a ctrl-C on the keyboard & got a prompt with the hash back. I
could navigate some of the directory tree, but had no utilities such as
``ls" & ``ps". I assume I was root with only the kernel & sh running.

When I insert disk2, & press the return key -- not the enter key on the
far right of the keyboard -- I get the following error messages:

fd0: timeout: state 10
fd0: timeout: state 13 (4 times in a row)
fd0a: hard error reading fsbn0
fd0: controller status: state 13
(the above messages then repeat, mostly identical, & end with:)
tar: end of archive volume 1 reached

At which point tar asks me either for an archive or to press ``." to
exit.

The floppy successfully boots Debian Linux for Sparc, both the
boot disk alone & boot & root disks together. So although this is a
used system, I don't think that the floppy drive is defective.
I even dd'd disk2 with this floppy drive at one point from an image
I copied to /tmp on the SparcStation without any error messages.
I'm not seeing any meaningful hardware messages when I boot with
either the NetBSD disk1 or the Debian boot disk.

I've looked at the Sparc NetBSD FAQ & the last couople months of
messages to the mailing list, but haven't seen anything useful to
help with this. I've compared the hardware -- 128MB RAM, 2 424 HD,
one GX frame buffer card -- to what is listed in the FAQABOSS &
the SparcStation-10 version of ``The Rough Guide to MBus Modules",
& haven't seen anything unusual.  Sorry for the length of this email,
but the more I'm baffled by a problem, the longer my list of details
I see becomes -- in hope that I've managed to include somewhere the
right scrap of information.

Any advice?

Geoff