floppy might be bad it happens alot on sparcs for some reason

On Sat, 3 Aug 2002, Geoff Burling wrote:

> 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
>
>