On Sat, 3 Aug 2002, Ronald Cotoni wrote:

> 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.
> >
I forgot to explain that I troubleshot this part.

This has happened with two different disks. Both were tested beforehand
by running ``dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0" on the Linux box, & making sure
that 2880 blocks were written.

One floppy I did this twice, including running mke2fs on the floppy,
then reimaging. Is there a better test I should try?

Geoff