Re: Re (6): installing NetBSD on a Sparcstation 2.

[Dan Oglesby <danno%serverunderground.com@localhost>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Oglesby" <danno%serverunderground.com@localhost>
> To: port-sparc%NetBSD.org@localhost
> Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 2:22:30 PM
> Subject: Re: Re (6): installing NetBSD on a Sparcstation 2.
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: peasthope%shaw.ca@localhost
> > To: port-sparc%NetBSD.org@localhost
> > Cc: peasthope%shaw.ca@localhost
> > Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 10:54:17 AM
> > Subject: Re (6): installing NetBSD on a Sparcstation 2.
> > Dan O. and everyone,
> >
> > > So, the SS2 is being finicky with booting ...
> >
> > The earliest documentation of problems installing on
> > sun4* that I've found is PR 41194 by Jon Buller.
> >
> > My difficulty with hdd recognition is just a blunder of
> > my own, which can be explained later.
> >
> > > The SS2 I have is currently running version 2.4 of the PROM
> > > firmware. I am attempting to upgrade this to 2.9, since that seems
> > > to be the version best supported by NetBSD and Linux.
> >
> > Will be interesting to learn the outcome.
> >
> > Regards, ... Peter E.
> >
> 
> 
> I think I have all the hardware issues with my SS2 figured out. Dead
> NVRAM caused some of the issues, but I have manually reprogrammed my
> hostid and ethernet mac address, set a valid date and time, and no
> longer see any CPU board related errors. I have reliable CD-ROM drives
> to boot from, and should have Solaris 7 loaded by now so I can attempt
> to update the PROM to 2.9 and check out the rest of the hardware.
> 
> It's been so long since I last messed with my SPARC hardware! One
> thing that had me confused was my inability to boot a fresh
> installation of Solaris 7. The install would complete, but the OS
> errored when trying to boot from the hard drive. After much reading, I
> figured out my root partition was too big to boot with the older PROM
> version! Ugh... 2GB limit for the / filesystem when using anything but
> the 2.9 PROM, from what I've gathered.
> 
> I have an IPC that was running NetBSD 4.something a while back, and
> I'm pretty sure it used the entire 18GB drive that was installed at
> the time. It must have a much newer PROM, because I remember the
> NetBSD install from CD-ROM going without any problems at all.
> 
> Once I get off of work, I'll get back to the SS2 and see where I can
> get tonight.
> 
> --Dan

Oh, I almost forgot...  The 18GB drive I am using in the SS2 is from the IPC.  
I did try to boot the SS2 from the drive prior to loading Solaris 7, and 
received the same "Data Access Exception" that I get when I try to boot from 
the NetBSD 5.0.2 CD-ROM.  Just tossing that out as another point of data, 
possibly related to the older PROM version.

--Dan