Re: installing NetBSD on a Sparcstation 2.

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

----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Brownlee" <abs%netbsd.org@localhost>
> To: "Dan Oglesby" <danno%serverunderground.com@localhost>
> Cc: port-sparc%netbsd.org@localhost
> Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 6:45:09 PM
> Subject: Re: installing NetBSD on a Sparcstation 2.
> On 24 August 2010 00:06, Dan Oglesby <danno%serverunderground.com@localhost>
> wrote:
> 
> >> As a final check, would you be willing to look at a -current boot
> >> floppy? - eg
> >> http://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/201008100000Z/sparc/installation/floppy/
> >
> > The first disk boots up to the point where you get the little
> > spinning stick/progress indicator, but after a couple of minutes it
> > errors with:
> >
> > lseek section headers: invalid file offset
> > Cannot load netbsd: error=103
> >
> > device[/fd@1,f7200000:a] ("halt" to halt):
> >
> > Very similar to how the boot from floppy fails on 5.0.2 floppies.
> 
> Hmm - thats coming from *_loadfile() in lib/libsa/loadfile_elf32.c, in
> a section which is (flags & (LOAD_SYM|COUNT_SYM)). I'm pretty sure the
> bootload on floppies is not supposed to load the symbol table to avoid
> just such an issue.
> 
> I would assume that its failing in start_kernel() in
> arch/sparc/stand/ofwboot/boot.c
> 
> I don't have a sparc box with floppy to hand, but I could point you at
> where to add some debugging (or put up a couple of debugging boot
> floppy images) if you were interested in looking at this?
> 
> If someone actually familiar with the sparc and libsa code wants to
> chime in that would be not be a problem :)

I am not much of a programmer, but I can follow directions if you would like to 
walk me through some procedures.  I can also download and try out any floppy 
images you can provide as well.


I can hop on IRC or something if you would like to mess with this tonight in 
more of a "real-time" fashion.

--Dan