Subject: Re: new SSTO boot floppy available + new boot blocks
To: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
From: Dave Huang <khym@bga.com>
List: current-users
Date: 03/20/1997 18:42:48
On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> I would not recommend doing actual installs off of this floppy
> yet, but I would appreciate feedback on how well the system works.
> Especially interesting are reports on whether it boots properly on
> small memory machines.

It seems to work great on my 48MB pentium (it does print "boot: No such
file or directory" after "starting in 0" though; what's that mean?)
However, on my 4MB 386, the first unusual thing I see is:

>> NetBSD BOOT: 2147418752/2147421568 k [2.0Beta ]

I wish I had that much memory ;) The low 16 bits of those numbers are 640
and 3456, which are the correct values.

So, I let it continue, and after loading stuff off the floppy and printing
the number+number+number+[etc...]=whatever thing, it prints:

warning: too little memory available; running in degraded mode
press a key to confirm

So I press a key and get the Copyright the Regents of the Univ. of
California message, then it reboots. :(

I tried rebooting a couple of times, and even stranger stuff happened two
of the times; once, after printing "press a key to confirm", the upper
left character of the screen changed into a capital "Z" on a bright green
background (don't remember what the foreground color was). And another
time, it just locked up after printing the numbers, and before print the
too little memory warning.

Let me know if you need any more info on my system, or want me to test out
things :)

Name: Dave Huang     |   Mammal, mammal / their names are called /
INet: khym@bga.com   |   they raise a paw / the bat, the cat /
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