Well, it didn't work. :-(   Details below.

AB = Anne Bennett <anne@alcor.concordia.ca>
HF = Hubert Feyrer <hubert.feyrer@informatik.fh-regensburg.de>
AK = Antti Kantee <pooka@iki.fi>

AB> installboot: no password support in bootblock

HF> cd /sys/arch/i386/stand/biosboot, edit the Makefile to build with
HF> BOOTPASSWD, rebuild. 
HF> 
HF> I have not tried this - someone mentioned that there may be a size issue
HF> in the current bootblock code. Maybe let us know if this works or not.

  # /usr/mdec/installboot -v -t 5 -p PASSWORD /usr/mdec/biosboot.sym /dev/rsd0a
  /usr/mdec/biosboot.sym: entry point 0x805d000
  proto bootblock size 51200
  room for 10 filesystem blocks at 0x578
  renamed //boot -> //boot.bak
  Will load 85 blocks.
  dblk: 576, num: 16
  dblk: 592, num: 16
  dblk: 608, num: 16
  dblk: 624, num: 16
  dblk: 640, num: 16
  dblk: 488, num: 5
  BSD partition starts at sector 63
  deleting //boot.bak

AK> Come to think of it, that was me. IIRC the bootblock compiled with
AK> -DBOOTPASSWD just reset the machine instead of booting anything. I don't
AK> think I ever did anything about it, simply just removed the bootmenu
AK> from the code alltogether.

I had the same result.  More precisely:

The boot countdown comes up.  If I strike a key, I get asked for a
password.  If I enter an incorrect password, I simply get another
password prompt.  If I enter the right password, I get the boot menu
prompt.  When I typed "boot foo", it said something like "booting from
wd0a:foo" (which puzzled me because I use sd0a), then the screen went
blank and the machine reset.  Next time, I sat on my fingers and let
it try to boot by itself -- it reset again.  I did not have time to
see which device it claimed to be booting from before the screen went
blank.

I eventually wrestled the system back to normal.  For comparison, here
I am installing the old boot blocks back again:

  # /usr/mdec/installboot -v -t 5 /usr/mdec/biosboot.sym /dev/rsd0a
  /usr/mdec/biosboot.sym: entry point 0x805d000
  proto bootblock size 48128
  room for 10 filesystem blocks at 0x578
  renamed //boot -> //boot.bak
  Will load 79 blocks.
  dblk: 576, num: 16
  dblk: 592, num: 16
  dblk: 608, num: 16
  dblk: 624, num: 16
  dblk: 640, num: 15
  BSD partition starts at sector 63
  deleting //boot.bak

I hope that the above information means something to you folks; I'm
out of my depth.


Anne.
-- 
Ms. Anne Bennett, Senior Analyst, IITS, Concordia University, Montreal H3G 1M8
anne@alcor.concordia.ca                                        +1 514 848-7606