Because my BIOS doesn't seem to like the NetBSD disk (wd1 on an old 
486), I need to boot via a floppy.  If I use the install floppy and 
interrupt the boot process, I can say

	boot wd1a:netbsd

and all is cool.  But I'd rather the machine be able to boot unassisted.

I tried building a kernel with the following line:

	config          netbsd  root on wd1a type ffs

But that kernel won't boot, even via the install floppy; the machine 
just sits there.

Btw -- to build the boot floppy, I'm trying the following recipe posted 
by Patrick Welche a few months ago, save that I changed fd0a to rfd0a 
in the newfs line:

	disklabel -r -w /dev/fd0a floppy3
	newfs /dev/fd0a
	/usr/mdec/installboot -v -f /usr/mdec/biosboot.sym /dev/rfd0a
	mount /dev/fd0a /mnt
	cp yourkernel /mnt

That seems to have the same failure mode, which is of course not 
surprising.

Any suggestions?

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb
		Full text of "Firewalls" book now at http://www.wilyhacker.com