Re: Booting arguments for NetBSD under qemu

[David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost>]

On 11 April 2014 17:23, Torbjorn Granlund <tg%gmplib.org@localhost> wrote:
> Torbjorn Granlund <tg%gmplib.org@localhost> writes:
>
>   Installation goes like a charm, using this (slightly shortened) command:
>
>     qemu-system-sparc -m 256 -hda disk.img -cdrom sparccd-5.2.2.iso \
>        -boot d -nographic
>
>   Ideally,
>
>     qemu-system-sparc -m 256 -hda disk.img -nographic
>
>   would boot the installed system, but alas, it does not.
>
> After many trials, and much help here and in private email, I decided to
> update qemu from 1.7.0 to 1.7.1.  This helped for a plain 5.2.2 install;
> it can now boot from the newly installed disk.
>
> Another solution would have been to compile a custom kernel with
> adequate default root file system, as suggested by Martin Husemann.
> Unfortunately, the currently recommended build.sh method for setting up
> a NetBSD cross environment seems to have arrived after 5.2.2, and
> building a kernel inside qemu might take a while.

As lightly oddball variation might be to run through the install as normal, then
- boot qemu with a second virtual disk
- setup the 2nd disk as a RAID1 set with one element, set to
autoconfigure as root
- newfs, mount, copy the install across and install boot blocks
- then reboot with the 2nd disk configured as the only disk - it will
autoconfigure as root with a generic kernel

Somewhat convoluted, but it will Just Work after setup.

> Call me silly, I should have tried upgrading qemu first thing.  I
> didn't, since my experience is that upgrading qemu never helps (but
> downgrading actually often does!).
>
> (NetBSD 6.1.3 causes a crash in alst this newer qemu.)

That is the more interesting question - have you submitted a bug
report for that?

Of course the real fix would be to see if NetBSD could be tweaked to
pickup the root device from a qemu install automatically, but I think
it would be best to investigate the 6.1.3 panic first...