Re: 'inappropriate filetype or format' when booting

[Martin Husemann <martin%duskware.de@localhost>]

On Wed, Jan 01, 2025 at 08:51:35PM +0530, Mayuresh wrote:
> On dropping to boot prompt I checked 'ls hd0f:' and it does show NetBSD
> file system. However on boot hd0f:netbsd (or hd0f:) it says 'inappropriate
> filetype or format' when booting

Why do you think it should be hd0f ?

Does the kernel show wedge names and attach dk* devices befor you get
the root device prompt?

> An aside: after the installation, the host Void Linux is working though,
> something seems to have changed in its disk layout, since now I get
> "Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary." on running fdisk
> -l, which I wasn't get before.

The emulation probably did not pass throught the proper physical sector size
so alignment was off when creating the additional NetBSD partitions.

I would fix that first before proceeding, ignoring it might have performance
and disk/ssd lifetime downsides. The GPT output requested above should
help with that.

I would do such multi-boot installations (assuming you are using GPT
partitioning) in a multi-step aproach:

 1) manually create an ESP (EFI) partition, a swap partition and a main
    NetBSD partition. You can do that e.g. by booting the installer,
    drop to the shell, identify the disk you are targetting (by
    dmesg | more, identifying e.g. wd0 or ld0 as the target, and then
    verifying it has the proper partitions for the other OSes by
    "gpt show wd0").

     a)  use "gpt add -t efi -a 2m -s 64m wd0" to add
         the ESP partition, note what "dk" device it tells you it created
         and then format that with something like "newfs_msdos /dev/rdk5",
         mount it: "mount -t msdos /dev/dk5 /targetroot" and copy the 
	 UEFI bootloader there:

		mkdir -p /targetroot/EFI/BOOT
		cp /usr/mdec/*.efi /targetroot/EFI/BOOT

         and unmount it again "umount /targetroot".

     b)  add a swap partition of whatever size you need, like:

		gpt add -t swap -a 2m -s 64g wd0

     c)  add a main NetBSD partition of whatever size you like:

		gpt add -t ffs -a 2m -s 64g wd0

     d)  verify everything looks good by: gtp show wd0

  2) return to the installer (by exiting the shell, e.g. with ^d),
     start installation and select the pre-exiting wedge you created
     in step 1c as the install target.
     The installer will find the swap partition created in step 1b and
     offer to use that.

Martin