G'day,

Chris G. Demetriou wrote:
> You should probably build new boot blocks (cd src/sys/arch/alpha/stand
> ; make clean ; make depend ; make ; make install).  Once you've done
> that, you should install the new boot blocks (installed by 'make
> install' into /usr/mdec) on your hard disk by following the
> instructions in the installboot(8) manual page.  The current boot
> block sources know how to load ELF-format kernels, as well as ECOFF
> kernels.

I'd just like to point out something I missed when doing this. 8-)

The installboot(8) manual page says:

     /usr/mdec/boot may be installed simply by copying it to the root
     directory of the partition you wish to boot from, but after it is in-
     stalled installboot _must_ be run.

If you miss the step of copying /usr/mdec/boot to /boot and you have an
existing non-ELF-aware /boot, you won't be able to boot the ELF kernel if
you run installboot. You'll get bootxx installed with an incompatible
version of /boot and you can't even boot the old ECOFF kernel!!!!

If you want to reinstall OSF/1 V3.2 (and I assume later versions of
Digital Unix) boot blocks to recover the situation (as I did), these will
only be able to boot the ECOFF kernel, not the ELF one. So keep your
existing ECOFF kernel around (as I did, luckily 8-)!

[ Chris, since the copy of /usr/mdec/boot to /boot and running installboot
  _must_ be performed together, wouldn't it make sense to have installboot
  do the copy too? Idiot proof? Principle of least astonishment? 8-) ]

Regards,

-- 
John Birrell - jb@cimlogic.com.au; jb@netbsd.org
CIMlogic Pty Ltd, 119 Cecil Street, South Melbourne Vic 3205, Australia
Tel +61 3 9690 6900 Fax +61 3 9690 6650 Mob +61 418 353 137