Andy,
When netbooting using 2 buttons method there is no 1st stage bootloader 
involved. So I beleive I am correct at least on 4. I am probably wrong 
on 5. Not exactly wrong but impresise - root location is defined by 
dhcpd config statement so you probably can change it. I have not tried 
though.

So far my problem has been in booting the kernel. I will try to 
recompile it again and see how it goes.

bfd command is just that - "boot from disk". I want to do complete 
netboot with kernel residing outside of the qube as well. One thing is a 
bit alarming to me - kernel size is growing as it progresses and there 
is no network 1st stage bootloader. As kernel is unable to boot on the 
cube over the network, only older versions of netbsd can be used as host 
to the recovery environment. I wonder if we can use CoLo as a 1st stage 
bootloader?

Regards,
Alex


Andy Ruhl wrote:
> 
> I think you might be wrong on 4 and 5. I've never had a problem
> booting ANY kernel as long as the firmware boots the bootloader, which
> then can find netbsd on wd0a. On #5, that's only true if you use the
> "2 button method". If you break into the firmware, you can tell the
> Qube to boot from any root path:
> 
> Cobalt Microserver Diagnostics - 'We serve it, you surf it'
> Built Tue May 25 15:58:41 PDT 1999
> 
>  1.LCD Test................................PASS
>  2.Controller Test.........................PASS
>  5.Bank 0:.................................64M
>  6.Bank 1:.................................64M
>  7.Bank 2:.................................16M
>  8.Bank 3:.................................16M
>  9.Serial Test.............................PASS
> 10.PCI Expansion Slot....................**EMPTY**
> 12.IDE Test................................PASS
> 13.Ethernet Test...........................PASS
> 16.RTC Test................................PASS
> 
> Cobalt: bfd /netbsd.gz nfsroot=/home/taz     <----------- My own root path
> Decompressing done
> Executing bootloader kernel...
> Decompressing -- done.
> invalid bootinfo (standalone boot?)
> [ Kernel symbol table missing! ]
> Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
>     The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
> Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
>     The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
> 
> NetBSD 3.0_BETA (INSTALL) #0: Sat Nov  5 07:00:37 MST 2005
>         root@foghorn:/usr/obj-cobalt-r3/sys/arch/cobalt/compile/INSTALL
> total memory = 160 MB
> avail memory = 154 MB
> mainbus0 (root)
> com0 at mainbus0 addr 0x1c800000 level 3: st16650a, working fifo
> com0: console
> cpu0 at mainbus0: QED RM5200 CPU (0x28a0) Rev. 10.0 with built-in FPU Rev. 10.0
> cpu0: 32KB/32B 2-way set-associative L1 Instruction cache, 48 TLB entries
> cpu0: 32KB/32B 2-way set-associative write-back L1 Data cache
> 
> Of course, you need a serial cable to do this, which means you have a
> Qube2 or Raq2 and not the older ones without the serial connection.
> 
> Despite how it seems, the Qube2 or Raq2 do not have all that unusual a
> netboot sequence. If you look at how other platforms do it, old sparcs
> in particular, it seems easy to netboot the Qube. The point here is
> you need the kernel named a certain way, and if you use the "2 button
> method", you need to have your server set up a certain way, which some
> other architectures want as well (I think).
> 
> NetBSD has userconf, but it's not able to change the root path as far
> as I know like rdev does (did?) on Linux. To netboot, I change the
> config line to boot from NFS, that's it. I hope someone can correct
> me, it would be nice to be able to change the root path externally.
> 
> But I still think your setup of a Cygwin boot server is useful to
> anyone booting NetBSD, not just the Cobalt people. It's worth writing
> for the netboot page.
> 
> Andy
> 
> 
> 
>