Subject: Re: 2nd stage bootloader does not find /netbsd on sd0a
To: None <port-hp700@netbsd.org>
From: Jochen Kunz <jkunz@unixag-kl.fh-kl.de>
List: port-hp700
Date: 10/10/2005 21:53:34
On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 19:53:20 +0200
Rudi Ludwig <rudihl@gmx.de> wrote:

> 1- What is the right offset for slice "a" on hp700?
0. FFS does not touch the first 8 k of a slice to leave room for boot
code.

> 2- whats the difference between /usr/mdec/xxboot and sdboot?
There is none. This two directory entries are linked to the same file.
Have a look with "ls -li' at them...

On other architectures xxboot and sdboot may be different. xxboot
usually indicates a boot loader with generic disk drivers. sdboot
indicates a boot code specialized for SCSI disks, ... I think VAX has
different boot programms for different disks.

> used "installboot" and tried both xxboot and sdboot.
Hmmm. I don't know if installboot(8) was fixed. Back when the boot
loader was imported I only fixed "disklabel -B".

> They both find the 2nd stage bootloader /boot at the root of sd0a
OK, installboot(8) seems to work.

> I didn't type all the text. The 2nd stage bootloader iterates through
> different files it tries all without success.
You mean it tries to load various different kernel images like "netbsd",
"netbsd.old", "netbsd.gz", ...? Are you sure you have a valid kernel
image in your / file system? My faforite misstake when installing by
hand is to forget /boot or /netbsd... ;-)
Maybe the boot code is confused because your / file system doesn't start
at sector 0?

> The "dk0a" though irritates me. I would have expacted something like
> sd0a or hd0a.
The boot code doesn't know about the type of disk. It uses generic
firmware calls for disk access. Therefore the generic name "dk" for all
disks supported by the firmware.
--=20


tsch=FC=DF,
       Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/