Error message:

  The program "/sbin/newfs /dev/rwd0e" failed unexpectedly with return
  code no such file or directory.  This is probably due to choosing the
  incorrect install option ...
  or it might be due to a mispackaged miniroot.

While running, newfs generates many messages like:

  32,wd0a: soft error (corrected) writing fsbn 16800 of 8608-8623 (wd0 bn
  16863; cn 32 tn 1 sn 28)

And on the next partition:

  319520,wd0e: soft error (corrected) writing fsbn 336192 of 328000-328015
  (wd0 bn 496254; cn 945 tn 3 sn 24)

The machine is an old Compaq Deskpro 386/20 with 12M RAM, 5 1/4 1.2M
floppy, and a 313MB MiniScribe 9380E drive; unfortunately I don't know if
the drive is IDE or something else like ESDI because I don't have access
to the BIOS settings (diskette-based program lost years ago).  I tried
IDE, ESDI and ST506, all with the same result.

NetBSD ids the drive (see msg output below) as 1224 cyl, 15 head, 35 sec;
but sysinst claims that the "real" geometry is 1224 16 63 and that the
BIOS geom is 637 16 63. pfdisk says 610 cyl, 16 heads, 63 sectors.  Both
the BIOS and pfdisk geometries result in the errors above.

Attempting to use the "real" settings of 1224 15 35 results in newfs
chugging along for over 2 hours (with occasional disk activity) and not
getting past the following:

  Making partition 3 active
  Writing the NetBSD disklabel
  Creating the new filesystems on all 4.2BSD partitions

Is there any hope for NetBSD on this machine?  I have 1.2.1 running
elsewhere (and FreeBSD, Linux, SCO et al on other machines).


Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 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 1.3 (INSTALL_SMALL) #0: Tue Dec 30 18:56:32 EST 1997
    perry@jekyll.piermont.com:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/INSTALL_SMALL
cpu0: Intel 386DX (386-class)
real mem  = 12189696
avail mem = 9269248
using 174 buffers containing 712704 bytes of memory
mainbus0 (root)
isa0 at mainbus0
wdc0 at isa0 port 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14
atapibus0 at wdc0
wd0 at wdc0 drive 0: <WD1007>
wd0: 313MB, 1224 cyl, 15 head, 35 sec, 512 bytes/sec
wd0: using 1-sector 16-bit pio transfers, chs addressing
we0: overriding IRQ 9 to 5
we0 at isa0 port 0x280-0x29f iomem 0xd0000-0xd3fff irq 5
we0: WD8013WC Ethernet (16-bit)
we0: Ethernet address 00:00:c0:0e:ab:5b
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0-0xff irq 13
pc0 at isa0 port 0x60-0x6f irq 1: color
pc0: console
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.2MB, 80 cyl, 2 head, 15 sec
biomask 4040 netmask 4060 ttymask 4062
md0: internal 1537K image area
boot device: fd0
root on md0a dumps on md0b
root file system type: ffs


--
Marty Bower  |  marty@mjhb.com  |  http://mjhb.com