In message <200001032049.PAA07314@ghost.whirlpool.com>, Andrew Gillham writes:
>We certainly need to make sure this upgrade goes smooth!  Certainly don't
>want to read about any problems. :=)

No problem; the machine is now running 1.4.1 and pretty happy.

Well, this was a textbook case of pilot error.

1.  Ages back, I tweaked Makefile.i386 and sys.mk to use -mcpu=i686.
Unfortunately, this is a plain Pentium.  That got me my first problem:
kernels not working.
2.  While debugging this, I tweaked the BIOS disk access mode - and forgot
about it.  Result?  "boot failed" every time I tried to boot.  I changed it
back, and nothing changed - until the next major power cycle.  :)

Anyway, it's back up and running, but I didn't get time to do the upgrades I
planned to.

The main lesson to be learned?  Don't tweak CPU settings if you don't mean
it.

-s