I'm trying to install NetBSD 1.4.1 on a ThinkPad 365E (which identifies itself
as being a Cyrix 6x86 486-class machine).

The device autoconfiguration seems pretty normal, but then the machine wedges
immediately after printing the "root file system type: ffs" message.

I've seen postings in the past that have described a problem that sounds like
this, but I don't recall the solutions ... :-(

I played around with "boot -d" a little bit, setting breakpoints at various
stages through the boot process, trying to isolate where the machine was
hanging, but didn't get very far.  The problem was that the action of setting
breakpoints allowed the boot to progress further, getting as far as starting
sysinst before the machine wedged.  (On one occasion I actually managed to get
the cursor to move a few times in response to keyboard presses before the
machine froze).  After discovering this, I found that a "boot -a" had a similar
effect.

I also tried 1.3 and a 1.4P kernel boot disks and although I didn't repeat all
the same tests with each, they both seemed to wedge at the same place.

Of course, I can't tell whether the machine has totally wedged, or whether it's
just the keyboard that has stopped working.

Is there anyone out there successfully running NetBSD on a TP365E?  If so, did
you have to do anything special to make it work?  I've seen the comments in the
i386 FAQ regarding setting the PCIC_ISA_INTR_ALLOC_MASK, etc defines. As far as
I know this is only needed to make some PCMCIA cards work.  Currently I don't
have any PCMCIA cards in the machine.

I'd like to check the BIOS to see what devices are configured, and to perhaps
try turning off some options (ie: the caches) but I don't know how to get into
the BIOS.  The person I'm doing this for doesn't know either, and doesn't have
a manual for the machine :-(  Any clues there might be helpful...

Thanks for any help,

Duncan