Subject: More 1.6.1 strangeness
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-i386
Date: 11/16/2003 22:53:52
Okay, so despite the problems I posted about earlier, I got 1.6.1 on
the disk.  Then, because the disk was relatively big (>1024
"cylinders"), I wanted to do what I've done before with such machines:
move boot and kernel to a tiny little /kernels filesystem and put root
on d (e on i386).  So I put the disk on my existing i386 machine,
snapshotted it to spare space, repartitioned, remade filesystems, and
restored everything.  Then I moved /netbsd into the new boot partition
(the tiny one), booted from the install floppies, and ran installboot
on the boot partition.

Then I booted ("boot -as").  The kernel loaded fine, prompted for root
(I typed wd0e), dump (I let it default), and filesystem type (also
defaulted).  Then it fired off init, which prompted for a shell or
RETURN for sh.

But at this prompt the keyboard is dead.  RETURN does nothing.
Ctl-Alt-Del does nothing.  Ctl-Alt-Esc does nothing.  I've tried it
three times, being very careful to not touch the keyboard after the
filesystem-type response the second two times, and it's consistent.  At
first I thought this might be KBD_DELAY being too low a value (as a few
of you may recall I reported problems with here quite some time back),
until I realized that the keyboard (a) worked fine at the
root/dump/fstype prompts and (b) worked fine from the install floppies
(which presumably were built with the same KBD_DELAY define as the
GENERIC kernel I'm using).

Any thoughts on what might be wrong?  Obviously, a nonworking keyboard
is a pretty crippling problem.

Just in case I botched something while rearranging things, I'm about to
take another snapshot of the disk, then restore the previous snapshot
(which has one big multi-gig root filesystem) and see if it works
there.  I don't really expect this to fix anything, but I figure I have
to give it a try.  (The reason for juggling things at all when my
machine can demonstrably boot fine from large root filesystems is that
this disk is intended to be carried to another machine and booted
there, and I don't know whether that machine is similarly tolerant.)

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