On Wed, Jul 12, 2000 at 10:43:18PM -0400, John Klos wrote:
> I have noticed some areas where there is no information about this install
> procedure in the documentation.
> 
> Supposing I do have a floppy drive, how do I make a bootable floppy? I
> assume I go to:
> ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4.2/macppc/installation/floppy/
> and get boot.fs, and write it using dd to a floppy disk.
> 
> However, this is not mentioned in the docs at all! Don't believe me? Go
> find it... it's not there.

In the FAQ on the web page.

http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/faq.html#write-floppy

Like many other things, it should be added to INSTALL, but the
maintainer of that document, Michael Wolfson <mw34@cornell.edu>,
is finishing a PhD (as he just mentioned to me in a private email),
so let's not pick on him too much, eh?

He's willing to accept diffs against the current INSTALL, so if you
get things working and have time, *please* improve our documentation.
If I get a chance, I will too.

> What exactly is in the boot.fs? I assumed it had a kernel with a miniroot
> in it. If this is so, who created it? Where did it come from? How do I get
> a kernel that runs the miniroot install?

The floppy uses the GENERIC-MD kernel, as I recall, but you can't just
write that kernel to a disk. That's why the boot.fs is supplied, it's
written to a <GACK> file system, mounted from there (obviously) into
an mfs one. All of this wrapped in a way that makes OF happy (it wants
to see an HFS-like partition to boot files out of).

(<GACK> because I can't remember the name... vfs?)

PLEASE, someone correct me if I'm spouting wrong information here.

> Are there options that can be added to ofwboot.elf to tell the kernel to
> prompt for the root device, like NetBSD-Amiga does? Is there documentation
> for ofwboot.elf? loadbsd on Amiga has lots of options that get passed
> along to the kernel.
> 
> It seems that there are lots of people who need to get past this point,
> but the people who have gotten past this point are not talking... Come on,
> help out!

John, understand that we're a lot newer in the water than Amiga is.
The hardware's newer, and we haven't been working on it anywhere near
as long. A lot of the acoutrements you're used to simply aren't here
yet. (Feel free to add them.)

Having never booted a B&W G3, I can't be of much material help (though
I could go "borrow" one from the lab here at swarthmore.edu for a day
or two to try things out...) Most of us using macppc are using the
original line of OF Macs (which is why they are the best-supported).
It may *seem* like everyone can do something you can't, but I really
don't think there are all that many B&W G3s up and running... not
because it's impossible, just because not very many people have tried.

On Thu, Jul 13, 2000 at 01:23:02AM -0400, John Klos wrote:
> What is this? Does this pertain to NetBSD 1.4.2? Is this why I can't do an
> install with the 1.5-alpha ISO image?
>
> Did I just waste $1000 USD on a machine I can't run NetBSD on?
>
> Subject: Re: Any docs on NetBSD on B&W G3's?
> From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@nas.nasa.gov>
> Date: 02/07/2000 15:03:39
>
> One drawback is that OF puts the 646 pciide controller in a polling mode
> our firmware initialization doesn't reset, so while you can boot from an
> ide disk, you then can't use it.
       
As I recall, that means you can either boot from it *or* use it as 
your root, but not both.
       
(Thus all the talk of booting from CD-ROM.)

On Thu, Jul 13, 2000 at 01:26:30AM -0400, John Klos wrote:
> So I've used the 1.5-alpha ISO CD to install on a 4 gig SCSI connected to
> an Adaptec 2930 on my blue @ white G3.
>
> The model support page says that the 2930 is only supported in -current,
> but whether or not I install -current, how do I boot off of it? It
> doesn't list in devalias in Open Firmware.

It won't show up in devalias, as the shipping OF won't have an alias
for it (you can make one, but I've forgotten the syntax).

Just use dev / ls (and progress dev /<something> ls, if that first
list scrolls too far to be useful) to find the device... Ah, but I see
Dan Winship's answered in more detail than I can.

       ~ g r @ eclipsed.net