Re: booting iBook G4 - kernel panic

[Riccardo Mottola <riccardo.mottola%libero.it@localhost>]

Hi David,

Before reading your email, I did some other tests.

First, I booted the CD and mounted the hard disk on /targetroot
That allowed me to inspect the directories, everything looks fine.
I did a chroot to /targetroot
I could execute some basic commands, run "file" on netbsd and it 
confirms a 9.3 kernel for PPC.
That proves the disk is not damaged,  the architecture is correct, etc 
(well it came from a PowerBook, but doble-checking is always good).

Then I used install to reinstall the basic sets on the hard disk, that 
should rewrite the kernel, it should do.

However, it still refuses to boot the same way.


David Brownlee wrote:
> You should also be able to write the ISO image to a USB key and boot
> it (if that helps)

Well, I have a 9.3 bootable ISO, that should be enough for now!

> You say that the 9.3 CD boots. Are you able to boot from it passing
> "netbsd -a"? That should stop and prompt for the root file system, at
> which point you should be able to give wd0 and boot the installed
> system?
I did try what you suggest (although after the reinstall) and I am not 
lucky, the kernel from the CD boots fine, asks for the the root 
partition, but I cannot type. The USB keyboard is possibly not yet 
initialized or working correctly?

I wonder if I have to give up and reinstall with a reformat, but I fear 
it wouldn't help much.

I remember, in that case, that partitioning is not that easy. I just 
need a pure NetBSD disk. I could also just reformat the root partition 
and leave partitioning as is- since it did boot on the PowerBook.

Riccardo