Manuel Bouyer (bouyer@ensta.fr) writes:

[[lots of good stuff]]

>The boot blocks looks for a file named /netbsd in the file system,

Not quite. It' more that a DECstation is a real computer, with a 
PROM instead of a BIOS.  It's  the  PROM that knows to boot NetBSD.

If the machine used to run Ultrix, the bootpath PROM environment
variable was probably set up to boot  Ultrix.  The instructions  on
the Web should say how to change the PROM bootpath.
However,  on  a TC machine, you can also specify an alternat kernel
or bootflags from the PROM boot prompt, e.g.,

	>>  boot 3/rz0/netbsd.my-new-kernel -s

to boot the new kernel single-user, verifying that it works,
and when it *does*, move it to /netbsd and continue (or reboot).

>                                                                   so there
>is no need to reinstall the boot blocks when you change the kernel, as
>for linux.

Absolutely true.  However, the bootblocks are banging their head
into the 8k limit.  One thing I cut out of the bootblock code was
symlink support. You *cannot* boot a kernel through a symlink;
give a hard-link name instead.

--Jonathan