Erik Bertelsen writes:
 >   
 >   >>boot 3/tftp
 >   ?IO: 3/tftp, a.out err (-2)
 > 
 > Am I right in guessing that the DS5000 booter does not recognize the
 > kernel file's format?? -- or is there another explanation?
 > 
 > The 5000 identifies itself as
 > 
 >   KN02-BA V5.7j
 > 
 > Does this tell anyone whether or not diskless booting should work on
 > this machine?

I *think* this means that the kernel is in a.out format, and the PROM
wants it in ecoff -- did you run elf2ecoff on the kernel before
booting? 

As I remember it (I've changed jobs and haven't seen a DECstation in 2
months), "?IO: 3/tftp, a.out err (-2)" means that the kernel is in the
wrong format, and an error like "1033120?IO:3/tftp, a.out err (-5)"
means that the text segment is too large for the PROM to deal with.

This latter type of error is the type you'll get on the 'problem'
machines.  As Jonathan mentioned, to get one of the problem machines
to boot, you'll need to build a stripped down kernel.  Using the
Ultrix size on the elf2ecoff'ed kernels, I've found that a kernel of
this size will not boot:
text    data    bss     dec     hex
1033120 0       89236   1122356 112034

And one of this size will:
text    data    bss     dec     hex
855024  0       69556   924580  e1ba4


Drew
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duke University				Internet:	gallatin@cs.duke.edu
Department of Computer Science		Phone:		(919) 660-6590