>I'm the new owner of a Dec3100, and a newcomer to Unix.  I recently
>attempted to upgrade the 3100 from 1.3 Beta to 1.3.2, following the
>intsructions posted in  the NetBSD FAQ to the letter.  All seemed well
>until I rebooted, and got a Bad magic  response.  The following is a
>transcript of a boot attempt.  I would not be surpized to learn that the
>problem is due to a syntax error on my part, or simple Unix ignornace, but
>I surely appreciate some help.  Thanks in advance.

The 'bad magic number' means you've got the wrong format file.

You've probably copied an ELF-format kernel to your root partition.
the kernel Makefule used to produce a "netbsd" which was ecoff format;
someone with lots of clout decided that was "wrong" and changed it so
that "netbsd" is the ELF-format kernel, and the file you need to
install on a disful machine is "netbsd.aout".  IMHO that change
shouldnt have been made till we had bootblocks that can actually boot
ELF kernels.

The fix is to put back an a.out format kernel. If you saved the old
kernel then you can boot it, and copy netbsd.aout from your build
directory to /netbsd.