On Sun, 02 Dec 2001 02:19:15 +1100
Simon Burge <simonb@wasabisystems.com> wrote:


> Did you do the installation by hand, or use sysinst?

I used sysinst.

> It looks like you have the first stage bootstrap installed ok, but the
> first stage can't find the second stage (the "boot.pmax" file).  I take
> it you can still boot from your dhcp/tftp setup?  If so, you want to do
> something like:
> 
> 	>> boot 6/tftp		[ get to single user prompt ]
> 	fsck -p /dev/rrz0a	[ just to make sure ]
> 	mount /dev/rz0a /mnt	[ mount the root filesystem on the disk ]
> 	ls -l /mnt/boot*	[ you should see a "boot.pmax" here ]
> 
> If you don't see a boot.pmax in the on-disk root directory, you'll need
> to copy one there (copy it from /usr/mdec or /mnt/usr/mdec).

Yes, I checked this. I copied the file by hand as well, I ran installboot by hand, I tried various releases (snapshot, 1.5.2, even 1.5). I copied boot.pmax from a working machine (another 5000/200 I had access to). I guess I really tried everything. I tried the harddisk of the other machine as well and it booted okay with the machine I have troubles with.

I really think that the machine has some problems with its harddisk. Maybe it's because of its PROM-version? (It's V5.3c, whereas the working DECstation has V5.3t). The working harddisk is some older Fujitsu model, the harddisk with problems is a newer IBM. But does this explain why I can install NetBSD via sysinst without an error on the IBM, just not boot it?

There is another point that puzzles me: Why can it find the primary bootstrap file but not boot.pmax? And the error message:
> open failed
> open 5/rz0//boot.pmax: 6

Where does the second slash come from?

It's really a mystery.

Regards,
         Jens

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