Subject: Re: bootloader trouble on sun4
To: None <count@theblah.org>
From: None <Havard.Eidnes@runit.sintef.no>
List: port-sparc
Date: 10/08/2000 19:12:47
> Bootloader versions 1.9 or above don't seem to work on sun4. The
> boot.net in that comes with 1.4.2 displays its header and then
> crashes. Booting from disk just gives me an mvmap error. Has anyone
> else had similar problems? V1.8 seems to work, except with
> 1.4.2-sun4-netbsd.ram, which causes an illegal instruction while
> loading.
>
> Is there a nicer way to install via netboot than going through
> the trouble of setting up an NFS-root environment and then installing
> from there?
>
> Btw, I finally got NetBSD installed on my Sun 4/330. I had to
> put in 1.4.1 though because of the bootloader and incompatible
> install kernel in 1.4.2. After the installation as I began compiling
> software packages the system disk died horribly in a head crash.

If it's any consolation, 1.4.3 will ship with a sparc boot loader
which is able to boot larger kernels (that was probably your
problem with the V1.8 loader and the "netbsd.ram" kernel).  The
fix was to move the load address for the bootloader closer to the
4M limit, making more room for the kernel below that mark.

If I'm not terribly mistaken, the July sparc 1.4.3_ALPHA snapshot
contains the fixes for the bootloader.

Regards,

- H=E5vard