Re: SS4 - short disk read

[David Brownlee <abs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Tue, 19 Oct 2021 at 00:21, Riccardo Mottola
<riccardo.mottola%libero.it@localhost> wrote:
>
> Hi All!
>
> since my SS20 is currently "bricked" with the 9.2 kernel I thought...
> why not upgrade the ol' SS4 too? That should be a safe bet.
>
> First, I struggled hard with the console. I have the Y-serial cable +
> null-modem on port A which I used for SS20 maintenance. I attached it to
> the SS4 and nothing, no output! I even tried an original WYSE terminal
> instead of a PC.
> Can something as rare as a fried serial chip? mm...
>
> Anyway, get out monitor and keyboard.... attach and boot. Having no CD
> drive in the SS4 I thought of using the miniroot.fs on swap.
> At reboot I get a "short disk read".
>
> is that due to the swap partition being too forward on the disk? loader
> limitations?
>
> What other options do I have, beyond netboot which I hate and CD-ROM?
> Do we have a boot kernel similar to OpenBSD ("bsd.rd" they call it)
> which I can drop into root and start with sysinst?
> Or maybe i need an external HDD...

How far into the disk is the swap partition - unless its far far into
the disk it shouldn't matter.

What is the ss4 running at the moment? You should be able to add a
netbsd kernel to whatever existing root partition with a different
name and boot it, as long as the userland is not from a later major
version everything should pretty much work

David