Subject: Re: NetBSD MicroVAX-II Install Problem...
To: Robert Byer <byer@carl.a-com.com>
From: Anders Magnusson <ragge@ludd.luth.se>
List: port-vax
Date: 09/29/1995 17:26:08
> 
[...]
> 
> Since my SCSI-II controller is MSCP compatiable and my two HP SCSI hard
> disks are RA90 compatiable, when I used "edlabel" I used the RA90
> data in the "disktab" file to set everything up.  So my disk label
> information looks like the following:
> 
[...]
>

Watch out here! Even if it is said to be RA90 compatiable, it doens't
mean that it has the same geometry as a RA90. It is possible to ask
the ctlr for the exact disk geometry, but I haven't inplemented
this in edlabel yet. Your disk _may_ be of a totally different
geometry.

[...]
> 
> Now, this is where things get interesting.  If I follow the instructions
> in the "readme.copy" file, I should do the following...
> 
> 	Now specify the device to write miniroot to as xx(N,1)
> 	where xx is the drive type and N is the drive number.
> 	For example: ra(0,1) refers to MSCP drive #0, b partition
> 
> 	Root disk ? : ra(1,0,1) 
>               	      ---------
ra(1,0,1) means DUB0 in DEC language; the first disk on the
second ctlr, but I think that your ctlr is DUA, meaning that 
you should write ra(0,0,1) or ra(0,1). Which means the same.

[...]
> 
> Now as you can see, it initializes a partition, the 'a' partition
> (I know it is doing SOMETHING because I can see disk access on my drive)
> and not the 'b' partition like the instructions states.  So just to
> see what will happen I continue on with the installation like it
> installed it on the 'b' partition (just curious).
> 
This is a typo in the copy program. Don't care about that.

[...]
> 
> So I do like the instructions state and type in the following at the
> "Nboot" prompt....
> 
> 	: ra(0,1)gennetbsd
> 
> And I get the following....
> 
> 	No such file or directory.
> 
This is probably because that your miniroot wasn't properly written.
Check that: 1) You have a legal label on your disk. If you boot up
edlabel again it shouldn't complain about "no disk label" when
editing that label. 2) Your miniroot actually get written correctly 
to the second partition. Meaning that something really accesses
the disk when copy is writing the miniroot.

[...]
> 
> Some questions I have is one, since I have a SCSI-II controller, should
> I use SCSI in then "edlabel" program and just use the RA90 parameters?
No. The computer thinks that it is a MSCP disk, even if it is
just emulated.

> There is little explanation on exactally what partitions you need to
> create and I'm creating 8, can I get along with less and if so, what
> do I need to enter to use the most of my 1.2 GIG hard disks?
> 
The only thing that you shouldn't (can't) change is that the first
partition is the root filesystem, the second is swap and the third
is the whole disk. The fourth to eight partition is up to you;
you can use only one of them as the rest of the disk if you want to.

Good luck!
-- Ragge