Re: more on proff crash building native

[Anders Magnusson <ragge%ludd.ltu.se@localhost>]

Brad Parker wrote:
...
> 
> Not a problem with boot blocks.  A coordination problem getting
> the miniroot in place.
> 
> I can't find a recipe for installing netbsd on an 11/7xx from a tape.
> Nor can I find a way to make a suitable tape image.  I don't think you
> can do it anymore.  I'll describe one solution before I describe the
> problem.
> 
> My current thinking is that I will do the following to rectify:
> 
> - write a simple program which can be loaded from a tape by 'boot'
> which will create a reasonable disk label.
> 
> - create a tape image which has the following (separated by tape marks)
> 
>  simple-partition-program (elf)
>  ffs-miniroot-filesystem
>  tar of component to install
>  tar of component to install
>  ...
> 
> Why?
> 
> Everything in the old days assumed you could copy the miniroot to the
> swap partition.  And to make that true the "copy" program had a
> predefined "default" paritition map.  By agreement, all of the "disktab"
> partitions and the default partition map in "copy" have the swap
> partition (partition B) starting at the same place.  That way running
> the miniroot won't get trashed when you repartition.
> 
NetBSD/vax used this before also; there were a small install filesystem
that could fit on a TU58 which had three binaries: boot, copy and edlabel.
They were removed in favour for the more modern sysinst, and all of it worked
when we switched.

To boot a 11/7xx, the only thing you need is to get boot in some form onto
the tape or floppy.  If you cannot get objcopy to make an image file of
boot, convert it to a.out, load it raw and start at address 22.

But, simplest is always to dd the miniroot onto a tape.  Then you can use
whatever you want (VMB, for example) to boot from it.

-- Ragge



> In the old days, no matter what disk you had, you could use "copy" to
> copy the miniroot to swap and then repartition the disk and copy to it
> safely.
> 
> But the old partition maps and the default map on in "copy" are now much
> too small.  So I think we need some way to make a default partition map
> which has an "a" partition big enough for an install.
> 
> Since I'm only worried about mscp disks, it's a simple job.  I'll just
> creating a map with a small swap at the end of the disk and big "a"
> partition.  You could argue about that, but at least it will work.  I'll
> include a way to override that.
> 
> With that, I can first create the map, then copy the miniroot, then
> run the normal install program.
> 
> As an aside, I originally found the generic kernel would not run on a
> 780.  Right now, after fixes, I'm seeing the kernel will run from the
> miniroot but it does not see the 'ra' disk during the unibus probe (I'm
> debugging that - it may be that 'boot' leaves ra in a some odd state or
> who knows, something else).  I'm currently debugging on netbsd-3.
> 
> I've also had problems getting some of the sa utilties to run on a 780.
> bitrot I think. no doubt they work fine on a 4000.
> 
> -brad
>