Follow-up:

Summary-
This was resolved in two separate ways:

- make a bootable CD with the GENERIC kernel (supports root on ? type nfs
with DHCP/BOOTP)

- make a GRUB floppy that supports the network card, dhcp/bootp/tftp, put
the 1.5.1. generic kernel on the server

More details-
| > - Is there a pre-compiled 1.5.1 DISKLESS kernel (binary for i386)
available
| > for ftp somewhere?
|
| If you can't build one send me a kernel config file and I'll build it for
| you.

I ended up taking the 1.5.1 boot-big.fs and putting the 1.5.1 GENERIC kernel
inside it, then creating a bootable CD.

| > - Can I build a 1.5.1 kernel on a 1.5 machine?
|
| Yes, no problems.

I beleive you - I tried to use 1.5 to build a 1.5.1 kernel... I think it
worked, but GRUB (built with FreeBSD) didn't quite complete the command:

grub> kernel --type=netbsd /tftpboot/netbsd-raid-1.5.1

.. it failed (froze) just before the last message.. I don't have the message
handy here, sorry.  This grub command works with the generic kernel
distributed with 1.5.1 and the machine boots.

I'm not sure if the kernel was just too big for GRUB, a GRUB error, or if
there was something else wrong, so I'm rebuilding the kernel with 1.5.1 over
the nfs mounts with a more specific (smaller) kernel configuration.

Thanks for your help.  If I ever get GRUB to build on NetBSD I might even
make a web page about it.  :-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Manuel Bouyer" <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
To: "cpctc" <cpctc@vt.edu>
Cc: "NetBSD-help" <netbsd-help@netbsd.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: NetBSD 1.5.1 netboot from 1.5, chicken and egg problem...


| On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 09:08:44AM -0400, cpctc wrote:
| > Short version:
| > - Can I build a 1.5.1 kernel on a 1.5 machine?
|
| Yes, no problems.
|
| > - Can I boot a 1.5.1 installation with a 1.5 kernel?
|
| I think I've done this without much problems; but in general it's not a
good
| idea: programs reading kernel datas may report wrong things; and worse the
| C library may have syscalls not implemented in the kernel.
|
| > - Is there a pre-compiled 1.5.1 DISKLESS kernel (binary for i386)
available
| > for ftp somewhere?
|
| If you can't build one send me a kernel config file and I'll build it for
| you.
|
| --
| Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
| --
|