Re: Creating an i386 root disk that can boot

[Joel <joelp%sdf.org@localhost>]

SOLVED

On 12/23/2024 14:04, Joel wrote:
> I'm having trouble creating a bootable disk for my old i386 laptop (1998 
> Satellite Pro 445). It starts to boot, then fails with an error:
>      NetBSD/x86 ffsv2 Primary Bootstrap
>      Boot failed (errno  2): Can't open /boot
>      Insert system disk in drive.
>      Press any key when ready....

I did not explicitly set the file system type (i.e. FFSv2) with newfs 
and missed the part in installboot(8) to use dumpfs(8) to confirm the 
file system format. Sure enough, my CF is FFSv1 (not FFSv2).

I used installboot to install bootxx_ffsv1 and I can now boot my custom 
i386 image.

My 1998 i386 laptop lives again running NetBSD 10.1-RELEASE!

Some highlights from dmesg booting 10.1 GENERIC:

[     1.000000] total memory = 81660 KB
[     1.000000] avail memory = 57900 KB
[     1.000004] cpu0: Intel 586-class, 133MHz, id 0x543
[     4.141159] wd0 at atabus0 drive 0
[     4.141159] wd0: <TS8GCF133>
[     4.141159] wd0: drive supports 1-sector PIO transfers, LBA addressing
[     4.141159] wd0: 7647 MB, 15538 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect 
x 15662304 sectors
[     4.151208] wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA 
mode 4 (Ultra/66)

-Joel