[ The last paragraph applies to people upgrading old NetBSD/Alpha
  systems, regardless of whether or not you grabbed the 951015
  snapshot. ]

I was asked the following:

> It did successfully copy though.. and I can mount the filesystems
> on that drive.. it just won't boot from that drive.  (was that the
> nature of the problem you mentioned?)

by somebody who'd downloaded the 951015 snapshot.  That's the problem,
in a nutshell.  I also fixed on thing i forgot in the kernel.


If you _really_ want to make the 951015 snapshot's binaries work
rather than get the new version in its entirety:

boot OSF/1.  read the disklabel into a temporary file.  re-label the
disk under OSF/1, with disklabel -R, and install boot blocks.
copy OSF/1's /osf_boot to the disk.

you should then be able to boot netbsd (though you'll need to either
set the default boot file, or boot with an explicit file name).

The new snapshot's sources are available for FTP now (the snapshot is
building as i type).  When you want to fix your distribution "for real:"
	(0) boot NetBSD
	(1) get new kernel sources,
	(2) rm the NetBSD /usr/mdec/*
	(3) cd to .../sys/arch/alpha/stand in the new kernel sources,
	    build, and install.
	(4) run the following:

		cp /usr/mdec/boot /
		sync ; sleep 1 ; sync ; sleep 1
		/usr/mdec/installboot -v /boot /usr/mdec/bootxx \
		    /dev/rsd${UNIT}c

(I used the 'c' device, because if "kernel security" is enabled, you
won't be able to write to the mounted root partition, and you can't
run the command unless the partition is mounted...)

you should then be able to boot from that disk.  be sure to do those
syncs and sleeps, otherwise you'll lose.  If you lose, you should be
able to re-label with the OSF/1 boot block and try again.  8-)

BE SURE TO UPDATE DISKLABEL(8), AS WELL.


WARNING:  In the future, you can't update your boot blocks by copying
/usr/mdec/boot to / and running disklabel.  you _HAVE_ to use the set
of commands above, or a similar set, or the boot blocks won't work.


good luck,

chris