It might be the real time clock is set to wrong address...
I had something similar to this on RiscServer 2200
until I changed it...Specifically what was happening,the
kernel after mounting root filesystem, hung trying
attempting to read clock chip if the clock address
is incorrect,(goes into tight loop reading clock status).
Possible kernel fix maybe to change arc/arc/clock_mc.c
to be like NEC_R96 not like NEC_RD94 as it currently...

-----Original Message-----
From: David Hopper [mailto:dhop@nwlink.com]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 10:20 PM
To: Bob Meader
Cc: port-arc@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: FW: NEC RiscStation and NetBSD


Hi Bob, you wrote:

> Hi this is bob...
> No you know didn't a root filesystem on a floppy(last time I checked
> floppy driver needs work..) the "default mdoa" is the ramdisk
> filesystem... just press <return> should go to install menu...

I was afraid of this.  On the NEC 2000, when I specified the defaults (md0a
root
device, swap on md0b, default file system) the system hangs.  No errors, no
panics; nothing coming through COM at all.  It just sits there.  That's why
I
was confused.