Hi there, NetBSD/Dreamcast guru's, etc. I'm attempting to setup a simple,
or what I thought was a simple NetBSD installation on a NTSC USA unit.

I've had the unit quite some time, and I've done some modifications such
as the NCSX modchip to boot EUR/JPN imports, a hardware reset button, an
80V - 240V improved power supply, extra cooling, CD-RW mod, etc; all just
things that I think I should mention but that shouldn't interfere with
NetBSD in anyway.

I'm booting dcload-ip from a CD-RW disc in the GD-ROM, and using dctool
to send the kernel to the machine. I'm using the most recent kernel that
I could find, which is 1.5Y-20011130-SONIC, and the most recent binary
set I could find, which was 20010610ELF. I have tried 20010117COFF, and
the results were the same. I have tried at least three other kernel
releases as well without any different results.

I've netbooted NetBSD many times in the past, and it's very easy and I
seriously doubt that I've made any mistakes in my BOOTP or NFS configs;
I deal with these services on a dialy basis and haven't had any problems
with them... Watching the mountd verbose output shows the Dreamcast does
successfully mount the root filesystem, and lsof shows that init has been
opened from the other side of the NFS connection as well. It's definately
working over NFS, because if I remove init, it mounts the nfs root and
complains loudly that it cannot spawn init, and then panics. I have a
fully populated dev, but have tried with a barebones dev as well, with
both a 2, 0 (according to MAKEDEV) and 0, 0 entry for the /dev/console.

Physically, I have the HIT-400 BBA attached to my SMC Elite 3812TP 10baseT
concentrator, along with about 10 other machines.  I know that my BBA is
working properly, because I've used it to rip quite a few games and have
transferred many gigabytes of data, all just to make copies that would boot
directly on my friends non-modchipped JPN console (sorry to be off-topic,
but it's crazy that these modchips out there are almost the price of a new
console). I have tried disconnecting all machines from the network hub as
well, as I have noticed that this sometimes helps when doing large transfers
over the BBA, but this doesn't make a difference.

Here is my log:

dcload-ip 1.0.3
00:d0:f1:03:3d:8f
00.00.00.00
executing... [snip]
NetBSD 1.5Y (SONIC) #28 Fri Nov 30 17:34:59 JST 2001
   bsh@nekozame.a.grotto.jp:/u0/work/current/dreamcast/compile/SONIC
total memory = 16384 KB
avail memory = 13932 KB
using 230 buffers containing 930 KB of memory
mainbus0 (root)
shb0 at mainbus0
scif0 at shb0 port 0xffe8000f irq 12
maple0 at shb0
mapleA at maple0 port 0: Keyboard
mkbd0 at mapleA: US Keyboard
wskbd0 at mkbd0: console keyboard
mapleB at maple0 port 1: Dreamcast Mouse
mapleC at maple0 port 2: Dreamcast Controller
mapleC1 at maple0 port 2 subunit 1: Visual Memory
mapleC2 at maple0 port 2 subunit 2: Puru Puru Pack
mapleD at maple0 port 3: Dreamcast Controller
mapleD1 at maple0 port 3 subunit 1: Visual Memory
mapleD2 at maple0 port 3 subunit 2: Puru Puru Pack
pvr0 at shb0: 640 x 480, 16bpp, VGA, RGB
wsdisplay0 at pvr0: console (80x30, vt100 emulation), using wskbd0
gdrom0 at shb0
g2bus0 at shb0
gapspci0 at g2bus0: SEGA GAPS PCI Bridge
pci0 at gapspci0 bus 0
pci0: memory space enabled
rtk0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0: SEGA Broadband Adapter
rtk0: interrupting at SH4 irq 11
rtk0: Ethernet address 00:d0:f1:03:3d:8f
ukphy0 at rtk0 phy 7: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
ukphy0: OUI 0x000000, model 0x000000, rev. 0
ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseT, 100baseT-FDX, auto
biomask c0000000 netmask c0000800 ttymask e0000800
boot device: <unknown>
root device: rtk0
dump device:
file system: nfs
root on rtk0
nfs_boot: trying DHCP/BOOTP
nfs_boot: BOOTP next-server: 192.168.0.215
nfs_boot: my_name=katana.macdvd.org
nfs_boot: my_addr=192.168.0.246
nfs_boot: my_mask=255.255.255.0
nfs_boot: gateway=192.168.0.1
root on 192.168.0.215:/dreamcast/root/
root time: 0x3c4e94f2
init: copying out path `/sbin/init' 11

This is the last line that is printed and the box hangs, but it seems
to be a problem running init, not with the kernel locking at this point
because I've had other lines work here, such as the warnings you get
when you forget to make /dev/console. =) Is this a NFS or network related
problem, maybe something with the in-kernel NFS client not being very
intelligent or something like that?

I'm sorry if this is a completely moronic question, but I don't have time
working 2 full time jobs to browse through the unsearchable mailing list
archives and spend hours to make the system boot.

I'd rather spend my time doing something useful and groundbreaking in,
like writing drivers for the lightgun, dance mat, and samba de amiga
maracas! =)

Seriously...

What I'd really like to do is get a modem driver working! I think that
I have a copy of the correct firmware needed for the modem, and if I could
figure out how to upload it, it just might work. It's unfortunate that it
will be impossible to distribute a fully working driver due to copyright
issues, though.

-- 
Jeff Johnson
jeff@accountsupport.com