Re: Local boot on OFW 2.4 Beige G3! success.

[Donald Lee <MacPPC2%caution.icompute.com@localhost>]

I have managed to get my OFW 2.4 G3 Beige to boot from the internal
IDE disk.  It won't auto-boot, but I've run out of time for improving this.

I want to document here what I have learned.

In the end, what I did that is useful is to install the IDE disk using the
4.0.1 iso -> burned to CD.  On my G4 tower, it's easy and quick to boot
from CD, install to the IDE disk.  The only thing that is not right, is
that when the installer tries to do the installboot, it has an error
in the command.  After the install is done, I dropped into the shell, and
did:

        /usr/mdec/installboot /dev/rwd0c /usr/mdec/bootxx /boot

Once this command is done, the hard disk will boot with OFW 2.0
and with OFW 2.4.  (I *think* it worked with OFW 3 as well....)

What I did:
===========

I had lots of trouble with OFW 2.4.  I happen to have some OFW 2.0
ROM "sticks" lying around, so I pulled the OFW 2.4 ROM and replaced it
with the OFW 2.0f1 ROM.

Once this was done, I found that I could boot the 1.5.2 and 1.5.3 floppies.
I still could not boot from the CD. (though I didn't try very hard)

I went through the floppies - 1.6, 1.6.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 3.0.3, 4.0.1.
None of them worked.  I got a variety of errors, but I could
not get any of them to boot.  The fact that 1.5.3 and 1.5.2 worked
fine - booting - tells me that the problem is not OFW, but something in
the floppy.  One thing of note is that there appears to be more "debug"
output.  Both the debug output ("OF_open bootpath=fd ....") and
the split of the floppy into two, happened about the same time,
so I can't tell which change broke it - at least on OFW 2.0f1.

I finally put the OFW 2.4 ROMs back in, the "printenv" still showed
the patches in the NVRAM, but stuff was clearly not right, because the
OFW output was still on the serial port.  I did a cmd-opt-p-r
and rebooted from OS X 10.2 CD to get NVRAM straight.  I then did:

        setenv load-base 600000
        setenv real-base f00000
        setenv auto-boot? false
        setenv boot-device ide/disk@0:0
        setenv boot-file netbsd
        reset-all

After that, I could reboot and type "0 bootr" and it will boot reliably.
When the video driver loads, I get a change in screen resolution, that is
kind of annoying, but this is a nit.

The floppy does not work wih OFW 2.4 at all, as far as i
can tell.  WIth OFW 2.4, the NetBSD 1.5.3 floppy fails every time with
CLAIM FAILED.

One of the things that I learned late in this process is that when I
boot from floppy, and the floppy asks "boot:" I figured out that
it is asking for a kernel name (right???)  It behaved a little better
when I gave it "netbsd".  (It still didn't work)

I don't understand how we know that OFW 2.4 can boot from HFS.
I cannot get any flavor of disk with an APM to boot with OFW 2.0 or
2.4.  I get a pretty consistent complaint from OFW/ofwboot that

"bad partition number, using 0no bootable HFS partition"

The docs say simply that I am trying to boot with an HFS part
present.

Is it not possible to boot 2.0 and 2.4 (locally) with an APM on disk?


In any case, I am victorious.  i have a beige G3 running 4.0.1 booting
locally from internal disk.  The only steps required:

1. prep the disk on an OFW 3.0 machine using the installer.
2. re-do the "installboot" on OFW 3.0
3. install disk in OFW 2.x machine.
4. set up OFW patches by booting from OSX CD.
5. set up OFW as above.
6. "0 bootr"

-dgl-

P.S.  I include some snippets of output from the OFW when
trying to boot floppies.....

NetBSD 1.5.2

        0 > boot fd:0 -
        >> NetBSD/macppc OpenFirmware Boot, Revision 1.2
        >> (matt%duel.local@localhost, Sat Aug 18 13:46:09 PDT 2001)
        3716500+153080=0x3b0e2c
         start=0x800000
        Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
                The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
        Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
                The Regents of the University of California.  All rights 
reserved.
        
        NetBSD 1.5.2 (INSTALL) #10: Sat Aug 18 14:35:27 PDT 2001
                matt%duel.local@localhost:/u1/kobj/INSTALL
        CPU: 750 (Revision 202)
        total memory = 288 MB
        avail memory = 257 MB
        using 2867 buffers containing 14848 KB of memory
        mainbus0 (root)
        cpu0 at mainbus0: 512KB backside cache
        grackle0 at mainbus0
        pci0 at grackle0 bus 0

(works!)

1.5.3

        0 > boot fd:0 -
        >> NetBSD/macppc OpenFirmware Boot, Revision 1.2
        >> (briggs@cheetah, Mon Jul  1 20:13:40 PDT 2002)
        no active packageopen netbsd_GENERIC_MD.gz: Device not configured
        open fd/netbsd_GENERIC_MD.gz: Device not configured
        Boot: netbsd
        no active package3663764+153304=0x3a410c
         start=0x800000
        Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
                The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
        Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
                The Regents of the University of California.  All rights 
reserved.
        
        NetBSD 1.5.3 (INSTALL) #4: Mon Jul  1 20:50:27 PDT 2002
                briggs@cheetah:/usr/src/sys/arch/macppc/compile/INSTALL
        CPU: 750 (Revision 202)
        total memory = 288 MB
        avail memory = 268 MB

(works!)
 
 
and 1.6

        0 > boot fd:0 -
        OF_open bootpath=fd
        read stage 2 blocks: 01234567. done!
        starting stage 2...
        
        >> NetBSD/macppc OpenFirmware Boot, Revision 1.6
        >> (autobuild%tgm.daemon.org@localhost, Sun Sep  8 21:53:46 UTC 2002)
        no active packageREAD TIMEOUT@READ TIMEOUT@READ TIMEOUT@READ TIMEOUT@


and 1.6.1

        0 > boot fd:0 -
        OF_open bootpath=fd
        read stage 2 blocks: 01234567. done!
        starting stage 2...
        
        >> NetBSD/macppc OpenFirmware Boot, Revision 1.7
        >> (autobuild%tgm.daemon.org@localhost, Tue Apr  8 14:55:46 UTC 2003)
        no active package-

(--at this point - not enough time elapses to read disk 1)

        Please remove disk 1, insert disk 2, and press return...
        open netbsd_GENERIC_MD.gz: Device not configured
        Boot: netbsd
        no active packageopen netbsd: Device not configured

no matter what I enter, I get errors.