Re: Can't boot NetBSD on Powermac G5 (invalid memory access)

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hello,

On Fri, 15 Mar 2019 10:06:24 +0100
"Jost Menke" <cyberlab%gmx.de@localhost> wrote:

> > Gesendet: Donnerstag, 14. März 2019 um 23:08 Uhr
> > Von: "Michael" <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>
> > An: "Jost Menke" <cyberlab%gmx.de@localhost>
> > Cc: "Sevan Janiyan" <venture37%geeklan.co.uk@localhost>, port-macppc%NetBSD.org@localhost
> > Betreff: Re: Can't boot NetBSD on Powermac G5 (invalid memory access)
> > First, which kernel did you try to (net)boot? The GENERIC ones don't
> > have G5 support. The ones that do are POWERMAC_G5 and POWERMAC_G5.MP.
> > Second, how big is the kernel image you're trying to boot? For
> > netbooting they must be no bigger than 4MB and a little bit ( not sure
> > how much exactly, it's an undocumented Apple OF limitation ). Did you
> > use -current ofwboot.xcf or something older? The older ones lack G5
> > support.  
> 
> I tried both POWERMAC_G5.gz and POWERMAC_G5.MP.gz. Do I need to
> gunzip them first? I used ofwboot.xcf from the 8.0 ISO. All on a
> small HFS partition.

I'm not sure ofwboot.xcf understands gzip, IIRC it's supposed to but I
never verified that myself.
I just built a POWERMAC_G5.MP kernel from source and it netbooted
without a problem on my 7,3:
/data/src# ll /usr/build/obj/sys/arch/macppc/compile/POWERMAC_G5.MP/netbsd
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  5156752 Mar 15 12:34 /usr/build/obj/sys/arch/macppc/compile/POWERMAC_G5.MP/netbsd
... despite being slightly over 5MB.
The ofwboot.xcf from the 8.0 iso does not have G5 support, but you may
be able to load the kernel directly, without ofwboot.xcf.

The easiest way to get *something* installed is probably to netboot.
You'll need a dhcp and a tftp server, the kernel knows when it's being
netbooted and will try to find a root filesystem to mount via nfs.
Just load the kernel directly, like "boot enet:,netbsd.g5" with
netbsd.g5 living on your tftp server.

have fun
Michael