Hi,

I have a DECStation 3100 (KN01 V6.71, 24 Mb RAM) that I've been trying to 
get to work with NetBSD for about a month now.   I had no luck netbooting
it, so I hooked up an external SCSI disk (thanks to some help from my 
friends on this list!) that had a bootable NetBSD 1.3.3 generic system on
it.  I can smell success, but it's still not working.

The first setback was the testing phase, where it stopped with
"7..6..5..4..3..
FAILURE.  HIT RESET".
I learned in an earlier posting that this merely indicated that the 
mouse was either not plugged in, or not functioning.

I get past this by hitting CTRL-C, but that leads to my 1st question.
I've got several old mice (Model #VSXXX-AA) that I've tried plugging into
the mouse port, but I get the same error with all of them.  Is that not
the correct mouse to plug into this computer?  I bought them used, as is,
but I remember at least one of them working with my /240.  Also, is the 
mouse necessary for booting?

Forging ahead, I did "setenv bootpath rz(0,0,0)netbsd" (external disk 
set to ID 0).  On the first try, I got the following:

KN01 V6.71
EXCEPTION <vector=NORMAL>
Exception pc: 0xbfc0f8fc
Cause register: 0xb000001c <BD, CE=3, EXC=DBE>
Status register: 0x30080000 <CU1, CU0, CM, IPL=8>
Sp register: 801ffea8
exit(-1)

Not being one to get frightened so easily by such language, I decided to 
check all my connections, and cycle the power once more.  This time, 
lo and behold, it started too boot!  I thought I was home free, except 
that this time it got as far as "dc0 at mainbus0" and hung in mid-air.

Cycling once more, this time I noticed that the PROM had forgotten
my setenv bootpath command from earlier, so I had to type it again.
Trying boot this time, I got the same results as the first time.
I had another 3100 in my copmuter shed, so I tried it too.  Same
results.

My last question is: is this more likely a hardware problem, or 
a problem with the kernel and disk I'm trying to boot with?
I can boot both a /240 and a /25 with the same disk pack, no 
problem.

Finally, I'll end this length mail with another question.  What's
the equivalent of the CNFG command on the 3100, so I can see if 
the drives are being recognized and such?  And is there a good place
to learn about the PROM commands on the 3100?

Sorry to be so long winded,

Doug