On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 22:27:33 -0500
Tim Gallagher <tim.gallagher@earthlink.net> wrote:

> First off, NFS doesn't work, not even a little bit.  Seems nfs version
> in Linux is incompatible with BSD.  BSD wants version 3, which Linux=20
> doesn't understand.
NetBSD should be able to fall back to NFS version 2. But yes, the Linux
NFS implementation is not the best on this planet. Recent Linux versions
should be able to supply NFS V3.

> (I assumed, I guess correctly, that /dev/sd0c is the same as /dev/sda
> in Linux)
Yes. This is true for most non-i386 machines. On i386 /dev/sda
corresponds to /dev/sd0d.

> My system is unable to boot from disk.  For some reason, it can't find
> the boot partition and load from it.  I was, however, able to boot
> from the generic.fs which I wrote to floppy.=20
You wrote that you wrote "generic.fs" to the disk. "generic.fs"
uses VGA console. IIRC you are using serial console, so you need
"generic_com0.fs".

What is the exact symtom when booting from disk?
Does nothing happen at all?
Do you get the bootloader?
Does the kernel boot up and then asks for the root device?
Is the kernel unable to mount the root device when you enter "sd0a" etc.
when it asks for the root device?

You will have to enter "sd0a" etc. every time the machine boots. This is
because NetBSD has no way to ask the firmware where the kernel was
booted from. AIX as some undocumented ways to retrive this information,
but NetBSD has not unfortunately.

To get the machine to boot without interaction you have to recompile the
kernel and hard code the root file system location. To do this change
the line:
config          netbsd  root on ? type ?
to
config          netbsd  root on sd0a type ffs
in the kernel configuration file.

> I guessed correctly that the root fs was /dev/sd0a, and that the dump
> device was sd0b.
Yes. Slice a is used for the root fs and b for swap.

> Now, I have to figure out how this BSD thing works :-)  Struggling
> with system startup routines (so used to SysVinit), like how to start
> sshd,=20
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/ should answer most of your
questions.

> how to get X configured (that'll be a doozy).
You will not get any X11Server on NetBSD/prep at the moment. :-(
--=20


tsch=FC=DF,
       Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/