> OK, I've re-done the dd half a dozen times, with bs=18k and bs=20k on a
> couple of different disks with still no luck.

Do you get exactly the same error every time?

I'm starting to wonder if your floppy drive is sick.

Do you have other boot floppies that are known to work on the same machine?

Another possibility: I've run into the occasional problem when I used an old
floppy and the sparc saw a bad block that the PC's blissfully ignored until
I reformatted, and then the PC caught it. Trying another floppy cured that.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com