Have you tried mounting the floppy, copying its /netbsd to
	/netbsd.test on the HD & then booting that (Just to totally
	eliminate any possibility that its the kernel rather than
	a floppy specific problem)

		David/abs	david@{mono.org,southern.com,mhm-internet.com}

     Microsoft: Asks you where you want to go. NetBSD gets you there.
System Manager: Southern Studios Ltd, PO Box 59, London N22 1AR.
  System Admin: MHM Internet, 14 Barley Mow Passage, Chiswick, London W4 4PH.
         SysOP: Monochrome, Largest UK Internet BBS - 'telnet mono.org'.

On Thu, 27 Feb 1997, Jim Miller wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm at my wits end trying to install 1.2 on a couple of different 486
> boxes.  The problem is always the same: the system reboots after the
> inst-12 disk is loaded and the hardware probe completes.  The last
> thing that I see is the "biomask/netmask/ttymask" message -- then the
> system does a warm start.  I have, on rare occasions, been able to
> discern a panic message of some sort that flashes by ever so quickly
> right before the screen clears.  All I've been able to discern of the
> message is "in supervisor state".
> 
> Even more aagravating is the fact that these same exact systems --
> with no hardware changes -- have run 1.0 and 1.1 flawlessly for many
> many months, and one even ran 1.2 for a while on a hard disk created
> on another computer.
> 
> Here's a little more detail on the configurations:
> 
> 	486-66 and 486-100
> 	16M in one, 24M in the other
> 	1 IDE hard drive
> 	NE2000 on 300/10
> 	1.44M floppy (and tried a 1.2 as well with the same result)
> 	plain-jane SVGA card
> 	KCADP boot disk
> 	
> This seems like a fairly generic hardware configuration, therefore I
> don't suspect any hardware incompatibilities -- indeed, these systems
> have run 1.0-1.2 before.
> 
> I've tried making kernel and inst disks over and over in different
> drives, on different floppies -- just in case a media error was
> causing this.  I've even tried rawrite on a Windows box as well as dd
> on a NetBSD box to make these diskettes -- always with the same
> result: a reboot after the "biomask" message.
> 
> Is 1.2 more picky than 1.0 and 1.1 about it's boot floppies?  Am I 
> missing something?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Jim
> -- 
> Jim Miller		|	UNIX, LAN, WAN
> Senior Partner,		|	(513) 887-2791
> JCM Consulting          |       
> jmiller@jcmco.com       |       http://www.jcmco.com
>