Booting a 5000/240 from CD

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

Louis Wevers

2007-11-05 18:39:43 UTC

Hi,

Perhaps a bit stupid question, but I can't seem to figure it out. I try
to boot my 5000/240 from a freshly created CD (created from the ISO
image available from the NetBSD site).

I tried something like: "boot 3/rz0" and "boot 3/rz0/netbsd"

Unfortunately it only comes back to me with something like: "?IO: 3/rz0
(cmd: rd)"

When I boot the installed 1.6 on the machine, I can read the CD
properly. file structure looks normal etc.

Any ideas on how to boot the machine from CD?

Many thanks in advance,
Louis

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Henry Bent

2007-11-05 18:55:03 UTC

Permalink

Post by Louis Wevers
Hi,
Perhaps a bit stupid question, but I can't seem to figure it out. I try
to boot my 5000/240 from a freshly created CD (created from the ISO
image available from the NetBSD site).
I tried something like: "boot 3/rz0" and "boot 3/rz0/netbsd"
Unfortunately it only comes back to me with something like: "?IO: 3/rz0
(cmd: rd)"
When I boot the installed 1.6 on the machine, I can read the CD
properly. file structure looks normal etc.
Any ideas on how to boot the machine from CD?
Many thanks in advance,
Louis

Hi Louis,

You need a CD-ROM drive that can do 512 byte hardware sectors if you want
to boot from it. There's a list of them at
http://home.comcast.net/~safeharborbay/c128/scsi/suncds.html but I have
no affiliation with that site and can't guarantee anything. I personally
have used RRD42s and various Toshiba models in the past.

If that fails and you have an extra SCSI hard drive, you can just dd a CD
image to the hard drive and boot off of that. I've done it a few times
and neither Ultrix nor NetBSD seem to mind that you're not using a real
CD-ROM.

--
Henry Bent
***@cs.oberlin.edu

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Louis Wevers

2007-11-06 19:29:49 UTC

Permalink

Hi Henry,

Thanks, that explains it. It appears that my CD-Rom is unable to read
the 512 byte hardware sectors. I'll dig up a disk somewhere and try
putting the image on there.

Louis

Post by Henry Bent

Hi Louis,
You need a CD-ROM drive that can do 512 byte hardware sectors if you want
to boot from it. There's a list of them at
http://home.comcast.net/~safeharborbay/c128/scsi/suncds.html but I have
no affiliation with that site and can't guarantee anything. I personally
have used RRD42s and various Toshiba models in the past.
If that fails and you have an extra SCSI hard drive, you can just dd a CD
image to the hard drive and boot off of that. I've done it a few times
and neither Ultrix nor NetBSD seem to mind that you're not using a real
CD-ROM.
--
Henry Bent

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Louis Wevers

2007-11-07 19:45:20 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

Ok, I've gotten to the part of trying to write the image to a spare
drive. First I emptied the whole disk and created a partion on it using
disklabel and formatted it using newfs. The output of "dislabel -r sd5"
looks like this:

# disklabel -r sd5

# /dev/rsd5c:
type: SCSI
disk: RZ58 (C) DE
label: NetBSD
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 85
tracks/cylinder: 15
sectors/cylinder: 1275
cylinders: 2112
total sectors: 2698061
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0 # microseconds
drivedata: 0

5 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
a: 2698061 0 boot # (Cyl. 0 -
2116*)
c: 2698061 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 -
2116*)

So, then I tried to write the image to it using dd:

# dd if=/dev/cd0a of=/dev/sd5a
dd: /dev/sd5a: Read-only file system
4+0 records in
3+0 records out
1536 bytes transferred in 0.131 secs (11725 bytes/sec)

I also tried using /dev/rsd5a as device and using a chmod 777 on
/dev/sd5a; all with the same result. So, poking around a bit I tried
using installboot to write anything to the disk:

# installboot -v /dev/rsd5a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
File system: /dev/rsd5a
File system type: raw (blocksize 8192, needswap 0)
Primary bootstrap: /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
Bootstrap start sector: 1
Bootstrap sector count: 15
Bootstrap load address: 0x80700000
Bootstrap exec address: 0x80700000
Writing bootstrap
Writing boot block
installboot: Writing `/dev/rsd5a': Read-only file system
installboot: Set bootstrap operation failed

So, the big question that remains for me is, how do I get my filesystem
not to be read-only?

Many thanks in advance.

Louis

Post by Henry Bent

Hi Louis,
You need a CD-ROM drive that can do 512 byte hardware sectors if you want
to boot from it. There's a list of them at
http://home.comcast.net/~safeharborbay/c128/scsi/suncds.html but I have
no affiliation with that site and can't guarantee anything. I personally
have used RRD42s and various Toshiba models in the past.
If that fails and you have an extra SCSI hard drive, you can just dd a CD
image to the hard drive and boot off of that. I've done it a few times
and neither Ultrix nor NetBSD seem to mind that you're not using a real
CD-ROM.
--
Henry Bent

--
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Anders Hogrelius

2007-11-07 20:40:58 UTC

Permalink

I believe the problem is that you have a valid disklabel when you try to
write the image to the disk. I've come across this problem before, though
on other platforms running *BSD. Try to wipe the disklabel by writing
zeros to /dev/rsdXc, reboot and then try to write the image to /dev/rsdXc

It is important that you write the image to the raw device, thus rsd
rather than sd. Also, slice c is the whole disk on most platforms with
i386 being one exception. The c (or d on i386) slice is automatically
assumed to be the whole disk by the kernel even if there isn't a valid
disklabel present.

Cheers,
Anders

****************************************************
Anders Hogrelius, MSc
Senior Exploration Geologist
TM Resources AB (Tumi Resources ltd)
Dr Christinas väg 13
SE-733 36 Sala
SWEDEN

Phone: +46 (0)224 77820
Cell phone: +46 (0)70 677-0210

Hi,
Ok, I've gotten to the part of trying to write the image to a spare drive.
First I emptied the whole disk and created a partion on it using disklabel
and formatted it using newfs. The output of "dislabel -r sd5" looks like
# disklabel -r sd5
type: SCSI
disk: RZ58 (C) DE
label: NetBSD
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 85
tracks/cylinder: 15
sectors/cylinder: 1275
cylinders: 2112
total sectors: 2698061
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0 # microseconds
drivedata: 0
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
a: 2698061 0 boot # (Cyl. 0 - 2116*)
c: 2698061 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 2116*)
# dd if=/dev/cd0a of=/dev/sd5a
dd: /dev/sd5a: Read-only file system
4+0 records in
3+0 records out
1536 bytes transferred in 0.131 secs (11725 bytes/sec)
I also tried using /dev/rsd5a as device and using a chmod 777 on /dev/sd5a;
all with the same result. So, poking around a bit I tried using installboot
# installboot -v /dev/rsd5a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
File system: /dev/rsd5a
File system type: raw (blocksize 8192, needswap 0)
Primary bootstrap: /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
Bootstrap start sector: 1
Bootstrap sector count: 15
Bootstrap load address: 0x80700000
Bootstrap exec address: 0x80700000
Writing bootstrap
Writing boot block
installboot: Writing `/dev/rsd5a': Read-only file system
installboot: Set bootstrap operation failed
So, the big question that remains for me is, how do I get my filesystem not
to be read-only?
Many thanks in advance.
Louis

Post by Henry Bent

Hi Louis,
You need a CD-ROM drive that can do 512 byte hardware sectors if you want
to boot from it. There's a list of them at
http://home.comcast.net/~safeharborbay/c128/scsi/suncds.html but I have
no affiliation with that site and can't guarantee anything. I personally
have used RRD42s and various Toshiba models in the past.
If that fails and you have an extra SCSI hard drive, you can just dd a CD
image to the hard drive and boot off of that. I've done it a few times
and neither Ultrix nor NetBSD seem to mind that you're not using a real
CD-ROM.
--
Henry Bent

Louis Wevers

2007-11-09 08:24:16 UTC

Permalink

Hi Anders,

Thanks. I've tried as you said and now the installation system boots
fine from the HDD.

Louis.

Post by Anders Hogrelius
I believe the problem is that you have a valid disklabel when you try
to write the image to the disk. I've come across this problem before,
though on other platforms running *BSD. Try to wipe the disklabel by
writing zeros to /dev/rsdXc, reboot and then try to write the image to
/dev/rsdXc
It is important that you write the image to the raw device, thus rsd
rather than sd. Also, slice c is the whole disk on most platforms with
i386 being one exception. The c (or d on i386) slice is automatically
assumed to be the whole disk by the kernel even if there isn't a valid
disklabel present.
Cheers,
Anders
****************************************************
Anders Hogrelius, MSc
Senior Exploration Geologist
TM Resources AB (Tumi Resources ltd)
Dr Christinas väg 13
SE-733 36 Sala
SWEDEN
Phone: +46 (0)224 77820
Cell phone: +46 (0)70 677-0210

Post by Louis Wevers
Hi,
Ok, I've gotten to the part of trying to write the image to a spare
drive. First I emptied the whole disk and created a partion on it
using disklabel and formatted it using newfs. The output of "dislabel
# disklabel -r sd5
type: SCSI
disk: RZ58 (C) DE
label: NetBSD
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 85
tracks/cylinder: 15
sectors/cylinder: 1275
cylinders: 2112
total sectors: 2698061
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0 # microseconds
drivedata: 0
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
a: 2698061 0 boot # (Cyl. 0 - 2116*)
c: 2698061 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 2116*)
# dd if=/dev/cd0a of=/dev/sd5a
dd: /dev/sd5a: Read-only file system
4+0 records in
3+0 records out
1536 bytes transferred in 0.131 secs (11725 bytes/sec)
I also tried using /dev/rsd5a as device and using a chmod 777 on
/dev/sd5a; all with the same result. So, poking around a bit I tried
# installboot -v /dev/rsd5a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
File system: /dev/rsd5a
File system type: raw (blocksize 8192, needswap 0)
Primary bootstrap: /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
Bootstrap start sector: 1
Bootstrap sector count: 15
Bootstrap load address: 0x80700000
Bootstrap exec address: 0x80700000
Writing bootstrap
Writing boot block
installboot: Writing `/dev/rsd5a': Read-only file system
installboot: Set bootstrap operation failed
So, the big question that remains for me is, how do I get my
filesystem not to be read-only?
Many thanks in advance.
Louis

Post by Henry Bent

Hi Louis,
You need a CD-ROM drive that can do 512 byte hardware sectors if you want
to boot from it. There's a list of them at
http://home.comcast.net/~safeharborbay/c128/scsi/suncds.html but I have
no affiliation with that site and can't guarantee anything. I personally
have used RRD42s and various Toshiba models in the past.
If that fails and you have an extra SCSI hard drive, you can just dd a CD
image to the hard drive and boot off of that. I've done it a few times
and neither Ultrix nor NetBSD seem to mind that you're not using a real
CD-ROM.
--
Henry Bent

--
Posted automagically by a mail2news gateway at muc.de e.V.
Please direct questions, flames, donations, etc. to news-***@muc.de