Re: 2.4 doesn't boot on i486 :-(

[Michael Shalayeff <mickey@lucifier.dial-up.user.akula.net>]

Making, drinking tea and reading an opus magnum from butthead@icb.spb.su:
> 
> 
> > ----------
> > From: 	Theo de Raadt[SMTP:deraadt@cvs.openbsd.org]
> > Sent: 	21 декабря 1998 г. 10:11
> > To: 	butthead@icb.spb.su
> > Cc: 	misc@openbsd.org
> > Subject: 	Re: 2.4 doesn't boot on i486 :-( 
> > 
> > > We just have switched from RedHat Linux to OpenBSD in our
> > > minds. Next we have installed OpenBSD 2.4 to the destination disk
> > > (115 Mb formatted)
> > > using Pentium 166 box with *many* cards and features without any
> > > problem. System did actually reboot without errors.
> > > After that we have placed this disk into the destination box
> > > i486 DX2 100MHz and discovered that OpenBSD 2.4
> > 
> > Here you made your first mistake.  In general, you cannot move a hard
> > drive from one machine to another, because the bootblocks and MBR
> > encode BIOS-specific offsets.  That said, you appear to have lucked
> > out.
> May be we can to boot from floppy and write new disk label or something?
yep, like:
/usr/mdec/installboot -v /mnt/boot /usr/mdec/biosboot wd0
assuming you have wd0a mounted on /mnt

> > > doesn't boot with 4Mb RAM. (Linux does.)
> > 
> > Well, it is a GENERIC kernel that has IPSEC, all the drivers, and tons
> > of other features in it.
> Ok, we will recompile the kernel after we will be able to boot :-)
> 
> > > Ok, we just
> > > plugged 8Mb and continue... System have became more
> > > happy but it have freezed (at least for 5 min.) 
> > > just after it finds disk drive!
> > 
> > Well, it is a GENERIC kernel that has IPSEC, all the drivers, and tons
> > of other features in it...  It is rather large.
> > 
> > That said, you didn't indicate WHERE it failed, so it is possible that
> > you are running into the BIOS disk geometry issue. 
> Ok, We have really mounted our disk after floppy boot and did many cd, ls,
> more, du e.t.c.
> and even fsck! But you are right, BIOS is sometimes VERY stupid and
> troubleable.
> 
> Actually, BIOS shows us CYL,HEADS numbers that differs from label (paper
> stick)
> on our disk drive...
yep, that's how it works.

> Finally, if you will say just "Hey, boys! Why don't you just reinstall it on
> the 486 box? It's a fastest and easiest way!"
> we will just do it:-)
yeah, wipe out the harddrive and reinstall it from scratch.
but, single installboot (if nothing else is screwd up ;) would be faster.

> But we have done such install with Linux without any problems.
> More informative: Installation was on I586, disk was placed into i386 8Mb ,
> 2 Net Cards, 1 Modem.....it just worked!
i don't think any comparision should be done here.
there is no bios,disk boot, 2ndary boot, kernel-boot iface standards
to flame about, so i would say it's different approaches averybody
have, we've got to live w/ that.
wanna change the world? hack it!

cu

-- 
    paranoic mickey       (my employers have changed but, the name has remained)