I cannot install netbsd on an AlphaStation 400

[Leo de Lange]

Hello,

I tried to install netbsd on a Alphastation 400 and it did not work.
Before you go talking about firmware and such, it is as machine that
was previously owned by Global Knowledge and is up to date. It even
runs (with a hobbyist license) OpenVMS V7.3-1.

I wanted to install netbsd from CD on an empty disk (RZ28, a 2 GB
disk), but at the end of the installation procedure, I get the
message that I should reboot. I removed the CD and hit the "return"
key. I received the following message:
uid 0 comm sysinit on /: file system full
/: write failed, file system is full
setmentation fault.

Anyway, I booted from the new disk, but the boot process stopped with
the following message (I hope I copied it correctly from the screen):
root on sd1a dumps on sd1b
root file system type: ffs
/: bad dir ino 10689 at offset 1536: mangled entry
panic: bad dir
stopped in pid 8 (init) at cpu_debugger +0x4: ret zero,(ra)
db>

What to do next? (or: Where did I go wrong?)

Regards,
Leo de Lange
--
Leo de Lange email: LeoL...@wxs.nl
Fuut 11 phone: +31 20 6009671
1111 VV Diemen mobile: +31 614 843535
The Netherlands

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as
simply messing about in boats.

[Sean Davis]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 09:08:36PM +0100, Leo de Lange wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I tried to install netbsd on a Alphastation 400 and it did not work.
> Before you go talking about firmware and such, it is as machine that
> was previously owned by Global Knowledge and is up to date. It even
> runs (with a hobbyist license) OpenVMS V7.3-1.
>
> I wanted to install netbsd from CD on an empty disk (RZ28, a 2 GB
> disk), but at the end of the installation procedure, I get the
> message that I should reboot. I removed the CD and hit the "return"
> key. I received the following message:
> uid 0 comm sysinit on /: file system full
> /: write failed, file system is full
> setmentation fault.

sysinst is broken. I've had that happen on both alpha and sparc64, -current
and 1.6.1_STABLE.

> Anyway, I booted from the new disk, but the boot process stopped with
> the following message (I hope I copied it correctly from the screen):
> root on sd1a dumps on sd1b
> root file system type: ffs
> /: bad dir ino 10689 at offset 1536: mangled entry
> panic: bad dir
> stopped in pid 8 (init) at cpu_debugger +0x4: ret zero,(ra)
> db>
>
> What to do next? (or: Where did I go wrong?)

I would do the install again, and when it does that segfault, run stty sane
then sync;umount -a -t ffs (to sync and unmount the filesystem(s) you just
installed to) That might help.

I haven't seen that panic before, so my best guess is that the filesystem
got hosed when sysinst dies.

HTH,
-Sean

--
/~\ The ASCII
\ / Ribbon Campaign Sean Davis
X Against HTML aka dive
/ \ Email!

[Carl Lowenstein]

> Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 17:25:07 -0500
> From: Sean Davis <di...@endersgame.net>
> To: Leo de Lange <LeoL...@wxs.nl>
> Cc: port-...@NetBSD.org
> Subject: Re: I cannot install netbsd on an AlphaStation 400

When I recently used the 1.6.1 CD to install NetBSD on an Alphastation
255, I concluded that the "/: file system full" message came from
an attempt to write to the boot drive (the CDrom) which of course is
full and not writeable.

carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
clow...@ucsd.edu

[Manuel Bouyer]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 02:53:23PM -0800, Carl Lowenstein wrote:
> When I recently used the 1.6.1 CD to install NetBSD on an Alphastation
> 255, I concluded that the "/: file system full" message came from
> an attempt to write to the boot drive (the CDrom) which of course is
> full and not writeable.

No, it's sysinst trying to dump core in the ramdisk, which is too small.
I think this sysinst core dump has been fixed in current and 1.6.2_RC*

--
Manuel Bouyer <bou...@antioche.eu.org>
NetBSD: 24 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--

[Leo de Lange]

Hello All,

I followed Sean's advice:

>
>I would do the install again, and when it does that segfault, run stty sane
>then sync;umount -a -t ffs (to sync and unmount the filesystem(s) you just
>installed to) That might help.
>

The stty sane command was difficult, because nothing was echoed on
the screen. Anyway, I rebooted and found a #-prompt. At this moment I
can give the ls command, and pwd, but not much more, not even a man
-command. And yes, I did give a $PATH command, and man should have
been found. But this is all a matter of rtfm (I guess).

For now, thanks for all the advise, and I will be studying Netbsd for
the coming months.