More NetBSD floppy problems on my SparcStation 10

[dogshu]

So, I got the first floppy to work (see my post below,
titled "NetBSD 1.6 boot floppy does not work on my
SparcStation 10").

However, it seems like NetBSD isn't fully compatible
with the floppy drive in my SparcStation 10. I get
past the boot process, but after that, everything
floppy related produces errors, and disk2 will not
work (so I can't install NetBSD). I know there is
nothing wrong with the floppy disk, I've tested it
several times.

I was really hoping to get NetBSD working on this
machine. I use OpenBSD on it right now, doing PPPoE
with very high CPU usage, and with a non-functioning
parallel port. NetBSD is supposed to solve both of
these problems.

I guess I'll try again when 1.6.1 comes out... but
this makes me question the quality of this OS. It's
really obvious that the Sparc boot floppies were
not tested even once before 1.6 was released. The
disks didn't even have boot sectors!

Anyway, here's the output I got while trying to
install:

This procedure supports one of the following media:

1) cdrom
2) tape
3) floppy

Installation medium to load the additional utilities from: 3

Ejecting floppy disk
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 0
fd0: controller status: state 17 (st0 70<abnrml,seek_cmplt,drv_chck> cyl 0)
Remove the boot disk from the floppy station and insert the second disk of
the floppy installation set into the disk drive.

The question below allows you to specify the device name of the floppy
drive. Usually, the default device will do just fine.
Floppy device to load the installation utilities from [/dev/rfd0a]:
Extracting installation utilities...
fd0a: hard error reading fsbn 0
fd0: controller status: state 17 (st0 70<abnrml,seek_cmplt,drv_chck> cyl 0)
fd0a: hard error reading fsbn 0 of 0-127
fd0: controller status: state 17 (st0 70<abnrml,seek_cmplt,drv_chck> cyl 0)
tar: End of archive volume 1 reached

ATTENTION! tar archive volume change required.
Ready for archive volume: 1
Input archive name or "." to quit tar.
Archive name > .
Quitting tar!
tar: Sorry, unable to determine archive format.
Ejecting floppy disk
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 0
fd0: controller status: state 17 (st0 70<abnrml,seek_cmplt,drv_chck> cyl 0)
This procedure supports one of the following media:

1) cdrom
2) tape
3) floppy

Installation medium to load the additional utilities from: 3

I tried that several times, it always produced the same error messages.

Jim

[J.R.Settles]

I had the same problem with my SS20. After reading tons of newsgroup posts,
most stating that the floppy drive was probably bad, I replaced the drive. Same
problem. I tested the first floppy drive and it check OK. I gave up and
installed via CD instead. I have yet to get the floppy drive to work under
NetBSD 1.6.