booting NetBSD-1.5.[12] kernel

[Jeff Sheinberg]

Hi,

I noticed a problem with grub when directly booting a NetBSD
kernel,

    # Entry 4:    NetBSD 1.5.1 production [sd1s4]
    title   NetBSD 1.5.1 production [sd1a]
    hide     (hd0,3)
    hide     (hd0,7)
    hide     (hd2,1)
    unhide   (hd2,3)
    root     (hd2,3,a) 1
    kernel   --type=netbsd /netbsd

basically, using the above stanza, NetBSD comes up to the usual
"login:" prompt, and then hangs solid.  I had to use "reset" to
get out of this hang.

When I chainload NetBSD, like this,

    # Entry 4:    NetBSD 1.5.1 production [sd1s4]
    title   NetBSD 1.5.1 production [sd1a]
    hide     (hd0,3)
    hide     (hd0,7)
    hide     (hd2,1)
    unhide   (hd2,3)
    root     (hd2,3)
    chainloader +1

then it boots up just fine, without any problems.

I noticed this same behavior using NetBSD-1.5.1 as well as
NetBSD-1.5.2 .  I also tried omitting the hdbias "1", ie,

    root     (hd2,3,a)

and still I got the same behavior, ie, hard hang at the "login"
prompt.

In addition, I noticed the following weirdness in the case when
NetBSD hung,

    1.  When grub loades the NetBSD kernel into memory, it takes
        about four times as long, by subjective estimation, then
        it normally takes the NetBSD loader to perform the same
        task.

    2.  Early in the boot process, NetBSD printed something like
        this, (which is from memory, it may be slightly
        inaccurate), 

        boot device: unknown
        root device: unknown
        root: <initially blank, here I entered "sd1a">
        root file system type: generic <here I entered "ffs">
        root on sd1a dumps on sd1b

        OTOH, when grub successfully chainloads NetBSD, here is
        what is usually printed,

        boot device: sd1
        root on sd1a dumps on sd1b
        root file system type: ffs

I am perfectly happy with having to chainload NetBSD, I just want
to document what happened.

I also very much appreciate that grub can directly load the
FreeBSD loader (/boot/loader), this has gotten me out of a
difficult situation more than once.

Thanks,
-- 
Jeff Sheinberg  <address@hidden>