NetBSD/prep Frequently Asked Questions

Disk partitioning/booting

Disk partitioning/booting

What is PReP?

PReP (sometimes called PRP) is the PowerPC Reference Platform. It was a joint specification between IBM, Motorola, and a few other manufacturers defining how PowerPC machines should be designed. It was more or less a failure in the marketplace, and very few actual PReP machines were ever built. Mostly by IBM and Motorola.

Which machines are PReP?

Generally, early IBM RS/6000 machines with ISA/PCI that do NOT have OpenFirmware on them are PReP machines. These include the 6015, 6050, 6070, 7020, 7248, 7249, 7043-140, 7043-240, 7024, 7025-F30, 7025-F40 and the 7026-H10.

Motorola machines are much more difficult to identify. The MTX series of boards are all generally PReP compliant. Most, but not all PowerPC MVME machines are PReP compliant. Generally to be PReP compliant the machine needs a relatively modern version of PPCBUG. Anything with OpenFirmWorks or DINK is not PReP.

ANY IBM machine with MCA, or a 64 bit CPU is *NOT* PReP compliant. A 64bit machine is CHRP, and would be covered by port-ofppc. An MCA machine is pre-PReP, and would be covered by port-rs6000 if that port ever exists. Any other machine with Open Firmware is CHRP.

How do you boot one of these machines? (IBM)

When an IBM machine first powers up, you will see it testing the keyboard, mouse, SCSI, etc. At the point where the keyboard icon or text is displayed, you can hit the "magic character". This differs depending on what model you have, but is usually 1, 5, 6 or similar. Note that if you are using a physical console instead of serial, it would be F6 instead of 6. There is a specific time when this keystroke must but hit, and it can only be entered once. If you miss it, power off and try again.

This will generally bring you to an SMS menu of some sort. From here you can set things like the boot order, IP address for netbooting, etc. To install NetBSD, it is suggested that you set the machine to netboot. You can also install via floppy, but it is much more difficult. Once the machine has been installed, you can return to the SMS menu to set the default boot device to the hard drive.

How do you boot one of these machines? (Motorola)

To netboot a Motorola machine, issue the "nbo" command from the PPCBUG prompt.

There are also some values which need to be set on the machine before it can be used for PReP. These are set using the "niot" command at the PPCBUG prompt. Note that the most important settings are the boot file load and execution addresses, as well as the boot filename setting. 

PPC1-Bug>niot
Controller LUN =00?
Device LUN     =00?
Node Control Memory Address =01F9E000?
Client IP Address      =xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx?
Server IP Address      =xxx.xxx.xxx.yyy?
Subnet IP Address Mask =255.255.255.0?
Broadcast IP Address   =255.255.255.255?
Gateway IP Address     =0.0.0.0?
Boot File Name ("NULL" for None)     =netbsd?
Argument File Name ("NULL" for None) =?
Boot File Load Address         =00800000?
Boot File Execution Address    =00800000?
Boot File Execution Delay      =00000000?
Boot File Length               =00000000?
Boot File Byte Offset          =00000000?
BOOTP/RARP Request Retry       =00?
TFTP/ARP Request Retry         =00?
Trace Character Buffer Address =00000000?
BOOTP/RARP Request Control: Always/When-Needed (A/W)=W?
BOOTP/RARP Reply Update Control: Yes/No (Y/N)       =Y?
PPC1-Bug>

The "env" command will allow you to set some other required values. Note specifically the Network PReP-Boot Mode setting, which must be enabled. 

PPC1-Bug>env
Bug or System environment [B/S] = B?
Field Service Menu Enable [Y/N] = N?
Probe System for Supported I/O Controllers [Y/N] = Y?
Auto-Initialize of NVRAM Header Enable [Y/N] = Y?
Network PReP-Boot Mode Enable [Y/N] = Y?
SCSI Bus Reset on Debugger Startup [Y/N]   = N?
Primary SCSI Bus Negotiations Type [A/S/N] = A?
Primary SCSI Data Bus Width [W/N]          = N?
Secondary SCSI Identifier                  = "07"?
NVRAM Boot List (GEV.fw-boot-path) Boot Enable [Y/N]           = N?
NVRAM Boot List (GEV.fw-boot-path) Boot at power-up only [Y/N] = N?
NVRAM Boot List (GEV.fw-boot-path) Boot Abort Delay            = 5?
Auto Boot Enable [Y/N]           = N?
Auto Boot at power-up only [Y/N] = N?
Auto Boot Scan Enable [Y/N]      = Y?
Auto Boot Scan Device Type List  = FDISK/CDROM/TAPE/HDISK/?
Auto Boot Controller LUN   = 00?
Auto Boot Device LUN       = 00?
Auto Boot Partition Number = 00?
Auto Boot Abort Delay      = 7?
Auto Boot Default String [NULL for an empty string] = ?
ROM Boot Enable [Y/N]            = N?
ROM Boot at power-up only [Y/N]  = Y?
ROM Boot Abort Delay             = 5?
ROM Boot Direct Starting Address = FFF00000?
ROM Boot Direct Ending Address   = FFFFFFFC?
Network Auto Boot Enable [Y/N]           = N?
Network Auto Boot at power-up only [Y/N] = N?
Network Auto Boot Controller LUN = 00?
Network Auto Boot Device LUN     = 00?
Network Auto Boot Abort Delay    = 5?
Network Auto Boot Configuration Parameters Offset (NVRAM) = 00001000?
Watchdog prior status ignored at autoboot [Y/N] = N?
Watchdog reset at board reset             [Y/N] = N?
Memory Size Enable [Y/N]         = Y?
Memory Size Starting Address     = 00000000?
Memory Size Ending Address       = 02000000?
DRAM Speed in NANO Seconds (0=AUTO) = 60?
ROM First Access Length (0 - 31) = 10?
ROM Next Access Length  (0 - 15) = 0?
DRAM Parity Enable [On-Detection/Always/Never - O/A/N]    = O?
L2Cache Parity Enable [On-Detection/Always/Never - O/A/N] = O?
PCI Interrupts Route Control Registers (PIRQ0/1/2/3) = 0A050000?
Serial Startup Code Master Enable [Y/N] = N?
Serial Startup Code LF Enable [Y/N] =     N?
Claim domain A [Y/N] = N?
Claim domain B [Y/N] = N?
Firmware Command Buffer Enable [Y/N] = N?
Firmware Command Buffer Delay  = 5?
Firmware Command Buffer :
['NULL' terminates entry]?
PPC1-Bug>

How do I update my kernel?

The boot method for NetBSD/prep is slightly different than it is for other NetBSD ports because of limitations of the firmware in a PReP machine. A PReP machine boots off a specific MS-DOS partition type (83) found on the hard drive. If you have installed via sysinst (any version after about 3.99.14), sysinst will have automatically created an "e" partition on your disk, and labeled it type "boot". This partition contains your boot image.

You can replace this image by running the mkbootimage command. See example below: 

/usr/mdec/mkbootimage -s -k /netbsd -b /usr/mdec/boot_com0 /bi
dd if=/bi of=/dev/rsd0e bs=512 conv=sync

The above commands will create a bootimage file called "/bi", which consists of the kernel "/netbsd" and the serial bootloader. The dd command will write it to your boot partition.

How do I boot off a RAID1 RaidFrame mirror?

Technically you cannot mirror the rootdisk on a PReP machine. However, you can effectively mirror it quite easily. When building your machine, create partition e (your boot partition) normally, and assign partition a to a type RAID. Build the second disk the same way, configure RaidFrame, and set the raid0 to autoconfigure. When you update your kernel, or rewrite the boot image, just make sure to update *both* disks boot images. The only thing that will not be automatically mirrored via this will be your boot image. Once you set the raid to autoconfigure, NetBSD will automatically detect the root on raid and boot off the raid normally.

Is X Windows Supported?

X Windows is supported but it needs a kernel compiled with: 

options         INSECURE        # disable kernel security levels - X needs this

Netboot seems to not work

In order to netboot an IBM machine, you need a genuine IBM network card that the machine recognizes. If the card is not listed as a possible boot device in the SRM, it will not be a bootable device. As for Motorola, the list is much shorter.

Other sources of information