problem with b.com on new pcdist?

[Robbin Johnson rjohnson@mpr.ca]

jmk@plan9.ATt.COM wrote:
> 
> A back-arsed compatibility problem, you already had a partition
> hd0dos I bet. First-time installers should not have this problem.
> 
> A new disk1 with this fixed is available.
> You may want to wait until I fix the ATAPI problem before picking
> it up unless your need is great, hopefully some time tomorrow.

...snip...

>> Is it just me, or has anyone else been unable to get the latest b.com
>> (from the 14Nov pcdist) to recognize "hd" as a valid boot device?  I booted
>> the first floppy which built c:/plan9, then rebooted.  Ran b.com as usual to
>> continue the floppy install.  It silently ignored the bootfile line in
>> plan9.ini and booted my old kernel off h!0 instead.  If I try
>> "b hd!0!/plan9/9dos", it barfs and tells me the only valid devices are h!0 and
>> s!0.  I got the new pcdist to load by using an old version of b.com.

I am having a similar problem, but with a fresh install using the almost-new
(Nov. 14th) disks.

One note up front: I run SCO UNIX on this machine most of the time and the
initial boot program run is the SCO bootstrap loader - I enter 'dos' at the boot
prompt prior to running b.com.  In investigating the problem described below, I
have tried running the second stage of the File System Installation by booting
from a floppy instead of from the SCO loader - there is no difference in symptoms
described.

My situation:

I installed the \plan9 tree off of disk1, configured the .ini file via the
gui-ish interface and rebooted.  I took the File System Installation option at
the end of the preliminary install sequence.  I then reboot to dos and ran
\plan9\b at the dos prompt.

Once b.com had started up, it either could not or would not find the 9dos boot
file.  There is no default boot file listed.  I checked the .ini file and it
looks right - sd!0!/plan9/9dos.  I have an 1542C controller and it is configured
correctly as far as I can tell.  There were no reported problems during the
initial load, but I assume that is use the BIOS or something similar to access
the FAT file system.

If I type in the boot file string at the prompt, I just get the Plan 9 boot
prompt back.
-- 
Robbin W. Johnson                                     rjohnson@mpr.ca
MPR Teltech Ltd.                Network Products and Systems Division